Deviant Dispatches

The less I write, the less I write. The last month or so marks the least consistent streak of writing since I began this blog, back in New Mexico. It's a disturbing trend, and one I'd rather discontinue; not only have I been inattentive here, I've distanced myself from the novel a bit too much. This means that rather than being almost done with Draft 5 and ready to start emailing publishers in desperation, I'm instead on page 119 of 321, barely a third through and giving my own writing mind a vicious, critical stink eye. To be fair, I have done some tough work, and the first half is what most needs improving. I've cut down several thousand words and the ones that are already in place flow with much better prose, if not more poetically. Things are happening. But I know I can do better, and so I'm going to. The new goal is to get to page 140 by the end of the month. That's 21 pages - a horrifically easy pace compared to what I've been doing, but a st...

I'm quite pleased with the results of my latest knitting project: a pair of mittens, modeled after a scene from my novel. The waves are the only part that I used a pattern for; everything else (including the general mitten shape) were my creation. I'm especially pleased with the turtle and the mountain skyline. I nearly ran out of yellow, but found another ball of it in my stash. (Hooray stash!) There were so many ends to weave in when all was said and done, but it was worth it. As these are acrylic, they're not the warmest mittens ever, but they will do for now. I've decided that I love making mittens, so it won't be long before I make myself another pair in wool.

July has been rough. I won't be sad to see it go. Nothing terribly big has made me feel this way; it's been the little things, one after the other. At times like this, I'm incredibly grateful for Spousal Unit, and to have the ongoing project of my novel to work on. Knowing that at least one part of my day will be the same has been very helpful and reassuring. On days when I'm upset or discouraged, I've started saying to myself, "Let it be fuel for the fire, but let it be the right fire." I accept whatever I'm feeling and put it to work for me, using that energy toward my plan to become a self-sustaining author. Then I don't waste time endlessly grinding my gears and getting nowhere. (Or I waste less time, anyway.) Which leads me to the update. I've finished reading the whole thing, beginning to end, and taking notes. I wrote down the facts that I included about each individual character, each city, the storyline as a whole, the timeline, ...

Here's another shot I recently took of the sunset that wasn't pointed at the west. These clouds are in the east, spreading out like they're going to envelop the entire sky in radiance. Later this week, I should have another update on the novel for you. I'm nearing the end of my read through and getting ready to make the changes - to improve the whole of it yet again. I really hope someone besides me will enjoy this in the end.

My novel is complete. I have completely finished the most recent draft, meaning I have a book that can be read from beginning to end. It's still not pretty and still needs a lot of work, but this step is complete. For about two months, I worked on it nearly every day, writing about 400 words (a little more than one page) during my lunch hour at work. This is goal 7 of my 25 things . This has resulted in a total of 331 pages and 91,848 words. I'm very impressed with me. The next step is to reread the whole thing, then start draft 4. There are one or two sections that need to be added, several scenes to rewrite, and continuity to check for. I also want to revamp some characters. So much work to be done, but after about 30 pages, I can already see what the main problems are, so that's kind of nice. The main thing I'm worried about is my writing overall. I've improved so much while finishing the ending, and I'm afraid that by writing so much less righ...

I really ought to put some effort into writing a nice post for y'all this morning. But the sky is so dreary, and it's pouring quite steadily outside. I slept late and want to keep sleeping, even though this is the start of a four-day week and my workday will be shorter than usual. I do have to give myself some writing slack: I missed a day this weekend, but what I wrote yesterday was so strange and remarkable and ... disturbing.  It might seriously be the best part of my book. So. When it comes to writing, I can take a break now and then. Especially when I'll be finishing this book in a few days. Then come the edits. For now, though, we have only sunsets.

Source I've made some good progress on my novel. My newest goal is to reach page 300 by the end of April. I'm on page 281 right now. I think I'll pass that goal with flying colors. That's kind of weird to say. When I started this beast, it was only based on a small grain of an idea (when in doubt, zombies). After NaNoWriMo blew over, I was left with 175 poorly written pages full of great ideas, which had spiraled out of control and taken over my plot. (I still kind of feel that way, and it won't get better till it's all written out and I rearrange this thing like mad. With scissors.) It's been a long time since I started it - four years, in fact - and I started working on this draft last summer. It's weird to feel like I'm close to the end of the story and to have 78,445 words, all of the same purpose, in one place. It's still weird to tell people I'm writing a novel, but I'm quite proud of myself. For two weeks straight, I...

