Now if only I could convince the Times that "millennia" is still a useful plural (they use "millenniums").

My EYES!

I'm just fighting what is likely a vain battle against "free reign" and "tow the line."

In a first for our marriage, DH and I had a conversation last night where he looked at something I'd written and said, "That's not very good--flat description, not your best writing at all," and it didn't lead to a fight. It helped that he quickly followed up with, "I know what you're trying to get across, and here's why I think it's not working."

Once we finished talking about the specific paragraph in question, he said my problem was that I was overpitching. I asked him what I should do about it. His first suggestion was "breathe through your eyelids," but he went on to say he thought I was suffering from a combination of tunnel vision/fatigue from focusing so exclusively on one big project and a loss of confidence in my skills. As a result I'm forcing my strengths (dialogue, characterization, period detail) to the point they're exaggerated and lose all their smooth, dazzling qualities, and I'm obsessing over my weaknesses (description, pacing) in an unhealthy way that does nothing to fix them and everything to make me think I'm a terrible, hopeless writer.

His diagnosis is that I shouldn't stop work on the novel, but that I should spend 15-30 minutes every day on something else. And my next novel doesn't count--too similar. Writing Coach DH wants me to play with different eras/styles, try writing a whole story with no dialogue, etc. He's probably onto something, but I'm drawing a complete blank on what to attempt. Y'all have probably noticed I don't do the drabbles unless they suggest to me something from the wip or one of the embryonic novels. I definitely get tunnel vision.

Oh, and I think we were finally able to have a productive conversation about my writing due to greater maturity/understanding on both sides. I'm getting better at taking criticism, and he's getting better at giving it tactfully and making me feel like he respects and understands what I'm trying to achieve even if he'd never willingly pick up a historical romance without my name on the cover.

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I guess it must be. I take it there are parts of the country that don't say "turns up missing"?

I had the same reaction as Ginger. I don't think I use it much, but it never would've struck me as odd or confusing, either.

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"Turns Up Missing"?

OK, that really reads oddly to me.

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I think your DH is a fucking genius(in the adjective sense, mind you) Susan. Also CG told me the same thing when my tank got dry once.

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Susan, he's talking good basic common sense.

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I asked him what I should do about it. His first suggestion was "breathe through your eyelids,"

Like the lava lizards of the Galapagos Islands!

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The rose goes in the front, big guy....

Teppy, may I say how much I adore the idea of a "really really bad drabble" challenge?

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I'm drawing a complete blank on what to attempt. Y'all have probably noticed I don't do the drabbles unless they suggest to me something from the wip or one of the embryonic novels. I definitely get tunnel vision.

Susan, why don't you just go back through some of Teppy's challenges in this thread?

...

Turn up missing sounds to me like the resolution came before the conflict. I think I would say went missing, though I would most often say, is missing.

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Like the lava lizards of the Galapagos Islands!

Bull Durham.

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"Turns up", to me, indicates "found", not "lost".

You know, I'd been wondering about doing a Cliche drabble for the cliche of "You can't always get what you want."

But no matter how I look at it, the drabble is always going to be "Well, no SHIT, Sherlock!", written out twenty five times.

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