Saturday, May 31, 2008

Momentary Change of Pace

I'm about halfway through the outline for an animated screenplay that I hope to start writing by next week. Set in my favorite world of medieval fantasy, it's got knights, imps, fairies, and an ogre as the hero (the real kind that eats babies, not a gassy one with a cheeky urban sidekick). I'm writing it for a number of reasons. First, I think it's a great story with some fun characters. Second, one of my day jobs is being an animation writer so I need to keep those muscles in shape. Third, I want to keep my writing agents supplied with current material that they can use to get me work. An important side benefit is that a 100 page movie script can serve as a very detailed outline for a novel -- with many of the kinks already worked out. I'm really jonesing to get back to writing novels, but I'm treating this is as a fun and necessary side project.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Hot Links Are Hot Again


A large percentage of my links were not working due to me not paying attention and accidentally adding some extra junk in the URLs. Yes, I'm a dope. An often well-meaning dope, but still a dope. They're functioning now and I recommend that you check them out -- especially if you're interested in improving your writing skills or learning about the business of writing. Special thanks to Mike T. for pointing out the errors.

Friday, May 2, 2008

A Dream for Some...

Well, I did it. "What?" you ask. Allow me to elucidate. I...
  • finished several passes that incorporated J.Z.'s high quality notes
  • did a polish pass (where I still discovered scads of typos and formatting errors!)
  • hunted down any editing debris (highlighted text, bits of cut text I didn't know if I wanted to get rid of yet)
  • ran a spell check (hmm, you mean "smellingly" is not a real word?)
  • wrote a query
  • sent the query to Liz, my excellent picture book editor (yes, I'm extremely fortunate to have a leg up on the slush pile)
  • was greatly relieved when she quickly responded that she'd love to read the manuscript
  • sent off the manuscript

What a terrifyingly exciting moment it was to press that send button.

My goal from the beginning has been to write something I was proud of -- which for me meant a manuscript that was a fun read and was good enough to send to a publisher. I feel I've achieved that goal. What's next? I'll continue to post here on any relevant news but I won't be sitting on my hands, waiting. I plan on taking a week or so off to clear my head. Then I'm going to start work on a screenplay (animated). That should take about a month and then I'm jumping right back into the novel game -- outlining one of the many "middle grade" ideas I have with the idea of completing another novel by the end of the year.

Word count a/o today's submission: 76696

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Hooray For Mistakes

Got the notes from J.Z. and was relieved to see that he's found many a plot hole, typo, logic error, grammatical error, and dead spot -- exactly what you would hope a beta reader would do. I easily agree with 90% of the notes. The remaining ten percent is all minor stuff that has to do with matters of taste -- a suggested line of dialogue that I don't agree with, etc. Overall the notes are very encouraging and I'm excited about putting them into play.

A good beta reader is worth his weight in gold (or in this case, fine cigars and Manhattans).

Third draft word count a/o today: 78588

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Beta Time


Finished the second draft polish and now the manuscript's in the hands of my trusted beta reader, J.Z. My method for this pass was to read it out loud. It takes longer, but this is a good trick for finding things like repeated words and awkward sentence constructs. If it gives you trouble when you read it out loud, the reader will have a tough time with it, too.
Toward the end of the rewrite, my brain was starting to pucker and I would alternate between loving it and hating it. Along those lines I am both looking forward to and dreading his notes (which are always both excellent and useful). Dreading only because I'm so close to the novel that I've lost the ability to tell if it's readable. Isn't that weird? The good thing is that he doesn't hold back if he thinks something's not working. That's the kind of feedback that I need. The bland "oh, it's great" notes given by people that are afraid of hurting your feelings or making you mad are next to useless. I like hearing positive comments, but I love it when holes and mistakes are pointed out as the ultimate goal is to produce a good book that people will enjoy reading. J.Z.'s providing the all-important fresh eyeballs read that will help me avoid an editor's disdain.

Second draft word count a/o today: 77990

Sunday, March 30, 2008

1st Rewrite Complete

Surprised myself by finishing off the first rewrite over the weekend. I say surprised because I wasn't expecting to get through it in just a little over a week. I guess the first draft was better than I thought it would be. Either that or like I said in the earlier post, I'm delusional. Either way, I know I'm pretty happy with how things are going so far. I'll start a polish read on Monday then ship it off to get some impartial feedback.

Second draft word count a/o today: 79105

Friday, March 28, 2008

New Layout

As you can see, I've been monkeying around with the layout of the page. The other template was too cramped and hard to read. This one's easier on the eyes so I think I'm going to try it out for a while. I like the layout but I'm not sure about the color. Comments?

Eater of the Dead: A Dragon Friend Excerpt

Just in time for Halloween! Check out a featured Dragon Friend excerpt on the BestSelling Reads blog: "The spooky season is upon us! H...