Sourceness It's the beginning of NaNoWriMo . Over the course of the next month, I plan to spend every day writing my novel. I'm not tackling NaNo with my past intensity, though; my goal here is to finish the book. I don't think I'll need 50,000 words for that, and I don't want to rewrite all of them. So I'm taking the time to do it right - or if not right, at least better than I might otherwise. Yesterday on my lunch break, I wrote 313 words. Today, I'll have to get those words in before work, as there's a staff lunch today and I'm required to be social . With people.  People I don't know, congregated in a large group, who will force me against the wall to blend in with the half-redecorated decor. (Seriously - half the building has wallpaper and dark accents, the other half has green paint and light accents.) But that's the lunch time concern. Right now, my concern is getting out at least 300 words before 8 a.m.. At 8, I turn into a ...

The coming year will provide many things for me. The Mayan apocalypse may or may not be among them; personally, I'm rooting in favor of the four horsemen deciding they're just not up to destroying the world this year, and would rather stay in Valhalla and comb their ridiculous green-tentacled beards. I like where my life is going, and I'd like it to get there - wherever there  may happen to be. It's that time of year when I like to at least pretend I have some control over my life and make wise and ridiculous goals as I gallop off into the sunset of another anniversary. Here's what I'm hoping to accomplish in the next year. The first six are uncompleted items from last year - ones that I still hope to check off my list. 1. Take a creative class - painting, writing, etc. 2. Bake something extra-difficult. Then make other people eat it. Because I'm evil. 3. Get a bike - if not for myself, for Spousal Unit. 4. Volunteer somewhere - like a children's m...

Ladies and gentlemen: I present to you... the last page of my novel. Some part of me thought I'd never see it again. I can tell that part of me to shove it, because I've finished my second draft. Now comes the hard stuff. All those little yellow post-its? Those are things I need to address in the next edit. All these pages and pages of notes? According to my  editing instructions  for this book, the next edit will be one of the most difficult: correcting all of the major faults. I addressed some of them in the most recent edit (such as changing my main character's age), but I've discovered many more problems. Maybe I should have done the really hard stuff on my first edit, but I'm glad I didn't. One of the huge problems I unveiled was a certain character who could have solved two hundred pages of problems  thirty years ago - now, I need a reason that he didn't. I also added important elements to the world I created - things that may ...

Yesterday was Wednesday, which, as you know, is the day I set aside the blog and work on the novel instead. I've really been plugging away at it lately, so I wanted to share some of my progress with you. Ideally, I'd share the most recent myth I wrote for it. But the novel is reaching a certain point where I don't really want to post much of this stuff on the Internets, because I don't want it to be stolen. I am also hoping to publish the myth I just wrote, and many places have strict rules against previous publishing in any format. So instead of sharing what I've written, I'll tell you about what I've been doing to get the book ready for human consumption. Adding myths. So far I have one about the world's creation, one about the end of the world, and one about a trickster/shapeshifter. Adding segments from another character's perspective. This is to help add depth to the story, and to give it more than two main characters. Edits. I'm on...

*The following is a second myth to go with my novel, Harvest. It doesn't quite fit my novel yet, but it was fun getting to this point. When humanity had yet to exist, the Great Ape, Fox, and Heron gifted the world with purpose and harmony. Mankind came to envy these gifts, but could not grasp their beauty - what a foolish creature, to not know the way home. And so shall history write itself: There lived a race called humankind, who sought peace and possessed none. With little effort, it called forth a shadow from deep nightmares. It spoke like peace, but in the guise of shapeless fear. Humans thought to control it, but the shadow feasted on their aimless anger. The end crept in slowly, and just as they were made, humans took themselves apart. In all their villages, the shadow flowed. Young were not spared, nor old. Slow as old honey, then quick as a comet, the shadow grew. Mankind was blinded to Death, who walked beside them. They awoke one day to the terror of absence. Hu...

