Writing Dare 2001, Week 10

michaeljasper.net

"Another Wrecked Web Site"

May 8, 2001

Still getting ready...

Today's Progress:

Organized remaining chapters.

The Official Dare Page

Hmm... Can't seem to get started on this thing. Spent the morning organizing the chapters according to my outline and notes. I've got exactly 25 chapters to write, counting 2 interludes. I've got 17 chapters done, so I'm over 1/3 of the way done. Now I just need to find some energy and get it done!

Part of the problem has been that I'm battling a stupid cold/sore throat, which leaves me feeling tired all the time, and not ambitious at all. I think I'm almost over it. I hope.

In other news, I chatted with Greg for a bit last night -- his first words were "We have a book!" He's feeling the same confidence as I am, I think. So I guess I've been a little distracted with that. I'm just ready to fix it up and send that out as well!

Maybe I'll get some work done later today. It's been a crazy sort of day here. Later.
mjj

May 7, 2001

And it's away!

Today's Quote:

But with a waving gesture from the girl’s slender arm, everything went black for a split second. For the second time in the same day, Jimbo had been zapped. When he opened his eyes, he was back at Arby’s, wearing his uniform as if nothing had happened at all.

Today's Progress:

Revised chs. 10-17

The Official Dare Page

All right, I'm all caught up on my edits to the first section of Last of the Hand. I dropped off the submission package for my potential agent at the PO this morning before work, so I'll have to sit tight until June to hear back on that. I'll probably hear back from her about the same time I hear back about whether my story "Black Angels" made it into the Stones anthology. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for both.

Hopefully I haven't jinxed either of them by talking about them here...

In any case, it's time to totally focus myself on the drafting process. I've got 25,000 words already on the fantasy novel, and need 50,000 more, soon. No problem, right? Just give me 50 days. Heh. We'll see about that.

I've only got 36 more days until my personal Writing Dare is over, but I'll probably end up extending that past my arbitrary June 13th (my birthday!) deadline. The ultimate goal is to have the drafting done by the end of June, which is a pace of about 1,000 words a day.

I know, it's kind of silly to do the numbers like this, but it helps me plan. I'm all about deadlines and pacing. If I don't have a tight deadline, I tend to slack off and not focus. With this end-of-June deadline staring me in the face, I should have no problem finishing by then. I already have it all outlined, so all I have to do is sit down and punch out the details.

I think I'm going to spend the rest of the day refreshing my memory about the storyline and characters. That way I can pop out of bed tomorrow ready and raring to go.

Thanks again to all who've given me such great feedback! Later.
mjj

May 6, 2001

Shifting gears!

Today's Quote:

The language wasn't English, but he liked the way the Words made his scalp tingle with warmth. They made him think, for some reason unknown to him, of a small one-room building filled with tables around a roaring fire. He smacked his lips as the taste of roast meat filled his mouth.

Today's Progress:

Revised first 50 pages of the fantasy novel

The Official Dare Page

All right. It's a quiet Sunday here in Raleigh, NC, and I'm just finishing up with my package to be sent to a potential agent. Pretty cool -- I redid the cover letter again, and tweaked the synopsis so it would fit onto 4 double-spaced pages, but I spent most of my time going over the edits I got from Cinque and Kristie. All very good comments and fixes, and I used most of them.

I'm printing the whole works out now, as we speak. I want to review the first chapter and the sixth chapter especially, as those were changed the most. I made John much younger, and did the same to Maria. So now I need to make sure all references to them in those 50 pages all make sense!

It's all come together pretty nicely. I've had some great feedback from folks, and I look forward to working on the new stuff. I need to run through the last 50 pages of the first part, then I should be ready, by Tuesday or Wednesday, to start part 2. It's going to start off with a bit of an interlude, as we learn how John and Azure first met.

And as it's only 1:30 p.m., I plan on reading and napping the rest of the day away. Elizabeth already has a headstart on me, I believe. Sad to say, but we're still recovering from the busy weekend we had last week! We are both getting to be old wimps.

At least we know our limitations, right?

