Robynettely

Today I subscribed to Locus, because of Viable Paradise. Yeah, I want to see my picture. The strangest question I've been asked, since I got back, was one I was asked twice. And the gist of it was: "So what's your next step -- revise the book, and then take it back next year?" Um, no, I tell people. The next step is to revise the book and then send it to agents and publishers . Completely different. My goal is not to wind up in that cycle of just going to workshops all the time. Workshopping is a level-up for me, but it's not the level I want to sit at for years and years. And on that note, I've made it all the way through "Unicorn" (the short story I had up on OWW) again. It's 1K shorter, which is good. I think one more pass, and it's good to go. Though I keep saying that. I've been working on this story for a year.

After being accepted into Viable Paradise, I had planned (well, actually, after sending my submission, I had planned) to take the 63 chapters that are the remainder of the novel (after the rather worked-over submission chapters) and make them more closely resemble the synopsis I sent in. Yeah, not so much. I got stuck most recently at chapter 11 or 12. Also, after being accepted into Viable Paradise, I decided to make a VP commemorative sweater. Its name is Space Invaders, and I made it out of two shades of left-over yarn from other projects. I finished the knitting on Friday last. Oh, and then I was thinking, on my way to work today, about when I'm going to find time to sew the underarm seams and tie in the (maybe) 12 danglers before blocking. I guess that will be tonight. Another evening of not working on poor Apocryphal.

So anyway, in my ongoing plan to get to Viable Paradise, I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I had gone into the giant filing cabinet. Eventually giving up on finding the short story I was looking for (it will turn up in three years, like that stock did, when I've forgotten all about it or written it off), I picked something I had fond memories of, and I started typing it, and wow. Wow, it was a pile of crap. So I picked something else. I've now typed up about 7000 words of a lacking-a-title novel. Not nearly so bad. That's two chapters, though. My theory that I write 40% more than I should is being pretty much proven out again. That stinking pile of crap, though? At least it had a title. I printed out the 3000 words I managed to type. I think I'll keep it around for scene-writing exercises. Three thousand words of no scenes. My god, how did I do that?