"A piece of writing is never finished, only abandoned."
Please forgive the unattributed quote. I only had time to do a quick Google search and didn't find any definitive answers as to who said this.
This popped into my head on Monday as my one quick pass through my proposal chapter ended up taking my entire lunch hour. And this was after it took 5 hours of my day on Saturday. I think every writer reaches a point where they're just fiddling with their work, not improving it.
I had to stop and think about whether or not this was what I was doing. After considering it, I decided no. I'm still making big enough changes to be real fine tuning, not just tweaking.
For me, the synopsis looms and I have to tackle that thing as soon as the story is ready to go. Synopses are a special kind of hell for a writer who falls on the Seat of the Pants side of the plotting spectrum. Why can't we write: and then some stuff happens, the h/h defeat the big bad, and live happily ever after? It's totally true and saves my brain from exploding.
That said, I will confess grudgingly to liking having a workable synopsis to use when I write. It helps narrow down the choices I have to make and keeps me on track. I still don't enjoy writing the things, though. The only word that fits is torturous.
Goal for the week is to get everything off to my agent before Sunday night. There. I said it.
Also, make sure you check in later this week for a special Black Friday Sale. One of my books will be marked down for a limited time. Announcement will be made Friday morning.
