Dear ones,
It seems like this whole affair of creating a daily schedule does help a bit to keep things going - well, at the very least it reminds me of things I've done during the day, thus enhancing the sense of accomplishment...
Here's my schedule for the 27th:
09-10, 1h - Meditation
10-11, 1h - Eat
11-12, 1h - Revise Land Of Fog
12-13, 1h - Mobile phone/shoppi
13-14, 1h - Revise Short
14-15, 1h - Email friends
15-16, 1h - Eat
16-17, 1h - Revise Land Of Fog
17-19, 2h - Organise NaNoWriMo
19-20, 1h - Eat
20-21, 1h - Revise Land Of Fog
21-22, 1h - Revise Short Story
22-24, 2h - FILM (Ninth Gate)
24-01, 1h - Revise Land Of Fog/Blog Post
Well, a few things got left out (NaNoWriMo and the final revision/blogging....)
All in all it was a productive day. One Moment Left became much closer to completion. I wrote quite a bit - an important scene in Land Of Fog wasn't flowing that well and I realised I needed to change it quite a bit - which I did...
Most of the things I set out to do happened at different times that I'd initially planned but, they were sorted, and that's what matters.
I enjoyed Polanski's film but found it deeply disturbing. The colours, the theme, just sucked me in (as I'm guessing it was supposed to...).
Peace.
Showing posts with label book revising. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book revising. Show all posts
Friday, 29 October 2010
Saturday, 21 August 2010
In The Land Of Fog Notes
Well, the pages keep on being added, albeit more slowly than what I'd like. Patience, patience... I'm on page 34 of my first draft (96 long, A4). I managed to do 11 pages yesterday. I was hoping to do even more today but I'm still on page 4...
Ah well... the night is still young...
peace!
Ah well... the night is still young...
peace!
Thursday, 19 August 2010
Land Of Fog Update
It's been ages, I know.
But here's a quick recap of what's been happening for the last couple of months...
I managed to finish the first full revision of the original text some 5 minutes before I landed in Lisbon on the 21st of July. That felt really good since I really wanted to start my holidays without having that thing incompleted, roaming around my head...
Until the 5th of August I was in Portugal on holidays. Still I made my objective to type 10 pages a day of the revision notes I'd compiled.
There were 249 pages.
I more or less stuck to the schedule (it takes so long to type... it just tires me...) and on the 14th of August, last saturday, I finished the typing. Dead on schedule...
I more or less took sunday off. I let the book rest.
But on monday I started weaving the revision notes into the body of the original text, thus slowly compiling the second draft. My aim is to have this second phase ready by the end of the month. Which means some 7 pages a day...
I've been a bit behind schedule. But yesterday I started to catch up and today I'm also more or less on track. I'm off until next monday so... I have to be ahead of the game by then - particularly because a couple of friends are staying over for a week, starting on monday...
Having said this, I have also started to type up notes that I compiled during the re-write for books two and three (now tentatively named Lands Of Mist and Tide)
As soon as all the text is ready I'm gonna read it all out loud (flatmates watch out!) and make a few corrections along the way. Don't know if I'll print out the whole thing (the second draft) or not. I guess I'll decide as soon as the text is ready...
Hopefully the second draft will be concluded by first week in september. And, before the end of the month I'll be able to revise the whole text a couple times more (I'm betting it won't take long, just re-reading and making a change here and there... keeping my fingers crossed....)
And start sending the thing out (at least the first few chapters to publishers - their requirements do vary...) in october. Beginning of the month, preferably...
Peace!
But here's a quick recap of what's been happening for the last couple of months...
I managed to finish the first full revision of the original text some 5 minutes before I landed in Lisbon on the 21st of July. That felt really good since I really wanted to start my holidays without having that thing incompleted, roaming around my head...
Until the 5th of August I was in Portugal on holidays. Still I made my objective to type 10 pages a day of the revision notes I'd compiled.
There were 249 pages.
I more or less stuck to the schedule (it takes so long to type... it just tires me...) and on the 14th of August, last saturday, I finished the typing. Dead on schedule...
I more or less took sunday off. I let the book rest.
But on monday I started weaving the revision notes into the body of the original text, thus slowly compiling the second draft. My aim is to have this second phase ready by the end of the month. Which means some 7 pages a day...
I've been a bit behind schedule. But yesterday I started to catch up and today I'm also more or less on track. I'm off until next monday so... I have to be ahead of the game by then - particularly because a couple of friends are staying over for a week, starting on monday...
Having said this, I have also started to type up notes that I compiled during the re-write for books two and three (now tentatively named Lands Of Mist and Tide)
As soon as all the text is ready I'm gonna read it all out loud (flatmates watch out!) and make a few corrections along the way. Don't know if I'll print out the whole thing (the second draft) or not. I guess I'll decide as soon as the text is ready...
Hopefully the second draft will be concluded by first week in september. And, before the end of the month I'll be able to revise the whole text a couple times more (I'm betting it won't take long, just re-reading and making a change here and there... keeping my fingers crossed....)
And start sending the thing out (at least the first few chapters to publishers - their requirements do vary...) in october. Beginning of the month, preferably...
Peace!
Friday, 18 June 2010
Land Of Fog Revision
Well today was an ups and downs day with this whole revising business.
I woke up relatively late (9.30am) and proceeded to revise another Invincible volume (7). I also read part of another graphic novel: Criminal Macabre by Steve Niles (a great, promising intro but that didn't deliver all that much for me in the end) and Ben Templesmith (really dig his art but sometimes I just can't understand what the heck's happening...)
Then I started revising.
And it was going well.
Until people started wanting my attention.
Which was fine.
For the first three hours.
Then I started getting somewhat upset at it because I couldn't focus for more than 5 minutes at a time...
So I did what I thought was best. I listened until I found that there was nothing else that I needed to listen, until there was nothing else left to be said.
And I excused myself.
Amidst all this I finished that Niles/Templesmith comic, the Invincible review, started another, read a bit of Scalped: The Gravel In Your Guts (now that's a GREAT comic - toes and thumbs up).
I began to revise...
