Finished editing and sending it off...

I'm finished with my final edits on "In Plain Sight." I'm planning on sending it off either tonight or tomorrow to a new online mag I found. I may do some more research, though before I do that, though. 

A small rant...and a resolve

I realized once more last night why I am called to write.
My wife and I watched "God is in the Details," an episode of the otherwise enjoyable Sci-Fi channel series "Eureka." This particular episode was a travesty, however, depicting people of faith as ignorant medieval-minded bumpkins, ready to declare any unexplainable phenomenon as a miracle of God or something. (for more on how badly this episode was written, you can read my review of it here). Anyway, my comment to Cara as the episode ended and we were discussing it was: "This makes me want to sit down at my desk and write."
There is such a gap--especially in America, but elsewhere, too--between people of faith, particularly Christianity--and those who don't ascribe to a faith. Both sides often hold extremely ignorant views of the other, and the writing they do about each other reflects this. One of my aims in writing is to publish works written within my worldview into a publishing arena which is traditionally hostile to that worldview. There are many Christian writers who publish works that are read for the most part only by Christians, and that is wonderful. That is their calling. My calling and desire is to write things that will be read by those who do not claim Christianity, or perhaps any faith at all.
My aim is not to proselytize. As Samuel Goldwyn famously said: "If you have a message to send, use Western Union." My goal to is to simply write in an excellent way and let whatever is inside me come out through my writing and illuminate the world around me.

Buckling down

I did it. Made myself sit down last night and wrote 1,700 words into my new story in my Moleskine notebook.
It's amazing how good it always feels when I finally get to the writing process. http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.photo.gif

Recording story bits

When I'm developing a story, I've found it helpful to record "conversations" between characters. For some sections of the story, I can imagine interactions between different characters, sometimes quite vividly. I then act out their dialog, and if it's convenient, record it using my phone or another device. Sometimes, I'll write it down, but I've found that this tends to slow down the easy flow of the "conversation" my characters are having.

A little weird, I know, but it works for me and helps me to get to know them better. I may not actually end up using the conversation in the final narrative, but it definitely helps with story development.

The ol' Inbox is filling up

I've now got two stories about ready to send out for publication. Both of them still need some editing, though one is in a stronger place than the other, I think. Both have been read and commented on my one or more of my main readers, so I need to find the time to sit down with them and do the final edit on both to get them ready. Plus, I need to find the right place to publish them. I'll write more on that particular process--finding the right market--in another post. 

Jumping in

I'm pretty much done with my research at this point. It's all gathered together inside Scrivener. So now I've got to start writing. Actually, I already have--done about 500 words or so, but I don't know if I'll keep them. I'm trying to understand my main characters, and part of that involves writing scenes with them that probably won't end up in the final narrative. That's okay, though, because I want them to ring true. I've mainly got to find time now just to sit myself down in the chair (or somewhere else) and write. And that's the really hard part. 

Doing Research with Scrivener

I gotta say, I really love Scrivener, and here's why. It's not only a very decent word processor, but it also enables me to collect all of my research in one place. This is invaluable for almost any kind of story I write, but especially anything that requires lots of historical or scientific research. I can put everything that I gather, whether it be PDF, sound file, picture or a web page--all in one place. I can choose to view them all in a visual interface that resembles a corkboard with note cards tacked onto it. I can move the cards around like I want, and even color code the "tacks" to reflect different categories of research. When I'm ready to write, I can constantly reference my sources by opening them in another pane right below my draft. Or, if I choose, I can just open a full screen version of my draft and just let the creative juices flow. For all these reasons, I went ahead and sprung for the registration fee, and Scrivener is definitely proving its worth.

Quick Update on "Cipher is Woman..."

Anybody remember my story "Cipher is Woman is Cipher" that I submitted to Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine a while back? Well, as of today, it's still in their slush pile, albeit in the final round. They've published one issue since it made it there, so I imagine it's got one more go-around. If it gets passed over this time, I'm betting they'll fire it back to me. So, we can all hope it makes it, but it's got some competition, as there about 50 other stories at the same level are vying for publication right now too. We'll see, and I'll post here once I know one way or the other...

Brainstorming

I'm just at the beginning stages of this new story I'm working on. Unlike previous stories, which just kind of struck like lightning, I'm having to work at the inspiration part. This is sort of like my experience with the police procedural I just wrote, in that it was a request, not an idea that struck out of the blue. I'm using FreeMind, a free mind-mapping program, to help me with the brainstorming part. I'll just keep working through ideas and hopefully I'll spiral closer and closer until I get to the one that really works. At this point, it's kind of a hit-and-miss process. With my detective story, I actually wrote almost all of a complete story before I trashed it and started over with what I feel is a much better version. So it's messy, but hopefully, there'll be some good results.

Busy week

Two things I've assigned myself to get to this week:

• Final rewrites/revisions on "Sinking NeoVenice" and then submission for publication somewhere

• A new short story for the literary magazine startup I mentioned in an earlier post. 

Anybody's welcome to ask me about them--I'd love the accountability!

Of course, the big caveat to all this is that I need to stay focused and balance these projects with my other life callings and responsibilities and "to-do's." I could use prayer for that, as it's something that I find particularly challenging. 

Finished the Detective Story

I finally finished the detective story, so it's now at first draft stage. It's been retitled "In Plain Sight," and I have to say, I like it a lot. It definitely could use some tweaking in some areas, but I've got a solid first draft, at least. I'm sending it around to a few first readers to get some feedback. 

A couple of new projects on the docket

I can't give too many details at this point, but it looks like I'm going to be getting involved soon in a couple of larger projects in addition to my continued fiction writing.

One of the projects is writing for and contributing in other ways to a startup literary magazine. There are lots of details to be worked out on this one, of course, such as where it'll be published, how contributors will be solicited, etc. While I'm not the idea man behind it, I certainly like the concept, and am more than willing to be on board with it. I'll be working on a short story to contribute to the mag (which looks like it'll be issued quarterly, with each issue clustered around a particular theme) once I get my detective story done. The first ish will be out in December or January.

Also, I'm going to one of two editors (so far) working on ghostwriting/editing a book over the next year. The book, a non-fiction piece, which will end up being about 50,000-75,000 words long, will be an non-fiction historical account, told via linked biographical sketches. If that all sounds vague, it needs to be at this point. I may elaborate more on it in the future, if appropriate.

In any case, I've got my work cut out for me, but I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Burning the 2:00 am oil

Since my wife was staying up to work on a project, I decided to stay up, too. I parked myself on the futon, trusty Moleskine in hand, and wrote another scene for my detective story (yet to be titled). I'm still encouraged at how fast this thing is going and how easy it is to write. It's nearly like the characters are writing the narrative for me. As I said in a previous post, I think once I find the "voice" for a story, then it's generally not too difficult to always know where things are headed and how to write them.