I've Been Drafted

First draft that is. Finished the first draft on my new story last week and took a few days off to let the story percolate in my brain. Not that the days were actually off. I still worked the day job, and I spent the free time reading which can be considered part of a writer's job.

I started on the second draft yesterday and I like where things are going. I'm not as strapped for words on this one since I don't have a limit like I did with Tesseracts, so I've starting to include more description. Also, the second draft is starting to include more direction. The first was all about getting it out on the page and that led to some interesting developments. I actually had one character die who I didn't intend to, and that ended up changing the protagonists motivation completely. I think in the end it gives him a more nobler and more personal reason for doing the things he does.

It sh0uld be interesting how this plays out. I'm thinking I'll submit this one to Writers of the Future when I'm done and see how it does. If that doesn't pan out I'll continue to submit elsewhere. I already have the next story idea in my brain and I can't wait to get working on that one.

One final note, still waiting on Tesseracts but then I'll likely be waiting for a few more weeks. Oh, and I'm almost done my Christmas shopping. Yeah!

I Guess I Should Put Something Up

A little bit late for my "Monday" update, but better late than never, as they say.

So, where am I, what's the "state of the union" so to speak. At this point I'm still waiting to hear on my submission on Tesseracts. No big surprise there. The deadline for submissions was Nov 30, so I'm early on submitting and won't hear anything till Dec at the earliest.

I'm almost done the first draft of my next story, and I have an idea brewing for the one after. Today I wrote at least 2500 words. I believe that may be a personal best. I normally only write between 500 and 600, so 2500 is a huge jump. It helps that I had the day off.

So, another day, another few words written.

I Submit!

Just sent off my submission for Tesseracts 14. This was after a final check for errors and a few minor tweaks.

Dear sweet Jeebus, I actually did it.

Now the fun part, waiting. Hopefully I'll know soon. Latest I should know is December 31. Let's hope the news is good. I'd love to be able to tell my parents at Christmas that I'm going to be published.

Remember, Remember, the month of November

OK, so we're into November and you know what that means?

Snow?!? WTF Mother Nature! (Yes, I actually saw a brief snowfall today, in Southern Ontario, shudder)

Nope, it means another chance to do NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month for those of you not familiar with the short form. The goal is to write a 50000 word novel in one month, that month of course being November. It means writing about 1666 a day, or lets just round it off to 2000 with a day off here or there. Let's put that into perspective. Robert J. Sawyer (yes, I like the guy- met him twice and both times he was pleasant and approachable), a professional author, writes an average of 2000 words a day, and that's his full time job. So the goal of NaNoWriMo is to have the quantitative output of a professional writer for at least one month.

Is this possible? I mean, most of us can't afford to spend all of our time writing. We have jobs to go to, errands to run, lives to live, etc. Heck, even the number of writers that only write and do nothing else is starting to diminish. So all in all, this is a daunting feat for many.

So, the question is, am I going to do NaNoWriMo this year? The short answer is No. The longer answer is No and stop bugging me about it! Seriously though, I'm not ready this year. I've just really gotten back into the writing swing, and my 500 words a day works for me right now. I hope to start bumping that number up and I have been developing better work habits. I'm less likely to wander away from the computer and watch TV. When I'm not writing I'm spending more time reading, which in the end will help my writing a great deal. I recently finished a book on Revision and Self Editing and my writing has improved from it. Just need to keep the improvements going.

Alright, I'm going to go out on a limb here. I'm going to make a public pledge in this blog to enter NaNoWriMo in 2010 and start work on my first novel. Until then, I'm going to keep on working on getting a short story published.

Updating While Cooking Dinner

Right now I have a spicy stir-fry on the stove so I'm going to make this quick.

Nearly at 5000 words on the new story and still waiting for feedback. Dang people having lives and all that. Don't they know they are on this Earth to serve my ever whim!

Don't worry, I'm kidding. I still have nearly a month before submission to Tesseracts, and the story is almost at the publishable state. I'll make it.

Hopefully more later this week. I want to make a comment on NaNoWriMo.