Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
Planning the rest of the year
Now that I've finished Shadows and Dust, or the first draft at least, I find myself with almost too much time on my hands and an odd feeling that I'm forgetting to do something. It's been with me for long enough that I don't feel right not adding to it each day. So I decided to plan the rest of the year in regards to writing.
I'm using September as something of a break. I reactivated myself on Critters now that I have time again, and I just started critiquing a novel from there.
In October, I thinking I'll write a short story or two, just to keep my hand in that game. I've also been told that I should hear back from the magazine that is considering Percy Wallace by mid-October. If it's a rejection, I'll probably make a quick editing pass on it.
November is NaNoWriMo, and I'm going to participate again this year. However, instead of the 50,000 words required to win, I'd like to write a 75,000 word complete novel. That's 2500 words every day, which will be a good way to train myself to stretch my output.
I think that in December, I'll edit Shadows and Dust. Over two months will have passed since I finished the first draft, which hopefully is enough time for its freshness to fade in my mind. Then whenever I complete the editing, it's revision time.
Somewhere in all of this, I also plan to revisit Jack O'Lantern. I recently came up with a subplot that I think will help the novel a great deal, but it'll take almost a complete rewrite to integrate it. I've already written a basic synopsis for the expanded beginning, which should be enough to get it going.
It's going to be a busy autumn and winter.
I'm using September as something of a break. I reactivated myself on Critters now that I have time again, and I just started critiquing a novel from there.
In October, I thinking I'll write a short story or two, just to keep my hand in that game. I've also been told that I should hear back from the magazine that is considering Percy Wallace by mid-October. If it's a rejection, I'll probably make a quick editing pass on it.
November is NaNoWriMo, and I'm going to participate again this year. However, instead of the 50,000 words required to win, I'd like to write a 75,000 word complete novel. That's 2500 words every day, which will be a good way to train myself to stretch my output.
I think that in December, I'll edit Shadows and Dust. Over two months will have passed since I finished the first draft, which hopefully is enough time for its freshness to fade in my mind. Then whenever I complete the editing, it's revision time.
Somewhere in all of this, I also plan to revisit Jack O'Lantern. I recently came up with a subplot that I think will help the novel a great deal, but it'll take almost a complete rewrite to integrate it. I've already written a basic synopsis for the expanded beginning, which should be enough to get it going.
It's going to be a busy autumn and winter.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
DONE!
The first draft of Shadows and Dust is complete, at 88,554 words! It's a little shorter than I originally intended, and the plot bears little resemblance to what I envisioned at first, but I think the changes make it a hundred times better.
There's a absolute ton of editing that I'll need to do, however. The ending is pure deus ex machina, even though I planned for it for quite some time, and there's plenty of characters that I need to introduce earlier. Several scenes (at least) will suffer bloody deaths. There's tons of crappy writing, but that's okay, because it's a first draft.
It's done!
There's a absolute ton of editing that I'll need to do, however. The ending is pure deus ex machina, even though I planned for it for quite some time, and there's plenty of characters that I need to introduce earlier. Several scenes (at least) will suffer bloody deaths. There's tons of crappy writing, but that's okay, because it's a first draft.
It's done!
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