Post your Progress Thread

**Jamza1986** · July 2nd, 2004, 08:43 AM

Progress Report to the tune of 'She'll be coming round the mountain':

I'll be editing 'Arden's Call' for years,
I'll be editing 'Arden's Call' for years,
I'll be editing 'Arden's Call',
editing, editing, editing,
Editing 'Arden's Call' for years...

**Rocket Sheep** · July 2nd, 2004, 09:16 AM

Future tense? I dunno, never been popular... and using the verb "to be"? Couldn't you find a stronger one? Why use two when one will do? Why the ing form when the ed form is shorter?

I've garotted Arden's Call for years, has a nice ring to it.

or

I've manicured Arden's Call...

What? Me, obsessed with editing?

(bad prawn smiley)

This week I've reviewed Radthorne's novel over at scifidimensions, and I didn't just say nice stuff because he promised me free accomodation in the US and help seeking asylum. He really did a good job on his debut novel: RtKotaishi.

And I wrote 8,000 words in a week but that was small potatoes and at least 50% of it was absolute rubbish.

**JRMurdock** · July 2nd, 2004, 11:40 AM

I'm nearly done with a major edit on Book 1, but then something happened. ironchef read it, kinda liked it, and he threw a few suggestions at me and pointed out a couple critical errors with my prose.

WOW! did it open my eyes to what was wrong. I'm nearly done with the grammer edit at this time, but when I went out and was looking at literary agents, I found they don't like books under 70k and want 80-120k. So I've decided to combine my second book with the first (meetings and legends). I didn't really care for the titles of those two books anyway. I've also added a short story that I'd like to see published with the two books entitled Kance Encounter. I've combined all three and entitled it Chance Encounters. Now I've got an impressive book in my hands (virtually speaking).

My next step, once I'm done with grammar, is to give the entire thing a massive facelift. With the suggestions that were given to me, I've re-titled some characters and researched their titles and this gave a whole new depth --that I hadn't planned on -- to the story. The towns and villages are taking shape. I'm reading books on the middle ages and adding tiny snippets into the story to make it more 'real'. I'm not changing the writing, just adding a little spice to the mix. This is intense.

And don't worry James, I've been editing my Book 1 going on 10 years now. I finally found out what was missing and I'm adding that to it now (grammar and realisim). You can say I was given an epiphany. My eyes are open and when I finish this edit (hopefully before month's end) I'll have this off to an agent or 2 (or 4). I've been gather a list of agents to submit to and I'm up to 15. I've got 2 on the top of my list that I'll be submitting to first. We'll see what happens. I'm back to editing. I'm on Chapter 13 (or 17) in Part 1. This is an exciting time. WOO~HOO!.

**Holbrook** · July 5th, 2004, 12:39 AM

Short stories Arrows and Jac have slid off the editor's desk into the bin, both made it through prelim reading and both e mails were detailed and very sorry.... even said they liked the stories, but not for them.... typical.... one more out there and it is bound to fail...

Thinking of changing my middle name to that...

Ok... as for other work..... two joint projects and two personal ones in editing..

No new stuff written save for collab work and I am behind on that...

Not looking at new stuff until this editing is done, made up my mind on it...to be honest I need a break. Not from writing from RL for a while... Not just work, seem to be the carrier of the can of problems for the family lately.... leave it to ......... to sort out. *sigh*

**Jamza1986** · July 5th, 2004, 08:33 AM

Pull up a stool and drown your sorrows Holbrook... Actually don't it doesnt solve anything, that's what they say anyway.

I'm waging an editing war on my book still. I don't know how long its going to last.

**ShellyS** · July 5th, 2004, 10:14 PM

I'm finally finished with the first revision round through chapter 4. Chapter 5 is where things get really interesting and where I'll have to start making a lot of major changes. So much for the easy part of this revision.

**PaxNoctis** · July 8th, 2004, 10:48 AM

Well, I've been something less than prolific lately, but it looks like that's all going to change.

Tired of advertising on my site, I've decided to go official, get a real hosting plan and a real domain name. This necessitated a change in interface, so I've spent a lot of time redesigning to site, importing the content in more bite-sized chunks (my old story-chunks were about 200k. New ones are closer to 50-75k), new color scheme, etc.

That's almost done. I'm now up to the fun part, which is updated all the content. The prototype is (for the curious) at http:\\noctis.virtualdogshit.com, and will be migrating to a commercial platform soon.

Wrote a new short story that looks, based on feedback I'm getting, like it's going to turn into something bigger. As with almost all my writing, responses are mixed, split pretty much evenly between liked it and hated it. It's cool, and it's different though, and I enjoyed writing it, which is good.

I've also almost finished Holy Land's first short story. The intrigue continues and I've finally figured out whose really behind the whole mess.

I feel another surge of writing coming on, and it's a familiar, wonderful feeling. Good mood today.

