Editing Galore!

I made a bunch of goals for myself this week, but I wonder if I didn't overcommit. I put the Sunguard edit on the back burner to thnk some stuff over, but I think I'm ready to get back to it. I gave Treischan Strength another look at (with some comments from the Roving Crits boards on FM), and marked that up to be edited again. It's in good shape, and should only take one night to work out the details. I'm just waiting for feedback from two other folks I emailed it to before I finalize it. (Either that or when the mood strikes). I'm also working on The Lonely Orchard which posed more of a problem because of backstory issues. I think I have those mostly worked out, so it's just a matter of putting in the time and getting a few scenes rewritten.

The two year old's birthday party is this weekend, so we have house-cleaning and party prep (and monthly bills) to get to this week. I'm hoping for a high energy week so I can keep up with my Wish List. ;)

Here goes nothing!

Edit: Treischan Strength

I took a quick break from Sunguard as editing a first draft can be overwhelming, and this one is taking so long it's stressing me out. I pulled up a story -- Treischan Strength--I wrote last May and edited last June, and reviewed the crits and comments I received on it. I made some changes, reviewed for basic editing, and the third draft is done. I've sent it out to some readers for feedback. I have a good feeling about this version, it's very very close to submission-level writing, but I need some confirmation before I ship it off to my favorite zines.

Still Editing

I'm holding myself to high standards right now, so the edit is taking a while. I took a new approach to find the Voice this story seemed to lack, and was drawn in by the freewriting. I enjoyed the results so much I was tempted to rewrite the story in First Person, but I got some feedback and -- I agree, btw -- it wasn't enough to hold the story. So I will stick with my original 3rd person viewpoint.

I've been reading a lot more lately, focusing on short stories. I have a tendency to subscribe to several fiction magazines a year, and not touch them until the bug hits. I usually end up devouring 6 months of magazines in the span of just a few weeks. It's good though. I'm reading some quality stories and then hitting my stories for editing and I'm learning that my stuff does not yet compare with these published stories. Yet. I'm learning from them. It'll be my turn someday. :)

Editing, Editing, Editing...

It's pretty easy to read a first draft and pinpiont what's wrong with it. It can sometimes even be simple to decide how to fix it. The hard part is getting your brain to move into fix-it mode and making those changes. It's a challenge, and it's rewarding once I get it done.

I worked on Sungard tonight, contemplating a name change to The Fallen Sun, but we'll see after I make it through this edit pass. I only got through 1.3 pages out of an orriginal 7 pages, and 1 page of that was new material. A few more nights of this and I should be able to make it through safely. ;) I'm looking forward to getting it all fixed!

May the Edit Begin!

I spent Wednesday evening organizing the stories I like the best, the ones that I feel have the most potential. The four I wrote this past month, plus two from last year are the highest priority in my editing queue, although there are a few older favorites that need major revamping. The plan is to move those six along, and then I can look at the older stories.

I'm starting with Sunguard. I wrote my stories this year without use of my "Notes" sheets, so I'm using that document to prep for the edit. I like the premise, but I need to increase the threat in the story. Reading it feels too far removed from what Ashelle is dealing with, and that isn't quite the feel I envisioned.

I red-lined the printout last night, and today I'll move onto the analysis. Hopefully I can get this first pass done in a few days and out to my First Readers for some basic feedback. May the edit begin!

Short Story: Eve

Eve is complete now at 1500 words. This SF story was inspired by my own pregnancy research. (I've been contemplating an article on birth methods and the riding trend of repeat c-sections vs VBAC). There has been a growing trend and comfort with the "ease" of births via c-section. While I believe it's warranted in some cases, I was almost a victim of "let's just do that again, it's easier". Maybe in some respects it is, and while I'm not guaranteed a surgery-free birth for this child, it made me think about the future and the "ease" of childbirty via surgery. What if future technology removed the risks of surgery and this became THE way to birth children?

And this is what Jessica fights in "Eve". Space dwellers on a science ship, the course of her pregnancy is determined by Medbots until Jessica takes things into her own hands.

May Progress, June Goals

I wrote three stories in May, and have another two in the works. It wasn't quite the success I hoped for, but I am very pleased that I completed those three stories. This particular May was very very busy, and I feel like I'm lucky to have completed anything at all.

On to June... I'd like to complete those two in-progress stories (Eve and Queen's Diamond). Then I need to choose which stories should be edited (I'm aiming at 4 for the summer), and choose markets to submit them to. It'd be nice to get 1 - 2 edited before the end of June, despite the father's day holiday, the daughter's birthday, and all the weekend fun we're planning. :)

Working Through It

I pulled several prompts so some ideas could simmer on the back burner, and guess what? I still got stuck. I know, I'm doing a lot right now between fighting the exhaustion still, training a temp, and dealing with the terrible twos. Regardless, the writing is still there. The stuck wasn't laziness, it was in indication something was wrong.

So I decided to let the idea-in-progress sit on the back burner and I'd proceed with another idea for now. I went with a premise I came up with on my own and was pretty charged up about it on the way home from work. I narrated parts of the story to msyelf on the drive, and it's the one I want to write next. Then as I'm driving home, trying to remember the bits of dialogue I entertained my steering wheel with, I realized what was wrong with the other story idea.

I had actually combined two of the prompts I pulled and deep down, I think my brain knew that and was struggling to seperate them. Well, forget that. Now that I know what I did, I like it! And I'm going to work with it more as soon as I'm done my current piece. I wrote about 400 words this evening, and can probably finish it off tomorrow.

If only I could have two more hours in my day. Oh, well.

Short Story: Bound

I wrote my first story this month about a mother's love for her lost child, and now I've written this one about a father trying not to lose his daughter. Somehow the only way to save her IS to lose her. Being a mom has sure changed the way I think, the way I write. My characters tend to be older, with more serious problems, and serious solutions that hurt as much as they help. So long as I never have to experience what my characters do, I think I can live with that.

Short Story: Sunguard

Ashelle is hallucinating, and doesn't know what's real anymore. But her duties as a Sunguard do not end simply because of her illness.

I think this story has an interesting twist. After watching all the Star Trek and Stargate episodes where we the explorers do something terrible (accidentally of course) to the natives of some friendly and unsuspecting planet, I wrote a story such a thing from the point of view of the poor natives who have been damned. But you don't get this to the end. I hope it delivers this at the end, but I have a feeling the first draft is very rough. I'll have to work on the delivery in the edit.