(no subject)

Well I managed to get a pretty much complete version of "A Little Respect" ready before writer's night. That was something of an accomplishment since the story was only half-finished on Wednesday and still only about 2/3rds finished when I got up Saturday around 1 pm.

But better than that, when I got home I went right back to working on it, and by 2 am I wound up with a second draft that incorporates pretty much every comment people had at writer's night. It's not as short as I was hoping -- I only cut out about half a page -- but I think it's much tighter and there aren't a lot of obvious places left to cut from. Probably the first scene is still too long, and the "explanation" scene might be too long. I'm not sure what else, that'll be up to whoever edits it next. I sent the new version to Gene, and I should probably send it to Kristin to see how she likes it better, and I should send it to Ingrid to see what she thinks. Does someone have her e-mail? ^_^

After that I was looking at other stories in my file, and I realized I still have "Monkey In The Middle" which is a completed story that just need a rewrite. That would be pretty easy to clean up and send to Gene.

But I didn't feel like doing that, so I pulled up a different story... "Hair Of The Throug That Bit Me". This is the story of how Vashti winds up on the Iktome, and I really do have an awful lot written on it. But it's one of those stories that I could never figure out what the main plot was, or why it seemed to develop so slowly. I went ahead and worked on it, getting a few more scenes done. I think I just need to finish it, and afterwards try and figure out if it really works or not. Right now, I happen to like most of what I have written, but I also have a nagging suspicion that I'll have to cut a lot of it anyway. :p

But there's enough written that I could probably finish it if I keep at it. It's at least half written already, maybe more than half.

Of course, then I'd have to write "Bitch" which is the story of how Vashti got off Hautakivi in the first place... I'd want those two stories, at least, to be published in order. ^_^

(no subject)

I had just crawled into bed last night when I thought of a very important bit of dialogue that absolutely had to be in my "Hair Of The THroug That Bit Me" story. So I got up and added it. It was 5 am and Tom was still playing City of Heroes. I think he'd wanted to play with me, but from the time I got home from writer's night until I went to bed, I was working on stories.

After I went back to bed, I was still thinking about the story, and I could see for the first time exactly how to work the ending. It's funny how these things come to me so much more easily when I'm trying to sleep.

I worked on it a bit today, but I'm kind of tired of writing for the moment. Not feeling too inspired. I think if I keep at it I can pound it out in a week or so, but I'm probably going to have to trim large portions of the first half eventually.

Tom's off selling his shotgun shells or whatever they are. He's worked out how to modify a basic type of brass shell and narrow the upper portion to make it a different type of shell that is only made by one company and is really expensive... so he can sell them for a good profit. He thinks he can go into business for himself and quit his regular job. We'll see.