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January 31, 2006

*hic*

Minor edits to One this morning.

Much work on the Other Project.

Bed now. Oi vey. It's late. :(

Posted by sdshaver at 03:17 AM

January 29, 2006

bite me, neurosis!

You know what?

YOU KNOW WHAT?

I'm keeping chapter one! And chapter two! I'll re-edit them and highlight the stuff I think will grab my readers's attention, but after writing a new treatment and realizing it is neither better nor worse than the last version, I am KEEPING THE ORIGINALS!

TAKE THAT, ANXIETY! You big, sweaty chimp, you.

I still have a zillion line edits to enter. :P

(twitch)

Posted by sdshaver at 11:19 PM

January 28, 2006

line edits done

...now I just have to enter ten chapters worth of notes and corrections.

And re-write one and two.

And it's done. For now.

Posted by sdshaver at 03:24 PM

chapter 23-b

Much-needed character development, but...now chapter twenty-three has a baby sister, and that's not orthogonal (all my chapters are 9-11 pages long, while this one is 6 pages -- ack!).

Eh. I guess some things just won't be orthogonal.

Still a little sick. Bed now.

Posted by sdshaver at 02:47 AM

January 26, 2006

dammit

Sick. Sinus infection. You see what happens when I clean? God strikes me down!

At any rate, I'm going to bed before things can get any worse. No writing or plotting tonight. Foo.

Posted by sdshaver at 10:39 PM

night off from firebird

Took a night off from revisions. I now know how to incorporate the parts of the jenga I liked (that were sorely missing) into the story without completely destroying it.

How do you stop thinking about one project? Well, it's like that old adage: the best way to get over someone is to get under someone else. I spent three hours fleshing out (or "plussing up", as my boss would put it) characters for something else that is too new to even name at the moment.

And now today I need to do something similar with the races for HJ. Whee. Go, brain, go!

Posted by sdshaver at 12:42 PM

January 25, 2006

chapter 23

I've either committed Jenga on the story, or I've done something good with it.

I suspect Jenga. I'm going to sleep on it and consider. It's a shame, because I kind of liked it, but it's a lot of words and rarrarrrrgh. Nevermind. Sleep on it!

Posted by sdshaver at 01:29 AM

January 24, 2006

through twenty

Edited one, entered two. I may need to take a night off. I realized I have once again worked through a week without a break, and that most of last week is a blur, and I nearly failed to pay my electric and gas because of it. Urgh. Bad Steph.

I need a man-servant badly.

So, 5 ½ more chapters to edit (the ½ is the interlude and the epilogue). I am continuing to chop down the size of the final work. This is a complete inversion of the last book I edited, which only grew in final revisions.

Every iteration is different.

Posted by sdshaver at 12:12 AM

January 23, 2006

line edits through 21

Unfortunately, today was complicated because (as predicted) chapters 20 and 21 required some reworking.

When I was a young shaver I was on the San Clemente High School swim team. I loved the swimming, I hated the politics and cliques.

One of the things I loved was the feeling of being suspended elsewhere. Underwater is another world. Underwater is muted and subdued. Shadows blend with light. Distortion softens every line. It makes it very easy to kick around ideas.

I knew as I scrabbled helplessly at 20 and 21 that I needed to get out of the house, get into another world -- and so I went to the gym, and swam mindlessly for half an hour while I picked at the plot knot. I ultimately came away with a conclusion that satisfied my needs and gave my body a much-needed workout.

Things are back on track. And I must be to bed.

Posted by sdshaver at 12:36 AM

January 22, 2006

through eighteen

Revised, entered.

I can tell I'm going to rewrite one...again.

Upstairs to start on nineteen.

Posted by sdshaver at 12:39 AM

January 21, 2006

edited up to sixteen

She woke up, made breakfast, sat down, edited two hard chapters.

She got up, came downstairs, wrote a post, and decided to go swimming at her gym.

Plans today will probably include editing two more chapters, then adding them all in, then editing two more, then going to bed, then talking about myself in the third person some more.

Chances are good I'll get up to near the end by Sunday.

Buhbyenow.

Posted by sdshaver at 01:56 PM

through fourteen

That's the sound of a halfway point being reached!

A cool twist on an earlier concept came to me. Easy to do. Will be done. My list of changewords is growing to epic proportions. Stupid proper nouns.

Posted by sdshaver at 01:50 AM

January 20, 2006

entered through 12

11 and 12 were tricky. 13-17 should be less so. All in good fun.

But that bed is calling. And so....

Posted by sdshaver at 12:52 AM

January 19, 2006

entered edits through 10

Ha! Take that, chapter ten! I have removed your superfluos dream-vision-thing and axed 500 words from you!

What do you have to say for yourself? WHAT DO YOU -- oh. Right. Inanimate object. Nevermind.

