A bubble?

Lots of talk about the stock market being a bubble.

Not by my definition.  A bubble is when it just blows up and everyone joins in and everyone is talking about a new day. 

Overpriced is not the same thing as a bubble.

By my standards, which basically consist of "I know a bubble when I see one," this isn't a bubble.

Not to say it won't correct 10 or 20% or something like that.  It could even correct by 50% (which actually normally would be my definition of a bubble.) 

I just don't see the insanity.

All in for Christmas.

So I'm all in this Christmas.

My general tendency is to spend money in the slow months, and try to make money in the busy months, which means sales on the slow months are better than they might otherwise be and sales on busy months are maybe less than they might otherwise be.

I do this for the sake of cash flow and consistency and -- well -- because it works.  People tend to buy stuff in the summer and Christmas, my store is well stocked, so I make money if I don't immediately restock.  And vice verse on the slow months.

But once in a while I also feel like I need to actually go all in and see how high sales will go if I'm completely stocked through a busy season.  Maybe don't make as much cash, but often I can push sales high enough that I can then coast a little in the slow months.

It's just an opposite strategy than normal, a change-up  --which I think is necessary on a regular basis -- say every third or fourth year.

So this is an all in year -- stocking to the gills on every category and immediately restocking on a regular basis.  Still hope to make some cash for the slow months.

I'm very very close to beating last year in overall sales, which I didn't expect considering how conservative I was on spending through the first 10 months of the year.  So I'm letting loose (with a generous Christmas budget -- but a budget never the less.)

The formula, the mix of product, that I've arrived at over the last 5 years seems to be basically working.  At this point, I could probably increase sales slightly by putting in a ton of research on exactly what's selling and when, but I think it's working at a relatively high efficiency with a moderate amount of work and effort.  In other words, the inventory is doing all the heavy lifting.

So I want to keep that up. 

Shorty shorts.

A few observations.

1.)  The destinations resorts like Pronghorn and Tetherow are finally building their hotels, apparently.

2.)  Room revenue is up in Bend, talk about downtown Bend being busy.  So let us be busy and quit closing the streets, please.

3.)  Rays is leaving.  I think it's hard for midsized companies who do the same thing as big boxes.  Specialty stores probably have a better chance of surviving, if their goals are modest enough.

4.)  Ebook sales are down for the year, regular book sales are up.  Can we say, "fad?"

5.)  Amazon insiders are exclusively selling, not buying.  Amazon is concentrating on new ventures.  (Which means what for the old ventures?  That never made money?)

6.)  Bend is growing again.  More and more mentions of Portland and Oregon on TV shows -- as weird and happening places.

7.)  Looks like Bend will survive, thanks to tourism.

The Ending is most important, except for the Start, and the Middle.

I've read that the ending of a book is the most important part.  Also that the beginning of a book is the most important part.  And of course, the middle has to hold up too.

Anyway, for me, the beginning is by far the most important part in the writing of the book.

But... I can see how the ending could be the most important part for the reader.  It's what he or she will take away, will remember.

But by the time I get halfway through a book, the course is set.  I'm playing out the story that was mandated by the original premise and by the character's reactions.

So it's easy for me not to put as much work into the second half as I do in the first half.  I have to consciously go in when I'm finished and work on just the second half, once I'm satisfied with the start.
I've already changed the ending quite a bit, cutting out some chapters that I decided were extra or unnecessary.  In fact, in several of my rewrites, I was conscious about working on the ending, even though I thought most of the problems with the book were at the beginning.

The most crucial and tricky chapter is about two/thirds of the way in, and I've worked on that chapter over and over again.   I doubt I'll ever construct a book again which depends on the main character trying to talk other characters into doing something, especially when what he's trying to talk them into sounds outlandish.

I at least upped the motivation for this scene -- which used to have a silly premise of PETA people taking up arms to fight the monsters who are taking their pets.  That was OK when the tone was different, but not after I made the tone serious.

The solution was actually easy -- that it is missing family members, and worse, children -- who are being taken by the monsters.  Not so hard to convince people that there is a need to take arms.  (Though the problem of convincing them that there is a supernatural cause is still there.)

