Long time...


Hard to believe that I haven’t posted since September. However, the time of blog silence has ended (for the moment at least) and the quiet period has been put to good use.

Over the past few months, I finally reached the point in my rewrite where the balance has shifted from lots of editing with some new writing, to entirely new writing. It’s an odd feeling to dive back into new composition after long months with the red pen in hand. At times it has been a little awkward. I’ve gotten a lot better at editing in short bursts as time allows, but crafting new material requires more attention than that. It’s invigorating too, though, to scribble on pure white pages and spin out the story I meant to tell in the first place.

The first block of 50 pages has migrated from the handwritten page to the computer, and made it through critique group. It has confirmed that I’ve banished the most persistent issues that plagued the last half of the book and forced the rewrite–lack of adequate motivation for the choices the characters make, and the drifting, travelogue feel I was so enamored with during the first draft (what was I thinking?)

With that block finished off, I’ll be drafting to the end now before stepping back to edit again. I’d originally hoped for a New Years finish, but with that out of the question, I feel comfortable that it’ll get on the page by sometime next month.

Other writing news to come, along with a review of one of my favorite series by Gene Wolfe, The Book of the New Sun.