Week Six Wrap Up

Much written, but more learned.

Heya!

The Clarion West Write-a-thon 2023 is complete and I’m glad. Glad to have taken part, glad to have raised money for this wonderful non-profit, and glad to be done. A sane person would use the time to work on a specific task, say write X short stories, or Y words of a manuscript, or even edit an existing story. I reiterate, this is a same person.

I bit off too much. I tossed out the ambitious goal of adding 70-thousand words to the first draft of my latest novel. AND, post daily social media updates on four platforms, update my Clarion West fundraising page every day, host a weekly on-line writing session, head a Comic Book Q&A, and write a weekly newsletter about my process and Write-a-thon updates. It was too much.

I was fortunate that client work was light during the fundraiser, but all these extra hours outside of writing required sacrifices.

In order to meet this high word count, I needed to hit a growing word count every day of the week. In the beginning, it wasn’t just every day, but all day. It had been a few years since I wrote a first draft, and I was out of practice and SLOW. To overcome my tectonic pace, I wrote for hours in the morning, in the afternoon, and later at night—right until I went to bed. It was unsustainable.

Deep down, I trusted the speed would return if I put the work in, but if I wanted to be successful, the overall word count needed revision. If you’ve read along to this point, you know I lowered the goal and reclaimed my weekends. This made for a happier time in our home; and in the end, it all worked out. I hit the revised number and finished close to the original goal.

I’m glad I had the sense to adjust my target. It wouldn’t surprise me if those two days off each week helped my brain and played a major factor in my daily performance over the six-weeks. This time off combated the isolating nature of writing, and provided the space for me to engage with the world and those around me. All to remain human. Something I still need more practice with.

While the Write-a-thon is officially over, Clarion West will accept donations on my fundraiser page until August 31st. This is the last newsletter on the topic, but if you can donate $10, $20, or more in my name. You can do so here. All money goes to support underserved voices in the speculative fiction genres.

It’s not all Negative Nelly stuff. I’ve finished these six weeks with a few more writing friends than I had beforehand, and I’ve learned some important things about my craft.

In no real order.

The terrifying act of generative work (the blank page) is a joy, not a burden. With so many years away from writing a first draft, like many bands, I feared I couldn’t write the second album. But the deliberate work day after day erased those concerns. I liken it to discovering and developing the connections between brands and customers in my design work. That has been one of my go-to skills for decades, and I’ve found the same applies with characters and story.

Much of this is due to adopting the outline as my chief story development tool for this book. Rather than discover the story through a hundred-thousand words of prose, I found I could feel my way through the plots in outlines. Then shore the ideas up before I commit to the paragraphs.

I loved discovery writing Blackfire, but the work it took for me to work the early drafts into a cogent story was immense. Of course, this may well be because of my novice skill as a writer, and my never writing a book before. But now I have and I’ve streamlined my process. We’ll see what the Beta Readers say next year.

I’ve started using a few Alpha Readers as an early feedback loop as I write the book. I’ll incorporate whatever I can into my revision guide as I tackle the second draft. It’s too soon to gauge the efficacy of this, and I will fine-tune how I work with this valuable resource as I proceed.

Another learned lesson will help all the others in the long run. My typing skills. They’re pretty poor. The time spent fixing typing errant keystrokes over spelling mistakes is 30:1. A massive time-suck. I haven’t found regular practice times yet, but I’m committed to bolstering this skill to maximize my time at the keyboard. I have too many novels and comics waiting to be written to remain a slow and inaccurate typist.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this six-week peek behind the neurotic veil of my writing life. It’s been a fulfilling experience to share my thoughts and process. I feel it’s helped me define some areas of thought as a writer. It’s also been a bit of a relief valve after long weeks of writing. Thank you for reading along.

The Numbers.

Despite the influx of client work, I wrote 10,622 words this week, bringing my Write-a-thon total to 69,524 words! Precipitously close to that seventy-thousand word original goal. Hell, if I include what I’ve written in this newsletter, I’d cruise way past it. BTW, it’s 1,527 words. So yeah, I did it.

Thinking about the book, this section of chapters I’m writing now may be the end of the first act of Ghost Wing, or the midway point. It’s the first act according to the outline, but I’ll see how things go with the remaining parts. I’ll publish two more State of the Book newsletters this year, so we’ll see how well my outline works against the draft. Keep an eye out for these in September and December. My goal is to complete the draft by year's end.

As I mentioned above, the opportunity to donate to Clarion West remains open until August 31st. You can do that here.

Thank you to those who have already donated. I will truss up the reader chapters and email them to you. If I don’t have your email, please drop me one here, and I’ll make sure you get the PDF. Character sketches will happen a bit after the chapters. My work schedule has ramped up, and will remain that way for the next 2-3 months. I’ll draw them on the iPad, so I should be able to do them anywhere I go.

Tonight will be the last WAT post, but please follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and Bluesky!

What’s cool?

We did it! We saw Oppenheimer in the theater. Wow, what a massive work by Christopher Nolan and his team. Mid-way through, I remarked at how great it was to watch a real “grown up” movie in the cineplex, and marveled how many people were there, three weeks into its run. Pardon the broad brush here, but most didn’t strike me as history or science buffs. So why did they go? Star power? Were they there to watch Iron Man’s hairline recede? Was this residual equity from the Batman Trilogy, or Inception? Film critics? Or a combination of?

Even if that was the case, the general-public would taper off if this was a bog standard biopic. What I feel Mr Nolan has done is sneak a historical event into a thriller. Like wrapping a pill in cheese to feed your dog. Using his immense skill with time manipulation, Mr Nolan wove the various time threads and tightened them together at the end. It entertains as well as it informs, and may very well demand a rewatch.

I blasted through a couple trade paperback comic collections this week. Finished All-Star Superman, by Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly, and it never came together for me. Plenty of people adore this book. I wish I did. I read Do a Powerbomb by Daniel Warren Johnson. Outside a six or seven-month period in 1999, when I followed the Triple H / Stephanie McMahon saga on WWE, I’m not a wrestling person. Despite a lack of connective tissue, I loved the book. SWJ and Mike Spicer’s art is a lively mixture of expressionism and manga. I’d love to have DWJ on my podcast to dig into the common themes I see in the three books I read of his. He’s an exciting voice for the medium.

Next on the stack is La Mano del Destino: Lucha Libre Action by J Gonzo. Oddly, another wrestling-bases comic trade. Gonzo was my guest this last week and I love his point of view, graphic sense, style, and color pallet. Can’t wait to read this one.

My big post WAT treat will be the return of reading in the evenings. No daily social media updates and weekly newsletters. Unless I transform Tradecraft into a subscription-based feed. But I have too many things going on to put the time in, now.

How goes the hunt for an agent?

The Write-a-thon is complete, so some of those precious hours sacrificed for the fundraiser will now go to finding an agent.

See you in September!