progress

Gosh, it sure seems drafty in here!

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Yay! I’m back at Man Bites World this morning, and Jeez it feels good to work on a first draft again. The only thing that would have made it better is if I’d exceeded my fifteen hundred word goal for the day instead of just meeting it, but hey, there was much reviewing of the story to be done, to remind myself where I was.

Also, although the current draft is about 32K words, I’m adding in scenes around the 6K mark. There’s a scene that needs to be in there, setting up one aspect of the plot and establishing a major character. I kept putting it off last time, and a third of the way in is much too late.

Unfortunately, every page I add to this section is another page before Cool Supporting Character appears, and I was told explicitly to bring her into the book as early as possible. It can’t be helped, though. I swear.

Also, there are a ton of things I’ve been meaning to write about here, including the torture memos and the President’s decision to hold back the photos, not to mention the progress health care reform is making. And TV. And movies. And holy cow: books.

I just can’t find the time to open the window and type it all in, though (and you’re probably all relieved, too). Someday, maybe, I’ll have time for more interesting posts.

Pop the cork on the champa–zzzzzzzz

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I just received confirmation from my editor that she received the (probably) final revision to Everyone Loves Blue Dog. Of course she’ll have to read it again to be sure it all works, but I should have the next couple months clear to tear into Man Bites World.

Yay!

Unfortunately, I have about 60,000 words to write before the end of July. That’s not impossible, but it does push at my limits, especially since I’ll also need to revise in that time (I always need to revise). We’ll see. Also, I’m tired. Have I mentioned lately that I’m tired? I say that all the time? Really? Well, it’s true.

And I got to meet Charles Stross last night at the Pike Place Brewery. Nice guy. Too bad I had a socialization fail. Ah, well.

Bad day

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Yesterday was a bad day, despite a bunch of good things happening.

It started with me at work on … Blue Dog (still). I had hopes of wrapping it up, but I was working very carefully over a sequence of pages that haven’t been as strong as it could be. Okay. I guess I’ve become a little obsessive about it, but I really want to do this right so I can be done with it. Probably I’m giving it too much time, but if it makes the book better…?

But that wasn’t what messed up my day.

Late in the morning, I had a conversation with the assoc. copy chief at Del Rey about last minute questions about the galleys for Child of Fire (Amazon.com or Indiebound.org).

No problem! I thought. I’d scanned all the galley pages I’d marked up before I sent them back, just in case. How clever I felt! Nevermind that my corrections must have been unclear somehow. I was ready.

Except, not. The questions weren’t about the notations I’d made on the galley. They were additional mistakes caught by the proofreader.

God, this stuff is mortifying. How many times have I read this damn book? Shouldn’t I have noticed the phrase “in the front” appearing in back-to-back sentences? Shouldn’t I have noticed that a character does not need to walk up to a door twice? Shouldn’t I remember that a very important item is not in the character’s pocket because not fifteen pages before he was grinding his teeth in frustration that another character was keeping it from him?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m grateful for every note. Improvement is improvement, and I want the book to be as good as possible. But I feel honestly ashamed that I never noticed these problems myself.

Luckily (for you guys), immediately after the call my wife and I ran out the door for a very nice lunch with an old friend I don’t see as often as I should. When my son got home from school later, we had a great time together. All of that gave me time and perspective to truly absorb the copy chief’s wrap up to our conversation: “This is a perfectly normal list of corrections we’re talking about. I’ve worked on books with many worse than this.”

So, yeah. I was too busy to post this yesterday, which means you get this lesser degree of whining. And I have it in perspective now, and I’m ready to finally finally kill off this second book.

Still humiliating, though.

You’re the expert

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Typing this quickly, because it’s sunny and I want to go for a walk on my break.

This morning’s work session was terrible. I read a particular sequence in Everyone Loves Blue Dog over and over, trying to find ways to trim or improve it.

But you know what? I think it works pretty damn well just as it is. I’ve decided to take the stance that I am the expert on my own story. It works, and I’m not going to break it.

Hell, I even have the T-shirt, which isn’t available any more (but other items are). I think I’ll take that T-shirt out of my bottom drawer for my trip to San Diego Comic-Con.

Have I ever mentioned that I started off in screenplays? Most of my learning-to-make-story training happened on screenplay forums (ask me why if you’re curious) and I spent years on it. That’s why my IPSTPW Day offering was a horror script. I learned a helluva lot on the Wordplay site, back in the day.

Tomorrow, I’ll be up extra early and start on the next section of book. I’m already giving Important Supporting Character additional juice in her scenes, and I have a couple of other changes in mind.

Now, I’m off to the sunshine!

Bleh

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Not feeling all that well today. This morning’s work on my (final?) revision of Everyone Loves Blue Dog was cut short by a need to return home early. It didn’t help that the homeless lady sitting right next to me was clipping her nails, swabbing beneath her bandages and wiping her toes clean. Uck. Starbucks, please don’t be gross.

Today’s work involved the first really major sequence in the book. It’s supposed to be a transition from one section to another–changing the setting, the relationship between the leads, and expanding the stakes. Unfortunately, the last round of notes pointed out a problem there.