So that's where I'm at right now.  I've got a couple more days, plus next week's writing session to concentrate on the ending, and somewhat the middle.

In my books, by the time I get to the second half of the book -- events start taking over, and it is much more action oriented, which for me is easier to write.  But I mustn't forget to make the character's reactions to the unfolding events real and meaningful.

I need an emotional entry point on the second half -- so I'll spend the morning looking for that.  The book works so much better when I can relate to the characters.  (duh.)

At loose ends.

Now that I've actually finished Faerylander after wrestling with it for months (years, actually), I'm a bit at loose ends.  (I want to give the book one last reading next week, and then set it aside for my editor.)

Now what?

Do I start something new?  Or try some more rewriting?

I want to give my old book Deviltree a rewrite: Linda was kind enough to do a critique, so I can start with that. 

Sometimes a Dragon still needs work, and Spell Realm definitely needs work, but before I do either,  I want to write the middle part of the trilogy, which I'm going to call Pyramidion.

Blood of Gold is done.  Wolflander is done.  Led to the Slaughter is done.  Faerylander is done.

I want to write a third Cobb and Company book, called Ghostlander.

I may do that.

They're all lined up for editing and formatting and cover development and then publishing.  But the writing part is mostly finished.

I can give myself a week or two off -- but more than that, and I want to get back to writing. 

Right now, I'm thinking I'll take a stab at rewriting Deviltree, but if I get bogged down, think about writing the middle fantasy book.  Or I may just go ahead and write Ghostlander.  Wolflander was so much fun to write, that I'm thinking another book in that series would be pleasant.

All I know is, I'm going to write something.

Well, that was anti-climactic.

I read (rewrote) the first half of the Faerylander last night, and it was kind of anti-climactic -- in a good way.   It didn't need much rewriting after all.  Excising a couple of duplications, cutting and changing a few words here and there, adding back a little flesh where I had cut too far.

But it flowed as it read, nothing was too jarring that couldn't be easily fixed.

I think what happened was, in the constant restructuring I was also rewriting at the same time, so most of the problems had already been dealt with.  I'd just assumed there would be more.  I mean, I've been working so hard, I just thought that would continue.

A couple of things of note:

1.)  The Flashbacks, where I put them, didn't seem to slow down the story at all.
2.)  I have a few short chapters, which I tend to try to avoid (believing the chapters should be roughly the same size.)  But they weren't off-putting at all, and seemed to serve as transitions.
3.)  Cobb's voice came through the most often, which is what I'd hoped for.  I now like all my characters -- even the bad guys have their reasons.
4.)  The best changes came from cutting the overly dramatic phrases.  The book is strong enough now to work with being more understated.
5.) Cutting and adding seemed about equal this time, so putting the Flashbacks back in added about 10K words.  So overall, the book is 85K, which is 20K less than the last time I wrote it, and 40K less than the 'kitchen sink' version.  I think it is much more lean and fast moving.

If I finish the second half today, that gives me the luxury of a couple of weeks to step away, and then come back to it one more time.  I've asked Linda if she'll let me read it to her (something I usually only do with first drafts.)  Nothing like reading aloud to another person to catch the little things.  I'm sending volunteer reader Martha 3 chapters at a time and hoping for her valuable feedback.



I woke up this morning with a kind of crucial point.  I'd made a big deal out of how the Necronomicon immediately takes over the mind of the villain.  Then later in the book, I have one of the heroes open the book to memorize a spell, and it's no big deal.

My subconscious caught the mistake, which I can correct something like this:

"How do you feel, Alex?"

"I feel great.  I mean, it was a little weird at first -- I thought I was hearing little voices promising me stuff but I ignored them."

Cobb heard Lillian's voice in the background.  "The Great Library protected him."

"I think you're a good man, Alex," Cobb said.   "You weren't so easily tempted."

