preparing a place

This afternoon, plan to get out my laptop and relocate it on the dinning room table, to get rolling again on what I hope is a final revision of House of Cuts. Need to sort through various versions and throw away some of them, so as to have a cleaner and sparer "workroom." Wonder how other writers manage their space?

starting...

January 1, 2010 (or sooner 8:)

New Year's Resolution

I resolve to come here to post every day on my writing (or not writing).

onward!

Whew, teaching writing takes up writing time!

Just finished reading about a thousand or so student papers! Got to get back to my own novel!

off to the novel workshop

Got an 8-page new chapter one done for House of Cuts. Pasted it in on top of the old chapter one. Am off to the novel writing workshop to see what seven others think, what do these readers like and not like, want to see changed?

The pure joy of (mostly) sitting for hours, working hard despite getting up and procrastinating by taking my Rav 4 in for an oil change, doing the whole week's laundry, etc., the glow after finishing that new chapter one--wahoo!

Part of the work is just getting over the audacity, maybe?

How long should my chapters be? There are two of them and a start into Ch. 3 in the first 20 pages--what we six are taking to the workshop. Are my chapters too short? One of my teachers told me that chapters need to be 20 pages long, yet others have different views.

getting ready for a novel writing workshop

I'm trying to get a new chapter written on my House of Cuts in time for a novel writing workshop next weekend. Thought if I whined in public, it might help me get going.

A few weeks ago, I realized, duh, that I had to have the main character featured in Chapter One, NOT the anonymous killer! It is one of those things where you first intro the protag in ch. one but then add in front of that an anon killer chapter, and whammo, now that I'm starting about the fourth revision, it hits me--need another new ch. 1--so get to it--notes are all over the dinning room table, and a slim start to the new ch. 1 is in the laptop also on the table (picture a cluttered table) devoted solely (meant in both ways) to writing.

write hard, die free,
jg

The agony of being published

I've had poems and short stories and articles published, but this was my first book.

And it seemed so foolproof with no cost to me. Just a few tweaks to my dissertation document and, voila! But...

The publisher has way overpriced it (meiner meinung nach), and so I am sure it will never sell except maybe to a few university libraries.

How awful it is to learn as you go along and not know the right questions to ask before letting your words be published!

Too soon old, too late smart. See what I mean at Amazon.com, title Creating Juicy Tales.