This is the opening entry in a new segment. I am entitling this, the dialogue. It is intended to function as a personal dialogue for my writing. It is not likely to be a daily entry blog. Rather it is intended to be updated as there are things to update. It is intended for an audience of one. And that audience being me. My focus will be on the status of my writing, priorities, status updates, and ideas that intrigue me.
With that having been said... Here is the first entry. I penned it yesterday...
The Dialogue- 1.4.2014
At this point in my writing there are a few items to consider. The Soul Eater first draft needs editing. And I sincerely want to shrink from that, because its the part of writing that I hate, editing. It is a skill I am weakest at performing. And the one that a solitary writing such as myself needs definitely in huge quantities to be good at…
I have devised a plan for it. I will work with my writing group group to get it edited. It will take a few months at a rate of 15 pages a month. It is the best choice I have right now. Unless I mystically am granted a boon of editing skill suddenly by my fairy god mother that is… Given the likelihood of that ranks around the level of finding an honest politician, a virginal whore (in the traditionally expected sense without torturing the word ‘is’ to get there, or a pet rat in a nest of vipers… One has to go with that which works.
With that plan in mind, it leaves me wondering what other paths are out there for my writing to tread… My mind if biologically wired for wondering… There are several other projects that I would like to pursue while I am getting Soul Eater edited. The obvious being to finish my zombie tale. I do want to purge that from my system. That project vexes me and haunts me as one of my single largest failures. I underestimated the difficulty involved in writing a twenty page short for this genre. I believe finishing a draft for it will purge this.
There are other stories I have started that I would also like to pursue. The low key ‘A day in the Life’ is one. It is about a single day in the life of a free lance writer. It intrigues me. The first bit of it came out of a writing prompt and flowed smoothly. Its time to pick it up again.
My fantasy writing also vexes me. So many ideas, none fully fleshed out, none having been brought to completion. It is time to go and change that.
I am sensing a common theme this morning. It is encapsulated in the word FINISH. All it took to change my writing path was finishing one story on my own. Now I am eager to finish everything. Thanks NANONWRIMO for that shift. One tale completed in a month and now all I can do is want to complete everything I write. Was that a blessing or a curse? Only time will tell….
My Priority chart looks like this:
1. My Zombie Tale
2. A Day in the Life
3. A Chase in Ferns
My plan for the zombie tale is to gut the stoner from the tale and revert it back to just a survival story. It is simpler and within my wheelhouse to do. The Stoner stalled the writing and I am sure sans it I would have finished it by now. Soa few more survival segments and a conclusion should do it. Have him encounter a military camp with a survivor mother daughter pair. Put your hero to work saving them, put him to a decision of saving or surviving.
That does beg the question. Does the zombie genre require a hero to die? Is the choice of hero dying and saving others or saving himself the only one? Is that cliche in and of itself? Is the cliche a genre requirement? Is this me not wishing to surrender my character to the reality of the plot? Good questions all…
A Day in the Life… Is really unformed at this point. I have written the open and given a decent framework for it. It could go anywhere from here. My thought is to have him enjoy lunch with his pals, but have that cut short by the life he walked away from to be a freelance come back to intrude on his present.
His ex-wife Carol, now publisher in chief, for his former paper, (the San Diego Union Dispatch), shows up and needs to speak with him, Let it flow from there. Need to avoid cliche and passe elements though.
What could she want from him after a long estrangement? Is asking him to come back to the paper cliche? What could motivate that choice? How do I make that real?
The plan is to have Carol need the best man she knows to be the local section managing editor. She needs someone with experience and skill and a stellar reputation to take over a section of the paper rocked by scandal of plagiarism, phoney reporting, and irresponsibility.
That can’t be all thought. There has to be more. What else could be in play today? It is a day in the life tale, so this gets us to 1:30pm with a decision to be resolved in conclusion…
Have him return to his pals and work through lunch and day. I will have think more on that point.
A Chase in Ferns is likely the easiest of the potential projects. It is been exhaustively outlined and broken up by scenes. I need to just inhabit the project and write what feels right. I need to simply throw caution to the wind and do it.
Those three projects plus Soul Eater should consume 2014. The goal of this year should be to complete them all. If I can do that, it will make this year the best year of my writing career. 2013 ended on a high note with serious momentum and a sense of accomplishment. 2014 holds the promise to be much better. I need to discipline myself and just do it.
I settling in and doing it, the next step in my writing will reveal itself. I ended 2013 better that where I started. To keep that rolling, the next step is to just do it. If I can learn editing along the way, so much the better.