And it felt good.
I really need these moments where I can focus at will and my mind just wanders.
You see, one of the reasons I started getting angry was because today really felt one of those GOOD REVISION days. And there aren't that many of them. I'd kept my momentum going as soon as my attention started being sapped and, after a while I couldn't stop but think at the great opportunity I was missing.
I still revised a couple of short chapters today. And I did finish yesterday's.
I'm on day six. Afternoon.
And tomorrow is a new revision day... well... until 2pm it is...
peace!
I woke up relatively late (9.30am) and proceeded to revise another Invincible volume (7). I also read part of another graphic novel: Criminal Macabre by Steve Niles (a great, promising intro but that didn't deliver all that much for me in the end) and Ben Templesmith (really dig his art but sometimes I just can't understand what the heck's happening...)
Then I started revising.
And it was going well.
Until people started wanting my attention.
Which was fine.
For the first three hours.
Then I started getting somewhat upset at it because I couldn't focus for more than 5 minutes at a time...
So I did what I thought was best. I listened until I found that there was nothing else that I needed to listen, until there was nothing else left to be said.
And I excused myself.
Amidst all this I finished that Niles/Templesmith comic, the Invincible review, started another, read a bit of Scalped: The Gravel In Your Guts (now that's a GREAT comic - toes and thumbs up).
I began to revise...
And it felt good.
I really need these moments where I can focus at will and my mind just wanders.
You see, one of the reasons I started getting angry was because today really felt one of those GOOD REVISION days. And there aren't that many of them. I'd kept my momentum going as soon as my attention started being sapped and, after a while I couldn't stop but think at the great opportunity I was missing.
I still revised a couple of short chapters today. And I did finish yesterday's.
I'm on day six. Afternoon.
And tomorrow is a new revision day... well... until 2pm it is...
peace!
Tuesday, 15 June 2010
Revision Update
Well, yesterday I didn't manage to do a single line of revision. I had a REALLY long day and, as soon as I got home and had some food, I was ready to fall into the dreaming.
And I say fall because I couldn't jump, even if I wanted to...
And dream I did, even if they weren't particularly pleasant. Sometimes you seem to wake up in some ways more tired than when you went to bed and then you kind of work it out of your system during the day.
These days I don't try to remember my dreams so much since I more or less know what they represent.
Today they meant I'm stressed and I need to rest.
And that's what I'm going to do tomorrow.
(and write, of course...)
Yesterday the only writing bit that I did manage to do was to finish reviewing a comic book and revise that review. And then publish it on the livejournal website for the Graphic Novels Reading Group that I run.
If you want to take a look, you can just click HERE.
Today was more or less the same scenario with the difference I did manage to get a little bit more done. I revised Scalped Vol.3 Dead Mothers (amazing book - one of the best crime stories around) from beginning to end, revised the first 4 short stories in Flight Vol.5, published the review for Brit Vol.3 Fubar and am about to begin revising Invincible Vol.7 Three's Company.
I still haven't published any of the Invincible reviews I've done but I will do so as soon as I can be bothered to type them all up.
Hopefully I'll be able to blitzpost them during a couple of weeks or so.
In the meantime I'll revise vols 7, 8 and 9... and get my hands on vols 10, 11 and 12!!
I have found that doing a bit of revising someone else's stuff before starting to revise my own really does help me gain some perspective and, perhaps most importantly, some momentum.
I am in hopes of going home in an hour or so and still write a bit... let's see how that turns out...
peace.
And I say fall because I couldn't jump, even if I wanted to...
And dream I did, even if they weren't particularly pleasant. Sometimes you seem to wake up in some ways more tired than when you went to bed and then you kind of work it out of your system during the day.
These days I don't try to remember my dreams so much since I more or less know what they represent.
Today they meant I'm stressed and I need to rest.
And that's what I'm going to do tomorrow.
(and write, of course...)
Yesterday the only writing bit that I did manage to do was to finish reviewing a comic book and revise that review. And then publish it on the livejournal website for the Graphic Novels Reading Group that I run.
If you want to take a look, you can just click HERE.
Today was more or less the same scenario with the difference I did manage to get a little bit more done. I revised Scalped Vol.3 Dead Mothers (amazing book - one of the best crime stories around) from beginning to end, revised the first 4 short stories in Flight Vol.5, published the review for Brit Vol.3 Fubar and am about to begin revising Invincible Vol.7 Three's Company.
I still haven't published any of the Invincible reviews I've done but I will do so as soon as I can be bothered to type them all up.
Hopefully I'll be able to blitzpost them during a couple of weeks or so.
In the meantime I'll revise vols 7, 8 and 9... and get my hands on vols 10, 11 and 12!!
I have found that doing a bit of revising someone else's stuff before starting to revise my own really does help me gain some perspective and, perhaps most importantly, some momentum.
I am in hopes of going home in an hour or so and still write a bit... let's see how that turns out...
peace.
Monday, 14 June 2010
Land Of Fog Revision
Hey there!
Well, I'm back from holiday (and I didn't do much while I was away... that I must admit...) and I'm back on good old revising...
I'm on page 30 (A4, single spaced...) of my manuscript and I already have 57 pages of notes... (longhand)
I've been thinking about the structure a bit and I do think I'm going to go for a less obvious one than the chronological. I think this will enable me to start with greater momentum and create more drama.
The book takes place throughout 13 days and I'm on the evening of day five. I'm expecting things to go a bit easier from now on, not only because I've gained some momentum but also because I've managed to sort out some of the slower/plot-holes in the story.
There are still two extra chapters that i have to write but I'll do those after I've revised the whole body of text. These two chapters need to introduce clues and hints to things that will happen in this book and on the following two so... I want to be as ready as possible for that to happen.
The revision has been going slowly but steadily. I think that it's probably quite difficult to have a "fast" first revision. This is where all the big things surface and it has always meant major re-writing for me so... I guess this is as good as it gets!
At least for now!
peace.
Well, I'm back from holiday (and I didn't do much while I was away... that I must admit...) and I'm back on good old revising...