Later.
mjj

May 5, 2001

Some quick edits

Today's Progress:

Added edits up to page 200

The Official Dare Page

I was able to squeeze some time in early this morning (woke up at 4:45 and couldn't get back to sleep, so I just stayed up and did some work) and an hour or so this afternoon. I spent my time finishing up the first half of Greg's edits. We're up to page 200 now. And since I have the first 60 pages smoothed out pretty nicely, it's just a matter of time now before we send it out! So we're ahead of schedule, now, it appears.

Not much else going on. Last night we entertained my parents for a little, showing off our new purchases (the new desk and leather chair, our last big purchases we'll make for the next 3 years, as we'll be fairly poor). I got to show Mom and Dad my big royalty check as well! That still cracks me up. Then Lizzie and I watched "The Virgin Suicides," which was pretty good and quite bizarre. I liked it.

This morning we were working outside on the in-laws' yard (a belated birthday gift) and as a result my nose is completely congested with dust and pollen. And I'm about ready to take a nap. Nap Boy to the rescue!

I may try to review the first 60 pages of the horror novel before I crash, just so I have a clean slate for tomorrow. I plan on spending as much of the day as possible working on Last of the Hand and reading Perdido Street Station. Exciting day, huh? Later.
mjj

May 4, 2001

Done with novel subs, for today...

Today's Quote:

Heading up O Street, a girl on a racing bike blasted past Clint two seconds before the red light turned green. Clint looked up to yell at her but his breath froze in his throat. He saw the Lexus coming the other way, up 13th Street, racing to beat the yellow light, which by this time had most likely turned red. He accelerated instead of slowing. The girl never saw the car coming.

Today's Progress:

Finished the 60-page excerpt of Autumn's Fall!

The Official Dare Page

All-righty then! Just finished up adding all the edits to the first 60 pages of the horror novel. At last. I also drafted and rewrote the second and third chapters, fixing them up so each of the four main guys gets a short scene (Clint gets 2, but hey, he's a big guy). I like it. I've printed out the whole works, and plan on rereading it maybe on Sunday, just to make sure everything fits together and is paced nicely. I think the scene with Titus is too short, but I don't have a lot of space (I hate to go over 60 pages, because that will try any editor's patience!). I feel good about it.

All that's left is to write a cover letter that Greg and I can agree on (he thinks less is better, while I want to include my list of publications, to show we have some background in publishing). And then put a short synopsis together. Then we can send the package out to a publisher. I have one in mind to start with...

I've also been working on the prologue and 6th chapter of Last of the Hand. Now that I'm pretty much done w/ Autumn's Fall, I feel more excited about working on this bad boy. I'm hoping to get a submission package out to a possible agent by the end of the weekend at the earliest, in a week at the latest. What I have is pretty much ready to go, but I'm going to play with making John younger in the flashbacks.

I'm also trying to decide whether to keep him young in the present. I still tend to think not. Just because I like the "wizardly" look Archie has when he's an old man, his hair wild and his beard long (I always think of him as being a lot like the wizard in the "Forgotten Realms" comics drawn by Rags Morales -- anyone ever read those? Good stuff!). So basically I just have to do some fixes to chapter six, then just make sure everything in my 54-page excerpt all makes sense. My cover letter and synopsis are all written for that one.

Exciting times. I feel like all my hard work is paying off. This was a fun week, with all the writing-related stuff I got to do. Sort of makes up for not getting much actualy writing done, I guess! The latest nifty thing I got was a royalty check for my story appearing in The Witching Hour! It covered the first quarter of 2001, and the books weren't available until late Feb., so the check itself wasn't that big. But it was very, very cool nevertheless, to get my first real royalty check. Hey, why don't you go buy a copy for yourself? You won't regret it.

