The really unfair bit about writing--and I understand this is true of painting as well, and no doubt music--is that it never comes out as good on the page as it does in your head. We were sitting on the couch watching anime tonight when I suddenly had this fantastic idea for my long-awaited second novel. The main character has to find something his late grandfather hid before he died, and not being an analytical sort I've had a hard time coming up with clues for him to put together in order to get there. Then it hit me, this great way the grandfather could not only conceal the thing from everyone else but do so in a way that would tip off his grandson as to where it is.

I grabbed a notebook and scribbled down the essentials, and then when the show was over fired up my computer and wrote the scene it figures in as quickly as possible so I wouldn't lose it while it was still fresh in my mind. And while I still love the idea, the scene just SO falls short of how it seemed when it only existed in my imagination.

Bah. One of my biggest obstacles writing-wise is that I want everything to be perfect on the first try and I get dejected when it's not. It's annoying and stupid.

Anyway, last night I hammered on one chapter of Neon Blood, one of those (mercifully few) chapters that doesn't just need editing but a solid rewrite. It was very tough going but I'm almost finished with it and am pretty satisfied with how it turned out. I'll read it over again and see how it looks now. This would be chapter...fourteen, I think. Which leaves only seven left to go! Woo hoo! I've been immersed in it for a while now and am not relishing the idea of printing it out and proofreading the manuscript. For one thing, it's drudgery, and for another, I'm afraid I'll find something else I want to rewrite. I can picture a circle of Hell where damned writers obsessively toil away at the same book for eternity. "It's coming along great! Just a few small changes and it'll be done, I swear!"