Them Blues...Part III

I got them blues...

Yes Lawd, yes Lawd...

Them sitting in the back of the club, crying in your beer, cuz my man done left me type of blues...

You know, that reminds me of a song I heard on a Sunday afternoon blues show on one of the radio stations here in the ATL was hollering in the chorus of the song...

"You some kind of lover... but you a no good nigga."

Oh my. Now there's a woman who is happy in bed, but she got some isshas: like dude done messed up her credit, whooped her tail on a regular basis, wrecked her car, cussed her out, stepped out on her... just no good.

Let's just say people were calling in telling the disc jockey not to play the song anymore. EVER.

Oh my. I don't have THEM type of blues. The horror.

No, not quite...

Just got them writing blues.

Ugggggghhhh!!!

If you've read the last 2 parts of this series of posts, you know my dilemma: My mind is getting all tangled up when I write.

And I know I have to understand that I can't write from a reader's point of view, but from a writers point of view. And this is hard, and makes it more work and strain then anything that I enjoy doing.

Now, even though I have to be picky about what I turn into class, I must say it has been more beneficial than not. For the two years that I took writing classes, I got a LOT better at listening to people read and critiquing other's work. And the critiquing of my own work has helped me immensely.

But I must say that there are things that I write that I can't put through the class. Sweet Heat for example. Many of you on the the Original Oldgirl Critique Squad suffered through all 1086 pages of that rough first draft. Many of you REALLY read that thing and we really talked about it. I do believe that a few of ya'll cussed me out at times, lol...

The thing is, I REALLY liked that manuscript. I enjoyed working through it. I enjoyed the fact that my critiquers enjoyed it. I enjoyed the criticism of it.

And I just want to get that feeling back. That feeling of really enjoying this lil' writing hobby of mine.

That's what I want the most. It's like the first time you fall in love, though.

Do you ever get that feeling back?

Can I get that feeling back?

Sweet Heat to me is EXTRAORDINARY. First of all, it is something that I completed. All 1086 pages, but it is completed. The first 450 pages were edited line for line by urban literary author Nichelle Tramble, who has written 2 books, has a ton of editing experience, and is currently a writer on the NBC show Mercy. We talked much over email about it, and she really got me fired up about it. She really liked it and told me that I have "excellent story telling chops".

Oh, that made me feel good. She gave me a lot of things to work on and things to think about.

The thing about Sweet Heat is that it is basically 2 books. (That's why she only read the first 450 pages. We determined that was the break.). Second, I've muddled around in a bunch of offshoots. For those who read it, there's a whole novel manuscript idea involving Vaughn's lawyer. I have a rough draft of a novella finished up for Vaughn's best friend, Danielle titled Leaving Jersey. If you've read the Biscuit Blues series of stories here on the blog, posted up some 3 years ago ("I Love My Wife", "Buttermilk Biscuit Blues", and "Cold and Heavy"), well, that's all about Vaughn's secretary, a very sweet, unassuming woman name Sylvia.

My teacher said something in class one day that made me cheese like Celie...

"LadyLee has this wonderful way of taking a minor character or side plot of a story and going off and exploring them and writing a whole other incredible story about it all."

Yes I love a good sidebar story. If you read the story "Ma'am", posted here during the week of my birthday when I was off on a cruise, well, that is a side story of the story I am working on during NaNoWriMo month.

That's a good thing, and a bad thing at the same time:

I have very little focus.

I rarely finish stories.

And I realize that's just my thing, you know? But it won't get me very far.

Now, I am trying to figure out what to do with myself concerning these high post issues of mine...
And there are some things that have happened to snatch me in the right direction...

To be continued...