Editor on the Shoulder

[shipperx]

Is there some way to chloroform and lock up the little, insidious "editor on the shoulder" that simply WILL NOT allow me to finish this stupid chapter?

ME: Yes, EotS, I know you have quibbles, gripes and groans. But if you don't STFU I'm never going to finish this chapter.

EotS: Tough. I still hate all the dialog and think the entire thing sucks. Plus, not as funny as you think.

ME: I know it needs work, and I know I'm not funny--

EotS: Pfft! UNDERSTATEMENT!

ME: But if you'll just let me finish this draft.

EotS: And leave all those bad descriptions and unfunny dialog in the first half? As if!

ME: I've got enough problems writing the damn love scene. Can't you leave me alone for a while so I can finish it? Then we'll talk about the craptastic stuff in the chapter.

EotS: You know you're uncomfortable with writing teh smut. Spend time on the polishing the other stuff.

ME: I've 'polished' enough. I need to finish the chapter. Yeah, it may have its rough spots, but continually writing and re-writing the same chapter isn't helping.

EotS: So you're really going to write teh smut? You're not going to procrastinate? Pull the other one.

ME: I am going to write it. (stompy foot) I am!

EotS: Right. Just as soon as you re-write the dialog in the scene with Spike and his mother...



*headesk* I'm never going to finish this chapter.

Comments

[thedabara-cds.livejournal.com]

If it makes you feel any better, I'm in the same boat. I've been working on the next chapter to my fic TNKP for well over six weeks. I've written the whole chapter out twice, and then was so unsatisfied with it both times that I pitched it all. I finally decided to play with one of the plot bunnies I've been saving for after I finished TNKP for an hour & then go back to working on TNKP. Seven hours later, I've got a new fic more then half-done, and am still hopelessly blocked on TNKP. *headdesk*

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Sympathies. It's frustrating, isn't it? (And I fear that I've been going working on this chapter since right around Christmas. Sad, isn't it?)

[deborahc.livejournal.com]

Easy on your head there - or on your desk - whichever is harder; ). Sorry you're having such a hard time. Can I ask a question? How do you feel about posting your chapter even if you're unsatisfied with it, and then seeing if any of the Comments you get back give you any ideas on improving it? Or maybe the Comments you get back will reassure you that the chapter is great as it is? Other writers I read do that all the time; post new chapters in their LJs and then revise and re-post them. Just a thought...

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

It's probably an excellent thought, but I'm so teasingly close to the end of the chapter. I just need to make it through the love scene and it will be ready for betas. I think part of it is simply intimidation by the love scene. It's so easy to end up with purple prose (or for it to sound clinical). Love scenes are just so damn difficult that I procrastinate and procrastinate when they're involved. Sigh.

Determined to slog through more of it tonight. (Little Train that Could Voice) I am going to finish. I am going to finish. I am going to finish.


Thanks for the suggestion. I may resort to it soon. :)