Recently in the writing process Category

I'll have news to share soon, but I'm going to wait until I have officially signed contracts in my hands. In the meantime, I'll talk about one of my current projects so at least you know behind the silence is progress.

If you're interested, read on. Otherwise, hie away.

I think a fair number of people have played a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book as kids. I found them frustrating, because there's no real sense that any deliberation behind your decision-making is rewarded. You might make what seems on the surface to be a wise choice ("You examine the puzzle box instead of rashly opening it"), only to die in a freak accident ("It explodes at your touch, taking your life in a fiery explosion"). If you keep your finger tucked in the page presenting the choices and go back to take the other path ("You flippantly flip open the lid"), you usually discover that there's no consistency at all ("Inside lies the dragon-king's heart, still beating" -- although it really ought to explode if you touch it to open it, if mere contact triggers such).

I'm not interested in a world that changes every time I turn my head. I want a world three-dimensional enough that I can explore it from different angles and find each one interesting. The fun part should be in how I interact with the story, not how it twists away from any semblance of cohesion.

Gamebooks help by adding stats: you might have a strength score that you could increase by deciding to lift things, or by starting out as a litter-bearer, and later when it comes time to bust down a locked door or hold onto a dragon's lashing tail, that score determines your success. Instead of arbitrary choices, you have an idea of what you're gaining or losing -- after all, starting off as a noblewoman instead would give you a higher charm score or access to jewels with which to bribe folks, which you might find more appealing than brute force.

It's a pain, though, to keep track of these scores while flipping merrily through the gamebook. Enter: hypertext and some handy scripting to record your scores. And you see creations like Alter Ego (life -- seriously) or Choice of Broadsides (swashbuckling naval adventure).

So all this to say that I'm working on one of my own. Naturally my main focus will be on the writing (definitely a lack in those early Choose Your Own Adventures), but I'll be trying to integrate the interactive element in both a sensical and entertaining manner. It's inspired by Swan Lake is all I'll say for now; I'll try to get a snippet up so you can actually play around with it and see what it's like.

I love it when I finish a story that I began years ago. The oldest draft of this one that I can find dates back to 2002, and I'm pleasantly surprised by how much of the prose still rings true to me. I made a few tweaks, but the bulk of what I did was addition: filling in the gap scenes, instead of editing what was already there.

I even knew the ending back then, and I'm still utterly in love with one of the characters — ah, that's why it took so long. This favored character is not, alas, the protagonist, and I think I went into a snit about it and couldn't make myself focus on the right character. So I suppose the story needed a more mature writer, not in terms of writing skill, but in accepting the shape of the story.

I wonder what I'll do once all these ancient story ideas are all finally fulfilled. I suppose at that point, it'll be another eight years in the future and all the abandoned nuggets I'm writing these days will be prime for mining then.

After I clean it up a bit, I think I'm going to send "Unsilenced" over to the Trafficking in Magic anthology at Drollerie Press, since it's too awkward a length for most fantasy short story markets.

She moved through the marble and alabaster halls of the palace as softly as any spirit: as though she had died, Veillen thought resentfully, instead of her father. But the One-Eyed Emperor's body had been placed within its tomb with all the proper rituals a full moon ago, and his daughter, in turn, was trapped in the palace. Empress, the courtiers and servants murmured when she passed them in the hallways, and they would make obeisance, but their eyes were full of bright, hard smiles, and the echoes of their laughter would come to her once she turned the corner. They would give her an appellation soon, either the Ghost Empress or the Silent Empress. Veillen possessed the dry, utter certainty that more than her father's memory remained, and it was his presence that still ruled here, as heavy as his jewelled crown.

I managed to scribble out a short story that has nothing to do with my upcoming release. I think the point of this short story was to promote said release. Using some of the characters or even just the setting might have helped with that. Oh well.

I had trouble with the theme — I did hammer my head against an idea set in Summer-set's world, but it didn't end up flowing for me. Obviously, the next setting to try was alternate history fantasy Venice! (Think of, say, the way Guy Gavriel Kay borrows from history without slavishly following it.)

Maybe there's enough of my writing voice evident in 2,500 words to interest people in completely unrelated works? We'll see.

I forgot to bring my notebook home from the office, so the words I painstakingly bled out are lying abandoned and forlorn in a building a refuse to step into once I've left for the day, just out of principle. I could try to write the same gist from memory. Actually, I did use a lot of brackets, which is something I do when the word choice isn't quite right but I can't be bothered to stop and figure out a better alternative right then. So having the exact words wouldn't be helpful anyway.

My mind's already skipping ahead to the next story I want to work on, but I'll exercise some discipline and buckle down on this one. Notebooks are good for writerly monogamy. I used to mix up multiple stories on a single page, but when the time came to type it up, I'd be horribly confused. So now I always feel committed to a story for at least an entire page. (Never min that I only use small notebooks.)

I guess I'll poke at a different scene and see if I can tickle it into submission.

I got some great comments on the first chapter of "Gutter-wing," and now I'm caught between going back and rewriting that, or chugging on and actually finishing it all before I start doing the heavy lifting.

