The creative rush

4/18: I’m working through my editor’s comments and corrections rewriting my story “The Death of David Pickett.” I’ve given myself a target of 5 pages a day, and I’m already there this morning. Everything else is just catnip.

4/19: Zipping right along. I’ve completed rewriting 9 more pages today. While not as exciting as the original creative work, the process of rewriting–correcting mistakes, inventing solutions to persistent problems, taking plot and character in new directions–is reinvigorating the story and re-energizing my writing.

4/20: I’m off to the gym. Afterwards, I’m back to continue rewriting “The Death of David Pickett.” I’m at the end of a section halfway through the manuscript, and I really have to rebuild that part line by line and paragraph by paragraph. That should be fun.

4/21:
Writing is a process of building stories and solving creative conundrums along the way. The same goes for rewriting to a lesser extent. I’m invigorated by working through the edits on my manuscript, so much so that I find myself racing along with the rewrite even though I hope it doesn’t end. I’m almost done which makes me excited and sad at the same time. Here’s to finishing today.

Nothing works the way I want it to. Especially software!

I’m trying to figure out how to use MS Word’s Track Changes option in going through my editor’s notes and comments for my manuscript “The Death of David Pickett.” At first glance it seems pretty straightforward. I have the option of viewing the document in full markup mode and then of going from one correction to the next either accepting or rejecting the proposed changes. But the markup is messy and confusing and there’s more than just corrections in the marked up document like comments and notes and suggested revisions from my editor. I tried switching over to the compare mode that supposedly allows me to view my original document side by side with the editor’s marked up document. To do so however, all the changes in the marked up document must be accepted in order for the two documents (original and modified marked up) to be viewed next to each other in a single MS Word window. To view my original document next to my editor’s unmodified marked up document means keeping two separate MS Word windows open simultaneously, which defeats the purpose of the compare option. I do have the option of removing my editor’s comments but again, that defeats the purpose of having those comments available for a side by side comparison with my original document. I want to work out a process of rewriting my manuscript which allows me to rework the manuscript into a finished document while maintaining a comparison between the original document and the editor’s marked up document. But I fear that will require keeping THREE damned separate MS Word windows open simultaneously. Aaaarghh!

The Plan For Publishing

My original project was to take a finished novelette-sized fiction piece, expand it into a novella, and publish it as a digital book. I joined a Finishing School group of fellow writers to work on it, only to realize that progress was going excruciatingly slow and I might not be done by the end of the year. So I switched over to another completed fiction piece, a longish short story called “The Death of David Pickett” (TDDP), with the idea of converting it into a prequel to my near-future science fiction novel and giving it away for free as a digital book. By doing so I’m hoping to get a “two-for,” perhaps a “three-for,” in that I want to complete a long fallow piece of fiction, dovetail it with my novel both thematically and promotionally, and thereby expand my impact as an author.

To that end, I first sent TDDP to a few readers to evaluate its impact and problems. Then I hired a developmental/line editor for a more thorough evaluation of my manuscript. The fully edited text comes back around April 15, and I’m giving myself 2 luxurious months to rewrite TDDP. Along the way I’ll approach my illustrator to do a snappy cover for the digital book, and as soon as I’m done with the rewrite I’ll hire my copyeditor/proofreader for the final touches. Running parallel to this will be lots and lots of research into the best ebook software to use; the possibility of doing an audio ebook, how to do a mixtape soundtrack; how to make pdfs audio; the various SF FB groups I belong to and what they allow re distributing pdfs/ebooks; other social media distribution possibilities, the potential digital publishing platforms for free publishing and distribution; compiling and augmenting my mailing lists; potential Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews promotions; vetting document downloads for email and digital distribution; creating a secure download site, etc. etc. Only after all this do I actually design, create, and distribute TDDP as a digital book.

