Like any craftsperson, a writer creates a work in a gradual way. Houses are built one brick at a time, paintings come to life one brush stroke at a time, and stories and articles come together one word at a time.
Again, this past week, I’ve been cramming words into the spaces I can manage. Progress is happening slowly but surely. One article did get finished and has been pitched to the first outlet. I wanted to finish the other but the week at work kind of exploded. And Cold Iron progresses. As few words as I’ve been able to weave into that rewrite, I’m not disappointed in the work that’s been done. I know what I’m doing is an improvement, and the overall result will be much better than it was.
I used to think, in my hubris, that it was only poets who agonized over single words while writing. Not so. A misplaced or misused word in the middle of an otherwise immaculate sentence can cause the whole affair to fall apart. It’s not just grammar, either. When writing, the words must be chosen carefully so the scene being constructed in the reader’s head makes sense, at least to a degree. You can be obscurist or gonzo if you really want, but even then some coherence is required to convey an idea.
Remember, you’re not going to please everyone. It’s impossible. Our disparate points of view inform our opinions and we are each allowed to have those opinions. You may think a particular storyline, character, or conclusion is brilliant, but someone else may be poking holes in it. Just remember to respect one another in your discussions, listen to what’s actually being said, and craft your responses one word at a time. You may not be able to persuade the other side, but it’s still a positive experience if you can walk away from it instead of running.
As the time approached for Angry Robot to open its doors, I knew I had to make some decisions. The first one was to convince myself that this is not a young adult book. While two of the three main protagonists are in their late teens, a hundred thousand words is an intimidating number with which to start off a story. I also couldn’t convince myself that kids in their teens could get behind a protagonist who has a tendency to think and talk his way out of situations instead of relying on physical or supernatural prowess. Maybe I’ve just been too burned out lately to find the right angle to exploit, but what it boils down to is that Asherian, while pro-active in his words and deeds, doesn’t start out as the initiator of the story. Events happen to him and he reacts. It takes a few chapters for him to shake off the complacency he’s been taught. Once the scales fall from his eyes, so to speak, he begins taking more initiative. But I think a young adult protagonist takes the reigns almost immediately, at least when written well. Case in point would be Katniss volunteering in The Hunger Games.
In any event, I went over the first five chapters again to make sure the flow and setup are as good as I can make them, put together the two-page synopsis, and sent the whole shebang to Angry Robot. I also renamed it Cities of Light. Fingers and toes crossed.
While waiting for that to at least return with something resembling feedback, my attentions turn back to Cold Iron. This is a rewrite that still requires a bit of spit and polish, as timing of events within the story and some character beats have changed. It was hard for me to decide a decent scene between the lady detective and the murderer, set in the interrogation room, had to be cut. But I simply could not work the timeline properly to make it work without padding the story, and more importantly, making sure to empower said lady detective was far more important.
Cold Iron is, to me, the lean and energetic kitten to Cities‘ cozy but somewhat massive tomcat. It’s a novella and I want to keep it short. The cover is coming together extremely well, and once that is in place and I finish this particular rewrite, I’ll be sending some review copies of the draft to folks I know with platforms to shout from. I may propose said review drafts in the same manner as a pitch – brief synopsis, what makes this story worth the time to read, etc.
Anthologies may happen. Timeless Tales for the old myths made new thing, maybe a flash fiction collection. Not certain of that yet.
I also am brewing an idea I’m pretty excited about. I think there’s an itch out there not getting the particular scratch it needs.
But that’ll come later. Gotta finish what I’ve started already first.
Thought I’d change it up from the usual anonymous pen.
I’ve mentioned that I, like many writers, have difficulty focusing at times. I know that, in spite of the time occupied by the dayjob, writing must happen. I’ve been ramping up because of several projects I want to complete in the very near future and while I still don’t have a set schedule completely nailed down, I’m certainly closer than I was, say, in December.
I’m really glad I was able to submit a story for the upcoming Amaranthology. Just the possibility of sharing the same storytelling space with the likes of Chuck Wendig and J.R. Blackwell makes me incredibly pleased and more than a little scared of not measuring up. I’m going to make it a point to read more of my fellow anthologist’s works as well. Either way, it’s an honor and I can’t wait to see it in print.
