The Word Cloud

Ever had one of these moments?

Yep, it's the famous Picard facepalm, and I had a major one this morning.

Y'see, someone read the second chapter of my novel and managed to figure out in the time it took to read the chapter and critique it something that I failed to see in almost 2 years of writing, revising, rewriting and editing.

I can't help but feel like a total idiot (hence Picard up there) - but at the same time,  it feels great to finally know what it is that has been bugging me all this time. But this leads to a big problem. I have a feeling this issue is pretty much endemic throughout the novel (I won't bore you with the details), and it's made me realise something. The novel that consumed my life - made me giggle, made me cry, made me go all fluttery -  is a bit crap. in fact, it's more than a bit crap - it's a lot crap.

Read the rest here: http://adarkwhimsy.wordpress.com/2012/02/16/what-was-i-thinking/

I've not been around here for a good couple of weeks now - and I am doing it for a good reason.

I need to write.

I need to write without distraction, without worrying about critique (that can come later!), without fretting over too many adverbs or whether I am using the passive voice. Basically, I need to grow some self discipline, and the way I am going to do it is by going cold turkey; rather than wiling away the hours buggering around on the 'net pretending I am going to write later, I am only going to turn on my laptop to check emails and type things up. So far I have completely re-structured one of my fantasy tales (I'm going to concentrate on that for now. The Pratchett competition was a pipe-dream: there ain't no way I was ever going to get that done, and so I am going for my YA story now, with Black Smokers as my back up. I just think I have a better chance with the YA tale overall) and have written an in-depth outline and character bios (along with their motivations) as well as changing a few key plot lines so they make more sense. I'm 17,000 words in now, and I'm not stopping until I hit at least 70,000.

So no more mucking about. By the time I come back here, I want my first draft done, even if it is just a scrappy piece of shit. No excuses.

Thank you everyone for all your help and support so far - it has been invaluable (and has probably helped me shave a little bit of my editing time down). I hope all of your projects are going well!

Take care and I'll hopefully see you all soon,

Ely

xx