Wow.

I've completely gutted Chapter Five in Childhood's Tears and scattered bits and pieces into Chapters Six and Seven and cut parts of Chapter Six out completely and Seven's not looking so good.

I do admit, I'm liking it a whole lot more than the initial pass, but it's still not natural for me to be editing before I reach the end of a book. I thought this might take a few weeks. This may be an entire summer just to catch up to where I start putting new stuff in.

Yikes.

I may have completely edited out two entire sections. I know you're supposed to be brutal when you edit, but this is darn right homicidal (? - libracidal?). I have saved them out into a new Word Perfect file. I may be able to use one of these little sub-plots later rather than now. *lifts one eyebrow* In fact, one would be perfect for later in the book. Bwah-ha-ha. Yes, once again, I have outfoxed you, plot monster.

Tomorrow I'll be trying to squish the left-overs from Chapter Five into Chapter Six with a slight twist on them to make it a tad more creepy. We'll get back to the swashbuckling in the chapter after that.

But, that's tomorrow.

Went and saw Up today in the theater. Damn good movie. I thought the quiet montage at the first was a very touching part that they didn't underplay or overplay. Nice amount of silliness and seriousness in the movie and I think Ed Asner had a ball doing the part. The short before the movie was cool too. Had never thought about the stork that had to deliver porcupine babies before. *grin*

Did a little shopping and picked up some music from a couple of groups that had been recommended to me by friends. Of course, FYE's scanners were down so I couldn't listen for myself, but they were used discs so I figure it's worth a chance. I'll listen to them tomorrow at work and hopefully I'll think my friends have wonderful tastes in music.

Did get some work done on Childhood's Tears tonight. Finished the re-write to Chapter 4. I added almost 2000 new words in the process and am now well on my way to finishing Chapter 5. I may be re-doing a chunk of this chapter too. I'm going to read it again tomorrow and make a decision then.

All right, computer is showing low battery, so I'm going to go to bed now.

Well, not lazy personally, but lazy about updating.

Balticon was fun. Not as busy as I've been some shows, but busy enough. Caught up with friends and made a few new ones. Need to get some paperwork done that I promised a few people at the show and hopefully that will be happening in the next few days. Really had fun doing the Edgar Allen Poe panel on his detective stories.

Fun thing happened at my reading. Had a couple of people stop by. Told them I was going to be reading the first couple of chapters from my new Stargate Novel. One got on the phone and called a friend announcing a Stargate reading and *boom*, I had more people at that reading then I've had at any other reading I've ever done. The good thing about it was they laughed when they were supposed to, groaned at the "bad" jokes and most said they'd definitely pick up the book when it came out. *Score!*

The reason I'm a little behind on my Balticon projects is while I was there, Writer Beware was officially offered part of the Mystery Writers of America's booth at Book Expo America. Which, of course, was the next weekend. So, between Monday and Thursday, I had to coordinate for a table display, create business cards, make lots of phone calls, coordinate with a good friend for crash space (hotels were all gone by then) and make train reservations.

Why the train? Because on Tuesday (after Balticon), I was going to drop off my new car at Mazda for it's 7500 tune-up and oil change. When I reached the end of the street, I was horrified to see approximately four inches of water roll out from beneath my passenger's seat and puddle on the floorboards. We'd had a huge thunderstorm on Monday and apparently the drains were clogged in my car, forcing the water into the passenger compartment. Oh, joy. So, Mazda fixed that (under warranty, thank goodness), but I didn't get my car back until after BEA was over.

Still, BEA was a blast. Writer Beware had a great experience and again a major tip of the hat to the MWA for hosting us! Victoria Strauss has already posted some of our experiences from there on the Writer Beware Blog and Ann and I are working on entries to go up there too. Also, it was good to see Steve Roman again. It'd been a few years since we'd actually visited (San Diego ComicCon 2005 to be exact), and we made up some lost time visiting as well as him playing tour guide for the big Midwestern kid. Can't believe I walked past the Empire State Building four times before I realized what I was seeing. *sigh*

I'm back on Childhood's Tears again. Finishing up the edits to Chapter Four. I've spent the past few nights rereading my Lovecraft and I think I've finally got the other plot I'd been needing for this book to start adding in. I'm hoping this will make the story a tad more creepy. I don't want to take away from the Action/Adventure parts, but a certain horror overtone would really set this book off. *keeping fingers crossed*

Also, I'm meeting with an actual web designer this weekend to get nightwolfgraphics.com/richardcwhite.com up and operational again. We're probably moving web hosts and definitely bringing the web site into the 21st century. When he started spouting .jsp vs .php and all the other acronyms that go with modern design, I just nodded and decided I'll let him worry about how it works. *grin*

Oh, work? Yeah, I'm playing one-armed paper-hanger right now there. Should be a very entertaining month.

So, given all this, I probably should go to bed.

After sending a chapter of Childhood's Tears off to a beta and getting their feedback, I have decided to do something I've never done before. I'm going to revise this story before I get to the end. I was looking at the comments they made, especially between the first half and the second half of the chapter and realized they were absolutely right.

Then I looked at the whole story I'd written up until now and realized I had an OK story, but I had missed the big thrust of the story. I'd always envisioned this story to be sort of an "Indiana Jones meets Call of Cthulhu" but in the first draft, we were heavy into Indy and there was damn little Cthulhu. This needs to change.

So, since I wss going to rewrite the first chapter, I might as well go in now and revise the story to add in the spooky as well as the adventure. It was fun, I discussed the issue with the daughter over dinner tonight and she suggested what would make a wonderful addition to the book which will give it a Lovecraftian feel, but still keep it true to the world I'm developing.

You won't be seeing word counts for a while, but there will be progress measured in chapters updated. (Actually, overall word count will probably be coming down with the rewrite, but that's O.K. too.)

Current Revisions: Chapter 1 completed.

But, now back to see if the Royals can beat the White Sox in extra innings.

Night, everyone

Well, the two week hiatus was a welcome time. Caught up on some reading, did some gaming, visited with friends and family and just did whatever I wanted to (within reason).

Still, all lazy times must come to an end eventually. So, based on a suggestion from a friend from Twitter, I've dusted off Childhood's Tears and decided it's going to be my next big project. Yes, I know I had multiple projects going last year this time and I haven't given up on any of them. Still, I think it'll be better to concentrate on one for a while and then work on one of the others when I need a break.

That, and I may be working on the Harbinger re-write on my lunch hours . . . we'll see how that shapes up.

My goal would be to try and get two novels ready to start shopping around by the end of the year. My goal is to have an agent by the end of 2010 and to do that, I need agent bait (aka a completed, non-media tie-in, book). So, Childhood's Tears, Harbinger need to be in the bag and Steel on Target well under way.

