Behind Door Two

It's good to have focus again. I've gotten two scenes edited on Trinket Box and I'm well on my way to reaching 100 pages on The Trunk (which was Mummy Case). My brilliant plan is to have the first 50 pages of Trinket Box ready for the group for the first March meeting and to have all 75 pages for February written for The Trunk.

If I can do the same in March, I'll feel ahead enough on both to be able to work on Script Frenzy in April. I might even be able to keep editing Trinket Box along with writing my script, but I'm not going to hold myself to that quite yet.

After all, there is Reven to consider as well. And I still have a chapter to finish revising for it. I'm hoping to get a little work done on that today.

I can't believe I'm already thinking about Script Frenzy. Actually, I've been thinking about Nanowrimo already, and contemplated putting off The Trunk until then, but reconsidered. That's just too long to wait and I'd rather have the pages now. I'll find something else to write by then. Something new and fresh, because I think I'll need it about then.

As for Script Frenzy, I'm still toying around with the haunted house idea TC and I came up with last June (longer, really, but that was when we fleshed it out--was that a pun?). I'm keeping my option open, though, but nothing else has yet to materialize. In March, I'll add another 5 or 10 pages to my monthly goal to be closer to what I'll need to write in April (100 pages).

Honestly, though, Trinket Box is eating up most of my enthusiasm. I love working on this story. I'm amazed how much of it clings to me, even now. Scenes I was planning on ditching I'm now finding too compelling and so I'm trying to find a way to work them into the flow of the plot. And thank god for Creepy Frenchman! He's going to be my failsafe for plotting when all else fails.

Focusing on these novels is going to destroy my chances of having another short story ready for WotF, though. I need to look up the next submission deadline if I'm going to make it. I'll need all the time I can to work in another revision.

UPDATE: The deadline is April 1st. Whew. Won't have to worry about it during Script Frenzy. But that only leaves me about a month and a half! Gotta start working on something for it.

One million words coming up

I got to meet with Ris today about a cowriting project we've worked on for quite some time.  We've had our moments of brilliance and insanity, sometimes at the same time.  I think at last we'll make some forward progress on it so that we can start the critiquing process and get it finished up.

On sober reconsideration I realize that this cowriting process is a lot like the process I went through with my very first novel.  If anything it's taken longer to get this story put together than it did Mayhem, but to be fair I didn't have as long periods of time between drafts, though I had some very long rest periods.  The time and distance has done nothing but good.  We've gotten back to the heart of the story, and I'm excited about what's going to happen next.  It may be that, before we're done, that we'll have put a million words into various cowriting projects, which means we might be past the crappy writing phase.  Or in this case, crappy cowriting phase.

Onward to writing!

Using INK

Since one of my unwritten goals is to submit for INK Critiques every meeting, I'm using INK submission Fridays as a deadline to meet. It's nice, having an outside deadline. It keeps me working when I might slack off.

And since I have more and more projects needing revision, I'm alternating between each meeting on what will be submitted. So for the next two weeks, I'll be revising one of my new short stories. After it is submitted, I switch right into revising a novel. Then back to short story, and so on.

I even know what novel I'll work on next. The Trinket Box, which has already had some transcription time. The group has seen The Inkwell Cult recently, so I'm going to hold back on it a little while (I think the six month time limit for review will be up after February). Work on plotting it out a little stronger before diving in to the edit. Fix the major plot flaws and character gaffs and try to work a way of not getting stuck in the bloody hotel again.

During it all, I have my 3 pages a day, which are going well, my poem a week, which is more difficult than I expected, but I managed to churn out a decent poem yesterday after staring at a blank page for far longer than I thought I could. There's the Reven read, which I'm looking forward to, but must be paced so I can take decent enough notes not to have to read back through it again when we start on that edit (huh, nother revision to add into the mix). But it is all doable if I planned what needs to be done when and make a list!

But a close second to list-making is the INK deadline. I love that we've established a deadline for submission. It's going to be just the push I need to keep me honest.

I'm going to learn a lot this year, thanks to INK. Deadlines, five minute critiques, bio writing . . .

Bring It!

I won't be repetitive and reprint all my 2008 goals over here. If you'd like an in-depth look at them, I have them up on my blog. I have quite a bit more than last year and I'm feeling ready to tackle each and every one, all at once. I must pace myself.

So I'm setting monthly and weekly goals. It's good to have focus.

To kick off the New Year, I'm going to finish my current short story ("Telling it True"--which took a serious plot twist yesterday), finish reading the Reven novel so Kami and I can hammer out the final version, and figure out where my novels are going and how best to get them there. Next week, and probably the rest of the month, needs to be all about the novels.

As for revisions, I have four short stories on my plate, one of which will be chewed up by INK this Friday. I also have The Trinket Box to transcribe/edit, Reven coming up on the table, and The Inkwell Cult bluescreen. Which makes me realize I need to set some revision goals or I'll never keep it all straight. Not a bad problem to have considering where I was this same time last year. So this week I'll try to get another 15 pages of The Trinket Box finished.

In other news, I found this interesting revision plan. I like it. It will help me cut Purgatory down by another 110 words. It's Ken Rand's 10% Solution. Thanks to Jim Van Pelt for posting about it on his great New Year's Resolutions for Newbies (and lapsed Oldies), which has fine advice as well.

The Aisle of Dr. Murrow

I just started reading the Island of Dr. Moreau, as in three pages barely got started, and I'm already sucked in. Man, can H.G. Wells write! I'd keep reading except I have a tonne of housework, writing and painting to do. I read in the bathroom and sometimes in the evenings. That's my 'my' time when I let myself relax without feeling guilty. Anyway, I think my painting pace will suffer greatly. I'll be reading instead of working on extra painting at night.

It's an especial treat to read this particular book because it's an antique: 1927 edition. It includes the novelization of the screenplay by Silva after the Wells text. The book just feels good to hold, and I wonder who's owned it over the years.

It's also fun to read because of a cowritten book Ris and I are working on. It puts the animal people of our book into literary historical context. Because of the significance of a particular hallway in our book, I made up the giggling secret nickname for our book just now--the aisle of Dr. Murrow. Too bad we don't have a Dr. Murrow--but that would be way more than a nod to Wells. That would be going too far.