Pea soup

So, I started reading Norman Mailer's "The Naked and the Dead" about a month ago. And I'm not even halfway done. I was starting to think maybe I'm getting old, eyes not working the same, patience thresholds changing, but then I buzzed through Webmage and Cybermancy by Kelly McCullough in two days. And I just flew through Elizabeth Bear's Hammered. I just can't read "Naked and the Dead" fast. If I make it through a whole chapter, that's an accomplishment. The funny thing is, I'm really enjoying it. I like this book a lot. I simply cannot read it fast. I'm not quite sure why that is, either. The words don't feel any denser, but it takes me longer to read a sentence, to process it and move on. And, sure, the plot's slow, but that's because it's exploring the men themselves. I love that. But ten or twelve pages and I need out. So, I try to read a few pages every day, and I content myself with that, intersplicing it with the quicker reads to keep my sanity.

The Man From Laramie (1955)

Okay, I've always liked Arthur Kennedy. I think the first thing I saw him in was Bend of the River way back in my youth, and I always looked for him after that. And he's at the top of his form in The Man from Laramie.

This was an okay Western. Not particularly great, but not bad either. I like Bend of the River better. Jimmy Stewart is always good, but his character was rather two-dimensional here. The only thing that elevated his role was Jimmy Stewart himself. Not so with Arthur Kennedy. He got the oh-so-lovely complex grey character, the one who wants to do right and tries, but he's got a temper, and he wants things now that he can't ever seem to get the honest way. So he strays a bit to the wrong side and tries to justify it to himself. He tries all the way to the end to make things come out right, and yet he never quite can. I loves loves loves him in this movie! I'd watch it again just for him. (He's also riding the prettiest buckskin.)

It made me realize yet again how important motivations are for me in liking a character (book or film), and how important it is that they stay true to themselves. Add in the layers of complexity and I'm sold.

Now I want to see Bend of the River again.

"It's Christmas, Theo, it's the time for miracles."

Today, I started in on POW rewrites, not necessarily by choice -- wasn't going to work on this one until the new year -- but because the beginning came to me. And I can write words that sing! Boy howdy, after nothing but what feels like forever of bland and mundane, I found the main character's voice today. And rediscovered how much joy writing can be when you're on.

Merry Christmas!!

Alternate Projects

Okay, so found I'm not quite ready to do novel. Still too many unanswered questions, mostly involving that dang setting. So, edited my fanfic story instead until I got stuck at the same dang part I've been stuck on for months. Switched over to a two-year old writing project that I really really want to finish because the end result will be rockingly fun. Unfortunately, there's a reason it's been around for two years. It's hard! I rediscovered just how hard tonight as I threw myself into it again. I may burn my brain out on this one, but it'll be worth it in the end.

Halfway through December. I did not keep up the momentum of nano, but that was because I couldn't get my mind around what happens next in the novel. I'd look at my outline, but nothing would come out when I sat down to write. So, I read a lot. Finished two novels, and am partway through a third.

Really, my brain is rather obsessed with the 50k it already has and editing that. I feel like I need to get it in shape, stop carrying the true story only in my head and have the paper reflect what I learned on the nano run. Been spending a fair amount of time rolling it around without much conscious thought. Letting the images and feelings run, letting the subconscious control the pathing. It has been solidifying nicely. Had one nice realization about one minor but important character. I feel a little surer of the voice I want now. I still can't figure out whether to go with my sort of alt-1940's world with the automobiles and suits and modern conveniences, or switch it into something more classically magic-oriented. I lean towards the former, because that's how the story was conceived. But that doesn't mean it serves the story. It just means I like it. And the world-building of that alt-1940's is a bear and brings some potential reader baggage I want to avoid. But... ? When the right setting gives me a zing, I know it'll be time to write.

The rest, as always, is a matter of sitting down and doing.

2007 nano wrap up

So, another nano completed. What do I have to show for it? 50,000 words I can't use, for one. Okay, that may be exaggerating. There was quite a bit of dialogue I rather fancied. And the story is still sound. But I never once got in the groove, that place where the language flows and you know you're writing stuff that will survive the edit. That freedom and immersion in language eluded me. It was an exercise in the mundane.

