Stephanie Gunn

All of Shaede has now been converted to draft form.

I managed to get the last three chapters done fairly quickly today, for which I’m pleased. I’m going to spend tomorrow going back over the first three chapters and also a query letter. Yes, the submission to agents will begin again.

I did submit to the agent I have my eye on before Christmas, but no sign of a response as of yet. I suspect the postal service may have eaten the package. I’ve emailed her anyway, so hopefully I’ll find out its whereabouts and can go from there.

13/20 chapters of Shaede converted to note form.

I’m going through and checking bits of continuity and the like as I’m reading through. Fixed up a few things, and have done some minor revisions to scenes that don’t work. I ended today on one scene that does need more work. Bah.

Despite that, I am surprised at how together this book is. When I was doing the major edits a few months ago, I really felt as though it was fragmented and quite frankly, crap. I don’t feel that now. I feel proud of it.

I’ve also had an epiphany on reworking the beginning of Daemon as well as some of the central plotlines. It makes me happy, and of course I’m now itching to get to work on it again. I’ll have these notes finalised within the week, so I can get back to the fun stuff. Of course, now I’m tempted to start over from the beginning. Must resist that urge.

I finally got my hands on copies of Charles de Lint’s “Samuel Key” books. Fascinating to read them in the order in which they were published, because you can really see de Lint improving as a writer. The first book, Angel of Darkness, while intriguing, is really thin on the ground, both in terms of writing ability and plot. I’m currently reading the third Key book, I’ll Be Watching You, which is lightyears away from the first two books. It is recognisably de Lint, and it is good.

Four chapters converted into nice tidy notes today. 6/20 done.

As a writer, I have a feeling I tend to do things backwards. My first draft is almost pure stream-of-consciousness. Second draft is when I get into figuring out what the hell happened and start to get real structure going. Third draft is for polishing.

Somewhere then, and only then, can I sort out notes and the like.

I know that a lot of people like outlining. I loathe it. I don’t know what’s going to happen next in the manuscript – that’s part of what keeps me writing. Nor do I write character bios and the like; I’d rather they reveal themselves to me as I go along.

It’s weird, but it works.

I reread Stephen King’s On Writing over the last few days. Always a good read – tonnes of good solid advice. I sneered at King’s work for a long time, regarded him as little more than a hack. Then I read On Writing and started reading the Dark Tower books. Sure, it’s not Shakespeare (but who the hell is?), sure it’s not always polished. But dammit, it works and people read him. A lot. He’s doing something right.

I’m settling back into the routine well at the moment. My sleep is still shot to hell, so I’m not sure I’m being anywhere near as efficient as I was a few months ago. But it’s forward motion, and that’s all that matters to me.

Back into the old schedule after two weeks of being sick and holiday.

By schedule, I mean that I’m sitting down at the same time each day with the laptop. I’m not writing at the moment, but getting myself properly organised. For a Taurean I’m woefully disorganised sometimes.

So. I spent a good chunk of today backing up everything that I could. I have a system in place now for proper weekly backups of all things writing. I also ordered a new flash drive that can also be used for backups. Just in case. Paranoia can sometimes be a very good thing.

I made a start today on getting a comprehensive system of notes in place. While I was just working on Shaede, it wasn’t so bad. But now I’m halfway through a trilogy, I really need the notes. I’ve caught myself having to flip back through the Shaede MS too many times looking for details.

I have two chapters inputted into my notes system, with eighteen more to go. In an ideal world, I’ll get this all done this week.

Resolution of the moment – organisation and safeguarding.