Saturday, December 12, 2009

My W.i.P's, My W.i.P.'s, What Have I Done To Thee?

It's been a while since I've talked about my WiP's and since I needed something to fill in the space wot this date done hath brought to me on this fine spring-like Atumnal day here in Southern New England, I decided to bring forth, the elegant noun, the robust verb, the sanctimonious adverb and the delectable adjective, and use them to the best of my lowly abilities and string together this mammoth and ungainly run-on sentence as my starting point for today's enlightening post about my various writing projects as I bring everyone up to speed and up to date on the oozings my pen has leaked on said previous crystal clean piece of white paper.

Wow! That preceding sentence contained 126 words. Good Lord, I gotta learn how to come up for air!

Anyways, to the issue at hand, namely my writing projects. At the moment both projects have come to a screeching halt, both literally and figuratively. With the first one, A Lascivious Limbo, I'm at the point in the story where the main character has just discovered her husband was/is cheating on her. While with the original story (which can be found elsewhere on this blog under the tag "Long Short Story" and of which the original story background can be found here) the next three and a half pages can be shredded so that they can never see the light of day, the problem remains getting to the epilogue.

In this particular story, I did a good job of introducing a secondary character (through the co-plot line{?}), who over the course of the last twenty pages or so, had become a very integral part of the story. Basically, the main problem is bringing this character's participation in the story to a proper and necessary conclusion (smaller problem is keeping the same relatively semi-upbeat tone in the story. Got personal issues that are threatening to bleed over into the story, which I really want to avoid at all costs). So until I can come up with a short outline/synopsis/good idea/whatever you want to call it that will help me get over the hump and to the epilogue and ending, the story has been temporarily shelved a mere twelve inches from my computer. That way, no matter what, it will always be a constant reminder that this is something that really needs to be finished.

As for the second project called Blackness In The White Sand, I haven't writing a single word since this particular post. Not sure when I'm gonna get back to it, other than it will be the next thing I'll be working on after I finish the aforementioned project. It shouldn't be that difficult to write, but as with everything else going on in my life, I find it very hard to get properly motivated to write it.

I mean, the plot is basic enough: beautiful woman gets turned into a beautiful hunter for one of Satan's personal assistants, and she has exactly 72 hours to find and destroy him in order to turn herself back into what she was previously. It has sex, violence, and religion. What more can you ask for?

While we're on the subject of writing projects, I might as well give an update on the reconstruction project that is going on at FSG. I wrote another story (using this story as a jumping off point) to replace the one that I've temporarily pulled (see the reason as to why I pulled Creativity Inaction here), and for the moment, I'm pretty much set for the first six months of 2010 as I have five stories lined up (including one called "Red Stripe" that I thought highly enough of to enter into a couple of writing contests), plus one piece of flash fiction to use as an interlude in between serials (many thanks to Charles for the idea). And I still have those two others that I previously mentioned that I really should get back to some day.

So that's the way things are going right now, writing by paralysis. Which is to say it's a little bit like a favorite Far Side cartoon of mine that shows how to blow a fisherman's mind: "Fish or cut bait?"

Only in this case, it's "Work on latest book #1, work on latest book #2, or work on reconstructing the other blog?"

11 comments:

  1. I too most of yesterday off but today I'm going to try and hit my anthology hard, try to get through as much as I can to see how to situate things. A lot of wrtiing in front of me for Christmas, but that's ok.

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  2. Oh G! Just let that "blank" feeling work for you, by allowing it to be. Don't fight it. Don't run from it. Give it a big big big hug and the best seat in the house.

    Then leave it in front of the tv.

    Go for a walk.

    Speak to the trees.

    Then come home, sit and write and your natural talent will shine!

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  3. Charles: Yesterday (Friday) I was finally able to work through the hump and began working on WiP #1. When I went to save an updated backup, to my chagrin I found that the last time I actually worked on it was well over a month ago.

    Ugh.

    Believe it or not, I actually took two vaca days from work in order to catch up on my writing.

    Jannie: I would love to speak to the trees, but at the moment, the trees are as bald as the top of my shiny head.

    However, the blankness has gone away for a little bit, as I finally was able to string a few paragraphs together on WiP #1, and it should release the logjam.

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  4. Autumnal and springlike? I hate you! Just kidding. I'm wondering whether 1) my flight will be canceled, 2) whether we will make it home even if I get there, and 3) why I broke my own rule and flew anywhere between turkey day and Valentine's Day.

    I usually say, Fish!

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  5. Sorry about that. I originally wrote this post in late November, when the weather was still in the high 50's/low 60's, thus the comment 'spring-like Autumnal day'.

    Flying, eh?

    I haven't flown in about 17 years, and I wouldn't feel comfortable doing it now. I take a couple of different types of insulin, both of which require syringes, and I'm just paranoid about putting the syringes in my suitcases and not being able to get at them in an emergency.

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  6. I was just about to type "just let it be" and see that friend Jannie has written that already. Would / did that work for you?

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  7. Lynn, it actually worked for about a month. But when I decided to take a long weekend by using a couple of vacation days this week, one of the things I wanted to do was work on this particular manuscript. Unfortunately, it took until this Saturday to really get over the hump that I was stuck at.

    It does however, work for my other projects, as I did come up with a small change to for another story I'm working on that will make another story fit into this one (confused? welcome to the club).

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  8. I'm glad you're getting through the slump. The old ebbs and flows of life really suck the life out of creativity sometimes.

    I tend to write right through a block. I open a new word document or I take pad and pen and just write whatever comes to mind. Yes, it ends up being 90 percent nonsense, but the act of putting words on paper is enough to unlock it and I can get back on track. Sort of like a bait and switch for the old muse. "Ha! You think I care about that story? Not at all! I'm creating another masterpiece over here!" My muse is usually very vocal in displeasure over being ignored - lol!

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  9. Don't I know it. Hypersensitivity to life's events is something I'll never get used to. Sometimes it does give a little help to the muse, but more often than not, the muse has a tendency to say What The, then disappear for a longer siesta.

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  10. Red Stripe, ah, a grand beer. I shall be drinking one on Christmas day on my vacation. I will raise my glass to all my friends, you included. :)Bea

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  11. Many thanks.

    It's really strange, but the story I wrote that has that title has no connection whatsoever with the beer, which I'd first heard about some 30 odd years ago, when my dad used to bring it home from his yearly trips to Jamaica.

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Go on, give me your best shot. I can take it. If I couldn't, I wouldn't have created this wonderful little blog that you decided to grace with your presence today.

About that comment moderation thingy: While yes, it does say up above I can take it, I only use it to prevent the occasional miscreant from leaving thoughtless and/or clueless comments.

So remember, all of your comments are greatly appreciated and all answers will be given that personal touch that you come to expect and enjoy.

G. B. Miller

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