I'm on page 30 (A4, single spaced...) of my manuscript and I already have 57 pages of notes... (longhand)
I've been thinking about the structure a bit and I do think I'm going to go for a less obvious one than the chronological. I think this will enable me to start with greater momentum and create more drama.
The book takes place throughout 13 days and I'm on the evening of day five. I'm expecting things to go a bit easier from now on, not only because I've gained some momentum but also because I've managed to sort out some of the slower/plot-holes in the story.
There are still two extra chapters that i have to write but I'll do those after I've revised the whole body of text. These two chapters need to introduce clues and hints to things that will happen in this book and on the following two so... I want to be as ready as possible for that to happen.
The revision has been going slowly but steadily. I think that it's probably quite difficult to have a "fast" first revision. This is where all the big things surface and it has always meant major re-writing for me so... I guess this is as good as it gets!
At least for now!
peace.
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Book Competition
It's been a long time since I last wrote here...
Can't really tell why. I just seem to go through these periods where every little thing that happens needs to be blogged and periods where I just can't be asked. I mean, I think about it but...
Well, you probably know how it is.
As soon as I returned from Portugal I jumped straight into work with a Cory Doctorow talk that I organised. It left me wanting to write and try and publish more.
Soon after that I realised that there was a big competition closing by the end of the month that I could actually enter with my 130 000+ manuscript.
And thus my troubles began...
I've been meaning to post about this for a while and maybe I will post the solutions separately. Here I'll just blog the problems...
Say you have a book with almost 120 chapters. Say you want to format it to A5. Say you want to print it out in a way that saves paper, ink and some time (preferably...).
Say you've never done it before.
Then I'll say this: give yourself some time.
I spent ages just trying to sort out the numbering on the pages. Then it was the formatting of the text itself.
Let me make this very clear, if you're fiddling with margins - even if it's to do something equivalent to what you already have - you'll have to checke the whole thing again... and, if you're like me, that STILL doesn't know how to create a proper chapter list (either than manually that is... now I need to start learning some word... well... some more word...) you'll not only have to format the whole text again, but also check chapter pages...
Two days into it and I more or less lost track of what I was doing.
Well, kind off.
I picked up a few things as I went along.
As soon as I go the whole thing worked out I did another version of the text in Royal format (somewhere between A4 and A5). The objective with this was to then send the book to lulu.com, self-publish and then send the two needed copies to enter the competition.
But I was running out of time and, for about a week I didn't really want to go through the whole thing again, a couple of times more, create a cover, add the cover, make sure that the cover was larger than what I needed... and etc...
During that time I just revised Land Of Fog and wrote some reviews, read some comics and generally tried to chill.
Obviously I started to run out of time.
No problem, right? I can still print it out myself. It won't go a perfectly bound copy but it will be good enough.
So I did.
And thus my troubles began.
Or, rather, continued...
I had printed the whole manuscript once in A5 sheets that I myself had cut.
It wasn't a pleasant experience. I had to print out a very low number of pages at a time, pages kept getting jammed and I kept having to go back and repeat printings and ended up monitoring the whole thing through.
Which was what I was trying to avoid in the first place...
Well, how hard could it be to grab my A5 formatted book, print it in A4 - 2 A5 pages per each A4 side - and then chop it and bind it?
Surely it's not hard.
Well. It wasn't initially.
My first surprise was this.
Just because you've formatted your book in A5, doesn't mean you can just say,
Hey, it's two of these per one of that
and the formatting will still be hunky dory...
That did not happen with me, let me tell you...
(don't know why - it's one of those things that common sense tells you is completely crazy to happen but, there you go...)
So what did happen was me having to format the whole thing again.
Now that I could see that everything should print out nicely surely it was easy to just print it out, right?
I guess that by now you'll know the answer to this...
Just try and google, how to print A5 booklet on A4 paper or any equivalent.
You'll get lots and lots of pages with people complaining at how hard it is to do it.
I don't think it's actually that hard - but it can be quite frustrating if you don't get a decent page with some good tips.
My life saviour was actually a Microsoft Office/Word help page.
Believe it or not this is the truth. Clear, concise and to the point. It wasn't ideal in terms of the information I needed but it sure was the best one.
(Thanks for that guys and gals!)
I'll post this info later on at some point. There were a couple of things that I picked up along the way that I think might be useful for other people but I also want to keep a record of it so that I can refer to it at a later stage. Probably when the time comes for me to print out the next one...
(I'll probably have forgotten most of this by then...)
So I managed to print out two copies of the book.
Boy, was I happy!
I chopped the pages, no problem, bound them in my own special way, no problem, even found a little webpage that tells you how to build your own little binding press (easy and simple, you just need some hard wood and some screws), something that I may even do at some point.
It was done.
Great stuff.
Now, you ask,
Alright, what went wrong then?!
Well, nothing much.
I just happened to go to the publishers website to pick up all the details that I needed in relation to the competition and realised that they needed the manuscript in A4 format...
Then I looked at my ink levels.
Below half.
And I'd spent more or less half to print the two copies.
This was last wednesday. And I had to send it at best on saturday since monday was bank holiday...
Well... start from the beginning, right?!
Format the whole thing in A4 format. Compact the text in order to save paper and reduce shipping weight (being stressed has this wonderful perk of just allowing you to plough through things without worrying too much that things aren't perfect... I made full usage of this). And start printing the whole thing again.
I did it.
Two copies with a couple of warning low, very low, ink levels. And I still managed to print the cover letter and everything...
I burned the CD with all these multiple versions, instructions, cover letter, personal data, etc. I packed the whole thing as best as I could, to their specifications and sent all of it in one big beautiful bundle.
I felt relieved.
Later that day (or the day after, I can't really remember) I started to read the book to a friend. I read some forty pages (of one of my A5 copies... which I now am going to give out to friends).
Two things came across clearly.
I still need to do some minor revision on the first 20 pages (dammit!)
The writing is actually quite pleasant to read and engaging.
I think I would like to read this book...
Well, I had made my peace with all possible results and outcomes. I'm just happy that I got to send it. I'm just happy that the book is out there. I'm sure that it's going to be published. Of this I am certain. Don't ask me why (in truth I have no certain proof of this) but I just know it. In my gut. Despite all the little things that could do with some revising.
