Outside looking in is a good thing...

For those who haven't met her yet, the image here is my favorite Sim model, Jacqueline. I put this poor Sim through about as much angst as I do my characters, and this shot is one of my favorites, as well as appropriate for the day's post.

Normally, when I do a Simmy photoshoot, I'll go through a series of poses that capture the mood and effect I'm after for that project. Sometimes, though, the same old same old won't do and what's needed is a fresh perspective. For this image, I shot a posed Jacqueline through a window - same pose, same set, different perspective. Which, as things turn out, is a very useful thing to remember when writing.

When I've been away from a project for whatever reason, there's always that phase of feeling each other out when I resume work on it. We need to get to know each other again, and the best way to do that is to read what's there, be it a single page or a few hundred of them. The trick is to read as a reader, not a writer. That will come later. It's like meeting the book for coffee (tea in my case; I like the smell of coffee but not the taste) to feel each other out and see how we'll get along as we are now. Since I'm the one writing the book, the good news is that we most likely can do quite well together.

This is the time to see the extant pages for what they are, not what I wanted them to be. What are they now? Is there anything that needs to change in order for me to move forward? How would I look at this if I'd plunked down my hard earned cash for it in the bookstore? In most cases, by the time I've read through, I'm eager to do the work that will take the project from partial to full. That's when the butt in chair, fingers on keyboard part kicks in and writing buddies are called upon to crack their whips and keep me on track. Handing any questionable passages off to said friends for their input also helps keep the wheels turning. That, and my ironclad rule that I can't do any Simmy photoshoots until I've written.