Well, maybe not by Wednesday or Thursday.
I had forgotten how irritating my journalling procedure was. It was so much better than the old way, before my site revamp, that it didn't seem to be a high priority to fix - but still, I had to download, edit, upload, proof, edit, upload, etc., which had several steps prone to failures, and was irritating to set up each time I needed to add just a few lines to the journal.
Last weekend reminded me that I had always intended to put together editing tools to maintain the journal.
So instead of polishing "The Kiss," I've been working on scripts to update the site, brushing off rusty skills, and I'm writing this entry using the new tools.
Of course, the first time I wrote it, this afternoon, I had everything perfect, ran the publish script and deleted everything I'd done. And I hadn't saved a copy. This time I'll make a copy before I submit the update. If you're seeing it, it worked...
I've commented before that I find it easier to create interesting situations from a male protagonist's perspective. It might be easier for me to write the sex scene from the point of view of a girl, but the situation surrounding that scene, and the seduction before it, usually works better from the guy's point of view. This has become even more true since I've tried to cut out the interchangeable encounter stories and focus on more interesting erotic situations.
(And in looking for where I wrote that, so that I could link to it, I can't find it. Did I imagine writing it? I know I've thought about the issue before, because it has been one that has puzzled me. Well, I'll look further in the next few days, and if I can't find it, I'll lay the reasons out again. The vastly oversimplified and caricatured version is that getting the guy into bed isn't enough of a challenge to be an interesting scene to write.)
And so, again, the current crop of stories have male protags. (Except Impressions, but for obvious reasons, that one doesn't count.) "The Kiss" will have, and A Song for Gabriel does.
But there's another story I've had bouncing around in my head for a while, that I assumed was also going to have a male protag, but I realized that with some changes it worked better from a female perspective, as long as the guy actually had some backbone. (Which is something, you'll notice, I'm sure, many of my male characters are a little lacking.) And that gave me the opportunity to do something I've been wanting to do - and that has actually been a request of a number of readers - for a while.
That story's still in the pre-planning stages, but I'm pretty enthusiastic about it, now, so I believe that I will write it.
Another female point-of-view story is likely never to see the light of day. I like the idea, but there's an aspect of it that makes me uneasy on several levels. The events are triggered by an experience with illegal drugs, and could well be read as being pro- some classes of drugs in some situations. That's not something I want to do, and the experience isn't something I've ever had (or want), meaning that though I feel the story as a whole would be very erotic, I just don't think I can write it. If I can find a way around the details that disturb me, then I certainly will.
One problem with that, though, is that ideas tend to lodge in my brain as obsessions, and even though I don't want to write this one, it keeps coming up when I'm looking for new ideas. I've found the same in thinking about stories, short and longer - once I've established a situation or event, it's very hard for me to see past that, even if it isn't working. "But if that changes, then this part is going to have to change, and she's dependent on this, so that will break the whole story..."
It feels like I need to keep a story intact for reasons of fiction, but most of the time it's because I'm too obsessive-compulsive about writing to be able to give imagination free rein.
Anyway, it's time to see if my script will eat this update, too. This time I will make a copy first.
Well, I did it, after a few more days script-tweaking. I changed the title slightly. K.I.S.S. seems appropriate.
In re-reading Thursday's entry, I guess I must have been feeling a little negative. Maybe it was after wasting so much time with maintenance, but I don't think I really feel as disappointed with my writing as seemed to come across there.
And in other news, the twins invoted Amy over for dinner tomorrow. Laurel has been twisting my arm to get me to join them, but I don't know.