May 22, 2000
Miss Productive
Good weekend. Productive weekend. I had probably the most orderly weekend of my entire life. Each day I was up at 8 am and in bed by midnight at the latest. That's just amazing for me. Both days I worked on writing for no less than six hours, including a whopping eight hours on Sunday. The end result? Out of the seven planned chapters of my book, five of them are fully (or damn close to fully) outlined. And it's good stuff, if I do say so myself. I'm extremely pleased. By the end of the week I should have it sent off to the editor.You know, I keep saying 'my' book. In a sense, it is, because the original concept was mine and all that, but there's no way this would be anything saleable without my co-author. I should make that clear. Brand and I have this amazing way of working together -- which shouldn't surprise me. An idea comes from one of us, and bounces back and forth until it grows into something that doesn't belong to either of us specifically, but is an amalgam of both of us. It's a great way to work, and I'm enjoying the process immensely.
So, without giving too much away, let me explain what I'm doing with this book. Tribe 8 books are different from any other RPG sourcebooks I've seen in one very big way: they're all written in first person, in-character narrative, except for the hardcore technical game systems stuff. The book that I'm writing will be a supplement, to develop the setting some more and provide some new story ideas for game masters. The set up is four different stories, all with different characters and different voices, set within a frame story that brings the four together. The plot ideas come from how it all interacts together. The way things are set up right now, I'm writing the four main stories, while Brand will write the frame story section as well as the 'technical' chapter at the end. And we'll both be editing each other's stuff as well. But like I said, because of the way our ideas bounce, none of the ideas in our 'separate' sections really came from either of us alone. I'm very excited about this. In case you missed that.
Having said that, I really want a chance to finish working on the outline. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen today, possibly not even when I get home. Work deadlines. Bleah. I don't know if I can make the one at work, but I feel compelled to try, even though I'd set my own deadline for the outline to be done tomorrow. Ah well. At the rate I'm going, I'll be working on the manuscript itself next weekend. Yay!
I told Brand last night that I can't remember the last time I felt so at peace and content within myself. He pointed out the obvious: "That's because you're writing, really writing, and it's something you've been wanting to do for a long time." *sigh* Yeah. That's it. I can deal with my bill-paying job, as long as I can keep this same sort of creative fire going. I'm already wondering what I'll work on after I'm done with this.
Am I getting ahead of myself? Maybe. Still, actually finishing a book, when before I'd have a hard time finishing a short story... that's really something to have accomplished. I've actually turned over the idea of a novel after this. We'll see.
Posted by Lisa at May 22, 2000 03:27 PM
