Thursday, April 26, 2012

Stalled on Edits

Blech. Something feels wrong. I'm trying to edit PHOTO FINISH, and while I can normally muster the creative energy to write something that at least sounds okay for the moment, for the past few days I've just been dragging. The sentences are short and choppy. They all have a repetitive form. The verbs are muted or strained. Everything sounds like this.

I suspect that there are several culprits: stress, exhaustion, the deep immersion in choppy academic writing (I'm grading a lot of papers right now), and the fact that I haven't read anything good for a few days. I know a lot of writers suggest staying away from good writing, especially within your genre, when composing or revising, but for me a great novel is like a drink of water or lube for an engine or a spark for a fire. It gets things started, keeps them going, and gives them the energy to run.

And of course the mounting panic that comes from realizing that I have to pitch in 8 days and feeling like my novel is total garbage is not helping.

I need sleep, chocolate, water, melon, watermelon (as long as we're on the topic), sunshine, new flowers, a good book, and an hour long massage. Ah, man. A girl can dream.

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