The Life and Times of Liza Olmsted
Writer Extraordinaire (Unpublished)
Today being the first day of my holiday vacation, I just finished editing the third draft of my vampire story, “The Organville Vampire”. It’s a lot better now, nearly a real story!
When I type in the changes I’ll call it the fourth draft, and I’ll know how long it is. And then I’ll print it out for my beta readers! Should be ready by the new year…
(Now I need to go buy Christmas presents… at least my priorities are in order? :-/ )
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Happy New Year!
Since last we met, several exciting things have happened. Haven’t you missed me?
First, I wrote THE END of my Vampire Story. Again. This is THE END of the Second Draft! Not the final draft, I have a major revision to go, but it will be a revision not a re-write. I’m planning to start revision at the beginning of February. I got burnt out figuring out how to get to “the end” so I could move on to the next story bouncing around in my head, so I’m giving myself a good bit of distance before picking it up with my Editor Goggles on. But any later than February seems like procrastination.
Second! I started my next story! This one has been bouncing around in my head for a couple of years, just as a vague idea for a fairy tale that ends (or maybe starts) with the fairies getting the upper hand. Why is it that Rumpelstiltskin never wins the first-born child? This is the story where he does. Well, not Rumpelstiltskin himself, but some other fairy creature. That was all I had, a bare premise. I wrote a short story called “Wing Stop” a while back, which ends wrong but I couldn’t ever figure out why*. A couple of months ago, I suddenly developed a plot and characters. I don’t know where they came from**, except that I was given this fabulous poem called “Bad Day” by Kay Ryan about an elfin tailor. And suddenly I knew how the child was taken, and a bit later I figured out what came next, and then–BLAMMO!–I had a whole*** novel-lengthed† story arc.
This has never happened to me before.
I suppose it still hasn’t quite happened. I mean, the story was brewing in the back of my head for years. Something must’ve been going on back there.
And eventually I discovered some characters and stuff, too. So, I’ve started writing! See?
Ok, I think that was only two things, even though I said “several”. You could invent a few more for me if you wanted.
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* Proof that I do and have finished things, despite the trash I talk about myself. Just not “final draft”, “ready to be published” finished. :-/
** Maybe from reluctance to find the end of my Vampire Story. Funny how procrastination can have some fab fringe benefits.
*** Well, whole by my definition. There are a whole lot of blurry details and not-so-details that I haven’t figured out. And I do still have to write the whole thing.
† At least, I hope so. What if it falls short? Hrm.
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I now* declare the first draft of my vampire story to be complete!
I wrote an ending** and I printed it out–20 pages, double-spaced. Very exciting! And then I had to reprint parts of it, because the printer ran out of ink and was printing too faintly. *sigh*
There’s a lot left to fix. There’s one scene that needs to be rewritten, because the wrong things happen in it, and I didn’t figure that out until after I wrote it. And all of the other scenes need things that I haven’t identified yet.
In fact, there are several things about this story that aren’t quite right, aside from basic prose. The main character is about as interesting as a cardboard box***, and I can’t figure out how to fix her. The situation is really interesting, but on some level it could be happening to anyone. So why her? The setting–a high-tech future hospital–is relevant and important, I know it. But I haven’t figured out how. Or rather, I haven’t figured out how to emphasize it.
So today at the gas station I had a thought–what if the MC is just in the wrong position? She’s flat and dull because she’s not where she needs to be… or maybe she’s just not the MC. I have an idea for someone in a better role to be the MC. But of course, that would mean rewriting quite a lot of it. Possibly all of it. If she ends up having a personality that would be a really good thing. But… rewriting the whole story, from a whole new perspective. :-/ That sounds more complicated than my last crazy idea.
I’m going to sleep on it, and see what I think tomorrow.
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* Ok, I actually declared it last weekend. I’m a little slow.
** I didn’t end up adding in the complications I was thinking of in my last post. They didn’t make sense after all, and I decided to simplify and just finish the damn thing. Also, I’m pretty certain it’s not the ending. But … it’s better than no ending.
*** A friend in my writing group described her first version of a main character as having the personality of a coffee table. Mine’s less solid than that.
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Unpublished Writer
Breaker of Software
Renaissance Lizard
