William Jefferson Clinton: "Hey, this has been fun, Donald. Good to see you. I've got to get back to Hillary, we're starting our run next week."
"You're gonna win, Bubba. I guarantee it. I know about these things."
"I hope so. Hillary really wants it. I wish there was a way to guarantee it."
"No worries. They're a bunch of chumps. She'll bury them."
Bill gets a gleam in his eyes. "You know what would be fun. Messing with these guys."
Donald spreads his arms, a big grin. "I'm getting bored with this Apprentice thing. I think that would be a blast. Just get in there, say anything that comes to my head, the stuff I usually have second thoughts about. I wonder what they'd do."
"Never work, Donald. They're never fall for it. They'll know."
"Nah. I've given money to all of them. I've given money to everyone."
"Well, that would be right decent of you, Donald. See you at the debates!"
"Wait up. I'll leave with you. I just need to put the hair back on."
Saturday, August 8, 2015
Friday, August 7, 2015
Missed another day.
I had to go to work at 7:30 yesterday to let the electricians in and then got totally slammed and so I forgot to blog for the second time in the last ten days or so.
So my streak has ended. With a whimper, not a bang.
I wasn't even going to say anything, but you know, blogging everyday for 8 years was no small accomplishment.
I'll probably still blog almost every day, because I just talk a lot, but I'm not going to worry about the streak anymore.
So my streak has ended. With a whimper, not a bang.
I wasn't even going to say anything, but you know, blogging everyday for 8 years was no small accomplishment.
I'll probably still blog almost every day, because I just talk a lot, but I'm not going to worry about the streak anymore.
Wednesday, August 5, 2015
Rewriting is....palatable.
Unexpectedly, I find myself almost looking forward to my rewriting sessions on Tuskers III. Hopefully I've found the process that works. Seeing the story improve is the main blessing, though.
I guess I just need time and distance, and having it squared up by Lara, and suddenly the whole process is palatable.
Linda was saying that if I keep saying "I don't like rewriting" I'm just reinforcing it. But dammit, if I hate raw onions than no amount of saying I like raw onions is going to make me like raw onions.
Whenever I hit a roadblock like this, I try to find ways under, over, or around it. So I'm easing into this rewriting in a way that isn't totally uncomfortable. I just need to keep finding ways to motivate myself.
I guess I just need time and distance, and having it squared up by Lara, and suddenly the whole process is palatable.
Linda was saying that if I keep saying "I don't like rewriting" I'm just reinforcing it. But dammit, if I hate raw onions than no amount of saying I like raw onions is going to make me like raw onions.
Whenever I hit a roadblock like this, I try to find ways under, over, or around it. So I'm easing into this rewriting in a way that isn't totally uncomfortable. I just need to keep finding ways to motivate myself.
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
The Big Slowdown.
Well, for me, anyway.
I am taking the extra step. It's not that I wasn't before, but there was a nexus recently where I realized that my books were good enough to pass muster, but that I could make them better.
It wasn't an easy or obvious discovery. I waffled quite a bit on whether rewriting would improve or detract from the books. The rough answer is -- if I'm messing with the continuity of the book, it is usually a minus, but if I'm just focused on the rewriting, the words and descriptions and the fleshing out, it is usually an improvement.
Much of it is a matter of timing. To really benefit from rewriting, I need a minimum of a month away from the book. When I add in the month or two that it takes to get an editing out of Lara, then a single book starts to take a lot longer to finish.
The problem here is that a finished, polished book doesn't always coincide with when it makes the most sense to approach a publisher. I've let that timing dilemma go -- the book is everything. If the timing goes off track, so be it.
The solution, I believe, is to send the book to be edited by Lara in the same timeframe that I need the space for perspective.
The one drawback is that I lose some of the copy-editing polish that I get when Lara finishes off a book. Instead, I'm using her more as a very diligent Beta-reader.
But I think this works. First of all, it seems to shape the book enough for me to tackle the rewriting in a straightforward beginning to end process.
At any rate, every book going through this process is going to take at least an extra month or two.
But I think I'm at a point in my evolution as a writer where I need to do this.
While both The Manic Pixie Dream Girl Murders and The Last Fedora: The Gangster Golem Chronicles, are complete to my satisfaction, with a nice solid editing job by Lara, I've decided to give them one more rewrite just to make absolutely certain that they are as good I can make them.
I think Tuskers III is benefiting from that treatment right now. (It probably needed it more, which is why I'm doing it, but in doing it, I'm realizing how every manuscript could use this extra effort.) I should have it done in time for it to come out at a nice reasonable 4 to 5 months after Tuskers II. So that then gives me another 4 months -- that's the frequency I'm shooting for -- to polish TMPDGM's and The Last Fedora both.
