Save the troll poems for Extras on your website when you get published!

I just figured out my new scene I needed for my revisions. It's like finding the last piece of the puzzle. Now I've just got to write it... which I can't start on for a least seven hours or more.

Gud, I hope the scene got even better over the course of the next seven hours of steeping.

I revised the novel (Debit, for those who are playing along at home) after comments came back in March - a lot of good feedback, plus one "do the last 50 pages again." Upon reflection, this was very much the right thing to do. And so I did. I sent it back again today. After jettisoning 12k words and revising the end, it's 6k words longer. Now I will do the falling down thing.

That's a great feeling, Gud. I bet you're writing now, huh?

Yay, Sox! All kinds of good feedback ~ma.

I certainly am!

I came across this reading, well listening, to a book about a woman finding a man attractive.

"Even while walking he looked like he was dancing."

Maybe it's just me, but I can't come up with a mental image of this actually working short of the man listening to a MP3 player while walking and dance-walking along which is totally not what the author is going for.

Just for fun, what kind of descriptions totally throw off your mental image while reading?

I can't think of any right now, Gud, but I'm distracted.

Hey, Scrappy! Scott Caan was just on Ellen, and he was talking about having his plays published. Where do you get plays published? I realized I know absolutely nothing about it.

Oops. Didn't need to say it twice.

I can't say off the top of my head a description that has thrown me off, although it has happened. The one thing that does come to mind is when the author uses the exact same description repeatedly. Ok author, you have described his long narrow nose 15 times already, I got it. Next time you see him in silhouette how about you describe the chin, or better yet do we need to describe the same face 113 times in one novel? Yes, I remember, the eyes are green. Yep, you mentioned a few dozen times the height. Might just be me, but it annoys me because instead of thinking about the character or situation now I am thinking about how it is written. I certainly enjoy pausing from time to time and thinking about how nicely some passage was written, but mostly I just want to be drawn into the story. Repeated descriptions or phrases pull me out of the story.

I thought of one, Gud -- when men are described as giggling. I know some men do giggle, but something about reading the word "giggle" makes me think of a little kid, or possibly a real psycho, like a mad villain type.