Ramblin with Rizzo

Heyo, what's up and welcome back for another thrilling adventure with this infant writer. Guys, I have a lot to say and a short time to say it, so I decided to make this weeks post about my writing life and all that has changed since I started this blog, like... a few weeks ago.

Let's get started!

Twitter it a double-edged sword. There. I said it. I bet all other writers in the writing community on Twitter can agree. It is fun to watch your followers grow, your interaction increase, to see people actually interested in what you are doing because they are doing the same thing. I have met indie authors from Germany, Northern Ireland, Los Angeles to name a few. I have interacted with editors and learned about querying agents. I know the terms now: slush pile, MA, WIP, lifts, critique partners, sensitivity readers, purple prose, beta readers, etc. It's freaking fantastic.

It is also a time-waster.

It is also a pain in my already flattened tush from trying to write all day.

It is also depressing.

Don't get me wrong. I love the hype: that surge of adrenaline I get when I see people interacting with me after I've endlessly worked to interact with them and get seen. I love love love the questions about my main characters, the encouragement they give, the joy in others when they have hit a milestone I am only dreaming about right now.

But it drives me up the wall and down again into my little hole of distracted anxiety.

I remember now why I quit social media in the first place. I hated how much time I had to spend looking at that silly little screen to find friends. Now that I am trying to promote a book that is far from completion, I feel as if I am a single blood cell trying to stand out from the rest. I am red. I always have been, always will be.

Metaphors aside, Twitter mostly snags my writing time. I spend so much of my brain activity talking about my writing instead of actually writing my writing. At first, I thought my lack of motivation came from where the story is going, how difficult these last few scenes are to write. Then, I thought perhaps I just need a change of scenery. Maybe I've fallen into that familiar, scary cave of anxiety that I am always forcibly climbing out of. I am a cliff-hanger.

Then, I remembered the time. My days used to go like this:

1. Wake up
2. Got to work
3. get home
4. eat lunch
5. write till dusk

Now, my days are like this:

1. wake up
2. check phone
3. go to work
4. check phone
5. get home
6. check phone
7. eat lunch
8. Twitter till five
9. stare at computer screen
10. check phone
11. write a few words
12. check phone
13. oh, look at that, its midnight.

13 is such an unlucky number.

Note the repetition. Note the distraction, the little device that I thought was going to be my lifesaver when the time calls for it. Now, it takes me from the devise I am supposed to be staring at for hours on end.

Who likes phones anyway? The text is so small and you can't do as much as you can on a computer. Typing is painful, kills my eyes, challenges my patience. I hate them.

I hate Twitter.

There are other things-less depressing things-I wish to talk about. This WIP is turning into two books. Most likely. I have been back and forth on this for quite some time-since I reached the 150k word count to be exact. Does it make sense to divide the plot? How about shorten the story? I could take things out, but you would be losing strong character development, and there is not much I do have that does not align with the main plot. I can compress. I can remove a bunch of dialogue, switch scenes around and force the flow to be more direct.

Do I want to lose my characters? Do I want to lose worldbuilding? How about relationships, scenarios, actual pieces of the plot? I swear they are necessary. If only it could be like a season on TV, going until I say it is complete.

I believe the best course is to take my main two ever-entwining plot points and untwist those little bean sprouts into two separate entities. They will still be colliding once in a while; they are connected at the roots, but I believe they can become their own stories, their own books. And there you have it: a nearly completed first draft of 180k words becoming a nearly completed two first drafts of books 1 and 2. Hey, at least I will have my second book ready in case the audience wants more.

Here's hoping.

That's it, guys. Main takeaways: I hate Twitter and I may have two books on my hands. Thanks for sticking around to hear me rant in my overly sarcastic ways.

This is good, right? We're getting somewhere, yes?

Okay.

Thanks for readin my ramblin yo dawg fo shizzle and all that. Yeet. That's what the kids say, right?

I need a nap. 

This has been "Ramblin with Rizzo," a part of the show where Rizzo may be exposing her true insanity. Be ye warned.

By Rizzo/ Overthinker