Apparently it takes two months to stop "bouncing off the walls." Really though, it only took a few days for reality to grab me by the ear and shove my face against the grindstone again. Once you've done something, you enjoy it initially, then you begin to see how it's not a big deal, and you aim for the next thing. It's been a busy couple of months. I've critiqued, written, edited and dreamed more in the last sixty-some days than I have in all the other days since returning from OSC's boot camp. I have stories with a few editors right now and one with Writers of the Future that I'm hoping will get some attention. I entered the Codex Halloween Contest with a piece I wrote in three days, and so far I'm not doing too bad considering.
In short, my confidence, work ethic, and skill is growing (as well as my volume of work). I probably won't update this blog for a while until I have more to report. I think at this stage it's best to work more, talk less.
Oh, yeah. I meant to say something about the story I sold. It's called "Mark and Shelly's," it's only 750 words long, and I sold it for well above pro rates, which was very important to me for my first sale. Strangely enough, I wrote this story before boot camp, and it's one of the few stories I've actually done a second draft of. You can read the story (as well as my comment on it) for free on Daily Science Fiction's website. Reviews seemed favorable. The story probably won't see print until they start releasing year-end anthologies.
Catch you on the flip-side.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Poof Shelved
So do you want the good news or the bad news? I'll give you both: Poof is on hold for a while, but I'm going to write something fun and short instead.
For this blog entry, I've compiled several of my posts from Codex (a semi-pro writers' forum) and Facebook. It's a jumbled mess, but it will be nice to have all the information here in one place to help explain to anyone who is curious why Poof has been shelved. Without further ado:
I just spent the last 3-4 months religiously outlining what I thought was going to be a 60,000 word YA novel. During the outlining process, I realized that maybe that word count was optimistic. With 85 scenes or so, maybe 80,000 words was more realistic. Surely 1,000 words or so per scene would be plenty.
Well after day six of the actual writing, the book was 13,000 words long, and I had only covered FIVE AND A HALF of the scenes. At that rate, the book would have weighed in at a sickening 195,000 words, 3.25 times as long as I had projected.
It seems to me, there are some things I did very well while outlining. Each of the 85 scenes is pulling double (or triple, or quadruple) duty as far as advancing the story and setting up what comes next. Often, I didn't construct a scene by saying "What would be neat?" but by saying "What do I need to set up? What will advance the story? How can I illustrate this important concept?" Sometimes, it was all of the above. And always, there was a list for each scene called Exposition/Objectives. As the outline currently is, each scene must exist or its core components would have to be spread out to other scenes, inevitably lengthening them. This is good sign, because we know I'm not inventing useless scenes. But it's also bad, because it makes the thing extremely difficult to cut.
But I can also see some things I did very badly. I don't think the story is too long because I'm over-writing, or because I have scenes that don't pull their weight. (At least, I don't think so. There are probably a few things here and there. I ain't perfect.) Ultimately, this story is too long because I'm inexperienced, and I created too much content. The scene-by-scene was 30k in notes--overwriting or not, you're writing a brick. I think the mythical concept of "THE BOOK" looming in my mind blinded me and made me anxious to build, build, and build some more. I've never finished a novel before, and I had no feeling of how long my story should be. I'm learning that lesson now. It's a painful, expensive lesson, but I'm learning it. There's that, if nothing else.
It seems to me, the only way to cut this story down to a single novel would be to rip out entire threads and characters, slashing whole acts from the book. I've given this a shot, and in my opinion, it killed it. (The person I shared it with felt the same.) Cutting it into 3-4 books is a lot more plausible. But I'm hesitant to do that for a few reasons. For one, I'm not sure about the publishing applications. Can a first time novelist sell a trilogy out of the gate? And probably more importantly, I'm not sure I should try to write a trilogy when I've never written a stand-alone book. It feels like running before you walk.
My plan, as of right now, is to put this novel on the shelf for the future. I'm proud of the story, and it will be nice to know something this fleshed-out is waiting in queue for a rainy day. Later in my career, if an editor or agent asks me if I have something, I'll be like HECK YES I DO. But for now, I think I'll try my hand at something more manageable and appropriate for a first-timer. I'm looking forward to getting started and taking this hard-won lesson out for a test drive on the new book [Still untitled--more info later].
Overall, this has been a really hard thing. I had three days or so where the first thing I would feel waking up was regret and frustration. I couldn't believe that my wonderful project that I'd poured everything into had actually derailed. I had really thought this was the one. But disappointment and struggle comes with the territory. Writing is what I want to do with my life. And for anyone making that claim, there is a certain amount of pressure to sell something. It's not the nurturing, zen-garden environment I would like to have for budding projects, but it's what I've got. The hardest part for me is watching my friends deflate when they hear the long-heralded novel of olde isn't happening for a while. And db fans REALLY won't be happy to hear about the delay...after all, I had to quit that project to do this project. But what can I do, you know? I just have to suck it up, pretend there's no pressure, and make stuff up. Sometimes, it's enough to make a guy wish he was a "secret writer."