Yeah, I don't have delusions of grandeur, do I? *grin*

Speaking of delusions (grand or otherwise), I do have short story to share.

Last Monday, I moved into a new building at work . . .same assignment, but the govies decided they want our spaces, so we're moving to a contractor site. It was raining cats and dogs that morning, so I'm wearing my rain jacket with the hood up. Even with the limited vision, I can see a series of cones stretched across the walkway and I guess they're doing some construction there. I approach and then skirt around them, trying to avoid the wet grass and water puddles.

That's when it happens.

The next thing I know, I've got a Canadian Goose in my face, flapping its wings and hissing at me. Now, remember I had my hood up and I never saw it until it was right there. I shifted out of range but managed to restrain myself from whapping it with my binder or kicking it. Once I cleared the area, with him still in pursuit, I realized he had a mate who'd made her nest in the flower bed next to the walkway.

Needless to say, ever since that day, Mr. Goose and I have had a love/hate relationship. I try to give him a wide berth, but he seems insistent on keeping an eye on me and bristling any time he thinks I'm encroaching on his space.

He and the missus are on week three of six or so weeks before the eggs hatch, so we're going to have to work out an uneasy truce one of these days. *sigh*

But, then again, how many people can say they were mugged by a goose? *grin*
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Words for Today

1075 / 1000 words. 108%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

44059 / 90000 words. 49%

Words for 2009

81982 / 365000 words. 22%

The month of May started out so well and has turned into a flaming wreck when it comes to getting new writing on the page. Although, I do have a small excuse for last night, since I wound up missing work today with a sore, swollen throat and just general blah feeling.

Still, I'm aggravated that I've squandered my word count cushion. I've gone from being over 10K words ahead to barely being over 1500 words ahead. If I don't re-motivate myself, I see serious issues with making my goal. Although, once I get started on the "sekrit" project, I'm going to have a deadline. Maybe that'll be the boost I need to get going again. Lord knows, it can't hurt.

On the good side, though, I did pass 150,000 words for the year tonight. That is a bit of a milestone, so I'll build on that.

I'll post a belated review of Balticon later. Just not tonight. Lots of distractions tonight, but I did manage to hammer out 1632 words tonight on Childhood's Tears.

And now, bed.
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Words for Today

1623 / 1000 words. 162%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

42975 / 90000 words. 48%

Words for 2008

150187 / 366000 words. 41%

When I got into work this morning, I was informed that I was being transferred to one of my projects full time instead of splitting my time across two of them. Now, some people might have taken it the wrong way, but I think this is much better for all concerned. The project I'm on now is good at giving me specific deadlines and not worrying about things as long as I hit those deadlines. Plus, the manager I'm supporting is good at giving me very specific feedback to what he wants and doesn't want.

The other project, while interesting, was depending on me being more "self-motivating", which would be really cool if I was one of the developers or if I had been with the project from the beginning. However, as the tech writer, I have to work with the SMEs to develop the papers and I sorta need to know when they expect me to have them done. Otherwise, projects with no deadlines tend to slip so I can meet projects with clear deadlines. We were just a bad fit and while I'm pleased about the work I did for them, I can't say I'm heartbroken that "they don't have any work for me in the foreseeable future".

So, hopefully, with only having to answer to one manager, my stress level will go down and I can get back into the "I want to write when I get home" mode again.

And, in honor of this, I did write another 1000+ words on Harbinger of Darkness on my lunch break. I just didn't get a chance to type it in at home, so I can't officially count it on my word production for the day. I did, however, add 1616 words to Childhood's Tears tonight. I know I need to get started on the sekrit project soon, but after nights like this, it's going to be hard to put this one away to concentrate on the one that hopefully has real money attached to it.

In non-work/non-writing talk, I enjoyed going to see Prince Caspian with the family and dzeytoun. I enjoyed the story and some of the symbolism behind the various events. wishweaver and I have been discussing some of the different themes we saw in the movie and even if it's not "haute-cuisine" as far as movies go, if you're still talking about it a couple of days later, it's done it's job in my opinion.

Also, Daughter-unit is still geeking on her new computer and the manga drawing software she got, so we're counting this as "Mom and Dad did good." *grin*
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Words for Today

1616 / 1000 words. 162%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

41343 / 90000 words. 46%

Words for 2008

145772 / 366000 words. 40%

Wow, with the two major projects put to bed, I was happy to go back to work today. I didn't exactly skip up the sidewalk to the building, but I will admit to whistling the tune to Willie and the Poorboys from CCR as I walked from the parking lot.

Now, yes, I do have other projects at work, but none of them seem to be quite as dire as the one's I just discharged and hopefully, we'll stay ahead of the game this time (provided people give me deadlines before they're crisis deadlines).

wishweaver has been drawn over to the dark side . . . yes, we caught it when Nicktoons began rerunning Avatar, so we've been spending every day from 7-8pm watching back-to-back episodes of the show. I know it's not "anime", but it's probably the most grown-up cartoon I've seen produced by an American team in forever. It feels anime-ish because it's plot driven not episodic like most cartoons and the characters have depth. No one is completely good and no one is completely evil. OK, well, maybe Azula's completely evil, but then she's a psychopathic witch with serious daddy issues.

Worked on Childhood's Tears again tonight, adding 1511 words to the story. I know I'm going to have to make a decision here soon as the editor with the sekrit project told me I could go ahead and start writing on it while we're waiting for the contract to come back from the licensor. The editor told me they're notoriously slow, but she's almost never had them reject a story she passed on to them.

So, I have to decide, which of my current writing projects do I push to the side to work on the sekrit project? To be honest, I"m thinking I'm going to drive on (bad pun there) with the military SF story Steel on Target and set Childhood's Tears and Chronicles of the Sea Dragon to the side. I really enjoy writing fantasy, but I think, given my military background as well as my experience in the 3rd ACR, this might be the strongest of the three. Plus, I'll need to set some time aside to work on Shattered Mirror and my college proposal, Black Satin Nights, which will need editing/rewriting between now and January.

So, I will keep working on my current schedule until Balticon and starting in June, I'll shift my schedule to Sekrit Project on Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues, Steel on Target on Wed/Thurs, and Fridays will either be down days to recharge/read/play some PS2 or else work on Shattered Mirror when it's my turn to write.

I hate to leave Rowena and Asheera in the lurch, but there's only so much time and a whole lot of writing to do. I may see if I can slip in a little work on them during my lunch hours, but they'll just have to be patient with me.

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Words for Today

1511 / 1000 words. 151%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

39727 / 90000 words. 44%

Words for 2008

138182 / 366000 words. 38%

Wow, to those of you who stuck with this blog in my absence, thank you.

Like the song says, "Life is what happens to you when you're busy making plans."