In other news, Lizzie and I watched "Finding Forrestor" last night. This is not the kind of movie I'd normally watch, especially once I found out it was by Gus Van Sant, the director of the painful, could've-been-better-without-Matt-Damon "Good Will Hunting," but a couple writer friends had recommended it, so I thought we'd give it a whirl. Not bad. Parts of the storyline were total cliches -- the young black student who's recruited to a fancy school b/c he can play basketball, then he has to win the state championship despite all the teachers who don't think he's really as awesome a writer as he is (of course, the kid, at 16 has read more philosophy and dead white male writers than I'll ever read in a lifetime!). But the stuff about writing is very cool. Sean Connery's character expounds that "The first draft is written with the heart; the second draft is written with the head." Great advice -- you don't stop to think on that first draft. You just get the words out. It almost made me want to use a typewriter. The two writers -- the old white one-time novelist and the young black protege -- sit facing each other at typewriters, focused on the act of creating words. And it had a pretty good ending, even if they did have to drag Matt Damon's horsey face back in at the very end. Not a great movie, but one that exceeded my low expectations.

Well, gotta run. The weekend's a'calling!
mjj

May 3, 2001

Minor edits here and there...

Today's Quote:

He moved straight at the bigger man, feeling the familiar rush of blood through his heart, filling every inch of his body with a sizzling and pounding, as if his blood were about to explode. It was the rush of the Words.

Today's Progress:

Added edits to first 20 pages of horror novel,wrote new section for ch. 2, fixed up Prologue to fantasy novel.

The Official Dare Page

Well, what started out as sort of a crappy day got a bit better. I slept in again, still recovering from a touch of sickness caused (most likely) from too much partying last weekend. This week has sort of been a haze for me.

But I had some time here and there to do some tweaking to both Autumn's Fall and The Last of the Hand. In my usual scattered way, I did a little bit of both, jumping between them and my other work as the day went by. (Don't tell my manager, eh?)

For the horror novel, I added most of Greg's comments for the Prologue and chapters 1-3. Still have a bit to write on the individual scenes with Clint (the car/bike accident) and Titus (outside the airport in his limo), but I wrote most of Race's scene and fixed up Clint's scene when he gets Riley's phone call. It's coming along pretty nicely.

And for the fantasy novel, I tried writing the Prologue from a young John's point of view, instead of having John as a middle-aged man. I think I need to ratchet up the emotional level for this, as he'd be scared to death, knowing he's being hunted by his former teacher and now sworn enemy. But most of the nitpicky changes have been made. I think I like it. I also have some more edits to incorporate once I get that section and the other flashback section fixed up. Then I'll be ready to start on part two.

So for right now I'm focusing on getting two 50-60 page novel excerpts worked into shape. That may be all I get done this month. Who knows. But it'll feel good sending them out knowing that I've done my best with them and not rushed through it (as I'm likely to do otherwise).

I just have to get more sleep! Later.
mjj

May 2, 2001

Still recovering from the weekend... and it's Wednesday!

Today's Quote:

John had to remain calm, but he couldn’t stop thinking that, after all this time, the Fist had finally found him.

Today's Progress:

Not much, yet...

The Official Dare Page

Hello, sports fans. My butt is still dragging, and I think I have a nice sore throat developing. I'm getting ready to leave work early and do some serious napping this afternoon. Needless to say, I didn't get up at 5 a.m. this morning, which make 2 days in a row, and I feel like a dog for it.

I want to keep that habit going. If I go for too long, getting up early will be painful again. Right now it's become part of my schedule. And when I don't do it, like today and yesterday, I feel like a slob, just like I do if I don't get any exercise or work out. It seems the two things -- exercise and writing -- have a lot in common.

In any case, I did do some fun writing-related stuff yesterday -- I got my two contributor's copies of Strange New Worlds, with my story "Scotty's Song" in it. Of course I brought it to work to show off, and now my co-workers think I'm this "Trek" geek and are keeping their distance!

Seriously, I think only other writers (and Lizzie and my close friends and family) truly understand the significance of getting a story published in a widely-distributed antho like this. And I'm cool with that.

Got a nice e-mail from fellow writer Derek, who has just sold a story to Strange Horizons -- congrats, dude! -- about yesterday's journal about novel-writing. (Glad to see someone's reading this!) We both were bemoaning the fact that while a few decades ago an eager writer could making a meager living writing short stories, that just can't be done today. He's got a novel of his own ready to go out to editors and agents, a novel he wrote last year during a 3-month Writing Dare. Best of luck to him!

