McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Arting Harder at the Pen Monkey Toiling Pit (Celebrate Them Pages Pt III)
The Deposed King:
--- Quote from: meg_evonne on May 18, 2014, 03:08:15 PM ---How bad would it be if I skipped my grand-daughter's baptism to continue my weekend writing marathon? Yeah, I know. Get showered Meg.
I won't read Skin Game until the rough draft is finished. After that, there's this horrid game my mind plays with me. It says, "You can't hope to write on Jim Butcher's level. Forget writing." It takes a couple weeks of self hate. Then I put the take-aways from his highlighted book to work and hone my skills...
6000 max words left of the first draft, plus editing continues. Primarily going back to firm up the clue and subplot lines to mesh smoothly with the updated angles as the draft proceeded.
--- End quote ---
I always say you don't have to be as good as (insert name) you just have to be good enough to make a living at it. Or alternately sell enough copies to get at a certain daily sales amount or amazon ranking.
I mean heck there are lots of published authors not as good as Jim Butcher and yet you don't see them packing up their chips and going home.
You don't have to be the best, only good enough!
Oh Just did 3k additional chapter for The Painting, Falon II, tonight.
The Deposed King
meg_evonne:
Thank you DK. i know logically you are right, but I've learned to leave about two weeks to get myself back on track. I don't have that problem with other books. It's his books. The sparse words, the right mix of interior and clear action, the reader's instinctive empathy with his characters. But you are 100% right. The writer's mantra, Hang in there. Trust the muse.
Weekend writing/editing marathon continues. Down to 5000 words to go now. The baptism took longer than I thought--should have skipped the shower. LOL Here's my notes concerning the last scene. It's going to be a b**** to get right, but that isn't for now. On to the motocross race down the Missouri River bluffs. That and one more hard action scene and then it's wipe up left to handle.
My comment bubble on the major assault scene: OKAY you've gotten the fight scene logistics down. You’ve set the scene. The players are in place. The dangerous action is there. You know what’s going to happen. You’ve sketched it in. Now leave it and finish the draft. Fix it later. Only how the hell do I fix it? Time to yank apart some large assault scenes from books to figure this out. How much is over view when a lot is happening in clumps all over the place? How much is interior thought? How do I keep everything in place and moving forward at a frightening speed. Or should I slow it down? Sounds like I need a reread of the Summer Knight giant blow out. ARGHH. Questions for Jim ‘s master class at WyrdCon. Poor guy has no idea how much I'm going to peel back his head and look at his processes.
First though, I need a long walk to clear my head. Then I'm back at the keyboard to write the motocross race down the Missouri River bluffs. That and one more hard action scene and then it's wipe up what's left to handle.
Looks like I'll finally get to read the released first chapters by Thursday night.
Paynesgrey:
Hell, Jim's the guy who got me into all this back when he gave us a peek under the hood of genre writing with his livejournal entries. I don't read anybody's work as something to compare myself to. It's all a resource I can learn from. Reading for the pure joy of it, but also being able to giggle and point and say "I see what you done there," at some bit of clever story-craft. Understand the writer's layering, get examples of this or that done right or wrong.
The Deposed King:
47k - Admiral Invincible
The Deposed King
The Deposed King:
48k - Admiral Invincible
49k - Admiral Invincible
The Deposed King
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