Writing Dare 2001, Week 1

michaeljasper.net

"Another Wrecked Web Site"

March 6, 2001

Short and to the point

Today's Quote:

Clint shuddered as he drove through the intersection of Cornhusker and 28th Street. He forced his gaze to remain on the road ahead of him, away from black marks still etched on the asphalt.

Today's Progress:

Finished revising ch. 2.

The Official Dare Page

And so, as the first week of this Dare draws to a close, I must say that I'm pleased with my progress. I've completed the revisions to the first 25 pages of the horror novel, finishing chapters 1 and 2 along with the prologue. Not bad progress at all. If I can keep this up, I'll have the first section done by April, which I'd originally planned on doing.
Today I finished up Riley's phone call to Clint, then Clint's call to Race. In the original draft I had a section from the point of view of each character, and I don't think we have the room for that now, and it basically just slowed things down further. So it's cut, cut, cut. And tighten what we do have. It's a good chapter, because it shows the contrast between Clint and Race, it shows a little of the history of the 5 guys since their high school days, and it does a tiny infodump of some of the mystery about Peter's death.
Next is the trip to Rosecroft, when Clint and Race come up on Riley and Titus, returning to town from the airport in Omaha. They race back and end up -- where else -- outside town in front of the cemetery.
I'm looking forward to the opening scene of chapter 3, when Clint has a "vision" of the girl he had a strange (and strained) relationship with before the book opens. I'll have to fill that in as the story progresses. I like doing that - giving the reader a mini-mystery (if you will) to wonder about as they read about the bigger mysteries of Pete's death and what the heck is going on in Rosecroft. I'm hoping I'm able to pull it off! Later.
mjj

March 5, 2001

All is going according to the plan...

Today's Quote:

The crowd of Rosecroft residents flooded onto the floor to get closer to the victorious team, and especially to Peter Warner with the mighty three point shot.

Today's Progress:

Finished revising prologue and ch. 1 (for good this time!).

The Official Dare Page

Good morning. I have a plan for the rest of this week, writing-wise, and so far I've been sticking to it. I wanted to go over the prologue one last time and try to get the game under five pages, and add some more '80s details to that whole section (I added some pulled-up white socks and some parachute pants! We already had Duran Duran's "Wild Boys" and Billy Squier's "Everybody Wants You"). I did some final tweaking, and the prologue is ready. I need to move on to the rest of the novel!
And that's the plan for the rest of the week. I also did a final run-through of Peter's last night, and I think chapter one is ready as well. Tomorrow I get a crack at chapter two - when Clint and Race get the bad news - and then on Wednesday it's chapter three. Thursday is chapter four, which needs some major overhauling, and Friday and Saturday will be chapter five (the wake).
And that will probably be the first 50-60 pages of the novel, probably the most important pages of the novel, because that's what we'll be sending out to an editor later this year. It's gotta really rock. I think the first 20 pages really do. That's what I'm gonna have to do, just keep improving it day by day, adding the details that make the book stand out. The plot is pretty much there, it's all about the characters at this point, and the thrills and chills.
Speaking of thrills, I've been quite enjoying The Talisman (I put reading Tim Powers book on hold so I could rest my brain!). I'm already 100 pages in, and I can't wait to read more. Something about the alternate world thing is really intriguing to me, and King did it so well in his Dark Tower series that I'm dying for him to write a new one in that series as well. I can sort of tell, having read both King and Peter Straub, which chapters were written by whom (King's sections have much more internalization and thoughts, while Straub's tend to be a bit more literary and traditional). But it holds together, despite a somewhat slow start. Once Jack meets Speedy and is given the bottle of "magic juice" that allows him to light out to the Territories, the book starts to rock.
Anyone know of a similar book like this that blends fantasy and horror? This is a perfect model for me to look at, as I'm writing both a fantasy novel and a horror novel. Any suggestions would be helpful. I'm thinking of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere as another good book for inspiration. I started reading that but was put off by the fantasy bits and the somewhat weak prose. I'm open to ideas. It's always good to find pros to steal from! Later.
mjj

March 4, 2001

A nice, rainy Sunday...

