Tag Archives: writing life

Update and all that.

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So, it’s been a couple of weeks, alright, it’s been more than a couple.

Anyway, here’s the update on the book I’ve been working on, and that I’ll be querying this summer.

It’s in its 4th draft, 4.2 to be exact. I’ve taken my wife’s notes, gone over them. Fixed consistency errors, grammar errors, and issues with the story. She also suggested things about a certain character, which I fixed.

As of this morning I’m at 60k with this draft and will be starting the third section when I write today.

In the beginning of the editing, I got stuck.

I misunderstood my wife’s suggestions.

Believing, incorrectly, that she was recommending a full rewrite. At that moment, I wanted to cry.

I didn’t want to rewrite 80,000 words.

We talked it over and I had it wrong, which was a huge relief to both of us. The worst part about it is I’ve been misunderstanding what she was asking through all of the books I’ve written. Yep, all 7 that she’s gone over.

She’s started on the one I wrote in December and should be done with it by August.

In the meantime, I’ll be querying this one over the summer.

I have an idea for the next book and I’m super-excited!

Have a happy rest of your week and happy writing.

Editing break

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I’ve been thinking about taking a break for a while.

Now that I’m staring at a self-imposed deadline for the current novel, I realized in order to get it where it needs to be, I have to focus on one thing.

This will be my last post for a while.

I plan on taking at least two months to get the novel where I want it, though it may take longer.

If something amazing happens, I’ll drop in, but after this post, I’ll be working to finish the horror novel I wrote in August.

I hope you all have a pleasant and productive spring and early summer and hopefully I’ll see you in the summer.

Finishing books.

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Last summer I queried a book to 13 agents.

It was the first book I’d ever queried. I’ve submitted stories to magazines, receiving rejections on all of them.

I may have figured out why last year’s queries failed.

I spent time working on the novel, but I didn’t get it as good as I think I could have.

I wrote 2 rewrites and revision for it but I don’t think I learned how to dial in a draft, or what it takes to do so until the past couple of months.

The writing group showed me this as well as the improvements I’ve witnessed.

I don’t know what changed, maybe I’ve become less fearful of editing.

I used to look at it as something I knew I should be doing, but also as a thing I dreaded. Agents should just love it it’s current form, right?

That’s what I believed. Why should I change my story? They should adjust to what I’m writing.

Now, I’m looking at my writing and I see what needs to change. I’ve also read a lot in the past year. That changed my thoughts as well.

I’m putting away new projects to work on making this one book the best it can be.

I will either get an agent this year or publish it myself.

I’m hoping for the former.

Happy writing.

What fiction is to me.

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The thought of what fiction is to me and what it means to me has been on my mind this week.

It’s the little spaces in between paragraphs when I’m considering what to write next. The moments when I write something well and amaze my self.

Most of all it’s freedom.

Freedom from distractions. Freedom to find purpose in the lives of the characters I create and the ability to try and scare them.

I used to write to impress people. I thought it would but most people don’t care.

When I write it’s to scare myself and maybe my wife. She’s my first reader and if I can scare both of us, I feel accomplished.

I gave up writing for others. There’s no satisfaction in it. There’s no reward in it. They won’t come to you frightened. Most of them won’t read what you write anyway so what’s the use.

Fiction to me is being myself. Finding purpose within the words and trying to make something memorable.

I may not be published but writing for myself is rewarding as hell.

When you’re not ready for the story, try anyway.

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I haven’t traveled as much I would like. This has destroyed some of my writing.

When I write real world cities that I haven’t experienced I get a flustered and feel like faking it won’t work. When this happens I don’t want to continue with the story. I worry about people from those cities reading my stories and saying, “ah, its not like that.”

This has come into play with the recent story as parts are set in London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and the Orkney Islands. These are places I intend to visit in the future. Today our finances don’t allow me to go gallivanting across the U.K.

This presents a quandary I’m trying to puzzle out.

I’ve written about Paris, Prague and other places in stories before, but this book is different from the others. It has more of my soul in it.

I have Scottish ancestry and its somewhere I’ve wanted to visit since I was a little kid, I’m 43.

I’m fighting with myself on this one and I don’t want to get things wrong.

My hope is that when I finish this, I would’ve been to those places.

Although I’m apprehensive about it, I’ll continue to write. Its one of those ideas that shouldn’t be tossed in the bin. It needs to be finished.

Being in love with the story helps with this one. I don’t want to give up on something I’m in love with, regardless of the issues my mind has with it.

Happy writing.