My Agent Told Me To Make A Blog

I've finally realized what the worst, hardest, most frustrating thing about writing is for me. It took a few instances across a few different projects, but I've just noticed this is consistently the thing that sticks me in one place for weeks on end. Editing a chapter to finally work, then realize it doesn't work and have to scrap it. Multiple times in a row. Ending of my first book? A month of rewriting and throwing out chapters. Beginning of my second book? Another month of rewriting and throwing out chapters. In the drafting stages, I can get through it by reminding myself that I can fix all this crap later. In the editing stages, it is "later," and time to fix that crap. It's never the same issue twice, so it's not like I can predict and avoid. I suppose it's related to the fact that I largely "discovery write," and ideas crystallize as words form on the page. I may write through an entire scene, and then realize near the end there...

Some more flash fiction for you today - and this one had to be less than 350 words. It's for weekly flash fiction practice my friends and I have started among ourselves, so expect more of these in the future! The prompt for this one was "silver." --- Time warped around Yellow and spat her out with the familiar pop . Jungle shrubs warped into flat counters; trees melted together to form walls; the stream solidified into a long carpet. She wobbled and clutched a hand to her head. “Oh dear.” A fashionably dressed couple glanced at her with matching frowns. In front of them, a confused mess of colors passed for a priceless painting. Yellow whirled around, gaze sliding over the array of clashed-color art, until—there. A track of mud on the tiled floor. She scrambled after it. “What happened to the Endari leader?” she muttered to herself. “Oh, the intern lost her somewhere in time.” She slid around a corner, arms flailing for balance. ...

A while back, I gushed about how awesome the solar system is , and gave a very brief overview of details I've learned about each planet. However, I felt I needed to give some extra attention to one of the planet that most "wows" me: Venus. (There may be another post in the future about the ice giants, which are a close second). The thing about Venus is how ferociously, cosmically, scorchingly inhospitable it is. I mean, all the not-Earth-or-Mars planets are pretty inhospitable, but Venus impresses me beyond the rest. Acid rain and metal snow, a molten surface that our probes can barely survive--it's fierce, man. I never thought much of it until I watched a planetarium show that demonstrated these aspects in blazing panoramic color. Venus has a few interesting quirks. The sun rises in the west and sets in the east. It has no moons. The planet itself rotates slowly, but the atmosphere whips around at hurricane speeds. A lot of old sci-fi speculated Venus to ...