The ongoing saga of David D. Levine's writing and other adventures.
|
I'm a geek, fan, and writer who lives in Portland, Oregon.
For more information about me, please see my
web page. If you have questions, comments, or just want to chat, you can send me e-mail. Or you can post a comment on my LiveJournal. |
|
Word count: 45058 | Since last entry: 182 | This month: 11876
Just a little writing tonight, squeezed in between packing to go out of town and going to bed early (we're hitting the road bright and early tomorrow).
I feel good about the Jupiter story. It's got a light breezy feel, kind of a Texas tall tale of the far future, and I think I've found a way to get a dramatic ending without being either nihilistic or sappy. A real Analog story. It's about 2700 words now, probably going to be around 4000 when I finish this draft, which means it can be tightened to about 3500. Might even finish the first draft on the trip.
If anyone is reading this... have a happy Turkey Day! I'll be back late Sunday night, but might not post again until Monday.
Posted 11/26/2003 21:09 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 45058 | Since last entry: 582 | This month: 11694
I decided to take yesterday off. Tonight, despite attending a Barenaked Ladies concert (they rock!) I wrote almost 600 words. Yoo rah. I have other things to say here, but at the moment bed calls.
Posted 11/25/2003 22:39 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 45058 | Since last entry: 515 | This month: 11112
Plenty of chores today -- laundry, groceries, unpacking from OryCon -- and a symphony concert, but still got over 500 words written on the Jupiter story (which I'm now thinking about titling "Interview with the Photographer") and still got to bed before midnight. I'm pleased.
It's going to be a challenge to finish the Jupiter story and chapter 5 before the next crit group meeting, with Thanksgiving in there. But I just discovered I will be out of town for the next crit group meeting, which casts a different light on things. What to do? I'm going to sleep on it.
Posted 11/23/2003 22:07 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 45058 | Since last entry: 207 | This month: 10597
Like yesterday, I had a busy day, didn't start writing until way late, and wrote only a couple hundred words (just to keep up the streak). But I received my critiques on Chapter 4 -- they still like the book, though they reminded me of the problems I already know about (Jason's a wimp and Clarity isn't alien enough) as pointed out some new ones (there isn't enough physical description of the aliens, especially of individual aliens; there's no indication why it would be a bad thing if the Green Hills bunch took over; Clarity goes into the task force meeting knowing nothing about the humans she's meeting with, she would have been thoroughly briefed; the new human characters Flannery and Vance need to be better developed).
All good stuff for the second draft. For now, I'm continuing on the Deconstructing Jupiter story. I had been having some trouble coming up with an ending (unusually for me, I started writing without knowing the end of the story), but now I think I have one in mind. The question is: can I destroy the Earth and still have it be an upbeat ending? At the moment I think I can, and it'll certainly be a hell of a climax (many writers threaten to destroy the world, but not many follow through on the threat). There are all sorts of cues in what I've written so far indicating that Something Bad Happened, and I can amp those up to build tension. This'll be interesting.
Also today I picked up my new glasses -- my first progressive lenses, but it's not nearly as traumatic as I had been warned it might be. They're kind of weird, but not much weirder than my last pair of new glasses, and my near vision is noticeably better than with the old ones. The bad news is that they came with a big scratch in one lens, which will have to be replaced.
This evening I attended a party where I didn't know anyone, but had a nice long talk with syndicated humor columnist Marc Acito, who just sold his first novel, and the movie rights -- a real Cinderella story. He was very encouraging, said he liked my pitch.
Must sleep now!
Posted 11/22/2003 22:52 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 45058 | Since last entry: 217 | This month: 10390
Kate's out of town, so I worked late, did my critiques for tomorrow, did some convention-related web stuff and other chores, spent too much time reading friends' weblogs (bloglines.com makes this far too easy), and didn't even start writing until 11:00. Still, I do get a silver star for writing something. More tomorrow, I promise.
Posted 11/21/2003 22:49 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 45058 | Since last entry: 1037 | This month: 10173
Couldn't decide between staying home and writing tonight and going to a square dance. Kate finally suggested that she could drive and I could write in the car to and from. It worked great! I also wrote a little bit in the breaks between tips, and a little more after we got home, for a total of over a thousand words. Woo hoo!
Note that the "word count" above has not gone up (that's the novel word count), though the "since last entry" and "this month" counts have. The difference is what I've written so far on a short story for an anthology called Cosmic Tales of the Far Future, which is invitation-only and probably already full, but it's a great market and even if I don't sell this story to this market it'll get my work in front of the editor and I'll have another story in inventory. Working title is "Deconstructing Jupiter."
The whole story so far is told in the same breathless voice as the last paragraph. I'm trying to portray this particular hunk of the far future as a time just as exciting as the Wild West or the early days of the Internet. I may wind up cutting a lot of the words I wrote tonight, but I'm getting a real feel for the time.
