Progress Report, in which I threaten my editor brain with violence

Another 5K on Petra Released.  Magic Meter says:


And now I must add chapter 12 to the list of chapters I know will need a lot of rework.  I figured out what I had done wrong–or more specifically, what I had left out–right as I finished it.  I wish I had thought of it sooner; it would have made for some wonderfully visceral and atmospheric stuff.  Now it has to wait for the rewrite.

You know, I’m making my word goals every week, despite my murky second act and despite often considerable scheduling obstacles.  I should feel good about that.  But it’s been a real grind, this novel, with very few of those cool discoveries and writerly moments that make it all worthwhile.  And my editor brain is assuring me that everything I’m writing lately is crap.  I swear, if I had a taser, old E.B. would be crispy as toast by now.

We all go through this, I know.  I’ve certainly been through it before.  It’s a necessary part of the process.  My man Neil Peart calls it “a willingness to risk defeat.”  And that’s cool, I suppose.  But I don’t want to be defeated.  I really want this book to work.  So I have no choice but to press on, and ignore my own naysaying.  And hope I can find the fixes somewhere in the next draft.

Write Club updates:

Five months to a personalized rejection from Polyphony 7, with an invitation to submit for the next anthology.

Thirteen weeks to a tier 2 reject from Weird Tales.

Pardon me while I look for a taser . . .

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