SRG Blog

Progress, May 6th

Still hovering around 30k, with lots of placeholder scene notes (lots and lots and lots); today's work was mostly shuffling some scenes to get the order right and cutting a couple of subplots from the beginning that didn't go anywhere, and then shifting everything from the notecard program to the word processing program and cleaning up format. It's hard to see the story through the format sometimes.

And then I re-read the first three chapters, and I'm still pleased. I think they work, I think everything gets set up and rolling at the right speed. Things fall apart after that, but I also think I've figured out why and how to fix it, and that this might turn into a book after all.

Now to get the notes into prose and onto the page.

Three

Three year olds do this thing where right before they accomplish something they throw a fit about how they'll NEVER be able to do it, NEVER EVER EVER and can't someone else do it for them please because they'll whine you to death if you don't.

I haven't been posting because right now I'm feeling three.

Three is also the number of chapters I have left before there's a first draft. It's a holey and mishmashy and ragged draft, but it has a beginning, a middle, and an end, and enough words that once the holes are filled in it will clearly be a novel, without any of those "ette" or "ella" suffix things necessary.

Anyway. I have been grumpy and frustrated and annoyed and taking things personally even when the sane part of my brain is saying "there's no way that was personal, get a grip." And who wants to read about that?

But I tend to roll my eyes when people only post about the happy parts, too, which really just shows you that I'm difficult in more than one direction.

Stalled and Surprised

I'm about 1000 words into the third and final section of the first (zeroth, actually, to swipe the term from Mr. Gaiman) draft and find myself running into a wall over and over again. There are three POVs, and in scenes where only one of the POV characters appears I have no problem staying in that POV. One of them is quite strong. One of them needs some attention and the third is really going to require an overhaul on the next draft. But that's kind of beside the point, at the moment, because when two or three of them share a scene I'm having a wicked time keeping to the POV, and keeping the scene going. I don't think it's a matter of shifting to one of the other POVs so much as it is losing the voice and the style and drifting into authorial musing rather than narrative.

I find this really irritating.

BUT... I went back and re-read the first couple of chapters, and I think they work. There will be changes, but on the whole I think they work. For now. So that's encouraging. Now I need to figure out how to carry that through the rest of the book.

Science Fiction Recommended Reading List?

Twice in the last month I've been asked for a sci fi reading list for newbies- people who are interested in the genre and what it has to offer, but are underwhelmed by Star Trek and Star Wars and the like. My initial response was "there's just so much!" but once I calmed down I started actually making a list. So far, this list includes works by Ursula K LeGuin, Joanna Russ, Douglas Adams, James Tiptree/Alice Sheldon, and some graphic novels like The Watchmen and Warren Ellis's Transmetropolitan.

I'm curious about your lists, though. Tell me three books (or stories, or collections) you'd recommend to someone who approached you and said, "I'd like to read scifi, but I don't know where to start. I like literary styles and big ideas, and I am not at all impressed by random senseless violence."

Progress, 4-22

I reached a point this morning where I couldn't write any further without looking a bit more at the structure, so I spent some time rearranging scene order and clarifying POV and I think I've got it, for now, at least enough that I'll be able to revise it into something tighter.

I have three POVs, and for the most part it's chapter by chapter, with a couple of chapters back to back. I'm not sure this is optimal, but I'm letting it stand for the moment, and thinking about revision plans.

Also, planned out novel writing schedules for the next two years, because I like the way this is working, and I seem to be turning into an optimist.

Dunno how that happened, I really don't.

I love revising. I can't wait to start.

Currently playing: I Am the Highway (Audioslave) I can't seem to listen to this song enough. It's on the SOLACE playlist, but lately it's also been on endless repeat mode.

"The Shadow in the Shower" Now Live!

"The Shadow in the Shower" is now up at the new dark erotica online magazine Thaneros. Go take a look!

(Story and site are not work safe, and focus on themes of sex and death- hence the name Thaneros. You've been warned.)

Progress, 4-18

~1200 words today so far, with another round planned for the afternoon. At this point, I'm trying to get to the end of the draft, which is more like an outline with dialogue, so that I can go back and flesh things out a bit before the end of May.

Also trying to decide if I want a couple of readers for the first draft or if I'm going to wait for the second. I'm ambivalent all over the place.

Tried and failed a Liberty Hall flash- I think, while I'm drafting the novel, there's just no point. My brain is in a wholly different space, and trying to flash a story is just an exercise in frustration.

EDITED for final daily word count: ~2500 words, bringing me to about ~25k total. Feeling better, suddenly.

Progress, 4-18

Less than two hundred words. Pathetic.

Progress Report: Stalled

No words today. I'm job hunting, which eats up a lot of time and makes me so jittery and anxious that I have a hard time getting anything else done.

I'm going to catch up on some critiquing commitments tomorrow and then see if I can get some words down. Part of this is being in the middle, and suddenly not being sure I'm in the right spot. The structure isn't quite right, but I'm not going to start tinkering until I get a bit further.

I still intend to have a full draft by the end of May.

Critiques, Usefulness of, or Not (Long, Long, Long Post)

As usual, I’m three days behind everyone else and three days is FOREVER in blogworld, but here are my somewhat disjointed thoughts on critiquing anyway.

I have serious authority issues. I mean, huge ones. You know that person- and every circle has one, I think- who does things simply because they’re told not to, who can’t seem to help themselves, who has a knee-jerk reaction to being told what to do?

That would be me. I spend a lot of energy trying to curb those impulses.

I love rules, but only if I’m the one making them.

In theory, I should loathe critiques. What could be worse than people telling me what to do with my own story? How could I help but do exactly what I’m told not to out of sheer contrariness?

Because it’s not about the writer. It’s not about the critiquer. It’s not even about the reader. It’s about the story.