I'm getting there.  12 chapters out of 15 (or possibly 16) drafted.  27,892 words, not counting the ~2000 words that currently indicate the outlines of Chapters 14 and 15 (at the moment, Chapter 13 exists only as a series of largely incoherent notes).  One plot twist inserted today that surprised even me, and the denouement, like distant mountains ( Read more... )

I love my job.

My new WIP is about a young boy apprenticed to an Evil Wizard.  At one point, the wizard turns Our Hero into a rat, and so I went on the Internets to find some Fun Facts about rats I could use to make his experience a little more, well, realistic.  And I found this.  It's a video of a walk through a garden from a rat's pov.  It's very ( Read more... )

I'm on my way out into the cold and snow (yes, even in NYC) to meet with a young writer over a story she won a critique on, but I couldn't wait to get this post out into my part of the blogosphere.  It's Terri Windling on the importance of Foolery to creative work, the courage and blind faith it takes to put yourself out there, ass's ears and angel ( Read more... )

Yesterday, a Young Relative who is writing a novel sent ellen_kushner  and me a heartfelt plea for advice.  She'd been going along swimmingly, she wrote, sailing through words and pages and scenes, using "My Shitty First Draft" for a mantra when her internal editor got fractious, pretty much making it up as she went along.  And then she was asked to write a ( Read more... )

I'm home.  I have been home since Sunday night, but yesterday was a day of sleep and exercise and an afternoon nap and watching Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, plus all the extras, followed by Becoming Jane, followed by more sleep.

The Clarionites are forbidden to blog about their experience while it happens, so all I'll say is that it was an awesome week ( Read more... )

Over the past two days, there's been a great deal of talking and writing and reading going on in our little Devon retreat.  Ellen and Holly and Terri spent yesterday cloistered in the studio, reading Bordertown stories and figuring out all the geography and the Shared World details.  Every once in a while, someone (mostly Ellen) would come in to ( Read more... )

This morning, I awoke to a murder of crows vociferating outside the bedroom window.  When I drew the curtains to see what in tarnation was going on, I saw maybe 20 crows perching on rooftops and trees and power lines, including a large and terrifying hoodie crow.  I'd never seen one in the flesh and feathers before, not close enough to understand ( Read more... )

frostokovich has posted an interesting and (I think) true post about writing on The Liar's Club.  The whole post is worth reading, but it was the final paragraph that made me shout, "AMEN"!!!

So, in a sense, I kind of wish someone had said to me what Conroy said to Cronin. Because what that really says is, “Embrace the process. Love the writing itself for ( Read more... )

The thing about The Freedom Maze that has never really worked well, technically speaking, is the Framing Device.  I made it longer, I made it shorter.  I spiced it up, I ripped through it.  What I didn't do (for no reason I can deduce) is realize that it, too, is a historical novel, set in 1960, and needs to be written with the same attention to ( Read more... )

I have spent the last month doing my level best to get back into The Freedom Maze, the novel that's due to Small Beer Press on the first of June.  This is a book I began many years ago and have put through many iterations, none of them quite satisfactory.  This is my last chance to Get It Right, on many levels, and the days are ticking by.  I have ( Read more... )