The re-write of The West Wind is going well following some gracious words of a new author friend: I just finished the first scene, a little over a thousand words, of Due West.
That part about the re-write going well. Ha! Not really. But I do appreciate the encouragement.
Update: Finished the first chapter. 2,000 words. I guess when the muse sneaks up behind you and plonks you on the head with a knobby stick, you best do something about it.
No NaNoWriMo for me this year. I enjoyed it last year and found it a challenging and rewarding experience. Rewarding in the sense of personal accomplishment but also the first 50,000 words of the West Wind. Considering it took me 6 more months to write another 50,000, it truly was a great experience.
Instead, I am going to buckle down and tackle the rewrite of the West Wind. NaNo would just turn into another month long excuse not to get cracking. I have been doing well enough distracting myself with short stories (I have convinced myself it is good for honing my editing skills). I think I need a month of NaNoEditMo!
So for the folks that are going to take take up the challenge, whether for the first time or more, I wish you best of luck. Enjoy and I will see you next year…
I finished writing and editing a short story. It was good exercise for editing, particularly since I was working on getting the total word count down below a fixed amount.
I did content editing first, making sure that the story hung together and made sense. I rewrote the ending to make it more exciting, deleted sections that really didn’t move the story forward, etc.
Then moved on to line editing. Deleting all those pesky “had” or “has been” words that didn’t do anything useful other than increase my word count. I do need to keep an eye on the language because of the steampunk style which should be a bit more flowery prose.
So all that was good practice. But now looking at a whole novel to edit and I feel more than just a little intimidated. I stalled it a little by updating synopsis and tagging the scenes, but I have run out of excuses and need to wade in. I have no idea what to do that…
Un-sticking this post…
Status as of 10/23/11 11/26/11 1/29/12 11/23/12: Putting the rewrite “on hold”
It is the summer of 1912 and the western frontier of the British American Colonies is a pressure cooker of intrigues fueled by greed, resentment, and the need for revenge in this steampunk adventure dominated by plots and power struggles between rich and powerful industrialists. It is a world of massive floating mansions, horses, stagecoaches, airships, private railroad cars, dusty western towns, flying machines, and a traveling mechanical freak show.
Dramatis personæ:
Roland Pritchard – a true success story of Her Majesty’s American Colonies having built an extensive railroad empire that is the backbone of industrial development in the western frontier.
Eli Hardy – the only child of Jakob Hardy, recently returned from studying abroad (something more controversial) and is confronted by the real truth behind his father’s success.
Rachel West – an apprentice clock maker (something less banal) has emigrated fled to the American Colonies in search of a place where she and with her half brother Clarence will be accepted for who they are and not what society dictates. to escape a deadly conspiracy only to find herself embroiled in even more dangerous intrigues.
Woo hoo! Almost a full year after I started, several writing classes, NaNoWriMo, a lot of encouragement and 126,500 words later… I finished the first draft of The West Wind. A steampunk adventure set in the old west.
I did it.
As I said in my opening of the blog, writing a book was something I had always wanted to do. And I am doing it. I have been printing chapters as I complete them, a tip I had picked up early on from Micheal Stackpole’s podcast, to help ensure you have a backup and to prevent co-mingling writing and editing. Holding the fat binder also has the benefit of making you feel like you are accomplishing something. Hard to deny when you see the stack of paper growing.
I took Stackpole’s seminar at Gen Con Indy last year. I had decided to finally take my writing seriously. Since then I have taken two writing classes, won NaNoWriMo and have over 106k words on the West Wind complete. My hope is to wrap it up and head down to Gen Con this year with a sense of accomplishment. No great expectations of course other than doing some networking. But it does have a sense of bringing things full circle.
Just finished an Eli chapter, two more of his POV to go and only one more Rachel chapter until I am done. Can I do it this long weekend?
Nope. Haven’t finished the first draft but have reached what I believe to be a meaningful milestone.
I crossed the 100,000 word mark!
When I finish the current scene I will be completely finished with Roland’s story line. That leaves me only one more Rachel chapter and a couple more for Eli. I think I have to be in the right (or wrong) mood to write Eli. He just has so many problems…
Not much longer now.
I think I set a new non-NaNoWriMo record for productivity. Over 6,000 words this weekend. Bringing my total work count for The West Wind to over 82,000 words. I have 6 more chapters and a handful of scenes to complete.
It was Roland’s turn to run into trouble. Ever have one of those days or weeks where nothing seems to go your way – that is how Roland was feeling by the end of the chapter. I cannot say I feel bad for him, he brought it on himself. Mostly.
D.W. Beyer 