But that's okay. I knew that would happen from the get-go, and I accomplished what I set out to do -- get a first draft that explores the ideas I had and shows me what I don't want to do. I learned a lot about what doesn't work in this book. My brain is already trying to edit, refining and removing the dross, nailing down what I really want the final draft to do. Not letting it, not yet. Want to finish the second half of the book first because without knowing how it truly ends up, what's the point of revising?

Alas, I don't quite know where the second half goes yet. Good thing nano ended when it did! LOL! I have a bunch of broad notes, but I can't see how to get there in detail yet. I think another focus shift is in order.

So, music listened to while writing the first half:

"The Secret of NIMH" - Jerry Goldsmith (90% of the time was this score)
"Justine" - Jerry Goldsmith
"All the King's Men" - James Horner
"Just Cause" - James Newton Howard
"Ransom/The Chairman" - Jerry Goldsmith

On word counts, the most I got in one day was a little over 5000 words. I had two days of zero words. I found it worked well to get about 500 words in before starting work. Then I could do the standard 1600 after work and end up with around 2000 for the day.

I'd like to keep that approx. hour of writing first thing in the morning as I head into December.

Another one bites the dust

And that marks the completion of my fourth successful nano. Observations and conclusions tomorrow. Done with writing for the night.

Doesn't it figure?

3000 words left to go for nano... and I just ran out of detailed outline. Now there remains only a general outline with broad headlines and no specifics. Just 3000 words...

Tough cops

"Detective Story" shares some similarities with "Where the Sidewalk Ends." Detectives haunted by their fathers, obsessive in their pursuit of justice because of it, both chasing criminals they're told to lay off, both violent in their methods. Kirk Douglas in one, Dana Andrews in the other. I find "Sidewalk" a very satisfying film. "Detective Story" disappointed me. Maybe because the first moves and shifts constantly, with the hero getting himself into deeper and deeper trouble, and in "Detective Story," the hero reacts to situations and circumstances, he doesn't cause them. There's nothing wrong with that, and "Detective Story" is a good movie. Kirk Douglas is awesome as usual. It just isn't a repeat viewer like "Sidewalk" is.

Best part of "Detective Story" was that Bert Freed was in it (coincidentally, he's in "Sidewalk" too). I love Bert Freed. I'd watch him in anything. It's interesting, isn't it? It isn't always the good-looking hero we want to bring home.

Only 10K left now

All right! 5000+ words written today, which not only caught me up but got me beyond where I technically needed to be. Interesting stuff today. I started out with one goal-scene in mind, but by the time I got there, things had changed and that scene wasn't possible. Then I aimed for a second one, and danged if that one didn't fall through too! So be it. Realizing that 50K really will only put me at about the halfway mark to novel completion. I'm going to attempt to keep going, maybe not up to nano speed, but as close as I can until I hit the end. I did DTD in 3 months, no reason I can't do this one. I really really need to see where it's going because I have a feeling I can turn it into something very cool, but not yet. Not at this stage where the characters rule the show and not me.

Also had a new C! story idea. That one will keep awhile, but it rather intrigued me. I think it might actually be a re-working of another C! story idea I already have partially mapped out. I do tend to keep coming at an idea that I love until I find the best characters and plot to tell it. That's half of what P.O.W. is... ideas I skirted around in both DTD and Variance now coming to the forefront.

All for a story

Whew. Watched Billy Wilder's 1951 "Ace in the Hole." Movie's almost as hard to sit through as "The Ox-Bow Incident." Egads. A kick-in-the-gut movie. In the same way, you know it's going to end badly for innocent people, and you keep desperately hoping someone's going to do the right thing, and then when they finally try, it's far far too late. In some ways, this one is actually worse than Ox-Bow. At least in Ox-Bow, the lynch mob thought they had the right reasons. In this one... Kirk Douglas's character's motives are strictly self-serving as he toys with a man's life. He's great to watch in this one, so smug, so confident, and then so desperate and wrecked.

This movie is perfectly cast, and the script is tight and vicious. One rather big thing I kind of had to suspend disbelief on, but they made it work. A great movie, but not one I can watch again any time soon. It hurts too much.

Ack!

So, 32K and 62 pages into POW and an unknown character just appeared. A woman, no less, and I'm wondering 1) where she came from, and 2) where she's going, because she's obviously not in any of my outline notes. Ahem. So, how's she tie into things? How much does this change? Clearly, she's trouble with a capital T. But I'm not sure what kind. Does she have her own designs on Mitchell? Is she working for Stark?