Perhaps because, despite all the little things, that story still stands. I think it's bigger than what contains it. And if I've managed to do that, then I've achieved my goal.
I more or less took a couple of days off. I still kept revising Land Of Fog but I wasn't that inspired. I was tired. I wanted to watch some films. Not having to think about anything in particular.
I more or less did that.
But I still revised a bit...
That's what I've been doing since.
It was a slow weekend. I had planned to do lots. But I only managed to revise 2 or 3 A4 pages of this other book a day.
That's the downside.
The upside is that I've been gaining momentum on that, that the beginning is much better than it was, that I discovered (and solved!) more problems than both of my friends (that had read that initial draft) had pointed out to me, that I now know how to give the book a better structure, that it's beginning to feel more rounded, that I know where it's going, that I already have the plot for most of the third and final book in the series, that it's getting bigger and better and more truthful to the spirit I had initially envisioned.
Or, in short,
I'm excited about it and working on things pays off...
The book is getting longer and I am still to add some two, perhaps three new chapters (that I'm hoping will be short).
I think it will be quite readable and eerie and gripping by then. It has a kind of Twilight Zone feel to it that I really want to keep and explore and make as cohesive as possible.
I'm throwing a lot of little things that will be explored more and more in subsequent stories.
Just yesterday, for example, I was re-writing a part where the main character chats with this elderly lady that ends up explaining (partially...) what the heck is happening. But before she does that, she tells him a part of her story or, to be more precise, the story of the place where they're sitting.
It's a nice piece, but I just leave it at that.
However... I just happen to know that we will be learning more about it in book three...
I'm going to portugal this coming thursday.
I'm taking all these notes and print outs with me and hopefully will work some more on my manuscript.
I read the submission guidelines to a publishing house a few days ago and I'm eager to send this one out!
I won't worry about Morto for the time being since the results from the competition will be announced towards the end of this year. I'll give out those two copies to two friends (and I already know who...) and wait for some more feedback. Probably read out aloud the whole thing again, polish those few lines where word repetition occurs (you can do it in english - but you really can't do it in portuguese...), get a decent cover for it at some point, send the whole thing to lulu.com and print out some twenty copies to distribute.
Anyway, enough chatting for now!
peace
Can't really tell why. I just seem to go through these periods where every little thing that happens needs to be blogged and periods where I just can't be asked. I mean, I think about it but...
Well, you probably know how it is.
As soon as I returned from Portugal I jumped straight into work with a Cory Doctorow talk that I organised. It left me wanting to write and try and publish more.
Soon after that I realised that there was a big competition closing by the end of the month that I could actually enter with my 130 000+ manuscript.
And thus my troubles began...
I've been meaning to post about this for a while and maybe I will post the solutions separately. Here I'll just blog the problems...
Say you have a book with almost 120 chapters. Say you want to format it to A5. Say you want to print it out in a way that saves paper, ink and some time (preferably...).
Say you've never done it before.
Then I'll say this: give yourself some time.
I spent ages just trying to sort out the numbering on the pages. Then it was the formatting of the text itself.
Let me make this very clear, if you're fiddling with margins - even if it's to do something equivalent to what you already have - you'll have to checke the whole thing again... and, if you're like me, that STILL doesn't know how to create a proper chapter list (either than manually that is... now I need to start learning some word... well... some more word...) you'll not only have to format the whole text again, but also check chapter pages...
Two days into it and I more or less lost track of what I was doing.
Well, kind off.
I picked up a few things as I went along.
As soon as I go the whole thing worked out I did another version of the text in Royal format (somewhere between A4 and A5). The objective with this was to then send the book to lulu.com, self-publish and then send the two needed copies to enter the competition.
But I was running out of time and, for about a week I didn't really want to go through the whole thing again, a couple of times more, create a cover, add the cover, make sure that the cover was larger than what I needed... and etc...
During that time I just revised Land Of Fog and wrote some reviews, read some comics and generally tried to chill.
Obviously I started to run out of time.
No problem, right? I can still print it out myself. It won't go a perfectly bound copy but it will be good enough.
So I did.
And thus my troubles began.
Or, rather, continued...
I had printed the whole manuscript once in A5 sheets that I myself had cut.
It wasn't a pleasant experience. I had to print out a very low number of pages at a time, pages kept getting jammed and I kept having to go back and repeat printings and ended up monitoring the whole thing through.
Which was what I was trying to avoid in the first place...
Well, how hard could it be to grab my A5 formatted book, print it in A4 - 2 A5 pages per each A4 side - and then chop it and bind it?
Surely it's not hard.
Well. It wasn't initially.
My first surprise was this.
Just because you've formatted your book in A5, doesn't mean you can just say,
Hey, it's two of these per one of that
and the formatting will still be hunky dory...
That did not happen with me, let me tell you...
(don't know why - it's one of those things that common sense tells you is completely crazy to happen but, there you go...)
So what did happen was me having to format the whole thing again.
Now that I could see that everything should print out nicely surely it was easy to just print it out, right?
I guess that by now you'll know the answer to this...
Just try and google, how to print A5 booklet on A4 paper or any equivalent.
You'll get lots and lots of pages with people complaining at how hard it is to do it.
I don't think it's actually that hard - but it can be quite frustrating if you don't get a decent page with some good tips.
My life saviour was actually a Microsoft Office/Word help page.
Believe it or not this is the truth. Clear, concise and to the point. It wasn't ideal in terms of the information I needed but it sure was the best one.
(Thanks for that guys and gals!)
I'll post this info later on at some point. There were a couple of things that I picked up along the way that I think might be useful for other people but I also want to keep a record of it so that I can refer to it at a later stage. Probably when the time comes for me to print out the next one...
(I'll probably have forgotten most of this by then...)
So I managed to print out two copies of the book.
Boy, was I happy!
I chopped the pages, no problem, bound them in my own special way, no problem, even found a little webpage that tells you how to build your own little binding press (easy and simple, you just need some hard wood and some screws), something that I may even do at some point.
