September 04, 2003
"Computer Dating"
Six day turnaround on "Computer Dating". Repackaged it to send off tomorrow morning to Analog. The problem is, I'm really not sure it's that good of a story. I like the basic idea, but the execution seems kinda naive to me now. But I don't feel like changing it right now, because changing it would mean a complete rewrite--and I'm not THAT in love with the idea. So it goes out, because hey, I might be wrong about its worth. I'll probably finish the edits on "Girl Behind the Counter" and get it sent back out by Monday. That one, at least, I'm still pleased with.
"Random play" has a sense of humor, once again
As I'm getting into writing a quasi-romantic scene between Alex and Jack (another one), what does my MP3 player pull up but the below-mentioned song. It made me giggle. Although it put me in the right mindset to write these two goofballs with their awkward first steps towards a relationship, Jack is no Aragorn and Alex could kick Arwen's ass all the way to the Grey Havens (especially the book's Arwen, but hell, I could kick her ass).
It just amuses me. I'd been thinking of creating a mushy sort of playlist, and right about then is when the song came on, appropriate and yet utterly not appropriate at the same time. Whee!
Trying again...
Write Club was a good thing last night, for several reasons. I needed a little boost of encouragement, for one, and Write Club is always excellent for that whether or not we actually manage to write. Sunday afternoon I had a brainstorm about "The Girl Behind the Counter", which I've always thought was a good story, no matter how many rejections it got. (Yeah, I'm the same way about "Midsummer".) I realized that my glee at discovering Harper-the-town as a setting when I wrote that story made it full of setting-related stuff that really had nothing to do with the story itself. While you can get away with that in a novel (to some extent), in a story, not so much.
So last night while I was waiting for Julie and Mer to get there, I went through the story with my fabled pink pen of editing (it's less harsh than red!) and cut mercilessly. When I did the cuts on the Word doc, I discovered that I cut about 3000 words from a 7400 word story. I haven't reread it yet, but I have a feeling it's going to be MUCH better, especially in terms of pacing. Plus, since it's about a stumped writer, I think I neatly managed to excise all of the "oh woe is me, an unappreciated writer" stuff--which I didn't consciously put in as my own point of view, but it was definitely coming across that way.
I also have yet another novel idea brewing, which also occurred to me last night. I have a hunch that Sword in the Mound is dead, and The Host, while not precisely dead, may continue in its zombie-like half-life indefinitely, having served its purpose well (got those first novel-writing jitters out of the way). That still leaves The Exile's Daughter, which is alive and growing in leaps and bounds, False Light, which still pokes through my subconscious on a regular basis, the Harper novel, wherein I will expand "Midsummer" and "Girl Behind the Counter" to my heart's content, along with some other ideas I've had for the town, and now this new one.
The new one... dare I say it... isn't genre at all. It's straight, mainstream fiction. The scope of it makes me gasp a little. It takes place over four or five decades, and will track one woman's personal development using US culture and society as both a mirror and a backdrop. I think I might be a little young to write this one yet. I adore the idea though.
For now, I should quit musing over future novels and get back to work writing the current one.
