Sunday, January 9, 2011

Never as Pretty as in my Head....

Update: 1644 words today for a total of 15,998

Sigh. I'm taking the advice to write crap to heart. It sucks being out of practice. My prose isn't as good as what I hear in my head. Of course, the stuff I have in my head is terrifying. Who can blame those poor sentences? It's a miracle they get out alive.

I am having a pretty good time, though. The world is fun, I wrote a great scene with a fae, and my main MC and her trusty sidekick have a great report! I'm struggling to show that report, but that is the point of the blog post, isn't it? Writing is like a muscle, if you don't use it, it goes all flabby. And my vocabulary is so rusty. When I run into difficulty, I hold my hand up, opening and closing it like a sockpuppet gasping for air, only I'm gasping for words; ones I knew as well as I know that opening and closing hand. It's like a mist has grown up between us. I've always struggled to find the perfect word, but I blame my lack of writing for the appearance of the mist.

I've thought about adjusting my goals because I'm so out of practice. I'm not sure if I should keep editing Endways of the Gods, or just read it. Or leave it alone until I've gotten more rust off the magic fiction machine. Right now, they're just the stilted words of another first draft; they have flashes of brilliance, but much of it is flat and "was-y". Plus, pronouns are a difficulty, as my characters in that book have titles. Sigh. Again.

To this end, I've pulled out a few books of poetry, always a rich depository of words. And I know I need to read more. I've asked mah pals at AW to suggest current (and good) urban fantasy and I've got a list, I'm checkin' it twice.... hello Library!

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