Monday, September 24, 2012

Word-painting

Good Monday to you all. I don't have to work. Those words are a gift I give myself every Monday morning. I've been retired for almost two months and Monday mornings are the best now. I hope your Mondays are as pleasant, even if you aren't retired. Here's my Monday morning thoughts.

I've noticed lately that it's hard to know when too much word-painting is, well, too much. I'm working on a particularly emotional scene in my novel, That Girl. How much crying is too much? Where do you draw the line? Thinking over my own experiences, I can't say I've experienced any long term crying gigs. So where do you draw the line? I don't know. I guess my characters, at some point, pony up and get a grip, but when and how long will it take?

Crying isn't my only problem. What do my characters do with their extremities when they are distressed--cross their legs, fiddle with a pencil, bounce their leg in a nervous twitch. It's hard to come up with different ideas; I'm not exactly the most observant person in the world. Probably because I'm always thinking about my writing.

Do you have an inner voice that nags at you in subtle ways when something you've written seems not right? I do, God bless it, it's relentless. For example: You've worked so hard to get every word in a scene just the way you like it. You move on. The next time you read it, that little inner voice pulls your strings. No matter how you try and preserve the words you've slaved over, you finally have to admit defeat and cut the words out of the story. I give it three passes before I say, "Okay, okay already, I'll fix it." It's always better afterwords and I always wonder why I doubted and tried to second guess that little inner voice.

Any thoughts? Dose anyone else have that annoying inner voice?

Okay, take care and enjoy your Monday.

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3 comments:

  1. Immerse yourself in it, write it out, and then leave it. It's never going to be the way you want it on the first pass - tweak it at will. :D I am the queen of over-editing and it has taken me a long time to just let it be. I go back and look at posts and cringe (I used to edit for a living!), but it was me, living in the moment, and I have to honor that as well.

    Congratulations on your retirement. If you have yet to experience this, then I can tell you that soon you will wonder how you had time to work! May your days fill with things that bring you joy!

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    1. Cherie, I know about over-editing and it's a skill to train yourself not to do it. I left a comment on your blog, but I couldn't get past the "I'm not a robot" whachucallit. Thanks for your reply

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