Archive for the ‘Progress Report’ Category

The Final Revision of Doll’s Game/Animal Child?

Posted: November 28, 2012 in Progress Report, short story, Writing
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Well, we went over my revision exercise in class, and overall everyone loved how I tweaked my short story. Or perhaps “tweak” is too light a term for what I did. Anyway, they gave me some final suggestions for how to improve the story, so all I have to do is edit the story one more time and then turn it in with a few other documents for a grade by December 6th. After that, I’ll probably wait until I have the actual grade, but I’ll try submitting Animal Child somewhere for publication. I can already think of a few places it could go.

Let’s hope that I can write an awesome story that is also literary and not horror and get it published. Fingers crossed.

Snake: Part III Done

Posted: November 25, 2012 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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Part III: Search and Rescue was the longest part of Snake I’ve written yet, a whopping twenty-nine chapters. I am happy to say that after I finished my homework this evening, I worked on the last two chapters for this section, and I finished it up! Can I just say, woo-hoo! There are eight parts of Snake, including the prologue and epilogue, and therefore with Part III marks the halfway point for the parts (but then again, the Parts are just for organizational purposes, so they’re no indicators of length left to go; the chapters do a better job of that, truthfully). A the end of this part, the Snake has finally gotten back what he sought out to get back when he started hunting mafioso, so he’s now got to fight to keep it, and he’ll be getting a little help along the way.

However, I think I’ll take a small break before I start Part IV: Alliance. Maybe I’ll edit a short story or two. It is about time I take a second look at Animal Child. Or maybe I’ll sit back an read a book. It’s all up to me, at any rate.

So before you click away from this post, I’d like to update you on word and page counts, like I’ve been doing after I’ve finished the previous parts (and when I say “page counts”, I mean when the pages are 8.5″ x 11″ paper, double spaced, and 12-point Times New Roman font, so take that into account before making a loud whistle). The page and word count for the prologue was fourteen pages and 3,979 words. From Part I, forty-one pages and 10,177 words. From Part II, ninety-six pages and 23,801 words. And from Part III (cue drum roll)…one-hundred and twenty-six pages and 30,733 words. In total, this leads to two-hundred and seventy-seven pages and 68,690 words.

So not yet as long as Reborn City, but it’s getting there, isn’t it? And if I’d stayed in NaNoWriMo, I’d have done an excellent first try for Part III alone.

I’ll keep everyone updated on my progress. Please continue to support me, and I’ll let you know what’s what with both RC and Snake.

Snake: Halfway Done!!!

Posted: November 21, 2012 in Novel, Progress Report, Scary Stuff, Writing
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With the first draft, that is!

This evening, while waiting for the laundry to finish, I was working on Snake. Much later than I should’ve been, actually. But what does that matter, because I got three chapters out of the way. And one of them was Chapter 52. Multiply by two, and you get the number of chapters in Snake, at least in this first draft.

So yeah, I’m halfway through, and I’m happy as hell! This chapter was actually kind of difficutl to write, to tell you the truth. This chapter was the first time in several chapters that a character had appeared, and I wanted to do an update on what she’d been doing during that time. However when I was editing Reborn City, I’d been told that doesn’t always work very well, and I had a feeling that it wouldn’t work here, so I had to go back and rewrite what I’d written (thanks again, Matt; it’s good to have your counsel in so many ways). In the end, I used dialogue and a really creepy mafioso to explain what had happened to that character, which made for a much more interesting way of telling this story.

In a way, I wish I could show you this chapter, but not only does it reveal one or two plot details I wish to keep concealed, it’s a little too disturbing for some audiences. What can I say? I write creepy stuff, but I know not everyone wants to read it. They prefer other stuff found here on my blog.

So I’m halfway done, and I’ve still got fifty-two more chapters to do. But hey, if I can get from chapter thirty-five to chapter fifty-two in twenty days (with a ton of schoolwork and whatever getting in the way), I can probably tackle the rest in that amount of time. Who knows? I might be done by New Years, God willing!

Wish me luck. I’m going to bed.