At this rate (which I doubt I can keep up, but maybe...) I'll be done with this story in less than a week and I can get it and another chapter done in time for the crit group meeting after next. We'll see.
For now, life is exciting! Voom!
Posted 11/20/2003 21:51 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 45058 | Since last entry: 0 | This month: 9136
No actual novel words, nor short story words, today. But I formatted and printed out the completed chapter D, added 345 words to the synopsis (summarizing chapter 4) and printed that out, and made copies, so the package is ready for Saturday's crit group meeting. I also resubmitted a story that bounced back from The Edge (UK magazine) to Argosy. So I'm giving myself a silver star for writing-related effort.
Posted 11/19/2003 21:48 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 45058 | Since last entry: 518 | This month: 9136
I hadn't quite meant it to come out this way, but the last scene of the chapter turned into Sienna's Saint Crispin's Day Speech. I had fun playing with her tone of voice and body language, but I didn't really indicate how her listeners responded. I'm relying on the reader to respond for them. This may be a mistake, but that's the way it is for now. My other concern is that the level of bombast ratchets up too far too fast, but we'll see what the crit group thinks.
That's the end of the chapter, so I get a gold star and a green star for today. Tomorrow I start on a short story, and critiques. Go me!
Posted 11/18/2003 21:45 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 44540 | Since last entry: 346 | This month: 8618
OryCon was fun, but the weekend went voom! About a dozen people came to my reading, most of my panels were well attended, Opening Ceremonies went well, and Whose Line was a riot. But I only hit about three parties (including the Baen party, where Sara and Jim and I sat in the back room talking -- mostly about my novel -- for hours) and attended maybe a half-dozen panels other than mine. I'm not quite sure where all the time went. Certainly not sleeping.
Alas, I've broken my streak of writing every day this month. I wrote a couple hundred words on Friday before the con, and a couple hundred tonight, but nothing on Saturday or Sunday. On Saturday after the Baen party I did write nearly 500 words of notes on a new direction for Jason, to make him a more active character (but that isn't reflected in the word count above). It involves scrapping the current Prologue and writing a new chapter in its stead, in which Jason takes some kind of direct, physically dangerous action. Many of the events of chapter A (to be renamed chapter B, and so on) would still take place, but the power dynamic between Jason and Sienna shifts radically, and the changes would echo down through the novel with decreasing force. For example: If Jason steals the biocomputer in the new chapter A, he's not still going to be alive and free in chapter B unless he knows about the government's omnipresent audio monitors before that. So Sienna can't tell him about their existence in chapter B, and the whole "Jason researches the audio monitors" scene -- with its cool technology -- goes out the window. Ponder ponder ponder.
I'm not going to change it now, though. Must finish first draft first.
I have just one more (short!) scene to write in chapter D, then I have critiques to do and a short story to start. It may be mostly short stories for the next couple of months, actually, though I hope to keep plugging away at the novel as well. (Ha.)
Posted 11/17/2003 21:47 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 44194 | Since last entry: 521 | This month: 8272
Just introduced "the Infector", a gizmo that I believe will be the maguffin (is there an official spelling or capitalization for that word?) for the whole rest of the book. The scene feels pretty flabby to me. Partly this is a result of writing in small bits rather than long stretches. Partly I'm still damn tired -- though I got to bed early last night, I woke up well before the alarm clock.
I'm not going to catch up on sleep any time soon, though, because OryCon starts tomorrow. I do intend to write every day at the con, though I'm not going to be posting my daily word counts here until Sunday evening at the latest. Wish me luck!
Posted 11/13/2003 20:36 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 43673 | Since last entry: 198 | This month: 7751
Although it's been a really productive month, I've been making the time to write by staying up late, and today it caught up with me in a big way. I was just kind of dragging around the office, yawning every five minutes. So tonight I wrote a bare minimum, just a few paragraphs to keep up the streak, and now I'm going to bed early.
Posted 11/12/2003 20:42 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 43475 | Since last entry: 264 | This month: 7553
OryCon business took up a chunk of this evening, but I did find the time to write something. Largely edits and tweaks on yesterday's scene, and a few hundred more words. Fixed a logic error.
God, I'm tired. I think ten days of cumulative lack-of-sleep is catching up with me...
Posted 11/11/2003 21:42 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 43211 | Since last entry: 734 | This month: 7289
In tonight's exciting episode, Jason demos the computer virus to Sienna. A rip-roaring, spine-tingling scene of low-resolution computer graphics.
Okay, even in a thriller there have to be a few hundred words of exposition. Cope.
