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Showing posts from September, 2017
And, with a little help from my friends, the story got cut to 5,935 words. I must say I'm amazed, because I don't think I've lost anything really significant from the 7,300-word version. Importantly, the story has kept the tone, and the character's voice. That makes me happy. Now, to find it a good home. I've submitted it already, but I'm not sure it will be the perfect fit for this market--it's a cross genre story with a rather science-fictiony feel, except it features magic and witches... I do love this story, though, so I hope it will find a home one day.
Trying to cut a 7,300-word story to submit to a publication with an upper limit of 6,000. After much sweating and culling, I've cut over a thousand words, but it's still not enough. I'm worried though that more cuts will erode the character's voice and the extra stuff that turns a plot into a story . It's now in that very delicate territory where some sentences are not strictly necessary, but each of them ads to the mood and the experience you want the reader to have. Because that's what stories are--experiences, rather than just lists of events or character traits. Not even lists of emotions. It's the whole package, carefully structured, with the "redundancies" as necessary as windows in a cathedral. Still, another 250 words need to be cut. I hope I still have a story when that's done.
In the effort of writing avoidance, Ive taken to desperate measures and spent the last three days remodelling my office. Furniture got moved, boxes of stuff got relocated, pictures got rehung. I got rid of loads of junk I never use and freed up lots of extra space. I really like the changes, but unfortunately, upon completion of that effort, the outline for part 4 of the book hasn't miraculously materialised. However, there maybe light at the end of this tunnel. Last week I set up a Skype chat to discus the novel with a wise friend (you know who you are, if you read this). The chat happened today, and I was very reluctant to discus anything beyond cats and dogs, and hurricanes, but the friend wouldn't let me go... So plot breaking happened, ideas got exchanged and more concepts are now taking shape.  I feel I'm getting closer. Not quite there yet, but almost. So, yay? MOOD: tired but hopeful
Notes transcribed for Orion's part 3. Still not quite happy with it, but getting closer. Part 4 is beginning to take shape in that it's revealed a gaping hole where something's missing. I even  roughly know what's missing, but not enough to start filling the hole... Darn endings are hard.
My flash Ships Made of Guns  was published in Daily Science Fiction on Tuesday. Love this story, so typical of my writing and the questions I find myself asking again and again. Mood: a bit proud, to be honest
Working on the outline for book two. It's getting there, but I can't nail the ending. I feel I'm missing something, something that should be in plain sight. I'm trying to go back to what made me write this story, what I wanted it to be about--this should tell me what the end should be, right? So for now I've typed up a few guiding thoughts and keep staring at them in the hope that the answer will reveal itself...
So, back to this blogging thing. Except this is not a blog. It's a running commentary on things random, most of which refer to my writing. Don't expect this to make sense. Believe me, I've tried.