Since the loss of my son in May last year, I haven’t slept well. At first, I would be lucky to get two hours sleep each night, however, now I’m getting around five to six hours sleep. At least this number of hours helps me function…almost. I still have concentration and memory problems, but generally I’m doing OK.
In this time, I’ve discovered that no matter what time I go to bed, I will always be awake between 6 and 6.30am. I find that if I head off to bed early, in the hope of getting an extra hour or two sleep, I’m disappointed as I actually sleep less. So I’ve taken to going to bed later and, thankfully, I sleep much more soundly.
On a work night, I’ve been going to bed at 11pm and on the weekend (Friday and Saturday nights) I usually go to bed at midnight – well, it is the weekend and I am a big girl now.
This means, of course, there’s no more sleeping in. During the week it doesn’t matter because I have to get up and go to work, but on weekends it used to be nice to spend an extra hour or two in bed. It doesn’t matter. I’ve developed a new habit, which I quite enjoy. I get up with the birds, make myself a cup of tea and then climb back in bed and read, write or plan. I usually stay in bed until 9am, so this is giving me almost 3 hours of uninterrupted work time. And strangely, my focus is better at this time too.
Having had my five or six hours of sleep, I feel refreshed and alert. It’s usually lovely and cool at this time of the morning, so I’m not distracted by feeling uncomfortable either. And, because everyone else is asleep, it’s peaceful and quiet. I love this new habit. Needless to say, this is when I’m getting most of my work done. It’s a pity work interrupts that schedule during the week.
This morning, having finished the Cat’s Eyes final revision last night, I made the cup of tea and climbed back into bed, but I didn’t know what I would do. I decided to go through and update my notes…and discovered something.
I am sexist!
I wrote in my notes that the female main character’s (from my fantasy world) mother died in childbirth. OK, that’s fair enough. It happens. That’s when I noticed that the other main character didn’t have a mother either. Neither did the cousin, or his henchmen. The councillors are male. The servants are male. Every other character in the book is male. There’s not another female character in sight.
Something needs to be done about this. Book 1 – Cat’s Eyes – is fine how it is. This book is from the point of view of a human girl and the story doesn’t take the reader into the middle of the community for the fantasy world. However, book 2 – Cat’s Paw – is quite different. It is set in the fantasy world, right in the thick of the people. It is also from the book of view of one of their people, so I really need to take a look at the female population. I mean to say, if there are no females, there is no population.
My male main character, who is the point of view character in book 2, needs a mother. I guess this means I will have to create one for him. Also, the council will find at least two females shoving a couple of the males out of their chairs and taking up residence.
Something tells me that the first edit for Cat’s Paw is going to turn into a rewrite. *groan*