I'm very intrigued by this unexpected chick, and I will let her go wherever she will.

And another well-timed discussion

This post sums up some of where I'm at while working on POW right now. I had a little bit of that last year doing Variance, the telling of which still feels beyond my current skill set.

Those odd coincidences

So, seems everybody's talking pov this weekend. Writer blogs I frequent, as well as new ones I followed links to. All of it appropriate, as I'm still debating how I want to tell this tale, except no one's saying anything that either 1) gives me some new fuel to contemplate, or 2) made the light bulb go off yet. It's just all really good recaps of what I already know, the kind that makes me nod and go "yep."

And I'm writing a book about a POW Camp survivor, and today, I met one from WWII. Now that's an odd coincidence. I'm never prepared for these kind of encounters, so I mostly let him talk. I couldn't think of the questions I really wanted answered while I was sitting with him, even the simple ones, though now, they're flowing in an endless cycle of question marks. Naturally. So, maybe that just means I need to go back and speak with him again.

Had my best writing day yesterday, even after all my various attempts to fail. Exceeded 4000 words and got myself nicely caught up. Got 1700 today, so I'm staying in line. I'm wrapping up chapter six, sitting at 56 pages single spaced. I didn't make it to the scene I thought I would, but that's good, as tomorrow should be easy to jump into.

The important interruptions of Nanoing

Don't you hate when a mere half-second of research siderails you into completely new and unrelated stories (and pleasant methods of procrastination)? I had mentioned bugle calls in my lastest novel, and I'd listed off three and just wanted to check to make sure I named them right... and of course, googling "bugle calls" brings up lots of fun sound bytes of the various calls, and I had to check out which ones I knew and which ones I didn't...

and now I want to either watch "The Horse Soldiers" (I'm long overdue on re-watching that one anyway) or write about the cavalry.

It's the little things

Fourth best word count night since starting nano. First person is working out okay, and so far it's far better than third had been. Even got some other writing done on the side yesterday without impacting nano that much. I'm looking forward to the next couple nights of nano. There's a drunken brawl to write and a hate rally. Not to mention an unexpected reunion, an arrest, and then an unpleasant reunion. I can't hear the dialogue yet, but I can see the scenes, which means it should flow fairly easily.

Had a thought of perhaps telling one character's past story and one character's present story simultaneously, in alternating chapters. Not sure yet whether the second story is necessary or truly serves a purpose, but my brain is having fun playing with the contrast, the added suspense, plus having a way to do a slow reveal that's necessary for the ending. Will see how it plays out.

It comes a little clearer

Ah, see! Now the stuff I was hoping to discover is appearing. Yesterday, I got a couple hundred words, but that was it. I didn't even try for more. Just ate dinner, called it quits, and went to bed before 9 pm. Today, I'm already up to 2000. Taking a break now until evening to let some new stuff gel.

I knew the voice was wrong, so I switched to first person. That helped. Mitchell's much clearer now. I also had a problem between my notes (he was quite bitter there) and what was coming out on paper (he was turning rather heroic). I knew the latter was all wrong, but what could I do? That's what was coming out when I was writing. Today, he started edging around the bitterness I wanted.

And I found out some of the reason today. I already knew I going to be re-writing everything up to this point, but now I'm really re-writing it! In fact, I couldn't resist going back and starting to change some scenes around. (Stop me!! Can't get new word count by simply replacing the old! Grrrrr.)

Now, I'm more in sync with my notes, and I also understand more where Mitchell's coming from, which should get me through the next couple chapters. Then I think I'll smack another wall, probably around 30K.

And Dezane? Not sure where this came from, but he's very foul-mouthed when he's angry. Not something I expected from him, as he seems so educated and urbane, but no, he's all about expressing himself in four-letter words. Not sure where that's going, but it has resulted in a couple of very funny scenes between him and Mitchell (who rather prudishly objects to the language) so I might just have to leave it.

Excuses, excuses

Hitting the wall early this nano. Got 500 words this morning, but tonight... brain refuses to work. I cannot see ahead right now, and it's driving me crazy. And I ran out of orange juice for my sore throat. And I'm cold. And I have "Rest in Peace" from Once More With Feeling stuck in my head now.

