Category: Writing Neep
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Getting started on Midnight Rain revisions
I’ve had my celebration — a few hours of lying flat on my back staring at the ceiling in sheer, utter relief, some hanging out with Matt, and the ingestion of several fat-free fudgesicles (hey, I know how to party, by God) — and it’s time to get back to work. I have my raw…
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Candle in the fog
Needed 2000 words yesterday. Got 600, and that was an uphill struggle. I’ve reread them now, they’re good words, they’re the right words, but I need to get this book done, and not at a pace of 600 words in three hours. (It was more than that, actually. I didn’t get more than a few…
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Almost done with the fixes
Some of the questions raised required some immediate thought and a little reworking — mostly, however, this line edit has entailed trooping backward through the manuscript fixing cases where, when I really get going, my fingers choose spellings that my brain doesn’t bother to notice. I’m hell on too/to errors, and its/it’s, and their/there/they’re. Also…
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The details of beta reading
Joel asked how someone becomes a beta reader. I’m trying something different this time. Used to be, I didn’t ask for the help of outside beta readers. The only people who saw the manuscript before I sent it off to my editor were the people in my household and me. But the people in my…
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May be my last entry for a few days
The site moves to its new server tonight. DNS stuff all has to be changed over, and that can take up to three days (72 hours) when things go right. When things go wrong, well — the FeaturePrice debacle and the one month of DNS errors demonstrated how wrong things can go when they go…
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STET Stamp Redux
I still have two thirds of The Wreck of Heaven to get through, so my writing creativity today is pretty much limited to angle of placement and force of attack with the STET stamp. Okay — so what is a STET stamp? For that matter, what is STET? Writers get a final call on what…
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Me and My STET Stamp
I get to work today, but I do not get to write today. I have fallen behind in prepping the copyedited manuscript of The Wreck of Heaven for its return to Eos, so today I just need to sit and read and make those requested changes that I agree with and STET commas. I STILL…
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More on notecards
I’m back at work, and playing with my index cards again this morning. I’d like to have at least most of them filled out by the time I run out of work time today. I have Baanraak’s cards filled out already — by starting with the villain (or the one who’ll have actual scenes of…
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Today it’s notecards
I need at least 55 sentences written on notecards, one per, that I can spread out on the floor and look at and put into various orders to see if I can find some surprises and some coolness in the story. Some stories just flow — they don’t require this approach. This, being more of…
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“Requested” takes precedence over “on-spec”
In the writing universe, at least, those projects which an editor is waiting to see take precedence over those which are purely speculative. I’ll still be doubling up — working on both the requested thing and Midnight Rain. However, between yesterday afternoon and this morning I’ve had a serious re-think. First thing in the morning…