Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Humpty Dumpty and Writing

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
couldn't put Humpty together again.


Just so you know, this has been my month. Okay my last three months, maybe more, but who's counting? And no, I haven't been an egg, even if (alas) I may be trending toward that shape. Think of me more like all the king's horses and all the king's men, and I've been trying to put my WIP (work in progress or current manuscript for you non writer peeps out there) back together again.

It's not working any better than trying to fix a broken egg.

So what to do?

Eat scrambled eggs and get a new Humpty--one who doesn't like walls.

I'm done, finished, OVER trying to fix my messed up manuscript. I can't stomach sitting down at the computer and fiddling with the shattered and cracked pieces one more time. Today I will trash it. As in deleted, scrubbed, GONE.... Well, at least I'll take it off my computer and store it on a flash drive, then I'll hide the flash drive in the basement under sixty pounds of photos waiting to be scrap-booked. That'll teach it. That old WIP is never going to see the light of day again. EVER. (I'm just not that brave with the delete key. It scares me. Just saying. But I'm great at hiding stuff. It's a true talent. I call it denial. Aren't you jealous?)

And no, I'm not bitter at all. Really. Why? Because the premise is still a good one, and that I'll keep. And the characters can stay if they start being nice to me. (You've been warned.) It's just my words that have to go. Stupid, messed up, egg-covered words. Be gone I say!

Strangely, I'm excited to start all over fresh and new with no mistakes...yet. It's invigorating and hopeful and tingly and hopeful. Did I mention hopeful? My question is, why did it take me so long to get to this point?

I guess I'm just plain stubborn.

What about you, when do you stop trying to pick up the pieces and just make scrambled eggs?



Yum.

10 comments:

Jonene Ficklin said...

Oh, you brave woman, you. Way to go! Can't wait to read the new version - and can't wait to see what that platter of awesome scrambled eggs (brain-food, my mother always said) does for your already epic imagination.

Nikki Mantyla said...

Go, Leisha! I wish you the best of luck. Blank pages are awfully intimidating, but I know how sometimes starting over is better than fixing what's there. You can do it!

Hermana Maw said...

Jonene, I can always use brain food. Thanks for the encouragement. :)

Nikki, thanks. There's nothing like a zero word count to make you yearn for pages. Off we go...again. :)

The Huffies said...

You are so brave and smart - I need to leave some things alone too that I keep trying to put back together - hmmm...perhaps we should have a scrambled eggs night! Just think, you're this much closer to getting published...yes, it will happen...soon!

Hermana Maw said...

The Huffies, ;) I don't know about brave or smart, desperate maybe. A scrambled egg night sounds great.

Cherie said...

I'm excited for you. I think the re-write will go well.

Stacy Henrie said...

That's hard! I can't delete things either. I've got a book that I revised and revised and thought was done. When my DH suggested rewriting the whole thing, I was mad. Until I realized he was right. :) Some day I'll pull it out and start over, because like you said the premise is good. Good luck with the new version!

Julie Daines said...

Yikes! That sounds drastic! Have you already written the whole thing, or do you just keep trying to get the beginning right?

Good luck!

Hermana Maw said...

Cherie, I'm loving how the new beginning feels, so you might be right. Here's hoping.

Stacy, it was hard to start over, but so far so good. I hope you get back to yours someday. :)

Julie, I was a good way into the second act, so at least it wasn't the whole book...but enough to make me pretty hesitant.

Matt M said...

I'm reading Dumas and in one paragraph he says King Louis XIV is hatless and two pages later he pins a butterfly to his hat. It doesn't make sense. How can pin a butterfly to a non-existent hat? Things that don't make sense happen to the best. Keep writing, you'll work it out!

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