When last we saw our intrepid writer, I was preparing for the Maryland Writer's Association's Annual Conference on 3 May. It was my first time representing Writer Beware at a con and I think everything went well, even in spite of the audio-visual glitches. One of the people who attended my talk said if he got nothing else out of the conference, my talk was worth the price of admission (and folks, this wasn't a cheap conference *grin*). Needless to say, that made the day for me right there.

I left the conference all fired up myself and ready to get right back to work.

Unfortunately, I hadn't counted on my real work getting in the way. I had two major deadlines last week and I was putting in some hours. Basically, I was coming home, eating dinner, reading my blog and then passing out. There was no staying up until midnight working on stories. I was so burnt out from writing all day that the last thing I wanted to do was write at home. So I read my wife's For Better or For Worse collections, a few web comics and otherwise accomplished nothing last week.

Oh, and enjoyed going out to see Iron Man (4+/5 stars) and Speed Racer (2.5/5 stars). Iron Man was an outstanding time and I look forward to adding that one to my DVD collection when it becomes available. I was impressed by how true they were to the origins of Iron Man and still managed to move it forward into time. Although to tell you the truth, I thought the two robots assisting Tony Stark stole the show, and wishweaver wants his holographic interface with Jarvis. Hell, I think she'd take Jarvis also. Plus the easter egg at the end made sitting through the credits worth the wait. *grin*

Speed was an enjoyable romp and I thought once we got past Speed's childhood, the movie really got back into the stuff that made watching Speed the cartoon fun (family and the cars). Plus, you had the GRX, the Monster Car, the Inspector, the Acrobatic Racing Team (in a cameo unfortunately), over the top villains, Segways, ninjas, and all the other strangeness that made the Speed Racer cartoon fun.

On Saturday, I did finally get motivated and hit one of the local coffee shops. I added 4029 words to Steel on Target, nearly finishing the next chapter. I followed that up with tonight's return to Childhood's Tears adding 1138 words. Hopefully, with things settling down at work for a bit, I expect to get back on track here soon. I may have a few lapses (especially with the new Garrett, P.I. book from Glen Cook (Cruel Zinc Melodies) sitting here waiting for me to read it.), but I'm feeling better, the clients like the end results of the last week's projects and the world has continued to spin.

Now, if the squirrels would stop lining up by twos, practicing getting onto a boat.

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Words for Today

1138 / 1000 words. 114%

Progress on Steel on Target

48288 / 95000 words. 51%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

38216 / 90000 words. 42%

Words for 2008

136671 / 366000 words. 37%

Trying desperately to finish a web site at work. I was on the last page, making one last revision and then all of a sudden, one of the entries in a table is now mysteriously setting above the box instead of in it.

Now, this was working all day as well as in all the previous drafts of the page both in IE and in Firefox. Then, I make *A* change and poof, it's wrong on every page on the site.

I do so love CSS (especially script I didn't write but have to live with). I spent about 30 minutes fighting with it and then said, "the hell with it", and decided it could wait until tomorrow morning. But, it just galls me to know I was "that close" and then have something stupid happen like this.

*AAUUGGHH!*

And given the rest of the day at work, that was the icing on the cake.

Came home, read a few of wishweaver's For Better or For Worse collections and gathered up my computer and began working on Childhood's Tears. Hammered out 1238 words tonight and probably could have gotten more done if I hadn't spent (aka wasted) time looking through Wikipedia for some information (which of course led to the earlier entry).

Also, spent time on Sunday working with April on Shattered Mirror. We went over Chapter Eight and actually, there aren't as many revisions on this as I had anticipated. One of the lines I used in the chapter led us to discuss more on the nature of the mythology we're adapting and by the time we were done, we had refined the actual plot of the book (and any subsequent visits to this world), three new sub-plots and had created two versions of a fae Knight's Templar or Teutonic Order that were going to be bedeviling our characters in the near future.

It was fun just bouncing ideas off of each other, tossing some, accepting some and revising others. Some people say writing is a solitary business, and I guess in some ways it is, but I'm enjoying the heck out of collaborating on this one at least.

I have to admit, all the books I'm working on right now are a lot of fun. When I sit down and get started, the words just seem to flow out and it's more like I'm transcribing what I'm observing than actually making the stuff up whole cloth. That's when I know I'm in the zone writing.

But, it's time to call it a night and get ready to fight my old nemesis in the morning.
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Words for Today

1238 / 1000 words. 124%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

37079 / 90000 words. 41%

Words for 2008

130477 / 366000 words. 36%

Met with our contractor today and picked out the bathroom fixtures for the master bath and the upstairs bathroom as well as the faucets for the bar in the new family room and the new half-bath in the basement. We discussed different options and one thing I'm looking forward to is putting a deep tub with the jets in it. Nothing like a whirlpool bath after a long aggravating day.

It also appears that they're hoping to get started on the kitchen renovations sometime next week. wishweaver and I will be busy hauling stuff downstairs into the new pantry once they give us a definite start date. It's tough . . . I want to have most of it done now, but we still need the food, dishes, glasses, etc. until they're ready to gut it.

Oh, the joys of home renovation.
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As mentioned in the entry subject, the NFL held its draft today. Personally, I think the Chiefs made out like bandits, picking up Glenn Dorsey (DT), Brandon Albert (OT), and Brandon Flowers (DB) with their first three picks. I would have loved for them to have tried to trade into the 2nd round again to pick up a defensive end, but given all the holes in the Chiefs' line-up, it's going to take a couple of drafts to fill everything we need.

Still, this is, by far, the best first day draft I've seen for the Chiefs in almost twenty years. I can't wait to see how things go tomorrow.
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I need to finish my slides for the Maryland Writer's Conference for Saturday. It's my second time representing Writer Beware at a convention, but the first time was presenting the annual report at the SFWA meeting at NASFIC. This is my actual first time as a presenter/representative.

Yes, I am nervous, thanks for asking.
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Did some work on Childhood's Tears while my daughter had an appointment this morning, but since I didn't transcribe those words onto the computer, they'll have to wait for tomorrow's word total. I did work on Chronicles of the Sea Dragon tonight after I finished listening to the draft and the myriad discussions about who did well and who fell on their swords. I added 1010 words to the list.

Not sure how much I'll accomplish tomorrow. We're going down to visit with my collaborator, April, and her family tomorrow. We'll be going over my first pass at Chapter Eight for Shattered Mirror while we're down there. Depending on when we get home afterwards will determine whether I stay up and write or just crawl in the sack.

Which I'm getting ready to do now.
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Words for Today

1010 / 1000 words. 101%

Progress on CSD: Dragon Couchant

91343 / 120000 words. 76%

Words for 2008

129239 / 366000 words. 35%

Had an interesting discussion with the daughter-unit at dinner this evening. She's got some drawing chops and she's also developing her own characters for stories. Not sure if she'd thinking about doing web comics with her characters or writing stories or what she's going to do with them, but we got into a discussion of fiction, fan fiction, Mary Sues and Original Characters in fan fic.

