Submitted my manuscript for my thesis project yesterday. Seventy two pages but probably a few more before it's finished. I had to force myself to stop thinking about it last night. As a writer like i mentioned in previous posts, its necessary to let the work rest, see it with new eyes before messing with it again. Still the mind wants to list all the things you believe need fixing. I managed to ignore that urge, instead i started working the one I'd let rest while working on Jordan and his problems.
Its about a loner spacer type, brokenhearted, they all seem to be brokenhearted; who joins a mercenary expedition to deep space in search of a fabled lost ship. I have the structure of the thing down but not the body, that lumpy thing that needs molding and shaping to become a real story. It's nice to be poking around in different peoples heads. The constant working on Jordan's tale has made me hyper aware of problems with Cornelius and how his tale must be told.
Its amazing rereading your work and seeing the progress, and where you need to improve. Then you read something written by Mark Twain a couple hundred years ago and are completely floored. Just a handful of pages but the layers and depth of characters! i am humbled. Not discouraged mind you, just...realizing how much more there is to learn. So i put the head down and get back to work.
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
Monday, August 14, 2017
14Aug17 the summer
Looks like it's damn near over. I'm sure i promised to keep this page updated and running after the spring semester, a toast to how successful that has been (sarcasm).
No, no updates over the summer, but i was busy. My thesis project for my Masters begins this fall and the goal was to have something presentable to begin with, something so refined there would be little for my professors to seriously critique. The result is seventy one pages of material sixty of which i consider well done. Or did, and there lies my problem.
I didn't take into account the need to let the story just rest for a while. This gives me the writer the equivalent of a new reader as later i approach the thing with fresh eyes. I needed this break and didn't take it. I should have worked on other stories. My other major mistake was failing to read it out loud. Now i can't count the number of times I've told fellow writers to read it out loud. But ego is a powerful drug as i'm sure you as fellow writers know. When you're in the flow, hearing it so well in your head you're just plowing through you just do. You never break the magic! I mean you lean back and look at the damn thing and it even looks good. But when you hear it? Out loud? Try speaking the thing in the voice you hope the reader hears? Its not the same. Not a complete mess, but not as good as envisioned.
That's been my last three days folks. All the elements are there, my theme is present, i'm making the points i want. but the whole thing feels muddled, i'm not eliciting the emotional responses i want from the scenes and other readers are confused.
I know its good. I know i'm being overly critical on a piece that's still months away from true completion but i still hear that voice back there saying you suck. Those last three days and today, i remind myself this is normal. This is the dark night before the light of dawn, that i am so much better than when i started so many years ago.
No, no updates over the summer, but i was busy. My thesis project for my Masters begins this fall and the goal was to have something presentable to begin with, something so refined there would be little for my professors to seriously critique. The result is seventy one pages of material sixty of which i consider well done. Or did, and there lies my problem.
I didn't take into account the need to let the story just rest for a while. This gives me the writer the equivalent of a new reader as later i approach the thing with fresh eyes. I needed this break and didn't take it. I should have worked on other stories. My other major mistake was failing to read it out loud. Now i can't count the number of times I've told fellow writers to read it out loud. But ego is a powerful drug as i'm sure you as fellow writers know. When you're in the flow, hearing it so well in your head you're just plowing through you just do. You never break the magic! I mean you lean back and look at the damn thing and it even looks good. But when you hear it? Out loud? Try speaking the thing in the voice you hope the reader hears? Its not the same. Not a complete mess, but not as good as envisioned.
That's been my last three days folks. All the elements are there, my theme is present, i'm making the points i want. but the whole thing feels muddled, i'm not eliciting the emotional responses i want from the scenes and other readers are confused.
I know its good. I know i'm being overly critical on a piece that's still months away from true completion but i still hear that voice back there saying you suck. Those last three days and today, i remind myself this is normal. This is the dark night before the light of dawn, that i am so much better than when i started so many years ago.
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