Monday, May 10, 2010

Day 43, May 10, 2010

Recently, I wrote about the necessity of scrapping pages that veered from the intent of the story. Haven't changed my mind in the past 48 hours. But when you—or in this case I—happen to have a day when the writing just isn't as crisp as it usually is, it's best just to leave it overnight. Chances are you can come back the next day and upgrade both the art and the craft of the language. Sometimes both the muse and the writer can use a breather.

It can take a while to learn this, but once you do you're less likely to doubt that devoting your time to sitting down at the keyboard, or picking up a pen if you like to longhand it, was such a good idea.

Today was a time for moving the story along in small steps. A principal character unwittingly offers the antagonists a chance to sell out, i.e. an alternative, legal way to use their considerable skills. The truly creepy character, the sexual predator, realizes his doings have been uncovered and flees, misattributing his unmasking to the wrong person. The antagonists, not yet having received the opportunity to sell out, strike at the heart of the local power structure.

I wrote another five-plus pages today.

Day 43 of writing my new novel is done.

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