2nd Draft Sputters Over the Starting Line

Still really rough here in crookedbackville but I did manage to position some pillows and lean just the right way so I could type a bit while in bed and we're making slight progress killing this beast.

Well...I mean...I edited/reworked 7 pages but now the whole thing is 2 pages longer so...

*looks at calculator*

Yeah, let's hope I'm able to start getting more done.

Especially since the OTHER math means I'll be adding 50 pages to this then very-much-novel at this rate...

11-12 Update:  21/183

11-15 Update:  Felt better today so managed a little bit.  31/184.  Getting my Covid booster tomorrow so...if it goes how it has before I suppose we'll be politically correct for once and say I will be mentally disabled for the better part of a week.  

Stalled Out

Insurance wanted a second x-ray (full spine) before they signed off on anything more expensive, so I was in a waiting room miserable for the better part of 3 hours a few days ago and now...everything hurts.  Sitting hurts, typing hurts.  Why my back being messed up makes my left ring finger scream I'm not sure, but...it's a thing.  Has been a thing for years now apparently.  Thought I had two small problems, now have one big problem!  Knowing is half the battle, so...yay?

Do feel better today compared to the last couple, but now I'm slightly paranoid about putting in too many hours per day and might have to throttle myself going forward until the docs figure this out.  6 to 8 hours a day sitting at a computer slightly uncomfortable being preferable to a marathon followed by days in bed wanting to gnaw my own arm off as it were.  

If I am stuck in bed for prolonged periods I suppose I can put the edit down for a bit and just go back to handwriting "War to End All Wars" again, which IS progress, if not the kind that will immediately get a MancyVerse story into all of your greedy hands.

Getting to do a lot of reading of my own, I suppose and finally watching Succession...so...double yay?

Anyway, here's hoping for some more healing and a return to progress this week!

Step One Down

Okay, Prep Reading is done.   28 notes to consider for the edits.  I really hate reading my old writing.  Even novel to novel you learn so much, go back years and it's really cringe.

Really...you always see improvements, it's just a matter of time and finally letting go.  Though part of you never wants to...and if you're a billionaire you even get to force your special editions onto everyone!

On one hand the writing in the earlier part of the series is sparse and simplistic but there's also an innocence and brevity to it.  A single-minded determination to be in your face and take no prisoners.  But...everything is more complex these days, the characters, the plot, the prose, and some of the scenes I craft with the way characters go at each other and even the writer can't decide who's in the right...chef's kiss!

Part of me just misses a bit of the brevity I suppose.  Although I did just write a 170 page story that had a nice little arc and got the job done with plenty of hints and world-building added on top, so...maybe it's just King Henry that needs to shut his foul mouth!

Yeah, blame that guy, he never shuts up!

What an asshole!

Some trouble I am having with all this experience as an author, not related to "Everchanging Dilemma" but "War to End All Wars" is that King Henry has advanced so much in my head, in your hearts, etc that with respect to the double timelines the Hep King Henry really is more civilized and complex than he comes across as the graduated KH in FM1.  I have to keep reminding myself to not hold back and think...oh yeah, he'd totally be that big of an asshole!  Even though...probably still a more understanding less in-your-face KH than unadulterated FM1 stuff.  Arcing into an arc...pretty tough!  Landing might be rough!

Although perhaps there's a weaselly out to say technically FM1 adult KH is middle age KH remembering what that felt like so maybe it's good that it's not exact?

Anyway, I'll start the second draft some time this week I hope.

My back is...I can still sit a chair at least.  But not as easily as last week.  Might need to take a day in bed.  Stop getting in street fights.  Give up the orgies.  Stuff like that.

Perfect excuse to watch all of What We Do In the Shadows Season 3!  RR recommended TV series for sure!  Oh, I'd love for Annie B to meet those dipshits...

That was a Crazy Day...

 Well...my edit note list is already 18 items long and I've still got 3/4ths of "Dread Fortress" left to work my way through.  Plus I got into a six hour wonderland dive of checking through everyone's class year and finally said "fuck it" and created a great big list where every character will eventually be added.  Goes back to Class 1982 at this point...

Class years might be the only bane of my existence worse than timelines!

Crazy thing is I don't think I've found an error yet...so...accidental genius?

Or I'm an idiot and you'll all point out my errors like usual.

Basically it all started with me trying to figure out how Ceinwyn/Strange would fit together while at the school together and if Evelyn had to go to med school and do a residency then was she around when Ceiwnyn killed Paine/Amis died in 2001 and also if she was that class year then that would mean Mordecai Root would have been her student-advisor when she was a Single...accidental genius confirmed!