I’m still looking for ways to weaponize make more of an impact with my opinions/reviews. I have an article or two to draft up and pitch to folks. The thing that trips me up, though, is all of the unfinished fiction sitting in my Dropbox. Can I really be both a geek journalist and a fabulist? Would it be better for me to focus on one and relegate the other to blogging? I’m not sure. It’s another one of those insecure uncertainties that bothers me.
Timeless Tales and Cold Iron are some of that aforementioned unfinished fiction. I mean, they’re both finished, but I’m not putting them out into the wild as they are. They need edits. Hell, they need editors. The shorts are being worked over somewhere in the dark corners of the ‘Net and eventually I’ll work up the guts to give someone the novella a solid thrashing. After that? Definitely some sort of electronic release. Maybe Kickstarters. They seem to be working out for people.
The big thing, though, is the Citizen in the Wilds rewrite. It’s daunting. I’ve already written the damn thing at least three times, trying to get it right. It’s like the Darth Vader of my writerly existence: I know there’s good in it. And after this run it may be worth something, at the very least submitting to publishers again. The thing is, fantasy fiction in general and young adult fantasy fiction in particular already has a bunch of Tolkien wannabes. Elves and dwarves abound. When was the last time something actually new was released into the wild? I hope I’m not alone when I think people want to see a new world, fully realized and filled with mystery, one that figuratively (or perhaps literally) lives and breathes. Re-conceptualizing the world, its inhabitants and the places and destinies of the characters I’ve thrown into it are why I’m rewriting it yet again, hopefully for the last time.
Send encouragement, Internet. I think I’m gonna need it.
Leave encouragement below, Internet. I think I’m gonna need it.
Even as I write this I’m debating putting it off. I need to go to the post office and the library, the little voice says, the blog can wait. Who reads this stuff, anyway? Oh, and it’s about time for a fresh cup of tea. Wasn’t scratching behind the kitten’s ears fun? Yeah, let’s do that some more, then sort some Magic cards. Screw the job search and the writing, that stuff’s just depressing.
Allow me to give that sentiment – and maybe yours – a mental steel-toed kick to its metaphorical balls.
I wasn’t a fantastic student in university. Of the many papers I wrote, only a few were heavily researched and edited before turning them in. Most of them were dashed off based on scribbled, Ramen-stained notes the night before. Still managed to pass, though.
Having milestones, deadlines and checkpoints always helps. They can be major or minor, but like achievements in video games, they’re something to work towards. Sometimes I’ll make it, other times I won’t. But how does one hone a work ethic when there’s no set work to be done?
You set the deadlines yourself.
And you stick to them.
A couple weeks ago I hemmed and hawed about my to-do list. Since then I realized I do, in fact, want to write a sixth story for my anthology. But Red Hood took a lot longer than it should have to put together and a little reading of Revenge of the Penmonkey (available on Amazon and Nook, review later this week, short version: YOU GO BUY NOW) helped me realize why. I’d given myself no deadline. I spent mornings on Monster and Jobfox and whatnot, letting the best and most active period of time for my brain dribble away in a drab, seemingly hopeless and endless search for a new dayjob while Unemployment jerks me around.
Resolved to fix this after last night’s unfortunate turn of events with Building New Worlds (reschedule pending), I jotted down some titles and dates on a Post-it and stuck it onto my desk, opposite my StarCraft 2 reminders and the big one saying I need to write 1000 words that aren’t in the blog every day. I consider that a bare minimum.
Now I’ll be doing it in the mornings because dammit, I have deadlines to meet.
Specifically I’ve given myself until the 11th to finish this last short story. I’ve set Halloween as the date to send the veteran his edited manuscript, and while that’s going on I have until Thanksgiving (almost two months) to tackle the rewrite of Citizen in the Wilds. And after that, Valentine’s Day 2012 is the drop-dead date to complete the first round of edits and second draft of Cold Iron.