Ladies and gents: I successfully avoided putting the box of cereal in the fridge when I got up this morning. Hooray for that. Now for news that you actually care about. First, thank you for participating in my meager little survey. Results said that, if anything, you would all like to see more letters to various entities, be they undead mythological beasts or undead modern companies (seeing as corporations are people in the good ol' US, I guess they're just as at risk for becoming vampires, too). Tied with that was a craving for more book previews. I am totally okay with that. It helps that at work, I'm now the custodian of sections that I care about, so I will more often stumble across awesomeness. Such as the one I'm going to tell you about later this week... But overwhelmingly, rather than seeing any one particular thing more often, results said that you all like Deviant Dispatches the way it is, and wouldn't change it a bit. Which is why I'm go...

November is upon us. I have yet to decide if I will fully participate in this year's National Novel Writing Month , but I will at least give my novel more focus. If nothing else, I will use this time to craft my characters and improve at least the first 30 pages of my novel, which are probably the worst pages I've ever written. For those who plan to participate (or who just like writing), I provide for you here some of my favorite writing-related implements of creation. Write or Die is a great way to get out the required number of words in a short amount of time. If you stop writing, the screen gradually turns pink, then red, then starts screeching at you in a most terrible manner. Beware: on occasion, rather than screeching, the program has removed my most recent words letter by letter. So, you know, keep cheating by hitting space and backspace over and over. (Also, you don't have to buy this. Look for the online edition on this website, in the right column.) Dragon Writin...

One reason my novel has been moving kind of slowly is that I need to do some background research on many different subjects before being able to write about them with some expertise. Yes, fiction writers need to research things too; "write what you know" just means you should learn before writing (or before starting the second draft), and that is my plan. Considering that my book has zombies in it, I want to learn about the history of zombie culture. World War Z by Max Brooks is just one of many books I could start with on the subject. Though my idea of zombies is different from the typical Hollywood zombie , it's still good to have that background. It will allow me to pick and choose which ideas to stick with - and maybe give me ideas to develop the method of contagion better. When it comes to herbal medicine, I'm worried about finding a book that won't get into a bunch of hippie/New Age stuff. I just want to know, factually, what the uses of certain herbs and p...

I'm very excited to get my first paycheck from this job, for several reasons. One is being able to pay bills next month. Along with that come all the other ways in which I should be responsible, like getting new glasses for myself and Spousal Unit, car repairs, saving for an apartment, all that good adult stuff we should be doing. But there's another reason I'm excited. I can finally take a class again. Yes, I want to go back to school eventually, but I'm not talking about those kinds of classes. I'm talking about creative, fun classes, the ones in which I have a hobby-esque interest. I want to learn about these things, and the best way to do that is through an instructor. For example, belly dancing. My original belly dance lessons were through Ameena Ahava in my home town. I only took lessons for two months before heading to New Mexico, and I'd love to do more. Plus, I miss the cameraderie of a bunch of ladies shakin' their groove thing and ...

Remember me mentioning, far away and long ago, the novel I'm working on ? Yes. Well. That was back in May, and I've only edited another 15 pages or so since then. Shame on me. But recently, I've really been feeling the drive to get a move on with this thing. I know my book forwards and backwards, I know the characters like they're family (or like they're close, personal enemies), and I know what I need to do to finish it. So I decided the best way to actually get it done is to make a list. Lists are my favorite way of staying organized. Then (so long as the paper doesn't get lost) you won't forget everything that needs doing, and you can revel in the cathartic experience of crossing items off as you finish them. You add things as they come to mind, and eventually the paper's filled up with lots of things you have and haven't done. Then you transfer everything that's left to a new piece of paper and start over. Maybe no one else does ...

*This is a myth from my novel, expanded for your enjoyment. Birds in Mulnaran culture are sacred; this myth explains why.* Long ago, when humans still had their tails and the newly born world spun quickly in her path, the Great Heron looked down on creation with the waters of the earth in his eyes and sorrow in his heart. He was yet a god then, pleased with all he and the other gods had brought to life. But one new form had fallen away from them: mankind. The Great Ape had given mankind their long arms and legs, to move quickly on land, or in the trees, or in the world's large waters. The Great Fox had given them brilliant minds, to create beautiful things and speak beautiful thoughts. And the Great Heron himself gave them a light in their spirits, for though man may never fly on his own, they would always look to the heavens and dream of being more than they are. So did the gods bless mankind, and mankind was grateful. But much time passed, and things once passed from parent to ch...