A variety of insanity known to afflict authors

[larryhammer]

Under the impression that not looking at Kiss the Girls all summer had given me enough distance, I've started a polish pass. And I hate it. That this is a normal writer process doesn't change the fact that I hate it with a hatey hatred. We hates it, my prrrrrecious. The kingdom of loathing is at hand. I do not like it, Sam-I-Am. So don't like it. Bitch, please. If the story wasn't nailed to the page it'd be pushing up the daisies. It's dreadful, dreadful, DREADFUL stuff. The premise is not so much on crack as just stupid, the jokes are dumb, the characters idiots, the romance insipid, the morality heavyhanded, the verbs have withered away into adjectives, and the storytelling's just plain wretched. And in conclusion, totally hating. Which is to say, I can't tell whether it's any good or it's just me.

It doesn't help that I need to junk the penultimate chapter and rewrite it from scratch. Still not done.

Today's whinge has been brought to you by the letters M and N, and the number 2.

---L.

Comments

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

so right there with you.

So. right. there.

Ben! It's Ben!

[larryhammer]

I've been watching your struggles with sympathies I haven't been expressing. I have the consolation of knowing the shape of the thing, and ofwhat needs to replace that chapter.

Arg. The space on this keyboard isdying.Just what I need --another excuse tonot work onit.

This weekend'stask is to finish. Dammit.

---L.

Re: Ben! It's Ben!

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

I always feel so bad for Ben.

Fifty years on either side, he would have been the greatest writer of his generation. But no, he had to get stuck in a box with Spenser, Shakespeare, and Marlowe....

rah rah rah rah rah!

mouseworks and I have a finish-or-die pact.

Come on in.

Re: Ben! It's Ben!

[larryhammer]

In sounds good.

I like the Sons of Ben, more than say the sons of Donne or Spenser. Though I don't like Ben as much as Donne.

---L.

Re: Ben! It's Ben!

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

I have huge fights with Truepenny over Donne.

I hate him. *g*

It's Ben! It's John!

[larryhammer]

I adore Donne, but I readily admit he can be a permicious influence almost as bad as Milton (who I can't stand, in part because of his shadow). Very few poets have the ear to get away with that kind of braininess.

---L.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Maybe a longer rest period?

[larryhammer]

I'm thinking about it. I want to get it over with, though.

---L.

[azang.livejournal.com]

What happened the sandwich critique method? Geez, I'm making a mental note to never ask you for a crit!
Just kidding. Been there, done that...and it sounds like you're working through it. Good luck and wishes for resolution.
Also, read something short of yours that you like, sometimes that helps too.
Angela

[larryhammer]

I don't have to give myself compliments, though. Except when I like it.

---L.

[jorrie-spencer.livejournal.com]

Sympathies. I don't want to look at any of my own stuff right now, and I really should.

It's not dreadful :)

[larryhammer]

Ha. How would you -- ... oh, right, you've seen the opening.

Well, that's good to hear. Though of course, for all you know, it gets even stupider from there, he said glumly.

---L.