Eugie · Foster's · Self-Indulgent · Musings

It's good to take a break from the novel. I think you get a fresh perspective and can see the things that were bothering you about it before. Good luck!

Thanks! I'm waffling between simply picking up where I left off, or daring to do a full review pass on it to get me back up to speed...or something in between. It's daunting, it is.

I like to do a review pass if I haven't worked on it in a while because sometimes you see new things to add or make better. A novel is definitely daunting to do that to, but I think that it would make your story a better one.

But, you know, do what you think is best for your own writing style. I'm a "take two steps forward, one step back" kind of a girl when it comes to writing. I gotta reread what I did the day before!

I'm sure the novel's gonna be surprisingly good when you read it again :)

Heh. I don't share your confidence there, but thanks, sweetie .

You're in Codex? How is it I've never seen you there? Golly!

I've been a member of Codex since, um, 2004, but I wasn't active there. Now that I've set aside some of my other obligations and can focus more on my writing again, I'm picking up some of the stray "been meaning to" threads that got backburnered.

I wish I'd known this. I'd have hit you up for a store for Prime Codex.

Well, drat . I would've totally been up for that.

I'm on hiatus at Critters, too, but haven't put anything up on Codex yet. Just really haven't ever taken the time to learn the crit system there. I suppose I should.

It took me a little clicking around to figure out how it works at Codex, but the upload process and forum are fairly intuitive. I doubt I'll get the sort of critique numbers I used to get at Critters, but I'm hoping that will be offset by the more experienced nature of the feedback provided by Codexians.

Edited at 2009-06-18 02:04 pm (UTC)

Quality over quantity? I suspect you may be right. ;o)

Call me old fashioned, but I like seeing the people who are providing me critique. I need that face-to-face contact to know if the person telling me what works or doesn't work with my own fiction is actually insightful or just blowing gas.

I once had a crit where the guy had inserted a bunch of song lyrics into it to fill out the 300 words. Blowing gas, indeed...

Y'know, I've never had a face-to-face, meets IRL critique group. I'm usually rather shy in groups, and I'm not sure if I'd be as frank with someone face-on that I would be online. Or, likewise, if a critter might pull their punches with me. On the other hand, I've often wished that I had a local writers group to hang with and bounce ideas off of...

it is da bomb!

Obviously, what works for me isn't what works for everyone. (And given how long you've been writing, and publishing, you obviously have a system.) ;-)

But I've found that, for me, putting aside an unfinished novel isn't usually a good idea. More often than not, I don't wind up getting back to it at all, as new ideas crowd it out. So if you were me, I'd advise you, once you get back to it, to finish it before working on anything else.

But then again, if you were me, I wouldn't have to advise you of that, 'cuz you'd already know it.

Also, your pictures wouldn't be nearly as fun to look at. ;-)

And re: Your above comment to j_cheney, I'm having a lot of trouble believing that you'd ever be at all shy. :-)

Sigh. I still haven’t found what works for me on the novel front, ‘cause I have yet to @#%&! finish one. But I completely agree with you. I really hate putting aside any writing project, because the majority of the time when I do so, I never pick it up again. I really regret having to set aside the novel last year, but I ran out of time. Love my day job, but there are trade-offs. I can't write during the three months when the legislature is in session. Heck, some session days I barely have time to sleep and eat. It gives me nine months to write, but I'm still working out how to maximize my productivity with this annual schedule. I seem to need a month or so to limber up my writing chops, I lose another month (or more) to Dragon*Con, and I'm often derailed by various other projects—which is why I stepped down from helming The Fix; my hamster juggling skills were simply not up to the task of both being a serious writing and editing a review publication.

> "I'm having a lot of trouble believing that you'd ever be at all shy."

I am, really! It's a bit Jekyll/Hyde, actually. My natural state is to be extremely introverted and quiet. Parties, crowds, and unfamiliar settings make me want to retreat and hide. But once my comfort level raises, I sort of switch gears and become gregarious and chatty. I also enjoy performing for an audience—stemming undoubtedly from my dance background when my mother stuck me on a stage before I was old enough to grasp the concept of “stage fright”—but only so long as it doesn’t involve speaking, which always terrifies me. Um, which I guess makes me a shy exhibitionist...

Um, which I guess makes me a shy exhibitionist...

I'm pretty sure there are web sites on that exact topic... ;-)