Rebooting...

2013 was Not a Year of Much Writing. That has of course been mirrored here by a lack of updates.

Gonna work on this, this year (writing and blogging). I have continued to read a lot, and listen to many writing podcasts. More on those in later posts.

Life continues to be complicated. One of my resolutions for this year is to exert more control over my life and attention. I continue to hang with the Magic City Writers Group, and I'm on the hook for a chapter of some sort by the end of the day, January 18th. I'll have a few updates for the Works in Progress sidebar, and possibly a WIP post between now and then.

More to come!

-Rich

Glad that year's over!

Man, was 2012 a pain. Not that good things didn't happen, but lots of bad, distracting and draining things did. The less said or dwelt upon about it, the better.

With that out of the way, on to the future! The plan for this year includes much work on Darwin Colossus, which received a radical restructuring recently that has me excited. The plan is to get it out on Amazon Digital Publishing this year sometime, which might be aggressive, but hey, no guts no glory.

Not much else to say at this point, other than keep watching this space: I'll be posting some work in progress excerpts and other commentary as I go.

-Rich

Been Quiet Around Here Lately

Life has been a complete bear of late. Not in the negative sense (though there's been some of that), but in the sense that there's been so much to do and deal with in my personal life that there hasn't been much writing time, or indeed time to blog here.

Let's see, short list:

• Changed departments at work
• Ripping out carpeting at the house (long overdue, especially since we have pets)
• One of our cats had six kittens
• Two of the kittens died after much care (probable birth defects), causing my wife and I no small amount of grief

In the process I've read a fair amount and produced a couple of chapters of Darwin Colossus for Magic City Writers, but sadly writing has gotten pretty short shrift. Luckily we may be nearing the end of both the near-term floor refurbishing work and the kitten drama. 

In other news, Brant from Magic City Writers has had the entirety of his novel At The Lady's Behest Comes... workshopped by the group, so congratulations to him! Thirteen chapters, and more than 150,000 words, revised in full twice. The raw achievement of this has inspired me, so I'll be working to make more progress on Darwin Colossus from here out.

-Rich

Plotting and Scheming

I haven't posted here much lately because I've been focused on making progress on the Darwin Colossus rewrite. I gave an introductory scene to the Magic City Writers group for critique, and it was universally seen as an improvement. This is great news. I still have plans for horror novel The Work, but I'm giving Darwin Colossus priority for now, because A) I think it's a more complete concept right now, and B) there are a few steampunky movies debuting in the next few years, and since I enjoy writing it anyway...

I may or may not use much actual prose from the original short story in the novel, but I've been characterizing, plotting and analyzing the material I have and want to add to a fare-thee-well, working toward a Big Novel-Writing Push. I do, however, need to expand the scope and complexity of the plot to support a novel-length treatment. I think I have a handle on that, as of this evening: I have six major arcs identified, a three-act structure roughed out, and a theme of sorts to bring it all together.

Next up is a detailed series of milestones. I'd normally call it an outline, but I've come to realize that I split the difference between strict outlining and "discovery writing": I come up with goals for each scene and/or chapter to accomplish, and then in the process of writing each scene or chapter, I tend to find and figure stuff out about the characters and story that I might not have known going in. Thus, rather than easily calling myself an outliner or a discovery writer, I call myself a milestoner.

In any event, I'm excited about the story and writing marathon to come. As they come, I'll post interesting work-in-progress excerpts (WIPs), as I did during this past NaNoWriMo. I've got a visit with the parents coming up this weekend; I'll give myself until then to get my prewriting done, but after the visit, it's Damn the Torpedoes: nothing but work, sleep, exercise and hard-charging drafting.

-Rich

Back After a Hiatus

Hey, everyone! I'm back!

Sorry for taking off without notice, but I decided to try switching to a very aggressive exercise program analogous to CrossFit at the end of January, and after a month's work at it (and the attendant exhaustion, recovery fatigue, immune-system depression and dietary chaos), I've decided that doing it amounted to writing a mental and physical "check" that I had no business trying to cash. Nothing whatsoever wrong with the gym or its program: it's just not a fit for me where I am physically, and where I need to put my energy in terms of my other commitments (writing among them). I'll be returning to Planet Fitness and my previous resistance-training workout this week.

Ambiguous enough? Good! Back to writing, now.

Novel-length redrafting on Darwin Colossus is the Project in Question at the moment, so I'm taking that back up this week. This weekend has been devoted to good success in catching up on neglected errands and dubious success in staving off a creeping sore throat. Sleep awaits, tonight, and resumption of a more reasonable schedule tomorrow.

