Okay, I'll say it.
mood: 
grumpy
grumpyBecause I'm following a pattern with The Latest that's become all too depressingly common over the last year; I'm just now getting the structure and background of it sketched in enough that it can stand up under the surprisingly meaty plot this bunny's grown... and I'm now losing steam on it. It's not precisely intimidation, though yes, it will be a long one, and it's not exactly getting mired in the details, although yes I am still writing out the outline, and it's not even that I'm tired of the idea, although I've been chewing on it quietly for nearly two weeks now. It feels as though I'm just saturated with it to the point that I can't make any objective judgment calls on it anymore, and knowing that, I assume that the whole thing must be less good, less interesting, less worthy than I would like to suppose. Which means the Clue Chump Factor begins to rear its ugly head, and I start having to fight myself over the potential worth of fiction I'm not even WRITING yet.
The interplay of collaboration can help to disrupt that vicious cycle, and even if the writing partner isn't acting as a co-author it still helps to have someone reliably, consistently there, and interested in talking shop on a regular basis. Someone who WANTS to talk shop with you, chew plots and characters with you, share scenes with you, even so far as to have a look at a stalled partial with wrench and red pen in hand to try and knock some of the inertia off it. Someone who thinks of you as a creative peer, and not a fan, or a follower, or an associate limited to the context of work, or a game, or a convention, or a renfaire.
Brighid's flame, am I ever jealous of those of you who have that.
Okay.
Confession over.
Back to the grind now.
