Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! Procrastination and doubt. I have written about doubt before, in a series I think. It was quite a long time ago. I thought I had compartmentalized my doubt: not exactly put it away, but perhaps contained it. I felt confident I had developed the tools and the knowledge …
Tag: Encouragement
Reading aloud to the Demon of Perfectionism
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! Okay, so the copy edit is complete. One more hill climbed, another mountain ahead. I have started the read aloud proofing pass, and am 5.5 to 7% of the way through that, depending on criteria chosen. No graphical representation employed. So far I have added and removed equal …
Continue reading Reading aloud to the Demon of Perfectionism
52 weeks. Achievement unlocked.
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! This week marks the achievement of a blogging milestone for me. This is the 52nd week in a row I have posted a blog on Tuesday. Hooray! Now, blogging isn’t the powerhouse it once was in terms of garnering engagement, especially in my simple words on a page …
The Writing Life: I got the re-read blues
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! How many times shall I read thee? Let me count the ways. Again. Minor advice column for writers this week. Lessons learned from my own repeated experience as a fellow traveller in the writing trenches. Copy editing progress continues. Depending on how I measure it I am …
Sifting dust for diamonds on the Long Road.
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! Good news bad news this week. The good news is that despite a barrel-load of distractions hitting me, I managed to review sixty pages of copy-edited text this week, well over a fifth of the entire manuscript. The bad news is that is not proofing is it? I …
Continue reading Sifting dust for diamonds on the Long Road.
The Writing Life: Acknowledging the slowdown
Hello my friends and the occasional relative! Today is a mea culpa kind of day. I’ve done some more tinkering, but have not significantly advanced in my last pass over the new novel. I’m stuck at the reworking of a conversation: I thought I had a correct angle for the insertion of needed extras, but …
Continue reading The Writing Life: Acknowledging the slowdown
Sometimes it pays to stop, and remember
Hello My friends and the occasional relative! On a wall, in a bathroom, lived a laminate. Beneath that laminate the chipboard swelled, and grew warped with time, but for years I beheld the message that laminate traced for me, and like it or not, some of the phrases never left me, or versions of them …
A Quiet Week and SPFBO 8 cohort #9
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! This week has been a slow one in terms of achievements and deadlines because my next deadline is August 12th, when all my feedback on The Slaves and the Djinn (still debating that title, by the way) is due back. I received more feedback this week, and it …
43 Problems
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! So yes, I have 43 problems to solve in my rewrites. 43 questions or comments left to myself in the text. Some are thankfully minor, a note to self to change a sentence, or even a word. (Yes, one word changes can be a nightmare, just let me …
The Slaves and The Djinn—Weekly Update
Hello friends and the occasional relative! (FatoR™, for future reference.) Yes, I know, this is crazy, how many weeks in a row has it been now? Five? Motivation, deadlines, and the very act of doing this update and not wanting to miss my weekly target is keeping me gloriously focused. I am aware this could …