More from the Self-Publishing Front

Posted: November 20, 2012 in Progress Report
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Hi again. So you know how I’m planning on self-publishing my novel Reborn City, right? Well, I also said I was planning on starting a small, independent press for legal purposes, and was contemplating what sort of business my press should be. Well, my uncles–one of whom is a lawyer–jumped in and asked me some questions. Several emails and phone calls later, and a bit of counseling on legal matters (thanks, Uncle Joel and Uncle Arthur; your metaphorical checks are in the mail), and I’ve come to the conclusion that a press won’t really help me, not until I at least have something I can offer to major publishers who are considering distributing my work, and unfortunately at this point, I don’t.

Hopefully someday though, I will have something to offer them. Just got to finish the final draft of Reborn City, and then get it out. Maybe then, I’ll have publishers knocking on my door (can’t hurt to hope, right?).

Snake: Longest Chapter Yet

Posted: November 19, 2012 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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Someone’s been a glutton!

Okay, so I just finished chapter forty-seven of Snake, and so far, it’s the longest chapter I’ve written of Snake, a whopping ten pages (double spaced and 12-point font Times New Roman) and 2,424 words, beating out the 2nd longest chapter by about seventy words. This chapte is important to the plot, because this is a point where the Snake really starts moving toward his ultimate goal (what that is, I can’t say, but more people are going to die for it). I guess that’s a pretty good excuse for it to be very long, though I can tell you that the chapter afterwards will be relatively short.

At this point, I’ve got about nineteen chapters in Part III of Snake left before I finish this part, and I’m also very close to the halfway point in the book. Hopefully soon I’ll be able to blog about finishing Part III and taking a little break, maybe just to write a short story or watch a movie or even play video games because I don’t usually play them! I don’t know, I haven’t decided yet, but I’ll let you know when I’m there.

NaNoWriMo Is For Those Who Can Devote Time To It

Posted: November 18, 2012 in Living and Life, Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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And unfortunately, I can’t devote my time to it. I’d like to though; I’d like to be able to spend hours each and every day just typing away on my computer, pushing out word after word to create an awesome story that people will want to read. The only time I would stop writing is if I was hungry and wanted to make something to eat; or if I had to run an errand; or if I wanted to work out; or if it was just too late in the day, so let’s forget work and just play.

Sadly, I cannot live that sort of lifestyle right now. Instead, I spend more than ten hours a week in classes, and close to that amount at a part-time job. In addition to that, I spend several hours over the week working on homework, reading books and writing papers and doing projects, and that’s especially so in the last 3-4 weeks of class before finals. Add into that meals, sleep (essential, even in college), errands, and just finding time to relax, there’s only so much time to write.

So I’m going to have to drop out of the National Novel Writing Month challenge. It’s just too much at the moment to try and get out fifty-thousand words in thirty days with the workload I have. I’ll still work on writing Snake and editing Reborn City, but I won’t do it with the focus of just getting 50K words written.  Instead, I’ll work on them with the hope that eventually I’ll get them done and share them with everyone.

Am I sad that I can’t finish the challenge? Yes I am; I was getting so much done at the beginning of the month, I thought that if I couldn’t get 50K words, I’d get very close to 30K. Not so at this point. But hey, look on the bright side: I managed to write twelve chapters of Snake and type out 12,329 words. Not bad for my first time, right? That’s more than your average short story.

Maybe next year, if I don’t have that much of a workload, I’ll try again at NaNoWriMo. In the meantime, I’m off to work on chapter forty-seven of Snake. Wish me luck.

Doll’s Game: Done For Now

Posted: November 14, 2012 in Progress Report, short story, Writing
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I just finished with the first draft of the rewrite of Doll’s Game. And yes, I said I was renaming it “Animal Child”, but you all are more familiar with the title Doll’s Game, so for now I’ll continue calling it that. The new version of the story is four pages shorter, and doesn’t cover as much ground as the earlier version. And unlike the original version, I like this one much better. In fact, I think this draft kicks the old draft’s butt, and actually stands the chance of being published somewhere, which I certainly don’t mind.

Well, now it’s time for the next step in the process for short stories I’m trying to publish: I save the story and put it away for later, when I can edit it with fresh eyes. I’m pretty sure that when I do the edits, I’ll be doing a lot of work on the middle and ending sections of the stories more than the beginning section, just because those sections involve important character important, so I have to make sure those sections are good sections.

