Status Update 5

So as of my last post I was supposed to begin revision on my book, Basein (working title--I'll be accepting title suggestions after I get the second draft finished). It has been a week since then and I have and have not begun revisions.

1) I have started revisions because I have been reworking the prologue.

2) I have not started revisions because I did not look at the old prologue, I just wrote a new one.

I am much happier with my new prologue, although it is still very rough. I am going to let it sit while I rework the rest of the book. Then I'll edit it. I had considered printing in on the blog like I did the original prologue. I might do so in a couple of days, I am still undecided.

Just for a comparison. My original prologue was 258 words. Short and concise like I like it, but it just seemed not enough (and this is where I'll be a hypocrite and do what I complain about others doing--making my writing too long). The new prologue is 5,634 words. For those who don't have a calculator handy that is 21.8 times larger than the first prologue. It is 17 pages long, which is one of the main reasons I am hesitant to post it on here. I might post it on Google docs and if I do I shall let people know how to access it via this blog and e-mail.

Also being done in conjunction with the prologue is a written time line of events, description of important places, and character profiles. This should help with the consistency of my work immensely, but it will also slow down the revision process as I am updating four documents as I work instead of just one. :P Oh well, this is what I get for not making these documents as I wrote in the first place.

EDIT 7/19/2009: I just reread my post. I have gotten so into the groove of just writing without editing that I never scan through my blog to make sure it sounds good. I'm glad I came back and changed this one. :D

Status Update 4

It has been a little over five months, but I am finally finished with the first draft of my novel.
I wasn't satisfied with the ending, but was also unsure where to take it. After considering it for much time I just decided to call it good and wait to see what happened in the second draft and from reader commentary after the second draft.

So tomorrow I begin the revisions.

Just to continue the stat run: 269 pages, 86,669 words.

Status Update 3

Well today is the last day of June. I have written more than my 600 words a day, and still the book is not finished. I have 50 minutes of the day remaining to me, but I know that this is insufficient. There is not much left to write, but enough that it will not be finished today or tomorrow. I cannot give an estimate of when it will be finished. All I have left is denouement, but that can be pretty hefty.

As is stands now the book is 81,559 words long, approximately 251 pages. I shall post again when the first draft is finally complete.

Status Update 2

The book is moving along nicely. It was just last night that I broke 75,000 words. There is nothing significant about this number, per se, but it does seem to be a good number to report as it signifies 3/4 of 100,000 which is a nice round number. The book currently has 232 pages, but is without spaces for chapters and other such things. If you included those it might be possible to consider that the book has 250 pages. Despite my earlier suggestions to the contrary, the book might reach 300 typed pages in the first draft. I do not wish to rush the ending, but neither do I wish to draw it out needlessly. We shall see.

In other bright news, I passed my SAS Certification Exam. I need 65% and I got 71%. A narrow margin of victory, but a victory all the same. This means I am officially recognized by the SAS organization as a beginning programmer. The next step is to get my advanced programmer certification, but I hope that this will help me get employment.

And finally, because I said I would do so I am going to post an excerpt from my book. The following is the prologue. This is sort of a cheat because I plan on rewriting the prologue entirely, but I thought you might enjoy reading the short passage before it changes. Please remember that this is the first draft. And of that first draft these were the first words written.

"The world was young. It was just barely half a millennium in age. Still, in that time there had been two major wars, a few minor scuffles, one brief invasion (though it hardly deserved the title) and an altercation that had scarred the world. True, the damage was not irreversible, but healing the wound often made you forget why the injury had occurred in the first place.
God sighed. A power struggle was about to take place. While he would not take part personally, he felt a sense of despair at what his follower’s would have to go through. His Disciple would have his hands full protecting his followers this time. Of course, his follower’s had given him a chance to ponder lately about what they needed. The content of their prayer’s had been changing. Less and less were they asking for His aid, more and more they were pleading for him to send His Disciple to help them with their problems.
His disciple, for his part, seemed happy to help them. However, he was getting old. He had served faithfully longer than any man was intended to live. Still, every morning he rose and conducted his morning prayers and sought how to best accomplish the Will of God. God had never intended for him to serve so long. However, he was so good at it and a suitable replacement had never been around. Still, times were changing. The world was changing. Maybe He needed to change as well.
Maybe it was time His Disciple sat one out."

Status Update and Singing

It has been three long months since I blogged. Actually, the months have seemed short and I feel relieved not to be dependent upon this outlet for self-expression. Several things have happened in the past few months, and again if you want to know more, check my wife's blog.

I have decided that this will be my writing blog. It will be randomly updated with reports on my writing, including occasional excerpts as they become polished enough for other people to see them.

This past week I finally broke the 200 page mark. Though this was never a goal of mine it feels good to have achieved it. Also, as I reached the 200 page mark I have caught up the alternative perspectives of the story to the original storyline and am ready to bring them together. While I don't know how long this will take, I think it unlikely that I will break 300 pages. I hope to be finished with the first draft by the end of June, but as I become increasingly closer to the end, I keep wondering if that is foolish optimism. Still, even with family visiting, visiting family, and trying to graduate with my degree I am still on the 600 word a day schedule, despite missing several days. This means that the few extra words over 600 everyday have added up to keep me on track, which is a relief after missing almost 2 weekends in a row worth of writing.

What is most bothering me now are changes that I know the novel needs. The 2 timelines are not correctly synchronized currently. I have fixed most of the problems in my head, but I need to actually begin writing the timelines down so I have a good reference for when I start fixing things. I also want a new, more in depth prologue, but I won't begin writing that until I start on the second draft. And I don't want anyone looking at it until I finish the second draft. I am setting a goal to have the editing and revisions for the second draft completed 2 months after I've completed the first draft. This would give me a tentative 'release date' of September 1st. Mark your calendars.

On another note I would like to end this post with a small story. I enjoy singing. All the time. Often if I don't know the lyrics to a song I will just make them up. You can ask Trina, some of my versions are pretty horrendous. The best thing about it is that Anna has started doing the same thing as well. This story is not about one of those songs. In this instance the entire family was in the car and randomly I broke out in 'I Guess That's Why they Call it the Blues' by Elton John. I really only know the chorus and so I sang that once through finishing of course with the titular end line to the chorus, 'I guess that's why they call it the blues.' Satisfied I found it odd to hear the song being continued from the back by my 3 year old as she sang 'And the reds.'

I like the green ones

I was directed to a very interesting site about a month ago by a friend in the department. The site was VNES. Countless of us have now lost untold hours on that site. Such is the way of life. However, this last Sunday I checked the site again and they had updated it (even without the update there was plenty there to keep me busy for life). They had added one of my favorite games from childhood, A Boy and His Blob. I immediately sat down and started playing it. Of course the joy was short lived because I had forgotten very little from the game and proceeded to beat it on my second attempt, as soon as I refamiliarized myself with the jellybeans. Oh well, such is life.

He Walk!

That is to say, he walks in much the same way that he walked before. He uses crutches. The one minor difference is that I also consent to put a slight bit of weight on my bad foot before deciding that it would be a bad idea. At this time it's too late though and I'm committed to the action. The crutches help alleviate the weight put on the foot and I move forward with a little hopping limp. Good times are being had all around.