-Rich

Darwin Colossus Rework; Plans to Self-publish

I'm taking a bit of a break from The Work to do some major surgery on Darwin Colossus, the short story from a few months back. It occurred to me that I want to get something out on Amazon that's in some sort of publishable state, and I can much more easily do that with a large short story than a novel. Might as well get it out there earning a little money: Steampunk is still doing very well, and I want to get a little bit of Amazon experience racked up as I continue with The Work, so that's the plan!

I'm really pleased with the concept behind Darwin Colossus, but it needed a lot of help in the areas of characterization and wordsmithing in its original form: the story suffered from overwrought prose and shallow character development. Some real distance from the manuscript has done wonders for my perspective on it, and I'm doing a rewrite of it: A) in the first person, and B) from more of a blended sci-fi/horror perspective than before. I'm also taking the time to flesh out the characters properly, which will shore up all manner of weaknesses the original plot had.

So, beta readers, I'm looking forward to buzzing this past a few of you again in a month or so, after an initial look from Magic City Writers, my local writing group. Be ready!

-Rich

Hitting the Characterization Part Hard; Horror's Needs

The past two weeks have seen me undertake something I'm ashamed to admit I've never really done properly before: sit down and do character sketches of all the major characters in a novel I'm planning to write. Not "write a diary entry about characters," or "ponder a character's background and write down a few thoughts," but "fill out a structured character sketch, from background to conflicts to an overview of what I want/need their character to do in the book."

It's been a humbling and exciting exercise: on the one hand, I'm having to answer all sorts of niggling questions I'm embarrassed not to have thought of beforehand, but on the other I'm having more fun and getting more enthused about my novel The Work than I have about any other project I've worked on, which is saying something...

The prospect of writing a horror novel is what's driven me, finally, to get my characters right. Not that SF or fantasy need good characters less (perish the thought), but to quote Stephen King, "You've got to love the people... that allows horror to be possible." At some level I know that if I fail to allow the readers to get into the characters, then when things begin to go bump in the night and the knives come out it'll fall flat in some measure, and that's death for horror, probably more than any other genre I can call to mind.

So, I've finally completed in-depth sketches for my four main characters. I need to do some brief reshuffling of the plot outline I have (thanks to knowing more about the characters, their motivations and needs than when I first did the outline), and then, probably tonight, I'll finally begin laying down prose.

Can't wait. The plot, as I tweeted the other night, is no longer by any stretch the scariest thing. I'm worried for my characters, now. How awesome is that?

-Rich

PS. Many thanks, by the way, to the people at literatureandlatte.com for including good project templates in the shipping version of Scrivener for Windows 1.0: there are many, many, many ways to write a character sketch, and one way is probably as good as another, but your inclusion of the sketch template in the Novel blank-project gave me an excellent place to start. Well done.

Back in the Saddle After Much Hard Riding [WIP]

7,176 words total, as of this evening. Dragging tail, energywise, after several days of heavy output, but we keep going, because we must! Onward!

And now, your Work In Progress excerpt:

Office Cleanup, Belated Work-In-Progress Excerpt

Tonight I begin work on renovating my office, which is naturally the place I do most of my writing. Sadly the room has become completely impacted with junk and other household overflow over the years, so the time has come to fix it. Tonight I'll be throwing out all the trash I can, making it available for the neighborhood's curbside pickup service, and this Saturday I have a truck coming for the stuff that I'll be donating: ancient computers, a too-big table, my old computer desk, several CRT monitors. To replace of all of that: a small writing desk, and just enough networking and computer equipment to keep everything running. I'm absurdly excited to be getting my room back, and Amy and I have extensive plans for how we want it to look once all the crap is gone. Having a clean, spare creative space will be a real help.

Not much to report lately, aside from this past week's Magic City Writers group meeting being helpful and productive.

Now, as promised, a segment from the rough draft of Oasis, my current work-in-progress:

Once Again Generating Prose

The deadline for submission to the Magic City Writers Group is nearly here, and my stuff is next on the critiquing block. I've been slamming text down for the first chapter as fast and well as I can. Once I get things to where I'm happier with them I'll post some work in progress, but for now I'm in very rough-draft mode. I'll be editing Friday night, so expect it then.

Feels good to be producing again. Also good to have the rest of my life handled enough to be able to do so. Going for a completely different prose style with this one, much more sparse and fast-moving. We'll see how well I do.

