Still too much other stuff going on. However, last night I figured out an approach to the w-f-h sample, so did a little of that. I don't know if it's what they'll want, but it's something I can live with and expand on without feeling like I'm pulling teeth for 60,000 words. I hope it is, anyway.

On the my-own-stuff front, I'm likely to switch back over to the former GN and work on that for a while. If I get the w-f-h job, I ought to be able to work on both, because they explore similar themes (or at least themes that are in the same ballpark), and because the former GN is more cut up and doesn't have to flow like the regular prose swordfighting ms does. (Since it's all cut up, I won't have to maintain focus for weeks and months, but can work in spurts here and there.)

I retitled the former GN (again) and decided the latest framework I provided for the story is all wrong, so I cut that and took out some of the formatting, too. Now I'm thinking about trying a framework based on that scene from the Iliad that just kills me, the one where Helen is on the battlements of Troy with Priam and they're looking out over the Greek armies.

I know I've got to do something; I can't just dive into the story because it's boring. There's no problem. The problem only comes up slowly, so for pages and pages the story is just la-di-dah description and blah-blah-blah. I feel a framework is needed to provide a problem, but I didn't like the way the latest framework was all over the map, with each piece showing a different person and different place and a different thing happening. Rather than holding the story together and drawing the reader in, it felt like it just added unrelated fragments to the mix. I don't know that looking over the armies is much better, but we'll see.

When I was thinking about it this morning I realized that the new framework is in first person in my head, while the main story already on paper is in third. But I think I'll just go with the flow for now. It might end up working just fine--and if not, I'll worry about it later.

(note to self--remember to use MC's name up front so the reader knows it's the same person as in the story proper, even if pov/voice/tense is different.)