michaeljasper.net
"Another Wrecked Web Site"
DARE JOURNAL: WEEK TWO
Total
Words:
6,800
Works In Progress
Week One
Week Three
Okay, what's a Dare? It's a challenge for writers to produce a lot of material in a relatively short period of time. Previous Dares have been one month or three months in length, with the same result: the first draft of a book.
Check out the other Dare writers:
Camille LaGuire, Derek James, Kelly Searsmith, Lyda Morehouse, Rebecca Maines, Sarah Stegall, and T.M. Spell.
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October 15, 2000
Total Words:
0
A quiet weekend as far as my writing goes, but pretty busy as far as other activities. And that's more important, I have to admit, than my wordcount for Saturday and Sunday. Which was a big fat goose-egg, by they way. Oh well. I think I'll make it up this week. I have confidence in myself.
Part of the reason I didn't get much done, in addition to working on our lawn and getting ready for our little party on Saturday (we get together at our place with our friends about once every 3 months, and Lizzie cooks up a storm for all of us and we eat and drink until early the next morning - it's a blast!), was that I was putting together information for a grant from the North Carolina Arts Council. I put together a proposal for what I would do with the grant money, and how it would help me in my writing. It was educational, to say the least. A bit tedious, too, as everything had to be put into 4 different packages. But I had to choose 20 pages of my best fiction, stuff that most effectively represents my writing skills.
At first I was going to send "Natural Order," my story from WotF, but after getting rejected by an editor just the day before, I thought I'd dig a little deeper into my repertoire. I came up with "Crossing the Camp" and "Waiting for Joey." A nice blend of my genre work and my more mainstream work. I also discussed my two novel ideas and what I'd use the grant money for (basically research, time off work to write, and possible to travel to the different locations I'm writing about). We'll see what happens. I won't hear 'til next summer, so I'll just mail it out and forget about it 'til then.
mjj
October 13, 2000
Total Words:
1,600
Today's Quote:
Andy, the man built like a snowman, leaned close to him. Sweat beaded off every inch of the bearded man's exposed skin, soaking into his T-shirt and sweatpants. "Check out the equipment, eh?"
Rob followed the man's nodding head to the far wall, where the arcane exercise equipment of Mr. Thoroughgood ("The Man," Rob added silently) was arranged. Pulleys and blocks of cement were attached to uncushioned metal seats and benches, everything looking less like Nautilus and more like Mengele.
Back on track at last! I did some last-minute fixes on a couple sentences of "Working the Game" and got that, along with another story, ready to go to the post office today. It's sort of a pain these days to go through all the effort of mailing a manuscript to an editor; I don't see why they won't accept e-mail submissions. All it would cost them would be paper, and I know so many editors would read the first page electronically and decide whether the story event deserves to be printed. Think of the clutter the editors would save - no more manuscripts littering their offices. Just the best stories, to be read again before the official thumbs-up or thumbs-down. No more manila envelopes strewn across the floor, no more SASEs to return with a photocopied rejection or maybe even a sentence or two to soften the blow. Less clutter! More time to read! Easier for us writers to whip a story to them! Everyone wins! Maybe they're just worried about all those MS Word-borne viruses. Hey, I'm just trying to make editors lives easier... In any case, I spent a good half hour getting the stories printed, doing a quick, final copyedit, writing a pithy note on my brief cover letter, stamping and sealing and addressing envelopes, then I was done.
The good news is that once that busy work was out of the way, I could get up at 5 and jam on my new story. You remember that one, right? About the large couple at the hotel in Arizona, trying to melt off some weight? There's a little excerpt on the left, after the main character, Rob, has finished his first workout of his so-called vacation. I'm having fun with it. It's proceeding at a leisurely pace, almost 4,000 words so far, and no major threat has reared its ugly head. But I have things mapped out and I'm pretty sure of how it will end. So I'm just going to enjoy the writing and not worry about it. I'd love to finish a draft by Sunday.
Speaking of outlines, I'd like to reiterate something I learned in LA. Outlines rule! I can't stress enough, especially to new writers, how important it is to have a rough outline of what happens, if not on your paper, at least in your head. For me, I like to sketch out all the scenes, even if it's just a sentence or two between my three number signs (# # #) that designate a scene break. And I must know how it's gonna end. I like to have it all written down, then I don't have the blank screen staring me in the face. That's how I wrote "Natural Order," one of my favorite stories, and I'll always have an outline from here on out. Even if everything gets changed. I still need that back-up.
So I got 1600 words today. I'm still behind in the Dare wordage - I should have 1,000 words a day, for a total of 13k instead of my paltry 6,800. But it's been a rough week, and I'm just happy to be writing again and focused (see the Oct. 12 entry for more on that!). And I have a fun story in the works. Not bad for Friday the Thirteenth.
mjj
October 12, 2000
Total Words:
0
Still reorganizing and reprioritizing and re-everything else. Here's what I came up with (warning, it's a long 'un!):
I got some good, honest feedback from the folks in the Writers of the Future online group we have about my co-written horror novel (I sent them chapters 1-3), and that helped me make the decision to put it back on the shelf. They basically said that nothing happens in the first 50 pages, and they were right. Too much needs fixing in that novel. I don't think it's worth my energy right now.