It seems like an extreme slowdown to me. I apparently have any number of books in me, but now I'm focusing on improving the books I've already done. Not as fun, maybe, but necessary.
And it is "fun" to feel that the books are better than they might otherwise have been.
Looking back, I'm still proud of the time and effort I took to improve Led to the Slaughter. It was going to be my first real book, and I wanted it right. I worked with Bren on that book, and tried to respond to her criticisms and I think that book was improved by that. So was The Dead Spend No Gold.
I've taken that extra step with TMPDGM's, sending it to Bren, because I feel like this is my most commercially viable book.
Most encouraging of all, though, is how much I think Tuskers III is benefiting from this new process. This is the first time, really, that I've done what probably is normal for other writers. Write a first draft, get a good beta read and editing, and then go over the book from beginning to end with a thorough rewrite.
It feels surprising right.
I am taking the extra step. It's not that I wasn't before, but there was a nexus recently where I realized that my books were good enough to pass muster, but that I could make them better.
It wasn't an easy or obvious discovery. I waffled quite a bit on whether rewriting would improve or detract from the books. The rough answer is -- if I'm messing with the continuity of the book, it is usually a minus, but if I'm just focused on the rewriting, the words and descriptions and the fleshing out, it is usually an improvement.
Much of it is a matter of timing. To really benefit from rewriting, I need a minimum of a month away from the book. When I add in the month or two that it takes to get an editing out of Lara, then a single book starts to take a lot longer to finish.
The problem here is that a finished, polished book doesn't always coincide with when it makes the most sense to approach a publisher. I've let that timing dilemma go -- the book is everything. If the timing goes off track, so be it.
The solution, I believe, is to send the book to be edited by Lara in the same timeframe that I need the space for perspective.
The one drawback is that I lose some of the copy-editing polish that I get when Lara finishes off a book. Instead, I'm using her more as a very diligent Beta-reader.
But I think this works. First of all, it seems to shape the book enough for me to tackle the rewriting in a straightforward beginning to end process.
At any rate, every book going through this process is going to take at least an extra month or two.
But I think I'm at a point in my evolution as a writer where I need to do this.
While both The Manic Pixie Dream Girl Murders and The Last Fedora: The Gangster Golem Chronicles, are complete to my satisfaction, with a nice solid editing job by Lara, I've decided to give them one more rewrite just to make absolutely certain that they are as good I can make them.
I think Tuskers III is benefiting from that treatment right now. (It probably needed it more, which is why I'm doing it, but in doing it, I'm realizing how every manuscript could use this extra effort.) I should have it done in time for it to come out at a nice reasonable 4 to 5 months after Tuskers II. So that then gives me another 4 months -- that's the frequency I'm shooting for -- to polish TMPDGM's and The Last Fedora both.
It seems like an extreme slowdown to me. I apparently have any number of books in me, but now I'm focusing on improving the books I've already done. Not as fun, maybe, but necessary.
And it is "fun" to feel that the books are better than they might otherwise have been.
Looking back, I'm still proud of the time and effort I took to improve Led to the Slaughter. It was going to be my first real book, and I wanted it right. I worked with Bren on that book, and tried to respond to her criticisms and I think that book was improved by that. So was The Dead Spend No Gold.
I've taken that extra step with TMPDGM's, sending it to Bren, because I feel like this is my most commercially viable book.
Most encouraging of all, though, is how much I think Tuskers III is benefiting from this new process. This is the first time, really, that I've done what probably is normal for other writers. Write a first draft, get a good beta read and editing, and then go over the book from beginning to end with a thorough rewrite.
It feels surprising right.
Monday, August 3, 2015
Have I finally found the way to rewrite?
It's funny. The advice I usually hear is to not read the reviews. I had intended to follow that advice.
But then the reviews started coming in and they were almost all good. Not just from friends and family, but from strangers. The few bad reviews I've gotten have been so wrong-headed and off-the-mark, that I can pretty much dismiss them.
That's not to say that someone couldn't write a bad review that was on the mark. That might be hard to take, but might also be a learning experience.
Anyway, I've found the opposite experience. Just about the time I'm feeling down and discouraged, along will come a nice 5 star review where the reader had a genuinely good time reading my book, and I think, maybe I'm a writer after all.
Anyway, I'm in the process of rewriting Tuskers III. I'm doing it a bit different this time. I finished the first draft knowing it had some problems but sent it to Lara anyway. Then went off and wrote Gargoyle Dreams. Tuskers III came back to me from Lara on Friday, and I started going through accepting changes and responding to comments.
