The Marathon Begins!!!

My greatest obstacle to writing is my own perception of failure. I *know* when I suck. (Which is, frankly, most of the time.) So I write a thing, hate it, rewrite it, hate it a little less, delete it, write it a totally different way, *almost* like it, get frustrated with myself for not capturing what lives in my head... and so on.

So, in honor of the Self-Doubt Monster, a quote of the day:

"Writing is easy. All you do is sit at the typewriter until drops of blood appear on your forehead". --Red Smith

Yeah, Red, we hear ya.

BUT, for this marathon, I hereby vow that the SDM will know stunning defeat. Down with editing! Down with chronology! There will be no blood because there will be no trying. Only words.

Let the suckage flow!!

Writerly Stuff for 7/1/05

Progress: 555 words on Elisa's Belly

Words so far: 13,412

Made-up words: torchlamps (and why NOT one word?)

Barely avoided clichés: Elisa did a lot of looking, glancing, noticing etc. Can you say "stage left?"

The words I'll hate most to cut: Alejandro's monstrous palace is the ugliest thing I've seen in a long while. The history of Joya d'Arena can be seen in its patchwork of sandstone and river rock, of plaster and wood; the collective effort of a millennium of overzealous builders. I wonder if he'll let me plant bougainvillea.

Thank God an editor didn't see this: His leathers creek...

General thoughts: Since I am officially marathoning, I've adopted new war tactics. For example, I got burned out on my own exposition, so I just skipped it and used " ...get Elisa's butt to the palace..." as a placeholder. Tonight, had I attempted the journey, I would have waxed unpoetic for pages. Tomorrow, I'll look at it and be able to accomplish the same in a couple of quick sentences. (Really, who wants to read about twisty streets leading to an ugly palace for more than 2 pages???)

And now, my bed calls to me.