I was hit with a new story idea tonight over hamburgers.

Cool.

Chapter 10 is done. One character dead, though he was a bit of a redshirt. More important characters will pop their clogs later. One fledgling relationship destroyed beyond repair. I'm up to 66,000 words now.

Is it cool or lame that I get heated up writing sex scenes?

I don't know. But I think it's weird I suck at sex scenes, but I write kickass archery and hand-to-hand: sword, staff, fists, whatever comes to hand. My sons took martial arts and they and their friends used to practice at our house. I've done some study on the philosophy of kendo, bushido, jeet koon do, etc., but I've never actually practiced.

I just think it's the bloodthirsty side of my pacifist self coming out in the writing.

Is it cool or lame that I get heated up writing sex scenes?

Normal?

Chapter 11 is done. That puts me at about 73,000 words. My wife found Chapter 10 to be problematic. We communicated in the same house via E-mail to leave a recorded conversation and notes have been written. There is minimal impact to the plot so I'm plunging onward for now.

As an interesting note, I think I mentioned I had a character that might end up having a ambiguous sexual orientation where gayness is left as an exercise for the reader. One of my wife's notes about that very character was to the effect of "Hey, wouldn't it be interesting if this character swung both ways." I found that highly amusing.

::sigh::

I just killed a massive darling to the tune of 1700 words. Needed to be done, but damn, I love this scene.

but damn, I love this scene.

Sounds great.

I might get to killing a character today. I had killed one, but since then have decided to yank the character from the story entirely. His death had so little impact that there didn't seem to be a need for the character at all.

Sounds great.

Heh. I don't think it means what you think it means.

Killing a darling means I deleted a scene. One I really, really love, but when it came down to it, didn't really advance the plot beyond a small (if key) point. I kept a paragraph that got across what I wanted and cut the rest, wailing and gnashing my teeth the entire time.

Now, I think I shall rent my clothing and go cover my mirrors.

Heh. I don't think it means what you think it means.

I totally got that wrong. I'm finding I've squashed a number of scenes I though would be cool, but didn't contribute anything.

It's sort of what Jennifer Crusie talks about with her "Don't Look Down" draft. You just get it all out, and then you go back and figure out what goes where, what fits, what's missing, etc. I never used to do that, but I had a book that took me three false starts before I figured out what it was about.

I do a little writing for my job - straightforward items in our monthly magazine - but I find that the first and biggest step is just getting something written. Editing and fixing up can come later, but getting that first version written is the biggie.