Yes, It Is All My Fault!

I’ve passed the 150-page point on the novel draft. If I had to make a guess based on where I’m at and how much I haven’t fit in yet, I’d say I have at least that much again to go (probably more, really) but we can pretend for now that it’s the halfway point, since that sounds nice and weighty and accomplished.

It is longer than the old terrible other first novel written long ago, and therefore I’ve now written more words on this project than any other single project to date. Which also sounds like a nice mark of progress.

Yay me!

I had a bit of inspiration today over at the household blog, Words Words Words. Feel free to wander yonder and check it out! Join in the discussion! There’s tons of points in that argument I didn’t even touch on due to space constraints in the article, show off your own eruditeness on the topic!

I waited a couple of days before posting about this, but I just sold another story! While searching for markets one day several months ago I happened across Triangulation: Taking Flight and the theme instantly caught my attention. Five minutes later I was putting aside my current project to open a new file and write the first draft of what would become the 350-word humorous sf flash fiction story “The Reap Assessors”.

As with my first sale, this editor requested minor edits before accepting the story. What I seem to be learning in beginning this seeking-publication process is you have to be willing to chop up your “babies” in order to be paid for getting them out of the nest and flying in the world. Even bits you really like. Which matters more to you–keeping the integrity of your deathless prose as you bled them onto the page, or having 95% of those words reach a wider audience? The answer will mostly likely decide how far your story soars. (And remember, writing for yourself and keeping the deathless prose in the nest is just as valid and potentially satisfying an option, depending on your need.)

While flash fiction doesn’t count toward pro sale status for organizations like SFWA, I had a blastload of fun writing the story and really pleasant correspondence with the editor and am very pleased that it will see print. I’ll post more details here when I have them as to how you, my interested readers, can enjoy the story too.

***

I’m several pages into Chapter 7 on the novel; the chapters are getting more layered and detailed as I figure this novel-writing process out for myself. The first revision pass will be extremely fun, finding with my first readers all the places to stick more cool bits or fold in more layers or explore the world (and laughing about how bad the first few chapters will look by the end). I am still so far away from being done that it seems forever to the finished draft, so I try not to think about that part too much and just keep writing my scenes.

I really, really love this cast. Like, a lot a lot.

***

Last night, talking with Steve, he was orating about one of his literary heroes, Roger Zelazny, who (paraphrased) said at one point that he wanted to be half artist, half hack in his writing: able to create great works, but also have someone ask him for an x,xxx-word story about yyy topic and be able to sit down and turn one out. With my usual far-reaching confidence, I casually replied, “Oh, I can do that.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“All right then. Give me a 5,000 word short story…”

“Is there a time limit? I’m not committing to anything until after I finish this novel.”

“Novel comes first.”

“Okay then.”

He gave me the topic and left the room. When he returned two minutes later, I had the story premise, idea, main characters, and basic outline ready, and total confidence I could write about it for 5,000 words.

“That was too easy. You’ll have to try harder than that to stump me.”

He smiled.

I finished chapter 6 two days ago, a slightly shorter than average 20 pages of bouncing back and forth between two characters and how they’re preparing for a Big Event that I now have to write about in Chapter 7.

So I have a file started for Chapter 7 notes, I’ve approached my roomies about a similar brainspitting (like brainstorming but with less fluid) session like we did for Chapter 5, which turned out very nicely. I’ve got another file open for another short story/character exploration for one of the novel characters, along the lines of what I did for “Flowers In the Desert”.

All ready to go…and instead, this morning, my mind decides that today it’s taking a short break from the novel and its world and people. I find myself staring at an anthology theme I’ve been staring at for the past four months, trying to force inspiration and coming up totally dry, completely blank. And today an image appears, and then words follow, and three hours or so later I have a 1250 word short story draft. Emphatically not in the novel style–or topic–at all.  But definitely a story.

This evening I spent some time doing the initial revisions, bringing it to the point where it’s ready to be hacked apart by beta readers. It was fun, I love the process of writing AND finishing a story, and I feel my creative flow rejuvenated so that I can progress more easily on the waiting short story and Chapter 7. I like that my brain did this *before* I got too stuck in circles on the novel project again. Yay healthy progress, may it continue. I want this done done done! But not neurotically. Working on healthy writer foundations wherever I can find to put them.

Steve and I practiced reading aloud from our work last night, which is an event that happens from time to time at conventions. Kit was too congested to participate in the reading but listened and gave critique afterwards. It was a lot of fun!

I got complimented on both the reading and the content, I read them Chapter 5 of the novel. I’m glad it was so well received! They both seemed surprised at how good it was, which I’m taking as complimentary since it’s still a first draft. They also gave me good feedback on things to watch out for: rhythm and speed of reading (start more strongly in the rhythm of the story–probably through practice ahead of time–and slow down enough to hit my consonants and not trip over words) , as well as a concerning clicking or smacking noise I was apparently occasionally making that I wasn’t aware of.

We’re planning to do this again and I’m looking forward to it, I’ve always liked the sound of my own voice and speaking in front of a crowd, so these “readings” seem right up my alley. I also really appreciate Steve and Kit supporting me as I try to think through ahead of time a lot of the writer-type things I might encounter as I get deeper into my literary pursuits.

Two more pages to go to make my preferred daily novel pages, and I’m still hoping to plot out the next short story today. My next goal is to be able to simultaneously work on a short story while still continuing to write on the novel; up until now my focus has tended to be one or the other, probably since I also have many other things taking up daily time and energy. If all I had to do each day was write, I suspect I would end up on the higher end of the daily wordcount spectrum.

However, we’re also leaving around 3pm to drive to Austin, to get my guitar tweaked (oh, did I mention I bought a guitar a month or so ago?  Just like everyone else, except mine is left-handed, hee hee!) and then attend First Wednesday dinner. I hope to see many of you there! But who knows how many words will get done as a result.