Writing, I Choose You!
Well, I made my decision. I am not taking the new job. I know I wouldn’t have time for writing, not writing anything substantial anyway like a novel. Thus do I go forward into the unknown. I can’t succeed if I don’t try, right? Hopefully that thought won’t be a thin blanket in the years to come.
This week I’ve gotten exactly nothing done. I was on quite the roll with my novel edit last week. This week I’m working 11 nights in a row (I have 6 days left) which means I have zero energy or brains for anything. At least I’m getting lots of reading done.
Next week I plan to get cracking. I want the novel edit finished by the end of April. I have two more chapters to add that need to be written from whole cloth and about ten more chapters that I have to go over with the proverbial fine tooth comb for errors, inconsistencies, and stupidity. Everywhere in my hard copy notes I’ve written “More Peril”! While amusing me, it also means more work. Fortunately, I have the new Dresden Files novel to inspire me. If Jim Butcher can do one thing perfectly, it is creating peril. Poor Harry never gets to sleep or eat or prop his feet up. There are plenty of scenes in my novel where I give my characters a break or gloss over parts where they could be in a lot more danger. Just one of the many things I’m slowly fixing. It is mild comfort that authors I enjoy like Jim Butcher or Elizabeth Bear go through multiple drafts that apparently often number in the double digits. Comparisons can only go so far, however. Every writer is different, every writing process is the same. I think this is one of the places where writing lots really does help a writer get better. We learn about ourselves this way, we learn the HOW of what we’re doing. Every time I try something I haven’t before with my process, I’m growing as a writer. Just as every time I continue to do things that work, I still refine the why and how of what’s working. Maybe in ten years I’ll have more concrete answers. Maybe things will be wildly different.
Also, I joined the Online Writers Workshop, http://sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com . I haven’t posted any writing yet. I will likely post a short story for review once I’ve finished rewriting the first half. I have reviewed a few stories. The quality of work on the site is higher than on the random forums I’ve been trolling. There are still the gems of the “oh my god, why do you even bother thinking you can write a coherent or interesting story?” I had the entire house in stitches over one such piece (the melodramatic live reading probably amped up the badness factor). The quality of the criticism is pretty good, so I’m using my 4 week trial to see how helpful it could be for me. We’ll see.
That about wraps it up for this week. I’ve been getting about 5-6 views a day, strangely enough. So if anyone reading this has fiction writing topic posts they are interested in me writing about, let me know. I’m trying to think of some more craft related things to write about since as long as all I’m working on is my novel edit, it makes my posts here rather dry. I do intend to write up a post about writing for comics and how I do it. That’s all for now.
The ten in ten project continues!