See, the thing is, if you don’t establish deadlines, especially if you’re doing something where they’re not established for you, the ‘dead’ part of the word rises from the rest and may very well choke the life out of your endeavor. We get distracted. Important things get our attention. Kitchen appliances explode. Earthquakes, typhoons, hurricanes, smog. Cats rubbing on our shins. Spouses, too.
I’m not saying chain yourself to your desk, glue your wrists to the bottom portion of the keyboard and type until your fingers bleed. Unless you have to. What I’m saying is impose some sort of structure on what you’re doing. Make promises to yourself about the amount of work you’re going to do, and for the love of whichever muse you think visits you in the night to whisper sweet writerly nothings in your ear, do not break them.
When you do, it’s not the deadlines who have the upper hand. It’s you. And when the deadline arrives and your work is done, you’re the one pointing and laughing at the deadline’s postmortem twitches and spasms, rather than being the victim of your own procrastination.
So last week’s ICFN was delayed. It’s still on hold. I’m waiting to hear back from third parties that were interested in conveying it to a different format. Awaiting correspondence always makes days or weekends feel longer, from responses to job postings to queries about Magic trades.
But while I was waiting I took a look at the various projects I’ve lined up for myself.
There are three things that go against me when I try to sit down and get my writing pants on: I’m always thinking of new ideas, I’m not terribly organized and I’m easily distracted. All it takes is a cat darting across the floor, a ringing phone or a stray thought on something awesome unrelated to the project at hand to force me to refocus my efforts. I do turn off HootSuite and other things when I’m actually writing, but that only addresses the distraction problem.
You can take a look at my desk, my kitchen sink or either basement I have stuff in (here in Lansdale or at the ancestral place in Allentown) as silent testament to my lack of organization and pack-rat nature. This also ties in to my ideas. New ones creep into my brain all the time. An action sequence, a bit of dialog, a new character in an old setting… this stuff floats in and out from time to time. It takes conscious effort to nail it all down. And once I do, I need to get it into some sort of organized sequence.
Obviously I want to finish things I’ve started before I begin anything new, so let’s get some priorities straight here. This is pertaining mostly to my own publishable (eventually) writing, not other projects I’ve taken on (the Vietnam manuscript) and the weekday drivel in this blog.
I feel I should finish Red Hood first. It’s the shortest piece, and with it my collection of mixed-myth stories reaches a total of five. Akuma (Japanese oni in a period slasher story), The Jovian Flight (Greek myth IN SPACE!), The Drifter’s Hand (Norse myth in the Old West) and Miss Weaver’s Lo Mein (Chinese myth as a modern romance) round out the rest. That may be enough for an anthology, but I’m uncertain. I may want to do a sixth story.
The rewrite of Citizen in the Wilds must come next. I’ve started outlining the new opening, and will track the appearances and growth of characters to ensure they’re consistent and sympathetic, two problems pointed out by at least one review on Book Country. The problem with the way it opened before was I was cramming too much exposition into the first few pages and not giving the characters enough time to develop and establish connections with each other and the reader – in other words, I opened too late. So I’m starting a bit earlier. Giving these people more breathing room. You know, before I kill most of them.
I have an idea for a Magic: the Gathering piece but as it may be nothing more than fan fiction and Wizards has better things to do than entertain the notions of a relatively unknown hack like myself (as opposed to known hacks like Robert Wintermute), I’ll try not to devote too much time to it.
Once I finish up with the other stuff I’ll go back to Cold Iron. I plan on taking this lean, mean and well-intentioned supernatural noir thing I threw together during my commutes of the last few months and putting it through the prescribed Wendig cycle of editingmyshit. The Wendig cycle, by the way, has little to do with Wagner’s cycle. More whiskey and profanity, less large sopranos and Norse symbolism.
Meantime, the blog will keep the writing-wheels greased. More Westeros fiction for the Honor & Blood crowd. More flash fiction challenges. Reviews of movies, games and books. Ruminations on trying not to suck as a writer.
And Guild Wars 2 stuff, because that MMO looks pretty damn awesome, not to mention damn pretty.
Stay tuned. I may be down, but I ain’t licked yet.