Then on Saturday, I sat down and just started rewriting from the beginning. I'm determined to do this all the way through the book. So far, I'm 6000 words in, and I've made substantial changes. Improvements, I do believe. The kind of filling in that I've always felt like I needed.
This is the first time I've really done it this way, and I can see that this is the way to go forward.
The only downside is that I will lose some of the benefit of Lara's copyediting. That is, I'm adding so much material that there is bound to be copyediting mistakes. I'll ask her if she wants to take a quick copy-editing trip through the book (and Lara always asks for this opportunity) but it may be more than she bargained for. I do have a publisher though who also edits so I may have to depend on this for a complete book.
I've added a third to the book so far. 4000 words has become 6000 words. If I do that all the way through, I'll end up with a book of 80,000 words, a good 25,000 words longer than Tuskers I and II.
If that happens, so be it. I'm hoping that the additions are more necessary at the beginning of the book than at the end of the book.
I almost always pack some action into the beginning of my books. This time I'm taking a more measured approach, which probably somewhat depends on the readers having read I and II. Which I assume will be almost everyone.
Some of my books have come out pretty much complete, without the necessity of this kind of rewriting. Tuskers, Death of an Immortal, and Rule of Vampire were all pretty much done from the start. Led to the Slaughter had some rewriting which improved the book quite a bit. Blood of Gold and Tuskers II needed some rewriting and looking back, I think I would probably rewrite them even more.
But this going through page by page is so obviously a benefit that I'm going to do this from now on, whether I think the book is finished or not. I think I'm at a stage in my career where I need to focus on improving, not on speed. I've got plenty of material to work with.
So taking the month or two for perspective, having some help shaping the book through editors, and then sitting down and giving it a thorough rewrite. This is the way to go.
I often talk about how I hate to rewrite. Well, giving myself a month off between efforts addresses that problem, more or less. I didn't find it to be so terrible after all.
Especially when I see the improvements.
But then the reviews started coming in and they were almost all good. Not just from friends and family, but from strangers. The few bad reviews I've gotten have been so wrong-headed and off-the-mark, that I can pretty much dismiss them.
That's not to say that someone couldn't write a bad review that was on the mark. That might be hard to take, but might also be a learning experience.
Anyway, I've found the opposite experience. Just about the time I'm feeling down and discouraged, along will come a nice 5 star review where the reader had a genuinely good time reading my book, and I think, maybe I'm a writer after all.
Anyway, I'm in the process of rewriting Tuskers III. I'm doing it a bit different this time. I finished the first draft knowing it had some problems but sent it to Lara anyway. Then went off and wrote Gargoyle Dreams. Tuskers III came back to me from Lara on Friday, and I started going through accepting changes and responding to comments.
Then on Saturday, I sat down and just started rewriting from the beginning. I'm determined to do this all the way through the book. So far, I'm 6000 words in, and I've made substantial changes. Improvements, I do believe. The kind of filling in that I've always felt like I needed.
This is the first time I've really done it this way, and I can see that this is the way to go forward.
The only downside is that I will lose some of the benefit of Lara's copyediting. That is, I'm adding so much material that there is bound to be copyediting mistakes. I'll ask her if she wants to take a quick copy-editing trip through the book (and Lara always asks for this opportunity) but it may be more than she bargained for. I do have a publisher though who also edits so I may have to depend on this for a complete book.
I've added a third to the book so far. 4000 words has become 6000 words. If I do that all the way through, I'll end up with a book of 80,000 words, a good 25,000 words longer than Tuskers I and II.
If that happens, so be it. I'm hoping that the additions are more necessary at the beginning of the book than at the end of the book.
I almost always pack some action into the beginning of my books. This time I'm taking a more measured approach, which probably somewhat depends on the readers having read I and II. Which I assume will be almost everyone.
Some of my books have come out pretty much complete, without the necessity of this kind of rewriting. Tuskers, Death of an Immortal, and Rule of Vampire were all pretty much done from the start. Led to the Slaughter had some rewriting which improved the book quite a bit. Blood of Gold and Tuskers II needed some rewriting and looking back, I think I would probably rewrite them even more.
But this going through page by page is so obviously a benefit that I'm going to do this from now on, whether I think the book is finished or not. I think I'm at a stage in my career where I need to focus on improving, not on speed. I've got plenty of material to work with.
So taking the month or two for perspective, having some help shaping the book through editors, and then sitting down and giving it a thorough rewrite. This is the way to go.
I often talk about how I hate to rewrite. Well, giving myself a month off between efforts addresses that problem, more or less. I didn't find it to be so terrible after all.
Especially when I see the improvements.
Sunday, August 2, 2015
Tis tales.
