Comments (0)

By Ellie, September 1, 2010 11:20 pm

No real post today, folks. Sorry. Not only have I been more involved with hurricane tracking, an incident came up at work that’s left me rather depressed and, frankly, seriously angry. I don’t even feel like writing a short review of The Infernal Devices: Clockwork Angel. I got to read it before it was even released and I don’t feel like bragging about it. Not that there’s much to brag about, but it’s one of the very few perks my current job offers.

The only light in this situation is that I’m more motivated than ever to find another job. But at the same time, I just want to mope before I even think about sending my resumé out again.

Obviously, with the storm coming this way, I probably won’t be able to post Friday. So I’ll come up with something short and sweet on Monday.

Comments (1)

By Ellie, August 30, 2010 10:51 pm

It nagged me like an insufferable employer. Begged me like a love-starved child. And I gave in.

Despite all my resistance and reasoning, I couldn’t ignore my doorstop novel. I started editing the first part today. I’m work-whipped. What can I say? Maybe now that I’m working on it again, I’ll soon stop writing random notes for extra scenes, details, and dialogue. I’ve just about filled the shoebox I scrounged up for all these notes; what’s more frightening is that I could possibly fit them all into the second draft. The trick is trying to make this draft no longer than 150K words. insert derisive laughter here

I’ll return to Manuscript #2 soon enough. Maybe I’ll save it for the weekends or late night projects (when the Webcomic hasn’t begged for attention). But something tells me that I have to keep working on Manuscript #1 until it’s ready to be shopped around. And if a project has bugged me for this long, I like to think that it means something.

Sorry for the short post this time, but my brain’s been focused more on the whirlwind of violent air formally known as Earl. It’s like having one of my flatulent long-lost relatives announce that he’s coming by for a day or two. I’m dreading it, preparing for it, and can’t think of anything else besides the potential damage that might result and what to take with us in case of evacuation.

Dammit, one of these days, I will relocate to a hurricane-free zone.

Comments (0)

By Ellie, August 24, 2010 10:45 pm

Dear Author,

There’s nothing more mentally draining than seeing your corpulent form waddle into the store. You just have this air about you, this arrogance born from stubborn blindness and a staggering refusal to accept reality. You certainly haven’t endeared yourself to us, but I doubt you realize that… or care.

As much as I detest you, the curious part of my brain wants to dissect your personality. It wants to find out how you work, why you’re the way you are today, and just where you think you’re going in terms of your “career.” I think I got part of an answer the last time we met.

I finished a first draft of about 141K words in three months. I didn’t expect that to impress you; I’m not saying it to impress anyone, even though I’m amazed with myself. What’s more amazing is the editing process ahead. With another draft or two, my novel is going to be even better than it was the first time around. Who wouldn’t look forward to writing a better story?

Well, there’s you.

I really should not have been surprised to hear that you don’t like editing your own work. It explains so much. I can understand the frustration and agony that comes with returning to a piece of work. But how can you just leave a first draft the way it is and declare it the final one? How can you say you don’t want to even think about looking over your work? I’ve seen your novels. God, how could I not? They’re sitting on the local authors shelf, glaring at me, tempting me to read them cover to cover and soak up the stupid like I’m in some biblio-alternative version of MST3K.

And I almost did get through the first one. Oh, I tried. But it was like eating a whole pack of lunch meat that’s about to spoil: you know it’s wrong and possibly lethal, and there’s a chance that maybe it won’t do too much cellular damage to your large intestine… but in the end, you toss that sick pack of compressed meat by-products. Because it’s just not worth it. The headache, the killer gas, the violent contractions that eventually end in the expulsion of everything you’ve eaten since you were born… it’s not worth it.

The shit-poor characterization. The sloppily indented paragraphs. The cheesy-ass dialogue. The obvious Stephen Kingness of it all. God, it’s seared into my gray matter, and no surgical tool can ever scrape it away.

No wonder an agent or editor hasn’t signed you on, and it’s no mystery that either never will. If you can’t brave even a glance at your first attempt, then you’re never going anywhere. You’ve been at this for longer than I’ve been alive, and you’ve been self-published. You’re not some undiscovered genius who’s been beaten down by elitist, snobbish publishers and agents and has found sanctuary with an overpriced printer. You’re a wasteland of plagiarizing, unimaginative so-called talent.