Now, it's nap time...

Home

mjj

	michaeljasper.net *"Another Wrecked Web Site"*
May 8, 2001 Still getting ready... *Today's Progress:* Organized remaining chapters. The Official Dare Page	Hmm... Can't seem to get started on this thing. Spent the morning organizing the chapters according to my outline and notes. I've got exactly 25 chapters to write, counting 2 interludes. I've got 17 chapters done, so I'm over 1/3 of the way done. Now I just need to find some energy and get it done! Part of the problem has been that I'm battling a stupid cold/sore throat, which leaves me feeling tired all the time, and not ambitious at all. I think I'm almost over it. I hope. In other news, I chatted with Greg for a bit last night -- his first words were "We have a book!" He's feeling the same confidence as I am, I think. So I guess I've been a little distracted with that. I'm just ready to fix it up and send that out as well! Maybe I'll get some work done later today. It's been a crazy sort of day here. Later. mjj
May 7, 2001 And it's away! *Today's Quote:* But with a waving gesture from the girl’s slender arm, everything went black for a split second. For the second time in the same day, Jimbo had been zapped. When he opened his eyes, he was back at Arby’s, wearing his uniform as if nothing had happened at all. *Today's Progress:* Revised chs. 10-17 The Official Dare Page	All right, I'm all caught up on my edits to the first section of Last of the Hand. I dropped off the submission package for my potential agent at the PO this morning before work, so I'll have to sit tight until June to hear back on that. I'll probably hear back from her about the same time I hear back about whether my story "Black Angels" made it into the Stones anthology. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for both. Hopefully I haven't jinxed either of them by talking about them here... In any case, it's time to totally focus myself on the drafting process. I've got 25,000 words already on the fantasy novel, and need 50,000 more, soon. No problem, right? Just give me 50 days. Heh. We'll see about that. I've only got 36 more days until my personal Writing Dare is over, but I'll probably end up extending that past my arbitrary June 13th (my birthday!) deadline. The ultimate goal is to have the drafting done by the end of June, which is a pace of about 1,000 words a day. I know, it's kind of silly to do the numbers like this, but it helps me plan. I'm all about deadlines and pacing. If I don't have a tight deadline, I tend to slack off and not focus. With this end-of-June deadline staring me in the face, I should have no problem finishing by then. I already have it all outlined, so all I have to do is sit down and punch out the details. I think I'm going to spend the rest of the day refreshing my memory about the storyline and characters. That way I can pop out of bed tomorrow ready and raring to go. Thanks again to all who've given me such great feedback! Later. mjj
May 6, 2001 Shifting gears! *Today's Quote:* The language wasn't English, but he liked the way the Words made his scalp tingle with warmth. They made him think, for some reason unknown to him, of a small one-room building filled with tables around a roaring fire. He smacked his lips as the taste of roast meat filled his mouth. *Today's Progress:* Revised first 50 pages of the fantasy novel The Official Dare Page	All right. It's a quiet Sunday here in Raleigh, NC, and I'm just finishing up with my package to be sent to a potential agent. Pretty cool -- I redid the cover letter again, and tweaked the synopsis so it would fit onto 4 double-spaced pages, but I spent most of my time going over the edits I got from Cinque and Kristie. All very good comments and fixes, and I used most of them. I'm printing the whole works out now, as we speak. I want to review the first chapter and the sixth chapter especially, as those were changed the most. I made John much younger, and did the same to Maria. So now I need to make sure all references to them in those 50 pages all make sense! It's all come together pretty nicely. I've had some great feedback from folks, and I look forward to working on the new stuff. I need to run through the last 50 pages of the first part, then I should be ready, by Tuesday or Wednesday, to start part 2. It's going to start off with a bit of an interlude, as we learn how John and Azure first met. And as it's only 1:30 p.m., I plan on reading and napping the rest of the day away. Elizabeth already has a headstart on me, I believe. Sad to say, but we're still recovering from the busy weekend we had last week! We are both getting to be old wimps. At least we know our limitations, right? Later. mjj
