I’ve been working lately to edit my the novel I wrote a while back, getting it down to a reasonable size and cutting out the fat. There’s quite a bit of fat, actually. You might think that finding a lot of text to cut is disheartening, but it’s exactly the opposite. It just shows how much room there is to make it better.

Plus, the original novel was almost 130,000 words long. So, you know. There’s wiggle room there.

The complicating factor in pretty much everything I do these days is timing. Family makes timing hard, but in a way, they’re handy. Back before Abigail was born, I didn’t have an easy excuse for why I wasn’t getting any work done. Now, I can point to the fact that I’m tired, it’s late and I want to spend some time with my wife on our own.

Of course, since these excuses are actually true I have a harder time overcoming them. I really DO want to spend more time with Abigail, which wears me out. And I really DO want to spend more time with Jessica, and that usually means in the three or four hours a night that I have to do any writing as well. I’m finding a balance, I think. The work slowly gets done and the family life stays happy. I’ve got to be doing something right, don’t I?