One of the things we discussed was how to make your stories more unique, especially when you're young and can't just travel all around the world soaking up experiences. (Hell, I'm old and have only been out of the country a few times - and for the record, getting assigned to a war zone does not count.) I suggested people make Mary Sues many times because they haven't read enough, both fiction and non-fiction to create realistic characters. This feels especially true in fan fic - if you don't have anything else to base characters on, or like in Harry Potter, are only familiar with the movie versions, you don't have the depth to really make the characters come alive. So, you write about what you do know well, which tends to be yourself or at least an idealized version of yourself.

Now, self-insertion is not bad in and of itself. It can be handled very adroitly - I think about how Stan Lee and Jack Kirby wrote themselves into various Marvel comics all the time, (Spider-Man's wedding for example). However, they never made themselves the focus of the story.

The problem is, inexperienced writers don't see how they're shoving the main characters off to the side with their idealized selves handling the problem while juggling six chainsaws and balancing on a bomb at the same time. I don't think people intentionally set out to write Mary Sues (well, outside of the parodies where it's obvious the author knows exactly what they're doing). I think they're just making beginner mistakes and many will progress beyond that and move on.

Daughter-Unit wasn't thrilled about the concept of "non-fiction" because she sees non-fiction in the same category as the textbooks she has to read for school. However, I pointed her toward a couple of my favorite non-fiction books and hope she'll make some time to read them. One is the Pulitzer Prize winning The Rising Sun by John Toland, which tells the story of WWII from the Japanese point of view. Toland and his wife (I believe she was Nisei, but I could be off here) were granted access to Japanese military papers, prisoner, ex-soldiers, civilians as well as letters and diaries that were collected right after the war. It 's a nice counter-balance to the standard retelling of the war with several anecdotes that in turn amused and aggravated me. I read this back in 1974 and I remember finishing both books in one sitting. I was very pleased to find a set of first editions in a used book store a few years ago still in their dust covers. *geeky grin*

The other favorite non-fiction book is Under a Black Flag by David Cordingly, which is a rather unromantic, yet still highly readable book about the Golden Age of Piracy. Anyone writing pirate or privateer stories needs to have this book in their arsenal.

As wishweaver and I pointed out, telling a story is basically telling a lie with enough truth in it to make people believe it could have happened. The more the author learns about their subject, the easier it is to work the lies (the story) into the truth (the setting for the story) without people spotting where the seams are. The more you read, the more you see how other authors weave their magic and create their characters.

Perhaps not your typical dinner conversation, but it was fun listening to her dissecting her favorite fan-fics (especially the Twilight ones) and listening to why she thought various ones worked or didn't. I guess growing up with two writers in the family, she's doomed. *grin*

OH, yeah, I did do some writing of my own tonight. I'm almost through with Chapter Nine for Childhood's Tears, adding another 1419 words to it. I've almost made up for slacking off this weekend. *huzzah!*
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Words for tonight

1419 / 1000 words. 142%♦

Progress on Childhood's Tears

35841 / 90000 words. 40%

Words for 2008

124816 / 366000 words. 34%

Remember my big plans for the weekend?

Fugitaboutit.

Didn't happen. Various reasons, all it boils down to is I didn't write this weekend.

So what do I do today? 1588 words on my college writing project, finishing up the first chapter (which is what one of the universities wants for my admissions package). The others want between 30-50 pages, so I'll continue pecking away at this one over the summer, but at least I have the first chapter done so I can start polishing it.

(Word of warning, LJ-ers, I may hit a couple of you up for suggestions/critiques on this first chapter later this summer. I want in this program, so I'm going to make sure the sample is as polished as I can possibly make it.

Oh, and after I finished the college project, I knocked out 1069 words on Childhood's Tears.

So, basically I went from producing no words to nearly catching up on what I owed over the weekend plus. Who knows? Maybe the couple of days of not writing recharged me or maybe I was sick and tired of being lazy. Don't know, don't care as long as words are getting done now.

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On a different subject, dzeytoun and I went to see Forbidden Kingdom yesterday. I rate it 3.5 bags of popcorn on the matinee scale. Look, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon it's not. However, it's a fun tale with some Chinese mythology thrown in. Plus, you have Jackie Chan doing the Drunken Master and Jet Li as the "Silent Monk". What's not to like, and even in his 50s, Jackie Chan still fights with the best of them. No, it's not going to win any Oscars and the storyline is a bit simplistic but who cares, it's a go into the theater, turn off your inner critic and just enjoy a fun story.

This one will be on my DVD list this fall.

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Words for Today

2657 / 1000 words. 266% done!

Progress on Black Satin Nights

16 / 50 pages. 32%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

34422 / 90000 words. 38%

Words for 2008

123397 / 366000 words. 34%

Just wow.

I attended a poetry reading at the University of Baltimore tonight. I wasn't certain if I was going to enjoy it or not, because I've been to some good poetry readings and I've been to some really NOT good poetry readings. Still, it was going to be an opportunity to meet with some of the faculty for the Creative Writing program so I could handle anything.

But, I was not expecting what I heard this evening.

The department had invited Patricia Smith, who is a performance poet. Which in a nutshell means she writes poetry to be read not just to be collected in a book. She's a dynamic performer who had the audience enraptured by her opening poem about a sixth-grade class where everyone in the class has lost someone (father, mother, brother, sister) to AIDS, murder or drug abuse and the hope that they gave to her after she met them. She now does a workshop with that school every year and has gotten to know the kids as they grew up and moved on, but that first class has always stuck with her.

She had some outrageously funny poems about the arrogance of airline pilots, an old barber as he gossiped about everyone as he worked on a Saturday morning and how a band she used to perform with used to sit around and discuss what kind of fame they really wanted. However, she also could do powerful stuff, to include the poem, "34", about the 34 people who died in the nursing home in New Orleans when the staff abandoned them to the flood waters. It was a long piece, with 34 stanzas, but she wanted to give each person a moment to be a "human" rather than just a statistic on a sheet somewhere.

I had the opportunity to visit with her toward the end and I definitely think I'll be looking up her books here in the very near future. Her newest book, "Blood Dazzler", is a collection of poems related to Hurricane Katrina and if the rest of the book is as powerful as the two she read us tonight, it'll in turns infuriate, delight and humble the reader.

After it was all over, I did get a chance to speak to a couple of the instructors, to include the head of the MFA program. The general consensus is, given my age, life experience, professional credits and the 4.0 GPA I had at Howard Community College, they're pretty certain the University will overlook my "lack of discipline" back in 1977-82 when I got my Bachelors. What they're more concerned with is a 20 page writing sample and my letters of recommendation from former professors.

