Grand Re-Opening
(or, The More Things Change...)
Hey look! We’re back from vacation! And using a new newsletter service! You can barely tell, can you? There’ll probably be a bit of a learning curve, but I’m hoping by next month we’ll have this back in shape.
Anyway, let’s get to the stuff you want to know...
I think I’ve added just shy of 12K words to TOS since coming back from vacation. Also, it’s really weird to say “coming back from vacation” when we mostly just stayed at home and did stuff and tried to relax. I mean, we spent the last last two days talking about all the things we think we did wrong during this little staycation and how we’d probably do it differently next time. Not that this was nightmarishly bad or anything (okay, yeah, I might have fractured a bone in my leg doing garden work, but who among hasn’t dropped a hundred pounds of concrete on their shin?). We just realized we kind of overplanned some things and underplanned others and had a few of those “you know what we should’ve done...” moments at the end. Next year, it’ll be better.
But anyway... sorry, yeah, the new book is a little over 52K now and I’m very happy. Lots of enthusiasm for it. Nothing could wreck my momentum now, right...?
<cue ominous music>
My agent finally got his notes back to me about GJD, the previous thing I wrote. He loved most of the characters and their arcs (see below), a lot of the different plot elements, the big overall idea of it. BUT he also pointed out a couple fairly large problems. And he doesn’t think he’d be able to sell the book as it is. Which means a big rewrite for me.
No, no, I can hear some of you. Thing is, he’s absolutely right. Two of my early readers pointed out some of the same things, but I kind of brushed them off and told myself they just didn’t get what I was trying to do (so big apology to Kristi and Robyn). Whereas the real truth is, I did exactly what I set out to do... it just didn’t make for a good story. I got so caught up in trying to have a certain theme, to make this statement, that I didn’t realize how, well, boring it got in places. Or how annoying one or two characters were. No, seriously.
So, back to the drawing board. It’s not a page-one rewrite, but probably close to one of those house renovations where they tear it down to the studs and start again from there. I’m guessing this’ll be at least a month to six weeks of work. Maybe closer to two.
On the plus side, this might not change things much at all, from your point of view. I mean, I knew David would have some thoughts and I’d kind of planned on a few weeks of edits. And that would’ve put the book back in his hand just before the holidays started, which would mean most editors probably wouldn’t get around to looking at it until January anyway. With this new schedule and extra work, now it’s more likely that... most editors won’t get around until looking at it until January
In other news...
As I mentioned above, we’re not on Substack anymore. I, for one, feel a little morally cleaner already. I wanted to get this first one out to you on time, but there will probably me more tweaks in the months to come. Also, I’m afraid whatever comments and likes there are lost forever, but all the old newsletters are still over on the Ranty Writing Blog. I plan to stick to my regular schedule—newsletter goes out mid-month, gets re-posted there on the last Monday of the month.
So by subscribing, you get early access to quality material like this...
Cool Stuff I’ve Been Watching-- Finally got around to watching Upload, which I’m enjoying a lot more than I thought I would. We’re just a few episodes into season two right now. Lower Decks is back, which is always fantastic (“Moopsie!”)
Cool Stuff I’ve Been Reading—I hate to say it but I’ve read almost nothing since we last talked like this. I mean, I read one thing that was kind of ehhhhhh and I’m in the middle of something that really could go either way. Nothing where I feel like “hey, I’ve got to tell you all about this!”
Cool New Toys – My beloved grabbed me the Marvel Legends Joe Fixit Hulk, and I grabbed myself the What If..? Gamora. Really I’ve got a pile of stuff that needs to be opened because I hate leaving toys in boxes. I’m just not that guy...