Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! Notes from the week. Fallout Spoilers below in #2. I am back on track, faced my fear and read my manuscript again. I can totally sympathize with the writers of yesteryear who threw away or burned entire books after deciding them to be trash, but I think the …
Category: Writing
Fighting off a body blow
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! Procrastination and doubt. I have written about doubt before, in a series I think. It was quite a long time ago. I thought I had compartmentalized my doubt: not exactly put it away, but perhaps contained it. I felt confident I had developed the tools and the knowledge …
Reading aloud to the Demon of Perfectionism
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! Okay, so the copy edit is complete. One more hill climbed, another mountain ahead. I have started the read aloud proofing pass, and am 5.5 to 7% of the way through that, depending on criteria chosen. No graphical representation employed. So far I have added and removed equal …
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Halo: Mystery Box Edition (And my books are on Sale – Buy them!)
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! 97% of copy edit complete. Two things this week. One, as of today both my books are on sale in the UK and USA, in the ebook edition anyway. Continue your recovery from St. Patrick’s day overindulgence by sitting down with a good book. That’s an order, soldier! …
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Obscure words and stones in shoes
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! Almost there! I am 91.6% or 93.2% of the way through the copy edit, depending on criteria used. Hopefully next weekend it will be done, and on to proofing. This week I discovered I used word in an unusual fashion. I used ‘bulled’ as a verb, to indicate …
Dune 2 and the difficulty of story execution
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! Progress continues with the copy edit now 80-85% of the way there, depending on the criteria used. Finish line in sight. Reread and proofing remain. I saw Dune 2 this afternoon. No spoilers, but I feel a little let down by it, after loving the first film. There …
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Falling in love with my next novel, one conversation at a time…
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! I proceed apace, copy edit now at 69-72% complete (no graphic), depending upon criteria. Given that positive progress, and multiple walks in wind and sun, my mind has been turning to the next story to obsess me. I wrote two excerpts yesterday, plus a brief reminder to myself …
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The Writing Life: I got the re-read blues
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! How many times shall I read thee? Let me count the ways. Again. Minor advice column for writers this week. Lessons learned from my own repeated experience as a fellow traveller in the writing trenches. Copy editing progress continues. Depending on how I measure it I am …
Story Fragment #7: Snow
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! It is story time once again. BUT, before I get to that I want to let those of you waiting with bated breath for a book update: the book is complete. Proofing is go. We are into the next, one step closer to final, phase. This week I’m …
The Writing Life: Promises kept, with a tiny caveat
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! It is very cold here, and I write to delay going out into brittle, shard-like sunlight to shovel my drive. Being stabbed in my wincing eye by too-bright light is infinitely preferable to having to shovel in a storm, however, a brutal necessity I have only had to …
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Roderick T. Macdonald 