All that said, I'm excited about the new project, and I can't wait to share it with everyone. And take heart; Poof and db may yet see the light of day as finished projects.
There we go. I hope that wasn't too bipolar for you. I wrote different parts of this post at different times, in different moods, discussing different things, so I hope it makes sense. Think of it less like a real blog post and more like the Bible. The info is in there, but it's up to you to make sense of it. I'm sorry to let any of you down who were excited about the book. Hopefully, you will enjoy the new project just as much.
As I said several times to several people, if I was going to quit, I'd have done it already. This is a pretty major speed bump, but it's no big thing in the grand scheme of things. And on an unrelated note, if you actually made it this far down the page, pat yourself on the back. Nobody reads this much text at one time on the internet. You're a rare breed. Cheers.
For this blog entry, I've compiled several of my posts from Codex (a semi-pro writers' forum) and Facebook. It's a jumbled mess, but it will be nice to have all the information here in one place to help explain to anyone who is curious why Poof has been shelved. Without further ado:
I just spent the last 3-4 months religiously outlining what I thought was going to be a 60,000 word YA novel. During the outlining process, I realized that maybe that word count was optimistic. With 85 scenes or so, maybe 80,000 words was more realistic. Surely 1,000 words or so per scene would be plenty.
Well after day six of the actual writing, the book was 13,000 words long, and I had only covered FIVE AND A HALF of the scenes. At that rate, the book would have weighed in at a sickening 195,000 words, 3.25 times as long as I had projected.
It seems to me, there are some things I did very well while outlining. Each of the 85 scenes is pulling double (or triple, or quadruple) duty as far as advancing the story and setting up what comes next. Often, I didn't construct a scene by saying "What would be neat?" but by saying "What do I need to set up? What will advance the story? How can I illustrate this important concept?" Sometimes, it was all of the above. And always, there was a list for each scene called Exposition/Objectives. As the outline currently is, each scene must exist or its core components would have to be spread out to other scenes, inevitably lengthening them. This is good sign, because we know I'm not inventing useless scenes. But it's also bad, because it makes the thing extremely difficult to cut.
But I can also see some things I did very badly. I don't think the story is too long because I'm over-writing, or because I have scenes that don't pull their weight. (At least, I don't think so. There are probably a few things here and there. I ain't perfect.) Ultimately, this story is too long because I'm inexperienced, and I created too much content. The scene-by-scene was 30k in notes--overwriting or not, you're writing a brick. I think the mythical concept of "THE BOOK" looming in my mind blinded me and made me anxious to build, build, and build some more. I've never finished a novel before, and I had no feeling of how long my story should be. I'm learning that lesson now. It's a painful, expensive lesson, but I'm learning it. There's that, if nothing else.
It seems to me, the only way to cut this story down to a single novel would be to rip out entire threads and characters, slashing whole acts from the book. I've given this a shot, and in my opinion, it killed it. (The person I shared it with felt the same.) Cutting it into 3-4 books is a lot more plausible. But I'm hesitant to do that for a few reasons. For one, I'm not sure about the publishing applications. Can a first time novelist sell a trilogy out of the gate? And probably more importantly, I'm not sure I should try to write a trilogy when I've never written a stand-alone book. It feels like running before you walk.
My plan, as of right now, is to put this novel on the shelf for the future. I'm proud of the story, and it will be nice to know something this fleshed-out is waiting in queue for a rainy day. Later in my career, if an editor or agent asks me if I have something, I'll be like HECK YES I DO. But for now, I think I'll try my hand at something more manageable and appropriate for a first-timer. I'm looking forward to getting started and taking this hard-won lesson out for a test drive on the new book [Still untitled--more info later].
Overall, this has been a really hard thing. I had three days or so where the first thing I would feel waking up was regret and frustration. I couldn't believe that my wonderful project that I'd poured everything into had actually derailed. I had really thought this was the one. But disappointment and struggle comes with the territory. Writing is what I want to do with my life. And for anyone making that claim, there is a certain amount of pressure to sell something. It's not the nurturing, zen-garden environment I would like to have for budding projects, but it's what I've got. The hardest part for me is watching my friends deflate when they hear the long-heralded novel of olde isn't happening for a while. And db fans REALLY won't be happy to hear about the delay...after all, I had to quit that project to do this project. But what can I do, you know? I just have to suck it up, pretend there's no pressure, and make stuff up. Sometimes, it's enough to make a guy wish he was a "secret writer."
All that said, I'm excited about the new project, and I can't wait to share it with everyone. And take heart; Poof and db may yet see the light of day as finished projects.
There we go. I hope that wasn't too bipolar for you. I wrote different parts of this post at different times, in different moods, discussing different things, so I hope it makes sense. Think of it less like a real blog post and more like the Bible. The info is in there, but it's up to you to make sense of it. I'm sorry to let any of you down who were excited about the book. Hopefully, you will enjoy the new project just as much.