It was done.
Great stuff.
Now, you ask,
Alright, what went wrong then?!
Well, nothing much.
I just happened to go to the publishers website to pick up all the details that I needed in relation to the competition and realised that they needed the manuscript in A4 format...
Then I looked at my ink levels.
Below half.
And I'd spent more or less half to print the two copies.
This was last wednesday. And I had to send it at best on saturday since monday was bank holiday...
Well... start from the beginning, right?!
Format the whole thing in A4 format. Compact the text in order to save paper and reduce shipping weight (being stressed has this wonderful perk of just allowing you to plough through things without worrying too much that things aren't perfect... I made full usage of this). And start printing the whole thing again.
I did it.
Two copies with a couple of warning low, very low, ink levels. And I still managed to print the cover letter and everything...
I burned the CD with all these multiple versions, instructions, cover letter, personal data, etc. I packed the whole thing as best as I could, to their specifications and sent all of it in one big beautiful bundle.
I felt relieved.
Later that day (or the day after, I can't really remember) I started to read the book to a friend. I read some forty pages (of one of my A5 copies... which I now am going to give out to friends).
Two things came across clearly.
I still need to do some minor revision on the first 20 pages (dammit!)
The writing is actually quite pleasant to read and engaging.
I think I would like to read this book...
Well, I had made my peace with all possible results and outcomes. I'm just happy that I got to send it. I'm just happy that the book is out there. I'm sure that it's going to be published. Of this I am certain. Don't ask me why (in truth I have no certain proof of this) but I just know it. In my gut. Despite all the little things that could do with some revising.
Perhaps because, despite all the little things, that story still stands. I think it's bigger than what contains it. And if I've managed to do that, then I've achieved my goal.
I more or less took a couple of days off. I still kept revising Land Of Fog but I wasn't that inspired. I was tired. I wanted to watch some films. Not having to think about anything in particular.
I more or less did that.
But I still revised a bit...
That's what I've been doing since.
It was a slow weekend. I had planned to do lots. But I only managed to revise 2 or 3 A4 pages of this other book a day.
That's the downside.
The upside is that I've been gaining momentum on that, that the beginning is much better than it was, that I discovered (and solved!) more problems than both of my friends (that had read that initial draft) had pointed out to me, that I now know how to give the book a better structure, that it's beginning to feel more rounded, that I know where it's going, that I already have the plot for most of the third and final book in the series, that it's getting bigger and better and more truthful to the spirit I had initially envisioned.
Or, in short,
I'm excited about it and working on things pays off...
The book is getting longer and I am still to add some two, perhaps three new chapters (that I'm hoping will be short).
I think it will be quite readable and eerie and gripping by then. It has a kind of Twilight Zone feel to it that I really want to keep and explore and make as cohesive as possible.
I'm throwing a lot of little things that will be explored more and more in subsequent stories.
Just yesterday, for example, I was re-writing a part where the main character chats with this elderly lady that ends up explaining (partially...) what the heck is happening. But before she does that, she tells him a part of her story or, to be more precise, the story of the place where they're sitting.
It's a nice piece, but I just leave it at that.
However... I just happen to know that we will be learning more about it in book three...
I'm going to portugal this coming thursday.
I'm taking all these notes and print outs with me and hopefully will work some more on my manuscript.
I read the submission guidelines to a publishing house a few days ago and I'm eager to send this one out!
I won't worry about Morto for the time being since the results from the competition will be announced towards the end of this year. I'll give out those two copies to two friends (and I already know who...) and wait for some more feedback. Probably read out aloud the whole thing again, polish those few lines where word repetition occurs (you can do it in english - but you really can't do it in portuguese...), get a decent cover for it at some point, send the whole thing to lulu.com and print out some twenty copies to distribute.
Anyway, enough chatting for now!
peace
Friday, 9 April 2010
MORTO ÁRVORE BESTA draft04
It's been ages since I've written anything in this place...
But these last couple of months have been crazy. Not with work - I've never had so much free time in my life before! - but with writing.
It feels that the more free time I have the more writing I get done. And the more writing I do, the more lost into it I get...
Days just fly by...
In any case, since my last post I did another revision of the whole thing - while one of my flatmates was reading it actually - but I still haven't typed it up. I still have 300 A4 pages with some scribbles, quite a few deleted words, some stuff to cut and a new page to add.
I don't think I've saved that much space but I think it will make the reading flow a lot better. Plus, I realised one of the chapters wasn't properly tied and I nudged it back in the right direction...
But, since I'm writing something else for ScriptFrenzy... I don't know when I'll have the time to type everything up!
Hope you are well!
peace!
But these last couple of months have been crazy. Not with work - I've never had so much free time in my life before! - but with writing.
It feels that the more free time I have the more writing I get done. And the more writing I do, the more lost into it I get...
Days just fly by...
In any case, since my last post I did another revision of the whole thing - while one of my flatmates was reading it actually - but I still haven't typed it up. I still have 300 A4 pages with some scribbles, quite a few deleted words, some stuff to cut and a new page to add.
I don't think I've saved that much space but I think it will make the reading flow a lot better. Plus, I realised one of the chapters wasn't properly tied and I nudged it back in the right direction...
But, since I'm writing something else for ScriptFrenzy... I don't know when I'll have the time to type everything up!
Hope you are well!
peace!
Saturday, 20 March 2010
MORTO ÁRVORE BESTA
Is finished...
It's now 0.43am, Saturday barely started and my book is finally finished.
Well, as finished as these things get...
But it's 119 chapters strong, 302 pages long (A4), totalling 136145 words.
And enough stats!
Next phase is to actually read the whole thing again and see if this crazy structure I've given it makes any sense.
Probably chop a chapter or two along the way...
Just happy that this big project has reached some sort of conclusion. Now I want to start to look into competitions and sourcing out a few publishers... Send out a few copies to some friends and see what they think...
But, one thing I can tell you now: my next project is going to be completely different from this one. I want an adventure story, probably SF, something that will be easy to map out...
(I've got just the thing...)
Anyway just to say hello.
