Once I finished the first draft of Where Weavers Daire and uploaded it to the writing group, some 3 weeks late after my promised deadline, I came off my victory lap and woke up the next morning with poster’s remorse. Remorse because the first draft of anything is shit. And boy did I see how I should’ve eliminated things and introduced characters sooner and and and and I need a better ending, now, I’m going to have to gut a lot of the 147k behemoth into something readable and enjoyable. Which is a good thing since It’s 47k words over my imposed ceiling. This is where my alpha readers and writing group comes in to tell me characters sound the same and why is everyone acting normal? If you don’t have alpha/beta readers to critique your work it’s time to find some…legally. Don’t hunt people down for sport only to ask them to read the next great masterpiece, it doesn’t work like that. I’ve been using Google Drive for editing so having the iPad open to scroll through the edits and the laptop open to go line by horrible line. I’m glad I decided not to push this to the limit and try and get it edited and published through Createspace. It would’ve been waste of time and money. I have started to collect names of agents that cover sci-fi and once I get done with the second or third draft I’ll think about querying. Better to put my best foot forward than slip across the floor on a banana peel of misspellings and heinous plot lines that go nowhere.
Welcome to August. Welcome to the one year anniversary of me going freelance. Welcome to the end of Chapter Thirty, the last chapter I had written in 2013 before figuring out: Well, shit, I guess I’ll go back and re-write the first third so it makes sense. It gets squishy from here even if I’ve written the last chapter already. Okay so I lie a little bit about squishy part. I foresee passing the 120k ceiling for this first draft. Revisions will probably bring that down to a normal level. And I’m submitting it in it’s entirely to the writing group in a week. No pressure. That brings the Where Weavers Daire K BAR count to:
This list pretty much covers what’s been happening recently. To give everyone an update on everything: I’ve been writing a science fiction/space opera manuscript for close to four years and I’m coming up on my 1 year anniversary of doing it full time while freelancing on the side as a graphic designer. At the end of last year I figured out I needed to go back and re-write the first third. Now, we’re at the second third which is already written. I’ve been turning the train so to speak to straightening things out and at the end of one chapter Melinda disappears for a good three chapters. Someone else takes the stage and before I got any deeper the alarm bells went off. Three chapters wasn’t deep, they were already written so I just dragged them off into a folder in Scrivener. I edited Melinda back in for the next three chapters and then she disappears which makes a ton more sense now because now everyone has something to fight for and she gets closer to what’s going on. My daily walks have been helping plot things out. Besides burning through Writing Excuses, Self Publishing, Nerdist Writer’s Panel, Sword and Laser , Aisha Tyler and Children of Tendu podcasts it gives me time to think things through. The guys at Writing Excuses brought this ritual up this morning. No word count due to shuffling chapters. I’ve been adding finished chapters one at a time into Scrivener so if the K count drops by 10-20k it’s because three chapters like those I mentioned above got pulled. 78k-ish is the count right now. In non-novel news… Last month, the Writing Group switched over to critiquing manuscripts. Bennett North did the honors and on Saturday we’ll see how that turned out. I think this is natural turning point for the group. A lot of us are working on long form work and I think we’ll have enough to last us until the holidays. Weaver will be done in time for September’s meet up. SDCC is next week and I’m not going. I’m 50% happy, 50% unhappy and %100 trilled I won’t be footing the bill for that week long trip to Nerd Prom. Boston Con is the second week of August and I’m tempted on treating myself since my birthday is right around the corner.
