Well, it turns out I wasn't getting ahead of myself when I predicted that maybe I would start making progress now. It hasn't exactly been mind-numbing progress, but it IS progress.
As you can see on my new "Active Project" gizmo, "The Unfound" is slowly making headway. I have a sneaking suspicion this story may not actually go anywhere. At least not as a short story. Were I to expand it into a book, I might have something. Or, I may have to rework the idea in order to keep it as a short story. But, writing is writing, and right now my main concern is just to get the rust off my writing skills.
Progress is also being made on The Serenity Solution. My beta readers have gotten into the first chapter, and suggested some ways on how I could cut it back. I was surprised to see I was using a lot of words to describe something, when I really only needed a few. Of course, most of the original manuscript was written before I went through a creative writing class at school that taught me how to be more economical with words. Waxing eloquent is still a habit I have problems with. Initial predictions show that as many as 1,000 words will be cut out of the first chapter alone. If that can be done for each chapter, my 179,000 word monster will be more like 147,000 words. That's still too big, but at least it's manageable.
TSS is bound to be a slow process though, so in the meantime I'm going to keep working on short fiction, trying to get my name out there a bit. I'll also be polishing ideas for future novels. I still haven't decided if I want to do another military science-fiction novel, or try my hand at some of the fantasy ideas I've got floating around. The success or failure of TSS will probably have a bit part to play in that decision.
More as it happens.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
Gettin' The Mojo Back
At the risk of sounding overly optimistic, or even prematurely optimistic, I daresay I've finally gotten around to writing again. Just maybe. I haven't been lacking for ideas, but the pieces on a few of them finally started clicking to where I thought I could hack out something moderately intelligible. The result: a new science-fiction short story. The idea is still in rough stages and taking shape as I write it, so bear with me.
Two years ago, the Fifth Expeditionary Defense Fleet was wiped out by the Coronii Battle Force in what has since been known as Earth's greatest military defeat in history. Over 80,000 crew members died aboard their ships. 1,537 were rescued by a relief force. Fifty-two went missing, and were never found. Until now. When the First EDF makes first contact with a new alien species, they are surprised and overjoyed to find their missing comrades aboard the ship and eager to return home after two years on the alien home world. Among them is Lieutenant Joseph Wilson's wife, whom he had presumed dead. As Joseph tries to get used to the fact that his wife is alive and well, he starts to suspect she's not the same woman he said goodbye to two years ago. Literally.
"The Unfound" is the working title for my new science-fiction short story, and was inspired by several different things, most of which I can't even remember now. The important part is, I wrote down my ideas so I wouldn't forget them! And that's how I came to start writing again. Hopefully the trend will continue. Who knows, if I can develop the background and character better, it may even end up being a new novel-length project. The Serenity Solution started out as a short story idea and grew into a novel, after all.
I also wanted to point out that I've made some additions to my blog. On the right side under my bio, you'll find a list of my "Active Projects." These are stories or novels that I'm currently working on and trying to shape into something that will be marketable in the hopefully not-too-distant future. As I believe I mentioned in an earlier post, numbers motivate me (not in the mathematical sense, but more in the "I'm making progress!" sense). And, this will allow you, my avid and devoted readers, to see if I'm actually doing anything or if I'm just wasting time playing video games. I'm all about honesty, after all.
Below the "Active Projects" you'll find a list of links. These are sites that I've found to be important to my writing career and may also be for fellow writers, or that I've found to be interesting in some way. The list is pretty short right now, but it will grow. In general, I'll try to keep the links in the writing-related field. Check 'em out; you just might find something useful. Thanks for reading!
Two years ago, the Fifth Expeditionary Defense Fleet was wiped out by the Coronii Battle Force in what has since been known as Earth's greatest military defeat in history. Over 80,000 crew members died aboard their ships. 1,537 were rescued by a relief force. Fifty-two went missing, and were never found. Until now. When the First EDF makes first contact with a new alien species, they are surprised and overjoyed to find their missing comrades aboard the ship and eager to return home after two years on the alien home world. Among them is Lieutenant Joseph Wilson's wife, whom he had presumed dead. As Joseph tries to get used to the fact that his wife is alive and well, he starts to suspect she's not the same woman he said goodbye to two years ago. Literally.
"The Unfound" is the working title for my new science-fiction short story, and was inspired by several different things, most of which I can't even remember now. The important part is, I wrote down my ideas so I wouldn't forget them! And that's how I came to start writing again. Hopefully the trend will continue. Who knows, if I can develop the background and character better, it may even end up being a new novel-length project. The Serenity Solution started out as a short story idea and grew into a novel, after all.
I also wanted to point out that I've made some additions to my blog. On the right side under my bio, you'll find a list of my "Active Projects." These are stories or novels that I'm currently working on and trying to shape into something that will be marketable in the hopefully not-too-distant future. As I believe I mentioned in an earlier post, numbers motivate me (not in the mathematical sense, but more in the "I'm making progress!" sense). And, this will allow you, my avid and devoted readers, to see if I'm actually doing anything or if I'm just wasting time playing video games. I'm all about honesty, after all.
Below the "Active Projects" you'll find a list of links. These are sites that I've found to be important to my writing career and may also be for fellow writers, or that I've found to be interesting in some way. The list is pretty short right now, but it will grow. In general, I'll try to keep the links in the writing-related field. Check 'em out; you just might find something useful. Thanks for reading!
Friday, February 4, 2011
Progress?
