Writing update

Managed to finish another chapter today on Well of Sorrows, so figured I'd do an update on the writing. The chapter went more or less as expected and I should only have 3 more chapters until the end of the novel. I'm certainly tying things up and did the big reveals in this chapter. So everything is on the table and now I just need to wrap up all of the action. A few pieces aren't clear to me yet, on exactly how they'll play out, but I had something occur to me today for two of the characters that was a revelation, but would be much more powerful than what I'd had planned before this for them. Mostly I know what I WANT to have happen, but I'm not clear on exactly HOW it happens.

Tomorrow, I get to hurt my main character more than he's ever been hurt before in this book. *grin* And the cool thing . . . he does it to himself, knowingly. Basically, everything has gone as far into hell as it can, and so from here on out it's everyone trying to fix the problem in whatever way they can.

OK, if you missed the radio interview that WSKG did with me yesterady, you can listen to it here. The streaming audio link is on the top right. Check it out and let me know how stupid I sound. *grin* I caught a little bit of it on the radio when it was rebroadcast but couldn't listen to it for too long before hearing my own voice (without the benefit of being drunk at the time) weirded me out and I turned it off. I don't think I screwed up in too many spots, but there were a few instance where the word I wanted to say just wouldn't come to me and so I had to go with something . . . lame instead. This is why I write and don't do improv. You can go back and delete the lame crap you wrote earlier and replace it with something better . . . AND NO ONE KNOWS.

In any case, here's my word count meter for the novel so far. Mock the meter! Mock the overabundance of words!

174,250 / 100,000 (174.2%)

Well of Sorrows

One Reason It Sucks To Be A Writer: The Internal Editor

And may I say that the emphasis is on the "internal" in that. I'm certainly not going to be talking about my editor, Sheila Gilbert, who is a spectacular person because she understands me and loves my work. *grin*

Everyone who writes knows about the internal editor. It's that voice inside your head (for most of us) who speaks up at inopportune moments and says things like, "That sucks, you should fix that," or "Didn't you say in chapter 3 that what you're trying to have your main character do here in chapter 17 is impossible?"

Normally, this internal editor is a very good voice to have and I absolutely love my internal editor, especially when he's right. Typically, when the internal editor speaks up, it means you've got a ton of extra work to do, rewriting for the most part, or just stopping right where you are and figuring out where to go since (after checking) yes indeed you did just try to violate your own magical system's rules, or something. The internal editor is great, I love mine, and it should never go away.

However, that internal editor also sucks. Why? Because he cannot be turned off. And this destroys the enjoyment of many, many things. I can't read a book without the internal editor speaking up and pointing out flaws in the writing, if there are any (and every book has flaws, however minor . . . or at least points where the editor says, "they should have done this here instead, it would have been much better," which is alot of personal preference as well). I can't watch a movie without that editor kicking in and pointing out the plot holes or the character inconsistancies. I can't watch a play or see someone dance or gaze upon a piece of art without that internal editor speaking up. I used to be able to just sit down and enjoy those TV shows or movies or whatever, but not anymore.

*sigh*

Would I give up the editor so I can enjoy those shows? HELL NO! I need him to make my writing not suck. But occasionally I'd like to give him a bottle of wine so he'd shut up while I watched that movie. *grin*