Weather: Pending Snownarok! High: 30 degrees + SNOOOOWWW!
So yes. I’ve been very lax in blogging lately.
Been working on revisions for the WIP, and considering how much I’ve been shifting and rearranging, I swear I might as well have started from scratch.
But there’s the rub. When the epiphany hits on how to make the story work better, especially in line with the greater story arc, do you say, “Ah Well, I ‘ve already written 110K, and it’s pretty good” or do you dive in with the scalpels and bandages and antisptic and FIX IT , even though it might push your self-imposed deadline back? Yeah, it’s the latter, I’m afraid.
See, the story I had was good. But what I came up with is BETTER. More cohesive, more streamlines, better sustained tension and plot. Why wouldn’t I throw myself on the literary sword and do my damndest to wrestle it into shape?
Which brings me to something that’s been conking on my noggin lately. Before we had Twitter and Facebook and all the other blogs & journals, did writers suffer advice overload? I imagine the answer is there in the question.
I am so appreciative of all the publishers, agents and other writers that post and blog their experiences in publishing and dole out advice for all us newbie writers. And I mean that with absolute sincerity. The problem is there is SO MUCH of it out there. I feel sometimes like a teenager being taught to dance by 17 teachers at once. The steps are all there, but a lot of the teachers don’t agree in what order they go. However, this is not the fault of the teachers. I think sometimes the innate insecurity that I feel as a writer on the verge of stepping into the publishing world causes me to seek out more information than my brain can process.
At some point, the information stops being helpful and starts being confusing and intimidating. No new writer wants to make the egregious mistakes that show up on numerous “Top Ten Reasons I Won’t Look At Your Book EVER!” lists that pop up all over the net. At the same time, the sheer number of these kinds of posts can make someone new to the publishing industry seriously reconsider getting published at all. I have to admit, the articles and blog posts that most of us take to heart are the ones that show the statistics AGAINST our ever getting published.
Again, this is not the fault of the industry people or the authors who are trying to relay how difficult it is out there. But sometimes I wonder if the proliferation of all the negative and cynical articles outweigh the helpful info. Sure, we all want an unvarnished view of what to expect. Fluffy pieces on how everyone deserves to be published don’t tend to ring true, after all. But we are sometimes told, in seeming contradiction that we should write from the heart, write the book we want to write. And then we are told, but make sure you don’t write in this genre, or from this POV or include characters of a particular ethnicity or age. It gets a little confusing.
Ultimately, I think, at least for myself, that I need to focus on the WRITING. Make the story as polished and streamlined as I can. Proof it a number of times. Have someone objective look it over. Then send it out and hope for the best.
The internet has become both a curse and a blessing for writers. The availability of information is a wonderful thing, especially the advice from people who know what they’re talking about when it comes to writing and publishing. The curse is in the volume of the knowledge. Hopefully, like anything, we can learn to take things in moderation. After all, a good bit of info goes a long way.
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Now playing: Three Days Grace – I Hate Everything About You
via FoxyTunes
Nevermoreland 