My 4 projects encompass a host of genres post-apocalyptic zombie, gothic horror, fantasy, and traditional drama. A more solid development plan for 2014 is not possible. Here’s hoping…
With that having been said... Here is the first entry. I penned it yesterday...
The Dialogue- 1.4.2014
At this point in my writing there are a few items to consider. The Soul Eater first draft needs editing. And I sincerely want to shrink from that, because its the part of writing that I hate, editing. It is a skill I am weakest at performing. And the one that a solitary writing such as myself needs definitely in huge quantities to be good at…
I have devised a plan for it. I will work with my writing group group to get it edited. It will take a few months at a rate of 15 pages a month. It is the best choice I have right now. Unless I mystically am granted a boon of editing skill suddenly by my fairy god mother that is… Given the likelihood of that ranks around the level of finding an honest politician, a virginal whore (in the traditionally expected sense without torturing the word ‘is’ to get there, or a pet rat in a nest of vipers… One has to go with that which works.
With that plan in mind, it leaves me wondering what other paths are out there for my writing to tread… My mind if biologically wired for wondering… There are several other projects that I would like to pursue while I am getting Soul Eater edited. The obvious being to finish my zombie tale. I do want to purge that from my system. That project vexes me and haunts me as one of my single largest failures. I underestimated the difficulty involved in writing a twenty page short for this genre. I believe finishing a draft for it will purge this.
There are other stories I have started that I would also like to pursue. The low key ‘A day in the Life’ is one. It is about a single day in the life of a free lance writer. It intrigues me. The first bit of it came out of a writing prompt and flowed smoothly. Its time to pick it up again.
My fantasy writing also vexes me. So many ideas, none fully fleshed out, none having been brought to completion. It is time to go and change that.
I am sensing a common theme this morning. It is encapsulated in the word FINISH. All it took to change my writing path was finishing one story on my own. Now I am eager to finish everything. Thanks NANONWRIMO for that shift. One tale completed in a month and now all I can do is want to complete everything I write. Was that a blessing or a curse? Only time will tell….
My Priority chart looks like this:
1. My Zombie Tale
2. A Day in the Life
3. A Chase in Ferns
My plan for the zombie tale is to gut the stoner from the tale and revert it back to just a survival story. It is simpler and within my wheelhouse to do. The Stoner stalled the writing and I am sure sans it I would have finished it by now. Soa few more survival segments and a conclusion should do it. Have him encounter a military camp with a survivor mother daughter pair. Put your hero to work saving them, put him to a decision of saving or surviving.
That does beg the question. Does the zombie genre require a hero to die? Is the choice of hero dying and saving others or saving himself the only one? Is that cliche in and of itself? Is the cliche a genre requirement? Is this me not wishing to surrender my character to the reality of the plot? Good questions all…
A Day in the Life… Is really unformed at this point. I have written the open and given a decent framework for it. It could go anywhere from here. My thought is to have him enjoy lunch with his pals, but have that cut short by the life he walked away from to be a freelance come back to intrude on his present.
His ex-wife Carol, now publisher in chief, for his former paper, (the San Diego Union Dispatch), shows up and needs to speak with him, Let it flow from there. Need to avoid cliche and passe elements though.
What could she want from him after a long estrangement? Is asking him to come back to the paper cliche? What could motivate that choice? How do I make that real?
The plan is to have Carol need the best man she knows to be the local section managing editor. She needs someone with experience and skill and a stellar reputation to take over a section of the paper rocked by scandal of plagiarism, phoney reporting, and irresponsibility.
That can’t be all thought. There has to be more. What else could be in play today? It is a day in the life tale, so this gets us to 1:30pm with a decision to be resolved in conclusion…
Have him return to his pals and work through lunch and day. I will have think more on that point.
A Chase in Ferns is likely the easiest of the potential projects. It is been exhaustively outlined and broken up by scenes. I need to just inhabit the project and write what feels right. I need to simply throw caution to the wind and do it.
Those three projects plus Soul Eater should consume 2014. The goal of this year should be to complete them all. If I can do that, it will make this year the best year of my writing career. 2013 ended on a high note with serious momentum and a sense of accomplishment. 2014 holds the promise to be much better. I need to discipline myself and just do it.
I settling in and doing it, the next step in my writing will reveal itself. I ended 2013 better that where I started. To keep that rolling, the next step is to just do it. If I can learn editing along the way, so much the better.
My 4 projects encompass a host of genres post-apocalyptic zombie, gothic horror, fantasy, and traditional drama. A more solid development plan for 2014 is not possible. Here’s hoping…
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