Got up at 5:30 to go to the store to open it for the electrician. We're having all the lights replaced by LED's.
Much as it was nice to see the sun, getting only 4 hours of sleep wasn't fun at all. (Of course, because I needed the sleep I couldn't fall asleep...)
The LED's are much brighter. I guess we'll have to dust more often.
Had our best day of the summer at the store, I think. Thanks for not closing the streets Downtowners!
Still sitting on my massive book order. Thing is -- if sales are so good, while spend all that money? Why not wait for when I really need it? (Fall and Winter).
Meanwhile, got Tuskers III back from Lara and went through her corrections. I'm going to spend several weeks doing some rewriting. I like the overall ideas in the book, but I think it needs some buffing up, more than usual. Thinking about it last night, I came up with a little addition that will help. So I'm hoping to come up with a couple dozen more helpful additions before I'm done.
I've not written for a week now, and it feels a little weird, but I think it's good for me to take a break once in a while. Getting together with my sister Susie and her family (she's home for a high school reunion). Going kayaking on Tuesday.
Linda seems to have gotten serious about finishing the third book of her trilogy, and it tickles me to see her doing it.
Wasted day yesterday. Too hot and tired to do much of anything. Blech.
Today I've got to go out and adjust the sprinklers -- our new neighbor came over and told us his trailer was getting too much spray. Only way to do it is to stand in the water and take what it's giving. So, warm day is pretty much needed. Neighbor also pretty much shamed me about the side of the house -- the part that is out of sight and inundated with weeds. He kept saying he didn't want to be "that guy." Heh.
Trying to cut back on calories for awhile. My highwater mark is 200 pounds, and I need to be about 15 to 20 pounds lighter to fit into most of my wardrobe. I don't feel unhealthy at that weight, but buying a whole new wardrobe seems kind of wasteful.
Looks like I missed a day of blogging the other day. I've decided it doesn't count, because it wasn't intentional. As far as I'm concerned, my eight year blogging streak is intact. If you don't agree, you're a jerk!!!! (Just agree, dammit. You never saw it...)
Much as it was nice to see the sun, getting only 4 hours of sleep wasn't fun at all. (Of course, because I needed the sleep I couldn't fall asleep...)
The LED's are much brighter. I guess we'll have to dust more often.
Had our best day of the summer at the store, I think. Thanks for not closing the streets Downtowners!
Still sitting on my massive book order. Thing is -- if sales are so good, while spend all that money? Why not wait for when I really need it? (Fall and Winter).
Meanwhile, got Tuskers III back from Lara and went through her corrections. I'm going to spend several weeks doing some rewriting. I like the overall ideas in the book, but I think it needs some buffing up, more than usual. Thinking about it last night, I came up with a little addition that will help. So I'm hoping to come up with a couple dozen more helpful additions before I'm done.
I've not written for a week now, and it feels a little weird, but I think it's good for me to take a break once in a while. Getting together with my sister Susie and her family (she's home for a high school reunion). Going kayaking on Tuesday.
Linda seems to have gotten serious about finishing the third book of her trilogy, and it tickles me to see her doing it.
Wasted day yesterday. Too hot and tired to do much of anything. Blech.
Today I've got to go out and adjust the sprinklers -- our new neighbor came over and told us his trailer was getting too much spray. Only way to do it is to stand in the water and take what it's giving. So, warm day is pretty much needed. Neighbor also pretty much shamed me about the side of the house -- the part that is out of sight and inundated with weeds. He kept saying he didn't want to be "that guy." Heh.
Trying to cut back on calories for awhile. My highwater mark is 200 pounds, and I need to be about 15 to 20 pounds lighter to fit into most of my wardrobe. I don't feel unhealthy at that weight, but buying a whole new wardrobe seems kind of wasteful.
Looks like I missed a day of blogging the other day. I've decided it doesn't count, because it wasn't intentional. As far as I'm concerned, my eight year blogging streak is intact. If you don't agree, you're a jerk!!!! (Just agree, dammit. You never saw it...)
Saturday, August 1, 2015
Not a note-taker.
I'm not much of a note-taker when it comes to writing. I keep most of it in my head. I mean, I make sporadic notes, here and there, but not consistently.
I always think I'll remember what changes I mean to make. Then I forget.
So that's something I'm going to try to change. Start with taking notes, make sure I have a notepad while I'm writing, and then refer to them on a regular basis.
Shouldn't be hard, right?
I always think I'll remember what changes I mean to make. Then I forget.
So that's something I'm going to try to change. Start with taking notes, make sure I have a notepad while I'm writing, and then refer to them on a regular basis.
Shouldn't be hard, right?
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