Thursday, June 23, 2016

First Draft Gems

Whittling a first draft into something resembling a coherent story is tedious but ultimately an enjoyable process. It's easier to work with the words, transforming them into something better, than staring at the perfect vacuum of a blank page.

One of my favorite little games is to find the silly, obvious, or unintended errors. Self depreciating one's work is a time honored tradition and the first draft offers up the most opportunity. Here are some of my recent gems I have come across.


Hegge grabbed a rock in her hand.

-Just in the case the reader would assume she grabbed it with the crook of her arm, I helped them out. Tell don't show! Or wait, was it show don't tell?

“The university doesn’t teach that level of mathematics, my dear pip.” Trude stifled a song.
 -Yawn. Song. Whatever! You know what I meant. Probably.

 "No." She shook her heard.
-Senses can be shaken right?  

The Altum pursed her lisps
-She was, uh, very self conscious of her lisp and would purse it and stuff.

"A thought memory occurred to her"
-Regular memories are so pedestrian. I have thought memories!

The phrase ‘unlimited budge’ made it hard to concentrate
-Sometimes it just takes one letter.


How about you? Have any first draft gems?



Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Writing Update

Hello there! It's been awhile. I haven't had a burst of inspiration for a blog topic for some time, and I didn't want to dial it in. Hence the silence. I might pick up the pace a bit in a month or so. Until then here is a brief update on the writing.

I had the opportunity to alpha/beta read a couple of novel length manuscripts for friends and provide feedback. That's a glorious experience, being among the first set of eyes on the finished draft, and to help shape, in a small way, the course it may take. Not to mention that it's also a beautiful way to encourage more art in the world and to sharpen my own skills.

That provided me a brief and needed respite from editing Alchemist. As a recap I got that back from the editor with rewrite scribbled all over it early in 2016. I got about halfway through the rewrite and I was burned out on the book. It's standing near the back of the room, clearing its throat at me, but I'm going to keep ignoring it for now. A little separation may do wonders.

In the interim, I began a new fantasy adventure story that I'm enjoying. I don't know if this is just a distraction or a full blown project. That's the beauty and heartache of not having a contractual writing obligation; it can be whatever I wish it to be.

I also have this dream of writing an epic series focused on a fictional baseball player. That idea is in it's infancy, but keeps floating around and kicking spasmodically. That would require a solid year or so of research, which is territory I haven't embarked upon in my writing career yet.

That's the news. Unfortunately this translates into me not likely sending anything out into the world in the near future, but I'm still working away in the shadows, well, technically with my lamp on but you get the idea.