Posted 11/10/2003 22:22 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 42477 | Since last entry: 530 | This month: 6555
It's a breakthrough for Jason, not for me. I finished up the current section with the scene I began on 11/6, in which Jason explains packet-based wireless communication to Chopper using a handful of bullets and a magazine as a visual aid, and Chopper uses the analogy to suggest a solution to Jason's problem (without really understanding the problem itself). The trick was to come up with something Chopper would reasonably say, and that would point Jason in the direction of the solution but leave the key insight to Jason. It helps that I can change the technology to match the analogy -- a power I don't have in my day job!
The transition between the end of the sex scene flashback and the beginning of the technology-analogy discussion is clunky. I may revisit it tomorrow.
When I see NaNoWriMo participants writing 2000 words a day (which they have to, to achieve 50k words in a month), I look at my 500- and 600-word days and think "I could do better". But those 500 and 600 words a day really add up, when you write every single day. At this rate I'll be finished with the current chapter before OryCon, and then I can work on a short story for a while.
It may be crap, but I feel way productive. And, frankly, I don't think it's crap. Oh, it may be kind of infodumpy and in need of tightening, and Jason's motivations are muddled and the aliens aren't alien enough. But this is a first draft, dammit, and these things can be corrected in rewrite. Onward!
Posted 11/09/2003 20:42 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 41947 | Since last entry: 716 | This month: 6025
Wrote a moderately explicit sex scene (in flashback) with Jason and Clarity. Is it gay sex, or straight sex? Even the characters aren't sure. It's certainly transgressive. I suspect some heads will explode in my crit group. It'll be interesting to see how the various people react to it.
At this point my major worry is that the whole chapter's too info-dumpy. But I hope that putting the information on the aliens' reproduction into a sex scene will hide that particular problem. If only all info-dump problems could be solved so easily!
Posted 11/08/2003 23:33 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 41231 | Since last entry: 512 | This month: 5309
Came home from tonight's square dance tired, but determined to write at least 500 words. I must confess I was checking the word count pretty often, and stopped as soon as I passed 500 even though the scene was chunking along nicely. I've gotten into a flashback, showing how Jason and Clarity met at a sex party. It's already a fairly nasty scene and I'm wondering just how explicit I want to get. I've been reasonably tame so far, by my standards, so I probably won't get completely explicit, but I want to leave no doubt in the reader's mind about what gets stuck where by whom.
Could I blow a sale for the whole novel on this kind of thing? Maybe not one scene, but the whole bisexuality-polyamory-alien-love thing? Possibly. But this is the book I want to write, and I think one can get away with a hell of a lot these days. I suppose I'll tone it down if an editor asks me to. (Would I change Jason's orientation? I'd like to think I would not, but if a contract with a major publisher were riding on it I might. But I feel the right publisher wouldn't ask for that change.) I think I'll write the rest of the scene with a fairly high level of detail, then scale back later if necessary.
Posted 11/07/2003 22:42 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 40719 | Since last entry: 676 | This month: 4797
I've automated my "words since last entry" and "words for the month" counters (above).
Tonight's writing was a hunk of conversation between Jason and Chopper in which Jason outlines the software problem he's fighting, using a handful of bullets as a visual aid. Chopper is just about to (unwittingly) give him the insight he needs, but I've decided to stop for the evening before hitting a reasonable stopping place, to make it easier to pick up tomorrow.
I may also twist the scene around a little, because I want the two of them to talk about Clarity as well as the software problem, and knowing Jason he'll want to charge off and start coding as soon as he has his insight. But if they talk about Clarity first he'll be too upset to code. Maybe Chopper brings up the code problem to try to calm Jason down after he gets all upset talking about Clarity? Hmm, that might work.
Posted 11/06/2003 22:14 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 40043
Less than 400 words written after returning from tonight's square dance, bringing character Chopper (remember him? He was introduced way back in Chapter A, then "wanished") back on stage in what I anticipate will provide a transition to a useful flashback.
I'm a bit dismayed by the fact that every day so far this month has produced fewer words than the day before, but there's nothing on the calendar for tomorrow so I hope to get more done then. For now, I'm going to bed.
Posted 11/05/2003 22:12 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 39675
A total increase of 410 words tonight, including some tightening of last night's output to the tune of 100 or so anti-words. So I only get a silver star for the day. But tomorrow I should top 40,000 words, which is a significant milestone.
I've been reading Zeitgeist by Bruce Sterling, which may explain why the last couple of days' output has shown Jason in a bleary, grungy, gritty, sleep-deprived haze of computer code. The fact that I have been dividing my time at work between two projects, 70% on one and 70% on another (and yes, that does add up to more than 100%), and I got maybe ten hours' sleep total this weekend, might have something to do with it too. But what the hey, it addresses (or tries to) some of the critiques I got this weekend. Work with what you've got, that's my motto.
