Thursday, September 27, 2012

Off She Goes: The Muse is Helping Others

Temporarily. She'll be back in November, anyway, and maybe earlier. We've been working on setting up the next story in the Mercenaries universe, now I've got the ugly first draft (and second, and in a few places third and fourth drafts) of Freedom No More complete.

It came out 110Kwords, and knowing someone besides me needs to see it to tell me what I've done wrong, I've sent it off to my beta readers. The feedback has already been swift and through!

It's to be expected. Still, I wish I wasn't putting at least the first one through so much pain. We have been discussing it, and I think I've finally realized what he means by "find your story!" Focus. Make sure I'm telling the story instead of wandering about in the weeds.

Easier said than done ( I love the weeds), but the second half (which he has yet to get to) may point to the root cause. I'll wait to see if the second half (after I changed horses in mid stream, in a manner of speaking) has the same level of problem as the part he's completed so far.

My other reader has been awesome busy, and just got started; I can't wait to see how that goes!

Do you plan to do  NaNoWriMo? I think the muse and I will try to get the first half of that next book through the keyboard. Tentative working title: Background Check.

More later.

5 comments:

  1. Don't worry about it. It isn't personal pain or physical pain. I suppose it could be likened to the pain you feel when you aren't clear in expressing yourself and your observations. As a mentor of mine said long ago, "If someone doersn't understand what you're saying, it isn't their fault, it's yours."

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    1. I think that's good... So it's not quite like repeatedly hitting your thumb with a small but insistent hammer, then?

      I agree with your mentor, as anyone with a rational thought should do.

      Thanks.

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  2. I don't necessarily "celebrate" NaNoWriMo, as EVERY day is writing day! :) But it sounds like you're making some progress, so good job!

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    1. I didn't think of it as 'celebrate' exactly, but I did find that last year, I enjoyed it. So the muse and I are working on some preliminary stuff - writing that doesn't generate countable words - getting ready.

      How's Howard doing with his medication? I had been missing your blog until today! I see a new post; I'll check it out later today. Funeral this morning, unfortunately.

      Thanks!

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    2. Things are moving, which is great :) Stuff is happening! People are reacting! ;) The word count rises respectably.

      Sorry to hear about your funeral! When you get a chance, I'm eager to hear your thoughts on my last post (and sorry about the lack of updates!!)

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