So, I resort to pictures to, um, er... inspire me?

Perhaps I'm going about this the wrong way

Still suffering inability to get the right voice down on paper. I'm currently writing in omniscient, which is a great surprise as that's not a pov I ever use. I like to get in someone's head and stay there. I can't get in these characters' heads. So, in this novel, so far, I'm mostly observing and pointing thing out as narrator. I keep trying to pull in tighter, and each time, I pull back, so from that aspect, it is a weird combo of povs as I experiment.

I keep getting the feeling it should be in first. I may even try a section like that, see how it reads.

And the other big problem is my lack of setting. I've been very careful to try and keep this as low-key fantasy as possible, mostly urban, and not much of that. And I think that might be exactly backwards. I'm coming to the conclusion that this story needs to embrace the fantasy aspects, head-on. That I can actually tell the story I want better for the fantastical and the contrast it allows, than for trying to steer clear of it. Hm.

How not to tell a story

Interesting. Nano proceeds, and I'm finding it quick and easy to get my word counts this year. However, the writing sucks. The story's events are exactly what I want, in fact, I've had some interesting surprises as I go along, all good. But I am not telling the story the way I want to. The voice is wrong, the pov might even be wrong. This actually fascinates me, how wrong everything's coming out. Not wrong, exactly, just not what I want. This will be the first time in the nanos I've done where very little will be kept from this first draft.

And oddly, that doesn't bother me at all. I think with this story and subject, I need to experiment a bit. I think I need to get the whole thing out before I can figure out the proper way to tell it. And I like that. I like that a lot. This time doesn't feel wasted at all. It feels like necessary discovery and learning time. It also frees me up during nano itself. The past few years I've stressed over the words, editing and chopping as I went. It made nano very hard, but it also gave me fairly clean drafts.

This time, I'm not worried over how any of it reads, and don't really care how lousy the sentences are. I just want to see where the characters take me so I can learn what makes this story so different in the actual telling. Why the straight-forward approach that worked on my other novels fails here. The sense that some important discovery about my own writing lies ahead makes me write faster and quibble less. It's quite cool and rather exciting. And oh-so-different from my normal writing experience.

Oh bother

Last day before nano... and I'm seriously considering changing my novel. Gah! "Why don't you do me a favor and shoot me." My novels keep getting tougher and tougher, in subject matter and in depth. Now, this is a good thing, we're supposed to take on more. How else do we grow as writers without reaching farther? But I have doubts about whether anyone will want to read this one except me.

Oh crud

Nano starts in five days.

Oddly, the score to Waterworld has been great outlining music for this novel. I say odd because that's not a score I would have picked as appropriate just off the shelf.

Am having trouble with setting for this book. I cannot get a handle on it. Okay, that's not exactly true. The POW camp is very clear in my mind, as is this one particular street in the city (not sure why that exact street or what I'll use it for, but I can see it!). It's the later action... it has no locale yet. Very unusual, as the locations are part of the foundation of a story for me.

Dang. Read the top of this entry and realized again how little time remains before I actually have to start cranking out words. Lots of 'em.

Eenie Meenie Miney, Moe?

Okay, read all notes on both potential nano novels, still vacillating, but now swinging back to POW. Had the right piece of the puzzle fall in my lap today. Watching/listening to a commentary on the 1948 film "Act of Violence" (excellent movie, btw), and the commentator began discussing identity, how it related to the two main characters, the noir genre, and the director. Takes something that simple sometimes, but I realized that's what a big part of POW is about: identity. I just couldn't label it until today, but now that I have, the novel just became much clearer in my mind. This pleases me greatly.

I've started compiling lists of names for it. It's stupid, but lack of the right names can be one of those annoying things that can really stall a project. And during nano is not the time to stall over something dumb. I'm not talking the main characters -- they're all already named. I'm talking the extras and secondary characters. But calling characters Jack 1, Jack 2, Jack 3 just doesn't cut it. Hence the name lists made up in advance. Need a character name? Just open the file, scan until something jumps out at me. Done. And in a fantasy novel, the flavor and sound of the names is important. Average novel potential name list for me needs 50-100 names in it. I won't use even half that, but I've got to have the selection at hand. Even that many's sometimes not enough, and I'll have to fish around elsewhere to supplement the list. Place names too... usually need a lengthy list of place names to choose from.