May 5, 2001 Some quick edits *Today's Progress:* Added edits up to page 200 The Official Dare Page	I was able to squeeze some time in early this morning (woke up at 4:45 and couldn't get back to sleep, so I just stayed up and did some work) and an hour or so this afternoon. I spent my time finishing up the first half of Greg's edits. We're up to page 200 now. And since I have the first 60 pages smoothed out pretty nicely, it's just a matter of time now before we send it out! So we're ahead of schedule, now, it appears. Not much else going on. Last night we entertained my parents for a little, showing off our new purchases (the new desk and leather chair, our last big purchases we'll make for the next 3 years, as we'll be fairly poor). I got to show Mom and Dad my big royalty check as well! That still cracks me up. Then Lizzie and I watched "The Virgin Suicides," which was pretty good and quite bizarre. I liked it. This morning we were working outside on the in-laws' yard (a belated birthday gift) and as a result my nose is completely congested with dust and pollen. And I'm about ready to take a nap. Nap Boy to the rescue! I may try to review the first 60 pages of the horror novel before I crash, just so I have a clean slate for tomorrow. I plan on spending as much of the day as possible working on Last of the Hand and reading Perdido Street Station. Exciting day, huh? Later. mjj
May 4, 2001 Done with novel subs, for today... *Today's Quote:* Heading up O Street, a girl on a racing bike blasted past Clint two seconds before the red light turned green. Clint looked up to yell at her but his breath froze in his throat. He saw the Lexus coming the other way, up 13th Street, racing to beat the yellow light, which by this time had most likely turned red. He accelerated instead of slowing. The girl never saw the car coming. *Today's Progress:* Finished the 60-page excerpt of Autumn's Fall! The Official Dare Page	All-righty then! Just finished up adding all the edits to the first 60 pages of the horror novel. At last. I also drafted and rewrote the second and third chapters, fixing them up so each of the four main guys gets a short scene (Clint gets 2, but hey, he's a big guy). I like it. I've printed out the whole works, and plan on rereading it maybe on Sunday, just to make sure everything fits together and is paced nicely. I think the scene with Titus is too short, but I don't have a lot of space (I hate to go over 60 pages, because that will try any editor's patience!). I feel good about it. All that's left is to write a cover letter that Greg and I can agree on (he thinks less is better, while I want to include my list of publications, to show we have some background in publishing). And then put a short synopsis together. Then we can send the package out to a publisher. I have one in mind to start with... I've also been working on the prologue and 6th chapter of Last of the Hand. Now that I'm pretty much done w/ Autumn's Fall, I feel more excited about working on this bad boy. I'm hoping to get a submission package out to a possible agent by the end of the weekend at the earliest, in a week at the latest. What I have is pretty much ready to go, but I'm going to play with making John younger in the flashbacks. I'm also trying to decide whether to keep him young in the present. I still tend to think not. Just because I like the "wizardly" look Archie has when he's an old man, his hair wild and his beard long (I always think of him as being a lot like the wizard in the "Forgotten Realms" comics drawn by Rags Morales -- anyone ever read those? Good stuff!). So basically I just have to do some fixes to chapter six, then just make sure everything in my 54-page excerpt all makes sense. My cover letter and synopsis are all written for that one. Exciting times. I feel like all my hard work is paying off. This was a fun week, with all the writing-related stuff I got to do. Sort of makes up for not getting much actualy writing done, I guess! The latest nifty thing I got was a royalty check for my story appearing in The Witching Hour! It covered the first quarter of 2001, and the books weren't available until late Feb., so the check itself wasn't that big. But it was very, very cool nevertheless, to get my first real royalty check. Hey, why don't you go buy a copy for yourself? You won't regret it. In other news, Lizzie and I watched "Finding Forrestor" last night. This is not the kind of movie I'd normally watch, especially once I found out it was by Gus Van Sant, the director of the painful, could've-been-better-without-Matt-Damon "Good Will Hunting," but a couple writer friends had recommended it, so I thought we'd give it a whirl. Not bad. Parts of the storyline were total cliches -- the young black student who's recruited to a fancy school b/c he can play basketball, then he has to win the state championship despite all the teachers who don't think he's really as awesome a writer as