I'm back!
Hope you are well!
peace.
It's now 0.43am, Saturday barely started and my book is finally finished.
Well, as finished as these things get...
But it's 119 chapters strong, 302 pages long (A4), totalling 136145 words.
And enough stats!
Next phase is to actually read the whole thing again and see if this crazy structure I've given it makes any sense.
Probably chop a chapter or two along the way...
Just happy that this big project has reached some sort of conclusion. Now I want to start to look into competitions and sourcing out a few publishers... Send out a few copies to some friends and see what they think...
But, one thing I can tell you now: my next project is going to be completely different from this one. I want an adventure story, probably SF, something that will be easy to map out...
(I've got just the thing...)
Anyway just to say hello.
I'm back!
Hope you are well!
peace.
Monday, 28 December 2009
These Days
I don't know why but during the last few days I've been thinking a lot about a story I began to write some 3 or 4 years ago. It's called The Time Dolls Of Stephen Tempus. It was one of those projects that was supposed to be finished in a jiffy and that, as soon as I started working on it, it just kept growing more and more, out of my control but also getting better and better.
So, yesterday, after working a while on Morto, I decided to appease my mind and heart and pulled out the dossier and started browsing through the sheets of paper.
Now it was clear why this was still a mess.
It started coming back to me...
When I dropped it I still hadn't worked out a structure that did it for me and there were still a few scenes left to be written.
But boy, does this story appeal to me. And I know why. It ticks some very old boxes of mine, it takes me to themes that I've grappled with or have grappled with for years now. Like every story is as much about me as it is about what I think is important to be said.
So I took the easy way out. I reached a compromise. I pulled out the folder containing a short essay I had written within the larger framework of the story and began revising it.
It was interesting to see that it wasn't as ridiculous as I expected. It still made sense. More, I could see the holes more clearly now.
And there were things I wanted to add. I loved the feel of being hinted something greater.
So that's what I did. That's what I spent most of last night doing. I even ended up not seeing the film that I had wanted to watch...
I didn't finish the revision up until an hour ago or so.
It's strange but I just want to finish this story. And, I'll be honest with you, I feel really tempted to just drop Morto and do it...
But I won't.
I'll strike another deal with myself.
I'll keep working on Morto. The Time Dolls will have to come into play in my "spare time".
Let's see where this takes me...
Peace!
So, yesterday, after working a while on Morto, I decided to appease my mind and heart and pulled out the dossier and started browsing through the sheets of paper.
Now it was clear why this was still a mess.
It started coming back to me...
When I dropped it I still hadn't worked out a structure that did it for me and there were still a few scenes left to be written.
But boy, does this story appeal to me. And I know why. It ticks some very old boxes of mine, it takes me to themes that I've grappled with or have grappled with for years now. Like every story is as much about me as it is about what I think is important to be said.
So I took the easy way out. I reached a compromise. I pulled out the folder containing a short essay I had written within the larger framework of the story and began revising it.
It was interesting to see that it wasn't as ridiculous as I expected. It still made sense. More, I could see the holes more clearly now.
And there were things I wanted to add. I loved the feel of being hinted something greater.
So that's what I did. That's what I spent most of last night doing. I even ended up not seeing the film that I had wanted to watch...
I didn't finish the revision up until an hour ago or so.
It's strange but I just want to finish this story. And, I'll be honest with you, I feel really tempted to just drop Morto and do it...
But I won't.
I'll strike another deal with myself.
I'll keep working on Morto. The Time Dolls will have to come into play in my "spare time".
Let's see where this takes me...
Peace!
Thursday, 29 October 2009
The Last Few Days
The last few days (I tricked you didn't I?! You thought that the title was the title of something I'd been writing but you were wrong, right?) I have spent typing up some more stuff on Morto. I finalised the revision of the penultimate section of the book and have also prepared the writing of the last one.
I have also bought a cinema projector and have been watching some Battlestar Galactica episodes... the new series, obviously...
And even before I started watching I had already started plotting a whole new series...
I don't know why I do these things, but the fact is that the ideas started surfacing and I just went along for the ride...
Well, I do know why I do these things. I do them because they are related to themes that I'm very hooked on. Artificial Inteligence. Consciousness. Epic feel. Messianic Complex. You name it. It's probably there...
I have also been writing stuff down for The Lost Years.
On sunday, on my way to see my cousins in Billericay, I had quite a few ideas about this story. Some that I had had the previous day or two but that I had still not had time to note down. However my TI Voyage 200 (the granny of those palms or whatever they're called these days...) had no battery and so I had to keep them thoughts rolling around in my head...
I only wrote them that night but still, there were some pretty interesting ideas there that I'm hoping I will be able to explore. And that will make sense to those reading them. There's just so many books I'd love to write!
(and I know that this is an attachment... I'm just not too worried about it because I also know how to get rid of it if it gets to dangerous levels...)
Anyway, that's it for now!
I think I'm gonna write another post somewhere else... I'm in the mood it seems...
Peace
I have also bought a cinema projector and have been watching some Battlestar Galactica episodes... the new series, obviously...
And even before I started watching I had already started plotting a whole new series...
I don't know why I do these things, but the fact is that the ideas started surfacing and I just went along for the ride...
Well, I do know why I do these things. I do them because they are related to themes that I'm very hooked on. Artificial Inteligence. Consciousness. Epic feel. Messianic Complex. You name it. It's probably there...
I have also been writing stuff down for The Lost Years.
On sunday, on my way to see my cousins in Billericay, I had quite a few ideas about this story. Some that I had had the previous day or two but that I had still not had time to note down. However my TI Voyage 200 (the granny of those palms or whatever they're called these days...) had no battery and so I had to keep them thoughts rolling around in my head...
I only wrote them that night but still, there were some pretty interesting ideas there that I'm hoping I will be able to explore. And that will make sense to those reading them. There's just so many books I'd love to write!
(and I know that this is an attachment... I'm just not too worried about it because I also know how to get rid of it if it gets to dangerous levels...)
Anyway, that's it for now!
I think I'm gonna write another post somewhere else... I'm in the mood it seems...
