Monday, July 25, 2011

And now for my next trick...

Writting iz hrd. Letz go shoping.

I'm currently at work on a manuscript that's been giving me fits. It's another NaNoWriMo work that's gone through extensive changes, much of the original premise twisted to fit the new or gone entirely.

One thing that's been causing me serious hair-pulling and headaches is how I go about mentioning one character's back story. I don't know why it's been so difficult, but it's something I could probably go into without getting too deep, like a brief mention in description or dialogue.

But it hasn't been that easy.

I don't know if I'm having trouble with "show! don't tell!", but I just feel like it's unnecessary blather I'm writing to fill space and finish the book. This character has already mentioned his difficult coming back home and how he hasn't spoken to a lot of people because of his past history with them, so I should probably leave it at that. One chapter I started, stopped, started, stopped, and finally scrapped was supposed to show just how difficult it's been but it just began to feel like I was beating on the character for no other reason than to show how upset he is. Sort of like what's in the past is in the past BUT HERE IT IS YOU HAVE TO LOOK AT IT BECAUSE I'M HOLDING IT UP FOR YOU TO SEE.

That, and I've got them "second book blues" bearing down on me. I've done it once already, so I should be able to do it again, right? Right? Yeah, I've written stuff for NaNo every year since 2004, but I'm probably putting unnecessary pressure on myself.

And it doesn't help I'm trying to recycle as much of a previous draft into the current one as possible and getting absolutely lost in the process...

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