OH, and there's no requirement to take the GRE for this MFA program.

Let's just say, given the meeting tonight, the cost factor, and the fact they're the only one of the three that wouldn't make me take the GRE (again) moves them to the top of my list. Sure, they don't have quite the name recognition that a John Hopkins has, but that's one of the least of my concerns.

I mean, Central Missouri doesn't have the same panache that a Princeton has, but strangely enough, I work with a guy who went there and we make roughly the same amount of money and neither of us is working in our major field anyway. From what I can see, the only real difference is it cost me about 1/10th of what it did him to get that degree. *grin*

Oh, and I did get some writing done after I got home. Added 1099 words to Childhood's Tears.
______________________________________________________________________________

Words for Today

1099 / 1000 words. 110%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

33353 / 90000 words. 37%

Words for 2008

117832 / 366000 words. 32%

As I have mentioned once or twice, once wishweaver finished her degree next spring (Inshallah), I hope to get started on my MFA in Creative Writing. Well, there are several programs in the area I can apply for, but the two I'm most looking into is the one at John Hopkins or else the one at the University of Baltimore.

I went on-line today and found out they were having a Graduate School open house on the 30th. That sounded like a great time to meet the admissions people so I can get everything organized and any and all waivers I may need to track down before I start applying in Jan 09. (Let's just say my first time through college back in 77-82 was less than stellar. *sigh*) But, it didn't seem quite what I was looking for, so I found the Creative Writing Program's advisor and gave her a call.

As I had thought, she wasn't going to be there, but she invited me to attend a reading at the college a week from today. They're having a "nationally known poet" and it'll "give me a taste of what the program is like". She also invited me to be sure to introduce myself to her afterward so she could give me a briefing on the program and what they'd be looking for.

Then I got to the sixty-four thousand dollar question and I was right . . . they aren't interested in genre writing. (OH, that's a big surprise, White. An MFA program uninterested in SF/F/H? Oh, hush.) Still, I have an idea for the fifty page sample of my writing (aka: "first three chapters") that might be a fun little thing to do that's more of a historical fiction piece. She was interested in the fact that I had professional credits, even if they were genre-related.

As I said back when I was working on my AA in English, it's not a bad thing to stretch your writing muscles and try new things. And hey, if I can convince work into paying for most of it, why not. After all, they're the ones beating me up about not having a Masters.

Didn't hear from my collaborator tonight to discuss what I'd done with the latest chapter of Shattered Mirror. I have a feeling she got stuck at the office again. There are good things about being a manager and there are less than good things about it. I think the "overtime" you're expected to put in at a moment's notice is definitely one of the "Not Good Things".

Switching gears back to genre, I continued working on Childhood's Tears tonight. I was a little distracted tonight for some reason, but I still hammered out 1,125 words and finished Chapter Eight. One of the supporting characters caught my two protagonists (and the writer) off-guard tonight. He was a tad more feisty than I envisioned him to be, which pleased me to no end. If I was to sell this and get a chance to do a sequel, I suspect he might just have to make an appearance in the next book.

Still, butt in chair, words on paper. It's all good.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Words for Today

1125 / 1000 words. 113%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

32254 / 90000 words. 36%

Words for 2008

108712 / 366000 words. 30%

Finished Chapter Eight of Shattered Mirror this evening and sent it off to April for her critique. Hopefully, she'll have time to read through it before our regular Skype session, but if not, we'll work on it on line tomorrow. I only needed 563 words to finish the chapter. Probably should have finished it last night but there are lots of "probably should"'s in my past.

The Ft. Meade Science Fiction and Fantasy Club is spinning off a Writer's group and I've been working with the organizer to help him get it off on the right foot. I've been discussing things I've seen go wrong with other writer's groups as well as things done right. I also made it clear, I can't help out with fan fiction, but luckily, everyone seems all right with that.

Otherwise, it's been a pretty slow day. Work, haircut, dinner, writing. You know, the usual.

I also worked on Childhood's Tears this evening, adding 1041 words. Yeah, I know, not quite as productive as the weekend, *grin*, but not bad for a weeknight either.

(Course I might have gotten more done if I wasn't so interested in this asshattery. It was just two years ago, almost to the weekend that Lori Jareo made such a flaming fool of herself and now we can add Austin Torney to that pantheon. I'm just sitting back waiting for CBS/Paramount's lawyers to set their phasers to "frappe" and deal with this knucklehead.

Are people just trying to give publishers a reason to stamp out fan fiction or what?

I have to agree with daytonward's comment where he quotes Dave Galanter on another kerfluffle -
"Darmok, at the fan, when the shit hit."
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Words for Today

1604 / 1000 words. 160%

Progress on Shattered Mirror

563 / 563 words. 100%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

31129 / 90000 words. 35%

Words for 2008

107587 / 366000 words. 29%

Actually, considering how many days in March I missed, I'm not as disappointed as I thought I would be.

Still, I'm resolving to be a little more faithful to my writing than I was last month. (So says the man who's already missed three days in April. Hey, I was sick! Excuses, excuses.)

*grrr*

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Progress on Childhood's Tears

7201 / 8000 words. 90%

Progress on Steel on Target

8746 / 8000 words. 109%

Progress on CSD: Dragon Couchant

10815 / 10000 words. 108%

Words written on Shattered Mirror

1116 / 1000 words. 112%

Words written on Writer Beware projects

3023 / 1000 words. 302%

Words for March

30901 / 31000 words. 100%

Total words to date

94455 / 91000 words. 104%

Allergy attack.

Eyes red and itchy.

Hit right as I was ready to start writing for the night.

Kept going. Added 1038 words to Childhood's Tears.

Heard back from editor for sekrit project this evening. It would help if I had sent 2008's biography instead of 2007's. Luckily, she's a good sport. Right one sent this evening.

Received schedule for the Maryland Writer's Conference, where I'm presenting representing Writer Beware. Will post more when I can see without watery eyes.

Same with March stats.

Time to take Benadryl and call it a night.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Words for Today

1038 / 1000 words. 104%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

30088 / 90000 words. 33%

Words for 2008

95493 / 366000 words. 26%

Short post.

I got back onto the writing treadmill tonight, figuring I better get what I can done on my other stories until I hear something from the licensor regarding the other project. 1028 words later, I'm ready to wrap up for the evening. I finished Chapter Seven and started Chapter Eight for Childhood's Tears and made my final entry for March in the book.

I started out strong, almost 10K words ahead of schedule before I hit the "Ides of March". I made up some of it in the second sprint, but the lack of writing this weekend cut into that cushion and it appears I didn't make much ground over where I was at the end of February.

There'll be more about that when I post my March metrics.

Still, I'm pushing forward, even nights I don't feel like writing (like tonight) and as long as I see the word count meter moving to the right, I'm still pleased with myself. My writing goals were not designed for a sprint, so as long as I'm ahead of pace, I'm still good for the long haul.

