I suppose I do these posts all the time, I disappear for a bit then come back so you know I’m not in a ditch somewhere.

I wish I could say I’ve been writing, but the truth is well I’ve been suffering from a severe case of my-story-suckseeitis …. at least I think it does.  I am not unused to this particular malady, it usually hits me around mid-book where I start doubting where it’s going or if it’s boring etc. etc. I think with this book it has hit a bit harder because this is my second go round with this story.  I mean I’ve written it and I liked it, but the publisher thought there was too much going on so I had to restructure and rewrite.  Now I am doubting everything.

It didn’t help that my work situation has recently changed and I can’t say that I’m happy about it, but I have a job and I won’t complain about that – but of course that factors in to things as well.

However, I think there might be a light at the end of the tunnel.  I’m trying new things to get the muse off her ass and back into my head to pick this up and turn it out.  You see, I’ve taken what I’ve already written and added to it – so it’s not a complete revamp, but a little addition some moving around and of course a bit of rewriting.  I think once I’m done with the additional chapters the rest should be pretty easy (Famous last words).

Part of my jumpstart includes writing longhand – it’s something I used to do a while ago and I like it because it forces me not to concentrate on page or word count and just focus on getting the words down.  Of course the downside to writing longhand is having then to type it all in again.  For the most part I didn’t mind it, I would self edit as I went, but oftentimes I found it tedious because I was wasting time on stuff I’ve already written when I could be using the time to write new stuff.

I thought about using a recorder and dictating the story to myself, you know one of those little handheld digital recorders, but (and here comes a weird confession) – these are the same recorders used on those ghost hunting shows and I convinced myself that I would hear ghostly voices on the recording … yup I love horror movies soooo much I convinced myself I might be living in one and the last thing I want is confirmation by hearing anything other than my own voice back.  I suppose this is where I am supposed to admit that my house was built in 2006 and there has only been 1 other tenant in the house besides myself and I have never had a supernatural experience in my house – yet I am convinced I might so why try it.  I’ll now wait while you finish either laughing or feeling badly for the nutcase I am.

Done?  Good.

So that still leaves me with the whole transcribing thing again, but then I remembered a commercial I had seen which usually plays non-stop around Christmas selling a program for your computer that types what you dictate.  A friend and fellow author has this program and she loves it (Hi Wendy!!).  So I thought about giving it a try, of course it sells for $75 and I thought it was a bit pricy so I went to eBay LOL.  I found  it for a price that I could afford and so now I am the proud owner of Dragon Naturally Speaking  dictation software.  I’m hoping it will make the transition easier – of course it has to be formatted first and that consists of sitting in front of your computer and speaking into the headset.  I’ve been told the more you use it the better it is.

So now I think I have all the tools I need to push ahead.  I promise to keep going!

Until Next Time,