Saturday, September 28, 2013

Good News, Bad News

I'll start with the positive. I interacted on Twitter every day this week. I also managed to set aside at least a half an hour to write every day this week. Most days it was at least an hour. So I wrote...and deleted...and wrote some more...and deleted some more.

...and I'm starting to identify with Sisyphus.

Obviously, it did not go well. But it went, so that's something, right?

The problem is I'm stuck on chapter 18 of Cracked revisions. Not plot-wise because that's pretty set. No matter what I did, the writing itself just came out so forced and clunky. Since my friendly neighborhood pharmacy was fresh out of magic potions that make one's writing not suck, I just kept trying. It did not get better. Eventually, I switched to a different story and worked on it for awhile before returning to Cracked. That didn't help either.

So now I'm staring with some trepidation at "chapter 18." I just rewrote the entire first paragraph again, but it's really the middle of the chapter where the writing goes kaput. (Please excuse the interruption because I suddenly wondered where we got the word "kaput" and feel compelled to look up its etymology immediately.)

Okay, I'm back. It's German. I should've guessed that.

Maybe the problem is my attention span...

Anyway, stuck on chapter 18. I'm going to give it one more try before I just move on to chapter 19. I can always come back to it later. 

7 comments:

  1. I was just at my local pharmacy last week and found a glass bottle labled 'cadaver juice'... But don't worry, it was in the Halloween decor aisle, lol! Keep plugging on, the important thing is that you're doing just that. Cheers!

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  2. Congrats on the twitter interaction. I finally joined but haven't been actively participating yet. I am muddling through my MS as well. I give myself permission to jump ahead when I get stuck. Some progress is better than none. Good luck with chapter 18!

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  3. Saw your a link to your blog on verlakay. Good luck with the manuscript! We have all been there/still there (LOL!)

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  4. "Since my friendly neighborhood pharmacy was fresh out of magic potions that make one's writing not suck, I just kept trying ..."

    Hemingway would say try a liquor store.

    Whenever my writing starts to suck, I stop writing. Immediately. I take a break, sometimes a day-long break. I don't feel guilty. I just do it, because the brain needs time to freshen up. Ya know?

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