This blog doesn't have many readers. I appreciate each and every one of you MORE THAN YOU KNOW.
I have hesitated to post a poll because it would be embarrassing if no one voted. Please enter your choices. Someone? Anyone?
The astute reader will have divined that I am sick of CBL. I started CBL a long, long time ago. I've done lots of other things while writing it. I cared for an elderly mother, wrote another YA novel (TAoCBS), saw one son into high school and the other one out of high school. Recently, I had sort of a revision request for CBL, so I need to love this manuscript again and love it quickly.
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15 hours ago
6 comments:
Unfortunately, there is no way to fall back in love with a ms FAST for me- I really need to get away from it, do something else, if I'm sick of it. I do, however sadly, play psychological tricks on myself if I'm in a time pinch. One of my favorites is to put the ms in a different font, smaller type and single-spaced. It makes some things stand out more and also makes the ms seem different and SHORTER, thus easier to trudge through :) Apparently I'm easily fooled! Ha! Good luck Ann :)
I'm sort of struggling with this right now. I've started two different rewrites on my novel, only to realize it still isn't living up to its potential.
I was ready to throw the towel in yesterday (and had a meltdown to boot) but this morning I talked out some fresh perspectives on it with my fiance and was able to re-envision it. Now I'm feeling like I might be able to jump back in, as soon as I sort out the new details.
Otherwise, I think it takes time. If I can't get on board with this new rewrite plan, I'm just going to have to move on until I'm ready to give it another go (if that ever happens).
Good luck!
Ann, just so you know, I LOVE YOUR BLOG! I rarely comment, because I'm bad about blog-commenting (always mean to do it; rarely do) but yours is one of my very favorite blogs.
For falling-back-in-love-with CBL, I like Boni's different font idea. Another suggestion is to pretend it's someone else's novel, and that you're just editing it.
I did not take your survey, because I have no idea which option(s) might work best in your situation. They were all good options. I also like all the suggestions that have been made in comments. I am an unpublished short story fiction writer who is learning from everyone's writer blog I visit. Given my shortcomings, here are a few of my suggestions to add to the other excellent suggestions.
Have you tried writing down the Pros and Cons of this Work-In-Progress in terms of what you like and don't like about it? Have you written down the main stumbling blocks involved in this work, then ventured to write potential solutions? Have you looked at your Work from the various points of views of all the characters involved in the Work? Have you tried to get to know each of your characters separately and indepth to see what they might add to your Work, which you may not have seen yet? Have you tried letting someone read your Work to see where they think the story is going so you can look at your Work from the your readers' point-of-view? Have you tried letting your imagination run wild by letting your Work take off in directions you doubt it should go, to see what you find by doing that? For example, turn a drama into a comedy or a comedy into drama or even combine the two, as life so often uses both as we go down life's road.
I hope I have made a few helpful suggestions. I do read and appreciate your Blogposts on a semi-regular basis. Your survey options were great, but I did not think I could make a wise choice. Sometimes you really do have to get away from what you write until it is so forgotten it becomes new to you. Then you may see both the greatness and the weakness in a Work, in that you ask yourself seriously, "Did I really write that?" My guess is you are very close to a finished Work. You only need a key component you are missing. Hopefully, your moment of inspiration is not far away. Best of luck to you. Thank you for sharing your frustrations with someone like me, who dreams of the day, when I can be frustrated like you, because it will mean I finally have hope of becoming a published writer. Take care and God bless. (Oh yes, I like readers and commenters too, so feel free to visit my Blogs too. ha ha ha)
Boni, Debbie and Wyman:
Thank you for the terrific suggestions. You’re right. I do need some way to distance myself from this project.
Casey:
Hang in there. Sometimes you have to bang your head on something for a long time before you start to see lights. I hope in the end, the illumination will be that much brighter.
I recently received suggestions for writing style changes in CBL that were so spot on, it’s embarrassing. As I was making these painstaking modifications, I realized two characters still aren’t on the page. Yes, Wyman, I need to get into there heads and see what happens.
Thanks everyone for the good suggestions and the support.
So I took the quiz, but my responses probably aren't very helpful. Right now I'm sick of something I'm working on, but putting it aside for a while (which is my usual mode of operation) isn't an option. So, I'm pulling up my socks. (Well, kind of, I wear sandals without socks in the summer). Anyway, the good thing about being placed in that situation is that you HAVE to work through the parts that are making you crazy.
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