The Comings and Goings of Muses and Merriment

By most accounts I would say that this week has been a good week, even despite my allergies taking a turn for the worse.  I've been in a good mood, work has been relatively slow, people haven't been as irritating as they usually are.  And I even started off the week, Monday and Tuesday, churning out a good amount of words.  In fact, here in a minute I'll be sharing my first "excerpt" for your thoughts.  Exclusively, mind you.  Yes, that's right, you'll all be the first to read the words I'm going to reveal.  I expect a collective "Woo hoo" to reach me at some point today.  Anyway, back on point, the reason I'm saying this is because I found my Muse just wasn't into it yesterday.  And I know, I know I should force myself to write anyway, but when I do that I feel like the result is work that I have to go back and rewrite later anyway.  And maybe that is how it's supposed to work, I don't know, but I really feel like I'm doing a pretty good job of writing a lot.  I mean, I know 22k words in just under a month is no miraculous event worth celebrating, but for someone working a full time job, I think it's decent.

My goal, though I don't think I've mentioned it, is to be done by Comic-Con.  I'm not currently on pace to meet that goal, maybe I will, maybe I won't, but even if I don't I think that I'm writing fast enough that I shouldn't beat myself up for missing a day here or there.  Should I try and beat my muse into action for a personal deadline that was never hugely realistic?  Is there such a thing as abusing the muse?  If I force it, will that just work out for me, or could I be doing more damage than good?  These are the questions that flood my thoughts any day that I simply am not feeling it.  Is it possible, do you think, that asking the questions is a part of the problem? Haha...  oh Ian.  You are such a twisted over-thinker.  I will say that I'm in a good place, in terms of the actual plot, and am enjoying what I'm writing, even if it sucks.  Oh, which reminds me.

Chapter 3 Update from my best friend and brother Jamie, who is the only person reading the book as I go.  I extended the offer to Frank, my artist who I've commissioned through guilt to create my book cover for when I ultimately decide to self-publish, but he did not accept.  What a jerk.   Anyway, Jamie says 3 was boring.  He claims is was because he read it like it was a stand alone story, since he got to read the Prologue and the first two chapters all together.  I read books one chapter at a time, all the time, so I think that is probably a bad sign, but alas...  what can I do?  If I spend my time thinking about what I've written, I'll never write anything new.    As long as Jamie doesn't tell me that something completely sucks, I'm going to keep moving forward and hope that I can fix the rest in edits.

With that said, I mentioned an excerpt and I'm a man who makes good on his word.  From Chapter 5:

Brandon looked to Diella.  She was eyeing the lowest branches, which were easily fifteen feet above them. “Are we going to stay here for the night?”

“Up there,” she replied with unwavering certainty. He noticed when he was following her before that she carried a bag on her back, but it didn’t look large enough to hold rope. Before he could ask her how she thought they would manage such a climb, she broke into a run toward the tree. Without slowing she jumped up onto the roots, then lunged toward the trunk. Her boots hit the tree’s thin bark five feet above, still moving as if they were on level ground. After two long strides Diella leapt again, this time up and away from the arborous giant. She seemed to float as she spun in mid air and grabbed hold of a thick branch, swinging with her momentum like an acrobat in one fluid motion. A moment later her hands relinquished their grip and she flipped skyward, landing firmly on a separate branch above Brandon’s head. He stood speechless, looking toward the canopy above with his jaw hanging wide open. Never in his life, not even in the virtual world of the games, had he witnessed such a feat. Diella moved in ways he did not think possible.

“I can’t do that,” he said evenly while his eyes retraced the woman’s path. When they reached the spot where she landed, Diella was nowhere to be seen.

“I do not expect you to..”

I know, I know... pretty short, not amazing writing but the image was what I liked.  I always say this to everyone I know, I'm not a great writer but I do fancy myself a pretty damn good idea person.  In my mind, the image of a character scaling a huge  tree like an acrobat is pretty cool.  But hey, that's just me.

Anyway, that is all for this installment.  I hope everyone is having a killer week, and until next time...

Dream Big,
Ian