[writing] Settling (back) into Their Currents Turn Awry
Due to the vagaries of drafting Calamity of So Long a Life, I already have 66,600 words of Their Currents Turn Awry in the can. So yesterday I started re-reading them in order to gear up for the drafting process. Wound up writing a few more words, too, adding about 1,600. It's nice to see the story on the page. And as usual for me in the midst of a large project, Sunspin is very real inside my head.
I really only need about another 70,000 words here, and I've budgeted two months to do it. That's a remarkably generous time allotment. If I wind up needing liver surgery after the April 18th oncology appointments, well, I'll keep that budget. If I'm clear for a while longer, I'll accelerate my schedule for the year, either by also writing the first part of The Whips and Scorns of Time in May, or by shifting my planned June efforts forward a month. No matter how it works out, the extra time will pay off.
Yesterday I did some proofreading as well. I also spent a bunch of time yesterday reading critique for an upcoming conference. This was the first pass. That always makes me think a lot about my own craft. I'll give those stories one or two more passes (depending on what each one needs) over the next few weeks, and have my crit in the can. My only other top-of-the-to-do-list project of note right now is to assemble the eighth grade anthology, as an outcome of my recent guest teaching gig there. Everything else is out of my hands at the moment.
The words march on.
I really only need about another 70,000 words here, and I've budgeted two months to do it. That's a remarkably generous time allotment. If I wind up needing liver surgery after the April 18th oncology appointments, well, I'll keep that budget. If I'm clear for a while longer, I'll accelerate my schedule for the year, either by also writing the first part of The Whips and Scorns of Time in May, or by shifting my planned June efforts forward a month. No matter how it works out, the extra time will pay off.
Yesterday I did some proofreading as well. I also spent a bunch of time yesterday reading critique for an upcoming conference. This was the first pass. That always makes me think a lot about my own craft. I'll give those stories one or two more passes (depending on what each one needs) over the next few weeks, and have my crit in the can. My only other top-of-the-to-do-list project of note right now is to assemble the eighth grade anthology, as an outcome of my recent guest teaching gig there. Everything else is out of my hands at the moment.
The words march on.