Week Dates: 5/24-5/30, 2010.
Total Word Count This Week (Paradise Seekers): 16,233.
Words Total for Paradise Seekers: 51,922
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Excerpts from this week:
“Yeah, Zade told me about the book,” Julia swallowed, and I thought I saw some anxiousness creep across her face. “I...took a nap after he explained my assignment, a Gatherer because of my dream. I...I had the dream again. It was a little different, but it was for sure the same general idea. Marks, up and down my wrists, like tattoos.”
“Like tattoos?” I pushed, curious. “There’s a girl, Maria, back in Crimson House. She had the same dream, and I’m fairly certain many have had it before. Jen, our Keeper-”
“Yes, I met her,” Julia cut me off, still staring out the window, light on her face.
“Yeah,” I continued, “anyway, she said it’s a common dream. And everybody says the same thing: they are tattoos, sometimes with different marks.”
“I...guess,” was all Julia said. I blinked, looking at her worried face, and got the distinct impression she wasn’t telling me everything.
“Did something else happen?” I pushed further.
Julia blinked, then shrugged, and when she answered she didn’t look me in the eye. “Eh, it’s nothing, don’t worry about it. Anyway, good to see you, but why have you come? Are you going to sweep me away, be my knight in shining armor?”
“Like tattoos?” I pushed, curious. “There’s a girl, Maria, back in Crimson House. She had the same dream, and I’m fairly certain many have had it before. Jen, our Keeper-”
“Yes, I met her,” Julia cut me off, still staring out the window, light on her face.
“Yeah,” I continued, “anyway, she said it’s a common dream. And everybody says the same thing: they are tattoos, sometimes with different marks.”
“I...guess,” was all Julia said. I blinked, looking at her worried face, and got the distinct impression she wasn’t telling me everything.
“Did something else happen?” I pushed further.
Julia blinked, then shrugged, and when she answered she didn’t look me in the eye. “Eh, it’s nothing, don’t worry about it. Anyway, good to see you, but why have you come? Are you going to sweep me away, be my knight in shining armor?”
- Paradise Seekers, Day Five - Lavender House
What I saw made me pause, my tongue a dry lump in my throat. There, on the ground, lay what appeared to be a dark Gatherer’s cloak. It was fluttering quietly in a heap, separating me from my precious dark doorway. I swallowed hard, trying my best to not scream, the tension eroding at my sanity like water through a canyon. Try as I might, I found it hard to tear my eyes from this cloak, this seemingly empty thing that was blocking me from my safety.
Still, none of the creatures surrounding me made any indication of moving. The cloak lay, a black mess on the ground, its darkness like a sunken hole between me and Lavender House’s entryway.And then it started to crawl towards me.
Bone-white hands, like a human’s, stretched out from the sockets of the sleeves. They clawed the stone path, the horribly long nails scratching against the rock, dragging whatever thing was hiding within the depths of the cloak. Its movements started slow, but within seconds they were accelerating, those horrible hands heaving the black robed creature I could only assume was a Gatherer straight for me.
- Paradise Seekers, Day Six - Gatherers
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Great week this week. I'll cut to the chase and give the averages: 2,319 a day. Most if it was actually the nights after CONduit, despite being exhausted I was pumped to write, and it made it all the better.
As stated, CONduit was this week, and I'll be posting my synopsis of Saturday soon. I didn't take as many notes this time around, but I really enjoyed it; I spent most of the time either at panels or talking with authors, which was very agreeable. We also spent all our money, and here are some of the books we got:
Servant of a Dark God - By John Brown, who is a very awesome guy. Signed, of course.
Mr. Monster by Dan Wells, the sequel to I Am Not a Serial Killer. Also signed, and technically this book isn't out in the states yet, so it's the British version.
Psychosphere and Vamphyri! - By Brian Lumley. He wasn't there or anything, but Elitist Book Reviews posted a review of the third book and said they were good, and we found these first two for super cheap at the used book section of the CON, so why not?
