Progress Report: 9/9/07--9/15/07
WRITING:
Let's see...this time last week I had five chapters to write. I wrote three, which is up from my usual two, which is good. But I ended up splitting what would've been chapter seven into two chapters. I don't know why, but every time I've written a chapter for my female protagonist, I always have to split it in two. Maybe it's because this is the beginning of the outline, and I was trying to cram too much in when I started writing it, not realizing it'd actually take two chapters to get the point across. Whatever the reason, I've only got three more chapters left for part one, and then I can print it out, clean it up, and send it off to my mentor and crit partner. FINALLY. I'll be glad to move on from this section.
The good thing is I have a tentative schedule. In order to get a completed draft of my novel to my beta readers with plenty of time for them to critique it, I must finish part one by the end of September, part two the end of October, three the end of November, four the end of December, and five the end of January. As it stands, I'll be ahead of the game if I finish part one this coming week, and that's a GOOD THING. Part one's actually one of the shorter parts in the whole book, with parts two and three being the monsters. I'll need all the time I can get for those two.
REVIEWS:
Cormac McCarthy, The Road: I thoroughly expected to love this book. It's dystopic, it's post-apocalyptic, it's literary. Right up my alley. Except, I didn't love it. I didn't hate it either, but the meh feeling I got from reading this surprises me. I'm not sure why it didn't grab me, but it didn't. It's a fast read though, despite the lack of chapter breaks and McCarthy's complete disregard for appropriate comma use, apostrophe use, and quotation marks. I can see why it won the Pulitzer, but it did absolutely nothing for me. Alas. For the full review, please click here.
Allen Steele, Coyote Frontier: after reading a handful of books that just didn't get my geek on, I turned to an author I knew would fit the bill. I hadn't yet read the last installment of Steele's Coyote trilogy, so I curled up with this book with glee. And I wasn't disappointed. I enjoy Steele's writing immensely, and this book wrapped up the trilogy just as nicely as it sets up Steele's current release, Spindrift, which I hope to get as soon as possible. I'm indebted to Jeanne for signing him up as a Guest Lecturer at Odyssey 2005, and I'm indebted to my classmates who ended up leaving the private crits spots with him blank so I ended up getting one. If it hadn't been for you guys (and the fact that Steele is just an awesomely cool cat), I would've never read these books. For the full review, please click here.
SHU:
More crits for Michele. She sent me her final submission, and since her deadline for final approval is September 25th, I thought it might be a good idea to get those crits out as soon as possible. I'm so super-excited about her thesis that it's completely ridiculous. She's gonna shine at her reading. :)
ADDED TO THE LIBRARY:
Only one, and I wouldn't have even bought it if I hadn't randomly found the title on Amazon and if Border's didn't have it in stock.
Dean Radin, Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality: no doubt, this is pseudo-science. Hell, it was shelved in the "metaphysical" section of Borders. That's quite all right, because from what I can gather, this book is about some stuff I'm been toying around with in my head anyway, and it may or may not relate to my novel. We'll see.
THIS WEEK:
Three more chapters, print them, polish them, and send them away to be butchered. Oh, it'll be so much fun! :) I also want to create a tighter schedule for the rest of my novel. While my outline is far from perfect in predicting how many chapters it'll be, it's a good guideline to guesstimate how many chapters I have per part, which I'll use to figure out how many chapters I need to write PER WEEK to finish said part on time. What can I say? It's a plan.
Let's see...this time last week I had five chapters to write. I wrote three, which is up from my usual two, which is good. But I ended up splitting what would've been chapter seven into two chapters. I don't know why, but every time I've written a chapter for my female protagonist, I always have to split it in two. Maybe it's because this is the beginning of the outline, and I was trying to cram too much in when I started writing it, not realizing it'd actually take two chapters to get the point across. Whatever the reason, I've only got three more chapters left for part one, and then I can print it out, clean it up, and send it off to my mentor and crit partner. FINALLY. I'll be glad to move on from this section.
The good thing is I have a tentative schedule. In order to get a completed draft of my novel to my beta readers with plenty of time for them to critique it, I must finish part one by the end of September, part two the end of October, three the end of November, four the end of December, and five the end of January. As it stands, I'll be ahead of the game if I finish part one this coming week, and that's a GOOD THING. Part one's actually one of the shorter parts in the whole book, with parts two and three being the monsters. I'll need all the time I can get for those two.
REVIEWS:
Cormac McCarthy, The Road: I thoroughly expected to love this book. It's dystopic, it's post-apocalyptic, it's literary. Right up my alley. Except, I didn't love it. I didn't hate it either, but the meh feeling I got from reading this surprises me. I'm not sure why it didn't grab me, but it didn't. It's a fast read though, despite the lack of chapter breaks and McCarthy's complete disregard for appropriate comma use, apostrophe use, and quotation marks. I can see why it won the Pulitzer, but it did absolutely nothing for me. Alas. For the full review, please click here.
Allen Steele, Coyote Frontier: after reading a handful of books that just didn't get my geek on, I turned to an author I knew would fit the bill. I hadn't yet read the last installment of Steele's Coyote trilogy, so I curled up with this book with glee. And I wasn't disappointed. I enjoy Steele's writing immensely, and this book wrapped up the trilogy just as nicely as it sets up Steele's current release, Spindrift, which I hope to get as soon as possible. I'm indebted to Jeanne for signing him up as a Guest Lecturer at Odyssey 2005, and I'm indebted to my classmates who ended up leaving the private crits spots with him blank so I ended up getting one. If it hadn't been for you guys (and the fact that Steele is just an awesomely cool cat), I would've never read these books. For the full review, please click here.
SHU:
More crits for Michele. She sent me her final submission, and since her deadline for final approval is September 25th, I thought it might be a good idea to get those crits out as soon as possible. I'm so super-excited about her thesis that it's completely ridiculous. She's gonna shine at her reading. :)
ADDED TO THE LIBRARY:
Only one, and I wouldn't have even bought it if I hadn't randomly found the title on Amazon and if Border's didn't have it in stock.
Dean Radin, Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality: no doubt, this is pseudo-science. Hell, it was shelved in the "metaphysical" section of Borders. That's quite all right, because from what I can gather, this book is about some stuff I'm been toying around with in my head anyway, and it may or may not relate to my novel. We'll see.
THIS WEEK:
Three more chapters, print them, polish them, and send them away to be butchered. Oh, it'll be so much fun! :) I also want to create a tighter schedule for the rest of my novel. While my outline is far from perfect in predicting how many chapters it'll be, it's a good guideline to guesstimate how many chapters I have per part, which I'll use to figure out how many chapters I need to write PER WEEK to finish said part on time. What can I say? It's a plan.