Draft!

Ahhhhh, sigh. The bliss of finishing something. It may be first draft, but it's still done and ready for editing. Some plot points and characters don't quite follow smoothly yet, as I wrote it out of order, but it's all there, all 10,000 words.

And now! Now, that it's out of my brain, I can start some serious nano thinking. Once again... too many projects and none of them screaming for attention. They're all exciting, I want them all done, but that extra 'write-me-now' spark is proving elusive. Leaning now, not towards the P.O.W. novel, but a YA book that was supposed to be last year's nano book, only Variance booted it aside. Gonna take a couple nights, review the notes on each book, see which one grabs me.

Dances with Fish

Wild... I was looking for this short story I have started, and as I was hunting through the files, I found one with a rather complex little SF short story outlined within. Characters, the world, everything. And I had no memory of it at all. I vaguely remember a couple things in there, but the bulk of it is brand new to me now. Wonder if that will make it easier or harder to write?

Not an auspicious beginning

Okay, so on my birthday, I wished for one thing. That my muse come back from whatever extended holiday he's been enjoying and work with me, damn it. In turn, I promised focus and industrious work on whatever he gave me.

So, big (BIG!) note to self: 'Dear Deb -- when making such promises about writing, do not -- repeat, do not start off your first writing night by watching any movie where Aldo Ray goes shirtless. It renders your brain (and most of the rest of you) to mush, from which it takes hours to recover. And little to no writing will get done, and you will just get pointlessly angry. Reading. Reading's the ticket. Thanks.'

Discipline? What's that?

Discipline looks a lot better when someone else is wearing the uniform.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I should be working on that novel. But I'm not. I'm working on the other novel. I'm unpacking boxes (got about 8 taken care of). I'm finishing off the contact paper in the last cupboard of the kitchen. I'm watching "L.A. Confidential" and wondering how I'd recast it if I'd been making it in the 50's. I'm cooking twice-baked potatoes for the gang. I'm sorting crud that's not mine in the garage. Oh yeah. And I'm working on the other novel. Because I can't get my brain into DTD mode. Need to watch "Where the Sidewalk Ends." Doesn't matter what mood I'm in. This is business. This is work. This is discipline.

Which I don't seem to have today. Sigh.

Getting back in the game

It helps to spend an hour figuring out your finances for the rest of the year, and realizing you will be worse than flat broke.

So. It will help, even a little bit, to start earning money for my writing again. So, I did a quickie look-see of my short stories and found all except one in need of serious rewrites. Cruised Ralan to see who takes reprints, found one that may be a nice fit, and sent it right off.

Tonight, I will do a serious evaluation of the various drafts of stories and see which ones are actually worthy of being sent out. My current goal is to work on shorts through the end of this weekend, complete and send out as many as possible. After that... it's on to the big stuff. DTD. No excuse not to finish the final draft and get it out the door.

And this means nano's out this year. The last thing I need to do right now is start a new novel, when I've got three completed and just in need of revisions. When those are revised and out the door, then I can both finish Variance and start the new one. Not until then.

And that's also the end of my fanfic run... I was just revving up on MM too, but I can't spend time on it any more. Not right now. Maybe after I get some more stuff out the door, I can slip in a few hours a week on it.

Crowd scenes

My conscious brain is a very visual thing, and it can hang onto a lot at once when I'm seeing a story unfold in my eye. It's like Cinemascope. Except you can't write in Cinemascope. You can write broadly or narrowly, but you only have sentences chained together to form your vision. Each sentence feels like a spotlight, even when you're writing broadly, and you have to point the spotlight correctly or the scene goes astray.

I've got eleven major characters with speaking roles crammed in one room with forty other extras and a band. It's the scene that sets up the entire rest of the story, and everybody has to be kept straight. If I had to think about what I want to accomplish in this scene, try to plan it out, use my conscious visual brain, I'd go nuts. This is where I rely on the subconscious's in-the-can version playing in my head. Which, yes, is different from what my conscious brain sees. My conscious brain sees the sets and the cameramen and actors and lights and marks on the floor. It wants to shout orders and play director. The subconscious shows me the 'finished' product. It already has the camera angles, the focus, and I trust it to be what the story needs.

