Desperate Times call for…
Desperate Measures
That’s why the store is so clean today. The excuse? Unless everything is spotless, it could be hard to know for sure whether there are any more Rustles lurking. The reason? I opened my False Perceptions file and stared at it for twenty minutes. Know what? I don’t like this story. The outline is solid, and I really like many of the characters. BUT. Finishing this is like pulling hen’s teeth. I keep telling myself that I’m NOT a quitter. I don’t ditch books at 70K, relatively close to the end.
I might let it rest a bit, though. My nano novel, *Quest* is also unfinished and fairly close to the end. I’m doing a read-through and some brainstorming there and I think I’ll roll that one through to the end before beating myself up some more over False Perceptions. Something’s got to give.
I’m committed to getting both those first drafts done before starting to write Shann. And who am I kidding? I’ve got a LOT of work yet to do on Shann before I know what the story is. I’m spiraling ever closer, but I know it’s not ready to be told. But at least it excites me.
Is this a case of the grass always being greener on the other side? (We’ve got one young cow, expecting her first calf any day now, that is absolutely convinced of the truth in this saying.) Will the next novel always look brighter than the one in the midst of the daily slog? I fear that may be the case.
But it takes so long both to write a book and to pre-plan a book, that it seems silly not to multi-task. They utilize different parts of my brain. Mornings are quieter at the store, and I’m freshest. That’s when I *should* write. That’s when the words come the easiest. Afternoons tend to have more interruptions, and by then my brain is also losing its edge. Worldbuilding and other pre-planning still works fine in those circumstances.
It’s a bad sign if I’d rather clean the store than write. Even with mice for an excuse.
In other news, we now have calf #4. Another bull calf makes the score 2 and 2. It’s raining now, supposed to get cold next week. Maybe winter is going to take another swing through here after all.
Do you have a preference for bull calves, or is that just a statement of fact? Glad to hear they’re dropping well.
Jean
It’s a statement of fact. Bull calves tend to be a little heavier at sale time, but sometimes heifer calves sell for pennies a pound more, so it comes out relatively close in the end.
I think it’s always more fun to create a world than it is to maintain it. Personally, I figure God certainly was in a more cheerful mood about it all on the first day of creation than He was as time went on and His creation turned away from Him. I know it’s much more fun for me to play with new software programs than to maintain old ones. More fun to start short stories than to finish them. More fun to start novels . . . I think it’s a rule of nature thing — almost like a natural law.
By the way, I like your picture. You and I have very similar glasses and hair styles. 😉
Hi Ruth, that was what I was afraid of. I know I’d rather plan or design nearly anything than actually DO it. I’ve been trying for years to break that habit, or at least keep it under control, and it mostly works. Just stuck between a rock and a hard place on this one!