That's sort of a first drafty passage, but it addresses the problem.  The reason I bring it up is to marvel about how the subconscious had apparently caught something relatively minor -- I mean, very few people would have caught it -- and yet not insignificant.  Makes me feel like if there were other major problems the old subconscious would speak up...

I've had the sense for a month or so that I now have a publishable book.  Last night just sort of confirmed that.  It's better than I expected.

Meanwhile, I've already written the sequel to this book -- Wolflander, which Thank God doesn't need as much work, and I have ideas for a few more  (Ghostlander, Xenolander, etc) starring Cobb and Company.

One final curious note:  The original title of this story was Almost a Human, and then Almost Human.
A new TV show just started showing with the title of Almost Human.

That just seems to be the way these things work.

Making Sausage.

Writing a book, like making sausage, is probably something you don't want to see.

I'd hoped to start my final rewrite today, but instead spent most of the day still struggling with structure.

I had some mis-numbered chapters so I was thrown off for a couple of hours trying to figure out where the problem was.  Finally wrote the beginnings in long hand and discovered the missing digit.  Arrgghh.

It is so easy when moving chapters around to lose one, or misplace one, or double one.

I'm still undecided about whether and how and when to  include the Flashback chapters starring famous horror and fantasy authors.

The Arthur Conan Doyle/Houdini chapter is light and inconsequential, to it can go.  The C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams chapters are philosophical in nature, but don't really contain any horror, so they should probably go.   And I decided today to take out my nameless holocaust writer because I've just decided the holocaust shouldn't be used in a book whose purpose is entertainment.

That leaves me with Edgar Allen Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and J.R.R. Tolkien.  They're the big four anyway, and have the closest approximation to Cthuhlu.

These I think I can integrate into the book.

When I did my last rewrite, I reduced the four or five Lillian chapters to two, so I think I'll put one back in, and intersperse the four Flashback chapters with those.  They are clustered toward the middle, so that will hopefully leave a good strong narrative start, and then an action packed ending.

I'm may include the cut chapters in an appendix, at the end of the book.  It's only digital, after all.

Breaking off for dinner.

When I come back tonight I'm going to settle on a final order of chapters.  I know I've said that before, many times, but this time I really am done.  I've spent two months with this, after two and a half years, and it is time to finish it, one way or the other.  Many of the changes I might make from now on are six to one, half dozen to the other.  I'm just moving pieces around at some point.

Once I've settle on the final order, I can start doing the final draft.


Later:  Settled on the sequence.

 Read through half the draft tonight, and it seems good to me.  I can probably finish tomorrow, which means I can set it aside for a week or two and come back one last time before I turn it over to Lara.

Enough is enough.

Have locked myself in the room for the day, and plan to do so for the next three or four days.

Hopefully get a full complete and satisfying draft done.

I'm going to spend the first hour or two telling the story to myself, outloud, with the computer off.  Just tell the story to myself -- the feelings of the characters, what's happening, the essence of what I'm feeling about it.

When I feel that I've totally encompassed the story in my mind and heart, open the computer and start re-writing.

It is 11:00.

So I begin.

Decided to eat first, so I could stay in the moment longer...

OK.  11:15.  Turning out the lights and telling myself a story.

7:15.  Got bogged down in structure all day.  Deciding on a final order of chapters tonight and then start the real rewrite tomorrow.  Enough is enough.

The trick to rewriting.

The trick to rewriting...for me.

As anyone who reads this knows, I don't enjoy rewriting anywhere near as much as writing the original draft.  But I may have discovered the reason why, and how to fix it.

The advice that writers are given, as usual, is both right and wrong.

The advice to let the manuscript sit for a length of time in order to gain perspective is correct for as far as it goes.  Unfortunately for me, that advice usually meant that I was coming back cold and was trying to change the surface of the manuscript.  It seemed tedious and somewhat less than cost effective.

The idea of coming back cold was that I'd read it as a stranger --

But that doesn't work for me.  I just don't feel anything.  I might as well be painting rocks and throwing them over the fence.

The answer for me turned out to be -- I had to get re-immersed in the book to the same level of commitment and dedication as I was on the first draft.  In other words, I had to feel it and understand it just as deeply.  THEN I could start making changes.