Ugh. It’ll be a fine day when you stop coming in, and an even better one when you step away from your keyboard and give up for good.

No love,

Me

Comments (0)

By Ellie, August 23, 2010 8:55 am

Okay, so the three week break isn’t exactly three weeks. I shaved off a few days. But I’m making up for it, because I’m tacking on a mess of days! (And I’m not exactly going to be musing so much as thinking out loud… in type. I just wanted to alliterate in the title.)

That’s right. I’m extending the return to the second draft. And it’s all because of this other manuscript that I started.

Now that I’ve finished one manuscript, I want to finish another in one go. No stops, no hiccups. I can do it again, and with a 50K work novel at that. (I swear that’s the limit. I’m doing my best!)

To put one first draft novel on hold while I return to a second draft sounds mildly insane. Why not keep going until the very last word? I’ll have completed two novels in one year (if this second one is, in fact, finished before the end of the year), which is a mega confidence booster, and it’ll give me two finished projects to look forward to in 2011.

Assuming this second novel takes two more months to write, it’ll be around November when I’ll return to Evan & Ronny. Perfect. Fall puts me in the mood for writing. (Yes, “autumners,” that’s the word I’ve grown up using and I’ll keep using it, eff you very much.) It’s especially fitting since E&R takes place in the fall/winter season. Shorter days, longer nights, and all that nice, cold air to help put myself in the characters’ muddy, pocked shoes. Boots, I mean.

Next time: actual content. I’m going to tear into a local author.

Comments (0)

By Ellie, August 20, 2010 9:22 am

I knew major edits were in store when I finished my doorstop novel. Long hours of reading and rereading a 500-page work, deleting scenes and dialogue I’ve come to cherish, adding new scenes and links to plot points, and basically revamping the whole thing to make it better than it was before. Despite the agonizing months ahead, I’m actually looking forward to reuniting with my characters and improving their story.

Yet as I brainstorm and research for the second draft of my novel, I’m beginning to see a lot of things I missed the first time around. And, frankly, they’re embarrassing as all hell.

• More emotional scenes dealing with secondary characters. Some of these secondaries bond with the protagonist. Now, I can’t add every moment that comes into my head–tempted as I am–but I really need to add a few high-impact moments, especially those that deal with the younger generation looking to the older for guidance. Considering Evan’s ultimate goal, this would be fitting.
• More cultural bits. I have Canadian and Quebecois characters, yet I haven’t noted accents, included random French words and phrases (at least those that my English-speaking protagonist would recognize right off), or cuisine. Someone needs to bring up poutine and maple treats. The best I’ve got is a slur and mentioning Boxing Day.
• A better, longer ending. Yes, it’ll probably add 15-20 more pages to the manuscript (and that’s a conservative estimate), but Christ! I put these characters through over 100K words of angst, pain, tears, and general testosteroniness. I pretty much sped through the ending, focusing on only the two main characters because I was more concerned about word count. I need good-bye scenes, promises to keep in touch, a time for the remaining characters to reflect on their experiences together before the Great Big Good-Bye of Much Tearfulness. Buttered hell on a stick, I should have known better.
• A better anti-villain. That’s all I’ll say.

The beginning is okay but needs some tweaking, especially since the history of the galaxy has drastically changed. The middle needs a lot of work, for reasons mentioned above and unmentioned. The ending needs an entire overhaul.

I’ve even gone and changed a character’s entire personality. Half the story needs to be rewritten by that alone.

You should see my card file. It’s full to bursting with notes I’ve written since… well, since I finished the first draft. And I’m writing more every day. I know I’ll eventually have to stop and mourn the loss of ideas I’ll never use, but it’s definitely easier said than done. My English Comp & Lit professor was right: “You need to force yourself away from the piece or you’ll keep working on it forever.”

This is the most work I’ve ever put into a project, but damn, I feel alive when I think about opening that file and typing away. If I could spend every day writing and thinking about writing, I’d say that I found a profession worth keeping.

Holy crap, this thing is going to be even longer than the first version.