It’s Friday!!! I know it is, since I missed garbage day yesterday. :lmao:

Anyway, this morning I’m taking a few minutes to enter my handwritten notes on Widowmaker into the word file—it cuts down on the amount of writing crap I take up north. Even though almost every aspect of my writing now takes place on the computer, the print copy is still a vital part of my process. It’s a reader brain vs writer brain thing, I guess. When I make notes in the margins, I only allow myself to note a problem, not fix it. I figured since I have nothing else to blog about, I’d share some of my talking to myself with y’all.

WTF? — This one’s in there a lot. It means anything from an ugly sentence to “Where did the gun come from?”

yank — Abrupt POV change or something similar. During initial edits for Forever Again, the comments on POV change started as “This is a rather abrupt POV change”, and, after more than a few, degenerated to “yank”. The shorthand stuck in my head.

gag — Syrupy, over-the-top purple prose type stuff.

why is her mantel clock in the barn? — This one’s a result of writing out of order. Initially my “black moment” scene consisted of two paragraphs, which took place in the house. Later, in another notebook, I wrote the rest of the scene, and it actually takes place in the barn. The mantel clock grew legs and followed along, apparently.

an dennn — Oops. Telling, now showing. In this particular paragraph, I basically stop the story, move them all around like chess pieces, then resume the story. Bad writer. Bad.

echo — a word used more than once too close together. This is another holdover from edits, and it drives me mad. I need to find out how that woman brainwashes me (her voice is chipper in my head, too) .

it’s a state, moron — I switched the dates two different territories achieved statehood. I’m not letting myself get away with it, I guess.

again? — kissing scene almost a carbon copy of previous kissing scene. Oops.

blah blah blah — boring rehashing crap that I want to skim. Must fix.

crybaby — No sniffling cowboys. So the murder was devastating and brutal. Be stoic, dammit.

Yeah. And that’s just a small sample. Other than specific ones, like mantel clocks and statehood, these are the same comments I use all the time. And since I’m not very nice to myself in the margins and I always come out of this phase saying “OMG, I suck”, I’ll close this rambling post out with this review of Interstellar Sparks. It actually made me get all sniffly. (But I’m not a cowboy, so it’s okay.)

4 1/2 Lips from Kerin of Two Lips Reviews!:

While Shannon Stacey always writes wonderful and creative stories, Interstellar Sparks was exceptional! From Ilyna’s forthrightness to Bryan’s capitulation, this story is hot from beginning to end. Their connection was immediate and the ease with which they became emotionally attached, beautiful and refreshing. The love scenes were fiery and Bryan is definitely an Alpha not to be outdone in the eroticism department. I highly recommend reading Interstellar Sparks.