The Official Dare Page

I was supposed to take a break from the horror novel today and do some writing on the fantasy novel if I had the urge, but we didn't get home 'til 2 a.m. last night. By the time I'd dragged my lazy sorry butt out of bed it was already 9 a.m., and my window of creativity had closed. I tried, but after a certain point I just can't seem to make it happen. I'm just a morning person, creatively.
I did have a nice chat with Greg, my collaborator on Autumn's Fall, and we discussed the book a bit but mostly he was just encouraging me to keep of the good work. That's always nice to hear, and it's all I need to keep motivated to work more. He feels confident this book is going places, and I am almost sure of it finding a publisher. It's shaping up quite nicely. I've already chopped out almost 20 pages from the draft, and it's quite tight.
This is fun to me. I was just messing around this afternoon and chopped out some more stuff and made notes on places to focus on in later chapters. Now that we've got the big picture in place, the process is one of paring down extraneous words and really building the characters and suspense and chills. Onward and upward. To infinity and beyond!
Stuff like that... Later.
mjj

March 3, 2001

Weekend, wondrous weekend!

Today's Quote:

A storm is coming, he thought, the last words of his dream.

Today's Progress:

Finished revising prologue and ch. 1, chopped and fiddled with ch. 2.

The Official Dare Page

Hello faithful readers. I'm doing quite well, after two sorta-nasty instant lattes (don't ask) and a big mug of coffee as a chaser. I just sent off the revised prolog and new chapter 1 for Autumn's Fall for my co-conspirator Greg to take a look at.
I feel really good about them. I know I have some more work to do on them (the championship game should be trimmed a bit more, I feel, but I don't know where, and I have to add some more sensory details to Peter's scene to make it more visceral and spooky). But it's close, and it's going quite well. I'm almost done with chapter 2, even!
Not really that much else exciting to report, writing-wise. I just spent a good chunk of the morning revising, trying to make the start of the book as gripping as possible. We've got to hook the readers immediately. My only concern is that a horror reader may not be interested in reading a book that starts with a basketball game.
I dunno. Maybe I'm not giving readers enough credit. Just like a film, having action at the start is a good idea. In a horror novel, the reader is going to be wondering how this basketball game relates to the supernatural, and since all five guys in the story are teammates, that's the glue of the story, really. So I think we're okay.
I just remembered one detail I need to add to the game and flashbacks. The game is in '85, so I get to add all sorts of details about the '80s to that section! How fun - I have to remember the short-shorts the players are wearing, the socks pulled up to their knees, the white Nikes and Ponys they wear... And what are people wearing at the party? There will have to be someone drinking wine coolers at the party, of course! Lots of details there I'd forgotten. I'll have to go back later and fix that!
But not tomorrow. I'm taking a little break tomorrow. If I work on anything, it'll be Last of the Hand. I don't want to burn myself out on this story. So there may or may not be an entry tomorrow. Plus, Carolina plays Dook, and I cannot miss this game, novels or no novels! The Heels are gonna kick some Dookie butt. Later!
mjj

March 2, 2001

Friday already?

Today's Quote:

With the quilt and his covers pulled tight over his body and his heart racing out of control, Peter gasped for breath. He recognized the figure from his dream. But the thin man with the sword was nowhere to be found.

Today's Progress:

Added more details to the prologue and chapter 1, tweaked dialog in chapter 2.

The Official Dare Page

Another good day of revising. I took another spin through the prologue, adding some nice details to the scenes with the guys returning after their championship win - my favorite bit is where the whole town is all lit up in the middle of the night as their bus pulls up, and everyone has their headlights trained on the heroes when they get out of the bus. I also did some more with them smoking at the spot, making sure each character gets a chance to add something. It's tricky to do with five characters.
I also took a look at chapter one again, and then moved on to Clint's phone call with Riley. Greg had some new stuff for that, and I'm incorporating his dialog with the existing dialog and making sure it all makes sense. It's fun. I can see things really taking shape now, and I think it moves much smoother now.
I have some more work I want to do with Peter in his bedroom. Maybe something more with his nightmare, then the nightmare melts into reality... I want to get ch. 1 done by tomorrow so I can send it off to Greg for his comments.
What I'm really looking forward to is 2 weekends from now, when I'm doing a Writing Weekend (tm) with some fellow writers. As Elizabeth is gone to Atlanta with her friend Clarke all weekend, I plan on writing the whole weekend, with only small breaks to sleep and to visit my family for my dad's birthday. I hope to get the first 100 pages of Autumn's Fall revised then, and start the first couple of chapters of Part 2 of Last of the Hand. I'll be a zombie by weekend's end, but hey, sometimes you gotta push yourself. That's why I signed up for this Dare, you know?
On a different topic, I got to check out the proofs for my story that's coming out in May in the Strange New Worlds antho. It looks quite cool! Seeing my stuff in print for real is always a rush, something that'll never get old. I found a couple small errors and e-mailed the editor about them. I'm looking forward to the book in its final form. And the check would be groovy, too! All my persistence is paying off, once again. Talk to you tomorrow.
mjj

March 1, 2001

Once more, into the breach!

