Where is my muse? Where is that f**king trollop?!

[blythechild]

AAAARRRRRGGGHHHHH!
Frustration is setting in as I struggle, in vain, to complete "M.M". It's just awful - it's wordy, clumsy, and absolutely neverending. No one will like it. People will throw things. I want to throw things! I've been at it for over a week and I can't make it coalesce

Comments

[minouette]

Look, I just don't believe you that, "it's wordy, clumsy, and absolutely neverending. No one will like it. People will throw things. I want to throw things! I've been at it for over a week and I can't make it coalesce

[blythechild]

I DO want to throw things!

Bring on the popularization of science....

[minouette]

Might I suggest some ugly mugs from the Sally Ann? Very satisfying to smash 'em to a thousand bits when frustrated.

The popularization of science piece is up on my blog (friends-only).

[minouette]

I'm impatient for feed-back... so if you have a moment. So far I've heard from Ms. Boundless Enthusiam reynardin and I suspect you might have something more critical to say (though boundless enthusiam is always nice, criticism is useful).

trollop

[minouette]

nice word...

[draycevixen]

I'm very sorry to hear about your grandmother.
It's OK you know. She's been around long enough to know what you're feeling but can't say. She can't say it to you because she's your grandmother and doesn't want to distress you either. You don't have to find words for love.
Ed Dorn wrote a poem called "The Gunslinger" where the gunslinger kills things by describing them.

[draycevixen]

As for the story (brace yourself for unsolicited advice)... Put it down, drink, dance, paint, screw, whatever fills you up. Wait a few days. Come back with some distance and a hangover and read it like someone else wrote it. It's amazing how apparent it becomes what's essential and what just has to go... Oh and kill the modifiers! (I once thought about getting that tattooed on my arse).
*slinks away with unsolicited advice*

[blythechild]

thanks for the advice - I'm always open to it as I have very little clue what I'm doing. I've pretty much come to the same conclusion re: taking a break (but part of that has to do with my work week getting in the way). *in a whiney voice:"but I LIKE modifiers!"*

thanks also for the digital "chuck-on-the-shoulder" about my grandma. she's a tough old broad and I can't help her any by losing my mind over this. I just want her to be around when I make a small "arts splash" 'cause she's always believed that I could do it (which means that I really have to get a move on and, like, succeed...).

[draycevixen]

Oooooh! You big fibber! Every writer LOVES modifiers in the way of "if only they could grow a ..." well, you get my point. To be a writer is to have a love/hate relationship with language and with your audience. The problems with adverbs and their homies is that they're crack cocaine to writers, our way to get as much control as possible over what is being fed into the audiences brain *this is your audience's brain on drugs* The problem is the audience will resist you big time. One too many modifiers and they're off to watch television, wash clothes, pick their nose/feet/brain... you get the ugly picture. Excessive modifiers rob them of the space their imagination has to have to join you in your story. Whenever a story is getting too big check for modifiers. They are like wire coat hangers. You leave two of them in the wardrobe and when you come back there are 50 of them. If you kill them off it opens up space you have to fill up with stupid stuff like dialogue that audiences suck up like a vaccuum cleaner.I'm NOT God forbid, trying

[blythechild]

My brother (the member of the family who went to school for writing but doesn't write anything...) has told me that adverbs are the tools of lazy minds. Much to his dismay, I have a fondness for adverbs - which is why I don't get him to proof anything for me. My problem (well, my current one anyway) is there is TOO MUCH DIALOGUE at the mo'. Nevertheless, the edit scalpel will be brandished at the appropriate time and the story will be completed, even...if...it...kills...me. I will slay some modifiers, I swear.

*I pass the hat back to you full of beer* thanks!

[reynardin]

hey, that was a hard phone call to make. I know she's an awesome woman. it's good she knows you'll be thinking of her.

you may be having trouble with the end of MM because it's the climax, the big show, and the wrap-up - just know that what you are doing right now is not as easy as writing the previous parts, and is worth fiddling with to get right. it's understandable to want to beat your head against the wall, and devalue yourself for having a harder time, but try not to. I definetly agree with vvixen's advice - but also, just stick it out, keep hacking it out until it's really good, and you know it. a LOT of EXPERIENCED PAID AUTHORS have a hard time with the endings of stories, so lump it, work at it, and GET GOOD. 'cause there's nothing as satisfying as a good ending....

[blythechild]

thanks for the support.

as for "M.M." - yes, endings are hard, and you're right, there's nothing as satisfying as a good one.
I'll figure it out (I don't know how, but I know that I will).