If there were structural or foundational issues — say I didn't want the heroine to be an angel anymore (that won't happen) — I would definitely do the revisions now. It doesn't make sense to keep writing along lines that I've decided to discard. But I just might be able to squeeze by with additions and very minor edits, and keep any ripples farther down the story to a minimum. So I'm dithering.

Sometimes there's such a thing as momentum, and you have to keep moving forward. (I think this is what NaNoWriMo depends on. Or, say, stories almost due for an anthology deadline.) But sometimes you tinker with one bit, and it clicks into place, and then everything else in the story makes glorious sense. That little click is worth worlds.

I think I'll be optimistic and wait to go back over Chapter One during the weekend, in case it does spur a creative spurt, and I'll want the free time to take advantage of it.

I went back to the online critique group I'd left before, because despite the frustration I'd experienced last time, there was a single comment on the first chapter of Summer-set that helped me rewrite it into something that could sell. (I would thank the critiquer, except I had the impression that she disliked the story. See how negative criticism can be more helpful?) I'm hoping for something similar for "Gutter-wing" — all it might need is just one person's throwaway remark to trigger some blinding authorly insight.

I think my earlier mistake was in expecting something similar to an in-person or static membership critique group, where you can depend on getting the same level and quality of feedback each round. It seems this site might be better suited for what I think are called beta reads: gathering first impressions instead of in-depth lookovers.

I've got the first chapter up now — in fact, this spurred me to fill in a few holes that my non-linear writing method had left — and we'll see what comes.

I've concluded that I won't be able to make the deadline for the space opera anthology. My plot was arcing away from the blasters-blazing type of action, anyway, and into...I'm not quite sure. So that one will get some rest, and it's actually with vast relief that I'm turning to the story that leapt into my head when I read the call for an angels and demons anthology.

I do come up with ideas without anthology prompts, not that you would be able to tell.

The space opera one made me think, Hey, that sounds like fun, and I somehow forced my brain onto that track. I've always wanted to write science fiction because I read a fair amount of it, and it seemed like this was as good an opportunity as ever. But it was dogged persistence that got me through as far as I did on that one. The story kept getting wound up tighter and tighter until I had no room to go anywhere without breaking laws of science.

In contrast, when I saw the angels and demons anthology announcement, it didn't even register at first. It just seemed so out of my range, the way a cowboy anthology would be. But I stumbled across some art that happened to depict an angel, and suddenly I was flipping over to my word processor and typing up a storm. And I kept typing, except when I remembered that there was this space opera thing that I should be chugging away at.

There are other projects on the burner, of course. If I completely abandoned my current works-in-progress every time a shiny new idea popped up, I'd never finish anything. But the one where the words are flowing downhill from brain to fingers — the one drawing me to my desk day after day, racking up the word count, making fall a little more in love with the characters as I create and discover more about them — right now, that's the angels and demons one.

I am firmly going to ignore any other calls for submissions until the rush of this one is over, hopefully leaving behind a complete novella.

After The Spymaster's Lady, I ended up picking up some military sf, with a protagonist who basically kills or fucks almost everyone he comes across. You'd think the combination would result in the perfect mental environment for a grandiose space opera, but instead I found myself contemplating a fantasy short story.

I have a friend who organizes her books by gradation: Robert Sapolsky (neuroscience professor with a wacky sense of humor) next to Terry Pratchett (fantasy with a wacky sense of humor) next to Kit Johnson (lyrical fantasy) next to Tony Hoagland (poet). Somehow she makes it work. But she rarely ends up reading two adjacent books one after another. I suppose she craves variety. That must be what's up with me.

I should ask her what's on the opposite end of space opera. Except that reading time, naturally, detracts from writing time. I just need to knuckle down and force this thing out.

My supposed space opera romance is not starting in space. I hope to redeem myself with epic interstellar battles later on.

But this really is something of a triumph — I've resolved not to indulge in any flashbacks this time around (one of my writerly sins). Otherwise, the first sentence would be about the epic space battle, and then I'd backtrack to explain why you should care. It's actually rewarding to build out the characters' backgrounds first, instead of figuring it out from their later predicament.

(Lest you think I'm giving up my non-linear ways entirely, I did go ahead and write the ending scene already. It's nice, sometimes, for one's plotline not to be sailing into an unknown frontier.)

Samhain just posted a call for a space opera anthology. It's like a dare: So you think you can write science fiction? Yeah, well, if you try it here, we'll tell you if it's worthwhile in just three weeks! (I know; it would just mean that particular editor didn't feel it was right for her, but no dare is phrased rationally.)

Of course an idea popped into my head, and I've calculated how many words I need to write each day to make the deadline. Thankfully my insanely busy schedule will be letting up soon. But do I really want to cast aside all my current works-in-progress to dedicate the next few months to this one new sprout? I could take my time on it and find a home for my leisurely written, tautly honed space opera elsewhere later. Writing for anthologies might be great for inspiration, but it doesn't seem sustainable for a career. (Plus, I'm still waiting to see the editorial fallout for my rush in submitting "Summer-set.")

We'll see how it goes. The siren call of one of my other works might draw me away from the shiny new story seed once it's lost some luster.