Abandoning your book

I don't like the quote, "A book is never finished, it's abandoned." I don't like it, because it's true. I think that if I never sat down at a keyboard and tried to type out a manuscript, I might have been blissfully ignorant of this. But, as most of you know, this isn't my fate. And it's probably not yours either.

Writing brings out in me a horrible obsessive compulsive disorder. And I know that this sounds familiar to all of you. You go back over your manuscript once, twice, three times, a fourth time, an eight time, and a twentieth time.

With each pass, you think, "It's perfect" and then on page 2 you notice an error you somehow missed all the nineteen other times. It's maddening.

And even really good editors don't catch all the mistakes. And your prose could always be tightened, reworded, it seems endlessly.

"It was a dark and stormy night."

"Dark clouds and lightning streaks reduced the night to highlights and shadows."

"A storm rolled in and the night wept under its caress."

And on and on and on and on and on.

You could say the same frickin' thing a million different ways.

And thus, you could rewrite every sentence in your book a million different ways. And one of those might be slightly more perfect than the one that you chose.

This is what happens to me sometimes. So eventually, I abandon my work. But I never stop feeling insecure about it. And of course, the reviewers pick it up and point out things as if they were obvious to anyone with an IQ of 80 with an almost condescending "I'd never have this in my own manuscript" tone to their commentary.

So yeah, I'm insecure about abandoning my books and moving on to other stories. But it needs to be done. If you don't let go, you could spend endless years writing and rewriting and editing things. I think I need to be more like my friend Michelle Davidson Argyle. I need to just be happy when I send the manuscript flying out the door and resist the urge to try and revisit it. Oh writer OCD, how I loathe thee *shakes fist at the screen.

Have a great Wednesday.

I Hobknob With Famous People. Don't Be Jealous. Okay, be a little jealous but win a book.

Last night I attended an author reading at a swanky local art gallery.  At the reader's table were none other than Michelle Davidson Argyle, Jessica McQuinn, Melissa Menatti, and Dorothy J. Varney. In the audience was Natalie Whipple who has a book coming out from Harper. She wore butterfly wings on her back. Meeting professional authors is really intimidating. Of course, I'm not really much of a people person, and I can't really explain why it is intimidating. It just is. Maybe meeting people is just intimidating for me. That sounds more like it.

Anyway, above is the picture of the bookstore next to the art gallery where I purchased four books that I got signed after the reading. It's right around the corner from where I live so I kinda felt obligated to go to this. I would have felt ashamed of myself if I didn't go to a reading that took place in my backyard, especially when these ladies came from...well I don't know where they came from. But they had to burn fossil fuels to get here so in the least I wanted to go.

This is a picture of Michelle Argyle and Natalie Whipple. Michelle put me on the spot and said, "Do you know Natalie? Of course you do, right?" I stared at Natalie with a blank expression.  Honestly...I really wanted to know who Natalie was, but I actually had no idea who she was. However, that was okay. Natalie let me off the hook because her book isn't out quite yet but will be soon. It's from Harper and is going to be called Transparent if I remember correctly.  I think it has invisible people in it.  I complimented Michelle about her article on Sarah LaPolla's website. I kinda fell in with all of these Curtis Brown Literary Agent luminaries. Here's the rundown:

Nathan Bransford once worked for Curtis Brown.

Michelle Argyle won a contest on Nathan's blog.

Natalie Whipple is a writer represented by Curtis Brown.

Michelle Argyle wrote an article for Sarah LaPolla who works for Curtis Brown.

It reminds me of Malcolm's speech in Jurassic Park.

God creates dinosaurs.

God destroys dinosaurs.

God creates man.

Man destroys God.

Man creates dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs eat man.

Woman inherits the earth.

The reading was really good although the acoustics in the gallery had a few echoes and there were babies crying because I live in Utah and every woman has multiple babies. All of the readings were impressive but I especially liked the poetry from Melissa Menatti. It reminded me of Maya Angelou in its depth and originality. I bought Melissa's unique unbound book (that is part of the art in not having it bound). One cannot support poetry enough. Sometimes I fear that poetry may disappear. No one reads it anymore (except for me). Michelle was very comfortable reading. But she should be because of all the training she got being on America's Next Top Model with Tyra Banks. I think she co-wrote Modelland. #Idonthavethefactstobackthisup.

I really came because I like Michelle's book "Monarch" which I've been reading simultaneously with Charles M. Pulsipher's book "Crystal Bridge" and another book "Lor Mandela" and then a fourth by Alex Cavanaugh and a fifth by Joseph Vasicek.  That is my process...moving from book to book to give my brain a break. I usually finish three at roughly the same time.  Like I finished "Sign In Blood" and "Switched" at roughly the same time.

This is a picture of the art gallery. It was really white. White couches, white walls, and white art pieces in some places.  I have no idea why everything is white but that's Utah. Even the people are all white here so I guess maybe the furniture makes them more comfortable. That's Natalie Whipple's back with the monarch wings on. I think Michelle and Natalie must be friends (they seemed chummy).

Anyway. I already own a copy of Michelle's book Monarch on my Nook. It's good. It's a thriller. It's not filled with the first person present tense girly perspective but instead has a tough as nails CIA dude that any straight guy can man crush on or any girl swoon to (Michelle can write men).  There's blood, there's bullets, and there's outdoors "climbing trees" "running" "jumping" stuff that men and women can get into alike.  It has black and white butterflies on the pages separating scene breaks--how f'ing cool is that?

So why am I telling you about this?  Well, I want one of you lucky peeps to have an autographed pristine copy that has never been read.  So, if you comment on this post, you are in the drawing. At the end of the week, I'll random.org a name and send the book off to you.  This is my first contest and it is international so no worries there. So if you want a book, leave a comment.

That is all.