Which is to say today was a mess. Unexpected errands popped up this morning and by the time they were done I was running behind and also completely off my game. So I wound up staring at the story I was working on without getting anything done before finally conceding the fight. As I’ve mentioned before, if it’s a choice between stopping work and pretending to when I’m just fooling around on the computer, it’s better to stop than fritter my time away doing neither what I want nor what I’m supposed to.
Still, overall a good week. I got more work done on the time-travel book; got some Demand Media articles finished; browsed magazine racks for possible query targets; and did my first-draft rewrite of The Grass Is Always Greener. My writing group gave it an excellent critique back in April and I think it’s much closer to sellable.
I also started replotting The Stage Is a World. I can see the problems—the hero doesn’t have a goal or obstacles to overcome, the ghost really doesn’t do anything—but not how to get past them (that was what I planned to work on today). Either I give up on a conventional plot arc and make it more of a character- or setting-focused piece or I give it more of a functional plot. I suspect a stronger plot is the better choice, but I’m a long way from finding it.
Regarding the time-travel book, I’m doing my best to avoid the mistakes I made with Screen Enemies of the American Way. On that one I didn’t start my analysis of the movies until alarmingly close to deadline; this time I’m on it. And I’m making sure every single thing I watch is immediately entered in the cast/credits list. Last time I didn’t do that and wound up missing a couple, which had to be added in after the initial galleys.
And that’s about it. Back tomorrow with the week’s reviews.
June 6, 2014 · 5:20 pm
Fraser Sherman's Blog 