Peace
Saturday, 3 October 2009
God in all His ways
I've just finished revising the last two chapters of this section. One was about a priest and another about an old neighbour. I knew I couldn't keep them in the way they were structure and so this felt more like remixing than plain, straight forward revising.
Once again I had some pleasant surprises with the way the chapters unfolded. Writing does seem to take on a life of its own, especially when you start to believe in it even more than you think you could (or should...)
Today, while at work, I told a colleague of mine that the book was going to be more than 400 pages long. He said, cut it down... but, perhaps for the first time, I didn't really withdraw inside and worry about the possibility of doing it all wrong. It was more like, this is how this book is.
And that's what really matters.
That's why I started to write it.
I didn't write it thinking of a particular format, thinking of how it should be in formal terms. I just wanted to say something, to say it well and, above all, to actually let these things speak for themselves.
I want this book to feel alive.
And this is what I've been feeling sometimes. Through the hours where I'd rather be watching a film or reading someone else's book. Seeing time go by and this path ahead of me which, if I refuse to walk it, will never take me anywhere.
So I wrote today again amazed at the magic that sometimes happens on the page. In all honesty, I don't really feel that I'm doing it. I feel I'm the scribe more than the author. It's like looking at a puzzle. With time the pieces start to fit and make sense. But did you create it?
Anyway, two chapters that didn't seem to have much going for them have turned into something deeply interwoven into the book.
(and if I ever get an editor for this book I'm gonna have a tough time to cut stuff out...)
Besides this I read vols. 26 and 27 of Takehiko Inoue's Vagabond.
No reviews for any of these yet. I love this series so much that I'm not the least worried in doing what would probably prove itself to be a rushed review. I think I'll probably wait until the series ends (within a few years) and, from the vantage point of completion, then discuss it in some length. Suffice to say that this series has taken me through some terrible and yet very beautiful places. It all makes sense. You just gotta let it breathe...
It's past 3am. I should be sleeping. I have to wake up at 7.30am.
I shouldn't be here talking to you.
But I am.
peace.
Once again I had some pleasant surprises with the way the chapters unfolded. Writing does seem to take on a life of its own, especially when you start to believe in it even more than you think you could (or should...)
Today, while at work, I told a colleague of mine that the book was going to be more than 400 pages long. He said, cut it down... but, perhaps for the first time, I didn't really withdraw inside and worry about the possibility of doing it all wrong. It was more like, this is how this book is.
And that's what really matters.
That's why I started to write it.
I didn't write it thinking of a particular format, thinking of how it should be in formal terms. I just wanted to say something, to say it well and, above all, to actually let these things speak for themselves.
I want this book to feel alive.
And this is what I've been feeling sometimes. Through the hours where I'd rather be watching a film or reading someone else's book. Seeing time go by and this path ahead of me which, if I refuse to walk it, will never take me anywhere.
So I wrote today again amazed at the magic that sometimes happens on the page. In all honesty, I don't really feel that I'm doing it. I feel I'm the scribe more than the author. It's like looking at a puzzle. With time the pieces start to fit and make sense. But did you create it?
Anyway, two chapters that didn't seem to have much going for them have turned into something deeply interwoven into the book.
(and if I ever get an editor for this book I'm gonna have a tough time to cut stuff out...)
Besides this I read vols. 26 and 27 of Takehiko Inoue's Vagabond.
No reviews for any of these yet. I love this series so much that I'm not the least worried in doing what would probably prove itself to be a rushed review. I think I'll probably wait until the series ends (within a few years) and, from the vantage point of completion, then discuss it in some length. Suffice to say that this series has taken me through some terrible and yet very beautiful places. It all makes sense. You just gotta let it breathe...
It's past 3am. I should be sleeping. I have to wake up at 7.30am.
I shouldn't be here talking to you.
But I am.
peace.
Friday, 25 September 2009
Book revising and writs and blots
You probably thought that i had fallen through the wishing well, into the black void, out into the unexpected and lost from the land of the gnawing wall.
well I didn't.
(so far...)
In fact i've had a few busy months. Working and revision have taken up a good part of my time and I've just been lazy to tell you about it.
In fact, I spent most of august revising Morto and finding out that I needed to write an entire new section.
The thing just keeps getting bigger.
Fortunately I also feel it's getting better!
There's a lot of stuff put into this book. A lot of which is not entirely visible. There are a few experiments (in fact main storyline of the book is such a thing) in relation to plot devices and character construction that I'm curious to see how they work with the readers.
In august I revised most of the book. two thirds of it probably. I had a good rhythm and some discipline.
September however, it has been a different matter...
you see, I wanted to have it ready by the end of august... but i just couldn't do it. Especially when a new section needed to be added. I've got more than 120 pages of notes that I still need to type and there's probably some 30 or 40 more still to come...
Which is what I've been doing... slowly.
In any case, November is drawing dangerously close and i want to have empty headspace so that I can write something else on that month. Maybe even two new somethings... more on that later...
So, until then the plan is to more or less stick to this one, get it ready (come on! only 120 more pages of text to revise and some 10 or 20 more to write...) and get it out of the way.
As soon as the whole thing is typed and compiled I'm gonna print it out once again, read it again (no major revisions allowed just speelling and the odd sentence) along with whatever I deem necessary corrections, print it again and send it out to whatever book competition is running in portugal - as well as sending it to a few publishers.
So, I've got a month to do all that. Not as much as it seems.
Especially because October is going to be quite demanding work wise...
One of the problems that I've been having is this stifling of creativity that I sometimes feel while revising. I mean, for better or for worse, I jumped from revising Land Of Fog to revising Morto. And I miss writing something simple and short that gets out of the way in just a couple of days...
And I miss writing scripts...
So, yesterday, after a talk i had with a good friend of mine in Colombo's FNAC in Lisbon, I decided to write that Hulk story that can serve as a prequel to a larger series i'd envisioned a while ago.
I've called it Strange Ways and it's simply a chase sequence that will begin setting the stage for the Bruce Banner/Hulk relationship.
I envision the series as being a What If? type of story, ie, set outside the normal continuity.
