Voices

The voices are back. They kept me awake until five last night, tossing and turning in bed as I tried (and failed) to get them all to shut up. And yes, I did mean voices. Plural. All yelling and clamoring for attention at once. Was crazy-making.

There's Lucy. She sees dead people. She just doesn't know it yet.

And there's William. He's searching for a cure so he can finally be with the girl he loves.

Then there's Charlotte. She's clinging to a fantasy world because the real one is too harsh.

And unsuspecting Victoria is in for one hell of a night at work.

And those are just the new voices. Elle was there too, wondering why I've left her story unfinished for so long. And finally, perhaps most surprising of all, Connor was there, urging me get back into the superhero world. Promising me his story isn't as hopelessly horrible as I fear it is.

I'm still kind of scared to look.

But I'm going to.

Did I mention I have a deadline for Temper now? June 14th. My crit partner and I set it. We're going to swap manuscripts on that date.

So I should probably crack open the word doc, eh? I've been a very naughty writer lately, ignoring the voices so well I managed to block them out completely and convince myself they left me. Now I've got to fight my way back in.

But I will. Because I have to.

Because the voices are back, and I don't think I'll be able to shake them off this time. The only way to get them out of my head is to get them onto paper.

So that's what I'll be doing.

All. Night. Long.

Finish Everything

When I hover my cursor over my Temper word doc, it says "Date Modified 4/15/2010". Which means it's been over a month since I even opened the blasted file.

If you're wondering, no, I still haven't made a decision. Should I finish Temper? Should I start something new?

One of my favorite bits of writing advice (because I really need to learn to follow this) is FINISH EVERYTHING.

Finish everything.

If you quit projects somewhere along the way, then you won't really learn from them. You'll end up being really good at beginnings, okay at writing middles, and total crap at writing endings because you never write the endings.

And why wouldn't this apply to the revision side of things as well? If all you do it is finish stories, then yeah, you'll be able to write a nice, complete first draft. But it will never progress past draft status. Because you never learned how to properly revise. Because that's the point that you always gave up.

So looks like this post is really just me trying to convince myself to finish The Temper.

My crit partner Ina has suggested setting a deadline for us to swap manuscripts, and I think that might really help me. I do good with deadlines. Some of my best school work was done by skipping fourth period to finish up the essay due fifth period.

So we shall see how that works out.

Until then, tell me some of your great revisions stories. Did you figure out something that made the story sooo much better? Did you find out how to make your characters really stand out? Did you discover awesome bits about your story you never knew?

Please, convince me that editing is awesome. I kinda need it right now.

Torn

So I'm reading blogs again, replying to comments, even posting on my own blog. I'm getting back into the swing of things.

Mostly.

The one thing I'm NOT doing? Working on my writing.

At the moment I'm torn. I was afraid I wouldn't be interested in Temper after taking a break, and while that's not exactly the problem, I find myself so caught up in deciding what to do, I'm not doing anything.

I haven't lost interest in Temper, but I still don't know if I can kindle enough passion to jump back into revision hell. And starting a new story is even scarier than revising an old one. And I haven't come up with any new ideas lately. That bothers me.

Usually I'm an idea fountain. And yeah, I still have plenty of old ideas. But the lack of new ideas is weird. It's like I'm missing some key component of inspiration.

Luckily, my crit partner Ina sent me a care package full of awesomeness and jellybeans and chocolate and an amazing art piece (which tells me to WRITE) that is hanging on my wall right next to me. Aaaand she sent me some Be Incredibly Creative Instantly chewing gum. So I'm gonna pop a couple pieces and get to work. This story ain't gonna revise itself.

....but wouldn't that be cool if it did?

How do you deal when you're not feeling inspired?

Three Weeks

When I logged into my Google Reader yesterday I had nearly 2000 unread blog posts. A lot can happen in three weeks.

Some of you have finished first drafts.

Some of you have finished revisions.

Some of you have started querying.

And some of you have landed awesome agents.

And I missed it!

Sorry I've been MIA lately, but the blogging break really did me some good. I stayed away from blog posts, from email, from twitter. And I let the word doc of The Temper just sit there, untouched, waiting. Now I can't wait to get back to it. I'm excited to open it up and start digging through the words and sentences to reveal the story underneath.

Over the next few days I'll be sloshing through my messages (I'm so sorry I haven't' been responding to any emails/comments! That's the biggest downside to this unplug fest) and I'll be revisiting your blogs and saying hi!

It's nice to be back.

So... fill me in...

What have I missed?