Today's Quote:

"Joke about it all you want," Titus said. "It's over. Everything's downhill from here." He rubbed his buzzed brown hair and looked at each of them for the briefest of seconds. "Mark my words."

Today's Progress:

Continued revising all three sections of the prologue, edited chapter one.

The Official Dare Page

Ay yi yi. What have I gone and done???
I've gone and enlisted, that's what I've done. Signed myself up. I've challenged myself to do another Clarion Dare. Doh!
But this is a good thing. For this particular Dare, the rules are much, much looser. If you don't get 1,000 words a day, you won't be tarred and feathered and run off your website on a virtual rail. If you don't make it every single day, you won't be covered in batter and deep-fried until your monitor explodes. And if you... Well, you get the picture. The goal here is to be motivated to accomplish a list of goal and to WRITE on a regular basis.
Works for me. So check out my Dare Goals page. And send me as many encouraging e-mail messages as you possibly can! I promise to reply.
That's why I'm doing this, really. Writing is such a solitary effort that any sense of community I can get from fellow writers and readers and friends (and strangers!) is incredibly uplifting. And it also forces me to be productive instead of lazy, creative instead of boring, and goal oriented instead of a slacker!
Okay, enough justifying -- what did I do today? Well, got up at the crack o' dawn and loaded up the prologue to Autumn and did one more run-through of the game (the Heels won last night, by the way, so I was up 'til about 11:30, and got up at 5!). That section should be quite awesome by the time I finish with this revision - each time I write I add more to it. That's good.
Then I continued on with the celebration after the game, back in Rosecroft, and the last scene with the five victors sitting around at the spot the next sleepless morning. I added a mention of their 6th man, Joshua Blacktree, which I really liked. The guys are like "We really should've invited Joshua to the party," and they feel bad about it, then Titus goes off on his tear, saying how this is It, nothing gets better, they've peaked. What a joy-killer, huh?
I also did a little tweaking to chapter 1, but not much - that's for tomorrow and Saturday. All in all, it's going well. I'm accomplishing my daily goals, and enjoying the work. See you tomorrow.