And, of course, there's always the blessing of re-writes, which are usually not so much re-envisioning the scene, but refining how I describe what the subconscious shows me. It's odd to me sometimes how much the physical act of writing a story has little to do with the words. That probably makes little sense, even to other writers, but it's how I work.

Marquee change. Again.

More mental reshuffling on P.O.W. Now the good guy (the lt.) has been re-cast. (as opposed to the good bad guy (the maj.) who changed shape a couple weeks ago.) I was picturing a John Kerr/Joe Cable type for the lieutenant. Young, fresh, rather naive, though still a good soldier. Nope, that's not working out at all. Watching the movie "Battle Cry" last night, I realized that was not the type I wanted. I wanted young, fresh, reluctant, and a good soldier. Someone who doesn't say "I don't know if I can do that but I'll try because I have to" and go in and do the job, but someone who says "sure, I could do that, but I don't want to, so leave me alone." Much better foil for the major, and then when The Scene comes... it's even more devastating. And that makes me very happy. It also now makes me excited about both roles, whereas the maj. was stealing all the thunder before. Now the lt. is his match.

Ahhhh, I love writing.

And oddly, the Aldo Ray character in the movie that inspired this switch is not at all like the lt. in my story. He's not reluctant, isn't a loner (I sort of got a William Holden/Stalag 17 attitude imposed on him, LOL!) . It's just that I can see him being the way I want in my story. That's usually the way it goes. Someone grabs my attention and I think, that's nice, but what if he was like this instead? And the new character is off and running.

Did anyone see where August went?

I love it when stories refuse to obey me. Okay, let me rephrase. I love it when there's actually nothing written yet, and the story is still in formation phase. When reworking it doesn't involve trashing 100 pages of story and starting over.

My new novel (working title of P.O.W. cuz I gotta call it something), which I do believe I will give a shot at for nano this year, is in that lovely formation phase where there is nothing but beautiful discovery after beautiful discovery. The whole thing kicked off from a what-if branch off of an unsatisfying tv episode I watched, and it's now so far removed from that, I can barely recognize its origins. But the casting of the lead was one of the driving forces. Only he won't stay who I want him to be. The lead has turned into a totally different guy, and the guy I wanted has taken over the other lead character.

You know, the bad guy.

Who now that I watch my subconscious shift and change this story around, know that this takeover means I've got my heroes mixed up. Again. Must be another sign you're reading one of my books. Yeah, the characters aren't who you think they are. Didn't realize quite how grey I was on the borders of good and evil where my lead men are concerned. Okay, I knew, I've always known, but it still surprises me when it pops up in a book. Weird how I can still be surprised by such things.

Some serious blog neglect

Boy, I haven't been around here lately. Blame it on buying a new house, trying to sell the old one. Really did a number on my creative brain cells. They did not want to function. They're coming around now that escrow has closed, the move is pending, and the next phase of my life is about to begin.

So I was catching up on Storytellers Unplugged, and the following section from an essay by Brian Knight caught my eye:

(rant alert – most of the so-called envelope-pushers who self publish their work via Publish America and Lulu like to call their abuse of the rules of grammar Experimental, but leaving the “Speech Tags” out of the dialog in your novel isn’t innovative, it’s just dumb).

Which quite cracked me up because I know at least one writer who that would apply to. The annoyingly conspicuous absence of dialogue tags, that is.

Rather interested to see what project I get into as soon as the move is out of the way and I'm settled. Revisions on DTD? Or starting the new POW novel? Or should I save the latter for Nano, even though I promised myself I wasn't going to do nano this year. And I'm curious to see how revisions go on DTD, because when I started it, I had specific actors in mind to play the leads (not that "casting" lasts beyond the conceptual period -- the characters rapidly come into their own shortly into the writing process). But now, one of those could/should be played by someone else, and I'm quite curious to know if that will subconsciously color the re-write a bit, and if so, how.

Not there...

Okay, I admit. I can't write anything serious right now while life is full of other things. Trying to commit to a revision of DTD, but brain is too distracted to do it. Sticking with flash fiction and short things, but they're not satisfying. Having trouble reading too. I think I've started probably five books in the last month, and all sit languishing on the shelf, unfinished.

I'm oddly cool with this huge chunk of downtime. I'm not feeling like I can't ever write again, it's just feeling like necessary time off while some big changes occur. I think if I started to work on a bigger project that's important to me, I would resent the Real Life things for intruding on my valuable writing time.