One foot in front of the other, one word in front of the other. Long distance running and writing have a lot more in common than you'd think. *grin*
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Words for Today

1028 / 1000 words. 103%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

29050 / 90000 words. 32%

Words for 2008

94455 / 366000 words. 26%

I didn't get a whole lot done at work today. Just couldn't seem to pull the trigger and get "going". I piddled around with some stuff and had another major assignment dropped in my lap (and I still haven't finished the sixteen tasks on my current list yet.

Anyway, I came home and started putzing around with Library Thing, adding in some of the books I have piled up in here while we're waiting for the library to be built downstairs. (I'm writing from the guest bedroom currently.) All of a sudden, I realize, someone's buzzing me on Skype. I glanced down at the clock as I'm scrambling for my headphones and realize it's time for my weekly call from April to discuss Shattered Mirror.

We reviewed the four pages I had done so far and she had some good suggestions on how I could improve one of the sections. Then we started just brainstorming . . . should this character be more upset with what's going on? When is this character going to step forward and show some leadership? How long will this specific scene last before we move to the next encounter they need to get to? Stuff like that, only the ideas kept flowing and we kept coming up with "the reasons why things were like they were".

It was like a bolt of lightning hit the computers. We're going to have to go back and re-write some stuff in the first couple of chapters (like that's a big surprise, right), but now we know what the bad guys are doing. OK, we knew what the bad guys were doing and what their ultimate goals are, but now we know what they're doing and why they're doing it the way they are. We've also added in a new scene and will be introducing a new supporting character who's taking on a great deal more importance than when we first envisioned this person four months ago.

At first, she was important (with a small "i") as she served to move a few plot points forward. Now, after our conversation tonight, she's IMPORTANT and not only does she move the plot forward, she's demanding more screen time.

This is where collaborating with the right person is fun. We started out just talking about a few scene fixes and now we've added another sub-plot to the story and we just built on each other's excitement as we kicked ideas around. The fun part about working with April is, even though sometimes our approaches to this story are almost diametrically opposed, we talk over all the ideas we get and we're not afraid to try "goofy stuff", because sometimes that leads to the best ideas. We've also been friends since 1988, so we're not afraid to be honest with each other either. Also, I'm noticing she's gotten a lot less defensive about her writing the longer we've worked on this project, which shows me how much she's growing as a writer (or else, I'm getting a lot better at knowing how to critique . . . nah).

Unlike work, NOW I'm energized to work on Shattered Mirror.

But, I promised myself I'd stick to my schedule, so Shattered Mirror will have to wait for Friday. I pulled out Childhood's Tears and knocked out 1164 words in about an hour. I'm enjoying where this story is going also. I'm not exactly following the original chapter layout, but I'm close and the rabbit trails have been leading back to the main path so I'm happy.

Now, a little more reading and then bed.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Words for Today

1164 / 1000 words. 116%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

26990 / 90000 words. 30%

Words for 2008

83115 / 366000 words. 23%

The title pretty much describes my day at work.

I finished off the last two little assignments I had as well as making up the weekly status reports that didn't get turned in on Friday because I was here babysitting the appraiser. Poured myself a second cup of coffee and prepared to hit one of the big assignments I have staring at me.

And that's when my friend, Mr. Microsoft Word, began acting up on me again.

First off, the headings styles were acting up. I went into the style formatting, set up the numbering system exactly the way I wanted it and what happened? Word numbered my headings the way IT wanted them to look. It didn't matter if I set the numbers, if I went in and told it to restart the numbering, if I went in and manually set the numbers . . . Microsoft Word blithely ignored me and did whatever the hell it wanted.

But, that was only the beginning of its tricks.

After I finally got the headings almost exactly where I wanted them . . . I got the infamous, "Microsoft Word has encountered an unexpected error and will be shutting down" box.

Not once.

Not twice.

Six times . . .

. . . in a row.

I finally had to shut down my machine and restart it, hoping it would clear whatever was making the persnickety Word program so upset. At least when it came back up, I got a little smarter. I grabbed the document that I did have set up the way I wanted and carefully cut and pasted the words from the body of the offending document into the clean version and then just re-wrote the heading titles by hand rather than importing any bad formatting into the good document.

So far, so good.

But by then, I had squandered a lot of the afternoon and damn near all my desire to work on this particular document any more today. I have a meeting with the team leader about this tomorrow and hopefully when I return to my desk, armed with clearer guidance (I hope), I'll give it another try. However, if it keeps screwing up, I'll probably have to call our IT guys and see if they have any suggestions besides mine, which would be to wipe Word off my machine and give me a fresh reload. (I have to use Word, it's on the baseline and the government is unlikely to spring for a Word Perfect X3 license to make a lowly contractor happy.)

Still, even with the frustrations at work today, I still was in a better mood tonight than I have been in a while. Spent some good time with my family and then wandered upstairs to write. I may have piddled around on some blogs and web sites longer than I needed to, but I still added 1027 words to Childhood's Tears tonight. I'm happy with what I wrote and I hope to add quite a bit more tomorrow night.

And not a crash in sight. Thank you, WP X3. *grin*

Oh, and I also worked on a pitch for a possible ghostwriting project. I'm not adding the words tonight since they're still in pencil and not on the computer, but hopefully I'll be typing them up tomorrow night before my regular writing session. And I do need to start to work on my slides for the Writer Beware presentation I'm giving to the Maryland Writer's Association in May.

*wibble*
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Words for Today

1027 / 1000 words. 103%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

25826 / 90000 words. 29%

Words for 2008

81991 / 366000 words. 22%

Boy, I wish I could blame this on Daylight Savings Time.

I wish I could blame it on work.

I wish I could blame it on stress.

And, while all three of those things may have been contributing factors, I've been highly unproductive this past week. To wit, Monday through Saturday there were no words . . . period.

Unfortunately, taking a day off to de-stress makes it easy to take another evening off and then inertia starts to set in. It becomes too easy to say, "I'm tired, maybe I'll just watch a little TV and then call it a night," or "I'll just play this video game until I get to the next save point, then I'll go write," or even "Screw it, I don't feel like writing tonight."

Either way, the excuses are just that, excuses.

Time for me to get focused again and get back to work. I was so proud of myself having a 10,000 word cushion for my goal of writing 366,000 words this year (That's four 90,000 word novels and a couple of short stories, now that I look at that total. Not bad production for someone with a full time job.) Now, I look at my log sheet and see my cushion has been cut in half.

**growls angrily at self**

You've had your vacation for the year, White. Back to the keyboard with you.