The Incredible Hulk was probably the very first super-hero that I identified with.
Just a few days ago I was holding and showing a friend of mine the very first super-hero comic I ever bought and, you're right, it was an Incredible Hulk one.
I read it once again a couple of years ago and, even though it create an impact as big as that first time, it still retained all it's importance for me.
This is one of the things I've always enjoyed about comics. The ability to talk about the big themes in a perfectly simple and direct way.
I've read many Hulk stories through the years - and a few good ones - but I'm yet to see a series that really brings the character home.
I've liked Jeph Loeb's stories. The late seventies/early eighties (correct me if i'm wrong!) storyline where the Hulk is trapped in a labyrinthic dimension where each road takes him to a particular world, doomed (for a time at least...) to roam possibilities and strange existences.
This was my favourite time of the comic. Each story had some uniqueness to it and, in all of them, it was that crushing feeling of loneliness, of not belonging, of being an outsider that ran underneath everything. Even the episodic humour or the regular strangeness.
There were also a couple of "psychological type" comics that I enjoyed. Can't really remember which, but that's just me...
There have also been some stories that have tried to endow the series with as much realism as possible and, even though I think this is a good approach i think it doesn't fit the character entirely.
The Incredible Hulk is this wonderful bridge for the scientific mind to reach and make contact with the deeply ingrained emotions. In fact, Bruce Banner is the one who is lost, striving to find and regain his identity via the body which the Hulk so admirably represents. His story is pure hero quest. Only that his goal can only be on the inside.
It's also a story about purity. Purity of the mind. and purity of emotions - in their rawness, as expressed by the Hulk.
There are more things to say, of course, but I just don't want to reveal too much at this point.
In closing, I'd just want to say that, even after so many years and so many stories, I still haven't found one that has really filled and sated me. But I know I could write it.
So, what I did yesterday was to write down this short story, with very little dialogue, in hopes that this Portuguese Marvel penciller will read it and be interested and kind enough to want to know more about it.
Peace.
well I didn't.
(so far...)
In fact i've had a few busy months. Working and revision have taken up a good part of my time and I've just been lazy to tell you about it.
In fact, I spent most of august revising Morto and finding out that I needed to write an entire new section.
The thing just keeps getting bigger.
Fortunately I also feel it's getting better!
There's a lot of stuff put into this book. A lot of which is not entirely visible. There are a few experiments (in fact main storyline of the book is such a thing) in relation to plot devices and character construction that I'm curious to see how they work with the readers.
In august I revised most of the book. two thirds of it probably. I had a good rhythm and some discipline.
September however, it has been a different matter...
you see, I wanted to have it ready by the end of august... but i just couldn't do it. Especially when a new section needed to be added. I've got more than 120 pages of notes that I still need to type and there's probably some 30 or 40 more still to come...
Which is what I've been doing... slowly.
In any case, November is drawing dangerously close and i want to have empty headspace so that I can write something else on that month. Maybe even two new somethings... more on that later...
So, until then the plan is to more or less stick to this one, get it ready (come on! only 120 more pages of text to revise and some 10 or 20 more to write...) and get it out of the way.
As soon as the whole thing is typed and compiled I'm gonna print it out once again, read it again (no major revisions allowed just speelling and the odd sentence) along with whatever I deem necessary corrections, print it again and send it out to whatever book competition is running in portugal - as well as sending it to a few publishers.
So, I've got a month to do all that. Not as much as it seems.
Especially because October is going to be quite demanding work wise...
One of the problems that I've been having is this stifling of creativity that I sometimes feel while revising. I mean, for better or for worse, I jumped from revising Land Of Fog to revising Morto. And I miss writing something simple and short that gets out of the way in just a couple of days...
And I miss writing scripts...
So, yesterday, after a talk i had with a good friend of mine in Colombo's FNAC in Lisbon, I decided to write that Hulk story that can serve as a prequel to a larger series i'd envisioned a while ago.
I've called it Strange Ways and it's simply a chase sequence that will begin setting the stage for the Bruce Banner/Hulk relationship.
I envision the series as being a What If? type of story, ie, set outside the normal continuity.
The Incredible Hulk was probably the very first super-hero that I identified with.
Just a few days ago I was holding and showing a friend of mine the very first super-hero comic I ever bought and, you're right, it was an Incredible Hulk one.
I read it once again a couple of years ago and, even though it create an impact as big as that first time, it still retained all it's importance for me.
This is one of the things I've always enjoyed about comics. The ability to talk about the big themes in a perfectly simple and direct way.
I've read many Hulk stories through the years - and a few good ones - but I'm yet to see a series that really brings the character home.
I've liked Jeph Loeb's stories. The late seventies/early eighties (correct me if i'm wrong!) storyline where the Hulk is trapped in a labyrinthic dimension where each road takes him to a particular world, doomed (for a time at least...) to roam possibilities and strange existences.
This was my favourite time of the comic. Each story had some uniqueness to it and, in all of them, it was that crushing feeling of loneliness, of not belonging, of being an outsider that ran underneath everything. Even the episodic humour or the regular strangeness.
There were also a couple of "psychological type" comics that I enjoyed. Can't really remember which, but that's just me...
There have also been some stories that have tried to endow the series with as much realism as possible and, even though I think this is a good approach i think it doesn't fit the character entirely.
The Incredible Hulk is this wonderful bridge for the scientific mind to reach and make contact with the deeply ingrained emotions. In fact, Bruce Banner is the one who is lost, striving to find and regain his identity via the body which the Hulk so admirably represents. His story is pure hero quest. Only that his goal can only be on the inside.
It's also a story about purity. Purity of the mind. and purity of emotions - in their rawness, as expressed by the Hulk.
There are more things to say, of course, but I just don't want to reveal too much at this point.
In closing, I'd just want to say that, even after so many years and so many stories, I still haven't found one that has really filled and sated me. But I know I could write it.
So, what I did yesterday was to write down this short story, with very little dialogue, in hopes that this Portuguese Marvel penciller will read it and be interested and kind enough to want to know more about it.
Peace.
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