High Gear

Remember how productive I said I was several posts ago?

That was chump change. These days, I'm real productive.

This week I've been writing twenty pages of comedy screenplay each morning, editing three chapters of HULL DAMAGE every afternoon and writing several hundred words of GALACTIC MENACE each night.

After this week, I start my the dreaded Red Pencil Edit, in which I print the whole motherfucking manuscript off and go through her word by word. The last push, if you will.

Shit's coming to a head, my bonny chums.

Dyin' Day

I swear to Darwin, I'm finishing the fourth draft of HULL DAMAGE tonight.

I have three chapters left to jointly edit with the missus. I've already done two this afternoon and it'll take easily until 1 or 2 am to finish, but fuck it, I do not care.

By this time tomorrow, I'll be a freshly-minted corpse, with fourth draft of HULL DAMAGE clutched in hand and surrounded by the armada of cream soda cans what killed me.

My Ass In Gear

T-minus 50 days until HULL DAMAGE'S release.

I've been slacking off. I've been so caught up in the IndieGoGo campaign (which, by the way, has a new perk, if you'd like to check that out) that I've been neglecting my actual duties as an author. My book is in dreadful need of editing and I'm less then two months from it's projected release date.

Thusly, it's time to Darkwing Duck this shit and get dangerous.

I made a goddamn schedule 'cause fuck man, I'm an adult and I can organize stuff and shit. I'd re-post that schedule here for you to read, but all the responsibilities up in that bitch would probably blind you or heal your leprosy some crazy shit I don't know. Tonight I'm editing two whole chapters and guess what I'm doing tomorrow and the next day and the next day? Editing two hole chapters, motherfucker. Get out my way or I gonna run you down with the speed and might of my own red pencil, yo.

...I apologize. I don't know what came over me.

Hard Drinks for Hard Men

Mmmmm. Cream soda.

In preparation for releasing a HULL DAMAGE excerpt this upcoming Monday (stay tuned for that here), I edited two sections of four sections that I plan to release over the course of the next two months. Both are sparse in dialogue, lucky me, as I'm not looking forward to the comprehensive dialogue edit I know lurks beyond the horizon.

It isn't that I don't like writing dialogue; I just somehow find it more strenuous. It was my first love, as a playwright and a podcaster, so perhaps I feel some invisible pressure? I'm not certain.

Either way; editing = cream soda. So, mmmmm.

Dictated, Not Read

The missus has, certainly out of the kindness of her black thorny heart rather than any true obligation, begun recently obliging me to the tune of taking dictation. Not for the blog, mind you - this baby has, thus far, only originated from mine own fingers, but for the errant few chapters of Galactic Menace I've been poking at. (Yeah, I know.)

It sounds sorta decadent (and, truth be told, it feels sorta decadent) but it's been an enormously helpful tool in perfecting and clarifying both dialogue and prose for me. Talking things through, testing the wording right off the press, voicing the characters - I'm probably not alone in this belief, but it helps me put higher quality on the page from the get-go, which may or may not invalidate some need for the editing process. As discussed.

I'd refer to the missus as my filthy assistant, but I'm not entirely sure how well that'd go over.

From Scratch

Today, another editing day, was largely spent doing re-writes. Well, when I say "largely" I mean two little sections from two different chapters but still, as far as I'm concerned, that constitutes a lot of re-writes.

Maybe this is conceited, but I honestly don't re-write from scratch very often. Editing, for me, is mostly fixing structural problems (like my ENORMOUS sentences) and trimming fat, but rarely do I feel the need to actually open a new document and take a second stab at something. When I do even that, it's typically a paragraph or two, nothing more.

It's been commented that when I turn in a first draft, it's often a comprehension level more or less equivalent with most people's third or fourth drafts. I tend to ruminate more over each individual sentence before putting it to paper (a reason I'd probably BLOW at NaNoWriMo) and subsequently spend more time on a first draft than most.

Nevertheless, today I drastically shortened a three-paragraph scene in Chapter 16 and re-conceived a confrontation between two major characters that, in retrospect, majorly changes the nature of their relationship not just in HULL DAMAGE, but in GALACTIC MENACE especially.

I rewarded myself with a glass of rich cream soda. Yum.

Also, I've bookmarked this forever.

All The Live-Long Day*

Follow the red bouncing dot, kids!

I've been working on the maaan-uscript! 
All the live-long day!

Today marked the first of my (hopefully) weekly editing days, in which I, for many, many hours, dissect, prod and otherwise improve HULL DAMAGE for publication this summer. With all this energy spent on the promotional stuff (speaking of which, if you haven't yet, visit www.whoisnemo.com to start the hunt), it's easy to lose sight of the actual content I'm building up to.

That being said, with today's hard work, I've successfully proofed the book's first ten chapters for Draft 4. Next week, probably next Wednesday, I'll attempt chapters 11-20, but we'll see how successful I'll be.

In celebration of editing well done, the missus and I have been tag-teaming this illustrious game, in an effort to defeat all eight worlds and subsequently rescue that motherfucking bimbo who's, as always, in another motherfucking castle.

Wish us luck.

*As a child, I always thought it was illogically "the lim-long day", whatever the hell that means.