As promised, here’s the first of those weekly progress reports I mentioned yesterday. I’ve been doing these for a few years on another discussion group. Those of you on that group can skip this post; you won’t see anything new here.
The story so far: Our hero has recently begun a novel, his third, titled Petra. He’s determined to increase his historically glacial writing output. Toward that end, he has committed to writing the first draft as fast as he can, without his usual worrying over line edits and word choices. This is quite a departure from his normal process, but it seems to be paying dividends so far. How long can he sustain this breakneck pace? Can he make it to the finish line without falling into unforeseen plot holes? And even if he does, will the finished product be so much warm monkey vomit? Stay tuned . . .
(Operational note: These reports will usually contain references to Write Club. This is the brainchild of the inimitable James Maxey, also a member that other discussion group, in which the participants take their lumps by reporting on their rejections . . . and occasional sales.)
Some tough sledding at times, but I keep plunging ahead fearlessly. I’m not letting little things like exhaustion and complete uncertainty about what happens next stop me.
On the plus side, I think I learned something about one of my secondary characters, something critically important. My editor brain is wondering whether it’s just a bit too coincidental, but I told it to get stuffed. At the moment, my gut is pretty sure I’m right about this character.
Managed to negotiate some more scheduling potholes and pitfalls, not the least of which was getting taxes done. I had neglected to enter some of my WorldCon expenses in my database, so that was a bit of a scramble. Plus I didn’t have my office space expenses in order. In years past, I have been reluctant to deduct my office, as I know that it can be audit bait. But my tax guy seemed to think it wouldn’t be a problem, so I went ahead with it. Didn’t really matter, to tell you the truth. Even without the office deductions, I still took a substantial loss this year–again. Nothing new there. It’ll be a great year when I actually turn a profit.
Another pitfall looms: my computer is starting to smell funny. My power supply fan has been slowly going out on me for the past few months. I suspect it’s now on its last legs, and is beginning to burn itself out. And it’s giving off a godawful smell–one I’m not sure isn’t toxic. Yikes! Good thing the weather has been mild enough to allow me to crack open a window while I work.
I am assured that if the power supply fails, it won’t affect the data on my hard drive. Nonetheless, I’ve taken to emailing myself backup copies of Petra after every writing session. With any luck, I’ll have the problem fixed tomorrow.
And if not, there’s always longhand.
No updates for Write Club.
I’m off like a dirty shirt.
