Bio-rhythms, Editors, and Metaphors

I don't know what's wrong with me, recently. I've been short tempered, grumpy, and negative. I have some ideas, but they're kind of personal, and you don't really want to know that kind of stuff. Probably something to do with my Bio-rhythm and internal chemistry. (I don't really believe in Bio-rhythms. They were a thing in the 1980's.)

I got my manuscript of The Galactic Battle Base: Trigger Warnings back from the editor I sent it to. He obviously didn't get my vision and chopped it into pieces, deleting much of what I thought was the focus of the story.

Either, I didn't explain my story clearly enough--through dialog, description, and character conflict-- or he went into it expecting to get one thing and was confused by finding another. I imagine it is a combination of the two.

So, with my current state of mind, I was pretty much torqued. With each correction and deletion I found myself becoming angrier and angrier. I had set myself a pretty demanding goal of getting this book published by mid May, to take it with me to the LDStorymakers conference. I could see, from the amount of work he was suggesting I do and with all the other things I have going, this was either an unrealistic goal, or it was going to require a whole lot of effort.

Instead, I shifted gears. (That's a metaphor. Some say you shouldn't use them when writing science fiction because the readers will take them literally. I would have to say, "Come on. You read science fiction. You're supposed to be more intelligent than the average reader. Don't be stupid." While I have a car with a manual transmission, this doesn't mean that I actually went out and changed from fourth speed down to third. Maybe this is a worn out metaphor, which is a danger when using them, but I think it's pretty apt.)

My biggest projects at the moment are The Pariah podcast and gearing up for www.Channillo.com.

With the podcast I have to get another episode recorded and in the can this month. That shouldn't be too hard, I have the next episode edited and ready to record. But I also need to edit the first five episodes and publish them as a chapter book for Kindle and Print on Demand, as I've promised my www.patreon.com supporters. With Channillo I had said I would do chapters from the Galactic Battle Base story, "Family Ties" and publish an episode every two weeks. I've decided, instead, I will also use chapters from "Trigger Warnings" as well and change the output to ever week instead of biweekly. This will allow me to focus on that story, develop each chapter with its own story arch, and hopefully make it clearer to the reader. Once I've gone completely through the novel in this manner, I can resubmit it to an editor and see if I'm closer to publication as a separate novel.

Okay. I've gotten that off my chest. My self-doubts have been aired.  Now, if I can adjust my bio-rhythm or my internal chemistry I'll feel much more like the author I thought I was two weeks ago and get back to getting things done.

Professional Suicide: Writing a Bad Review?

I just want to document this event in case it goes terribly against me. 

I just posted a 2 star review for a book I tried to read. No. I'm not talking about the one I reviewed earlier today. I gave Water So Deep 4 stars.

This other was by an author I've run across on Twitter. I thought I would give her book a try and write a review. She had a number of 5 Stars on Amazon and Goodreads, and she claims to work in secondary education.

I thought about saying nothing, just letting it go. But, you know me. If I can't take every opportunity to shoot myself in my foot, I'm just not me.

Honestly. After five pages I stopped and sent an email to my editor telling her how grateful I was for her hard work. I don't believe this other author used an editor, let alone beta readers.

I'll admit, I only read 10% of the book. I couldn't take much more. I couldn't tell who the POV character was, (maybe it was all of them), the description was obscure and verbose and dialog was circuitous and redundant. 

It's books like this that gives self publishing a bad name.

pec

Discouragement

Another block for a writer's motivation is discouragement. 

And there are a lot of ways a writer can become discouraged. If you are a novelist in a boat similar to mine, you have a few books out, which don't seem to be going anywhere.

Things which discourage me:

Rejection by a publisher. I know. You have to expect this. You receive far more rejections than you do acceptances. So, if rejection is debilitating, success as a writer will be impossible. However, a little rejection, or a lot of it, can stall you and give you the opportunity to evaluate where you are and what you need to do to move forward. It can also be renewing.

Another thing that discourages me, and this may sound absurd, but when my editor cuts things I like. Or if she is less impressed with my work than I am. I realize that cutting up my manuscript is what I pay her for and that if I don't agree with her, I can keep what I want. But, her purpose is to my my manuscript better, and while it sometimes hurts, taking her advice is, well, good advice.

This last week has been discouraging with my book cover for, "Shooting Stars". It had nothing to do with the manuscript I have been editing, but every time I got the notice from Create Space that my book cover didn't fit their template and that parts would be cut off, I got more discouraged and ended up ruminating on what was going wrong, more than what I could be doing right.

However, after the fifth submission of my book cover, I got the notice that it was accepted. Hooray! Now, I can move ahead with a book launch later this month. Suddenly everything is bright and encouraging.

The Domingo Montoya Syndrome

I'm having a Domingo Montoya moment. Or maybe it's a phase.

You might remember from "The Princess Bride", Inigo Montoya sought the six fingered man, to kill him.

"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." 

I don't know how many times I've said that very line.

Domingo was a master sword maker and rarely did any work in his later years. He was so skilled that found the craft was no longer challenging. 

Then the six fingered man appeared and commissioned him to make a blade. This would be the ultimate challenge to his skill. The blade would require special balance to match the six fingered man's ability.

The book spends several pages on the making of the blade. But what I refer to now is how, at one moment, Domingo would be euphoric in his skill and achievement, and in the next, despairing over his ignorance and inability.

If you have never read the book, but enjoyed the movie, you really need to put this onto your reading list. The movie did a great job, but it's too short. There is so much more in the book.

After a November of knocking out 100k words in a month, and December of making my first pass through "Fly Paper Boy", editing it in less than a month, I was feeling pretty good about myself as a writer.

Then I downloaded three books from Audible, two by Brandon Sanderson and one by Tim Powers. Both of these authors are masters at "Showing and not telling". Their writing is immersive and takes you to the author's world in the first lines of their stories.

After writing a short story for an anthology in January, I returned to "Fly Paper Boy" for a serious edit, preparing it for the LDStory Makers Conference where I will use it in a publication workshop.

I am now at the Domingo Montoya low. 

I feel like my prose are swill and I'm looking at 95K words of 'sow's ear' I need to turn into a silk purse in the next month and a half.

Brandon Sanderson and Tim Powers are masters at the craft. Granted, I've been at this for only five years and haven't had the training and experience of either of these writers, but still, it looks like a steep hill to climb if I'm ever to get a story completed that a publisher would want to buy.

Anyway, for the next six weeks I'll be slogging through, changing thousands of words of 'telling' into 'showing'. Maybe at the end of it I'll feel more like I did at the end of December.