Bed!

Posted by sdshaver at 01:50 AM

January 18, 2006

through twelve

Thirty-five pages of edits to add tonight. The best of the pages is below:

Just another day.

Of special interest is the one-word angry note at the bottom, a love-missive from my inner editor:

POMP!!!!

The cigar-chomping inner writer is glowering. "You see what I have to work with?" she exclaims, hunching her shoulders.

There were two cats on my lap (simultaneously) when I started writing this. Now there is one. In a moment, he will be rudely ejected so I may start sifting through all these changes. In 3...2...1....

Posted by sdshaver at 10:55 PM

through 11

Line edits through 11.

And the reiterating voice of self-doubt has started up. Yipee.

Posted by sdshaver at 02:56 PM

January 17, 2006

a delicate balance

I hate obviousness. But I hate obliqueness to the point that you need Sherlock Holmes to expound for pages to his patsy before you'll understand what the heck's going on.

So I'm doing a bit of concealment and a bit of revealment, and hoping I've got the mix right. I suppose the obliqueness is only a sin if you become condescending when you finally break open the piggybank and let them see inside. "Silly reader! You should have guessed that the rat was really the long-lost half-cousin mute twin of the rat god's bastard war stallion!"

Anyway. Parts of nine repurposed. It'll carry through the rest of revisions, and I feel the itch has finally been scratched.

Onward to upstairs revising.

Posted by sdshaver at 11:15 PM

workspaces

TFW is in hardcopy revisions at the moment, so my workspace is not in my usual location (the office downstairs). I do all line-edits at a table in my kitchen. On my right is a printed copy of the book. On my left a notebook for note-taking and middle-of-the-night "AH HA!"s.

kitchentable.jpg

Not pictured: the stereo, the cats, and the ubiquitous pot of tea that keep me company.

Posted by sdshaver at 11:11 AM

chapters 7 - 9

Entered changes from 7 to 9, and some twists on a thread that has been giving me heartburn because I'm not sure I can pull it off without sounding contrived. I swear there's a logical explanation for it, but first readers will tell if it's good enough.

I listened to the same song over and over tonight while doing edits. "Ska Boss" by the Aquabats!, because they are my favorites at the moment and the song is nice and mellow and good to write to. I will be sick of it in due time, but for now it was a good backdrop to my pondering and hammering.

Also, I giggle every time I hear "Ska boss...needs food badly...." and "Yo soy ska boss!"

Anyway. Bed.

Posted by sdshaver at 02:09 AM

January 15, 2006

no good

Derailed by death. Spent most of today thinking about all the things she'd done for me, and wondering if she knew.

Probably not. Ain't it always the case.

I'll be back tomorrow.

Posted by sdshaver at 11:58 PM

January 14, 2006

blargh

Nothing done today. Back tomorrow.

Posted by sdshaver at 11:22 PM

January 13, 2006

night off

Evening's edits called on account of practicing the sacred art of the after-dojo beer and burger. Blueberry Hill's burgers really are all that, by the by. And anyplace that stocks Don de Dieu is a tiny god in my book.

I'm making good progress. I'll be back tomorrow night to finish out act one, and probably get through most of act two this weekend.

Very likely, this draft will be in a readable state by Friday next week. At which time, I will be having another Don de Dieu to celebrate. (Or maybe Fin du Monde would be mroe appropriate?)

Posted by sdshaver at 12:52 AM

January 12, 2006

more line edits

Pretty sure I got through nine last night. But woke up this morning with something that needs changing in eight, so change it will.

Scribbled notes on the dining room table, herded the cats downstairs, went to work.

Ahh, the exciting life of an unpublished series novelist.

Posted by sdshaver at 01:52 PM

January 11, 2006

through seven

Edited and typed in to seven. Will probably work on eight tonight, maybe nine. Act One is drawing to a close. Yay!

Twenty chapters and three interludes to go.

Posted by sdshaver at 10:56 PM

five and two-ish

I stole an hour from the lips of the morning and edited five and the new part of two while I noshed on peanut butter toast and sipped ginseng tea. The pull and tug to move on to six was strong, but I resisted. I have bills to pay, after all.

I am definitely a different person in the morning. I'm not sure if it's good or bad yet. Two was the chapter I edited in the morning last time, and I had to go back and revise that, but one and two are always problematic because they introduce so much.

Back to work.

Posted by sdshaver at 11:35 AM

chapter three

Parts of 2 got revised because there was a crucial concept I thought missing. Entered in edits for 3. My floor is strewn with discarded papers. Fun!

After writing about all these trees, I feel like I should be planting one. Yarr.

Posted by sdshaver at 12:05 AM

January 10, 2006

line-edits ahoy!

