Lesson Learned

May 3, 2010 Daily Writing, Novels, Short Stories

Okay, I’ve learned a bit of a lesson. The idea of splitting a short story out of a novel is great, and all. But let me tell you that the process can be a bit of a pain in the backside.

The sub-plot story of my two pilots is rounding into shape, but the process of getting it back into the book is quite tedious. The story is told in the novel via a series of scenes separated by some distance. And I decided that it would be a good idea to keep the two in sync, so as I change things in the short story I go back into the novel and change it there, too, assuming it makes sense, anyway.

So the process is a bit of a bear to maintain.

Still, the act of looking at this bit as a stand alone short was worth it.

Zombies, Grass, and Other Fancy Stuff

Apr 28, 2010 Daily Writing, Life, Novels, Other Writers, Short Stories

I admit I’m not an expert in the field of zombie stories, but I’ve got to think Maureen McHugh’s The Naturalist is a really outstanding example.

For those of you who mow the lawn with self-propelled push mowers, here’s a little learning I had last night…when the self-propeller dies, those things are a pain in the tush to use. Yes, I passed up a trip to the gym yesterday after work in order to take advantage of the weather and cut the grass. I was actually bemoaning the fact that I wouldn’t get a full workout in, but the fates apparently listened. An hour’s work pushing along a 9,000-ton piece of equipment can totally kick your butt.

I know, my life is tough.

Progress:

I’m coming to the end of this little dalliance of mine to clean up my pilot sub-story–at least I’m coming to the end of this pass at it, anyway. I’m liking how the characters are working, but my spider-sense is tingling and I’m thinking I’ll need a later pass at it to make the rest of its message resonate at the book’s scope. Bottom line at this point is that I’m feeling myself learn again–which is great. Attempting to pull this bit into a stand-alone short story was a great decision, regardless of whether it ends up fully working or not.

Superheroes

Apr 23, 2010 Daily Writing, Life, Novels

A co-worker recently lent me a copy of The Science of Superheroes, a work I was aware of but had never previously seen. It’s a quick read, but my time is limited so I’m working my way through it 30 or so pages a night. Great fun so far. I’ve especially enjoyed how Weinberg and Gresh redesigned the Incredible Hulk into a steroid-wracked, fluorescing creature.

I’ve always loved superheroes as a part of my kid-hood, and also because my uncle was a major comic-head. When I think of iron Man and the Green Lantern, and Spiderman, and may others, I think of Dennis. And that makes me happy.

He passed some years back, but man, would he have loved the stuff they are doing with cgi these days.

John Bodin and I once wrote a novelette centered around a superhero named Quantum. It’s a pretty fun piece, good enough (in my opinion) that I’m still submitting it to places where it seems to fit. We’ll see what happens, eh?

Progress Update:

Today saw good progress on the book, though I’m still struggling with my two pilots. They are important figures, though, because they carry the message of war I’m trying to create. Back in the day of the first draft I didn’t realize that this was their purpose in the story (admittedly this may make me seem lazy, but really I think it’s more a matter of me learning story skills. Now that I understand their purpose, I feel a much stronger connection to them and the words are flowing better.

Bottom line: I broke a couple chapters out differently, and added quite a bit of depth to one of the two. Started working on the second, but ran out of time.

Movie Night

Apr 20, 2010 Daily Writing, Featured, Life, Novels

Lisa and I went to see How to Train Your Dragon last night, a movie Brigid recommended (she had dragged her boyfriend to it earlier, and even he had liked it). Much fun, if just a tiny bit slow at one part.

This morning it was back to the novel grindstone. I’m nearing the halfway point, which means I’m still having fun. I can already pinpoint the time period where I’ll think it’s junk again. [grin]

At this point I’m thinking of taking the first week of May off work, so if this book isn’t ready to go before then, it should make it across the line during that span.

“Kagari” Hits the Post

Apr 19, 2010 Daily Writing, Life, Novels, Short Stories

I completed a short story titled “Kagari” this weekend. Both Brigid (my daughter, for those of you who might be newish to me) and Lisa (wife) have read it and liked it. I mentioned it before as a story I’ve spent probably a quarter-million words on, so I’m happy to see it finally rounded into a solid form. Assuming all goes well, it’ll be off in the mail sometime later today.

I don’t usually use Brigid as a pre-reader, but she’s really pretty good at it. So I’ll have to see how much more of her time I can beg, borrow, or steal.

I also spent much of last week doing a big-picture review of one of my novels. I had marketed this one before, and it had received some commentary and interest, but it also seemed to have problems–meaning that I grew tired of it and no one immediately grabbed it and said “this is brilliant!” (though obviously it is!).

With some distance between me now and then, I think I see what was bogging it down. I made two major structural changes to it this weekend that provide focus where it needs to be. Having done this, I expect it needs another 5-10K words. I like it now, though, which feels good since I had kind of written that off as a training exercise.

So, between working on those to pieces, two trips to the health club, and cutting the grass, that was my weekend.

Yours?