October 28, 2004
Tonight We're Gonna Party Like It's 1997

I had a good Problem Solving day, which is a nice change from all the Problem Creating days I've had lately. Most of the solutions were for logic and structure issues in the book. For example, the opening narrative (minus the prologue) is set in 1997, but I realized I hadn't clearly established that for the reader, and I didn't really want to slap "1997" in the chapter heading, because then I'd feel obliged to put a date in all chapter headings, and since most of the story takes place over a three-year period, that'd be goofy.

Then I noticed this bit on the first page:

Sharlene favors kitty calendars

So I changed it to:

Sharlene favors kitty calendars, rendering 1997 about as cute as the upcoming millennial apocalypse will allow.

First page, second paragraph, baby.

I deny actually yelling, "boo-yah!"