Home

mjj

	michaeljasper.net *"Another Wrecked Web Site"*
March 6, 2001 Short and to the point *Today's Quote:* Clint shuddered as he drove through the intersection of Cornhusker and 28th Street. He forced his gaze to remain on the road ahead of him, away from black marks still etched on the asphalt. *Today's Progress:* Finished revising ch. 2. The Official Dare Page	And so, as the first week of this Dare draws to a close, I must say that I'm pleased with my progress. I've completed the revisions to the first 25 pages of the horror novel, finishing chapters 1 and 2 along with the prologue. Not bad progress at all. If I can keep this up, I'll have the first section done by April, which I'd originally planned on doing. Today I finished up Riley's phone call to Clint, then Clint's call to Race. In the original draft I had a section from the point of view of each character, and I don't think we have the room for that now, and it basically just slowed things down further. So it's cut, cut, cut. And tighten what we do have. It's a good chapter, because it shows the contrast between Clint and Race, it shows a little of the history of the 5 guys since their high school days, and it does a tiny infodump of some of the mystery about Peter's death. Next is the trip to Rosecroft, when Clint and Race come up on Riley and Titus, returning to town from the airport in Omaha. They race back and end up -- where else -- outside town in front of the cemetery. I'm looking forward to the opening scene of chapter 3, when Clint has a "vision" of the girl he had a strange (and strained) relationship with before the book opens. I'll have to fill that in as the story progresses. I like doing that - giving the reader a mini-mystery (if you will) to wonder about as they read about the bigger mysteries of Pete's death and what the heck is going on in Rosecroft. I'm hoping I'm able to pull it off! Later. mjj
March 5, 2001 All is going according to the plan... *Today's Quote:* The crowd of Rosecroft residents flooded onto the floor to get closer to the victorious team, and especially to Peter Warner with the mighty three point shot. *Today's Progress:* Finished revising prologue and ch. 1 (for good this time!). The Official Dare Page	Good morning. I have a plan for the rest of this week, writing-wise, and so far I've been sticking to it. I wanted to go over the prologue one last time and try to get the game under five pages, and add some more '80s details to that whole section (I added some pulled-up white socks and some parachute pants! We already had Duran Duran's "Wild Boys" and Billy Squier's "Everybody Wants You"). I did some final tweaking, and the prologue is ready. I need to move on to the rest of the novel! And that's the plan for the rest of the week. I also did a final run-through of Peter's last night, and I think chapter one is ready as well. Tomorrow I get a crack at chapter two - when Clint and Race get the bad news - and then on Wednesday it's chapter three. Thursday is chapter four, which needs some major overhauling, and Friday and Saturday will be chapter five (the wake). And that will probably be the first 50-60 pages of the novel, probably the most important pages of the novel, because that's what we'll be sending out to an editor later this year. It's gotta really rock. I think the first 20 pages really do. That's what I'm gonna have to do, just keep improving it day by day, adding the details that make the book stand out. The plot is pretty much there, it's all about the characters at this point, and the thrills and chills. Speaking of thrills, I've been quite enjoying The Talisman (I put reading Tim Powers book on hold so I could rest my brain!). I'm already 100 pages in, and I can't wait to read more. Something about the alternate world thing is really intriguing to me, and King did it so well in his Dark Tower series that I'm dying for him to write a new one in that series as well. I can sort of tell, having read both King and Peter Straub, which chapters were written by whom (King's sections have much more internalization and thoughts, while Straub's tend to be a bit more literary and traditional). But it holds together, despite a somewhat slow start. Once Jack meets Speedy and is given the bottle of "magic juice" that allows him to light out to the Territories, the book starts to rock. Anyone know of a similar book like this that blends fantasy and horror? This is a perfect model for me to look at, as I'm writing both a fantasy novel and a horror novel. Any suggestions would be helpful. I'm thinking of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere as another good book for inspiration. I started reading that but was put off by the fantasy bits and the somewhat weak prose. I'm open to ideas. It's always good to find pros to steal from! Later. mjj
March 4, 2001 A nice, rainy Sunday... The Official Dare Page	I was supposed to take a break from the horror novel today and do some writing on the fantasy novel if I had the urge, but we didn't get home 'til 2 a.m. last night. By the time I'd dragged my lazy sorry butt out of bed it was already 9 a.m., and my window of creativity had closed. I tried, but after a certain point I just can't seem to make it happen. I'm just a morning person, creatively. I did have a nice chat with Greg, my collaborator on Autumn's Fall, and we discussed the book a bit but mostly he was just encouraging me to keep of the good work. That's always nice to hear, and it's all I need to keep motivated to work more. He feels confident this book is going places, and I am almost sure of it finding a publisher. It's shaping up quite nicely. I've already chopped out almost 20 pages from the draft, and it's quite tight. This is fun to me. I was just messing around this afternoon and chopped out some more stuff and made notes on places to focus on in later chapters. Now that we've got the big picture in place, the process is one of paring down extraneous words and really building the characters and suspense and chills. Onward and upward. To infinity and beyond! Stuff like that... Later. mjj
