Going Ten Rounds And Winning

As 2 of the last four chapters I’ve edited felt like knock-down drag-out fights, I felt that this was an appropriate title for this post.

So, here’s the good news.  I’m halfway through Dark Mirror now, a little over even, depending on how you’re measuring.  When I finished Dark Mirror’s second draft, it was 20 chapters long.  I have now edited 10 of those, thus halfway.  But the manuscript also sits at 302 pages (so far), and I’m at 166, which would suggest I’m a little over half.  Either way, I’m happy with the progress I’m making.  So far, only two of those 10 chapters have required any sections be extensively changed, and those two are parts I struggled with the first time around (if my hazy memory of those brain busting 15 days is to be relied upon, something I’m not remotely sure of).  I am much happier now with one of those two, and plan to go back to the other one as soon as I’ve done the whole book once through, to see if I can tweak it a little more, to the point where I’m at least okay with it.  Then it will be a quick read with no pen, no editing tools and, unless I am majorly unhappy (doesn’t seem likely at this point), off to my test readers.  I’m hoping that will be in the next week and a half, but I’m not sure, and I’m definitely not committing to that timeline.  There’s a lot going on for me at work at the moment, and some of it might spill a little into home time, even though I hate the very thought of taking the day job home with me, especially when it then cuts into writing time.   Oh well, something has to keep food on the table and a roof over my head.  More importantly, I have to keep electricity running to my many writing devices.

In the meantime, the ideas have been a little slow, mostly I think because I’m focusing so much on the edit.  I haven’t gotten anymore work done on the outline for Possession lately, but I did just figure something out about the goals in the third book, The Nine, which might influence Possession some.  I have to think about that part though, as I’m still not sure if it will be in Possession.  Decisions, decisions.  Also, I think the other problem is that Carol Berg’s new book, Daemon Prism has taken over my brain every moment I’m not working on DM or at the day job.  Very awesome book so far.  I love her writing, her stories and her characters.  If only I was half that good…  And none of you get to argue with me on that, because you’ve never read my writing beyond blog posts, and that’s not even close to being the same thing.  One day, we’re getting there, I think.

I really wish I had more to say, but the past few days have left my brain feeling like a wrung out sponge.  Le sigh, you’ll all have to make due with this and a picture.

This statue/water fountain is in downtown Vancouver.  I’ve shot it a couple of times, because I love the lines and shapes it makes, combined with the water.

Doing The Double-Pass

I was sitting at work today, trying (and failing) to concentrate on work stuff.  The first day back from vacation is always like this for me.  I think the problem is that my brain is refusing to come back from vacationland.  I think it’ll show up tomorrow though.  All that said, I ended up thinking about writing for some of the day, like any other moment in my life that’s not filled by something that isn’t writing.  Particularly, I was thinking about Dark Mirror and editing.

As I said yesterday, I’m now editing Dark Mirror.  The book is 20 chapters long, I’m doing one chapter at a time for this.  Not like going nuts and insisting the chapter has to be perfect, nothing crazy like that, if I even believed that “perfect” has ever existed in reality.  No, I’m just trying to avoid racing through this, so that I can take the time to do this right, to really think about what I’m trying to say and how I say it.  Writing first draft is about speed for me, if for no other reason than to stay ahead of my inner editor (nya nya, you can’t catch me!).  Editing should be more leisurely and thoughtful, in my only somewhat humble opinion.

Normally I edit by printing out a copy of the manuscript, grabbing a red pen or two and turning into a mark-up fiend.  I then enter my changes from the now messy, crossed out, chewed up dead-tree version into the electronic version.  All this while, I’m praying that I can read my own handwriting (not ever guaranteed, I have one of the world’s worst scribbles, really).

This time, I’m doing something a little different.  Among other things, I don’t really want to print up 300 pages just so I can essentially crayon all over it and then either box it up or shred and recycle it.  I really don’t.  Also, I thought I’d try to be a little green.  Hug the planet, all that stuff.  So I made a pdf of my manuscript, tossed it on my iPad and grabbed a neat little pdf mark-up app called pdf-notes.  So far, it’s been going well.  I’ve gone through 4 chapters with it and, after a little bit of learning, I like it.  I like being able to undo my marks, change my mind, etc, things I can’t do on dead tree.  Once pen hits paper, you’re stuck with that mark.  It’s got a bunch of different tools for mark-up, but I’m sticking with the traditional red pen, with sticky notes for adding text/changing words.  When I’m done, I follow the rest of the usual path, entering changes in the electronic file.  I’ll probably keep the final marked-up pdf for archival purposes, since that’s easier than keeping 300 pages on hand.