In the meantime, I have some projects and papers to write for class, and then I have work to do on my novel-that-is-in-its-final-stages Reborn City and my novel-in-progress Snake. Of course, the former requires more work than either of the latter, which may mean I’ll have less time to devote to NaNoWriMo. Ah, the troubles of a college student.

I have to go now, so I’ll write more later. Happy Wednesday.

Rewriting “Doll’s Game”

Posted: November 13, 2012 in Progress Report, short story, Writing
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As I’ve said in previous posts, I’m working on editing the short story I’m writing for my creative writing class, Doll’s Game. One of the biggest criticisms I got on that short story when we workshopped it was that for a little girl who’s been held captive and abused for most of her life, she adapts to the outside world rather quickly.

So now I’m writing a version of the story showing the events of the main character’s first few days on the outside through her perspective, and since she hasn’t had much human contact, she has a rather unique point of view that’s been challenging to write. Then again, I like the challenge, so what’s the problem?

I’m also trying to rename the story, seeing as in the act of a total rewrite, a title that worked under one circumstance doesn’t work under another. Since kids growing up in the sort of environment my main character is growing up in tend to be feral, I’m going with “Animal Child’ for now, but it’s subject to change. Hopefully a better title that fits the direction of the story will come along.

Anyway, I better get back to work; I’m two-thirds of the way with this rewrite, and I need to do a little more if I want to get to three-fourths. Wish me luck.

“Doll’s Game”–Beginning the Revision Process

Posted: November 10, 2012 in Progress Report, short story, Writing
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In my creative writing class, I have to do a revision exercise due two days after my workshop date. Yes, that means I have to turn in a new draft on Sunday. By noon, too. Jeez, what if I want to sleep past one in the afternoon?

Well, I can’t sleep in that late apparently, not without getting a lowered grade. So I did my revision exercise and I plan to send it in after I finish writing this post. What I had to do was take a certain section of the story and, taking into account all the suggestions I got on the day of my workshop, rewrite it. And that’s what I did, editing one of the early sections of Doll’s Game. And now, I think I’ll work on the rest of the short story, doing an entirely new version of the story based on all the feedback and critiques I got on Friday.

What does that mean, though? Basically I’ll be writing an entirely new story with the same main motif at the center. What was that motif? A girl raised in captivity by her kidnapper gets free and gets a real shock when she escapes. The original story focused on her entire life after she escaped, but now I’ll be focusing on her time in captivity, and what happened immediately after the escape.

And yes, I do write that sort of creepy subject material. Why? I blame a childhood trauma I wrote about several posts back.

But back to the main theme of this post: I’m basically doing an entire rewrite. At the center will be the main character and her experience, but it’s less about her lfie growing up after her trauma and more about what happened immediately afterwards, which is just as terrifying, if not more so, than her time in captivity. Imagine how terrifying an unfamiliar world might be after escaping one that was familiar but filled with pain and fear. It’s horrible.

Which works to my strengths, since I’m writing disturbing material whenever I’m not writing a term paper or something along those lines. But still, it’s going to be quite a lot of work.

Oh well, that’s the challenge I’ve taken up, isn’t it? And besides, I’ve got about a month. If I work now, I should have plenty of time to do any necessary revision. And if I get a good grade, who knows? I may seek to get it published somewhere. I’m not sure where, though; even hardcore horror magazines might pass on a story involving this sort of story if they feel it’s a little too disturbing for their tastes.

Well, wish me luck. I’ve got some work to do.

Update on the Self-Publishing Front–Part 2

Posted: November 8, 2012 in Living and Life, Progress Report
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Okay, remember my last post, where I said I’d probably set up my press as a sole proprietorship? Well, I got an email from an uncle of mine who has to deal with lawyers from time to time (including his brother-in-law), and he said I’d do better with an LLC. I believe him, but I also plan to talk to my other uncle on that side of the family, who, although not in business, is a lawyer, jsut to check one or two things about the differences and the benefits and disadvantages of LLCs and sole proprietorships.

So, just wanted to let you know about that. I’ll hopefully figure this out quickly and won’t have any problems setting things up. Wish me luck.

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