I Find My Lack of Industry…disturbing

I remember when I wrote nearly every day. Not just a few words, either. About 800 words on days I worked, and 1200 or more on days I didn’t. It wasn’t magic that I ended up with several complete novel drafts (I think the count is seven? *counts on fingers* yep, seven.) I worked my butt off to get there. All but one of those novels was written in the last three years, too. (and the one that wasn’t, was completely re-written in that time.) Not to mention a bunch of fanfics, and Flame’s serial.

Part of the problem is that I do have such a backlog. I’m quite well aware I don’t need any more novels right now. I need to polish what I’ve got. But…ahh, there’s always a “but,” isn’t there?

But. I’m not sure what to do. And I can’t stand to keep tinkering aimlessly. I haven’t touched Taro in days, with the excuse that I’ve been sick. Yet I’ve been writing a bit (tiny bit, with lots of crossed-out words and sometimes paragraphs) on Fidelis. The real problem with Taro (beyond the fact that editing really does require more brain than writing, at least for me) is that my scene epiphany seems nearly impossible to apply to Taro.

Here’s how Jack M. Bickham (Scene & Structure) says it’s supposed to go: scene goal > conflict > disaster. Then sequel = emotion > thought > decision > action. (for a more in-depth explanation, I highly recommend the book.) He has all sorts of great ways to mix things up, but that’s the basic idea, and it seems a very good one.

Problem is, I can’t fit most of the scenes in Taro’s book into that pattern, and I’m not sure I want to. On the one side, JMB and Writer’s Digest and other respected writers who recommend JMB’s book, and my own sense of “yeah, that really looks good.” On the other side–a lot of Taro seems damned fine the way it is. I have friends who have read (writing friends, who understand the idea of editing) who don’t think I should change much at all. A bit at the beginning, punch up the climax, that’s it. On this side also are my rebellious muses, who feel they have sweated blood over Taro long enough, it’s time to get it out there and move on.

But I have tried. (see the wibbling here?) And despite what knowledgeable writer friends say, those I’ve sent Taro to have expressed No Interest Whatsoever.

I know Taro can be better. I’m just not sure I’m capable of making it better. Seems like the more I force myself to try, the more time I spend wandering the internet doing useless things.

All right. No more whining. What I need…is a plan. (and then I need to stick to it, which is a whole other kettle of fish…)

*returns from over an hour of internet wandering, talking to roommate, et cetera*

Yeah. I think maybe that plan had better include some enforced internet downtime.

Okay. I need to get Taro divided into scenes and printed out. Once I can get free of needing the computer every ten minutes (last plan was to pull a scene at a time to work on. That was made of epic fail.) I will get farther. I’ll decide what I’m fixing on a scene-by-scene basis and stop worrying about the whole until I’m done.

Then we’ll see, won’t we?