I am the sort of writer who has trouble with being prolific.

Oh, I develop huge, grandiose, labyrinthine plotlines with gorgeous character arcs and fully developed worlds. It’s getting it all on paper that’s the difficult part – and the problem is me. I get fixated on individual sentences. I prune them ’til I think they’re perfect. I thumb through my could-kill-a-guy-size thesaurus for precisely the right word. I want to get exactly the right nuance of meaning.

And three hours later, I’ve written 500 words. I mean, it’s just depressing. They’re a gorgeous 500 words to be sure, but that mentality is what’s standing in between me and my goal of publication. There is a time and place for delicate edits like that, but this is not that stage. This is the “get that shit on a page” stage. This is about connecting the dots between the bits that are already written.

The goal is continuity. I keep getting hung up on perfection. So I’m working to overcome that.

Almost done with chapter 4, in all its hugeness. Trying to ignore the sections that could be better and just be appreciative that it has no holes. (See how hard I’m working?) I can take comfort in the fact that this is the first time I was moderately pleased with Hayley.

Which is unexpected, since I just decided to reduce her role in book 1 yesterday. Maybe it’s a sign that this was how I was always supposed to do it. Less Hayley, more Hyde.

Boy, is he a lot of fun.

Had my Sunday dim sum, so now it’s time to get back to it. Here’s hoping writing today won’t be as stupid hard as it was yesterday.

Ganbatte, writer-san.

/cast iPod [Hybrid – I Choose Noise]