Work on my new manuscript has been a slow crawl.  The outline is there, so I know where I plan to go, and I wonder if that is part of the problem. 

Writing with no direction, just the choices I watched my characters make was so liberating.  I was writing, and twists and turns just happened.  No planning or forethought went into it.  It was just free flowing magic.

Now I have an outline, and I'm having the hardest time writing.  I have plenty of excuses though.  First it was that I had a hard time sitting still when I have the cooking, cleaning, childcare, and animal care to occupy the best of my time and energy.  I got the kids on a schedule, and I'm now trying to live on little sleep.

Then I started reading all of the blogs I could where I could find an agent, editor, or published author was spewing knowledge.  I'd devour everything, including every possible tweet on twitter.  Actually, I had also just added everyone I could on twitter as someone to follow, hoping to create a cache of people willing to read what I'd write.  I decided to weed through the extras.  I went through all of those I follow on Twitter first.  I stopped following anyone who wasn't an editor, or agent, or a writer that I have either talked to (online) or whose books I've purchased and read (usually repeatedly). 

Next I plan to go through all of the blogs I follow and weed out the extra readings from there.

Eventually I plan to look into all of the actual agents and editors I follow, and stop following any agent that wouldn't represent my work.  The problem is there are so many people giving out wonderful advise in a world that is so new to me.  At the same time, I'm knowingly following advise of those who would never represent my work, with the full knowledge that it is a highly subjective business. 

So the kids are asleep.  The husband is at a concert (not a fan of live music myself).  I've blogged the weight off of my heart.  The dog and cat are sleeping at my feet, and I'm ready to work on my manuscript.