Battling Muses
So what do you do when you finally begin to see the end of your creation; the novel you've laughed and cried over, sweat blood for, loving crafted using every personal resource, the project your muse just wouldn't let you give up on; and then another muse pops up and starts a catfight in your head?
I was so close to completing "Learn To Love Me". Three chapters remain to be written in the mystery-lit. I've been working on, diligently, for all these months. Suddenly I couldn't get the random "other" characters to sit still. They've popped up here and there; glorious muses for short stories and possible secondary and tertiary novels. I've dutifully jotted down point-form notes, making a separate document and file for each, and gone back to the novel.
Only…they weren't content with that. I'd be happily typing a scene for the novel, find myself thinking about those other stories, seemingly at random, and be brought to a dead stop.
"One project at a time!" I told myself repeatedly. Fighting the urge to work on the other pieces, I sweat and agonized over the next scene in the novel. Using several well-worn techniques for fighting writer's block didn't work. Ranting and raging against the muse didn't work. Threats and bribes didn't work. Finally, I gave in.
I wrote the one short story that wouldn't go away and tried to return to the novel. No luck. I pulled up a few free-write pieces I'd done for some writer's blogs I follow, edited them, and tried to return to the novel. Nope. I wrote a couple of new poems and tried again. Still the muse, (Emily), snubbed me.
In the end, I made an executive decision. I set the novel aside and assembled a small collection of short stories and poems to give to my readers.
The upcoming "sampler", (more properly titled,"Anthology") will be available on Smashwords™. I hope to have it available before the end of 2011, in e-pub formats.
The launch date for "The Unscheduled Stops" will be announced the moment I have one and it will be a free download for the first two weeks of its publication.
For those waiting for "Learn To Love Me"…Don't worry. As I've been preparing "The Unscheduled Stops", Emily has relented, and I have every intention of returning to her story by the first of October.
I have 4 ½ weeks to meet my original, self-imposed deadline for the first draft. Wish me luck!
I was so close to completing "Learn To Love Me". Three chapters remain to be written in the mystery-lit. I've been working on, diligently, for all these months. Suddenly I couldn't get the random "other" characters to sit still. They've popped up here and there; glorious muses for short stories and possible secondary and tertiary novels. I've dutifully jotted down point-form notes, making a separate document and file for each, and gone back to the novel.
Only…they weren't content with that. I'd be happily typing a scene for the novel, find myself thinking about those other stories, seemingly at random, and be brought to a dead stop.
"One project at a time!" I told myself repeatedly. Fighting the urge to work on the other pieces, I sweat and agonized over the next scene in the novel. Using several well-worn techniques for fighting writer's block didn't work. Ranting and raging against the muse didn't work. Threats and bribes didn't work. Finally, I gave in.
I wrote the one short story that wouldn't go away and tried to return to the novel. No luck. I pulled up a few free-write pieces I'd done for some writer's blogs I follow, edited them, and tried to return to the novel. Nope. I wrote a couple of new poems and tried again. Still the muse, (Emily), snubbed me.
In the end, I made an executive decision. I set the novel aside and assembled a small collection of short stories and poems to give to my readers.
The upcoming "sampler", (more properly titled,"Anthology") will be available on Smashwords™. I hope to have it available before the end of 2011, in e-pub formats.
The launch date for "The Unscheduled Stops" will be announced the moment I have one and it will be a free download for the first two weeks of its publication.
For those waiting for "Learn To Love Me"…Don't worry. As I've been preparing "The Unscheduled Stops", Emily has relented, and I have every intention of returning to her story by the first of October.
I have 4 ½ weeks to meet my original, self-imposed deadline for the first draft. Wish me luck!
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