All work and no play

Having wrapped up my WOTF story, which is ready to go out in the mail this weekend, I'm trying to decide what I want to work on next. I need to be working on something because all work and no play make Paul a dull boy. Hmm, okay wait. That quote doesn't make any sense. I like staying busy. Moving on...

The novel is still on hiatus while I try and wrap my head around why it isn't working for me. I'm toying with the idea to write a short story or two in its world, just to see if it holds up. Or to figure out what the bleep is actually going on in there. But I'm not (mentally) prepared for that move yet.

So I'm currently trying to finish up the civilized cannibals story. After that I need to review my WOTF critique for "The Lady of Jeweled Dreams" and see if I can't whip that piece into a stronger story. John O'Neill from Black Gate did mention he'd like to see more from me and that's the only other piece of high fantasy that I feel is submittable. We'll see what I can do to it when that moment arrives.

Eugie is sending me the latest issue of City Slab to review for The Fix Online. Looking forward to that. I find it so much easier to review print material than to read a large PDF file.

Oh, and I need to do some more work on the comics for Sandra McDonald's The Stars Down Under...

Some realizations

I don't read as much in the winter, nor do I have the same passion for reading in the winter as I do in the spring, summer, and fall when I can go to the park, curl up on a patch of grass, and immerse myself in a book for hours.

I need to add a third POV to the Novel. It has to be done because, right now, I feel like some stuff is too hard to explain without it and also I'd like to have a more gray set of villains rather than straight up bad people.

I need to lower my expectations...for everything.

I don't miss eating bread as much as I suspected, but I think I need to work some brown rice or something back into my diet because I cannot go without it, unfortunately.

I have to finish things I start, no matter how much I don't want to.

Fourth marker reached

The Waterways Novel

60,084 / 80,000 words. 75% done!

Whew. It's been interesting getting back into the Novel. I took a break from it for all of December, focusing more on short stories and comics. It continued to hover in the back of my mind though, poking at me, reminding me that it was still alive and needed its litterbox changed at some point. Then I went on vacation and thought very little about writing in general. That was both good and kind of scary. I just don't think I can't not write. Yes, double negative there. Eat it up.

Anyways, the point is I forgot a lot of things. Tiny details, character quirks, plot, plot, oh my god the plot is so out of it currently, teetering on sense and no sense, among other things. I reread the first few chapters, resisting the urge to tinker with them and then just said "feck it" (not really) and plowed forward using my notes and whatnot. We're getting closer to the climactic ending where Lots of Things Happen.

The next marker is at 75,000 words. I suspect by then I'll be very close to the end. I can--and oh so will--add more words later in the rewrite.

It's weird. I set these markers (15K, 30K, 45K, 60K, 75K) as a sort of way to avoid overtalking the work-in-progress. I find the less I talk about a big project, the better it goes. I guess when it is only my expectations I have to meet...well, I can handle myself just fine. Been doing it for twenty-plus years. Yet, I'm supposed to talk about the novel at these markers. It is suppose to be, like, a reward. Funny that I still keep everything vague and brief. Wonder what is up with that...

But yay! More progress.

Oh look, I'm writing

"The Brazen Bug-blesser"

New Words: 448
Total Words: 448
Deadline: February 29, 2008
Reason for stopping: I want to upload photos from my camera while simultaneously set up my new iPod alarm clock thingy
Stimulants: Cup of coffee
Songs played loudly: "Cuts Marked in the March of Men" by Coheed and Cambria, "Givin' It Up" by Josh Rouse, "Something Isn't Right Here" by The Juliana Theory
Exercise: Grocery shopping, short walk, and a dozen and a half trips to and from my car unloading everything
Mail: Lots and lots of mail! Being away from my apartment for nearly two weeks really allows the shtuff to pile up. Nothing terribly writing-related, but I got a few books in the mail for review.
Darling du Jour: The twittering bug started showing signs of juice failure in the morning, leaking yellow-green headguts and smelling atrocious.
Words that Microsoft Word argues with: headguts, m'lady, gawkers
Other writing-related work: Organizing books and updating my submissions spreadsheet
The Internet is full of Things: But I have no time to look for a single one!