Monster Hunter International - By Larry Correia - Actually I didn't buy this one, but Jason and Derek did, and Jason lent me his copy because I tear through books.
So far, both Rebecca and I have already read Mr. Monster, so expect a review of it also shortly (blurb: it's great). I semi-started Monster Hunter International, but I'm probably going to read Servant of a Dark God first.
The CON made me realize one big thing: how neat groups of authors are. Everybody generally got along great with each other, joking and hanging out and carrying on. It seemed like a lot of fun and a great community, which only made me want to get published EVEN MORE. I was also inspired when John Brown mentioned Servant of a Dark God was the second book he ever finished, which gives me hope.
Another thing it made me realize is I need to keep submitting stuff to agents and editors, even if I think it sucks. WGMD is just a few revisions away from being sent, and Paradise Seekers will be finished soon as well (though it also needs some revising). Now that it's already June, I'm going to spend this time finishing Paradise Seekers, revising WGMD and having it workshopped by my writing groups, and send WGMD out to everybody who moves. That's the plan, anyway.
Speaking of Paradise Seekers, things with it have been going quite fantastic. As you can see, it crossed the 50k mark, something which took WGMD a lot longer than three weeks to accomplish. The book is technically in the third act now, which means it should be finished soon. I told myself if I finished the book (which has about 30k words left) during the long weekend, I'd give myself a treat. I think that might kill me.
A downer is my computer is currently out for repairs. Luckily I save everything I have to Dropbox, but unluckily I saved it in the Mac document format (.pages) instead of .doc. Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom, made it completely impossible to open .pages in any program on their OS (while every Mac can open both .doc and .docx straight out of the box. Even Windows Vista can't open .docx straight out of the box. Genius.). So, while I had the foresight to change Paradise Seekers to the right file format, I didn't for my documents containing notes, or any of my schoolwork. That is bad.
In either case, my computer will hopefully be repaired by Thursday at the earliest, then I can drive up to SLC and get it back, and I'll be back in the game. In the mean time, I'm using my wife's Windows 7 PC, which (as stated) isn't my ideal choice but it'll have to do for now.
My writing group also began the contest we had last summer: writing every day, no matter what. We dropped the previous word count requirement, making it so you only had to write SOMETHING in your novel (planning doesn't count) every day or else you lose the day. Also unlike last year, you can't "make up" words later (since we are counting days, not words), so if you miss you are just out of luck. Last year I won and got a copy of Well of Ascension, courtesy of the losers. I'd say that's pretty strong motivation to write!
Overall? Great week. I had fun, wrote plenty, learned a lot, and got some awesome books to read. Current goal: Finish Paradise Seekers this week. If so, I'll have completed an entire novel in just one month. Can I do it? Let's find out!
Happy writing!
2 comments:
"Another thing it made me realize is I need to keep submitting stuff to agents and editors, even if I think it sucks."
David Farland recently said he thinks a MS should be as perfect as you can get it before you start sending it out. I agree--I don't want to send a MS I know is flawed, because it's twice as flawed in the editor's eyes. But, who knows. Your rough drafts are a lot better than some people's finished works.
Also, feel free to lend me books. Namely Mr. Monster and Servant of a Dark God. I've wanted to read that second one for a while!
Glad CONduit was good. Also kind of mad that is was, ha.
John Brown suggested I try it, while I keep on writing. So far, I have three novels I could have sent off, and they've just stagnated on my hard drive. I'm certainly going to revise WGMD before moving on (including rewriting everything I submitted during Sanderson's semester), but I really need to just do it. Brown sent his first novel to like 50+ people, and got rejections from all of them. He then sent Servant of a Dark God to 75+ people, got rejected by TOR but did get an agent. The agent then knew somebody at TOR, so he got to send it back, and they bought it.
So, interesting stuff overall. Truthfully, since most places take forever to get back (and usually only want the first five chapters anyway), technically only the first bit of WGMD has to be good. I can be editing the rest while I wait. Or that's the plan, anyway. ;)
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