In other news, the new battery arrived and my phone is now back up and running. Huzzah!
Posted 11/04/2003 21:17 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 39262
Only 610 new words tonight -- but that's enough for a gold star. I'm sticking up silver stars for 100-500 words, gold for 500-1000, red for 1000+, and an extra green star when I finish a chapter or story. I spent most of the evening doing laundry and putting the manuscripts of Chapter 4 in the mail to the members of my crit group who weren't there on Saturday.
I also got a couple of story responses in today's mail. One was a reject from MarsDust of a short-short (my 500-word story from the first night of Clarion, still kicking around). I sent it back out to Story House Coffee; they print short-shorts on their coffee labels and are located just a few blocks from here. The other was from Asimov's. It was in my SASE, and when I opened it up I saw it wasn't even on letterhead -- just a cheap Xerox of letterhead -- so I knew it was a rejection, but I hoped for a nice personal note.
"Good to see something by you," it said, "and thanks for letting me see this story. I like this, and I'll take it."
I had to read it twice.
YAHOO!Posted 11/03/2003 21:13 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 38652
About 750 words written before and after tonight's Simon & Garfunkel concert (which was way cool). Technically, it's Monday already (Mon Nov 3 00:36:00 PST 2003), but I figure I probably wrote at least 500 of those words before midnight, so I get a gold star for the day.
I decided that one of the two scenes I'd left out at the end of chapter 4 really, really couldn't wait until the next chapter in this thread. It's a big whammy. Putting it at the beginning of the next chapter would unbalance the whole chapter (I think that chapters, like short stories, have to start slow and end big, especially since in this book each chapter ending has to hold the reader's attention through the intervening chapter of the other plot thread), and putting it at the end of the next chapter... well, that would be too late for this particular revelation. So I went ahead and wrote that scene, and I'm going to mail it to my critique group as an appendix to the chapter I just handed out.
Posted 11/02/2003 23:37 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 37891
Went to a Halloween Haunted Hoe-Down last night, then did my critiques after the party; to bed around 1am. Up at 6am and immediately got to work writing. 2000 words (!) later, it was about noon and I decided to cut off the chapter at that point. There were two more scenes in the outline, which I wanted to get in at the climax of the chapter because they tie the two plot threads together, but the chapter had reached a semi-satisfactory stopping place and I just didn't think I had time to write any more. The good news about writing a novel is that there's always another chapter.
Took a shower, during which I realized that the scene I completed and the new scene I had just written could be slightly altered to tie them together better and increase tension (in the new version, it's Raptor who rescues Clarity from the roof rather than Honor). So I altered them, and it worked. Reformatted it for critique, printed it out, took it to the copy shop, and arrived at the meeting exactly on time. At which point I discovered I'd neglected to press the Collate button, and I had to spend the first 15 minutes of the meeting manually collating the 10 copies of 28 pages. But I got the chapter finished in time, by God!
Got Chapter C critiqued at this meeting. In general people are happy with the way the novel is going, though some folks thought the pace was a little slow and a couple of people said they thought the characters were well-realized and believable but they didn't like them as people. Sara in particular said she wanted to slap Jason silly. Also -- as I already know -- the aliens aren't alien enough, Jason isn't motivated enough, and Jason (and to a lesser extent Clarity) is too much reactive rather than active ("a catalyst, not a hero").
Despite these critiques, I plan to keep writing the characters as they are, so that I will have an internally-consistent first draft when I go back and start fixing it. (Is this a mistake?) Also, if Jason isn't a hero that's not necessarily a bad thing. He does becom the villain of the piece (for a while, to the extent it has villains), before he hits bottom and begins to redeem himself. But, as Sara pointed out, there are no Evil Fucks (thanks, Jim) in this book. Is this a problem?
Meanwhile, my crashed phone came back from Nokia, repaired -- but without its battery. Grr!!! They're sending a new one, but it won't even leave Florida until Monday. Waah!
One more thing before I fall over (I got five hours sleep last night -- I feel like Clarion, whee). November, as you may know, is National Novel Writing Month. But I can't do NaNoWriMo for real, because you're not supposed to use it to work on a novel in progress. Nor do I imagine I can write 50k words in a month. I tried a "PseuDoNaNoWriMo" in March, with a goal of 40k words, and only managed 10k.
So in November I'm doing a "not really a NaNoWriMo" (NoReNaNoWriMo). My goal is to write every day -- minimum 100 words, and not necessarily on my novel. I'm going to put up a calendar and stick gold stars on it. I'll be tracking my progress here. Wish me luck!
Posted 11/01/2003 21:26 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
This page created and maintained by David D. Levine,
dlevine@spiritone.com.
Return to David's Science Fiction Writing Page