Sid Emmet: Blog

I haven't written a word on any of my stories for two months. It hasn't been writers block exactly, more like life and a pretty crippling bout of depression that's kept me from moving forward. I'd like to say that things will change and I'll get back on track (I think I've got 4 or 5 new chapters of RUYN that my editors haven't even seen yet), but I seem to jinx myself whenever I make pronouncements, so let me leave it at: I'll try to do better.

In hindsight, it was a mistake to start publishing the stories before they were done. I'm too new, too inexperienced as a writer to be able to pull off a long running serial like that. The structural problems on RUYN (interleaved first-person) have made it very hard to write because I keep feeling like I'm going to re-write it in third person, so why bother continuing with the first-person version.

Blind Date suffers from scope-creep. As characters come into the story I want to follow their story as well, and it could turn into a giant sprawling mess of intertwined storylines. Since I haven't plotted things out, I can only imagine that would end badly, as in not end at all but just get abandoned.

All in all, not much has changed since I posted something similar way back in July. With fall and winter on it's way, hopefully the short days, and dark nights will be more conducive to finishing these two up and getting more done on the other stories I have kicking around in my to-do folder.

John and Anna start making some plans for the future...

Hope you all enjoy the new chapters!

John and Anna christen Anna's apartment. Then get ready for a night out.

WARNING new writer angst ahead!!: I'm not sure if it's writer's block, lack of self discipline, or just a crazy schedule, but I've made precious little progress on all the things I promised in my last blog post. Ugh. In the process of updating Blind Date, I ran into a formatting issue I haven't solved yet, and with RUYN I am realizing much too late that while the dual-viewpoint thing was fun, it really limits where I want to take the story. Part of me wants to do something like Lubrican does and make a version Bravo that is told in the 3rd person from the beginning. Part of me thinks I should stop the story in a couple of chapters and pick up the characters (and their friends) in a new story. My indecision means that progress on the story has come to a standstill, which is frustrating.

Also it's summer, and the number of things competing for my attention has gone up dramatically over the last few weeks. I'm hoping (fingers crossed!) that everything will back off a little in August and I can get back up to writing 10-15k words a week. We shall see....

As always, your feedback and ideas are like gold to me. The rush from hearing from one of my readers hasn't diminished one bit since I started posting.

John and Anna have breakfast, and then a surprise run in with Kay at the cafe. All in all, things look good.

Happy 4th of July! It's been a crazy couple of weeks, and with each posting I get closer to catching up with how much I've written so far. Part of the problem is simply finding time to write, and part of the problem is I have half a dozen story ideas that keep battling for creative time in my head. I dedicated a little time early this week to write kernels of all those stories so I can get back to writing and posting the two I've actually developed. A revised Blind Date will be reposted sometime in the next 24 hours, nothing significant changes, but I've fixed some mistakes and added a little more background which were the two biggest complaints I got with the original version.

The next four chapters are in the queue and should be up soon. John and Anna get the ground rules laid, and then put them into practice to their mutual delight.

Thanks for your patience. I had a hell of a week last week and had no time or energy for anything but work and family. Work is pretty thin on the ground for me, so I've need to jump at any work I get. Unfortunately, that also means insane deadlines and really long hours. I should have plenty of time this week to both repost version 1.1 of Blind Date, as well as write some new material. Knock on wood....