First Draft
Chickpea. In April I had written three pages. I’m trying to move to a different level here, where maybe my first drafts aren’t all completely crap. So I started by knowing how it was going to end, and having a story in my head. It went kind of to hell towards the end, but I can fix it in post, right? My draft wound up probably 3000 words long.
One Degree. At some point in April, I lost my notes for this, which I guess was a good excuse not to work on it. After Chickpea fizzled to a lame ending, I found my notes while doing some filing, and it became my page-a-day, which wasn’t what I had intended for it, but whatever.
Medusa. Another Chuck Wendig challenge, 1500 words max. Wrote a first draft Monday (May 17).
“Take Down the Lot of You”. Chuck Wendig challenge, 1000 words max. Wrote first draft May 30, wound up with 1700 words.
Editing
"The Rabbits". Could this only be the fourth draft I just did? Removed about 2500 more words, and it was easy, down to 6600 words. Then I did another draft and realized that until I figure out what the motivation of my “hidden” character is, the story just isn’t going to work. It makes sense to me, because I know what I’m going for, but it won’t make sense to anyone else.
“Bezoar”. The middle and the ending largely work, so May 2 I spent about 3 hours making draft 6 (?), where I had to fix the characters’ motivations, because they had none, and give them some immediacy. Let Ed read it, he had a couple of small comments so it just needed a smoothing draft (sometimes I wonder if he’s scared to say something mean, however). Did that draft. It’s done. I’ve sent it out.
“The Cats”. I had forgotten to check the weekly challenge, so it was Monday night and I still didn’t have an idea. I was just going to pull out Dowsing and edit that instead of doing the challenge, but then I came across a draft of this. I had 1064 words and no POV in the first draft.
Second draft (Monday): I added a POV, trying to do second-person to see if I could (maybe I should just try to write a decent story, I know you’re thinking...) and it ballooned up to 1200 words. I realized the story started on p. 3 (of 5!) so I moved everything around.
Third draft (Wednesday) I got it down to about 1046 words, and then fourth draft (Thursday) I cleaned it up and improved the ending. Then Blogger was down for many, many hours and I fretted about being able to post it, but you can find it below somewhere.
Medusa. Typed up Tuesday (May 18) at work, because I was off on Wednesday and I wanted to have something to edit on, because boy, it needed it. Did that second draft on Wednesday, then a third draft on Thursday, and put it up. As I said in my note at the start of the story, I’d like Medusa to have been angrier; if I’d done another draft, that’s where I would have gone.
“Dowsing”. Read through the first draft one evening before bed, to give it some thought. I’d had an idea about adding changing the beginning in order to give it an ending (because like a lot of these stories, it just trundles to a stop, and an illogical, unmotivated one in this case) but was afraid I’d wreck it if I messed with it. The first few pages aren’t so bad – maybe a little over-written is all, so if I could find a way to insert my change to the world without wrecking it, that would be cool.
Ignoring
“Succubus”. Short story; working on 2nd draft
Troll.
Pampelmouse.
“Imp Face”. Needs to be typed.
Pause.
Being reviewed
Apophis. (on OWW – two crits from April... one liked it, one hated it) Third crit in May, didn’t seem to hate it.
“Karate Zombies”. Lent my printout to a friend who kept asking to read it. It’s really hard to hand someone something you know is partly flawed, without telling them all the flaws you know are there. He went on holiday to Belgrade (bastard! I want to go to the Tesla museum!) so he had it for several weeks.
Knitting
Morrigan. 60 rows of 1st sleeve. The plan is, if I can do 10 rows every day I’m off (i.e., weekends) then it will be done by October, when it will be wearable. There’s no point rushing.
Convertible-a-Go-Go Socks. Finished first sock.
Cormorant. In April I had started seaming, but the bottom peplum thing was when last I counted about 660 stitches per row, so took forever. Done now. Gorgeous. I blocked it on my dressmaking judy. I love this sweater. Too bad it’s out of season. Might change the snap, but otherwise perfect.
Avalon armwarmers. On needles since April. I pulled out my notes and started knitting once I’d finished Cormorant (seems I’m a 3-project person).