So the trick for me is find an entry point -- something significant that needs to be done, and then, once I'm completely re-immersed, give myself the freedom to start making changes.

I kept at Faerylander over the last couple months, and the more I struggled with it, the more I started to feel the story again, understand the characters again.

I've completely reworked the book -- like Tiger Woods throwing away a perfectly good golf swing and working, struggling on a new one for a couple of years, with the hope of making an adequate golf swing into a good one.  Like Tiger Woods, it may be worse for awhile.

I think I'm better than adequate now, and have given myself the chance to really improve the book.

I understand the characters and their feelings and motivations, I understand the plot, and I think it is all of a piece.

So once again, over the next two weeks, I'm going to try to do a "final" draft.  Start at the beginning and try to make a good strong narrative flow.

I told myself last night to "tell" the story to myself -- in sequence, and "feel" it.  Even if I sit in a darkened room and tell the story to myself outloud.  Who these people are, what's happening in the story, why, how -- all that.  A total overall sense of the emotions and feelings I'm trying to capture.

Then, when I've done that, sit down and attempt the final draft.

Unintentionally, I programmed my brain last night and dreamed all night long like it was a book -- I didn't come up with anything new, just the sense of continuity and narrative I want to replicate in the book.

After I've sat and told myself to the story, got it all encompassed in my mind, then my entry point will be inserting the Famous Author chapters -- trying different ways.  Randomly, in order, all together.  See what seems to be working best. 

THEN sit down over the next few days and run a smooth narrative.  THEN next week, give it a complete read from beginning to end.

I'm hoping I'm there -- it will be the 10th or 12th time, or something like that, but each time something happened that made the book better, so maybe this time it's it and maybe not, but at least I'll have probably advanced the book again.

One of these days, I'll feel like it's ready.

Happy as a clam and then....

Scientists killed the oldest living thing, a 507 year old clam, in order to study it. It is no longer the world's oldest living thing. 

To me, that says it all in a clamshell.

There it was, minding its own business -- thinking its long, slow, clammy thoughts.  Maybe it had figured out the meaning of life and the secrets of the universe.

I mean, that poor clam. Sitting there on the ocean floor -- happy as...well...and along come humans prying open it's shell and it's thinking, WTF? and it dies in shock and the scientists count its rings and proclaim in the oldest living thing. 

Well, was.

Whoops.

In the words of Agent Smith:   "I'd like to share a revelation that I've had, during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area, and you multiply, and multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet, you are a plague, and we are the cure."

Obviously, I have been mightily affected by the demise of this poor ancient clam. 

I expect an extra-terrestrial war crimes tribunal over this horrendous crime.

For your consideration.

At some point, after you've done your best, you release your efforts to the world.

You don't know if it's good or bad, but there is something there and it's worth sharing.  If you didn't believe that, you wouldn't do it.

Maybe all that is there is a story you've written, populated by ideas and characters and events that come out of your head and take shape in a book.  So it exists.  Even if no one reads it.

So you just have to release your books "For Your Consideration" and let it happen and maybe everyone will hate it or maybe everyone will like it; or a few will like it and most will hate it; or everyone will just go "meh."  But it's the result of your best creative effort and worth doing for that and worth sharing for that.

Chances are, nothing will happen.  There is a whole lot of understandable inertia out there.  So much stuff available that most people don't have the time and energy to expend on something that they have no assurance is any good.

That's if they hear about you at all.

Writing and exposing are too different things.  I'm not interested in the latter.  I want to write my stuff and hope it speaks for itself.  Which I know is naive. 

I'm being told there are things I can do.  I'll try some of them, as long as they don't require too much bending my natural karma.  I really don't like doing that.  Exploring my own karma is why I write, so it would be pretty counter productive to then bend my karma in order to get others to notice. 

My store sells things that people are interested in, but I find it nearly impossible to sell stuff they aren't already interested in.

A good word from a friend is worth a 10, 000 words from me, a good word from someone already tapped in probably worth multiples of that.  But again, I have no control over that.

