Ongoing work and revisions
I have no particular interest in the Twilight "saga", but it's both fun and fashionable to mock it as it richly deserves. To do that honestly, one really ought to have read the books first, and I have no intention of subjecting myself to them. Fortunately I don't have to, thanks to Dana of Reasoning With Vampires and Mark of Mark Reads Twilight.
It got me to worrying though. I'm very much a novice writer, and after seeing Ms. Meyer's mistakes so clearly highlighted I had to wonder if I'd done anything like that myself. I'm therefore now re-reading through everything I've written so far just to make sure. This is a copyedit only, as I have no intention of going back over old material and making significant revisions, no matter how much they may need it. It's not because I think they're perfect, it's that I have to declare a story "finished" at SOME point or I'll never see the end of it. It's hard enough producing new material without going back and revamping old stuff.
Things mostly look good and I'm enjoying my own work more than I though I would, although I'm finding some embarrassing errors where I have no idea how they could still be present. They range from brief passages of ugly, ugly prose to minor continuity errors. Even now I have no illusion that I'll find all of them, but the stories should be mostly cleaner.
So if you happen to see something that looks like an update from me anytime soon, but nothing new is really there, that's why.
Rereading and editing is helping me get back in the groove, as I'm now actually writing the next story. I found that writing a rough draft out by hand seems to be most effective. Too many distractions at the computer, perhaps. It's not going quickly, but unlike the past year or so, it is going. I'd tell you the working title if only I had one, but it starts off in Kroraina, their destination in The Secret Oasis, and involves a mission to a city-state further south along the Spice Road. It may end up being very long, so I hope it won't be too tiresome.
It got me to worrying though. I'm very much a novice writer, and after seeing Ms. Meyer's mistakes so clearly highlighted I had to wonder if I'd done anything like that myself. I'm therefore now re-reading through everything I've written so far just to make sure. This is a copyedit only, as I have no intention of going back over old material and making significant revisions, no matter how much they may need it. It's not because I think they're perfect, it's that I have to declare a story "finished" at SOME point or I'll never see the end of it. It's hard enough producing new material without going back and revamping old stuff.
Things mostly look good and I'm enjoying my own work more than I though I would, although I'm finding some embarrassing errors where I have no idea how they could still be present. They range from brief passages of ugly, ugly prose to minor continuity errors. Even now I have no illusion that I'll find all of them, but the stories should be mostly cleaner.
So if you happen to see something that looks like an update from me anytime soon, but nothing new is really there, that's why.
Rereading and editing is helping me get back in the groove, as I'm now actually writing the next story. I found that writing a rough draft out by hand seems to be most effective. Too many distractions at the computer, perhaps. It's not going quickly, but unlike the past year or so, it is going. I'd tell you the working title if only I had one, but it starts off in Kroraina, their destination in The Secret Oasis, and involves a mission to a city-state further south along the Spice Road. It may end up being very long, so I hope it won't be too tiresome.