However, I still feel very excited about the two novel ideas I have going -- the orphan train and the negro league stories. What I want to do is research both ideas this fall and early winter, read some good books on the subject, maybe write a short story or two about them, and then start whichever novel I'm most excited about in January. Then do the next novel later next year. Having done the research already, I think the writing will be a breeze, and quite enjoyable.
For right now, though, I want to continue with my stories. I have at least 5 more I want to write before the end of the year, and I may expand that Bum/Wizard story into an adolescent fantasy novel if I feel like it's worth it. We'll see. I think I'd do better to stick with new stuff instead of trying to fix up older stuff. My new stuff seems to be better, anyway. I want to finish that story about the couple at the fat farm hotel this weekend.
I think this is a reasonable, realistic plan. (I've gotta have a plan, you know!) I can still try to achieve my goal of 3 pro-level sales this year, while at the same time reading up on the topics I want to write novels about and preparing for the next phase of my writing career - as a serious novelist. Stories are fun, but novels are what really gets peoples' attention and what I enjoy writing. I like sticking with the same characters for a longer time, changing them and trying to juggle all the different plotlines. And I like watching the numbers grow - the word count, the page count, the chapter count, etc.
So that's my plan. I want to continue the story challenge. I don't want to keep backing out of things or changing in midstream like it seems like I've been doing a lot of lately with my various writing projects. And I've got some catching up to do! I'm supposed to be writing 1,000 words a day for this Dare I've been doing... I'll get there. I'm not going to let word counts drive me crazy. At least I'm going to try. I just want to enjoy writing and enjoy the rest of my life as well. Sounds easy, right???
mjj
October 11, 2000
Total Words:
0
Stories vs. novels
Slept in today. It felt good. The weather's been a little nuts here lately. We had light frosts the past 2 nights, as the temperature dropped down into the thirties. It's kind of nice, for a while, but I want a fall first before winter hits us. While I enjoy the brisk air in the morning, I want to be able to sit out on my back deck and not freeze my butt off.
I'm having a little dilemma lately about my stories. I don't know if it's frustration at all the work it took to get "Working the Game" into shape (and I'm still not 100% about it, even now!) and my lack of desire to finish my hotel story, but I've been thinking more and more about novels. I want to share the first 3 chapters with my writing friends (hopefully they'll still be my friends after I dump all 50 pages of story on them) and maybe send it out elsewhere. I really want to finish it now, but I've got 5-6 stories to write first. And I have no time to do both activities. It's enough to drive a fella nuts. And lately I've had two novel ideas in my head, for after I finish the horror novel. Three novels, actually, if I plan to expand "The Last of the Hand" into a full-length novel. The other two ideas are at the bottom of my In Progress page. I feel like such a flake, going from one project to another. But I figure it's best to go where I'm most excited. I guess I'm sort of in idea-generation mode lately, and I'm not liking many of my story ideas. And all my ideas lately have been for longer, more substantial works, as in novels. That's where the future is, anyway. I'll never get anywhere writing stories, other than the occasional pub and getting to know an editor or two. I'd rather they read my novels instead of knowing me from rejecting my stories. And I'm excited about the novels again. As Damon Knight once said (and I'm paraphrasing): "Write the fun stuff first."
mjj
October 10, 2000
Total Words:
0
Haven't gotten a lot of new stuff written today. Spent more time last night fixing up "Working the Game," and now I feel like it's ready to go out again. I may take it down from the eGroups site so I'm not tempted to revise it to death. Need to just let it go.
For some reason, I've had the urge to dabble with my horror novel again. I took a look at it a little last night and then again this morning. Don't know if I'm simply avoiding having to write my short story or what, but I did want to fix up the first three chapters and get a better idea of what all needs to be done with that novel. It'd be nice to get a novel published, don't you think? So no word count for today. Maybe tomorrow.
mjj
October 9, 2000
Total Words:
600 , plus 300 later Monday night.
Mondays suck...
...but this one's getting better.
I'm moving a little slowly today, and not really crazy about typing and sitting in front of a monitor. I spent half the day yesterday and half the day Saturday beating at the ground with a shovel. No real reason. Just felt like it.
Actually, we just had a new fence put up, so Whit the greyhound could run around outside without a leash on and without us worrying about him (though he's already slipped out once, almost giving me heart failure - the fence guy neglected to close the front gate before he left). So we wanted to fix up the yard and stuff, which included moving four bushes that Elizabeth had transformed into trees (patio lagustroms??). I banged at the roots on two bushes for a couple hours Saturday, then finally was able to move all of them and transplant them yesterday with a new shovel. My hands are forearms are sore. I am a complete wuss. It was fun, though. The weather was awesome Saturday, and even yesterday's cooler-than-normal temps were a nice change. Of course, today was cold as crap. I got up early, almost slept in, and piddled around instead of wrote for an hour, then finally started a new scene in the hotel story. I think I'm having trouble with that story because it's more episodic, not the usual fast-paced condensed kind of story I usually write. But I think I'll get into it, if I just sit down and focus. I need to just finish "Working the Game" and send it out. I still keep wanting to tweak that stupid story. I'm sick of it, which means it's time to get it out to possible publishers. Let them deal with it. Later.
mjj