Generally, as I enter my changes from the dead-tree/electronic mark-up, I end up changing a lot more.  It’s like I’ve had more time to think and digest by the time I get to the entering stage. It’s always seemed like my method turns it from a single edit to a double-pass.  Two edits for the price of one, such a deal.   By now, I’m used to this approach and I rather like it.  But it feels like I’d doing much more of the extra changes than usual this time.  I don’t think it’s that I’m marking up less with the pdf than I would with the dead-tree either.  I’m not even sure if this is anything more than a correlation, a coincidence of circumstance and timing.  The thing is that a lot of things have changed for me since the last time I edited any of my own fiction.  We can start with the fact that it’s been a while.  It’s been many months since I even tried, in fact.  Then we can move our tour of Julie’s Editing Mind (no sniggering at the back) to the fact that it’s the first time I’ve edited a finished novel.  Ever.  Remember, I had never finished a novel before DM, and I didn’t so much edit the first draft as completely toss it out and start fresh again (not without good reason, but that’s not the point).  I’m in somewhat uncharted waters here, and it’s making me think more about how I’m shaping this piece.  The next stop on this tour is the amount that I’ve learned about the craft and myself as a writer/storyteller in the many moons since I last did try to edit my own work.  I think a lot of that is going into the greater volume of edits, come to think of it.

Also, and I definitely don’t want to skip over this, but I think it deserves it’s own paragraph, I wrote this draft in fifteen days.  That’s it, start to finish.  There’s no polish at all when you work that quickly, none.  And now I get to do all that polishing I didn’t do while writing before I can even think about sending it to test readers, because polish can change a lot, including plot elements on occasion, and there’s no point in wasting your test readers’ time with something you’re already changing before they even finish reading it.  No, I’ll polish it now and then put it aside while the test readers have their say.

My plan is to work on something else (like maybe first draft of Possession) while I wait for DM to come back from the test readers, just so I won’t be tempted to go back and tweak some more while they have it.  Most writers I’ve ever known will tweak a piece forever, never quite happy with it, if nothing intervenes to force them out of that pattern.  I’m actually planning on not doing that.  There will almost certainly be edits, massages, work to be done when it comes back, but I refuse to be one of those writers who never submits or publishes because they’re waiting for it to be perfect.  You can try that forever and never reach it.  I think I’d rather publish something, even if it’s the more normal state of imperfect than nothing at all.  You have to publish, after all, to get it in front of the audience’s eyes.

And, on that note, I’m including another picture for you.  Perhaps I’ll make a habit of doing this, just to make me get some of that work out there too.  After all, new year, time to push myself out there a bit more, right?

Progression and Insight

Before we get to the more usual writing portion of today’s blog entry, I would like to announce two personal things. One, I get to keep my job for a while. I’m in a temporary contract position that started in the Fall of last year, was supposed to be six months long and keeps getting extended to my general delight. I mostly like my job, the majority of my coworkers and my boss. The pay is fairly good and it’s a 15 minute bus commute between home and work. Working could be worse, except that every couple of months I get to have the angst of not knowing if I will be extended. Given the tough economic times, though, I’m counting my blessings. I have a job, which is a big blessing that many out there lack. And today I got word that I am being extended another couple of months. That makes me happy. The other announcement is that I am again looking at my beautiful iMac on my desk. Yes, it is finally fixed and I am grateful for warranties. Always nice not having to fork over 1170 bucks for repairs.

Now on to what you’re all really here for, the writing news. It’s been a good past couple of days as I put the weekend’s post-draft-completion panic further behind me and think things through. More insights have come, including some fundamentals. One was so big that I wrote it on a piece of paper in big letters and taped it to the wall where I can see it from both my desk and my bed, which is where I tend to write. Yes, major stuff. What’s really funny about this insight is that it seems so basic, and I mean the earth is round kind of basic, but I had never quite thought of it before, not so directly, and it’s making me re-examine some of my favorite books and stories in this new light. It’s that stories are at least partly about the choices made by those in it. And I’m not just talking about the main characters, even the minor characters and villains, their choices help fuel and tell the story, to shape it. I have to remember that when I’m thinking stories up, outlining them, and telling them. I have to ask myself what choices are they making and why are they making that choice rather than others. And the answer can never be any variation of “just because” either. Like I said, seemingly basic, but it has changed Dark Mirror a lot, and is helping to shape other projects too.

I didn’t do any writing, didn’t read anymore of the first draft of DM, but notes and a new outline for the second draft are coming along well, and that’s awesome in my books. Some for the old events are going to be in it, though in different order with some details changed due to the very altered nature of the story I’m telling now, and others will be gone entirely. Some characters are being relegated to the background, others made more prominent. It’s almost like watching a Rubick’s Cube solving itself, except it really is me turning things over and finding ways that pieces fit better now. I think I have a better idea of what this story is about now and whose story it is. It’s Fay’s story, though Tavis is still very much part of it and has his own story interweaving with hers. This is going to change how I tell it a lot. The sub-plots are clearer, and will be apparent earlier. It’s also going to be a more active story, just by one single change I made that unravelled the old story into something better. And I’m really glad that I’m doing this, because it’s teaching me more about writing, story construction, all of that. I think something way better is going to come out of this, even if it means writing another 100k plus in 30 days. That’s fine, I can do that. I’ve already proven that much.

