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Hello hello
Oct. 2nd, 2010 03:07 am I know, I know. I said I was going to be better about posting regularly. Writing for school is eating my brain, mostly because I hate my current class, and thus writing for it takes WAY too much energy and effort. And if I'm not writing for school, I'd like to be writing, you know? I miss writing my fiction stuff when I'm not, more than I can possibly express, which puts LJ at a very sad third on the writing priority list.
On the good front, not being able to work on the book means I spend more time thinking about it, and I've worked out some things that (I think) put all the final pieces together, in some ways for the whole series, but most especially for how everything works together in Nemesis. (Right - that's what I should have been doing with the villain(s) all along!) So...maybe this rewrite will be the last!
For now, anyway.
And to think, I used to privately laugh at those authors who talked of doing three, four, or God forbid a dozen rewrites. *wipes tear from eye* I crack myself up. You know, once upon a time, I couldn't move on from a book. It's a classic blunder - write a book that is in some way broken, or just not there yet, probably because you as the writer are still learning your craft and just not there yet, and then keep rewriting it and never actually working on anything new, ad nauseum, never submit it, and thus never really have a chance at publication. I used to be that writer. And then a bunch of things happened that kicked me out of that horrid cycle, I wrote a couple of new books, stopped rewriting altogether, and now I find myself come full circle, back to multiple rewriting. Except it's different. I don't know how to adequately explain it. And right now, at almost 3:00 in the morning, I'm too tired to try.
I think it comes down to, these rewrites have a purpose. The first one I did because someone in the business, someone who looked at it and said "this is good, but it could be so much better, and here's how" advised me to. I did it thinking I understood, and knew what I needed to do. But I didn't actually. I fixed some things that needed fixing, but the core problem, the one that really needed addressing, escaped me until a beta reader came back from the rewrite saying almost exactly the same thing that earlier person had. Only this time, it clicked. I got it. It was a forehead slapping moment for me. So, yeah, now the rewrite is about fixing that core problem. If I could just find extra energy from writing academic papers (ugh!) to work on it. I asked my beta readers to kick me the other day, and they did, but it didn't work. It wasn't enough. Now, increasingly, I find myself angry at my own lack of personal writing time. Is it important I finish my degree? Yes. But it is, if anything, vastly more important to me to finish Nemesis, but good. So I need to find a way to balance it out and make it happen.
That means I will probably remain somewhat scarce around here. Still lurking, but not posting as often as I once did. We'll see. I miss it. I miss the community here, and the daily updating. So here's a brief bullet list:
Things Currently Happening in My Life (other than school):
~ Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 3 is so far as awesome as I expected it to be!
~ That Criminal Minds ep saying good-bye to JJ was totally ironic, am I right? Like, the writers were making some very not-subtle parallels there. Damn if they didn't do it well, even if I am still angry about it.
~ Does it mean something, that I have visited the Dragon Age II website often enough for it to be a permanent fixture on my Safari homepage? You know, the one made up of all your most frequently visited websites. Google...and Dragon Age! Ha!
~ My sloth is not just limited to writing! We had out of town guests recently, and when thoughts turned to snacks whilst we watched some DVDs, I dug into my pantry and served....stale girl scout cookies! Because I am just that awesome of a hostess. You totally want to come visit me now, right? On the other hand, I did provide some very nice alcoholic beverages, if I say so myself. :)
~ Guardians of whatever-it's-called, aka "that owl movie" was very, very pretty! It is every epic fantasy story ever written, and thus extremely predictable, but still enjoyable and well done.
It took me four tries to properly spell 'guardians', so I think it's off to bed for me, finally. I blame Seanan McGuire for keeping me up. Not only am I behind on my writing, but I am hopelessly behind on my reading. I had no idea the new October Daye book was out until about 10:00pm tonight. "I'll just stay up a couple of hours and read", i thought. Yes, well you see the time. I stayed up until I was done reading. Haven't done that in...since I can't remember. I do have one very vaguely spoilery thought on the book at this sort of sleep deprived, punch drunk juncture: ( click! )Okay, now I really am going off to bed. I have officially turned into a pumpkin. Night!