he is (of course, the kid, at 16 has read more philosophy and dead white male writers than I'll ever read in a lifetime!). But the stuff about writing is very cool. Sean Connery's character expounds that "The first draft is written with the heart; the second draft is written with the head." Great advice -- you don't stop to think on that first draft. You just get the words out. It almost made me want to use a typewriter. The two writers -- the old white one-time novelist and the young black protege -- sit facing each other at typewriters, focused on the act of creating words. And it had a pretty good ending, even if they did have to drag Matt Damon's horsey face back in at the very end. Not a great movie, but one that exceeded my low expectations. Well, gotta run. The weekend's a'calling! mjj
May 3, 2001 Minor edits here and there... *Today's Quote:* He moved straight at the bigger man, feeling the familiar rush of blood through his heart, filling every inch of his body with a sizzling and pounding, as if his blood were about to explode. It was the rush of the Words. *Today's Progress:* Added edits to first 20 pages of horror novel,wrote new section for ch. 2, fixed up Prologue to fantasy novel. The Official Dare Page	Well, what started out as sort of a crappy day got a bit better. I slept in again, still recovering from a touch of sickness caused (most likely) from too much partying last weekend. This week has sort of been a haze for me. But I had some time here and there to do some tweaking to both Autumn's Fall and The Last of the Hand. In my usual scattered way, I did a little bit of both, jumping between them and my other work as the day went by. (Don't tell my manager, eh?) For the horror novel, I added most of Greg's comments for the Prologue and chapters 1-3. Still have a bit to write on the individual scenes with Clint (the car/bike accident) and Titus (outside the airport in his limo), but I wrote most of Race's scene and fixed up Clint's scene when he gets Riley's phone call. It's coming along pretty nicely. And for the fantasy novel, I tried writing the Prologue from a young John's point of view, instead of having John as a middle-aged man. I think I need to ratchet up the emotional level for this, as he'd be scared to death, knowing he's being hunted by his former teacher and now sworn enemy. But most of the nitpicky changes have been made. I think I like it. I also have some more edits to incorporate once I get that section and the other flashback section fixed up. Then I'll be ready to start on part two. So for right now I'm focusing on getting two 50-60 page novel excerpts worked into shape. That may be all I get done this month. Who knows. But it'll feel good sending them out knowing that I've done my best with them and not rushed through it (as I'm likely to do otherwise). I just have to get more sleep! Later. mjj
May 2, 2001 Still recovering from the weekend... and it's Wednesday! *Today's Quote:* John had to remain calm, but he couldn’t stop thinking that, after all this time, the Fist had finally found him. *Today's Progress:* Not much, yet... The Official Dare Page	Hello, sports fans. My butt is still dragging, and I think I have a nice sore throat developing. I'm getting ready to leave work early and do some serious napping this afternoon. Needless to say, I didn't get up at 5 a.m. this morning, which make 2 days in a row, and I feel like a dog for it. I want to keep that habit going. If I go for too long, getting up early will be painful again. Right now it's become part of my schedule. And when I don't do it, like today and yesterday, I feel like a slob, just like I do if I don't get any exercise or work out. It seems the two things -- exercise and writing -- have a lot in common. In any case, I did do some fun writing-related stuff yesterday -- I got my two contributor's copies of Strange New Worlds, with my story "Scotty's Song" in it. Of course I brought it to work to show off, and now my co-workers think I'm this "Trek" geek and are keeping their distance! Seriously, I think only other writers (and Lizzie and my close friends and family) truly understand the significance of getting a story published in a widely-distributed antho like this. And I'm cool with that. Got a nice e-mail from fellow writer Derek, who has just sold a story to Strange Horizons -- congrats, dude! -- about yesterday's journal about novel-writing. (Glad to see someone's reading this!) We both were bemoaning the fact that while a few decades ago an eager writer could making a meager living writing short stories, that just can't be done today. He's got a novel of his own ready to go out to editors and agents, a novel he wrote last year during a 3-month Writing Dare. Best of luck to him! Now, it's nap time...
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