7 Steps: Wavering

After finishing off the Vikings and shoving them off in their longboat, I got up to the chapter about the wavering step in 7 Steps, and read about the four things that can get you stuck there. Perfectionism is one. I get around perfectionism when I write because I separate my analytical brain from my creative brain. But in revisions, it gets me.

I think I may join the Uber Challenge and work on getting through analytical processes without falling into perfectionism. I’d like that part of the process to be more enjoyable, or at least less miserable. I’d also like to get through it quicker even when revisions are extensive. I’ve come up with a few tricks over the last year that speed it up, but I still spent way too much time on this last project and I need to be more efficient.

Happy New Year to all! And here’s to good things (and good books) in 2006.

Three a.m. Why? Why?!

The last two months have had the same ugly routine; baby up all hours of the night and up for good at 3:00 a.m. Once in a while stretching it to 3:30 or even 4:30, but not often. Really looking forward to this stage ending.

So, while I’m totally frustrated with the current parenting stage I thought I’d pull out 7 Steps On The Writer’s Path and see what writer stage I’m in. Not sure yet, but I do know I’m in the final stages of edits on TGB. It’s been really, really difficult and slow going. I put in a change and it’s all wrong and I take it out. I try to reword something and can’t for the life of me find another way to say it that isn’t worse. Not saying I achieved perfection and it can’t be improved on, just that I’ve hit the wall and while perfection is far in the distance “better than this” seems equally out of reach.

Which means maybe I’m done. If it really is the best I can do at this time, that’s it.

Other people’s blogs

I don’t have any brilliant stuff today, but other people do!

Diana’s talking about sales vs. careers and why synopsis and proposals matter after you sell. (They do. Oh, they do.) Don’t miss the incredibly useful link to synopsis building. And you can participate in her poll.

Wil Wheaton is having a battle of the blogs. Nerds will triumph, I’m confident.

Shelley’s got more installments of Publishing Survivor. It starts here and then moves over here.

PBW talks about the new e-venture Baen’s offering, pros and cons.

Edited to add: Forgot to mention, there’s a rousing discussion of EC authors vs. Anonymous on Jaynie’s blog. While I fully understand that there are always two sides to every story, the EC authors are rather unanimous which I think speaks very clearly. In my own experience, EC is professional, courteous, prompt, reliable, works hard to promote their books and their brand, and has a wonderful policy of not tampering with voice. If you write for EC, expect to work your butt off. But you will get to tell YOUR stories your way and be paid well for it. Seems reasonable to me. As with any self-employment path your success is largely up to you and the amount of effort you’re willing to put forth, but the opportunity is there.

And me, I’m shoving these #&*!@ Vikings out the door. They must go. It’s overcrowded in here with the aliens and werewolves and the psychic painter.

Sleepless but still giddy, and a realization

Up at 3:30. Better than 3:00 a.m., but not a lot. Makes me wonder if the guy who wrote this ever spent any time with an actual mother, especially one with teething babies. If he had, it would go more like…

Sue’s got a baby now, an’ she
Is stranger than she used to be;
Her face seems vacant, an’ her ways
More zombie-like. In these few days
She’s changed completely, an’ her smile
Has taken on the frozen-style.
Her voice is hoarser, an’ her words
Are clear as is the caw of birds.
She still is Sue, but not the same–
She’s different since the baby came.

But, hey, she slept until 3:30 a.m., so it’s progress. And I have plenty of coffee.

Still happy dancing over the nomination. If I ever get blase about things like that, I will really be way too sleep-deprived. Also, I need to email my editor about TGB. She noticed somthing on the second round that I probably should have mentioned sooner…more on that after some discussion.