Now, as a reader, I have certain kinds of text that I skim. Those long travelogues in Fellowship of the Ring with detailed descriptions of the landscape? Skim. Car chases? Skim. Super-tense slow-moving characters checking out that strange noise in the basement? Skim. Some fight scenes, too.

I skim right over them until I get to something that might actually change the story.

That can cause problems. I skipped over the dream sequence in Red Harvest because I didn’t realize that some of it wasn’t a dream, and later had to backtrack to review it. Still, it’s how I read and how I think a lot of people read.

And the latest round of notes indicated that this whole sequence was skimmable.

“Be interesting,” is the number one law when I’m writing, and I’m not seeing the skimmable parts here. I’ve trimmed some minor sentences and reordered paragraphs to string like information together (which also slows the pacing, but that’s okay right now) but I’m concerned that I’m just too close to the text.

Hell. I’ll power up the laptop and sit by the big window. It’s a beautiful sunny day today, and even if I’m not feeling well, I can listen to the birds and look at the blue sky while I fret.

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Today, I pored over Everyone Loves Blue Dog, and accomplished nothing. Also, the book my wife gave me to read couldn’t be renewed. I had to strip out all her bookmarks and slip it into the conveyor belt at the library.

As for the LiveJournal feed for Nathan Bransford’s blog, it turns out that Mr. Bransford himself ask that it be suspended. I have no idea why; LJ syndication is just another kind of RSS, but whatever. No more “This Week in Publishing” I guess.

At work, I discovered that the intranet policy book pages I’d spent a good part of last week working on were completely useless now. The manager copy and pasted them into .mht files elsewhere on the network, breaking all the links. There were good reasons to move them to another part of the network–our system is criminally slow–but damn.

Finally, do you know what my company and I both pay, per month, for the basic health insurance my wife, son and I have? Not just what I contribute, but everything?

Over $1,600. Per month.

We need reform in this country, and we need it now.

Links! The Top 16 Worst Movie Quotes to Utter During Sex. Is it wrong of me to laugh so hard at this?

Next, another amazing animation, this one done with stop-motion. Sorta. Check it out.

Finally, tweenbots, a video art project via Jay Lake. His link described it as teh cute, but I think that misses the point. The really, really cool thing about this is that the robot is a cute, nearly helpless little thing that relies on complete strangers to help it get where it needs to go. Even if you can’t watch the video at that page, the write up is fascinating.

It seems that a lot of my posts lately have been straight link farms. I feel boring. Is there something I should post about? Something I said I would talk about but haven’t? Let me know.

Proofs question

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Do other people stet their own corrections? I mean, make a correction on the proof, then decide that change is utterly stupid, scribble it out and write “stet” next to it?

Please answer yes.

Proofs and Galleys

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As it turns out, I really will be going to San Diego Comic-Con. It’s not tentative at all anymore (barring personal or non-personal disaster). At this point I’m waiting for word on whether I’ll be going as a pro or not, then I can buy my plane tickets.

The proofs are interesting. I’m making many fewer corrections than I anticipated, and not because I’m told I’ll be charged for them if I make too many. I’d pay double for the corrections I’m making, whatever they charge.

And did you know Sheetrock is trademarked, just like Dumpster? Man, does that look dorky on the page.

Also, I have to remember that characters don’t need to break the same window twice within seven sentences. Once in plenty. (For some of these fixes, I’d pay triple.)

Finally, I have about 50 pages left and the sucker will be done. I expect to finish it tomorrow. Then everything about the book will be finished except for the hawking.

“… All perfect light and promises.”

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I’ve been having a good couple of days on the writing-front. Starting on Saturday, Man Bites World has been coming together in a way that really makes me happy. The characters, the plot, all of it suddenly broke into a sprint. Even the long, talky conversation was working for me.[1]

But of course I knew yet another set of notes were coming for Everyone Loves Blue Dog, and I knew that the better things were going for book 3, the more likely book 2 would interrupt.

Well, things must have been doing even better than I thought, because the secret writing gremlins have not only arranged for the next round of revisions to hit today[2], but I’m also told I’ll be getting the page proofs for Child of Fire later this week.

Momentum is for breaking, I guess.

Still, the last couple days have been so good that I’m expecting to hit my weekly goal early. If so, I can take Saturday morning off (and sleep in!). Blessed, blessed sleep.

[1] My editor was curious how I was going to portray one of the antagonists, a guy who is planning wholesale destruction but still considers the protagonist his good friend. I’m hoping “Just because I plan to euthanize the world doesn’t mean I want to be a dick about it” covers that ground pretty well.

[2]The revision recommendations on ELBD do not include cutting my dark(ish) ending. Plenty of other work to do, though. We’ll see how the next draft is received.

Dear Book:

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If I want to make the characters to do something crazy and cool, please do not fight me on it. I am not interested in hearing that my ideas don’t make sense or that the characters would never do that. I have a word count goal to make for the day.

Or not.

Sincerely,
your author