Crutches

Trivia:  It snowed on the last day of summer.  It didn't freeze hard enough to kill the zucchini, so it will still flow onto my kitchen counters.  If I had the courage of my convictions, I'd yank it up by the roots.  I don't.  So, I wait for the frost to do my dirty work.

Writing:  I've decided that beta readers/ critiquers are a crutch.  One I rather keep in my life.  I've learned so much about my writing from them, not all of it good.  (I make the dippiest of mistakes that even I know better to make in the heat of the writing.)  More important, they catch the stuff my eyes glaze over.  I read it but my brain doesn't catch it -- even though I catch the same thing in other books.  Even published ones.

I wonder if other unpublished writers get discouraged when they see "beginner mistakes" get published.  I don't get discouraged per se, but if there are too many, I put the book down.  My internal editor stifles my enjoyment of the story.


Progress:  I got Emma off the hill and into the arms of the villeins!!!  Or at  least, into their castle which is rather stupidly made with two towers opposite each other -- instead of building their bailey in the center of the fort on raised ground.  That's a plot point I had no idea about.  I'm going to have to use it in some way.  Until then, Emma gets to contend with the lady who lured her into Faery in the first place.


Tangled is still getting chopped.  Up to Chapter 7, and the pace remains almost 1000 words a chapter.  (So far the multi-character plot progresses.)  But the times I say the same thing twice, only a little bit differently!!!  Thank you critiquers for pointing them out.  Also, when I use the same word three to five times on a page.  I don't always catch them myself.  -- Only one chapter got eliminated, but I may be able to turn it into a short story or novella.