Sunday, January 18, 2009

Catching up.

I have returned (sort of). I should be caught up with answering everyone’s comments now, although I haven’t gotten the chance to visit all my new people who stopped by last week or checked out their blogs yet. And I have to write more posts.

Busy me.

Well, in case you are curious why I went all squirrely (is that a word?) at the beginning of last week, I took a few days off so I could concentrate on my manuscript. No, not the new one I am working on. My completed one. I finally cinched my big girl panties and found a lab rat, er, a willing person who would read my manuscript and give me an honest critique. I must tell you; it feels strange (icky?) to ask people. I always get all trippy about beta readers and critique groups. I wonder if I am bugging them at the wrong time or they have better things to do than read my story or if they are swiping my ideas and selling them on Ebay before I can get bidders for my manuscript. (Hey, that is my idea! Give it back!)

Anyway, I sent my ms out at the beginning of the month. One week later, I was looking over it when I saw a major, OMG - HOW COULD I DO SUCH A THING, writing error. It does not involve the storyline (although I probably have a few problems with it and don’t even know it). It involves . . . drum roll, please!

*ba dada dada ba dada dada boom* Infinitives.

Those werd imps must have gotten into my word processor program, because I found an infestation of infinitives (to + base verb) throughout my manuscript. Instead of writing (for example), “I walked over and pushed the door,” I had written, “ I walked over to push the door.”

Ew . . . ew . . . ew! I had way too many of them in my story. So, grabbing a flyswatter and some manuscript polish, I worked on ridding myself of the little grammar bugs. I finished on Saturday.

Yes, I said Saturday. Like I already mentioned, I had a large infestation.

Oh, one other thing I need to tell you *swat* . . . what I meant to say *swat* . . . blasted infinitives! I . . . um . . . am informing (that’s a good start) my readers about something I mentioned in the comment’s section Friday. Whoo-hoo! I got through a whole sentence.

Anyway, I talked about a second post I had created that also involves the imagination. While the one on Friday had a simple scene using the fishmonger character, the second post had a storyline using the male shopper. I went through the same process of creating dialogue and then gleaning ideas from it. If you are interested in this post, you can read it on my second blog.

Hmm. There was one other thing I wanted to talk *swat* about today. *snaps fingers* I wanted to post *swat* this:

Let love be true . . . banishing these shadows of dismal gray and cold blue.
Our bodies will part ways along the sandy shore as we face a day renewed.
Let our love be true . . . as my teardrops spot the grass in dew.
One last kiss in remembrance of peaceful memories we once knew.


Well, what do you think of it? It is a song in a musical play. I am writing it for an off-off Broadway show. It has to be perfect because the producer is a big name in the industry.

*chuckles* Of course, this producer only exists in my new manuscript. Sigh, I cannot believe that not only do I have to create thespian characters for my storyline, but I have to create imaginary characters for my imaginary thespians to act out. Or even worse, I could make the play as a soap opera production with its own set of characters.

This means that I need to create soap opera characters for the imaginary show characters for my imaginary thespian characters to act out.

*swat-swat-swat-swat-swat!*

18 comments:

  1. Great post as always, Meesh. Now, please pass the nit comb and pest spray!

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  2. Welcome back!

    I love the stuff you write here. Do you have anything published?
    I'm enjoying blogging so much that I've been toying with the idea of writing. Like every other blogger :-P

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  3. Michelle,
    I do not write for anyone except for our family or teams that I coach, but the writer always seems to beat themselves up before anyone else can. I have learned to live with it and make changes if needed.
    Oren

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  5. I'm glad you're back. I am relatively knew to blogging and new to your site. This morning, I got my first anonymous "hate" comment--about religion--and it, well, sucked. But having read your post about a similar experience made it easier somehow. I still haven't 100 percent committed to not publishing the comment--one the one hand, I feel like hatred should be exposed. On the other hand, my blog is so not hateful and I don't want it to be infected with such ugliness.

    So anyway, I just wanted to say thank you for your earlier post.

    Best,
    Jennifer

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  6. and that should say "new"!! Clearly I am writing in a huff! :)

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  7. Angie: Here you go. *passes it over* I bought CRATES of the stuff. I think I'll make one more run out before the snow gets too deep. It's really coming down now.

    Bella: Thanks. Happy to be back!

    I have three newspaper articles and one guest post on an ezine. You can click on the links in the sidebar under "Links to my Stuff." (One article isn't up there - they never got around to putting it up on their site.)

    And do please write! I think your stories are fantastic!

    Oren: We are our own worse critic. But in this occasion, I think it's justified for me. Those infinitives had to go! *swat* ;)

    Jennifer: Sorry to hear that happened. But it sounds like you are taking it in stride. Good for you! If your blog doesn't have the format to post the content, I say let it pass this time and don't infect it with the comment. You are way better than having to deal with such nonsense. :)

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  8. Welcome back Michelle, happy to hear you finished editing your manuscript..;)
    And I like the poetic text to the song.;) Very beautiful way with words.;)

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  9. Just this saturday there was an article in our newspaper about a publisher who had written a book about "how to get your book published" or something like that. He said that if they receive a manuscript that begins with "It was a rainy afternoon" they immediately throw that in the bin. Too many stories start with such a sentence. So.....if your story doesn't start with a weatherdescription, you're halfway there! I hope I haven't depressed you now ;-)

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  10. Michelle,

    Thank you for your brick donation and for thinking of my family during recent weeks. The support of so many generous people like yourself has been a true blessing.

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  11. Ditto what Angie says - since she always says something so cool or apt or perfect and I bumble around *laugh!*

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  12. Protege: Thanks. It's kind of fun coming up with imaginary songs for a musical. I can really get weird (weirder?) with it. :)

    Carolina: Whew! Not it doesn't start with "It was a rainy afternoon," just "It was a sunny night!" lol!

    Travis: You are quite welcome. I am always glad to help out.

    Kathryn: Wow! Maybe I should have bought a truckload. :)

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  13. Great post! You never disappoint, Michelle!

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  14. *i didn't know what infinitives were!* *i suspect, though, that infinitives are only one of mass of problems of my problematic writing of my attempts to communicate when i attempt problematic to blog.*

    the new manuscript sounds interesting.

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  15. ...not only do I have to create thespian characters for my storyline, but I have to create imaginary characters for my imaginary thespians to act out.

    This gets more complicated by the minute, LOL!

    Good to see ya back, Michelle. About infinitives: there's a place and time for 'em. I tend to split mine, coz you know how they can be if you leave 'em alone together for any length of time... ;-)

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  16. Brenda: Thanks!

    Chris: Um...okay...Thanks ;p (you did that to get even with me for the characters on characters part, didn't you?)

    Buck: Think how confused I feel! ;-)

    Um... splitting infinitives for a time? Are we still talking about the sex worker dust bunnies? ;-P

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  17. Well, I don't know about your imaginary producer, but this one-time lyricist likes your snippet of lyric very much.

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  18. Suldog: Thanks! Getting the thumb's up from someone once in the profession eases my worries. ;-)

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