Oh and go congratulate Shannon O'Donnell. She has an agent. Shannon is simply the best. That's right, she is. So don't forget to go and do a happy dance for her.
On with the post:
The word complicated is something we don't always like to hear, but for some reason I've heard it all my life. It's like a little cat toy that dangles over my head and doesn't go away when I bat at it. Just the other day, I was speaking with one of my CPs about a plot and how I make things complicated. She said,"You do." I thought about it. I do, but why? I always seem to come up with these complicated plots that are so out of my writing level, I don't know what I'm thinking. I over analyze, over think, over do. I'm not sure why. To be different? To stretch myself? Why can't I just make it easy? I do this in my daily life too, but that's a whole other bag of scary.
I notice when I just do things they flow. For example: As you all know my one manuscripts is being beta read/critted. Some of the things that have been pointed out are totally legit and need attention. First, I looked at it with complete horror (wanting to run away with arms flailing), and after a couple of days of holy crap-this is never going to happen-over thinking every possible thing-these readers think I'm a total amateur, I finally took a breath. I sat there and went through the comments and for once in my writing journey soaked it in and realized it's not that horrible. I can fix this. Last night, I decided to take out a couple of parts and wound up writing 1000 words to a new scene. It needs some work, but still. I need to realize to just let things go, breathe, think easy and take the challenge to fix it instead of over thinking, over analyzing, making it all complicated.
So how about you--do you make things complicated?
Have a wonderful weekend!
