Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! I had a conversation this weekend. It happens. In it I explained the boring drudgery of repeatedly going through a book you have written, making changes each time, and then going through it again to make sure that the changes are consistent with the existing text, and where …
Story Fragments #2: I grew up rich
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! It is official: this has now become an occasional series! Of over used exclamation marks, probably. These are scraps of writing I have mostly probably discarded as the basis for a larger story (one I will share I still have hopes to use – will you guess which …
9 Problems and a new beginning
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! A new opening has been written and integrated into the manuscript in progress. Callooh and callay and all that. No seriously. I am genuinely frabjous about it. I mean it didn’t grow unwieldy, it seems pretty elegant in terms of adding depth to character interactions and will help …
Late to the party
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! Late on a Tuesday I post this, my weekly update. I keep the streak going! Once again I cannot lie to you, my friends, it is because it has taken until this day for me to finally break through my own resistance to rewriting the opening. Sometimes the …
17+ Problems and the corned beef conundrum
Hello my friends and the occasional relative! I come to you somewhat shame-facedly, on account of my total failure to engage in the real work facing me: rewriting the opening of the novel. I have nibbled at, then chewed on the bones of all the other available listed problems, and any that remain can all …
44 problems, or nibbling away at progress, or forest management, you decide!
Hello my friends and the occasional relative! Not the most inspiring title, eh? Fear not. While I freely admit to having failed to make the huge strides toward the completion of rewrites I would have wanted, there has been progress, and it is good. The problem is that there are some large scale projects left, …
Continue reading 44 problems, or nibbling away at progress, or forest management, you decide!
Sometimes it pays to stop, and remember
Hello My friends and the occasional relative! On a wall, in a bathroom, lived a laminate. Beneath that laminate the chipboard swelled, and grew warped with time, but for years I beheld the message that laminate traced for me, and like it or not, some of the phrases never left me, or versions of them …
53 problems and managing the cascade of consequences
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative. No exclamation point this week, because I am in the middle of it. This is the hard work. Getting down from 855 to 53 was easy. And 53 to zero would be fine if 10-15 of the 53 did not have to be solved by rewriting the opening. …
Continue reading 53 problems and managing the cascade of consequences
855 Problems
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! So yes, I have compiled some feedback files and have 855 problems to address, aside from the need to significantly upgrade the opening chapters, which are much as they were when I first vomited them out in order to get started, and adjust some aspects of the finale …
The Dog Days of Summer
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! Strange to use this title when for the first time in many weeks I needed more than a sheet to sleep under last night, after noticing that already the days grow shorter, and on my work days I rise in darkness once again. *Looks up dog days* Ha! …
Roderick T. Macdonald 