March 3, 2001 Weekend, wondrous weekend! *Today's Quote:* A storm is coming, he thought, the last words of his dream. *Today's Progress:* Finished revising prologue and ch. 1, chopped and fiddled with ch. 2. The Official Dare Page	Hello faithful readers. I'm doing quite well, after two sorta-nasty instant lattes (don't ask) and a big mug of coffee as a chaser. I just sent off the revised prolog and new chapter 1 for Autumn's Fall for my co-conspirator Greg to take a look at. I feel really good about them. I know I have some more work to do on them (the championship game should be trimmed a bit more, I feel, but I don't know where, and I have to add some more sensory details to Peter's scene to make it more visceral and spooky). But it's close, and it's going quite well. I'm almost done with chapter 2, even! Not really that much else exciting to report, writing-wise. I just spent a good chunk of the morning revising, trying to make the start of the book as gripping as possible. We've got to hook the readers immediately. My only concern is that a horror reader may not be interested in reading a book that starts with a basketball game. I dunno. Maybe I'm not giving readers enough credit. Just like a film, having action at the start is a good idea. In a horror novel, the reader is going to be wondering how this basketball game relates to the supernatural, and since all five guys in the story are teammates, that's the glue of the story, really. So I think we're okay. I just remembered one detail I need to add to the game and flashbacks. The game is in '85, so I get to add all sorts of details about the '80s to that section! How fun - I have to remember the short-shorts the players are wearing, the socks pulled up to their knees, the white Nikes and Ponys they wear... And what are people wearing at the party? There will have to be someone drinking wine coolers at the party, of course! Lots of details there I'd forgotten. I'll have to go back later and fix that! But not tomorrow. I'm taking a little break tomorrow. If I work on anything, it'll be Last of the Hand. I don't want to burn myself out on this story. So there may or may not be an entry tomorrow. Plus, Carolina plays Dook, and I cannot miss this game, novels or no novels! The Heels are gonna kick some Dookie butt. Later! mjj
March 2, 2001 Friday already? *Today's Quote:* With the quilt and his covers pulled tight over his body and his heart racing out of control, Peter gasped for breath. He recognized the figure from his dream. But the thin man with the sword was nowhere to be found. *Today's Progress:* Added more details to the prologue and chapter 1, tweaked dialog in chapter 2. The Official Dare Page	Another good day of revising. I took another spin through the prologue, adding some nice details to the scenes with the guys returning after their championship win - my favorite bit is where the whole town is all lit up in the middle of the night as their bus pulls up, and everyone has their headlights trained on the heroes when they get out of the bus. I also did some more with them smoking at the spot, making sure each character gets a chance to add something. It's tricky to do with five characters. I also took a look at chapter one again, and then moved on to Clint's phone call with Riley. Greg had some new stuff for that, and I'm incorporating his dialog with the existing dialog and making sure it all makes sense. It's fun. I can see things really taking shape now, and I think it moves much smoother now. I have some more work I want to do with Peter in his bedroom. Maybe something more with his nightmare, then the nightmare melts into reality... I want to get ch. 1 done by tomorrow so I can send it off to Greg for his comments. What I'm really looking forward to is 2 weekends from now, when I'm doing a Writing Weekend (tm) with some fellow writers. As Elizabeth is gone to Atlanta with her friend Clarke all weekend, I plan on writing the whole weekend, with only small breaks to sleep and to visit my family for my dad's birthday. I hope to get the first 100 pages of Autumn's Fall revised then, and start the first couple of chapters of Part 2 of Last of the Hand. I'll be a zombie by weekend's end, but hey, sometimes you gotta push yourself. That's why I signed up for this Dare, you know? On a different topic, I got to check out the proofs for my story that's coming out in May in the Strange New Worlds antho. It looks quite cool! Seeing my stuff in print for real is always a rush, something that'll never get old. I found a couple small errors and e-mailed the editor about them. I'm looking forward to the book in its final form. And the check would be groovy, too! All my persistence is paying off, once again. Talk to you tomorrow. mjj
March 1, 2001 Once more, into the breach! *Today's Quote:* "Joke about it all you want," Titus said. "It's over. Everything's downhill from here." He rubbed his buzzed brown hair and looked at each of them for the briefest of seconds. "Mark my words." *Today's Progress:* Continued revising all three sections of the prologue, edited chapter one. The Official Dare Page	Ay yi yi. What have I gone and done??? I've gone and enlisted, that's what I've done. Signed myself up. I've challenged myself to do another Clarion Dare. Doh! But this is a good thing. For this particular Dare, the rules are much, much looser. If you don't get 1,000 words a day, you won't be tarred and feathered and run off your website on a virtual rail. If you don't make it every single day, you won't be covered in batter and deep-fried until your monitor explodes. And if you... Well, you get the picture. The goal here is to be motivated to accomplish a list of goal and to WRITE on a regular basis. Works for me. So check out my Dare Goals page. And send me as many encouraging e-mail messages as you possibly can! I promise to reply. That's why I'm doing this, really. Writing is such a solitary effort that any sense of community I can get from fellow writers and readers and friends (and strangers!) is incredibly uplifting. And it also forces me to be productive instead of lazy, creative instead of boring, and goal oriented instead of a slacker! Okay, enough justifying -- what did I do today? Well, got up at the crack o' dawn and loaded up the prologue to Autumn and did one more run-through of the game (the Heels won last night, by the way, so I was up 'til about 11:30, and got up at 5!). That section should be quite awesome by the time I finish with this revision - each time I write I add more to it. That's good. Then I continued on with the celebration after the game, back in Rosecroft, and the last scene with the five victors sitting around at the spot the next sleepless morning. I added a mention of their 6th man, Joshua Blacktree, which I really liked. The guys are like "We really should've invited Joshua to the party," and they feel bad about it, then Titus goes off on his tear, saying how this is It, nothing gets better, they've peaked. What a joy-killer, huh? I also did a little tweaking to chapter 1, but not much - that's for tomorrow and Saturday. All in all, it's going well. I'm accomplishing my daily goals, and enjoying the work. See you tomorrow.
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