So last night, while laying in bed, after drinking coffee at 9 PM (what was I SMOKING?  :pirate:  ) I came up with the most fabulous blog post……..*sigh* then the cat started licking my hair and I fell asleep (this after listening to him wheeze in my ear for an hour).

I do remember it was about writing so I’m going to ramble a while and see if it comes back to me.  I’m currently working on what will be my fifth Kensington manuscript…but like my *gulp* fifTEENTH manuscript (not all of them finished, one I rewrote, 2 twenty five page proposals, lots and lots of words).  Even though I’m probalby less than fifty pages in, writing SCREWED has been an amazingly pleasant experience.  I don’t think I’ve felt this relaxed writing in a book in…years.

Yes, years.

I’ll confess…I’m in love with my new  WIP…yes I am.  It’s not word-vomit but a slow steady thoughtful writing pace that’s enjoyable.  I know I know…It’s that honeymoon phase…the one that lasts until about page 100 or so, then from 200-300 we fight and scrap and I pull my hair a lot and cry and whine to my poor friends and then from 300 to the end I’m like, “YES YES YES I’m SO DONE WITH YOU!!!!!”  And then I do it all over again (though I’m really interested in seeing if this book’s different).  Sometimes that first 100 pages pours out of me like the proverbial … orgasm … sometimes it’s like childbirth even at the beginning.  I recognize my process so I don’t find this alarming at all.

Here’s how it goes…….write, around page 200 or so revisit the plot and make adjustments, scream and cry, write some more, print it out, edit, send it to the CP’s, edit again, send it off to my editor.  I do edit some as I go but not a lot which means that before my editor sees it I only edit twice.

Why?  Because a) I tend to write pretty clean copy and b)  if I can’t fix it in two passes, it ain’t fixable.  I figure after that second pass, its more a matter of shuffling words, than anything.  Now I’m NOT saying I’m perfect or anything like that, but I’ve seen writers who worked on something for so long they edited their voice right out of it.  I’ve never wanted to be one of those writers, so I figured out a technique that works for me.

I also plot linearly (is that even a word?)….boxes give me hives.

Inevitably when I edit, I add IN more than I take out because adding description and more importantly, introspection are my big weaknesses.   Fifteen manuscripts or not, I rely heavily on my crit partners to keep me honest, and smack me upside the head.  I’m human.

So what’s your technique?  What’s your weakness, where do you catch yourself falling down on the job?  What advice would you give a newbie writer?

Mine would be PRINT IT (edit on paper) and don’t fear rejection (because you’ll get lots of them).

Talk amongst yourselves.