Back to the Fun Stuff

I'm finally finished with my Yule Exchange Fic and submitted it last night. What a haul. It was a subject that I had fun with, and it wasn't all that long - about 4200 words in the end, but the editing process and getting a good wrap-up to the tale, those two things were a slow slog. Eeesh! Still, it was fun to write and I'm happy.

I got through the "tearing my hair out" phase and I ended up fairly
happy with the fic.

Now I can get back to what I really want to write - my o-fic. I pulled up the files the other day in my Scrivener and worked on it a little bit. I had to literally sit on my hands to keep myself from editing what I had already written, or changing where I had left off. That's a big NO NO at this stage. I have to allow my plot to run its course with all the little twists and turns. Changing things, knocking out whole chapters if necessary, that will come in the editing process. I still have doubts about the plot, but I love the story and the characters and still want to work on this. I don't want to continue on my next novel until I have this one at least into the editing process, and there are thousands of words still to write.

Here's a good quote for all of you to take to heart. It's
far too easy to become complacent in your life. Take
chances, live on the edge a bit. 

The thing that really concerns me in this novel is the Mary-Sue effect. For those of my readers who are not writers, the Mary-Sue effect means that you are actually writing a story where you have put yourself as a character instead of actually allowing an original voice. Since I do have a musician as one of the major characters, as well as a setting of a town that I loved growing up in, I'm trying to be careful about this and not make it "all about me" but rather "all about the story and the characters". I hope that I'll catch and squash any residual Mary-Sue problems in the editing process. Right now, I'm in a car on the roller coaster and I can't stop the ride midway through the curves.

Have a great weekend. We'll work hard today with the last day of our 3-day sale, then have tomorrow off to finally celebrate DH's birthday a few days late. He was amazing yesterday, making sure that our ice dam problem was fixed, at least for the time being. It was a hell of a lot of work for my old man, and he was completely exhausted by the end of it. I hope all of you have a chance to relax a bit over the weekend.