As these things sometimes happen, I woke up today with a nagging doubt about “Life on Mars.” So, while I claimed it was finished through draft two yesterday, it turns out I was actually lying. Sorry about that. I added a new ending, and probably another thousand words overall after doing the detailed surgery it […]
Read More ...Category Archives: Daily Writing
Draft Two in the Can
Hmmm…not sure about that title, but what the heck. The second draft of “Life on Mars” is complete, taking two mornings rather than the one morning I had originally predicted. I’m sure it needs another few things, but I’ll let it sit a day or three and come back to it with fresher eyes. But […]
Read More ...It’s Raining Novelettes
I’ve now diverted my work on this novel twice, both times to work on a short story idea. Both times I’ve been happy with the result, but somehow my short stories keep growing into novelettes. This last one is now titled “Life on Mars,” and runs something around 10.5K words. This is fine and all, […]
Read More ...A K Every Day
LISTENING TO: Neil Young I’m claiming another thousand words this morning, though honesty requires I state it’s probably a little shy. Damn you honesty! Two primary movements remain to be told to complete the story. Still think the final draft will be done Friday, of course it helps that I’ll be off that day and […]
Read More ...One Title, Coming Up?
This is a bit of an unusual story for me in that I don’t have a working title for it. Usually I have an idea what I want to call something I’m actively writing. But this one has just kind of grown organically. But I got about a thousand words down this morning, and an […]
Read More ...“That’s Nice”
LISTENING TO: Joan Baez – “Ring Them Bells” After a brief bit of derailment, I’m back to writing a new short story. I keep thinking I should be plugging full-bore on the novel, but I’ve had two ideas clashing around in my head for a week now and they’ve come together the past two days. […]
Read More ...Pressing Forward
A few words a day makes a difference, though in truth this morning saw very few actual new words. My story is global in nature and takes place in a fairly short span of time, so time zones make a difference. Under the guidelines that one should write like mad when the fire is burning, […]
Read More ...Progress
Listening To: Laura Love, Led Zeppelin (I know, not a pair that would jump to mind) Good progress this morning. Probably only 1,000 words, but I needed to get some research done, too. These things sometimes take serious thinking and reading time, and this morning gave me that opportunity. I was recently reading something about […]
Read More ...Exposition
Restructuring this novel has been interesting. I like its pace now, I like its transitions. I was thinking about this a couple days ago while I was mowing the yard. What was it that made me realize I hadn’t started in the right place to begin with? What was it that made me uncomfortable? It […]
Read More ...Do the Work
Good progress so far this week. It’s a simple equation: do the work. It’s part of a phrase a co-worker and I came up with to keep spirits up on times of high stress, but it fits here–no matter what, do the work and things work out. Somehow. In my case, doing the work each […]
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