November Results / December Goals & Year End

Insane month, as I expected. Still, the results were good considering the time allotted for writing.

November Results
* Fading Light: edited and submitted twice
* Critiques: 2/2
* Novel Reading (con't Game of Thrones & Federations)
* Watering the Black Violas (edit in progress)
* Nighthunter's Bite (draft in progress)
* Registered and started a novel revision class HTRYN)

December Goals
* Black Violas: edit
* Black Violas: to crit group
* Hunter's Honor: edit
* Hunter's Honor: submission
* New Short Stories: 0/4
* Crits: 0/2
* Reading
* Complete HTTS 0/3
* Class HTRYN 0/4

The short stories goal is going to be the most challenging, but I'm hitting it hard in order to complete the goals I tasked myself with for 2009. The edits are important because I want to get my stories out into submission, one of my big goals for the year. And, I'm still going for the "balance". :)

Back Home

The vacation is over, now cleanup begins.  But I can't neglect the writing for the cleaning.  I have goals for this week:

Black Violas -- edit
Nighthunter's Bite -- write
Fading Light -- tweak & resubmit

I'd like to get Fading Light done tomorrow, and a quick edit pass for Violas on Monday, then I'll have the rest of the week to work on 'Bite and the remaining issues/analysis of Viola's further revision.

all work and no play

Taking some time for family and fun; will be back into the swing of things in about a week and a half.

rejection/resubmission

Fading Light rejected; sending it back out to another place.  My submission list for this one is too short; hitting http://www.ralan.com/ to check out some other places to sub.

Violas edit

Several ideas to edit the story hit me on the drive into the office this morning.  Each thought was triggered by techniques in the Think Sideways class, and I haven't even applied the techniques intentionally yet, this is my brain/muse putting all this together on the back burner of my consciousness.    Loving it, loving the story, and I can't to see how it's really going to end. 

It just might take a while to get to, since I've got the family visit, the birthday party, and the vacation to deal with.  And that trip to NY I've been hoping for may happen in early December, so... I need to hang onto these thoughts and hope I don't lose the feel for it before then.

Oh!

Think Sideways -- worth every penny.  Seriously.

This is probably the third time I've read these chapters, and while I thought they were informative on the previous reads, they're downright perfect now.  I'm discovering what's wrong with my story.  Several things, and it's not even the writing; it goes deeper than that.  And unfortunately, I think the theme I was writing the story for no longer applies. 

I'm going to have to play with my options a bit and see where the heart of this story is.  If the theme no longer applies, then I'll follow what does apply, and give this story the life it deserves.  I have other ideas I can try for the parsec contest.  At the very least, the contest itself led me to the path where I found this story, and that's no small thing.

Continuing with Think Sideways tonight and tomorrow, will get to the applicable assignments, and then we'll see what comes of this.

Thank you, Holly Lisle. :)

Weekend update

It's no secret that my life is a little crazy right now.  I originally planned to not write from the 20th until the end of the month, not realizing I'd start feeling the pressure (serious pressure) the week before that.  Editing has failed me, writing has failed me.  I'm struggling with Black Violas, and I can't see the forest nor the tress for the forest, and that should give you an idea of how far off base my writing barometer is as the moment.

Still, I attempted to write and wasted a good two hours last night.  I'd read what I wrote, make a change, start reading again and zone out.  Each time that started, the zoning would happen sooner.  There's something wrong with this story, and I have no idea what.  So, I'm going back to the beginning, thinking about how I wrote this one, to see where I missed something.

And that's when I recalled that I used a modified version of Holly's Think Sideways methods for story creation.  So I spent the next two hours pouring through class material, looking for the next step, a link from the writing to the revising that might trigger my internal editor to get back to work.  I made it through five lessons, without neccessarily completing the assignments so much as writing notes "do this" in a notebook.  I'm about to approach the revision sections, will probably get there tonight, and hopefully, get some answers.

sharing knowledge

I love to share what I know, especially when it's a topic I'm passionate about--like writing.  I think most of my blog readers are the friends I've made from forward motion, but I'd really like to hear from other friends.   I'm thinking about composing some posts with writing information for those of you who are interested in learning more.  It'll mostly be my approach/philosophy with links to other sources on that topic.

I've learned a lot over the years, am still learning, but I want to share.  In the interest of writing these posts for someone other than myself, please reply in comments if you'd like to read anything of this nature.  If you have questions, post those too and I'll see if I can help.

Writing is hard.  Writing alone is harder.

medical scare

I knew November was going to be chaotic, but not this bad.  The last week has been riddled with worry and regret and intense "what if" planning, making it the longest week of my life.  My dad's medical scare is still an issue, but what was leaning toward a diagnosis of liver cancer is moving toward something else.  Not sure what that something else is yet, but it's got my dad feeling more hopeful and there's even more hope in that.

Writing has slipped to the background for a few days, and probably will for a few more, but Black Violas is awaiting my attention, as is Carter's crit.  I'm not getting lost this time.

thursday thursday

It was a strange Thursday.  Rough day at the Day Job, lots of stress, and a little disappointment that the day job issue kept me from getting to the post office.  Well, the story will get out on Friday after I drop the kids off at school.  

No writing done in the evening, no editing.  I reviewed Black Violas, considering it for my next edit project, but I don't know if I'm ready.  I'm reading it, I like it, there are obvious places where the writing itself needs to be fixed, but I don't know what to do about the story itself.  I had a thought that first person would suit this one better, and since I had that many times while writing it, I think I need to try that route.  I also had a thought of swapping the MC from the daughter to the mom.  Their roles seem to be interchangeable as I have it now in the story.  If I reverse their roles and the troubles they've experienced, it might come out more emotional.  And I suddenly notice I've gravitated toward older characters in my writing. 

inspiration

I thought I was done with Fading Light, but it wasn't done with me.

My copy of "Federations" arrived yesterday, and I finally got a chance to start reading it.  The first story "Mazer in Prison" by Orson Scott Card sang to me.  The story was wonderful, and I went to reread it --analytically-- and decided I really liked the character's voice, the way he told his story without telling even though he presented fact.

And I realized I was missing that.  Connor was missing that.  So I went back to Fading Light and dug back into Connor's problems and how he viewed the world and adjusted a few words here and there to shine a better light on things, and then something huge hit me about the ending.  I totally missed this amazing thing he could do.

And now he's done it. 

And the story is ready to go.  For real.

fading light ---- done

Insane editing/fixing/re-editing over lunch. The story is good to go.

fading light cont'd

Worked on the manuscript with paper and pen, worked in most of the new changes (which now require transcribing).  Still need to rename the great spirits, but not feeling much creatively tonight (family worries).   I may have to skip my lunchtime workout to get this done...  my workout buddy is going to kill me.

fading light edit

Despite the crazy weekend, I got to work on Fading Light tonight. I feel like something is still off, or it could be I've just spent too much time on the story at this point. I printed it, and will look at it tomorrow. If it doesn't sing to me, I may just shelve it for a few days and read it again when I've had some space...