September 2009 Archives

I think I now know what parents must feel when they send their kids to the first day of school. My manuscript has just been sent and all I can think is "will it be liked" and "I hope the other kids don't pick on it too much." I'm relieved that after 5 drafts I have something that makes me more proud and less pukey.

Now I wait for the editor to be assigned, and for the notes to come. First leg of the journey is complete. Now I can turn my attention to the short story for Tradewind and The Bone House. The change of pace will seem like a break. Hopefully, I won't have to wait too long for the notes. Just long enough to become less precious about the writing and not so long that I hate everything I've written.

I'm getting geared up for the return of The Bone House to Edmonton. Cast is due in Edmonton in two weeks to rehearse and already audiences are buzzing about the show. I'm curious to see what this production is going to be like. I can't wait.

So let me get this straight. The critic of Bosco Homes now applies to take over the facility. Isn't that just a bit... icky? Here's the article.

I'm starting to worry a bit about my health. Just tried reading aloud my novel to edit, and I found myself short of breath. I've been feeling under the weather for the last couple of days, and I'm hoping it's just the flu, but I think it's time to visit the doctor. Definitely when I get back from Grande Prairie. If this is my last entry, avenge me....

I decided over the weekend that I should read aloud my book as an exercise in editing. Hopefully, it'll help me catch more typos than just a silent read. For this kind of book, the read aloud is pretty useful, because I'm aiming the book at reluctant readers. If a stumble over a sentence, chances are very likely my readers will too.

Friday, 6:00 pm. Everyone else is shutting down for the weekend and I'm gearing up to work. What the heck is wrong with me? I've decided to cycle through the manuscript tonight so I can get this thing out of my hair by the end of the weekend. I'm sick of looking at the manuscript, and I need to get it out of the door so that I can not think about it for a month.

Weird. After I complained about doing nothing all day, I get a second wind on the manuscript. I finished the punch up draft. Everything is now in place. What's left is the polish. Just have to cycle through and make sure I'm not using the same words too often and start to catch the millions of typos in the manuscript. I'm always guilty of dropping words. A sentence will just be missing a word. Not sure why that happens. Hopefully, it's something common to authors. If not, time for a cat scan.

Oh man, what is wrong with me today. I'm barely 10 pages into the punch-up of my kids' book and all I want to do is play games. Not a great day to be working, maybe. Lame excuse. I'm going to force myself to get the next 10 pages done before I shut down for the day. I want to have only 18 pages to revise tomorrow, so that I can get it done early and head off and find some cat food for my kitties that won't aggravate their tummies.

I'm almost halfway through the manuscript. I'm trimming away some fat sections (areas where there's way too much useless information). I'm liking what's coming out and the characters are really starting to come to life for me. I hope to be finished by the weekend.

I'm in the final stretch of this heat. Just have to cycle through the draft and do a punch up and polish. Then I can send it off to the publisher, wait for the editor to read and review. After that, the process of revision begins all over again. I hope to get through a third of the manuscript today... barring any unexpected Facebook or Twitter distractions. Hmm, I wonder what the kids of Glee are doing right now.

Now that the revisions of The Mystery of the Cyber Bully are done, I'm turning my attention to a new project. The publisher at Tradewind Books has commissioned me to write a short story for a teen collection. I'm pitched a ghost story that is creepy and comic. It's a satire of urban legends. In this case, two teens go on a ride they'll never forget as they climb into a car with the driving instructor who is literally from hell.

The great news is that the publisher has also asked me to pitch a novel idea, so I'm going to do some brainstorming this weekend.

I'm calling it. At 2:34 pm, September 10, 2009, I have a completed manuscript of The Mystery of the Cyber Bully. It's a hefty 78 pages long, single-spaced, and 38,170 words. Yay!

I'm taking the weekend off and will be coming back to the novel next week to punch up the humour and clean up the zillions of grammatical errors.

Time to celebrate... bed... pillow...zzzzzzzzzzzz.

I'm so close to the end. I just have to revise the climax. I rushed through the writing process when I worked on the first draft. Now I have to slow things down and go through the manuscript carefully to track everything. I have to pay off the elements I set up. I revised about 6 or 7 pages today. I'm going to work on 5 or 6 tomorrow and then wrap up the novel by Friday. I'm feeling good about the novel again. For a while, I just did not like what I had written. I wonder if all writers have a love-hate relationship with their manuscripts.

Another 17 pages of revisions to go. I should be finished my second pass on the novel by the end of the week. I'll most likely take this weekend off from the novel and then spend the next two weeks doing a punch up for humour and a polish for rhythm, repetition and style. I can see the finish line now.

I've decided that I'd make the worst parent in the world. I'm about halfway through my revisions, and all I'm doing is ripping apart the manuscript. Purging lame plot points. Questioning character decisions. Shooting down my ideas. If my manuscript is my baby, I'm guilty of being a bad dad... or am I try to make the manuscript strong enough so it won't be torn down by others? I don't know. I just know that this is a painful and necessary process.

Pilot has me intrigued to watch the series. Loved the optimism in the show. Need more of it in this world. And how can you go wrong with a Journey song?

Hello Twitterites (at least that's what I'll call you until I figure out the correct jargon). I'm blogging on martychan.com about my writing life. Navel gazing? You bet. But I'll try to pass on information about what it's like to overcome writer's block and how to deal with rejection letter after rejection letter. Hope you tune in.

I don't want to jink anything, but I just heard from a publisher who is interested in my writing. I've already been commissioned to do a short story for one of the publisher's collections, and now I also have to brainstorm some novel pitches. I'm bouncing off the walls right now. I know I have to finish my Cyber Bully revisions as quick as I can so that I buy some time to work up a new book. Plus, I still have to get The Forbidden Phoenix ready for publication. To top it off, this is now my heavy touring season. Sleep? Who needs it?

I can't believe this is September. It feels more like July. I made the huge mistake of going for a bike ride this afternoon to run some errands. I think I dropped five pounds in sweat alone. Yeesh.

Anyway, I was off the novel for a few days as I had to gear up for the first day of class. I'm teaching playwriting at the U of A. I felt weird to be at campus. I felt old and irrelevant as the students made pop culture references that I'm sure meant something to them, but meant nothing to me. Anyway, they seem like a bright lot. I can't wait to see what play ideas they dream up.

As for me, I'm back to the grind of the revisions. Tomorow I have to spend the day at the U of A for orientation, but the weekend is all Cyber Bully. I'm going to finish the revisions by Labour Day... hmm, I guess it really will be a labour day.

Wow! I just learned that Threeweeks, one of the major Edinburgh publications, handed out awards to what the editors thought were the top ten plays of the Edinburgh Fringe. The Bone House picked up one for being the most innovative. Considering there are over 2,000 plays at the month-long festival, I'm pretty proud of the gang for rising to the top. I'm so thrilled that the show still works after ten years, and I'm so looking forward to it getting to Edmonton in October. Yay!