Chapter 17. I haven’t said that in a while. Last week was good to me. First, I figured out how to fix Chapter 5. Chapter 5 was supposed to be revealed throughout the book but I figured out how to use it as a chapter instead. It introduced Melinda’s supporting cast better than what I had done in Chapter 6. So all the chapters got bumped up one then I hit the call to action for Melinda and then hit the old section of chapters I had written previously. So all in all a good week. That brings the Where Weavers Daire K BAR count to: Now begins the task of writing the next chapter to bring all the characters together for the introduction of the big bad. Once that chapter is done it’s back to the already written chapters. In non-novel news: Myself and Bennett North went to the book launch party for Rhode Island local author Heather Rigney for her book: Waking the Merrow. I had met her at The Elephant Room a few months back when I was slogging through the re-writes of Weaver. The place was packed. For a self published book, Heather did everything right. The cover looks good, edited and the price for the dead tree version is a perfect price and not bloated like some other soft cover books I’ve seen. I highly recommend it. And go see Edge of Tomorrow. It’s a fun movie and not just a excuse to go and enjoy the air conditioned theater like The Lone Ranger was last year.
Ain’t dat da truth. I’m happy to say Chapter 9 is finished. Chapter 9 is where the narrative splits and sends Melinda in one direction and Spence in the other for a few chapters. I split them up originally back at Chapter 1 but felt that was a bad idea and kept them together until Chapter 8. The end of Chapter 9 had been longer originally and gone into Chapter 10 but I decided to go with less is more. It shuffles everyone into position for what I’ve already written. Chapter 10 becomes between the new Act One and the old Act Two. If all goes well, Chapter 11 (which is 5 pages over my 15pg cut off for chapters) will start Spence’s journey back to meet up with Melinda and company. Hope to make some headway into Chapter 10 tomorrow. That brings the Where Weavers Daire K BAR count is: On a television note: Orphan Black! New Season! Yay!
(h/t to Jen Basile for posting the icon) My unofficial deadline for Weaver was yesterday. But as you can see from the count o’meter we’re getting close to the 1/3 mark. The Where Weavers Daire K BAR count is: Chapter 11 and onward is good news since the chapters are already written. Chapter 12 is getting a slight re-write but otherwise it’ll be subtle tweaks from here on in. Went to a meeting of the Association of Rhode Island Authors. Was nice to do some networking. Anyone listening to my social feeds next week will see an uptick in pictures and posts from Emerald City Comic Con, Seattle and a lovely four legged golden named Clover. The East Coast getting one more snow storm before I leave feels like Nelson Muntz laughing. Damn you, Smarch weather. I decided to cosplay as Jayne Cobb this year. It’s easier than Mal Reynolds since there is less to ship. 🙂 Thankfully the Jayne pistol made by QE Props fits into my Mal holster. One of the essential items was finished up by my mom: At this rate I may need to wear it to the airport…
Welcome to March. My deadline of getting Weaver done before going to Emerald City Comic-Con is approaching and so is Camp NaNoWrimo. The good news is Chapter 8 is the link chapter between my new act one and the chapters I’ve already written. And oddly enough Act One will end around page 100ish. The word count thus far: The Where Weavers Daire K BAR count is: I’m feeling good about where things are going. I’ve gotten a few questions about what I’m working on so this will act as an informal FAQ. For the last few years I’ve been writing in the same universe for NaNoWrimo. A mix of magic, tech, multi-generational houses made up of Immortals and mortals all taking place in a semi-walled off parts of the universe. Three years back, I decided to write an Avengers Assemble-type of story as a starting off point. Avengers Assemble is short hand for plot consisting of a gathering of heroes to go off and fight the baddie. It takes it’s name from Marvel Comics The Avengers tagline of “Avengers Assemble!”. The elevator pitch would be it’s Game of Thrones crossed with Firefly/Star Wars (without the prequel suck) about generations of families of Mages, Warriors and humans trying to eek out an existence on a desert planet that isn’t exactly. I’ve roughed out a trilogy that could spin into an ongoing saga of our plucky heroes journeying out into the universe that will sooner or later reach Earth and beyond. Check out my 2012’s blog hop post for more details. Lastly, in cosplay news: I’m going to be cosplaying as Jayne for Emerald City Comic Con. Pictures forthcoming.