I've asked nicely of a couple of professionals, and at least one was helpful, but it didn't budge the needle much.

I'm kind of skeptical of a lot of the online advice I'm hearing.  I think there is a whole industry that has arisen who's purpose it is to make you believe that if you just do such and such, success will follow. 

The same industry existed 30 years ago in magazines -- and they were so much bullshit back then, too.

I'm not all that put out by it.   I understand it.  At this point, I'm just hoping to get lucky, I suppose.  The traditional route is ridiculous right now, that that isn't the answer for someone who writes as much as I do.

I fall back on my stoic philosophy:  do those things you can do, and know that some things are beyond your control.

52 chapter pickup.

OK.  I've got the basic framework in place.

It's a stronger narrative, but has a whole bunch of loose ends, as you might expect when you eliminate so many chapters.  I'm going to really have to work on the continuity and the transitions, make sure I didn't duplicate anything or leave anything important out.

There are several places where all the moving around left characters and information in the wrong places.  But the cellphone is also a marvelous invention for plots.  That is, the character doesn't have to be right there, you can get ahold of him on the old phoney phone.  And it's a fair trick too, cause that's what would happen in real life.

I think I have a stronger grasp of the characters and their motivations:
It was always going to be problematic to have Cobb trying to convince strangers to pick up guns and follow him into battle, but it's better to save people, especially children.  It was silly to base it on animals, when it wasn't necessary.


I still want to give it a thorough cutting of unnecessary words.  I figure another 5K from the 75K words I have.  Then, when I add back in the "famous writers" chapters, I'll be back to between 75 and 80K.

I'm thinking I ought to just take all 8 flashback and divide the number of chapters by 8 and insert them there, no matter what else the story is doing.  See how that works.

I had a fair number of duplications that I eliminated.  2 scenes at the Judges house, made into 1.

2 scenes at the library, made into 1. 

And so on.

So structurally and motive wise, it is a much stronger book.  I think.  Or a disaster.  That's possible.

So yeah, its a big mess, because I did 52 chapter pickup.  I threw it all into the air and then reassembled it.  Of course it's a mess.

From adequate --- to possible good or possible disaster.

Whenever I make significant changes, I start a new version.

I've got the older versions sitting there on my computer, from the last "polished" version, which was Nearly Human B, the one before that, Nearly Human Dead,  to the next version,  Faerylander Ex, to the kitchen sink version, then regular Faerylander, followed by Faerylander Parts, then -- Faerylander Severe, then -- Faerylander- Combo.  And so on and so forth. 

Before that I had plain old drafts 1 and 2 of something called Almost a Human.

So this one is called, appropriately enough, Faerylander Gutted.

I've had the sense from the beginning that the story was inert.  No matter how polished the writing, no matter how many interesting ideas I had, the story just didn't move forward fast enough.  It didn't have a consistent voice and it was hard to care about the characters.

So I kept trying to fix it, and each time I wrote a new draft, I think I did that.  I do believe the last draft or two of the book would have been "adequate."

What I've done with this latest restructuring is thrown out the "adequate" and risked everything on a new version that may be a complete disaster.  I mean, it may be much worse.  But I'm hoping it will be good.

"Adequate" just wasn't something I wanted to put out there.  I needed to risk complete overhaul in the hopes of changing adequate to good, but by doing so I may have changed adequate to bad.

I don't know yet.

A book either feels right or it doesn't.  Good or bad, the Vampire Evolution Trilogy "feels" right.
Freedy Filkins feels right.  Led to the Slaughter feels right.  Wolflander feels right.

Sometimes a Dragon seems -- adequate.  Deviltree seems -- adequate.  They've both been done for a long time, but I'm not willing to put them out until they feel "right" not "adequate."

Like I said, this isn't really the same thing as saying a book is good or bad -- it's possible that one of my adequate books may be a better read for some than one of my feel right books.

But I have this inner sense about whether something is really and truly done or not and I have to go by that.

What went wrong?

I've been thinking a lot about what went wrong with this first book (back) Faerylander.