-Rich

Much Happening, Under Cover of Silence

Fret not, work proceeds apace!

First, I'm taking some time away from Darwin Colossus. Some distance from the manuscript, along with all the notes I have on it, regarding changes both implemented and pending, will be good for the story, and for me. It's certainly possible to focus too much on an individual piece.

Next, I'm on to a space opera novel (!) working-titled Oasis. Don't want to give away too much just yet, but I've got it mind-mapped, plotted and character-sketched six ways from Sunday, and will begin writing soon: I've only got about a month before I've got to have at least a piece ready for critique at the Magic City Writers group.

Last, I've been encouraged to see my favorite authoring application, Scrivener, in the process of its port from the Mac world to Windows/Linux. I'm using Linux for my home machine these days (with a Windows XP computer virtualized, for access to my copy of Microsoft Word, natch), and seeing an official Scrivener port appear (currently in public beta at the link above) is balm to my soul. I've been using the beta for a while now, and it's progressing very nicely. Ever since decommissioning my old G4 Powerbook (yeah, that old), I've missed Scrivener, and it's great to see it becoming available again!

Until next time.

-Rich

Progress Report

Hello! Not to worry, there's lots going on. I've collected feedback from almost all my beta readers, and had another round with the writers group, and I have a lot of feedback to incorporate into Darwin Colossus.

Several readers commented that they wanted more of the story, which is good, but also tricky, because the piece's already 1,000 words over-length for a short story. More than likely the thing to do is dial back some of the description, and then see what's possible in terms of giving readers what they're looking for. Tightness of prose and pace is generally a good idea anyhow. The intent is to start submitting this to paying online 'zines and the like once this round of edits is done, so it's time to plunge into them!

-Rich

A Banner Weekend

It's not precisely writing-related, but this past weekend (May 7th and 8th) was a particularly good one. First off, it was my birthday, so that's awesome right there, but even given that, some particularly great things happened, largely through the efforts of Amy, my loving, supportive and all-around awesome wife.

Besides, living as a writer also means getting out in the world and refilling one's creativity from all the cool stuff out there. So, enjoy with me!

New Ink!

This is my first tattoo. I've been wanting one, and Amy and I have been talking about what to get me, for a few years now. This design is what I picked. By way of explanation: in some of India's lore, the scorpion is akin to the western Greek concept of Cupid and his arrows, stinging unexpectedly and to great romantic effect. The rings on the scorpion's sting are Amy's engagement-and-wedding ring set. And green is her favorite color. :-D

I'm very happy with how it looks above, fresh from the needle on Friday night. The tattoo is in the middle of its healing process right now, and thus looking pretty rough as it scabs and peels. I'll post another picture when it's healed to its final form!

New Car!

I posted back in 2007 about a scary accident I had, and then about the cheapie car Amy and I bought to keep me mobile. Well, Gladys the Mercury Mystique is about aged out (especially being a rebadged late-90's Ford), and after much planning and some very good fortune, we've been blessed with Chip, the Reborn 2003 Altima! ("Blue Chip," get it?) It's a much nicer and safer car, runs much better, is several years newer, and was originally built more solidly. It should last for years to come, barring any misadventures of 2007's ilk. It was delivered Sunday night, two days ahead of schedule.

Local Winery
Amy and I found a great local winery near our house in rural Alabama, and had a delightful brunch there. It may well become a haunt!

Progress
Finally, brainstorming continues apace on the next short story. I'm thinking it'll be a 19th-century alternate history in which the Germ Theory of Disease achieves ascendancy 50 to 75 years earlier. Lots to figure out, and lots of research yet to do. More updates soon!

-Rich

Life, In The Way; Current Reads

...I am not dead. I have not forgotten about anyone or anything. :-)

It's been a little dramatic the past pair of weeks, as things around the Miller household had to be put on hold for health and recovery reasons. That issue appears (touch wood) to be receding as a concern, so I'll be getting back into revisions and beta-reader mailings this week, and possibly weekend.

The next meeting of my local writing group is coming up next Wednesday, so I've also got to get the current piece read and critiqued. Gonna be a busy weekend!

I'm also going to start doing mentions of books I'm reading and/or enjoying, because a huge part of being a writer is being a reader as well. Here goes!