One minor problem. I use two word processing programs, LibreOffice for mundane everyday work like letter writing and scheduling, and Scrivener for my creative writing. Together, they do what I need them to do. My editor for TDDP uses Microsoft Word, of course. MS Word has robust and, in my opinion, overly complicated editing and tracking features. Unfortunately, Scrivener doesn’t import edits and comments from MS Word, and LibreOffice allows me to see only the edits, not the comments from MS Word. So I need access to an MS Office 365 license to do a compilation of my editor’s work, accepting, rejecting, or modifying her edits through Word’s Track Changes software. Once I have my editor’s final notes then, I’ll purchase an Office 365 license as a a 30-day trial “rental” and run my edited manuscript through the MS Word meat grinder. The Office 365 installation is nearly 8 gigs, which fortunately my old computer can still handle. I’ll schedule the first half of my planned rewrite to process the edits and comments, then cancel my Microsoft subscription.

Which gives me the following tentative schedule for publishing TDDP:

APRIL 9—JUNE 15: RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
APRIL 15—MAY 15: PROCESS EDITS & REWRITE
MAY 15—JUNE 15: FINAL REWRITE
JUNE 15—JULY 31: CREATE ALL DIGITAL MEDIA
AUGUST 1: PUBLICATION DEADLINE

Once in the editor’s hands

3-23-18
Last week, I sent the “The Death of David Pickett” manuscript to several readers, one professional and a couple of friends. I used their feedback to rewrite it, at the same time I researched editors for an extensive developmental and line edit. Today, I committed to one editor, signed the service agreement, and sent off the deposit. Things are moving along.

3-24-18
I’m not good at editing my own writing. At the same time, I’m an inveterate tinkerer, always rereading and rewriting my work, changing a word here and a sentence there. So when I sent off “The Death of David Pickett” to the editor I just hired, I was at a loss. The editor insisted on “version control” where “[c]lient shall not make any revisions to the manuscript” once I’ve submitted it for editing. So now what do I do? Why, write something else, of course.

New Year: Reviving This Blog

Yes, New Years resolutions! I do them, starting with resolving to revive this blog. Most recently, I stopped in September of last year because I was deep into finishing my second novel. More about that in a future post, for now I’m committing to posting at least once a week to this, my personal blog.

The idea here is not to get more hits or followers, but to write more. My other blog, my political blog, more or less takes care of itself since I made the commitment to write, and then to post, my monthly Maximum Rocknroll columns there. And my novel rewrite, which is going on its second year, is close to being done. The manuscript will go to the editor I hired for a final line-by-line edit at the end of January. So that leaves this blog, and my writing in general.

I write for personal pleasure, therapy, and expression. I’ve written since I was 12 years old and, except for a period of heavy-duty depression, I continue to write as often as I can. I hope to write until I die.

Procrastination and motivation

If it weren’t for the last minute, nothing would ever get done.

I am fond of procrastination, not because I never get anything done, but because I use the last minute to motivate myself to get things done. I have a keen sense of how long and how much effort a task requires to accomplish, so that I can fuck off until the last minute, enjoying my free time, but always knowing exactly when to get down to work. I rarely, if ever, fail to get things done within the allotted time, even at the last minute.

Today, I did something simple. I cleaned up the dead tomato plant and removed the anti-raccoon caging from around the barrel planters in our backyard. A quick and easy and long overdue task.

I do like keeping up our backyard, not nearly as much as I enjoy harvesting heirloom tomatoes or outwitting the neighborhood raccoons, but because its a serene, secluded, meditative spot in which to hang out. Below is a circle of iron birds we array on the lower deck, a bit of lawn art that has fooled local birds into descending for a gander.

My habitual procrastination has transformed into unalloyed motivation over the past year or so, in part thanks to the influence of health problems that have given me a taste of my own mortality. I’ve started rewriting my 15+ year old novel, I’ve restarted my two blogs, and I’m churning out my Maximum Rocknroll columns as quickly as I can manage. Procrastination is an excellent motivation, but I’m really appreciating motivation for its own sake. As Isaac Asimov once said when asked what he would do if he only had six months to live: “Type faster.”