(And yes, I am still keeping to the schedule, even with the break. Tonight I finished Chapter 18 and started Chapter 19 on the Chronicles of the Sea Dragon, adding 1436 words to my totals for the year. I think we're getting ready to make the turn toward the climax here. Everything from this point on should be building up to the big confrontation. I can't think of anything else I need to do to set the stage, (although I'm sure I will once I begin my edits).

Tomorrow night, back to Childhood's Tears, where we last saw our intrepid heroine . . .
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Words for today

1436 / 1000 words. 144%

Progress on CSD: Dragon Couchant

79899 / 100000 words. 80%

Words for 2008

80964 / 366000 words. 22%

Wound up staying home today. Felt bad this morning and since wishweaver was going to be home also, I thought it would be good to hang around in case she needed anything. She spent most of the day finishing up her mid-term, so there wasn't a lot of "together" time, but we enjoyed a nice lunch while we were out running a few errands.

As I'm sure many of you have heard by now, E. Gary Gygax has passed away today. For those of us who're long-time gamers, like the man or dislike him, everyone had to admit the man knew how to market the hell out of D&D, Dragon Magazine, TSR and everything else he was involved in. I never had a chance to meet Gary, but I have met Dave Arneson (his co-creator) and I know their game cost me a lot of sleep and time while I was in college and in the Army. I think there's probably a cause and effect between the game and my decision to pursue a degree in Medieval History.

Rich Burlew posted a great tribute to Gary here. Go read it. If you're a gamer, you'll really get it. If you're not a gamer, you'll appreciate the passion in the strip.

On a good note, though, I more than made up for my brain-deadedness (is that a word? Damnmit, it should be.) by hitting 2950 words on Childhood's Tears tonight. While Wish was downstairs working on her midterm, I was up here typing away to my heart's content, accompanied by either Jimmy (our big black cat) or Crookshanks (the youngest male tabby). It made for some interesting typing, especially when Jimmy would decide I had ignored him long enough and would reach out with a paw and drape it across one of my arms . . . just enough to get my attention without looking like he was begging. You know, one of those, "oh, since you're here, would you mind scratching my belly? That's it, be a good sport."

At least they didn't try walking across my keyboard. (Wish notes, "Yet.")

So, the question is, will it be feast or famine tomorrow night? Stay tuned.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Words for Today

2950 / 1000 words. 295%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

24799 / 90000 words. 28%

Words for 2008

71752 / 366000 words. 20%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

6202 / 6000 words. 103%

Progress on Steel on Target

4768 / 5000 words. 95%

Progress on Chronicles of the Sea Dragon

10583 / 8000 words. 132%

Other assorted writing (Pitches for tie-in novel/Writer Beware Blog entry)

5615 / 5615 words. 100%

Total Words for February

27468 / 29000 words. 95%

Total Words for Year-to-date

63535 / 60000 words. 106%
______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Well, as we can see, between sick days and working on the proposal for the tie-in novel, I came in a tad behind on my word count for February. Luckily, I built up a bit of a cushion in January and it's keeping me on the plus side for the year, so far.

However, this tells me that I need to kick it up a notch and get back to producing on a regular basis. I saw too many nights with zero words to make myself comfortable. Hopefully, with the proposal almost out the door, I'll get back into my writing rhythm. Besides, I need to get to work on Chapter Seven/Eight for Shattered Mirror this month as well as trying to work on a new short story.

31,000 words or bust in March! Huzzah!

Well, I wanted to get away from the help desk and back into a tech writing position.

I'm currently up to my eyeballs editing Internal Control Documents, revision notes, web pages and wikis. Let's just say, if I'm bored at work now, it's my own fault. To quote Jerry Reed, "we've got a long way to go and a short time to get there."

Still it's coming in handy. Even though I got home late this evening, I read through Childhood's Tears from Chapter One and caught several small errors. Some were minor like using the same name for two different characters. Sure, it could happen, but it might confuse the readers into thinking the two were the same person. Better to just go ahead and give the first one a new name (since he's called by name the least). The other wasn't major as in "stop the book" major but it would have been embarrassing. I have one of the characters mention they don't have a telescope at the start of a chapter and then six pages later, they're pulling out the telescope they didn't have to observe something. Unless I'm giving that character magical abilities I didn't know they had, that's not going to happen. So, I rewrote things a bit, making her wish she had it with her.

Yeah, a minor glitch, but still something I should have caught.

I think I added in the major edits I wanted to before starting tonight's writing session. I added 1677 words to the story tonight and almost finished Chapter Six. With this, I'm almost 100% back on track with the story outline and now it's time to see how long it takes for me to jump the tracks again. That's the joys of these outlines versus the ones I have to do for media tie-in work.

With those, I have to stay pretty close to the pitch and chapter breakdowns I do before I start writing because that's what the licensor has already approved. If I wander too far afield, then he has to really go over the manuscript with a fine-toothed comb wondering what I've done with their property. It's just easier to stick to the script and not ad lib with media work.

With my own story, I can ad lib to my heart's content. Now, as you've probably guessed, I'm a little particular when it comes to outlining and world building, (all right, I'm a little anal about it), but it helps me keep from chasing too many rabbits while I'm working. Still, sometimes the characters have a different story to tell me than where I thought they were headed. It's best to follow their suggestions rather than giving them a lobotomy to force them back onto the path (ala Hermione Granger in the last two HP books).

Sometimes rabbit trails lead to diamond mines. Sometimes they lead to rabbit poop.

But if you don't follow them, you'll never know.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Words for Today

1677 / 1000 words. 168%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

21849 / 90000 words. 24%

Words for 2008

62038 / 366000 words. 17%

Yep, it's amazing how much writing you can get done if you turn off the TV and just go someplace quiet. Also, staring to write before 2200 hours is probably a good thing also. Now, normally, I don't do a lot of writing before 2130-2200 because I'm waiting for the family to go to sleep before I get started. However, since wishweaver has a cold, she decided to call it an early evening. I snagged my laptop and made a makeshift computer work station upstairs (old shelf and a desk chair), curled up in bed and started typing away.

(Yes, the upstairs is still in a state of flux with the remodeling, so all proper flat surfaces are currently covered with books waiting for the library to be built downstairs. MacGyver would be proud of my set up in here. *grin*)

Worked on Childhood's Tears tonight and hammered out 1132 words. I'm starting to drift back to my original outline for this story with this chapter, so we'll see what happens. Maybe it's because I'm working on four stories right now, but I'm noticing all of my stories are tending to drift away from the original plots. Not hideously so, but there's definite story creep going on. Well, except for Steel on Target, there never was an outline for that one.

Still, I'm making progress (or April and I are) and each story is shaping up pretty well so far. Course, we'll see how well they shape up once I start trying to get an agent for one of them. As soon as I finish one of them, probably Chronicles: Dragon Couchant, I'll start the rewrite to Harbinger. I should finish up one of the others about the time I'm done with that and start the CSD rewrites. This way I'll have stuff being written and rewritten/edited through the rest of the year. This way, I should have several different stories ready when I start querying.