So, opting to stick with very short things that won't engage the better part of my brain.

Ain't that the truth?

favorite phrase of the day...

"Multi-tasking means that you can do a lot of nothing at once."

from one of matociquala's journal entries today. She also wrote this, which cracked me up.

@$()*@(#)$*)(*#&$@#*

Stupid blogger. Stupid "upgrade" changes. Stupid Google account whatever.

I. Hate. This.

Why yes, of course I just love change, why do you ask?

all play and no work...

Been neglecting this blog in favor of LJ, ah well. And it looks like it's going to force me to switch to this google accounts thing. Lovely. One more login and password to set up and remember.

Writing has been unproductive of late. My own fault. Simply a lack of concentration. Novel edits were going well until I hit a wall. Have to shift a few things around and am not quite sure how I want to go about it just yet. And so it sits while I figure it out. Two new fanfic pieces are going considerably better, but they're not hopping either, merely plugging along. And how exactly does it all work out so prolifically during nano, anyway? Sigh.

New words!

I've been editing novel and working with established storylines for so long, that it felt positively refreshing to write the beginnings to not one, but two new stories today. Got about 800 words on each. And on the second story, another large chunk of plot fell in place, one that's perfectly tragically horrible, but it explains all sorts of things I had planned for later in the story, but couldn't figure out exactly how to get there. Now, I know. It will not make readers happy, it doesn't make me happy, but of course, it all delights me no end anyway.

famous last words

They say you don't remember the pain of writing a story after it's over. And it's true. You don't. The pain fades quickly and all you're left with is a shiny spread of words to savor. How long or how hard it took to get them no longer matters.

But that knowledge is not helping during the writing of this particular story.

I'll take that one, over there

So, I've been sort of working on all three novels, kind of alternating one then the other, waiting for the "this one NOW!" spark to hit, and, as expected, it's DTD. So, started getting seriously into the edits on it last night.

I'm on the first pass, which is namely: yanking all excess wordage, flagging sections that need to go, and putting notes in on new stuff that needs to go in. Pass two will be writing the new material. Pass three will be making the whole thing shiny. Then it'll need a beta reader or two to make sure I didn't break anything new, then it is declared done. I'm figuring two months, maybe less, with March 15th my current deadline to polished final draft.

off and running

So, I started editing one of my novels today. It's nearly 145,000 words long, and 45,000 of those words need to go. Yanking the unnecessary stuff is actually way easier on this particular work than I thought it'd be, mostly because this draft has been completed for over five years, and I'm a very different writer nowadays than I was then. The story's still sound, but can you say bloated prose? I didn't touch it in all that time either, which makes it about as fresh as this one can get.

This is a novel that I've struggled with the beginning, because I originally felt I couldn't jump into the action without setting a few things up first. The beta readers all said once they hit chapter two, they couldn't put it down from there, but chapter one, that all important chapter one, bored them. So, there's the "swap chapter one and chapter two" theory, which I toyed with and don't like (or haven't figured out how to make work). There's the "throw out chapter one entirely and just let her rip" approach. Or there's something between those two. But on that subject, I read number 5 of this post today, which made me rethink what I need to do to the beginning. Again.

And I really liked this consise post from Elizabeth Bear today on narrative tension. I was talking recently with a non-writer friend on why they can't put down some books, and wish I'd read her post first. Then I would have had words (dilemma, escalation, resolution) and an easy example to explain it properly. My take was much more long-winded.

So, I've been wondering how much writing I want to push myself to do right now. The year ahead originally looked to be more of a editing year, but now it looks like it's shaping up to be editing AND new stuff too. I've committed to writing a story a month for my sister, due on or about the 15th of each month. So that'll be 12 new flash or short stories this year.

I briefly thought about doing this too. It's only 750 words a day, it's a deadline, I've got a bunch of friends doing it, so there's that peer pressure thing to help keep things on track.... The only thing holding me back is that I tend to devote heavily to projects, and I'm not sure how much I want to split my brain up into a new project while I edit the older ones. I'm not the best writing multi-tasker in the world. And I don't exactly need a new project when I've got three others needing editing and a fourth that needs to be finished. Still, going to spend tonight contemplating which project I would write for the new novel, or if I'd rather just focus on editing.