Awesome News, and New Insight...Again
Okay, first bit of awesome, exciting news: my book is now available for pre-order in Canada!! This is mega-kewl for a number of reasons. It means that (1) All of my family and many of my peeps live in Canada, so yayyyy for easy access!! 2) My northern brethren and sistren will get my book for a price that's equivalent to what Americans will be paying, rather than the (now obsolete) higher markup usually reserved for Canadians; and (3) They will not have to pay exorbitant shipping fees.
This is wonderful news because my parents, siblings, and all of my aunts, uncles, cousins and distant relatives (those who are still talking to me and will begrudgingly acknowledge a genetic connection to me) will be able to easily acquire my book, even if it's just to fling it at me.
Next up in the awesome, exciting department: I was at a temporary standstill in my WIP (though not for the stalled-labor reasons stated in my last post), and couldn't figure out why. Even my characters were stuttering through their dialogue. I literally could not get my MC (main character) to spit out a full, ellipsis-free sentence! So, tonight, Hollis and I were watching X-Men (AGAIN -- love that movie) and it suddenly hit me that my writing wasn't moving along because my character, herself, was stalling (sorry, didn't mean to bring up the stalling thing again. Jeez, talk about beating a dead horse...). Neither of us -- me as the writer, and she as the character -- had a clue as to where she was going next. BUT, as soon as I realized that, she made up her mind. SHE was going to take the reins (thank whoever, because if it were up to me, we'd still be stuck). So, the life force has once again been infused into the WIP and we're chugging along together.
The thing here, folks, is that I learned this EXACT same lesson when I was writing SHINE, COCONUT MOON. And then again while writing JAZZ IN LOVE. Novel number three? Exact. Same. Lesson.
Why is it that when I learn something really important--like, so profound, and fundamentally earth-shattering, I am doomed to promptly forget this brilliant nugget of truth? Doomed to go through the ENTIRE process again, like, from the first "Duh, I wonder what might be wrong here..." moment to the sudden flash of insight -- "OH!! *I* get it...!!" to, "Wait--I knew that!"
It so reminds me of some girls in high school who went from one crappy relationship to the next, each time forgetting why they said they'd nevar, EVAR, do that again, until it blew up in a crap-bomb and made a HUGE MESS of things EVERYWHERE...
*adjusts collar* Um, not that I'd know anything about that.
This is wonderful news because my parents, siblings, and all of my aunts, uncles, cousins and distant relatives (those who are still talking to me and will begrudgingly acknowledge a genetic connection to me) will be able to easily acquire my book, even if it's just to fling it at me.
Next up in the awesome, exciting department: I was at a temporary standstill in my WIP (though not for the stalled-labor reasons stated in my last post), and couldn't figure out why. Even my characters were stuttering through their dialogue. I literally could not get my MC (main character) to spit out a full, ellipsis-free sentence! So, tonight, Hollis and I were watching X-Men (AGAIN -- love that movie) and it suddenly hit me that my writing wasn't moving along because my character, herself, was stalling (sorry, didn't mean to bring up the stalling thing again. Jeez, talk about beating a dead horse...). Neither of us -- me as the writer, and she as the character -- had a clue as to where she was going next. BUT, as soon as I realized that, she made up her mind. SHE was going to take the reins (thank whoever, because if it were up to me, we'd still be stuck). So, the life force has once again been infused into the WIP and we're chugging along together.
The thing here, folks, is that I learned this EXACT same lesson when I was writing SHINE, COCONUT MOON. And then again while writing JAZZ IN LOVE. Novel number three? Exact. Same. Lesson.
Why is it that when I learn something really important--like, so profound, and fundamentally earth-shattering, I am doomed to promptly forget this brilliant nugget of truth? Doomed to go through the ENTIRE process again, like, from the first "Duh, I wonder what might be wrong here..." moment to the sudden flash of insight -- "OH!! *I* get it...!!" to, "Wait--I knew that!"
It so reminds me of some girls in high school who went from one crappy relationship to the next, each time forgetting why they said they'd nevar, EVAR, do that again, until it blew up in a crap-bomb and made a HUGE MESS of things EVERYWHERE...
*adjusts collar* Um, not that I'd know anything about that.