I think it's just that once I got past the exhaustion and the angst, being told to put away the book for at least a week, but preferably two or more, with six being the ideal number, was having a Don't Think of Elephants effect on me.

with six being the ideal number

Who said that?!

I think Stephen King recommends it, though he's not about Absolute Rules of Writing, IIRC. But I'm pretty sure that's his advice in On Writing, and I've had it quoted at me a few times.

And I figure six weeks only even works if you're unpublished like me, or are Stephen King and can turn in your books when you damn well please.

And I figure six weeks only even works if you're unpublished like me, or are Stephen King and can turn in your books when you damn well please.

Well, no. I mean, you could be starting your next book now, and working on that while waiting to edit this one. And six weeks might be optimal -- who knows? Whatever works.

I must have skipped that part in the book.

I think Stephen King recommends it, though he's not about Absolute Rules of Writing, IIRC. But I'm pretty sure that's his advice in On Writing, and I've had it quoted at me a few times.

This is why I have never yet looked inside a book about "how to write", by anyone, any time, anywhere.

Tell me something's a rule and I immediately break it.

I've stopped reading writing books, mostly. Although besides "Bird by Bird" I also like this one by an editor called "Forest for The Trees". Anyone else here read it? It has a lot of stuff in it about what editing is like and what editors think when they reject stories...war story stuff In my case, taking multiple weeks before looking at mine has helped me look at it and read it again, as opposed to scanning the pages somewhat blankly and thinking of everything as being foregone. I was thinking I'd be finished by now, but at least Deb will not have to wear down her machete when she gets the newest version.

In general, I'm fine with advice given in the tone of, "Here's what works for me; take it or leave it." (Which King's is, IMO.) I take a lot of it, because I'm still a newbie at all this. But once you tell me this is the one and only way to do something, I immediately become determined to prove that it's not. I wonder if that's the ex-fundamentalist in me coming out--the more gushing, glowy, and religious in fervor a method's proponents are, the faster I run in the opposite direction.

Me, I'm just perverse. Tell me the sky is irrevocably blue and you'll get a mulish eyebrow raised, even if I agree with you.

I just tend to snarl at absolutes. But also, I had a musician father with purely musician child - me - that he refused to allow to take music lessons because he said formal musical education had rotted out more creative spirits than opium ever would. His feeling was that I ought to learn if I had something to say before I risked clogging the chakras with the grammar behind the language.

So for me, it becomes a "sit down and do it, or walk away and do something else" deal. All in the upbringing.

Tell me the sky is irrevocably blue and you'll get a mulish eyebrow raised, even if I agree with you.

Heh. This reminds me of the summer before I left for college, when my mother and I were fighting all the time, more than we have before or since. She said, "If I said the sky was blue, you'd argue with me."

I looked out the window. It was a sunny day, but in the ultra-humid, ultra-hazy way of an Alabama July. I said, "Actually, it looks white to me."

Mom was not amused, but Dad was.