Did three chapters today, entered two. That leaves three two* remaining to be entered, and twenty-two waiting to be edited.

I have a lurking headache due to unwise wisdom teeth. I shall now go to bed and drown my woes in sleep.


* Math has never been my strong point. Thus, the reason I a) don't write s-f and b) am a fastidious editor.

Posted by sdshaver at 12:06 AM

January 08, 2006

chapter 1

Started on line edits. Got through 1 and a bit of the back end of 2. I'm surprised, really, at how few things to fix there are. That's either a good sign or a bad sign. I'll have to get some sheep entrails to figure out which.

Pattern for the next few nights will be: line edit 1-2 chapters, enter in changes, go to bed, rinse, repeat. I wanted to get done the first half of act one this weekend, but failed to remember that I intended to go jump in a cold river, which was satisfying, but tiring.

And so, to bed, early. Which is a good thing. My schedule needs a bedtime. G'night.

Posted by sdshaver at 11:31 PM

in which I make no progress

Spent most of today meditating. Will be back tomorrow to savage the manuscript.

Posted by sdshaver at 12:27 AM

January 06, 2006

adventures in line editing

I didn't get into any actual manhandling of pages. I spent an hour writing out the points I need to watch out for in the revisions, and more than that printing pages, arranging them, setting up the workspace, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

When I hand-write, it's a bit like watching someone have a minor seizure. My fingers jerk and twitch as the words try to materialize as fast as my brain is reeling them out. It helps that pens nowadays write more smoothly, but college was hell -- to say the least.

I came up with a swell twist to Kaiji's curse last night, and jotted it down in the Poison notebook. It's one of those nice "hooks" that I can use to entice agents and publishers to read my damn fiction. I hope.

In other news: I spent two hours in bed with Lois McMaster Bujold's Paladin of Souls and I don't regret it one bit.

Posted by sdshaver at 12:25 PM

January 05, 2006

line edit haiku

That'll be all from me tonight, as I'll be spending the remainder of the evening at the kitchen table with pen in hand. G'night!

Posted by sdshaver at 10:15 PM

burn it red

Welp, that's it for the major pre-printed revisions. Tomorrow night I print this sucker and go to town with the red ink.

Wheee!

This year I intend to finish more than one book, but I'm pleased that I'll very likely be finishing this one this month.

Posted by sdshaver at 01:35 AM

January 04, 2006

chapter 4 and 5

Forgot to write an entry last night. Muddled with a scene in 5. I'm ejecting a completely useless character in favor of presenting another, more important one earlier on.

I have a simple philosophy for this series: all main and sub-main characters must be introduced in one form or another by chapter five. I'll carry that philosophy into Poison, too. I realize that there are worthy exceptions -- that's why this is a philosophy, not a rule -- but not here.

I have insomnia! Yay! Oh, no, wait -- boo!

Posted by sdshaver at 12:20 PM

January 03, 2006

chapter 2 and 3

There go the last of the big edits. Here's hoping I haven't totally screwed up everything ever!

Ever!

Um. Let me think here. I'm holding steady at 106k words, but I'll keep cut! cut! cutting! and I'll probably do another two nights of plot revisions and then I'll print out this thing and start on line edits and then I'll COLLAPSE.

Oooh, and my new iPod plays on my stereo. Which means i can listen to my playlists! Upstairs! While I edit! LOVE!

Posted by sdshaver at 01:31 AM

January 02, 2006

facelift

The homepage got a facelift, though it had nothing to do with the New Year. I needed something to do other than write, and this was easier than scrubbing the kitchen floor.

Yes, I know. I'm a slacker.

Posted by sdshaver at 03:24 AM

January 01, 2006

conversations with characters

ME
No.
 
KITSU
Aw, c'mon.
 
ME
(glances at schedule)
2007. Maybe.
 
KITSU
Lady, there is no WAY you're keeping me at bay that long.
 

Unfortunately, she's probably right. But for now, I just don't have the time to write about her, as much as I want to.

Posted by sdshaver at 01:59 PM

random rambling

Untitled

Reason for stopping: End of year.
Mammalian Assistance: Much yowling from the kitty posse.
Cups Consumed: NOOOONE. KHAN.
Exercise: Walking through D/FW count?
Mail: ....nope.
Today's words Word don't know: tattiest, contredanse
Words I'm surprised Word do know: skivvies
Tyop du jour: Our silenced petered out there, and I took the silence to focus on my leg.
Darling du jour: "When I finished, you could have wrapped presents in the ribbons I'd made of the monster's flesh."
Mean things: Leaving the assassin in the bushes.
Books in Progress: Lois Bujold, Paladin of Souls (and just finished reading Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb).
Other writing-related work: Tons of notes on the plane. Writing craft stuff. V. boring.

Posted by sdshaver at 02:35 AM