Drunken Owls and Other Delights

So after preparing myself for some longhand writing (printing out the outline and what I'd written so far) I wrote three full pages of Can't Find My Way Home while hanging out on the living room couch watching football with emmalyon. There aren't as many crossouts as I'd expected, and I tried to keep the pace even, considering I was rewriting what I had from scratch. It felt good, doing this again. It's been kind of a busy morning here at work though, catching up with all that came in on the long weekend, so I haven't yet done any writing here, but I plan on doing some of that during lunch.

It's kind of interesting, reading what I'd written just a year and a half ago and comparing it to my style now, and I'm actually a little amazed at the progress. Not to toot my own horn or anything (okay, so I am anyway), but I've definitely gotten better over the last three or so years, and I'm quite happy at that. I'm pretty sure part of it's due to my stubbornness at getting something done every day, but most of it I have to thank dancinghorse's critiques of two of my stories. Thanks, Judy!

Okay! So it's now lunchtime, which means it's time for me to log off and do some scribbling. :)

That's because I've been spending the last few days trying to create a decent synopsis for dancinghorse's critique of the first few chapters of A Division of Souls. So yeah, sorry that it's late, Judy, I'll try to get it to you as soon as I can! Hopefully if I can get some serious writing time this weekend, I can get it done, or at least closer to done.

As I mentioned earlier, the unintended plus on writing this synopsis is that I can now see where the overall plot needs a little work. This is everything from little plot movements that need to go in a slightly different direction (yet to the same spot) for it to flow and make more sense, to big passages where a different scene (or at least a scene written differently) could vastly improve it. I guess the overall thing is that writing the synopsis is forcing me to read the story with a somewhat distant eye instead of being emotionally involved. I notice that when I'm emotionally involved in the story, I tend to be passive and let it flow by. This is all well and good as a reader, but I guess that when I turn the Writer Brain on, especially during revision, I need to back away from it--get less emotionally invested in it--and try my best to be analytical. I'll admit that's my weakness, not liking to be analytical, because I always feel it takes away from the original intent...but with time and experience, I've come to realize you can still be analytical and not be cold and heartless. Overall, though...the fact that this long (LOOOOOOONG)-term project of mine is reaching new heights makes me proud of it, and that's a great feeling.

It's things like this that remind me that, despite the slogging and still not being professionally published, I still love the art and the process of writing, and that I continue to work at it despite the mood of my day. I may not be able to devote more than an hour or so a day, but going on a decade and a half, I still feel the guilt if I skip a day, even if I'm on vacation. I still think of it as my long term career, even if I'm still working a regular day job to pay the bills.

More soon...

Just got dancinghorse's critique back of Love Like Blood a few moments ago.

The Good:
--She likes the title. ;)
--Apparently I have "synopsis-fu". In all honesty I have to thank a few of you out there who helped me tighten it up a few years previous when I originally sent it out to JABberwocky. Still, glad to hear that!

The Bad:
--I desperately need an internal editor to cut all that excess crap.
--The problem with writing a Smartass Bostonian is that I seem to have also shown Gabriel as a raving dumbass and killed a lot of the drama with his goofiness.
--Good worldbuilding, but it needs a LOT of tightening.

Overall:
--Good, but DEFINITELY needs more work.


So YAY! and THANK YOU!!! to dancinghorse for her great critique! I totally agree with a lot what she says, and I'll keep them in mind as I continue to clean it up and make it even better.

Back to the drawing board! ;)