So, this is the last short story I'm going to work on before returning to the Novel (with hopes of finishing it once I get back into it). Strangely, writing about bugs is fun. Steam-powered ones are even doubly so...

Ugh, I have a thousand things that need doing. I think I will just tackle them one at a time and see how that goes. Yah? Yah.

Third marker passed

Well, here's my NaWriMo metrics for the last three days.

Friday: 913 words

Saturday: 562 words

Today: 553 words

I'm not as devoted to writing on the weekend as I used to be. That time is spent more on comics, reading, gaming, and just relaxing a bit. So the above totals are no surprise, but they are all past my 500 word quota which is all that matters.

In the beginning, I suspected that if I did 500 words a day for all of November that would net me a solid 15,000 words and put me right over the third marker of 45,000 words. Well, good news, folks. Since hitting those daily goals and exceeding them a smidge here and there, I've now crossed the 45K marker. Only two more to go though I suspect the novel to end around 70K. That's fine as there's a lot that I need to go back and fill in on the second work through.

The Waterways Novel

45,129 / 80,000 words. 56% done!

But woo...getting closer.

Progress finally

The Waterways Novel

30,214 / 80,000 words. 38% done!

So, I've crossed my second stop sign where I'm allowing myself to talk a bit about the novel-in-progress. For those playing at home, the rest stops are at these marks: 15K, 30K, 45K, 60K, 75K, and then whenever the irascible thing is dead and done.

That said, I am at the point where I think everything I've written is crap. My characters are whiny and meandering passive souls that make me wonder what I'm trying to do here. Bits of the city are interesting--to me, of course--while others don't feel quite natural. Useless secondary characters pop up like poles; I suspect some killing of them later on. A post today on Neil Gaiman's blog made me feel a tad better about the whole thing, and here is where I pause to quote a master:

You don't live there always when you write. Mostly it's a long hard walk. Sometimes it's a trudge through fog and you're scared you've lost your way and can't remember why you set out in the first place.

But sometimes you fly, and that pays for everything.

Right. So it's foggy here at the moment, and only about 500 words back did I realize something that I want to implement but will have to wait for the rewrite. So I made a note. I find myself making a lot of notes, both in the manuscript and on miscellaneous scraps of paper. My Word file is littered with [name] and [action scene] and [dirty stuff]. Keeping these things together and organized is like juggling sunburned babies. But really, having turned my editor off in me, I find myself at least moving forward. That's pretty important when it comes to such a big project. You can't edit what you don't finish.

I don't work on this every day though. Seeing that NaNoWriMo is coming up soon, I'll probably be even more turned off to work on it daily. I tried that before, and while I got words out it wasn't good. I struggle with being somewhat of a perfectionist, and when I write I'd like the first draft to be more solid than not. I'm not opposed to re-writing this sucker once it's finished, but I'd like for a lot of it to be minimal touchups. You know, the cosmetics.

Oh, and now I need to figure out how to get a certain dead fellow out of the water and upland so he can cause some trouble. Thinking, thinking, thinking. Well, that's it for now, really. See you at 45K, people. Remember: you can't edit what you don't finish.

Noveling...

Been quiet about this fact, but I have been working on a novel lately instead of shorts. I don't plan to talk much about it, only because I find daily word counts and other things like it to be deterring. Still, it's going well. I don't write every day, but I do think about it every day. Lots of creepy stuff, too. More to my style; I can't believe the first novel I ever tried to write was epic fantasy. What was I thinking? Silly fanboy. Anyways, next update will be when I cross 30K or so. Until then, novel...

The Waterways Novel


P.S. In news that should come as no surprise to anyone, novels are tough critters.