Cliches-R-Us
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” Etc. Etc.
I know these sayings are true (well, the journey one – not the elephant one so much). That’s why they’re called “truisms” as well as cliches. And I try to remember them every night when I race home from work, bolt down some dinner, and head up to my office to face a blank page. Correction: a lot of blank pages. My target for the next book is 75,000 words. So far, I’ve only written 3,000 (less than half of them this week – I’d started writing a few scenes last month.)
It’s only the time that bothers me, though (or, to be more accurate, the lack of it.) Not the writing itself. That part’s hard, to be sure, but once I’m into a scene, it’s the most fun and exciting thing I can imagine.
I did a big-picture plot outline, which helped. Wrote character profiles, which did the same thing. Took a research trip that was nothing short of amazing. I know the basic story – now all I have to do is write it. All 75,000 words of it.
How do you eat an elephant again?