But, right now, I need to get a good night's sleep. Running on four to five hours a night on average these past four weeks is starting to catch up with me. That's why I'm starting a little earlier on the writing - so I can finish earlier and sleep longer.

Yeah, even writers need sleep now and then. Go figure.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Words for Today

1132 / 1000 words. 113%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

20172 / 90000 words. 22%

Words for 2008

60361 / 366000 words. 16%

Let's just say I didn't exactly get the writing done today that I had intended.

Still, it was a fun day. Spent some time with the family doing errands, did some work on a Writer Beware assignment (actually, put in about five pages of writing there, but I didn't count that in tonight's word count), and then got Xenosaga out and played for quite a while today. I finally figured out how to get past one of the parts that had stumped me and got off the doomed ship and onto another one.

One thing I've noticed about Xenosaga is the number of long cut scenes. It's almost been 1/2 movie, 1/2 game so far. I'm hoping the gaming will be a little more prominent now that we're finally going and the enemy has shown its face. I have Xenosaga II, but haven't picked up XSIII yet. I'm hoping the game will continue picking up speed from this point on.

I did get out Childhood's Tears tonight and I've hit 651 words tonight. However, I'm fading fast, so rather than staying up even later, I'm going to try and get some sleep before work tomorrow.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Words for Today

651 / 1000 words. 65%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

19040 / 90000 words. 21%

Words for 2008

53928 / 366000 words. 15%

I made it into work today, but I'm not sure if I'm still not quite right from what bothered me on Saturday or if the breakfast I had at the cafeteria this morning fought back, but either way, I had to leave work early. I wandered home, put up the footstool on the couch, grabbed the nearest blanket and dropped off. Five hours later, my family woke me up when they got home. wishweaver recommended I go see the doctor tomorrow, but I'm thinking if this bug will just pass through, I'll be o.k.

I'll decide whether or not I'm going to work when I wake up. Right now, I would say it's 49/51, leaning toward staying at home tomorrow also. I hate to burn the sick leave, but at least I have it. I was feeling a little better this evening, so I accompanied Wish to the local Giant to pick up a few things, which may have been a mistake. I felt O.K. when we left, but I was really worn out by the time we got home, and that's not like me. I think I've been sick more days this past January/February than I had been the past two years.

Dunno. I'll see what happens tomorrow morning.

Still, I managed to get some writing done. I added 1409 words to Childhood's Tears as well as working out some more plot points to my tie-in pitch. Also there's a really cool thread going on at Absolute Write in the Writing Novels forum called "Brutalize the Plot-in-a-Line". People are posting the heart of thier current WIP in one sentence and then others on the board are critiquing it. There have been some very good discussions going on about what makes a good tag line, how to boil your story down into one line and what it might mean if you can't do that. (You don't have enough story or else you have too much story for one book are two options.) I've gotten some good feedback about my one-liner for CSD:Dragon Couchant and I'm definitely taking them to heart.

However, it's late and my body is trying to get angry with me again, so I'm off to bed.
________________________________________________________________________________________________

Words for Today

1409 / 1000 words. 141%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

18389 / 90000 words. 20%

Words for 2008

49848 / 366000 words. 14%

I have to admit, this is a very strange circumstance I find myself in.

I received an invitation to pitch for a media tie-in series that would be a great deal of fun. Well, at work today, I was talking with the other SF junkies in the office and as I was talking to them, I came up with the opening to the story. So, on my lunch break I roughed it out and then rewrote it tonight at home and had a couple of friends of mine who're big SF fans read it (it's only 500 words), and they liked it. Heck, even wishweaver liked it.

So now, I have the pitch, but no plot. I know exactly how I want the story to open . . . if I just knew what the story was. OK, I have some ideas . . . but nothing has congealed quite yet. I need to review a few more episodes to be certain I have all my facts straight and then I need to check the existing novels out there to ensure I'm not using some elements that have already been done to death. I figure I'll try to work up a half dozen plot paragraphs and see if two or three interest me enough to actually pitch them.

But, by God, I know what the first two pages of the story look like. *grin*

Backwards much, White?

Talked with April this evening, but between family illnesses and weirdness at work, she didn't get much of a chance to work on Shattered Mirror this past week. We spent most our Skype session reviewing SF/F on television and how when I was younger, SF was more action-adventure with some drama or comedy mixed in. Now, too many of the SF shows are trying to be edgy dramas . . . but that could be because shows get pulled so quickly these days, they never get the chance to build an audience. If ST:TNG was debuting these days, it probably would have been canceled given its first season. It didn't really hit its stride until mid-season two (IMHO). These days, it would have been canceled after eight episodes and another "Dancing with the Stars" clone would have replaced it. *bleah*

I think in some ways, animated shows (whether American or Japanese) aren't embarrassed that they're genre shows. They don't have to be "everything for everyone" or else "high drama". Action-Adventure isn't a dirty word in the animated world. Live SF/F on the small screen seems to take itself way too seriously these days.

*mutter, mutter*

Oh, I did get some writing done, btw. As I mentioned, the opening to the pitch came in at 508 words and then I added 1333 words to Childhood's Tears tonight. This story is driving me crazy. Yes, I had an outline, for all the good its doing me. Still, I know where I'm going and what I'm going to do when I get there, it's just taking a detour getting there on me.

Sorta like my pitch/plot.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Words for Today

1841 / 1000 words. 184%

Progress on Childhood's Tears

16980 / 90000 words. 19%

Other related writing

508 / 508 words. 100%

Words for 2008

42865 / 366000 words. 12% done!

Well, it's a good kind of problem, I guess.

I guess I was on more of a roll on Chronicles last night than I thought. Tonight was supposed to be dedicated to Childhood's Tears, but without even thinking, I opened up Chronicles and by the time I realized I'd screwed up the schedule, it was a tad too late.

Now, I'm pretty happy with where I reached tonight and the word count was pretty good (although I do admit a certain amount of distraction made the writing take longer than I had hoped). I'll just have to try and write a little more tomorrow on CT to make up for it.

I also have an invite to pitch for a new tie-in line. Time to borrow a few DVDs from a friend and get to researching. I have a pretty good idea what I want to pitch, but I want to do a little more research to ensure I have back-story continuity as well as a good pitch. I'm excited to get this opportunity but I'm not holding my breath. There are some other darn good writers pitching for the same property and if I lose out, I know I'm losing out to some people I'd enjoy reading.

Time to call it a night though. Keep your fingers crossed, LJ-land.

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Words for tonight

1103 / 1000 words. 110%

Progress on CSD: Dragon Couchant

67597 / 100000 words. 68%

Words for 2008

41024 / 366000 words. 11%