Watcha Writin'?

[Buster's Uncle]

YOU were smitten by a cute, young thing a long time ago -I hope Irish is doing well - but writing about another kind of ridiculously-smitten sounds promising, actually...

 

[Zkribbler]

I can't seem to stay focused. I'm off on another tangent.

I saw "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" the other day. It's a Depression Era comedy, set in the Deep South, inspired by "The Odyssey." I said, "I can do that!" only with "The Iliad."

Chapter One is going better than expected, but I can't figure out my story's raison d'etre. I need a theme. In the words of Yogi Berra, "If you set off not knowing where you're going, it's going to be embarrassing when you don't get there."

 

[Synobun]

No help from me, I don't know my Greek epics. @Kyriakos could probably set you on the right path.

 

[Zkribbler]

Good, Bad & Ugly.

Good news: I finished adding in my berserk dwarf to the 1st part of my orc trilogy.
Bad news: The word count still is not near the 50,000 minimum required by Kindle Scout.
Ugly news: Amazon has now closed down Kindle Scout.

Good news: In searching for another place to submit my novella, I checked in at Tor Imprint. Lo & behold, from May 1 to May 15, they're again accepting novella submissions.
https://www.tor.com/submissions-guidelines/#Novella-Submissions-Guidelines

Bad News: Tor's definition of novella is 20,000-40,000 words. With my recent revisions, my orc story exceeds 40,000 words. However, I was able to locate and submit an earlier version with no dwarf.

Ugly News: In July, Tor will once again, very briefly, being accepting novellas. However, Tor only accepts science fiction and fantasy. All my science fiction and fantasies are either short stories or novels. I'm pretty sure I have only one story of novella length, and it's neither science fiction nor fantasy.
Big News: Tor Imprint is accepting novella submissions thru May 15.

 

[Zkribbler]

In going through my files, I find that my Oz 2.0 story is 16,336 words.
This means I would have to add 4,000 words in the next ~ 6 weeks.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

That's 3 days' work if you were doing this for the November NaNoWriMo (recommended daily word count is 1667 words).

 

[Zkribbler]

I've also found the first 5,000 words of a hard-science-fiction, action-adventure story that's about 1/4 done. So I need 15,000 words in ~ 6 weeks or 360 words/day.

 

[Synobun]

Man, I envy how many projects you can juggle and work on at the same time.

 

[Zkribbler]

It's not a matter of "juggling." Rather, I have a tendency to get inspired, work for awhile on my new project but then lose interest when a new inspiration comes along.

This last one I spoke about, "Comes Erebus" predates "Big Bang Theory." I know because one of my characters is a young astrophysicist who is so shy, he cannot talk to women. I came up with him before I ever heard of Raj Koothrappali. Now, I'm going to have to re-write him or else people will accuse me of "stealing" him.

I'm good at starting up projects but abysmal at finishing them.

 

[Synobun]

Fair enough, although even on that front I'm a little envious. My creative ideas very rarely leave the confines of my skull.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I accidentally got talked into writing a Star Trek fanfic. Somebody at Trek BBS started speculating how well the TOS episode "A Piece of the Action" would work with the other series, I disagreed with him about Picard being able to successfully pull off a 1920s gangster but Data and Lwaxana could, and so could certain characters on the other series, and next thing I knew, somebody's telling me I should write this stuff (since we're not allowed to ask the pro authors to do it, for legal reasons).

At least it would be pure camp, which is the only Star Trek stuff I seem able to pull off, unless you count parody.

This wouldn't be for NaNoWriMo, though, at least not this year.

 

[Zkribbler]

"Comes Erebus"

My earlier writing ended as my three main characters were forced down on the mysterious planet. Erebus is going to be a planet planet--not a desert planet like Tatooine nor an ice planet like Hoth--but a worldwide planet with different climates, different nations, all in a jumble of conflicts. Think of Columbus landing in the New World, not on an island but on the edge of a great continent, and imagine what would be running through his mind if his ships were gone. The natives may not be outright hostile, but they are serpentine.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

All planets are "worldwide."

You mean it's a planet with a variety of different types of vegetation, climates, geology, bodies of water, etc., right?


Alan Dean Foster wrote a couple of novels about a planet called Midworld... a planet covered in vegetation, and nearly all of it intent on killing and consuming humans in some way. After reading them, I've never been able to look at houseplants without shuddering.

 

[Zkribbler]

All planets are "worldwide."

You mean it's a planet with a variety of different types of vegetation, climates, geology, bodies of water, etc., right?

See the rest of my sentence.

 

[Zkribbler]

My earlier writing ended as my three main characters were forced down on the mysterious planet.

Oops, I appear to be going backwards. When I last reported, I had finished 3 chapters + 1 page. Now, I'm back to just 3 chapters.

But it's okay. This is a hard-science fiction story. In re-reading it, I noticed a peck of scientific oopsies. For example, upon landing on this scientifically-advanced planet, my guys commented on how fresh and clear the air was. Alas, no. There's a gigantic thunderstorm nearby which would create toxic amounts of ozone. So rather than strolling out for a civilized conversation, my guys are tackled and dragged choking and gagging inside to safety. But this re-writing jettisoned my first page of Chapter 4.

I've spent most of this last week reading and analyzing Donald Maass's The Emotional Craft of Fiction: How to Write the Story Beneath the Surface. IMHO, one of my greatest weaknesses is failure to inject enough emotion into my stories. The good news is that, for the first 1/4 of my novella, I had already instinctively done what he urges. Now that I'm preparing to move into the 2nd 1/4, I'll have to focus on applying his further recommendations.

 

[Zkribbler]

Ho ho, this morning I replaced the ko'ed page.

I had just finished reading "Sections in which Nothing Happens" in The Emotional Craft of Fiction, and coincidentally in Comes Erebus, my action-adventure had just become temporarily incapacitated. So my new Chap 4 begins, as Maass suggests, with my hero taking a moment to reflect upon what is important to him, upon what is happening, and how he fits into events.

This gives my novella so much more depth than just a string of actiony-adventuringy fol-deer-al.

 

[Zkribbler]

It's been one month since I submitted my orc novella "Orcs and Their Ilk" to Tor. According to the Tor tracker, it'll be another month+ before they read my story.

I've done very little additional writing-writing on my "Comes Erebus" novella, which I'll be submitting to Tor in July. Instead...

I've read Maass's "The Emotional Craft of Fiction," which I've used to infuse "Comes Erebus" with more emotional depth, e.g. my main character is no longer just a stereotypical hero sent down from Central Casting. I'm currently reading Savage's "Way With Worlds: Crafting Great Settings," which I'll utilize as my hero moves from setting to setting across the face of Erebus. I really want strange, alien & bizarre yet believable locations.

I've been thinking a lot about what's coming & also about what happened before Chapter One. E.g. Why and how did the planet Erebus leave the orbit of its own sun and head for Earth? Remember this is a hard-science fiction story so I need plausible scientific reasons for how things work. E.g.2: Why is the emperor so intent on marrying my main character's sister? [A look into English history has given me the answer. ]

My decision to change this story from mere pulp fiction to a really quality work of science fiction has given me a lot of extra work.

 

[Synobun]

Huh, what a coincidence. I just got a book from Tor.

When are Wee and Stonewall Hearth being published?

 

[Zkribbler]

I've been oozing along on those. I must off my fat duff and finish those up.

 

[Synobun]

My wallet is still heavy with coin, and eagerly awaits the opportunity to make two wise purchases.