It is that time of the week again, the time to examine yourself, your life and your writing, and answer the question posed by the note. Tell us about your successes, tell us about your failures, and tell us about what else is going on in your life. Many among us write every day with no problem. There are those who write one month, go several months without writing. The rest of us might be a bit sporadic, writing each month, but not every week. The concept of this note is to entice all here to open some work in progress at least once every week. Just a little work every week adds up to a lot of writing over a year. We are not picky about what is writing. If you even have to question whether it is writing, the answer will be yes. New writing, editing, critiquing, blogging, writing assignments, technical writing, poetry, world or character development. E-mail can even be called writing if they pertain to writing or stories and are wordy. Just about anything will do if you even question whether it is. We are not concerned about word count. When writing new, big word counts are quite desirable. With editing, word counts are known to go down.
I am working on story number two of my Waxy dragon stories. I need to cut down the word count but also raise the level to near to what is required for publication. Right now, I am at a point where a major plot change is needed. The order things happen are swapped all around. It will be a tighter, more exciting story, hopefully, when done. If not, I will rewrite portions of it until it is. As I am writing, I am also deleting. I have written a whole lot of words, but have removed a lot too. I can zap the entire two ending sequences and cut the story in half. As it is, it is 32000 words and needs to be 15000 words. At this moment, I have a word count of adding around one thousand two hundred words. I added 3 pages. In actual writing, I likely wrote ten thousand words. My zapping sections hides the word count. I expect the word count to go down over the next week.
My story ideas are as short as possible, telling what the concept is about, but not really showing it. I used to aim for four pages and usually hit three. Now I am aiming at one page and sometimes getting onto the second page. During my vacation, I wrote down my concepts, but did not even bother writing any. This month I am writing extra whenever I can. I want to end the month with at least one extra idea to make up for last month's one short.
posted
My proofreaders for THE KABBALIST have been excellent. It is amazing the little things they catch. I'm now awaiting the input of my test readers. I did manage to format the manuscript per submission guidelines.
I've begun the difficult tasks of creating drafts of a Synposis and a Query letter [with excellent guidance from links suggested by Hatrack Forum members]. I'll likely post the latter on Hatrack seeking advice when ready.
Selecting potential agents who mught be interested in the novel has been a challenge. I found querytracker.com of interest.
Meanwhile, it seems the right half of my brain, having been suppressed for thirty years by the nature of my profession, will not be still.
While resisting the urge to start a second novel regarding THE KABBALIST... [that tentatively begins: It was the end of the world again. And I smelled like fish. [I know ... I said it was tentative. >smile< ], ... I have also begun plotting and writing two short stories: THE GOLEM OF CHESTER COURT (it's a dead-end street in Brooklyn where my wife grew up), and EREV TOV (translation: "Good Night"; about a lamia, a demon of the night, transformed by the love of the village cripple).
I foresee a potential collection of short fantasy stories each concerning a creature from the treasury of Jewish legend and folklore -- but every story about personal human challenges with which we are all familiar. I don't know if there is an audience for these kind of stories, but my Muse has me by the beytsim (you can figure out what this means >smile< ) and I can but obey.
Respectfully, Dr. Bob
[This message has been edited by History (edited October 11, 2010).]
posted
I did. Mostly revisions. I did write the first chapter and a bit of a new novel, SEVEN STARS, as I was working on the world-building--first 13 here . And two new blog posts.
[This message has been edited by Meredith (edited October 11, 2010).]
No, it's not my first. But I've been focusing on shorter stuff lately so it's a new direction. I'm also just happy with the way it came out. I found the MC's quirks rather quickly and once I latch onto a character, I'm pretty well set. I hope.
Printer-friendly view of this topic
