Writing, feels good...and a word count update

It feels good to finally start writing again.  To get back into the chair and work on some fiction.  I have been working on it for a few days now and I will now update the word count, with an aside...18,580 words.  Yes, that is a 12,000 word jump.  I wish I could say that I wrote it all in a blistering pace.  Yet, I am a little bit more humble than that and it is from previous drafts of this same story that I am tacking on.  These pages where always around, I just wanted to start with something new before going back and adding in these pages.

Which is something I am sure other writers do.  If not, it doesn't bother me.  I am different.

Anyway...I now have a problem.  Do I go forward and start editing all of the new stuff or say stop and rewrite the stuff I have.  I am not a big fan--sometimes--of re-writing.  This is the drag.  Going back and re-working the words until they are a little better.  I do know I am very close to hitting the mythical eighty page "draft zero."  I looked through my small backlist of posts and can't find it.  A draft zero is a term by Terry Pratchett.  He wrote in a book I recently found, and then had to box up when I moved, that he always tries to get at least eighty pages done for his first draft.  A draft no one will see but himself.  With it, Pratchett knew he had something that could work.  I am close, I have about nine pages to go.  Which shouldn't be to hard it I put in all of the revisions I need to do.

I will tell you all how it goes.

Learning things...

Well, the light at the end of the pay tunnel never materialized for me.  I thought I had stumbled into something that could work for me, granted it wasn't going to be fiction writing but hey, I have done screenplays in school, I could do this.

Well, I was wrong.

I learned something from it, which is in a way a reason to go through these things.  Yet, it hurt and did a number on some relationships which I won't go into here.

However, I have found recently that I need to be doing something, so I have unearthed an old manuscript of mine and am currently tinkering with it.  I ripped the whole thing down and starting from scratch.

At the moment, it is a sort of gothic/sci-fi/steampunk story.  And, because this is my blog, I thought I would keep a running word count going, so here it is: 6,306.  Not bad for something I started on just a few days ago.  Anyway, I will try and keep updating this blog as much as I can.  Until next time.

Long time, no write...

So, been a LONG time since I have written in this blog.  I have been doing much more writing in my rpg blog, but hey, more stuff is going on there then here.

I am currently working on a TV pilot.  A supernatural one that I will share more of when I get more done and there is some movement on the show.

One thing I haven't done in a long time is any kind of fiction writing, which hurts me a little.  I was hoping that even with the script writing, I would still have some time to write something in the fiction vein.  However, I hope that it will change soon.

writing...

WOW, it has been a long time since I have written anything on here.

I feel slightly ashamed of myself that I haven't kept up with this blog.  Anyway...

I have news for all the readers.  I actually found a job.  At writing!

I am currently a screenwriter for an up and coming production company called CFJ entertainment.  Yesterday, I dropped off the first script, a bio-pic about Buster Keaton.  It took about a month for me to write the whole thing, and I thought I would get it done sooner.  I do have a bit of an ego I guess.

I learned many things while writing it.  The firs one is I prefer fiction.  I mean REALLY prefer to write prose fiction.  Yet, that doesn't mean I will stop doing this job.  It is at least a way to get some of more media friendly ideas on paper--one thing I will be able to do is to put some of my own ideas into at least treatment format and attempt to get the production company to take a look at them.

Anyway, I have to go and attempt to get some sleep.  I will try to come back here and talk about the screenwriting process and writing in general more.  One thing I did, right after I was done with the bio-pic, was print out the first 50 pages of my sci-fi noir and I am going to go through it again.  Who knows, it might get some good editing with my new set of eyes.

Writing and rewriting...again

An old adage states, "Writing is rewriting."

I have started working on an old novel I have tweaked and put away and tweaked.  It happens, though I wish I had more than the one novel to really work on.  Such is life...

This is a sci-fi noir set on Mars.  And, with this edit, I have to keep in mind nothing is sacred.  Everything can be cut.  Or, so I hope.


Anyway, that is all for now.  Hopefully I can start working on the blog a little more often.

New post, and mor writing

Finally, another post from yours truly.  One about writing this time.

According to my dshboard, I am writing my 13th post since I started this blog.  Maybe one reason why I haven't written in it.  Or it could be it has been awhile since I have actually tried to write something and had any kind of success!

You be the judge.

I have started on something new.  It is a western and a fantasy.  I came back from watching Cowboys and Aliens and it had my mind returning to a piece I had written and worked on, ever so briefly, months ago.  I have only just now started to work on it, so I am not sure where it will go.  However, I do know that it is time for me to put up or shut up.

This is going to be a piece I am working on and writing about in this blog.  I will hope to share my thoughts with you through it, and I know I will continue, or I will delete this blog.  That is something I feel is a good way for me to keep writing.  I need to write SOMETHING since I got out of grad school.  It is more than time to FINISH something.  Time to kick my ass in high gear and get something done!

Until I post again...may eveil be confused on its way to your door.

Writing and rewriting...

So, I thought I was ready to tackle this big fantasy piece that I have been working on, off an on, for ten years.  I get finished with the notes for the thing and ready for the re-write.

And, I stall.  I peck at the story, do a few pages, tell myself that it is ok, I can do more later, and do more later...Finally, I gave up.  I have put the story back into the drawer in my mind and started work on something else.  And, in that short time, I have been cranking out more than a few pages, so I am not completely pissed at myself for doing it.

Yet, there is that part of me that thinks, why did you let yourself be talked out of continuing with that other story?

I can't answer that.  All I do know is that I couldn't work on that other piece.  It is just how my mind works when it comes to writing.  There are things I have to work on and the last piece will get its time in the sun.

Currently I'm working on a sci-fi novel.  It is much like the other one I have worked on, which is making the rounds at publishers and I hope it is picked up by someone.  If it isn't, I might, just might, try and do the self-publishing thing again.  The last time, it tanked.  Yet, that was right before this giant explosion in e-books.  So, I might be able to get in on it.  OR, I will sink again without a ripple.

Anyway, back to the grindstone.