On the good front, not being able to work on the book means I spend more time thinking about it, and I've worked out some things that (I think) put all the final pieces together, in some ways for the whole series, but most especially for how everything works together in Nemesis. (Right - that's what I should have been doing with the villain(s) all along!) So...maybe this rewrite will be the last!
For now, anyway.
And to think, I used to privately laugh at those authors who talked of doing three, four, or God forbid a dozen rewrites. *wipes tear from eye* I crack myself up. You know, once upon a time, I couldn't move on from a book. It's a classic blunder - write a book that is in some way broken, or just not there yet, probably because you as the writer are still learning your craft and just not there yet, and then keep rewriting it and never actually working on anything new, ad nauseum, never submit it, and thus never really have a chance at publication. I used to be that writer. And then a bunch of things happened that kicked me out of that horrid cycle, I wrote a couple of new books, stopped rewriting altogether, and now I find myself come full circle, back to multiple rewriting. Except it's different. I don't know how to adequately explain it. And right now, at almost 3:00 in the morning, I'm too tired to try.
I think it comes down to, these rewrites have a purpose. The first one I did because someone in the business, someone who looked at it and said "this is good, but it could be so much better, and here's how" advised me to. I did it thinking I understood, and knew what I needed to do. But I didn't actually. I fixed some things that needed fixing, but the core problem, the one that really needed addressing, escaped me until a beta reader came back from the rewrite saying almost exactly the same thing that earlier person had. Only this time, it clicked. I got it. It was a forehead slapping moment for me. So, yeah, now the rewrite is about fixing that core problem. If I could just find extra energy from writing academic papers (ugh!) to work on it. I asked my beta readers to kick me the other day, and they did, but it didn't work. It wasn't enough. Now, increasingly, I find myself angry at my own lack of personal writing time. Is it important I finish my degree? Yes. But it is, if anything, vastly more important to me to finish Nemesis, but good. So I need to find a way to balance it out and make it happen.
That means I will probably remain somewhat scarce around here. Still lurking, but not posting as often as I once did. We'll see. I miss it. I miss the community here, and the daily updating. So here's a brief bullet list:
Things Currently Happening in My Life (other than school):
~ Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 3 is so far as awesome as I expected it to be!
~ That Criminal Minds ep saying good-bye to JJ was totally ironic, am I right? Like, the writers were making some very not-subtle parallels there. Damn if they didn't do it well, even if I am still angry about it.
~ Does it mean something, that I have visited the Dragon Age II website often enough for it to be a permanent fixture on my Safari homepage? You know, the one made up of all your most frequently visited websites. Google...and Dragon Age! Ha!
~ My sloth is not just limited to writing! We had out of town guests recently, and when thoughts turned to snacks whilst we watched some DVDs, I dug into my pantry and served....stale girl scout cookies! Because I am just that awesome of a hostess. You totally want to come visit me now, right? On the other hand, I did provide some very nice alcoholic beverages, if I say so myself. :)
~ Guardians of whatever-it's-called, aka "that owl movie" was very, very pretty! It is every epic fantasy story ever written, and thus extremely predictable, but still enjoyable and well done.
It took me four tries to properly spell 'guardians', so I think it's off to bed for me, finally. I blame Seanan McGuire for keeping me up. Not only am I behind on my writing, but I am hopelessly behind on my reading. I had no idea the new October Daye book was out until about 10:00pm tonight. "I'll just stay up a couple of hours and read", i thought. Yes, well you see the time. I stayed up until I was done reading. Haven't done that in...since I can't remember. I do have one very vaguely spoilery thought on the book at this sort of sleep deprived, punch drunk juncture: ( click! )Okay, now I really am going off to bed. I have officially turned into a pumpkin. Night!