The first update for 2014 and Tobias Buckell is 15 posts ahead with his daily updates. So, for my 2014 resolution: Weekly posts. Month / Week / WIP Name / Chapter Number. Back during NaNoWrimo I figured out the problem with my work in progress: One of my protagonists, Melinda, got off too easy in the first chapter after meeting my second protagonist, Spence. And, instead of bouncing off each other and getting themselves into more trouble with the unnamed antagonist, there were dozen chapters until they met up again. Oh, by the way, I was at 111k by the time I figured this out with no end in sight. So, I did the smart thing and plotted out the novel from scratch using what I already had and making sure Melinda got into more trouble by the end of chapter one. I dumped several chapters of empire building and we come to the current metric or three quarters of the way through chapter four: The Where Weavers Daire K BAR count is: Thankfully not a page one re-write more like rejiggering Act One and Scrivener drag and drop folders for moving chapters has been a god send. The weekly write ins at local coffee shops with Myself, Bennett North and a few others has been helping. Elephant Room in Pawtuxet Village being one of my favorites due to soft music, good tea and ample room to settle in. And judging from this Projo Article looks like more business are going to be moving in including a Fellini’s Pizza. In non-writing news, VCVC Cupcakes asked me to look at their website and re-design it. Like the Air Ventures RI website before it, I’m happy with the way it came out. If any local business are interested in giving their websites a fresh coat of paint check out my studio site at RKB Studios for more information. Lastly in Convention News: Emerald City 2014 is two months away. Three day tickets have been sold out on the website so check the local shops for tickets.
Yeh, I need to start making my own You Should be Writing icons. Thanks to Tumblr for the above image and several more. A quick local shout out to Jen Butler Basile’s Chopping Potatoes and Bennett North’s blog. Both blogs are fun to read with Jen’s covering motherhood with fun pictures and Bennett’s posts on ranging from movie reviews to ongoing SF&F and geek politics. Novel Update: The Where Weavers Daire K BAR count is: After my last update, I went back and took an entire chapter out because it broke with my stay with one of the protagonist for three chapters plan and got rid of two chapters because they went in the wrong direction. The goods news is scenes from three of those chapters are savable and shuffled. And then I found out my first nine chapters had been formatted with 1.5 spacing and not double as the other chapters were. My 14-15 page max rule for chapters kinda went out the window but that’s what editing is there for. Formatting may be as boring as all get out but I like to get it down before I start writing. This is why I created a template in Word to cover all the margins, spacing and indenting without using the tab key. Cresting the 100k hill felt good even if I had bounced back and forth over the line by adding/subtracting chapters to get to where I am now. I can see the end which I already wrote so it’s just the knock down drag out fight between Spencer and the villain. I also raised the cut off ceiling to 120k. The agents at the panel I went to at SDCC said don’t worry about the word count and just write it. Half of that advice was already echoed by the writing group. NaNoWrimo Update: With 2.5 months to go before NaNoWrimo, I decided not to re-up for municipal liaison duties. As much as I enjoy trying to coordinate I don’t know what I’ll be doing in November and I’d rather commit than quit a week before hand. My plans are to plot out Book Two of Weaver before going into November and be done with Book One of Weaver by the end of September. Convention Update: Yeh, the SDCC pictures aren’t getting tweaked until the novel is finished. I have a list of people I bought stuff from that I want to pass on. That’ll be in the future post. Emerald City Comic Con tickets have gone up sale. In line with prices from last year, if no one has been to Seattle it’s a great con to go to. Nice people. Good amount of venders and the guests they have lined up is growing. They’ve extended the con to all of Friday and will be mailing out badges this year. That sound you heard was everyone who stood in line for two hours this year breathing a sigh of relief. They haven’t taken the extra step of incorporating RFID into the badges like NYCC has but one can assume that’s on the horizon. New Television Season: I’ll post some television ramblin’ later since the new season starts next week…