So yeah, it's been a pretty slow start to the new year as far as writing goes. General lack of motivation seems to be the main issue, with no motivation to do anything about the lack of motivation, either. But, I know the rule: if you want to write, all you can do is sit down to write. So I won't complain or make excuses.
However, there have been a few promising developments shining a light on the otherwise dim outlook. After a final review and edit, "Exequies" was sent to a science fiction magazine, in the hopes that it will be published. If it doesn't get accepted at that magazine, I'll continue down my list and submit it elsewhere. I hope to hear back one way or another within a couple weeks about it.
On another front, I gave the first three chapters of The Serenity Solution to my academic adviser at my university. He's an English professor, an avid reader of science fiction, and he teaches a summer science fiction class at the university. The problem, I told him, was that the original version of the story was just too long. You'll remember I was bemoaning the fact that it had been completed at 179,000 words, when the industry standard seemed to call for between 80,000 to 100,000 words. As you'll remember, I started rewriting the book, but I'm just not feeling it. The characters seem more lifeless, the settings feel rushed, and while the plot works on a technical level, I'm satisfied with how it lives up to the original concept. Thus, I'll be giving him the original version in installments, with the hope that I can get some professional critiquing on what parts of the story can stay and what parts absolutely need to go or be reworked. My problem right now is lack of objectivity. And since I can't be objective and don't really have any clear idea of what I need to do... you guessed it, motivation becomes an issue. Hopefully this will solve that.
In the meantime, I think I'm going to tinker around with some other short story ideas and see if something falls together as well as "Exequies" did. If I make any progress on anything, you'll hear about it here first. ;)
However, there have been a few promising developments shining a light on the otherwise dim outlook. After a final review and edit, "Exequies" was sent to a science fiction magazine, in the hopes that it will be published. If it doesn't get accepted at that magazine, I'll continue down my list and submit it elsewhere. I hope to hear back one way or another within a couple weeks about it.
On another front, I gave the first three chapters of The Serenity Solution to my academic adviser at my university. He's an English professor, an avid reader of science fiction, and he teaches a summer science fiction class at the university. The problem, I told him, was that the original version of the story was just too long. You'll remember I was bemoaning the fact that it had been completed at 179,000 words, when the industry standard seemed to call for between 80,000 to 100,000 words. As you'll remember, I started rewriting the book, but I'm just not feeling it. The characters seem more lifeless, the settings feel rushed, and while the plot works on a technical level, I'm satisfied with how it lives up to the original concept. Thus, I'll be giving him the original version in installments, with the hope that I can get some professional critiquing on what parts of the story can stay and what parts absolutely need to go or be reworked. My problem right now is lack of objectivity. And since I can't be objective and don't really have any clear idea of what I need to do... you guessed it, motivation becomes an issue. Hopefully this will solve that.
In the meantime, I think I'm going to tinker around with some other short story ideas and see if something falls together as well as "Exequies" did. If I make any progress on anything, you'll hear about it here first. ;)
Saturday, January 15, 2011
New Year, New Start... Maybe
I could make a lot of excuses as to why I didn't get any writing done over the holiday break, or why I didn't even update this blog at all. But let me save you the time and effort of reading all those excuses: I procrastinated. I wasn't motivated, and I was lazy. So, there it is.
There were other reasons, like my credit card company crying "Fraud!" on every little transaction I tried to make, which seriously delayed my market research efforts as I needed to make some purchases. But those were minor things and really shouldn't have stopped me. I just used them as excuses.
So, here we are with a new year, and hopefully, a new start into my ongoing writing projects. I have been thinking a lot about The Serenity Solution and what I want to do with it. There's no doubt it needs to be rewritten. There's no doubt the first nine chapters I have rewritten are better - in most respects - than the original nine. However, as so often happens with rewriting, I've found yet more ways in which I need to improve the story. The big one right now is the fact that my main character is rather two-dimensional. Aside from his professional motivations, there's really nothing about him that will make the reader actually care what happens to him. In a mundane military science fiction novel, maybe that's all that's needed to keep the reader turning pages, since action is often the primary focus.
But I'm not aiming for a mundane military science fiction novel. I want my debut to knock the reader out of his chair and keep him on the floor because he's too busy turning pages to get back up again. I want people to ask about me, "Where did this guy come from and who the heck does he think he is?" And more importantly, "Can he do it again in a second book?"
So until I feel like I've achieved that result TSS will keep getting reworked. Updates on progress as it happens. Stay tuned.
There were other reasons, like my credit card company crying "Fraud!" on every little transaction I tried to make, which seriously delayed my market research efforts as I needed to make some purchases. But those were minor things and really shouldn't have stopped me. I just used them as excuses.
So, here we are with a new year, and hopefully, a new start into my ongoing writing projects. I have been thinking a lot about The Serenity Solution and what I want to do with it. There's no doubt it needs to be rewritten. There's no doubt the first nine chapters I have rewritten are better - in most respects - than the original nine. However, as so often happens with rewriting, I've found yet more ways in which I need to improve the story. The big one right now is the fact that my main character is rather two-dimensional. Aside from his professional motivations, there's really nothing about him that will make the reader actually care what happens to him. In a mundane military science fiction novel, maybe that's all that's needed to keep the reader turning pages, since action is often the primary focus.
But I'm not aiming for a mundane military science fiction novel. I want my debut to knock the reader out of his chair and keep him on the floor because he's too busy turning pages to get back up again. I want people to ask about me, "Where did this guy come from and who the heck does he think he is?" And more importantly, "Can he do it again in a second book?"
So until I feel like I've achieved that result TSS will keep getting reworked. Updates on progress as it happens. Stay tuned.
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