I started with a "high concept" which I liked -- roughly, Cthuhlu versus Faery.  Nothing wrong with that, except there also has to be a story.

Then I was into "ideas" -- again, nothing wrong with that as long as you don't forget the story.  But the ideas should be "in" the story not "of" the story.

Third, I started with the wrong tone.  I meant it to be sort of ironic, satirical, sarcastic, funny.  A Faery creature's observations of the human race.

Now I can be semi-funny in my writing, more so than in real life, but it sort of happens randomly and in response to other contexts.   I can't do it to order.  So I immediately was settling for sort of lame shit.  I had the same problem with the S.F. bookstore story I attempted.

Hell, I don't even like reading these kinds of books.  Christopher Moore, Terry Pratchett and so on.  But I'm very impressed by them.

Because, as they say, tragedy is easy, comedy is hard.

The other thing about having an ironic tone is -- how do you make the narrator sympathetic and how do you make the characters deeper?  It probably can be done, but I realized I didn't have the chops.

So I've had to go back.  Make the characters and the story serious, make them sympathetic, make the story be about what happens to them.  And sure enough, I think I can do that.  Though it is ten times harder to go back and put that in -- than to do it in the first place.

But live and learn.  I had to have that first book (back) experience to move on.

Besides, I'm starting to really like this book again -- because I'm liking the characters.  And hopefully that will translate to the reader.

I might as well be painting rocks.

I dreamed last night that people were asking me how my writing was going and I was saying:

"Well, I might as well be painting rocks."  I kind of like that phrase.  Because there are no end of rocks, and painting them is sort of pointless, and it doesn't necessarily make them better rocks.


I've always sort of disliked and distrusted people who brag about how hard they're working.

But, you know...I've been working like a son of a bitch on this book.  I mean, I dive in around 10:00 or 11:00 and don't come up for air until dinner.  I know I'm eating lunch somewhere in there, cuddling the cat,  taking small naps, cruising the net, playing solitaire -- but I'm still in a zone.

It's all about the book.

I mean, I'm juggling so many plot elements that it requires full concentration.  Diving again and again back into the narrative -- sometimes making small changes and adjustments here and there, and other times make wholesale changes that are breathtakingly bold.  I meant -- eliminating entire chapters of my beautiful writing takes balls.  At least, that's what I think.

All in service to the story.  The story needs to work.  The characters need to work.  The writing needs to work.  All else is bullshit.

I resent anything that pulls me away.  Bank deposits, errands, people -- people trying to be friendly, what's with that, I'm writing dammit! -- and even in the evening, I'm just sort of throwing things on the box to watch later.  I usually force myself to quit sometime after dinner -- not because I don't want to keep working, but because I can tell I'm getting diminishing returns.

Then I go to bed so mentally exhausted that I instantly fall asleep, sleep hard, and wake up groggy.

Then I start the whole process over again.  Day after day.  Wake up in the morning and write these little blogs which are obviously about writing.  Then back to the grind.

So if a writer is someone who writes.  Then I'm a writer.

It seems a little crazy, actually.  All this scribbling when I know very few people will ever read it, and most of them will be "meh" about it.

But, apparently, I've decided this is who I am.

Rock painter extraordinaire.

Gutted it.

Just spent the day gutting Faerylander.  Ended up with about 75K words, which is 30K less than the last version, and 50K less than the "kitchen sink" edition.

In other words, I stripped down to the framework, cut out anything extraneous, and combined or removed entire chapters.

I'm going to go through it one more time and get that last bit of fat out.  Probably another 5K words or so.

I have to write a completely fresh chapter that more or less will replace 3 chapters.  It will be the hardest chapter in the book, a really important chapter, and I sort of want to get it right.

Then I'm going to look at the framework and see if it works, or if it needs further adjustment.  Then slowly add back on a little flesh here and there.  Lots of transitions will have to be replaced or removed or changed.

I won't be sorry to have the book be a slimmed down 80K words, which seems to be the ideal size for my novels.

