Frog Day

At left, large copyright-free image from wikicommons of a frog in mid trill.

Yesterday was Frog Day at my house: that's the day all the frogs come out of burmation and begin their calls.

You can hear them tonight.

"Heeeeeey Baby! Heeeeeeeey Baby! Hey!"

Apologies to No Doubt.

It's a good time to bring up frogs because you have to kiss a lot of them to find a prince.

That's why I'm insecure right now: I'm kissing frogs.

Hey, maybe that's a good thing because it is Insecure Writer's Support Group time!

You can find the whole crew of insecure writers over here.

I'm sort of between projects which is to say I'm having trouble focusing on the next incomplete project to resume and drive to completion.

I intended to work on project (A) but inadvertently became interested in (B) and just yesterday, shared the first line to (C) with some critique group friends (inspired by Penmonkey-in-Chief Wendig's blog).

Now, I'm interested in (c). What's worse, I realize that my protagonist in earlier drafts isn't that interesting and the female lead - part of the conflict - is really much more interesting. She's also very close to an adult version of the adolescent protagonist in (B).

Yea, you're lost.

I'm forging fiction here. Stay with me!

So, by playing musical-protagonist between two incomplete projects, altering a point-of-view, and adopting a more threatening conflict I might have something salvageable.

I cannot be alone in having a stack of things that just never worked in the end and never received the heavy effort necessary to overhaul their sorry asses into something - queue trumpets and fanfares - publishable!

I'm going to kiss a couple of these frogs after this blog posts and outline a new story with a new plot (some old elements, some new) which focuses on more conflict and more interaction between the protagonist and the every-man point-of-view character. Yes, we have a point-of-view character who is out grounding in this particular world of dysfunction and mayhem.

No, it isn't post apocalyptic. It is pre-civil collapse. I'm a student of Roman history. Big student. Roman Law. Decline and Fall. The History of Roman Desert Fortifications and Outposts. The Loss of  Provincial Security in the Time of Late Empire. Lives of the Caesars.

I know how things fall apart. I cannot stop them, but I know.

I'm putting that in my little twist here.

Kissing frogs? Not as bad as it sounds.

Probably find a prince. My luck.

I'm hetero. Can't buy a break.