One of the many benefits of getting up at 4:30 a.m. to write is that it keeps you honest. If you get up and get right to work on your novel revising as intended, you pretty much have no choice but to have a great day afterwards. If you get up at the crack of dawn and just surf the net and check email and write long-winded responses, you're just wasting everyone's time.

Today was one of those "keeping me honest" days -- I checked email at 4:28 or so, then dove right into revising. I feel things coming together on this book, as I try desperately to give it the focus it needs, tying together themes and making each scene meaningul and significant.

I even have a Post-It Note cheat sheet for when I get totally stuck -- it says things like "Add 1 historical/sensory detail per pag" and "Mention war every 5 pages" and "Mack's alien-ness" and "George's health issues every 20 pages" and so on. Keeps this episodic monster focused, and keeps me honest.

I'm up to the end of the all-important chapter three now, about 55 pages in. I'm liking this book again, quite a bit. I can't wait to get up at the ungodly hour again tomorrow and do some more work with it. This is the fun part of novel-writing for me -- the detail work after the structure is in place and the foundation is starting to dry. This is where it all starts to come together.

But at some point I'm going to have to stop messing with Act One and get on to Acts Two and Three.

Today was a bit of a stressful day, as Elizabeth went back to work and Drew's daycare provider is out of town all week. So I loaded him up in the car and headed out to his Grandma Jasper's house, which is about an hour from our place. Then I went on to work (about 45 minutes away), and picked him up afterwards. About 190 miles on the old Highlander, all told. Close to 4 hours of driving for me, I guess.

But it was all worth it. Drew and Grandma had a ball today, and he was still cackling and screeching (his latest tricks!) tonight, right before his bath. He and Lizzie are both crashed out now, and I'm trying to wind down.

It's funny the lengths we go to for our youngsters. I didn't mind the driving at all today. In fact, it was kind of nice -- I listened to a CD from our friend Clarke of the first Dave Matthews concert Elizabeth and I went to in April of 1995, just 2 months after we first met, over TEN YEARS AGO! It was cool listening to the crowd and thinking our young voices were mixed in there somewhere.

And I got to thinking about what my top five favorite songs were by the band -- they are (in no order) "Two Step," "Satellite," "Bartender," "Grace is Gone," and "Everyday." (I asked Lizzie when I got home, and she claimed "Two Step," "Seek Up," "Everyday," "#41," and "Dancing Nancies.") I'd add "Crash Into Me" as well, if I had another slot...

Any Dave fans out there? What's your top five? Later!