Working at things

The outline for Resolutions of Trust is going pretty well. Poor Emil hasn't quite accepted that the only way he's going to get out of this mess is to kill his wife, though she's already made it plain that no one is safe if she thinks they're going to be a problem for her during this crisis. We've already seen one person take a leap from a building top -- and not entirely their idea, either.

And then there are the FBI people asking around and trying to get him to come to their side -- but he's not ready to make that kind of a target out of himself, either.

It's an odd story. The outline is moving slowly, but that's all right. I'm purposely slowing down for these last few days before NaNo. I need to get some editing done over the next few days and line up a couple submissions for November. Beyond that... not much I need to worry about until 12:01am on November 1st.

While reading through submissions for DT today, I found that I may be far too sensitive to 'was' statements. The moment I see one, I immediately begin to rewrite the line to take it out. No other passive voice wordings affect me in this way. And yes, I know that a 'was' statement is not always passive voice, but it doesn't matter to this odd affliction!

There is something else that I think is weak writing, and that's repetition of a word, either in the same sentence or in the same paragraph. This obviously doesn't apply to every word. Usually it's a bit of description or a noun. The storm, blowing in from the east, dropped rain all during that stormy day. We tried to out race the storm, but by midnight the storm had caught up with us again. Stuff like that, though usually not quite so blatant.

The two of them can ruin a story, no matter how interesting it might otherwise be. They are both usually invisible to the writer, though, until it's pointed out. Holly Lisle threatened to remove the W-A-S letters from my keyboard not too long ago. I also often find the repetition in my own work and grimace as I try to rework the sentences.

And that makes me think about NaNo and not worrying about such things. I'm not sure what I expect out of this year's NaNo project. I am looking forward to the Singer and St. Jude novel, though. NaNo may be insane, but it suits me. (grin)