Never delete!!!!

Well, I'm working on a new chapter, and I have new ideas for it.  I'm going to add some stuff that wasn't there, change some things that were, and yank some stuff that won't fit any more.  That's what writing a story is all about, right?  Oh, excuse me.  Write?  LOL

If it doesn't fit any more, and you are hesitant to pull it out, try this trick I learned (the hard way) instead of deleting.  Cut out the offending section, paste it into a totally different document that is labeled 'Archives' and rework the scene.  I learned to never delete anything, because sure as shootin' I wanted it back eventually and I had no way to retrieve it.  In my opinion, no writer should ever delete anything, no matter how small a section, or how trivial it seems.  NEVER DELETE!!!!!!  Archive instead.  You can always find what you took out and rework it, or stick it somewhere else in the story.  Or, as in my case on a few occasions, find a totally different story, change the names and places, but use the circumstances of the scene in an utterly new way.  I've surprised myself in the number of times when I archived something and then later, eureka! I found a place for it.

It's been awhile...

Okay, I admit it.  Life has been keeping me hopping the last few weeks.  I've been busy being a mom, a wife, an employee, a homemaker...does running errands count, and how would you name that?  Anyways, I'm here, I'm here, just been busy!  Yeesh!

Well, I'm still working on my story, and I've even put in a bit of work on a short story that I would love to see published.  I am hoping for an edit job or two and just for kicks, I think I'll start work on another project I have in mind.  I want to make bead necklaces and bracelets.  I've got some of the equipment, so I'm gonna start that too.  Hmmm...  Maybe I'm doing too much?  Naaaaaaaah...

To be, or not to be...

I am to be faithful to my writing goal.  I am not to be disturbed by anything, short of spurting blood or a bone sticking through flesh, or perhaps a bomb.  I am to be honest to the story.  I am not to be interrupted by sound, by cats, by anything.  I am to focus.  I am not to allow myself to be distracted.  I am...I am not.  Or...to be or not to be...same thing!

My New Year's Resolution

My New Year's resolution is to finish a story and get it off to an agent/publisher.  I want to work on the story I wrote during Nano month.  I'm already happily into the second draft.  Wish me luck!

Happy Holidays!!!!!

To all of my dear friends and family, may you enjoy a lovely, safe, joyous season of much laughter and love.  Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Hanukkah, Blessed Be, Happy Yuletide, etc, you get the picture.  May you all practice random acts of beauty and senseless acts of kindness.  Coexist, tolerance.  Let there be peace on Earth and goodwill to all.  Love you!

Writing...I think?

The dreaded block has struck again!  I am at an impasse and I don't like it one little bit.  Where, oh where, did that exhilarating rush from writing so fiercely and swiftly go?  Where is my muse, my umph, my impetus?

Probably in the same place it usually goes.  The problem is, that mysterious place is somewhere off to the left of the yellow brick road, behind the emerald tree, and waaaaaaaaaay down the unbeaten path, through the woods, and behind the purple waterfall.  Now, that yellow brick road is long, that emerald tree gets plucked often so it's hard to tell it from any other tree, the beaten path is so overgrown I can't see it, and that purple waterfall keeps shifting places in that magical kingdom of fancy.  My directions aren't very accurate.  I'll have to see if I can make something happen with this lovely little post.  A shifting purple waterfall sounds fun!

Write...edit...write...interchangable

I love to write.  I love to edit.  I never knew how similar they were until I began to edit work other than my own.  I can see how one leads to the other and back again.  The thing is, I can do that easily with my own works.  Not so much with someone else's!  Laying down words is an author's right.  My edit can only suggest, which I've found helpful in my own work.  See?  Vice versa!

On another note, I'm now editing the work of a friend, and I'm impressed.  Nice introduction to the story, excellent wordage, great characterization...but then I always knew she had talent!