Barb, why don't you try writing something completely unlike what you usually do? Like, a different genre, or time period? Just to fool around, get the muscle working without attaching it to anything with any kind of expectations?

Try some fanfic, even. Just something you can have fun with.

It's a sensible thought, Amy-- but then again, I'm not the most sensible sort. It's like I have the burning impulse to get back in the saddle-- I'm just not sure which saddle.

I am also rather suspicious that Carmen sucks.

(I know, I know... I'm just trying to piece it all back together from the unmitigated disaster it had become.)

But I'm saying ... get in another saddle for a little while. Just for a change of scenery or whatever. Write, like, a personal essay or something. You know what I mean? Give your brain some time to relax and focus on something else.

Give your brain some time to relax and focus on something else.

::SNORT::

Have you met my brain? I could climb in another saddle with all good intentions. Trying to distract myself, but there it would be... longingly looking at the other saddle... thinking, "I should be in that other saddle... I'm so weak, that I can't manage the other saddle..."

Yeah, I don't like living with my brain most days either.

So get your snorkle mask and swim fins on, go swim with the sharks words. Screw the saddle.

Sail skeers me.

So I wrote 1000 words.

Hee! Yay, Barb!

So I wrote 1000 words.

Is it something about sharks riding horses? Glad you got going.

I think I got in about 600 - 800 words last night. The first intimate scene came up last night and that slowed me down. Also in a place where I narrated a conversation, I decided to yank the narration and use dialog instead.

Hmmm... Should I use dialogue instead of dialog? I'm not sure if there what the different between the two words is. I do a fair amount of user interface programming so I'm used to typing dialog in the context of a "dialog box".

I think either spelling is acceptable.

I finally got caught up in here, yay! And I've been writing, more yay! I had an epiphany about a project that made it the One True Project for Right Now (it's a perennial problem for me, I try to focus on one thing and get distracted by another idea) and started writing longhand in a bound journal. That used to be what I always did, but I was seduced by the Word Processor with its promises of easy editing, which was also my downfall as I am one to get mired in revising when I should just be plowing through the first draft.

Anyway, it's going well, got about 4000 words that maybe could stand alone but I think it will end up being about 20k. I'll be needing a beta in a few days if anyone is interested. Retold fairy tale, basically.

Whenever you're ready, -t, you can ping me.