I’m thinking about writing.

Old What’s Her Face* went to Nevada today. There’s a movie she wants to take the grandkids to. I have to work tomorrow, so I’m a bachelor until Sunday.

I nuked my leftovers and watered the outdoor plants. I was sitting around in my boxers when Lorelei** walked in.

“Nice outfit,” she said.

“Um, thanks. Are those yoga pants?” I asked.

She made a simp, winked, and sat on the couch. I curled up in my chair and covered up as well as I could.

“Tell me about your next writing project,” she said.

I scratched my head and said, “I’m not quite there yet. I’ve been working on publishing and promotion stuff.”

She slumped back in the couch and crossed her arms.

“I thought you have other clients,” I said.

“I don’t really. There are a lot of Muses around. It’s been thousands of years since Ancient Greece, and the Gods are promiscuous. I just want you to be creative.”

“I have a notebook full of character and scene ideas. It involves three characters and I have a reasonable story arc for two of them.”

She snapped her fingers and held out her hand. I grabbed my notebook and stepped toward her sideways to hide my fly. She took the notebook and leaned back into the upholstery.

“It has promise. What are you going to do with the thug character?”

“He’s awesome, but he’s the weak spot right now. He’s kind of the foil, and he gets the big scene at the end. I just need more story for him. The others are ready to go. The doctor lady is all thought out, and the creepy little girl is almost set.”

“What genre are you thinking of?” She asked.

“It’s kind of a science fiction and paranormal piece. That isn’t carved in stone yet.”

“Does it have to be both?”

“No, but it has to be paranormal. I just like the contrast between ancient problems and high tech.”

“That is pretty cool, if you can make the contrasts stand out.” She tossed the notebook back. “So how’s the other stuff coming along? As long as you’re creative, I don’t care if you ever publish. It’s important to you, and I want to be supportive.”

“The artwork for Arson is awesome–

“I know, all the Muses are my sisters. We talk, she texted me a picture.”

“I’m working on the editing, and I need to do a search for all my sin words.”

“Sin words?”

“In my case: just, very, that, though. Oh, and I can’t forget about it’s; Apple insists it has an apostrophe every time. Then I have to search and destroy my filtering words like; felt, knew, thought, and wondered.”

She stood and turned toward the door. “I’m glad you have a story in mind. Try to have a basic outline before you see me again. There’s a big blowout over at Dionysus’ place tonight. There’s always a big blowout at his place. Anyways, they’re playing pin the tail on the hydra. I’ve got a hundred bucks on Hermes to win. I think he’s the only one fast enough to avoid all those mouths. Ta Ta!”

* Not my wife’s actual name.

** Lorelei is my Muse.

Just Hanging Out

I’m stalling about writing my next story. I have all this work to do getting the old stuff on Amazon. I promised myself I would do it this year. If I’m writing, I can find an easy excuse to avoid my other work.

I’m still waiting for cover art, but the preliminary stuff looks pretty cool. I already blogged about what I need to do once Panama is ready to go.

The copyright holder needs about six weeks to decide if I can quote their song lyrics in Will ‘O the Wisp. Since this is my most recent work, I have time available.

I’m leaving my two other stories alone, for now. I’ll tackle them one at a time when it’s their turn.

I’ve written down a bunch of character outlines for my next story. Hey, I’m concentrating on the old stories – I’m not dead. I also wrote notes about situations I’d like to see. I refuse to start outlining just yet. That would be enough to push me into writing.

Lately, I’ve been watching over my shoulder for Lorelei*. She likes me writing, and I’m afraid she’s going to abduct me, or hit me with a car. She’s never been subtle.

I recently blogged about starting stories, and related them to some television shows. I had to record things this week and have only watched Salem. That’s it for me. I’m not watching Salem again. Dull snarling characters don’t do it for me. There are some cool concepts, but I’m just not entertained.

So right now, I’m just hanging out. I chose a pretty mayfly for my May wallpaper. It looks bad on my iPad, but great on the Mac. Would one of you PC folks let me know how it looks on your screen, please? I might be able to adjust it if it’s bad.

Old What’s Her Face** is watching American Idol tonight. It’s not my deal, so I’m making a cup of Golden Monkey tea, and I’m off to read your blogs.

