Technicalities

I've been thinking a lot about writer techniques lately.

You know, writing is not an easy craft. There are definite rules and regulations involved, particularly if publishing is a writer's goal. The English language is inherently a pain in the ass, because there are so many rules with so many exceptions. It's very easy to get sloppy.

I try -- note the word try -- to write even my first drafts in as grammatically correct a mode as possible. Then, my writing critique group gets it and rips it to shreds, which is good. I listen to them. I trust their opinions and expertise. For the most part, my storylines seem to be okay. It's the damn commas and adverbs that kick my ass.

Literally.

So now, when I review, I turn into a fiend on that. *sigh* Absolutely retarded.

Last week, my story about a cross-dressing dwarf was accepted for publication by Jupiter World Press. I was pretty excited about it--still am, actually. "Free Willy" has been a mantra for the Dragon's Den critiquers, mostly because I think Willy is so damn funny. It doesn't take a lot to amuse myself, apparently. So, high off this unexpected and entirely ridiculous ego boost, I've jumped straight into the anthology pool in our forum. We have a month to write our stories, mine is the last one, and it's already running at 16k.

SIXTEEN????

Holy shit.

Then I went back and checked out my adverbs.

Make that 15k.

Since I'm already about 5k over limit, I think I may be in trouble. So, in the interests of preserving the sanity of my peers (who will, after all, have to critique the damn thing), I got up this morning and deleted it. I'm starting over from scratch. Hopefully, that will work.

(see? only one adverb in that last paragraph. I'm learning.)