Not every journey starts with a single misstep...

[desperance]

How many times have I started a new book, got far enough along to snatch a breath, to think "Phew, here we go, just getting into things nicely," glanced back over what I've done - and then ripped it all up and started again?

That would be none, actually. Not ever. Never.

Never till now.

*tears up a dozen pages, starts again*

In other news: there is a Ferrari parked on the corner. When I say 'on the corner', I mean this in a very literal sense: on the pavement, where it widens to swoop around the corner of the park. Presumably its owner doesn't want to risk the beautiful object in any legal parking spot, and so plants it where it can most inconvenience pedestrians but should be safe from accidental damage. Hmmph. I am not the kind of person who drags his keys along the flank of a costly car, just because it's there - but it is there, and it didn't ought to be, and much as I love Ferraris, I still wish someone in authority would come along and give it a ticket. But they won't.

Comments

[j-luc-pitard.livejournal.com]

Was that the story you started the other day? Did you start with an outline or just go for it from the first line? I've torn up (metaphorically since I write on the laptop) work, but usually that's because I realize I don't know where it's going (and that's been short stories).

I'm not one for keying or any other sort of retribution, but you could put a note under the wipers. I've done that before.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Was that the story you started the other day?

Yup, that's the one. Stupid snarling book-thing, sassafrassin'...

Did you start with an outline or just go for it from the first line?

Went for it, largely. It will need an outline, but I want to write the opening chapters first, before I even consider where the story might be going. Gives me a grounding, somewhere to spring from. At the moment I'm not even sure where it ends, which is usually the other thing I do know. First line, last line: all else to be discovered...

I'm not one for keying or any other sort of retribution, but you could put a note under the wipers. I've done that before.

Me too. Seriously abusive, on occasion. But alas, the moment is gone. So is the Ferrari.