The Last Four Pages
Nov 22, 2011 Daily Writing, Novels
If you’ve been following my highly sporadic twitter feed, you’ll know that I’m drawing near the end of a rewrite of one of my novel-length works. I have new plans for it given this modern age, so I’ve been going through and reworking it. And if you’ve been listening to my tweets you know that two days ago I “finished.”
Yeah, right.
I was still worried about the last chapter. This morning I’ve determined that the problem is not with the last chapter, but really just the last four pages. Of course, this is not really much better news as this story line leads to the next storyline (which is another book already in draft). A substantial change here will reverberate all the way down the line.
And, yet, that is what is so clearly needed.
Hmmmm …
Such is life, eh?
Strange
Oct 14, 2011 Daily Writing, Novels
Okay. I’ve avoided this long enough. This morning was spent going back to the novel project I set aside a couple months back. I’ve used the old “got to get a short story done” excuse a few times, and I’ve used the “got to read someone else’s stuff” excuse (just this morning, even). I’ve used the “I have day-job work to do” excuse way too often. Today was about just doing it.
And so I opened the hood and peered in and got to work.
I think one of the problems I have with this one is that in the root of my mind I think it has the chance to be something special. I’ve written a few novel-length works, all fairly standard fares. Good stories (I think), but not particularly unique beyond the events of the stories themselves. But this one is different. I’m not sure I’m good enough to write it as it needs to be written, and so it’s been easier to just let it sit there.
Strange, isn’t it, this writing thing?
Freebie Week
Oct 13, 2011 Daily Writing, Give Away, Short Stories
In celebration of finishing my latest story, I thought I might give something away. So here it is–a free story from my past. In this case it’s “A Matter of Pride,” which appeared some time back in Analog. It will be here for free for the next week.
If you like that one, you can find more stuff here or here.
While I’m on a linky role, I suppose I should remind all that my one Amazon reviewer (what a lonely guy, eh?) had these wonderful things to say about Picasso’s Cat & Other Stories.
Still Working
Oct 12, 2011 Daily Writing
In the air this morning:
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Yeah, the story’s coming along. As I figured, it’ll be tomorrow before I’ll consider it finished–and I’ll probably let it sit until the weekend to do a full editing pass, so technically it won’t be in a readable state until then. Fair enough. But it’s come together now and I’ve come to like it considerably more than I had earlier. Always a good sign.
It makes me feel better, anyway.
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Spent some time last night messing around with e-pubing stuff. So much to do.
Idea Walk, The Result
Oct 11, 2011 Daily Writing
Listening to British Blues today.
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So I did my walk at lunch yesterday and the results were astoundingly good. Thirty-plus minutes of exercise in the sunshine and open air, ten-plus pages of line-edited manuscript, and a complete framework of what the story is about. Game, set, and match.
Well…not quite so fast.
I’ve used this morning to do a total edit, and now I have a few key things to add. I hope it will be done tomorrow, which means probably Thursday or Friday. Shrug. It’ll take what it takes. Then on to the next rock.
