Where Have I Been, You Ask?

Right here, at my desk, madly editing.  That’s #amediting for all you techno-tweeters out there.  Yes, for over a year I’ve been focused on editing and revising this stinky old Contemporary/Romantic/Intrigue/Suspense (just what IS the darn thing?!?) originally drafted during 2009 NaNoWriMo.  I started 2017 planning to get the thing edited and submitted to first readers by the middle of the year.  Then I wanted to start sending it out to potential agents at the beginning of 2018.  Ah, the best laid plans….

Actually, I’ve done pretty well.  My first readers got the manuscript last fall and I recently started sending queries to agents.  But my gawd!  The editing!  Will it ever END?  The document I’ve been working on has been labeled “FINAL” for MONTHS!

And then I saw this on the interwebs:

That’s when I stepped away from the editing and really got down to the querying.  I’ve got the book all nicely wrapped up in a pretty gold ribbon, waiting to be sent out into the world.  And I’m turning my attention to my NEXT book, to begin the process all over again.

Yes, the new book has already been drafted, but happily, it’s not a first draft.  But there’s more editing/rewriting in my future.  A lot more.  There’s that Thomas Edison quote about genius being 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.  I’m not claiming any sort of genius over here, but I think that any creative process has a spark of genius in it.  That ability to take something in one’s brain and convert it to something others might be able to feel and/or experience is pretty darn close to being a miracle.  So maybe that Edison quote can be paraphrased to reflect the writing process.

In the meantime….

Crossword Puzzles – Not Just For Sunday Morning Coffee

As one ages, one starts to worry about one’s mental faculties (and one starts to refer to oneself in the third person).  To that end, I’ve taken to doing a daily crossword puzzle on my iPad.  They might be New York Times puzzles, but if they are, it’s sure not the Sunday puzzle – I can usually do one in about 30 minutes.

I figure it’s a good investment of time and interestingly, I’m also finding that the exercise is trickling over to my writing.  A crossword puzzle is an excellent way to think about different words meaning the same thing (what’s the word for that?) or, on the flip side, the many different meanings a word can have. That’s got to help a writer, right?

One of the exercises I did in an on-line editing workshop involved writing a poem and then re-writing it using different words.  Suddenly, a thesaurus is a beautiful thing.  Mental exercises like that will help my writing now and help my mental acuity well into my, well, gee, 80s?

Eschew Obfuscation

This is my motto. It’s a core philosophy adopted in college some 30-odd years ago, and still declared on my Road ID.

I’ve always interpreted the phrase to mean “Keep things clear,” and it’s been a part of my life for so long, I take that meaning in every aspect of my life, from writing, to work, to relationships.

To me it means I should be clear in my goals, clear in my wants and desires, and don’t depend on someone else’s interpretation of my meaning.

It’s a useful tool in storytelling, when one is outlining and sketching out the bare bones of a story. I have come to learn, however, that a lot of depth and color of setting and character is lost with that classic “Just the facts, ma’am” mindset. So eschew, but don’t eschew too much.

In my personal life, being clear has meant the difference between an evening at a loud bar in uncomfortable shoes and bra, and cozied up with a good book on the couch in fuzzy pants. “I’ll tell you what I want, what I really really want.”

And just to be clear (see what I did there?), this is what MS Word’s thesaurus says about these two simple words that have been governing my life for so long:

Eschew

Obfuscation:

Clear as mud, no?

Avoid complication, shun confusion, and steer clear of smokescreens. All good mottos for life.

Gawd, I was BRILLIANT when I was 18…