Been Awhile...

...since I've spoken of writing here on the old blog.

Several reasons. One (big surprise) I've been struggling lately. Okay, I know you're not suppose to say that stuff publicly on a writing blog, but oh well. I'm nothing if not painfully (and perhaps ill-advisedly--if that's a word) honest. Plus, the source of my angst is one common to writers: the dreaded synopsis.

I passed the first version by some crit partners and they agreed: lots of problems. Too many pages, too much detail, and worst--What's It All About, Alfie? In layman's terms, my plot rocks, my character arcs suck. The question remains: do I have the writing chops to fix it?

Or should I just ditch the whole book (a year of my life)?

For the record, I opted not to ditch. And this morning, I believe the synopsis is looking better and that a change in the ending may alleviate the character arc problem

We'll see. Time will tell.

Meanwhile, as always, the experience of writing this book has its lessons to teach. More than ever, I'm committed to spending a great deal of time in preparation before starting my next project. To that end, I'm re-reading Robert McKee's STORY again. Yep, that makes it three times so far. You'll be happy to know some of the constructs he puts forth are starting to seep in (only slightly kidding, here).

The second reason I've been struggling lately is that I'm becoming so disheartened with how s-l-o-w-l-y the publishing industry moves. Three partials submitted six months ago and no word. One partial submitted 18 months ago and the only word I have is that they received it. Fulls have taken over a year to come back with rejections.

It's hard enough to get rejections; harder still when it takes so long.

Sigh. Okay, rant over. The good news is that I'm still fascinated by writing. Can't give it up. So when the title for a new book floated through my brain, I had to pay attention. (Actually, it's the bastardization of the title of a famous book--can't tell you the name cuz then I'd have to kill you.)

First order of business (ha) read the famous book.

Well.

I'm so inspired! The theme of the book TOTALLY translates to a story fitting my title. Not that I've come UP with the story yet, but ideas are percolating. At this point, I wish I could just shove the previous project out the door and move on.

But, alas. That's not the way things work. I need to multi-task, and so I shall.

Stay tuned.