-Pax

**Holbrook** · July 10th, 2004, 03:12 PM

Real Life has taken a lot of my time these last couple of weeks add to that working a few more hours. This leaves me feeling like a wet rag in the evenings... not my best time for writing. I write best in the mornings and early afternoons....

Anyway... managed to get "The Hat Man" edited again, smoother now and it has a better ending to chapter 10 and a new end chapter, number eleven. Though not sure on this.... as it does read as the beginning of the sequel!!

Chapter breakdown done, one page snyopsis to do. Then to choose the first lucky publisher to get a look at it...

Editing LRI, Map and Llafn Miestr on and off... Need to find the next mag to send Jac and Arrows too. Both good stories both got on to editors' desks, both slid into bin at the last hurdle.

I also owe HE a post on ten fingers... Hope to have a quiet day writing tomorrow if the world will allow.

**abrock** · July 11th, 2004, 09:26 AM

I'm currently 15k words into "One Nation, Under God" (about 60 pages according to submission standards).

To read an excerpt, check out my thread on it.

**PaxNoctis** · July 16th, 2004, 09:38 AM

Been doing a lot of critiquing lately. I belong to a community that is specifically a critique exchange, and combining that with some of the excellent stuff that's been posted here hasn't allowed me massive amounts of time to write.

I have, however, managed to bank out chapter 2 of Designing Drugs (now 'In Defense of Dominic'. I'd like to extend a hearty FU to several of the people on a writing community I used to frequent), as well as a new chapter of Smack, which was particularly hard because it's a flashback chapter about the happy times. I hate myself for what I'm doing to this character, I really do.

Today's project is Holy Land, which is provindg harder to write than I thought because I really didn't have a cohesive plan when I went into it. It's got cool atmosphere and characters, but GAH I can't for the life of me make the plot work.

----------------------------
Pax Noctis - Original Fiction, Sci-Fi and Fantasy
http://www.freewebtown.com/noctis/index.htm

**mistri** · July 16th, 2004, 11:16 AM

Hmm I've decided to post in this progress thread in the hope that it will guilt me into writing.

I'm currently working on:

Main Fantasy WIP: 60k in, need to get into a daily routine again
Secondary Fantasy WIP: Need to finish detailed outline and start to write it (doesn't need to be as intensive as main WIP)
Couple of Children's books - 1k in one, and 4k in another, both supposed to be 6-8k long.

I WANT TO FINISH SOMETHING!
Actually, I quite often finish short stories, but I'd like to complete something longer. On the short story front I need to edit what I've got done and start submitting them again.

**JRMurdock** · July 16th, 2004, 11:34 AM

Keep at it mistri. Putting pressure on yourself is one way to get into it, but you can't put so much pressure that you lock yourself up. You must enjoy the process in order to enjoy your works. At least that's what I've found.

I wrote three more stories this week. I put my editor away for a brief time and wrote Mike Versus the Building (a true story that happened to a friend of mine. I embelished a little), Road Trip, and In My Brother's Shoes. I'll be posting about 9 more short stories I'm abandoning hope on. Those will be on my web page later today. I also plan on redoing my web page again. Not really sure yet.

I'm over 30% done editing my new and improved book 1. I hope to have it completed by the end of the week. My next step is to produce a high-quality synopsis and chapter-by-chapter write up. Once I have those in my hands I'll be doing a massive amount of submitting. I'm hoping to find a home for my book. I've got my fingers crossed.

**JRMurdock** · July 16th, 2004, 03:19 PM

For those who need a laugh, I've added a few new stories to my site. I'm still working on re-formatting the way they're displayed off the main page.

http://www.ofgnomesanddwarves.com

Read. Enjoy. Let me know what you think.

Many of the newer stories I posted on my page are either humor or too generic to be published. Just practicing. Just practicing.

**ShellyS** · July 18th, 2004, 02:27 PM

I'm in chapter 5 of the revision of my SF WIP and last night I had a major brainstorming session with my collaborator for the other books in the series and we got most of the plot problems figured out, so things are going great right now. Just need the time to write it all down.

**PaxNoctis** · July 19th, 2004, 03:30 PM

Fun fun fun.

Wrote a chapter of Smack (nee Untitled) which takes us back before the bad **** starts happening to show up more of the main character and his love. It came out about like I wanted it to. It's cute, it shows depth of feeling, and it's a nice break for the chapters after the MC brutally slaughters someone with a chainsaw (I'm all about pacing these days, lol).

Today I started to write the next chapter, which is taking us back to the bloody and unpleasant present, but I realized I'm in too good a mood, so I settled on revising some of my older stuff and throwing out critiques in various places.

Tomorrow I plan to attempt to get myself in the mindframe to write more Smack. I really, really wanna finish it, because I have a lot of new ideas that are nearing the completion of their gestation period.
-------------------------
Pax Noctis
Original Fiction, Sci-fi and Fantasy
http://www.freewebtown.com/noctis/index.htm