100 things #88 Gutting your baby
With every manuscript, there comes the time to sharpen your best knives and gut that sucker with all the mercy of Ed Gein. As much as we all would love to believe that every word from our minds is pure gold we all know (a few egomaniacs aside) that some of our writing is pure and utter crap. I'm at that stage with my nano. No, I'm not actually finished with the thing but I do know where it's going. However, between the beginning and that future end, is a boatload of problems that need slicing out.
Blood Red Roulette's biggest problem is that it started as a short story 20 years ago after I was in New Orleans (where it was originally set. I've wisely moved it to Vegas. It fits so much better and is far less cliched for vampires). And I was hoping to just polish up those 20 year old words. Um...not so much. A couple years ago I sliced away the New Orleans aspects leaving myself dialogue and holes to fill in as far as place. I still need to do a better job of that (It might need another trip to Vegas, just saying).
However, because it was a short story, far too much of the action is compressed. It's a rushed messed. Worse, Eleni, the villainess of the piece, is coming off as a moron. I need to fix that post haste. I know what I was going for, the whole 'taunt the cops' thing but why is she doing it in person and why isn't Arrigo pulling her heart out? It so doesn't work. I think 20 years ago, Arrigo wasn't an enforcer for the supernatural's self-policing group. I like that idea so that means all this will have to change.
There's no way of going forward cogently until I gut out the beginning because why make an ending that might not fit the beginning any longer?
And along these lines, I have to say it's very hard finding beta readers. I do have a writers group and they do my non-erotica stuff but most of them are next to useless with the erotica because they have no real interest in that genre.
And totally random but Chuck Wendig is hosting a Year End favorites post over on Terrible Minds Here is mine:
1) Favorite novel of the year? Skin Game by Jim Butcher
2) Favorite non-fiction book of the year? The Killer of Little Shepherds by Douglas Starr
3) Favorite short story of the year? Broken Phoenix by Edmond Manning
4) Favorite movie of the year? Guardians of the Galaxy
5) Favorite TV show of the year? Gotham
6) Favorite song of the year? All of Me by John Legend (yes I know it’s from 2013, but I live in BFE and it didn’t start playing til this spring here)
7) Favorite album? The Circus At The End Of The World by Abney Park (ditto what I said for song)
8) Favorite video game? Criminal Case, yeah, it’s just a hidden object game on Facebook but I’m trying not to play games because I get too sucked into them.
9) Favorite app? Mlife, a slot machine simulator that lets you earn points towards things in Vegas owned by the Mlife group (the Mirage etc). Okay technically this is one I think I’d like. I have a dumb phone…
10) Favorite [something else] of the year? I’m going with favorite moment. Holding my very first published novel, Kept Tears, in my hands (couldn’t get the box from the publisher opened fast enough). A little self-centered? Yes, but it’s my favorites list so…