2011 January » Leah Cutter -- writer/traveler

Finished

Jan 262011

Finished The Zydeco Queen and the Creole Fairy Courts this morning. Well, at least the handwritten part. I still need to type up the last three chapters.

I’m discontented. I don’t care for what I’ve done. I’m not sure how to fix this. I don’t think I can just rewrite. I’m going to have to redraft. And I don’t know if or when I’ll do that. I don’t want this novel to turn into just a writing exercise, but it might.

One of the cool things about the handwritten chapters is how the novel grew as it was supposed to. Typing it up straight on the computer stifled that growth. When I said this is an 80,000 word novel I was spot on. But I only wrote a 60,000 word novel. It’s all wrong.

I’ll finish typing the novel up this week/weekend. Then I’ll start the next one. I want to finish it before I leave NOLA. But at least for the next one, I’ll write it right.

If onlys

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Jan 152011

While writing the last novel, I kept having to move events out. In the very, very rough outline, event A would occur in chapter 4. But more stuff kept happening to the characters and to the story that I would need to write about, and I’d be lucky to get event A into chapter 5, more likely into chapter 6.

When I was writing this novel and typing straight into the computer, I kept waiting for the event pushing to happen. It never did. In fact, I ended up cutting out a chapter because the damn book kept shrinking, not growing.

Now I know it’s the process. By switching back to the old process (hand writing then typing) events are pushing out and the book is growing in a really good way.

It makes me shudder to think about how much rewriting and filling in I’m going to have to do. And I can’t stop the if-onlys — if only I hadn’t tried a new process, or realized it was failing earlier. Then maybe I wouldn’t be contemplating redrafting chapters 1-9 of a 15 chapter book.

Other than that, things are good. How are you?

Cooking with gas

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Jan 012011

Happy New Year to those who celebrate this time of year.

Me — I went to a wonderful New Year’s party. Hopefully made some new friends. Had a very good time.

I also have good news! Talk about starting the year right. I sold a short story to an anthology (Bewere the Night — a collection of were-tales.) More details when I know them.

As for the current novel: I miscounted the first day I went back to my old process. I only wrote about 2000 words that day. But the I did another 2000 words yesterday, and actually closer to 2500 words today.

I cannot describe how good it feels to no longer be stuck.

My plan right now is to finish this novel using the old process (hand write a couple of chapters then type up.) Then I’m going to let this novel sit for a good long time. At least 3 months while I write up the next one. Possibly longer.

At that point hopefully I’ll have some perspective on it, and will be able to clearly decide whether or not I have to redraft the first 3-4 chapters or if I can fix them without such drastic measures. As well as possibly the last chapter I wrote on the computer (chapter 9.) I think the other chapters are okay. Or at least that’s my gut feeling for now.

Obviously I didn’t finish this novel by the end of 2010. I hope I can keep up this push and finish it before too much of 2011 goes by.