Killing your darlings

I've come undone.

Real life has intruded so far into my writing that I've lost focus on editing Blackbird. This may not be a bad thing, however, as it gives me some time to mull over which character is going to get the ax. As a novella, Blackbird has such a short time to make a big impact that gratuitous (though fun) zombies aren't an option yet during my re-writes, I feel the need to do something...more.

My MC doesn't have the pull I want her to, I feel more attached to her sidekick and her hero. Should Esme make the final cut or should she be tortured just a tiny bit more by the ghost?

Book purse

Two things get me quite giddy these days - bookstores and purses. Odd combination? Not really. What's better than slipping a well-loved tome into a Coach bag? Not much, my friend.

Now we can combine the two in an Earth-friendly recycly kind of way :)

Aaaaaaaaaand

So now what?

Blackbird is finished and well into the editing phase. Luckily for me, it's short (under 25k words) so it'll be a breeze, right? Well, not so fast, sparky. My writer's group, Literary Geniuses (yes, I thought that up), is moving from a NaNo group to a in-yer-face crit workshop and I'm up on a platter.

So far, I keep hearing things back like, "I hate her name" and "do you realize Stella jumps out of the truck - while it's running - to only speak two sentences then jumps back in leaving your MC dumbfounded?"

What the bloomin' hoo-haa did I get myself into?