too cold to sweat

[ksmith]

I started strong on this 70 Days thing, but it's been rocky lately. Tired. Not an evening writer. Sick of this damned scene that just doesn't want to get writ.

Said it before, that I thought I had figured it out. Well, I think I have figured it out. But I'm at the stage where I write 100 words and it feels like a thousand, which I think has to do with the fact that I'm inserting this scene a sentence at a time, then checking the flow. Should just settle down and write it. But I'm having trouble keeping my eyes open now, so, sleep, pathetic word count or not.

I need more day in my day. I also wish this MacBook black keyboard wasn't so damned hard to see in low lighting.

Comments

[difrancis.livejournal.com]

On the book that's at copy edit now, I had this one scene that would simply not work. I kept thinking i had a handle on it, kept thinking I'd figured out how to fix it, but every time it didn't quite work. I can't tell you how many ways, how many tries I went at it. I was so sick to death of the writing and the story and I thought I'd never get it right.

I think finally I did. I turned it in and my editor is pretty happy. But experience was really gruelling, especially on my writing soul.

So I'm sending sympathy and good vibes and chocolate and good scotch and hot bread from the oven. Oh, wow. That makes me want to make cinnamon rolls. I should do that . . . . *wanders off*

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Fresh cinnamon rolls sound really good.

Part of the problem with scenes like this is that they feel as though they go on forever. I have to go back and read it whole to remind myself that it isn;t that long...which of course makes it worse because it isn't that long and it still ain't been writ.

Then there's the 'wiping out words you just wrote a few days ago; thing, which I hate.

[difrancis.livejournal.com]

I am trying *so hard* not to backtrack on myself and do revising as I go. (I'm trying to save that for weekends). But really, my goal for this draft is to actually write it start to finish before I start major editing. I know that won't work that well if I hit major snags of plot, but I've been discovering in recent books that my production is slowing and my anxiety increasing and I think it's because I go back and revise before I should. So I'm trying this. I don't know if it's working.

All of which is to say, Oh I have such sympathy for that! I have been there with just that sort of endless-seeming scene (another reason I'm trying to write fast--those endless undying scenes are soooooo painful sometimes).

Okay, I have to go get productive (by which I mean get the little thing out of bed so she can keep an eye on me while I"m writing.)

Di

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

But really, my goal for this draft is to actually write it start to finish before I start major editing.

I've bewailed before about my process of having books grind to a stop at the 200-page mark. Then I've no choice but to start over because I have started out so wrong that there's no fixing what's there. I don't see it at first. It's like hanging wallpaper border in the middle of a wall--an eighth of an inch off at the starting point leads to a 6-inch drop off by the time you get to the end.

If the scene is really, really off, I can't leave it. I need to fix it, because the fix will likely reveal something that will become important later. Something I need to know.

[difrancis.livejournal.com]

That reminds me of something Annie Dillard says in the writing life (if you've not read it, do--I find it inspirational, if only because I think, ok, it's not just me). Anyhow, she talks about that grinding to a halt when your lizard brain knows something isn't working and you have to fix it. That's why I am so sympathetic right now. I'm hoping I don't hit one of those in this book. I'm a linear writer, so if I discover a major flaw, I do have to go back and fix it. I can't write anything new until it's fixed (I know some people can write scenes out of order and stitch them together or recognize the change and mark where it has to happen and just keep going, and I have never managed that trick.) But if there's one thing you do know for certain, it's this: it's happened before, you've made it through before, and the books have turned out really well. So. Painful as it is, you know you can do it. Right? Well, I know you can do it, if that's any help.

Di

[(Anonymous)]

You can do it! You can do it!!!

I've been pecking away at a similar problem scene for two weeks. I *finally* finished it last night.

Adrianne - hoping raw encouragement can only help

[(Anonymous)]

As for your keyboard, check out this thread: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=201574

Apparently the sensor doesn't have an user override, but there are several things you can do to make sure that when it's dark enough, the light comes on.

Adrianne - who bought the silver Macbook because it hides dust better. :-)

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Linear writer. Oh yeah.

I was so desperate to get things underway when starting ENDGAME that I did write scenes out of order. It did help me build momentum. I even managed to use a little of it. But when you're a Linear, what you write builds upon what you've written, and unless that foundation is solid...

Yes, I've worked through it before. I know I can do it again. But it's such a wasteful process, and I keep hoping something flips at some point so that it changes. I'm hoping that the fact that my editor gave me comments on the wip synopsis, leading me to rework just the sort of issue that would have had me tossing 200 pages and starting over, provides the momentum for that sort of flip.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Um..is the light for the MacBook or the Pro?

::goes to check::

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

It's for the Pro. I have the MacBook Amateur.

[(Anonymous)]

Glares at son's MacBook amateur. I can't get a keyboard light to come on at all. Did they not put them in? Are they nuts?

Adrianne

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure the Amateur has one...