I apologize in advance for any nonsense that doesn’t sound human in this post.  I have some kind of chest/head cold thing that’s progressively getting worse despite the NyQuil I took this morning.  Apparently all that stuff is good for is knocking you out.  I’m still drowning in my own phlegm and don’t have a voice although I think I have a fever now and can’t tell whether this weird feeling is me getting sicker or the NyQuil wearing off.  Fun!

So I started editing Diamond Crier on Monday, like I planned.  Yay for keeping to my schedule!  I’m finding that while some of the language, if I do say so myself, is quite nice, it’s nine different levels of stilted.  What was I thinking?  That’s supposed to be the voice of a ten year old?  That’s some mighty vocab for a kid.  I don’t know what I was reaching for but I think I had some misconception in my head on what fantasy should sound like and went for that.  Oh thank god I consigned to the pull four and a half chapters in.

While the language is on ten foot stilts, I’m amazed that I wrote it all because it’s something that you’d find in one of those pretentious navel-gazing novels that could win awards.  Most of it isn’t that good and is just one giant contrivance but some of it really took me by surprise.  Of course, it has to die for the sake of the story but I’m keeping the parts I really like because I have this odd fear that I’ll never write so naval-gazingly eloquent again even though I know that’s not the case.

That’s not to say YA can’t be eloquent.  It certainly can but this was not YA and wasn’t anything other than reaching way too far over my head in the writing department.  Or rather reaching for something that just isn’t me.

Not much by the way of editing is getting done to the first four and a half chapters because I know they need to be completely rewritten to match the tone of the rest of the story but I’m seeing what needs to be hacked completely, what’s a massive info-dump and what might have potential in the rewrite.  I’m still not sure where the story actually starts but hopefully rewrite will shine some light on that.

Ok, I’m going to quit while I’m ahead as I’m not too sure what it is I wrote and I think I just heard my dog yak on the stairs.  Lovely.  He’s sick too.  Blah.  Editing with a clogged head is not good.