It's an improvement.  I can see that.  I'm sort of trusting the narrative leaps, the implicit characterization and motivations.  

The only thing I still don't know, I still can't tell, is whether I need the 'famous writer' flashbacks.  I mean, I don't need them, but I do think they add an interesting layer.

If I do include them, they'll be detours from a very lean straightforward narrative, instead of detours from a flabby all over-the-place narrative, so it will still be an improvement.

I just seem to be in the groove right now in seeing what words aren't needed.

Here's a secret.  If it bothers me and I take it out and it doesn't affect the story -- then it's an improvement.

I think I've improved all the motivations of the characters.  I've made narrative choices that make more sense.  I finally even figured out how to eliminate the silly plot element I've been wrestling with for ages.  (I just upped the motivation, and now their response doesn't seem so silly.)

I hope I never have to do this again.  I'll have spent three months at least on this rewrite alone, which is crazy.

I didn't have to do this with any of the Vampire Evolution Trilogy, or with Led to the Slaughter.  

My fantasies are looking kind of messy right now.  But when I'm done with this, I may not ever try to save another book that is a complete mess.  I had a lot of motivation on this one -- I really, really like the premise, the characters, the ideas and some of the writing.  Even more importantly, I wrote a sequel, Wolflander, that doesn't need the complete overhaul, so I'm saving two books instead of one.

But after this, either a book works or is doesn't.



Took the second chapter to writer's group last night and it seemed to past muster.  This has always been the problem chapter, the set up chapter where I feel I'm explaining much and describing little.  But I've gone ahead with that to get the information up front-- trying to hint at things in an interesting way.

Two comments really pleased me.  One, from Pam, was that Cobb and Jotun were good "friends."  Which was exactly what I was trying to get across.  The other, from Gary, was that Cobb's motivation for staying human instead of ending his exile was a "good bit of characterization -- makes him sympathetic" which is also exactly what I was trying to get across.

So my attempt to humanize the chapter -- so to speak -- seems to have worked. I mean, if the exact things I was trying to accomplish are the very things that are commented on, that's incredibly encouraging for the rewriting process.

I needed that.

Narrator's voice.

One of the things I'm trying to find in Faerylander is my narrator's voice.

I had the same problem with Star Axe.  In both cases, they were more or less my first books.  Star Axe my first book ever, Faerylander my first book in 30 years.

I found my voice after that, in both cases.

In the case of Star Axe, I had hardened the writing, crystallized it so much I took much of the life out of it.  I finally allowed myself to be more "sloppy" -- is the word I used.  Less precise and more relaxed. 

It's better for the reader if nothing really slaps them in the face.  So they can settle into the story, knowing the writer is competent.

Because that's really it.  The reader want to know that he is in the hands of a "relaxed" narrator, who gives a sense of knowing where the story is going, that he is going to deliver on a story.

The tendency at first is to try too hard.  Too hard for effects, for artistic language.  Coming up with the most precise language can actually be off-putting.  Make it smooth -- make it easy to take.

But clear language with a little thought behind it Is artistic.  It may not seem like it.

There are stylists out there, but for a storyteller like me, I think it's a mistake to try to stray too far from a casual conversational style.  That doesn't mean folksy, it just means getting to the point in the most natural way possible.

Hard to do once you've already written something.

So you start to look for a kind of "fuzzy" voice -- or "sloppy" -- or conversational, if you will, that the reader can slip into without being self-conscious.

I just have to feel like it's something I'd say.

Another brainstorm, another mess with the damn book.

I've had another idea.

So I have the main character dealing with the Cthuhlu invasion, right?

But I also have a backstory of the gaining and losing the great love of his life, Lillian.  In this backstory, Cobb visits writers of the strange and the fantastic.

So I tried hard to filter these back stories into the main plot of the book, but I feel like it stops the forward progression every time.

So my brainstorm is -- what if I take all the back stories and make it a separate part of the book?

Part One, roughly a third of the book, I have Cobb to terms with the idea that there is a Cthuhlu invasion.

Part Two, I have all the back stories explaining how they got there.

