Practice Makes Perfect, and If Not, It Sure Passes Time

I've been working like a madwoman on trying to write the second book of my series, and OUCH, it's making my brain hurt. It's like I can't keep the humor going, the first book is full of hilarious scenes that make me laugh out loud, but in the second one, I can't even seem to bring out a single giggle. That snarky little audience behind me (i.e. the audience in my head) keeps telling me I'm doing it wrong, I should restart, or give up, that sentence is wrong, the characters are likable, it makes me want to scream and bash my head into my keyboard. But I think I shall resist, I think my keyboard is older than my house, and it's had at least eleven years worth of greasy fingers tapping across it, slamming my face into it would only yield a face full of zits for the snarky voice to make fun of.
How do you get rid of this little voice? I thought I had it smashed, but it came back (much to my dismay, I didn't know it could come back in a smashed garbage can form) and has been nitpicking me to death. The saddest part is, it's me, I can't get my inner editor to shut and lock its lips long enough to write. It's driving me CRAZY.
Oh, but on the upside, I managed to memorize Etude, (Suzuki song) and I'm moving through the first book of Suzuki pretty quickly, I only started three months ago, (LONG three months.) I'm really happy with my progress, especially now that I'm not seeing it as my downfall that other violinists are better than me, I've got ninety days worth of practice, they've had years, so lessons learned, I need to practice on stopping those nasty thoughts that tell me I'm not good enough. Who says I'm not good enough eh? Well, introduce me to them so I can smack them upside the head. :)
Final thought of the day, I'm fascinated (and dearly in love) with horses, I find it truly amazing the way they organize themselves in pecking order and aren't mean about it. I'm hoping to lease a horse soon and I hope I can learn to be as progressive a leader to this horse as possible. What does this have to do with anything mentioned above? Well...nothing, it's just like everything else, it's going to take practice and you can only go forward if you're willing to take a few steps backwards.

Enjoy the cyclops smiley
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