Also I have this class list of King Henry's class from when I started world-building and it lists all of the classes siblings (not all named since fuck that, but how many and where they relate age wise, etc.) so I decided to go through that and add them to my snazzy new file and just some interesting things popping up or barely missing out.  Is Wilson Hunting in the same year as Christmas Ward?  Nope, year younger than her.  Blake Gullick is in 2013 with the Four Peers, Maud Gullick is in 2017 which is a year older than Christmas Ward.  Dawn Hunting is in the same class as Matty Rivera and could have been a student-advisor for KH if she was chosen.

Miroslav Urban mentioned as the youngest Strike member having just graduated gets placed in 2011 with Falcon Smart and Dahlia Gullick.  Eugenie Gotha is four or so years older than T-Bone which puts her about 2001.  Which means she was a Single when Paine/Amis died.

Hey, if JoJo HAD gone to the school would she have been in the same year with the Three Queens?  Nope, but Susan likely WOULD have been King Henry's student-advisor.

I mean, some of this I knew and I'm just playing it up for this blogpost, but it's nice to have it all written down.  I really need to do this more going forward and like I said spend more time doing groundwork even more than I already do.  Plus updating my concordance with the last 7 something books/novellas is probably an emergency mission at this point...

But I could be writing instead!

Or editing!

Everchanging Dilemma Edit Plan

 So for those newbies who weren't around the last time we did this (four score and seven years ago), our pathway goes something like:

1.  Prep Reading:  Read through relevant character passages from old works I think I might need to remind myself of.  This time I'm actually really nervous about this, since I've been away from the work for so long it's not as inside my mind as it usually is and I'm only slowly getting everything back in its proper place and training my brain to make all those connections again.  So if I do fuck up some continuity stuff...oops!  But usually this is my superpower so here's hoping, right?

Another big reason I want to do a full reread of the series before I start FM7 (finally)(I know)(no, really, I know!)

For "Everchanging Dilemma" we are looking at "Shadow Running" and Eva's POV/Isabel scenes from "Assault on Dread Fortress Paine", should be starting this today and typing down more notes.  Fuck you Halloween, there's writing to do!  Not you, Football Manager, daddy loves you!

2.  Second Draft (Addition Edit):  Basically where I just let the work engulf me a second time.  Early career me would be adding inner monologue and fleshing out scenes so the characters would be active in them, not just standing in a boundless, bodiless space talking.  More experienced me has started to really manipulate and rework scenes on a fundamental level, far more fearlessly than ever before.  We get better!  Future me...might even plan ahead more to begin with?  Now that's scary!

3.  Third Draft (Character Edit):  Another pass looking specifically on making sure secondary characters sound like themselves and that King Henry isn't overriding everything, making sure dialogue and mannerisms are right, stuff like that.  No KH this time, Evelyn Strange instead, so she shouldn't bleed over as much, I imagine.  It is at this point when the work is it's most bloated and unwieldy.

4.  Fourth Draft (Subtraction Edit):  We start cutting off bits and killing our children!  Cut!  Cut!  Cut!  It was at this point in editing "Assault on Dread Fortress Paine" where I caught the worst flu of my life and really half-assed it, leading to why the stream of consciousness of that novella was so TURN IT UP TO 11.  This might be the most important draft and starting with "Glassbreaker Goes Home" I promised myself to be extra ruthless going forward and will show no mercy this time around either.  No, Raley, you can't have a cock joke on EVERY page.

5.  Fifth Draft (Formatting/Kindle Edit):  At this stage I finally reformat the files for digital use and add in all the bells and whistles.  I then read through the book on my Kindle which kind of works to reset your brain and let's you notice errors and typos easier.  I also keep making cuts, the novel slimming down and getting sexy.  This is also when the annual Ellipsis Genocide usually takes place.

6.  Copyedit:  We hate typos!  At this point I also hate myself and hate what I've written and never want to read it ever again.  You also start obsessing over words and shit gets very weird.  Fuck you 'that', fuck you!  You're so unneeded!  You're ugly!  I hate you!

7.  Beta Read:  the lucky few friends, family, and hanger-ons get advanced copies and also kill typos since their brains don't know what "should" be there.

8:  Release!!!

9.  I make money?!?!?!

10.  You laugh and cry and feel things.

11.  The reviews make me want to commit suicide no matter how good they are.

12.  I work on the next novel because I am a masochist!