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The Black Pit of Writing

My summer has been completely consumed by writing and by the things that I've been trying to do to have a good summer. Everything from family reunions, small adventures, and the usual just going out and doing something in the summer because we have Jet here with us so we can really explore.

Writing has been eating my head. All of it, including most of the words that usually get out into my journals. I think that here, I'm going to be talking more about the mechanics and reality of actually being a writer, and trying to get multiple novels off our plate, and onto my plate, and how to get into and through my characters. It's such a huge part of my life now, that it's just insane. Everything I do, everything I think has been feeding back into character, plot, motivations, and what better detail could be used for a particular stage of the various stories we have going. Everything from how Olympic style epee is different from foil, to the way the roads run across the US, to the depth of Carlsbad Caverns, to the food styles of New Englanders versus New Mexicans versus Seattlites, to how trees grow... all feed in.

Also wanted to share a link to a lovely blog entry by Jennifer Cruise about the most common mistakes editors, contest judges, and people that are going to be weighing and deciding on your writing find. It's solid, really, and they're also the most common things that put me off when I look at other people's writing, now. It's odd to see the parallel.

I'm also going to be writing up all our little summer travel adventures when I have the chance, and just have this autopost 'em about once a week, if not more frequently, depending on the numbers, and that should get the pressure off me that's been keeping me from posting anything at all.
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