While I’m doing all this work on DM, I’m also still doing some of the same work on The Ailing Tree, though at this point that’s mostly world building, getting to know the characters better, things like that. I’ve only got a couple of items in the outline so far, and they’re only the very start, but that’s okay. I don’t plan on writing AT for a while yet, not until it’s ready. Maybe for Camp NaNoWriMo in either June or August, for the first draft. We’ll have to see if it’s ready then and if I’m still head down tinkering away at DM. Heck, I might just welcome writing the first draft of AT as a break from working on DM.

Right now, though, all of this just means that my iPad is living with me and getting a lot of love. At least I feel fully justified in giving it to myself as an early Christmas present this year. It kicked me back into writing in a big way, gave me a great tool (yay, omnioutliner) to work out my stories, and I find that just looking at it seems to make my brain want to think about story. Definitely no regrets there.

I think that’s it for now. It’s certainly all I can think of. Back to working on writing. Second draft doesn’t plan or write itself anymore than first draft did.

Words Fly When You’re Having Fun

So I’m sitting here trying to decide if I’m done for the night.  It’s been a good couple of days, in spite of one very bad event in my life.  My iMac had a bit of a fit for no apparent reason, suddenly refusing to turn on.  There are two pieces of good news in this, though.  First, before anyone reading this panics, no, that is not the computer I write on.  I love my iMac, all 27 inches of visual beauty, but I hate sitting at my desk to write actual draft.  I much prefer doing that while sitting on my bed, so I write on an Asus EeePC Netbook.  It’s little, but has a decent keyboard and keeps me focused on the job, especially since I have wi-fi turned off on it almost perpetually.  Second, and more importantly to me, it’s fairly new (purchased in June) and therefor the repair is being covered under warranty.  Yay.  But that does mean that I am without my iMac for probably the rest of the week as they order the parts and do the repair.  Ugh.  Oh well, it’ll keep me focused on writing during this last full week of NaNo.

 

So, as you all know, things have been rolling right along.  As I said, yesterday was good, even though I got home from taking the iMac to the Apple Store.  Still managed to get in 2162 words.  Tonight has been good too, no late start, plot moving along and 2547 words written.  So far, I think.  I’m really not sure, as I said at the beginning of this post.  You see, I have been telling the story from both Tavis and Fay’s points of view, switching between them.  I have part of what I intended to include in the current chapter (14, btw) that I’m not sure if I want to tell from Tavis’s point of view, which I have been using for this chapter, or if I want to switch to Fay’s.  I can make some pretty strong arguments for doing either, so I’m a little torn at the moment.  I’m almost thinking of compromising and doing a bit of both, continuing with my original plan to tell the rest of the planned chapter with Tavis, then starting the next chapter with a retelling of the parts that I want to tell from Fay’s eyes.  It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve done it so far, and this is an equally pivotal point in the story in many ways.  But I think I’m going to sleep on the idea before I decide for sure.  It’s not like I haven’t written enough, and I kind of feel the need for a diversion from writing at the moment, a break really.  I’ve been writing pretty steadily for the last few hours, so I think I kind of deserve it.

 

No, I haven’t forgotten to mention the total word count thus far, really.  I just wanted to get all that other stuff off my chest first.  I am currently at a total word count of (drum roll please, thank you) 61,006 words!  I’m not sure how much more I’ll get done this month, especially since I have some doubts I’ll be able to take the two days off I was hoping for Monday and Tuesday next week due to other stuff going on at work, but we’ll see about that.  I may take them off anyway as I feel a bit of desperate need be away from work for a few days.  In fact, I feel like saluting myself for getting all that writing done last week, despite it being an all around crappy week at work.  I swear, writing is my salvation on many fronts.  Anyway, all I was trying to say before I so rudely interrupted myself for that digression was that I’m certain I can get to 70k, maybe 75, but I think 80k will be a stretch (and no, I don’t think the story will be finished by then, though I might be almost there when I hit 80k.  We shall see).  Oh well, yay for More Writing in December.  Yeah, still not liking that phrase much.  Any better suggestions for what to call it when it’s not NaNoWriMo anymore?

 

Oh, and I’m finally thinking about one of my more ambitious projects and making some small headway with shaping it into something.  It’ll have to be a series because that was always an integral part of the idea.  I’ve made some key decisions with it, and I’m looking at 5 books for it (omg, approximately half a million words, how my fingers and brain already ache).  If I can pull it off, it’ll be something really special, or so a little bird once agreed when I told her a bare-bones outline of the idea.  I may need to pick her brains again about it at some point, but not until I’ve got a better idea of what I want and need to do with it.

 

Okay, I think that’s all you’re getting out of me this evening.  Late-NaNo fatigue is starting to catch up with me, or maybe it’s just a couple weeks worth of work stress, or the cold that won’t go away entirely.  I don’t know, but I’m off in search of a diversion.  Love you all, have a good night/day/whatever time you’re reading this.