Writing is a Socially Acceptable Form of Schizophrenia

I recently received rejection numero four for "To Reign in Purgatory" from The Town Drunk. I don't know why this rejection bothered me while the other ones I managed to brush off. Maybe it's because I'm getting close to the bottom of the barrel as far as places I plan on sending it, and it'll go back in the drawer after that.

Maybe it's because I was horribly sick this week and my mood was already not so bueno.

It's hard to remind yourself that rejection is just part of the process to publication when you're hacking up half a lung and your abs feel like a ninja monkey has kicked them repeatedly from coughing too hard.

Oh, and being heavily medicated probably didn't help.

Right, so fuck it. On to the next place.

As far as the 2YN goes, I think I've fixed some character motivations, filled in a few plots holes, and am very pleased with the two characters I combined into one. I also moved around the order of a good number of scenes, and it seems to have picked up the pacing a good bit. So, all in all, I'm still pretty happy with this project.

I still think I need to write something new. Just for fun. Maybe Justin's exercises might give me a boost.

Right, off to write!

So, the first time I read the section in Donald Maass' Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook about combining characters, my brain rebelled.

"But, but...I need those characters! All of them! Combining them together will destroy them!"

Now I'm starting to see that combining them may in fact make them stronger.

I'm in the rewrite phase of ze 2YN and I've been having a big problem with my MC's love interest (who happens to be a ghost). She just didn't seem to come to life (pun very much intended). If anything she was just kind of there, urging him on when he needed a nudging. My MC has a former FBI partner (also a ghost), who is way more important to the plot, has many more scenes, and is more emotionally involved and causes tension.

Why not combine them?

It seems so simple now. You know, after rewriting about a third of it from scratch.

Of course, I might think this is a terrible fix and change it again...