Friday, January 11, 2008

Staggering Along

I had to stop what I was revising and go back to the beginning. My three week break left me feeling like I was pushing stick figures around. I had lost my sense of the story and the characters. Strange how that can happen after living with these people for so long. You would think they'd be so far embedded in my brain that there was no dislodging them.

Either way, the read through helped immensely, but I still don't feel like my head is one hundred percent back in the game. I slogged through this morning, creating a new transition scene, but it feels flat, devoid of the little details that make the scene come alive. I'm behind schedule on where I had hoped to be this week too. I had planned on editing 50 pages. I instead ended up editing 11 and creating 4 new ones. Argh. Once again I am wondering why I couldn't have been given the gift of basket weaving instead of writing.

But again, I shall continue to slog away and beat this story into submission if it kills me. I have a fairly full weekend ahead but I am hoping to find a little time to make up some of my page count.

And oddly, as usually happens when my writing begins to feel flat, I have not been reading as much fiction of late. Time to get back into that. Reading always releases some weird creative enzyme in my brain. And that pile of TBR books is not getting any smaller. In fact, I added two more to it this week with John Grisham's, The Broker and Mary Balogh's latest re-release in the Web series. I'm looking forward to both of them.

Speaking of good books - if you are looking for a great historical, check out Julianne MacLean's latest, In My Wildest Fantasies. It is the first in her new Pembroke Palace series and she kicks it off with a great start. Very enjoyable read and well worth picking up.

How about you? Read any good books lately?

8 comments:

Unknown said...

My TBR pile is overflowing. I liked Sandra Brown's newest, Play Dirty.

I'm reading a book now on clutter and organization. One of my New Year's resolutions.

Melissa Amateis said...

I finished Dean Koontz's newest one, The Darkest Evening of the Year, last week. Terrific book, especially if you love dogs. :-)

Unknown said...

My TBR pile is gross. I really need to get though it some more.

Good luck with the edits!

Unknown said...

My TBR isn't a pile, it's a wall of shelves. For every book I read, I buy 5 more. It's out of control. I'm reading Cait London's With Her Last Breath.

I think I added the Dean Koontz book to my Audible wish list. I love his stuff and a good referral will move it to the top of my selections.

Editing is hard. I've started keeping track of my scenes on a spreadsheet--motivation, conflict, etc. and that helps me keep track of the flow. Otherwise I get completely lost in the words on the page. Can't see the forest through the trees sort of thing. Best of luck!!

Lexi said...

Go Kelly! Go Kelly! Go Kelly!

Dixie Belle said...

True Evil by Greg Iles is a terrific suspense book. One of the best I've read lately.

Julia Phillips Smith said...

I'm reading 'Firebird' by Mercedes Lackey - really loving it. It takes place in medieval Russia, and I'm in a big Russia mood lately. Got really into a Russian paranormal film series just before Christmas, which I can't get out of my head, either. 'Nightwatch' and 'Daywatch'. Love them.

Anonymous said...

I'm reading On The Way To The Wedding by Julia Quinn :)