I snagged my e-copy of Patrick Rothfuss's The Wise Man's Fear right on release day (3/1/2011), and devoured it over the course of the next several days, which were too crazy-full to do any writing, but not so much as to preclude reading. I don't mind saying that I have a bit of a man-crush on Patrick Rothfuss: his previous book (his debut freaking novel) affected me more powerfully than anything else I've read in fiction. Thinking of some scenes still arouses strong emotion, and I've read The Name of the Wind something like five times. In any event, the emotional peaks of Wise Man's Fear weren't as stratospheric for me as in Name of the Wind, but the storytelling was at least as strong, showing that Rothfuss isn't/wasn't a fluke, or one-hit wonder. The one question I have left is how in the world the rest of the story, knowing what we know, can be tied up in the one volume of the trilogy Rothfuss has left? Can't wait for the final installment.

I'm currently listening (via Audible.com) to The Runelords, Book 1: The Sum of All Men, by David Farland. Farland's a new author for me, but his books were recommended strongly in a few episodes of Writing Excuses, so I had to check them out. Fascinating worldbuilding, and the story's definitely sucked me in.

Finally, I'm embarking on a reread of China Miéville's Perdido Street Station, an amazing novel, and one that's a bit of a touchstone for me. I love Miéville's writing: his wordsmithing, his worldbuilding, his theme play, philosophical groundedness, the whole gamut. Perdido Street Station is arguably the work Miéville's most famous for, though he's received a lot of well-deserved press lately for works like The City and the City and Kraken. John Scalzi, today, named Perdido Street Station his #1 novel of the past ten years (in lieu of his own most-famous work, Old Man's War, which recently won a Tor.com "#1 Novel of the Past Ten Years" poll). I completely agree with Scalzi on this: more than anything else I've read (including The Name of the Wind) I read Perdido Street Station (indeed, any Miéville) and think, "Hell's bells, I want to write like that!" His stuff is lush, challenging, fiercely intelligent, and oscillates between gutter-filth and transcendent glory with aplomb. Not a bad pole-star to sail by, though the trade route I follow must ultimately be my own.

More soon!

-Rich

Had a Great Time with the Magic City Writers Group!

Darwin Colossus got both great reviews and a thorough nitpicking on Wednesday night. It was a great time, and I'm very appreciative of the feedback. Thanks, everyone!

I have some thinking to do re: the story's structure, as well as clarifying some aspects of its flow: what happens when, to whom, and by what motivations certain characters make decisions. Sometimes it's hard to judge the balance one should strike between subtlety (implying) and barefacedness (demonstrating); when leaning too far to the subtle side, it's easy to confuse the reader.

Sorry for the sparseness of updates here lately: health challenges continue to complicate my home life, but it's all about keeping going!

I'm going to make a few of the more important clarity-related tweaks, then send Darwin Colossus out to my beta readers within the next week or so. I also have a few candidates for my next short story idea, and I'm going to flesh-out one of those into an outline/mind map not long after.

-Rich

"Darwin Colossus" ready for Group Critique

Went through another set of revisions tonight, and I think I'm about as far as I can go by the deadline for submission to Magic City Writers (tomorrow). The story still needs some tightening and unifying (especially the action scenes), but I'm reasonably pleased, and curious what the group has to say.

Whew! Been hard work, getting it all together, but I'm glad to have a group keeping me accountable!

Good night, all, and I'll report new stuff as it comes up. Probably time to start a new story, soon!

-Rich

Big Revision Day

Got well over half of a full first-draft revision done on Proxy Bloodsport (tentatively renamed Darwin's Colossi), as the in progress box shows. Not much else to say (or WIP quote), as it's late and I don't want to risk getting too sleep-deprived.

More tomorrow!

-Rich

Finished Rough Draft of Proxy Bloodsport!

I was thinking it would be around 7,000 words and I finished up around 6,500, as you can see in my progress box to the right.

Next step: First Draft, which will be a complete going-over and tightening, editing for consistency, adding and subtracting (mainly subtracting, I anticipate) so that it'll be ready for a good going-over by the writing group here in town.

Speaking of which, yes, I got the chance to attend the Magic City Writers Group this past Wednesday (the 16th). It seems like a great group of people, committed to producing good fiction, and not afraid to give or take the nitpicks and critiques we all need to do so!

Now, WIP:

New WIP, and Status Report

It's been a trying few weeks, between illness in the house (a tenacious upper-respiratory bug that felled both me and Amy, in turn) and unexpected, apparently successful abdominal surgery for one of the family dogs (oy).

But writing must continue, and so I'm back on the horse as of tonight. Here's some WIP:

WIP, as Promised

Here's the work-in-progress excerpt, as promised.