Monday, August 6, 2012

Work in Progress - July 2012 update


So, it's that time of the month again; time to reflect on the month passed and set goals for the present month.

Last month was one of the greatest periods of upheaval I've had in my life. Not only was I changing law firms but I was in court 2-3 times a week during that same time. All my stuff, other than critical case files, are still at the old firm. We're scheduled to move them on Wednesday.

Work demands limited my family and writing time. My July goals were:

(1) revamp my law practice;
(2) get feedback to another writer;
(3) edit New Bohemia; and
(4) write another 30K words on Flashes of Life.

How did I do? Fair.

I'm still working on integration at the new firm. A large part of this traces back to my limited time in the office. I think I already have more working hours in the office this month than I did all last month. Law firm transition is still a work in progress.

I have my notes typed up and should be sending out the e-mail to the other writer tonight. A few days late, but still - done.

New Bohemia needed a revamp because I realized my main character isn't who I thought it was. I have a love/hate relationship with characters who rebel. Anyway, the revised story is back up to 35,000 words, and still likely to be a novella. My goal is 750 words a day, 5 days a week, which should let me finish it before the writing seminar this month (more on this in a second).

I didn't touch Flashes other than to have a few more scenes play out in my head. I need to get them down, but I have to finish NB first.
At the end of August, I'll be attending David Farland's novel rewriting workshop. The novel I'm taking with me, The King's Falcon, which features Falcon from Paths Less Traveled. I have something off on the pacing and for the life of me, I can't quite nail it down., so instead of making changes that  might actually harm the story, I'm seeking professional help, ah, I mean, workshopping it. I'm planning to submit the novel to Musa Publishing after the seminar. Anyway, the workshop has "homework." I need to  read the synopsis and first 20 pages of novels of the other attendees. We'll spend part of the seminar discussing the material so I need to comment on the materials. The seminar is limited to 12 students, as of right now, there are 8 of us. I've read through the material from 3 writers. Four more to go. My plan is to read two sets per week. If you click on the link you can see that the workshop is fairly intense, but I'm hoping to blog from it at least once that week.

Apollo Rising, releases on September 10, 2012 from Musa Publishing. I'm waiting for comments back from my editor so I can start the final editing process. Since my due date is August 10, I expect to spend most of this week in edits.

So, that's how I plan to spend the dog days of summer. How about you?

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