Part Three, back to the main plot of dealing withe invasion and the confrontation.

It's actually a very simple solution.  Almost two stories, with one in the middle of the other.  It works only if each part is interesting on its own.

Would that work, or would that be even a worse blockage of the story?

I think I'll give it a try and see what happens.

Flashbacks and momentum.

My favorite parts of the book are the flashback interactions with famous writers.  But they don't do anything for the plot -- they're asides, really.  Hopefully interesting, but if they were taken out, no one would miss them.

So that's a problem.  One solution may be to hold off until I'm halfway through the book before I bring in the first flashback -- which is a bit of a cop-out.  If they aren't good enough for the first half, there is no reason to believe they are good enough for the second half.

I have the sense that there's got to be a way to integrate them into the book -- but that I haven't quite figured it out yet.

I think the beginning of the book is better.  I keep trying to clarify the character motivations, the plot premises.  I take stuff out, and then slowly put as little as possible back in.

I think I'm going to at least have to put the mentions of his love for Lillian back in -- I don't have to delve into too deep, but at least mention her two or three times before she shows up.

I have a whole bit of business about Cobb's ineptness with cellphone and cars and all technology.  I thought I overdid it, so I cut it back, but now I'm putting a little back in.

The biggest improvement to the book is that I have started to get a feel for the characters -- and I'm fleshing them out a little.  I'm making them more sympathetic, I think.  So that is really important.

If I can just find an interesting voice for all these characters, then the book will flow so much better. 

I hope I never write a book like this again -- it was a learning experience, let me tell you.   I have learned too that if I get deep enough into the writing experience, it becomes something that is interesting -- especially if the characters come alive again -- or more alive.

Can't tell anymore if I'm making it better or worse.

I honestly can't tell if I'm making Faerylander better or worse.

It's just kind of crazy.  I take stuff out, I put it back in, I move it around.

Then I try a different mix.

It's like someone shows you some paint samples that look almost the same and asks you which one is best.

I can't fricking tell.  Sometimes I read something, and it seems to work.  The next day it doesn't.

For instance, I have a couple of scenes of Cobb saving creatures -- and interacting with them, along with Jotun, the Giant.  They add color and action and even a little humor.

And they are out of place. They aren't necessary to the story, they don't fit the tone.

So I have to take out colorful, action scenes.  Ouch.

Is it better because I did?  Worse?

I'm kinda of digging being in Cobb's world again.  Starting to feel it again.  Maybe that's what it takes -- being immersed long enough to start feeling it again.

I'm trying very hard to make it flow, to not have too many explanations.  So I think I've created a more logical order of events.  But in doing so, I've taken apart something that worked already -- in hopes that I can make it better.

I lose some good sentences and paragraphs when I do this -- and I'm not sure the new stuff I'm writing is better.

But I think I have to try.  It wasn't working before and it may not be working now, but something had to be done.

I've decided to make yet another version -- what I'll call my "Severe" version.  Take out all extraneous and or explanations.

No talk of Cthuhlu until he runs into Cthuhlu.  No talk of Lillian, until he runs into Lillian.  No talk of Dragons, or of the Giant's offspring.  No Kimmils, no Sprites, no Elfs.

Just the Jotun.  Just Cobb's decision whether to return to Faery.

See how that reads.

(Later -- took out all those things, but then went back and put the Cthuhlu material back in...better?  Worse?)

I think it's going to turn out that the version I gave Wes is probably the best one, structure wise.  I want to add to two rancher chapters early, but other than that say with the content.

Simplifying the motivations and the explanations early can be improved.  I think I've deepened the a few of the characters.

So a whole lot of work for a few improvements, which is the way I guess it has to be...

It's very intensive and it takes lots of time.  Strangely, much more time and energy than writing a story in the first place.

This was the first thing I wrote coming back -- most of the following books I avoided most of these problems.

But I have to believe that immersing myself like this, for days -- struggling and trying to make the story work -- that has to be to the good.  I think, in the end, it probably even adds a little depth and polish, simply because I've gone over it so much.

I hope.