Chickpea. In April I had written three pages. I’m trying to move to a different level here, where maybe my first drafts aren’t all completely crap. So I started by knowing how it was going to end, and having a story in my head. It went kind of to hell towards the end, but I can fix it in post, right? My draft wound up probably 3000 words long.
One Degree. At some point in April, I lost my notes for this, which I guess was a good excuse not to work on it. After Chickpea fizzled to a lame ending, I found my notes while doing some filing, and it became my page-a-day, which wasn’t what I had intended for it, but whatever.
Medusa. Another Chuck Wendig challenge, 1500 words max. Wrote a first draft Monday (May 17).
“Take Down the Lot of You”. Chuck Wendig challenge, 1000 words max. Wrote first draft May 30, wound up with 1700 words.
Editing
"The Rabbits". Could this only be the fourth draft I just did? Removed about 2500 more words, and it was easy, down to 6600 words. Then I did another draft and realized that until I figure out what the motivation of my “hidden” character is, the story just isn’t going to work. It makes sense to me, because I know what I’m going for, but it won’t make sense to anyone else.
“Bezoar”. The middle and the ending largely work, so May 2 I spent about 3 hours making draft 6 (?), where I had to fix the characters’ motivations, because they had none, and give them some immediacy. Let Ed read it, he had a couple of small comments so it just needed a smoothing draft (sometimes I wonder if he’s scared to say something mean, however). Did that draft. It’s done. I’ve sent it out.
“The Cats”. I had forgotten to check the weekly challenge, so it was Monday night and I still didn’t have an idea. I was just going to pull out Dowsing and edit that instead of doing the challenge, but then I came across a draft of this. I had 1064 words and no POV in the first draft.
Second draft (Monday): I added a POV, trying to do second-person to see if I could (maybe I should just try to write a decent story, I know you’re thinking...) and it ballooned up to 1200 words. I realized the story started on p. 3 (of 5!) so I moved everything around.
Third draft (Wednesday) I got it down to about 1046 words, and then fourth draft (Thursday) I cleaned it up and improved the ending. Then Blogger was down for many, many hours and I fretted about being able to post it, but you can find it below somewhere.
Medusa. Typed up Tuesday (May 18) at work, because I was off on Wednesday and I wanted to have something to edit on, because boy, it needed it. Did that second draft on Wednesday, then a third draft on Thursday, and put it up. As I said in my note at the start of the story, I’d like Medusa to have been angrier; if I’d done another draft, that’s where I would have gone.
“Dowsing”. Read through the first draft one evening before bed, to give it some thought. I’d had an idea about adding changing the beginning in order to give it an ending (because like a lot of these stories, it just trundles to a stop, and an illogical, unmotivated one in this case) but was afraid I’d wreck it if I messed with it. The first few pages aren’t so bad – maybe a little over-written is all, so if I could find a way to insert my change to the world without wrecking it, that would be cool.
Ignoring
“Succubus”. Short story; working on 2nd draft
Troll.
Pampelmouse.
“Imp Face”. Needs to be typed.
Pause.
Being reviewed
Apophis. (on OWW – two crits from April... one liked it, one hated it) Third crit in May, didn’t seem to hate it.
“Karate Zombies”. Lent my printout to a friend who kept asking to read it. It’s really hard to hand someone something you know is partly flawed, without telling them all the flaws you know are there. He went on holiday to Belgrade (bastard! I want to go to the Tesla museum!) so he had it for several weeks.
Knitting
Morrigan. 60 rows of 1st sleeve. The plan is, if I can do 10 rows every day I’m off (i.e., weekends) then it will be done by October, when it will be wearable. There’s no point rushing.
Convertible-a-Go-Go Socks. Finished first sock.
Cormorant. In April I had started seaming, but the bottom peplum thing was when last I counted about 660 stitches per row, so took forever. Done now. Gorgeous. I blocked it on my dressmaking judy. I love this sweater. Too bad it’s out of season. Might change the snap, but otherwise perfect.
Avalon armwarmers. On needles since April. I pulled out my notes and started knitting once I’d finished Cormorant (seems I’m a 3-project person).