As I said several times to several people, if I was going to quit, I'd have done it already. This is a pretty major speed bump, but it's no big thing in the grand scheme of things. And on an unrelated note, if you actually made it this far down the page, pat yourself on the back. Nobody reads this much text at one time on the internet. You're a rare breed. Cheers.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Ground Game
It has been a while, folks. I've been deliberately avoiding updating this blog, because I didn't want to bore you all with logistics and because I wanted to concentrate on working instead of talking about my work. Hopefully some day I'll get super media savvy and start an effective blogging routine, but for now let's worry about getting published.
You'll all be happy to know that Poof is outlined. That sucker is blocked out. It took me all of February, March and April to do it. The scene-by-scene (the document I'll be working from as I draft the novel) is 30,000 words by itself, and there is at least that many pages in the other design documents. Let me give a shout out to the Snowflake Method. Granted, I butchered it, but it gave me a much-needed guide and helped me to slow down and trust the process in a way I never had. I'd say my invention game (the making up of junk) is better than ever, while my performance game (the actual writing) is steadily improving with experience. (I've been watching a lot of MMA in the last 6 months, and it's been really fun to watch how guys specialize in one aspect of their game or hone in on a weakness to improve on it. It has really colored the way I look at my writing.)
Big thanks to my old roleplaying/story buddy, Rusty Raymo, for the long talks and for tons of help flushing out some really vicious story blockages. (Ew?) You're one hell of a rubber wall, my friend. Thanks for putting up with my whiny mid-session freak-outs. "Is this boring?" "No, Steve. Shut up. Work." "Oh. Okay." Could I have done this without you? I wish I could say yes (because I'm a glory-grubbing, stubborn narcissist), but who knows? I certainly never got this far before you came along and carried some of the mental burden. So cheers. :)
In other news, I just finished a story for an anthology and I'm very happy with it. It's the first time I can remember going from zero to finished story where the story turned out pretty much exactly like I wanted. It's like hitting a bulls eye. Feels good! And the feedback I'm getting is overwhelmingly positive. I've even had some people cry. You have no idea how good that feels (unless you do).
On Sunday, I'll be making my first big push writing Poof. It's incredibly exciting and stressful time for me, but I'm eating it up. My new little girl Juliet got here a week ago tonight, and tomorrow she's leaving me for a few weeks to go up to tour the in-laws world in Wyoming. I'll be alone in the house for 2-3 weeks. I will miss my girls, probably some nights so badly that I can't sleep, but this is such amazing timing. What a way to start a book!
I had a lot of other cool stuff to talk about on here, but I can't remember it all. A blog post can only get so long before people start to feel like they're looking up the slope of a mountain. But it's been a wild few months. I got to see Greg Laswell in concert. That rocked. Go see him, he's still on tour.
Peace!
You'll all be happy to know that Poof is outlined. That sucker is blocked out. It took me all of February, March and April to do it. The scene-by-scene (the document I'll be working from as I draft the novel) is 30,000 words by itself, and there is at least that many pages in the other design documents. Let me give a shout out to the Snowflake Method. Granted, I butchered it, but it gave me a much-needed guide and helped me to slow down and trust the process in a way I never had. I'd say my invention game (the making up of junk) is better than ever, while my performance game (the actual writing) is steadily improving with experience. (I've been watching a lot of MMA in the last 6 months, and it's been really fun to watch how guys specialize in one aspect of their game or hone in on a weakness to improve on it. It has really colored the way I look at my writing.)
Big thanks to my old roleplaying/story buddy, Rusty Raymo, for the long talks and for tons of help flushing out some really vicious story blockages. (Ew?) You're one hell of a rubber wall, my friend. Thanks for putting up with my whiny mid-session freak-outs. "Is this boring?" "No, Steve. Shut up. Work." "Oh. Okay." Could I have done this without you? I wish I could say yes (because I'm a glory-grubbing, stubborn narcissist), but who knows? I certainly never got this far before you came along and carried some of the mental burden. So cheers. :)
In other news, I just finished a story for an anthology
On Sunday, I'll be making my first big push writing Poof. It's incredibly exciting and stressful time for me, but I'm eating it up. My new little girl Juliet got here a week ago tonight, and tomorrow she's leaving me for a few weeks to go up to tour the in-laws world in Wyoming. I'll be alone in the house for 2-3 weeks. I will miss my girls, probably some nights so badly that I can't sleep, but this is such amazing timing. What a way to start a book!
I had a lot of other cool stuff to talk about on here, but I can't remember it all. A blog post can only get so long before people start to feel like they're looking up the slope of a mountain. But it's been a wild few months. I got to see Greg Laswell in concert. That rocked. Go see him, he's still on tour.
Peace!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Shh!
Don't tell anyone. If I say this too loud it might go away. But I'm focusing. I'm shutting out the noise and I'm outlining Poof. Our little secret, okay?
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