* Lorelei is my Muse

** Not my wife’s actual name.

Weekend Wind Down

I’ve been hitting it pretty hard for weeks now. I admit, this weekend wasn’t really really productive. I got some things done, but I’m starting to wear thin.

This was a good weekend to work too. We’re between paychecks, and this means I can’t afford a lot of expensive distraction. It’s funny how the assessor never showed up when real estate prices were falling, but he made it right out when the market turned back up. My house payment is $100 per month higher now, due to taxes.

That same $100 could buy my cover art for Panama.

I didn’t write at all yesterday. It was the perfect day for it too. I needed to ruminate about a transition in my current story, and there was nothing I could do about that. My main character needs to go on the attack now, and shifting gears needs to get written the right way.

I managed to do some editing on Panama. (Coming soon to a Kindle near you.) These older works are good stories, but I’ve learned so much since I wrote them, that they need some cleaning up. I used to use a lot of filtering words, and killing them is dropping my word count. Panama is a short novel anyway, and I don’t want people to think they aren’t getting their monies worth. I managed to add more life to the jungle, and even included some smells and touch senses. If it’s still short, I may have to price it down accordingly.

I think Panama may need another editing pass once I finish this one. I want to double check the calendar and times in the story. Every writer runs the risk of saying something happened yesterday, when it was a week ago in the manuscript.

I used my cool fountain pen and wrote out some more character sheets. Some, or all of these characters will appear in whatever my next project is. For some reason, using a different tool makes you see things differently. There could be a shred of plot developing in my mind.

I also took some time off and just vegetated. I watched Django Unchained. Totally unrealistic, and totally fun. Lot’s of weapons errors, but I suspended disbelief well. I’m starting to really like Christoph Waltz, but I’ve only ever seen him in Tarantino movies.

Today, I laced up my writing boots and went to work. It didn’t amount to much, but there are 1152 new words on Will ‘O the Wisp. For those of you keeping track, I’m at 49,667 words now.

There is no absolute number of words for what qualifies as a novel. Popular thinking is 80,000 and that’s always been my benchmark. I used to always write long. I’ve learned to be more sparse, but now I have the opposite problem. It’s easier for me to trim than it is to add.

This blog update doesn’t mean I’m finished for the weekend. I’m about to begin reading the next book in the horror six pack I bought. I really enjoyed the last one about two thugs transporting a werewolf to an underworld boss. I have more editing to do too.

I’ll probably do a little bit of everything, but then I have a television appointment with the Walking Dead.

I always like the time changes when they come around, but I’m not looking forward to 4:00 AM Daylight Savings Time to start my work week.

Edited with BlogPad Pro

Writing project updates

People who participate in nano regularly post updates. Since it’s November, I thought I might borrow a page from them.

I found out who owns the copyright of the song I want to use in my next story. They want email, so I sent them an awesome one asking pretty please. I offered to blog about how wonderful they are if they let me quote 40 year old song lyrics. If it’s possible, I’m even willing to include a link to buy the song at the end of the book. I’m waiting patiently.

I decided I like my outline. I storyboard, and don’t use any kind of formal outline. I’ll add photos, and a few more notes, but I like to allow a little wiggle room. Sometimes the story needs room to evolve while I’m writing.

I think I’m going to make some character outlines. This story is on the verge of using one main character. It would work well, but a small group makes more sense. I’m torn between writing a lone heroine in first person, or putting her in a group using third person.

Right now, I kind of want to come up with a Goonies or Scooby Doo team. My winning argument is the hero’s journey story structure. Specifically, where the heroine faces the bad guy alone. It’s no surprise if she’s always been alone, but it’s a bigger deal if her friends all bail out at the last minute.

I spent some time editing my older works. I jumped ahead to my most recent tale. I want to address a few small story points before sending it to the editor I met. I’m really excited to see what she comes up with. I know it’s a good story, but I’ll bet she can improve it. I want to send it off sometime in early December.

I put the search for a cover artist on the back burner for now. I have a friend with some contacts that might pan out. I can’t do everything at once, and don’t mind being a little patient.

I don’t feel any pressure to get started writing, yet. The other projects are valid, and need my attention right now.