Some Days You Draw A Blank

There is nothing like rewriting a former piece and suddenly running out of ideas. You've been going along, updating and fixing awkward writing, and then . . . nothing. You just end up sitting there staring at old work, that you can tell needs improvement, but you can't for the life of you pull something better out of you head.

So you rewrite the same sentence about sixteen times different ways. And then you realize your last attempt doesn't even make sense. Finally you realize that you might as well give up and watch your six year old play Wall-e on his computer, like he's been yelling for you too. Which is just as well since the four year old has decided to take all her bathtub toys for a swim in the toilet. So after dutifully watching the six year olds computer exploits, and washing off the bathtub toys with bleach, you just give up.

Anyways, I'm still looking over the "Ways of Khrem" on a paragraph by paragraph basis, and also from an overall point of view. The thing is, the book is a Mystery/Fantasy which gives it a rather unusual pacing. While it does have some violence, it doesn't have the level of combat usually found in sword and sorceries. And while it is a fantasy, the main charactor is a far cry from a muscular, sword swinging hero. He is a former master thief who is haunted by the memories, and deep psychic trauma of his old life. It's an odd setup, which affects the pacing as Cargill (the main character) is a rather reflective individual and sometimes shifts his attention from the present to the past. So rewriting is a bit tricky, as I try not to mess up the pacing and tone of the story. But so far, I'm happy with the results.

Now if I can just keep the four year old from floating her rubber ducky in the john, I'll be doing fine.