Tag Archives: Nighthunter's Bite

revising, submitting, rinse, repeat

Posted on 05/11/2010 | 2 comments

Hunting the Red went out and promptly returned with a no thank you. I’m in the processing of polishing it, and then it’s back out, where it will keep going until someone buys it.   Nighthunter is also awaiting it’s final cleanup. I’m no longer sure it’s right for Sword & Sorceress, but it can’t hurt to try. I had a brilliant idea to make it a frame story so she starts out in her special role before the confrontation with her dad, but I’m not sure if it’s brilliant or just desperate. I had played with point of view on this one before, trying to do something special with it, but I think it’s the character that needs to shine here, not the style or the prose. Funny how blogging about these things brings clarity for me.  Thanks for listening. 🙂

Oh, and I’m still working on SAD #2, but it’s got a title now: Takeshi’s Gift. Takeshi locates the orb that’s been haunting his drawings since childhood and discovers his gift isn’t what he believed it to be.

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revision crazy

Posted on 05/08/2010 | Leave a comment

Well, I’m still on schedule for my 10 short stories this month; SAD #2 is in progress and so long as I hit it before the 9th, I’m still on schedule. Revisions on the other hand, are running rampant thanks to the upcoming Sword & Sorceress deadline. I was going to submit my Nighthunter story, but I realized I had a story that was much better suited:Hunting the Reds. Yes, that’s the story I wrote on Monday. Granted it’s short and mostly in really good shape plotwise and characterwise… but still. 🙂 I have to try. So I’ve giten it two passes, and there is one more thing I’m considering changing about it, but I’m not entirely sure at this moment. I’ll take today to think about it. Maybe outline the ending in its current version vs the possible version.

And I still also have to finish Nighthunter revisions. Which is fine. I have 2 – 5 days in which Ms. Waters will review my story and either accept (hopefully!) or reject it and then I can submit Nighthunter for a second chance if needed. We’ll play that one as it goes, but I’m really thinking Hunting the Red would fit their publication perfectly. I just have to hope she thinks so too.

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another revision pass

Posted on 05/06/2010 | Leave a comment

Nighthunter needs another revision pass after today’s work. It should be easy enough to make the changes, but I need a clear head to evaluate it. I’ll be revising this one tomorrow afternoon, and aiming for a Friday night submission.

I was so close…

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well, I tried something new…

Posted on 04/27/2010 | Leave a comment

I’ve been working out, I’ve been eating right, and while I’ve been feeling better physically, I’ve also been a little down in the dumps. My writing isn’t what I want it to be right now. I know we all hit a rut now and then, and I just couldn’t figure it out. At least, not until I was driving to work this morning.

This story was supposed to be an easy edit, even with the point of view change from 1st to 3rd, so I treated it casually. Instead of my usual manuscript pages redlined to hell (and back), I decided to try a new approach I’ve read about other writers doing which is to rewrite the story from memory. It was good for the first two paragraphs. I have a new opening that I like, but then I fell apart.

I tried something new, but I think I tried it too late for this story. It’s good, and my revision notes are going to make it great. But not by rewriting it. If your soup just needs some pepper and salt, you do not need to dump the pot and start over. 🙂 I will try this again, but with a first draft story that will benefit from a memory-rewrite.

For this one, I’ll be hitting the library with paper and pen and redlining the manuscript more thoroughly. Tonight, edits will go into the computer. I have a system. I like my system. I just need to stick with it and focus my efforts on the story.

So, what “new” thing have you tried, and did it work for you?

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nighthunter’s bite in progress again

Posted on 04/22/2010 | Leave a comment

I’m liking the new title Etherea in her Veins but on the lookout in case anything more interesting comes jogging by. I’m rewriting the story from memory, guided by my edit list, things I need to keep in mind when writing this. It’s interesting this way; there’s no writing pressure to rushrushtypetype and I’m a lot more relaxed about it. I’ve already written it, so I know my setting and I’m intimate with my characters. Rather than go line by line from the old version, I am writing it how I love it. To be honest, I also need to do it this way so I can work on it a little over the weekend. I’m visiting my sister out of state and taking my daughter to play with the cousins. It’ll be crazy, but thanks to my laptop and its 9 cell battery, I don’t have to worry about plugging in anywhere.

Deadlines though; I’m submitting this one to Sword & Sorceress and we’re already a week into the submission period. I don’t want to wait for the last week to submit it. I need to give this story a fighting chance. My only concern is that they want strong female characters, and in every story I’ve read in S&SXXV, the women start out in positions of power, or at least respectable positions. Mine starts a slave and comes into her own. Hopefully, they’ll like it. If not, we’ll see who else will.

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shadows and bites

Posted on 04/18/2010 | Leave a comment

I’m in a weird place right now. I’m preparing for a road trip at the end of the week, but trying to jump into two projects that both require serious concentration. Shadows needs a massive block of worldbuilding, which I’ll be trying to work on tonight, and Nighthunter’s Bite is is need of a kind-of rewrite because I don’t think the viewpoint (1st again) really works for the story. I tried, but the it’s better from third. Third works most of the time, but every now and again I decide to fiddle with. It’s good to try things differently. Maybe one day I’ll find the perfect story for 1st person. It’s not this one though. Well off to do some dishes then choose between projects…

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nighthunter’s bite revised

Posted on 01/18/2010 | Leave a comment

What a wild ride that was.  I have a day off from work, and decided to spend it baking and writing.  I spent 6 hours working on the short story edit, only taking brief breaks to get water or swap laundry around.  If I had tried this during my normal evening hours, it would have taken a week to complete. It’s off to some readers now, so I’ll have to wait for feedback.  Hopefully, I’m not out of my mind on this one. (Or, scaring anyone off my writing!)

I hope Maya is happy now, and that the next round of revisions are minor.

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nighthunter edit in progress

Posted on 01/14/2010 | Leave a comment

Some wonderfully dark ideas, some twisting of an already threatening situation, and a slave who stands up for herself…  No wonder I can’t put it down.  Perhaps this is a good sign.

I didn’t bother with the usual method.  No analysis, no red-lining.  Just jumped in and threw notes in to add or change details, deleted the uselesss stuff, and tweaked what didn’t work.

Another night, then I’ll send it off for feedback.  If only I can lasso those past tense verbs leaping in front of my 1st person  present…

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And Something Bit . . .

Posted on 08/13/2008 | Leave a comment

I needed to be more comfortable with Celtic rituals and sacrifice before I could put this story together, so that’s what I did over lunch. There are some interesting websites you can find if you just Google the right combination of words, and let me tell you, those Celts were damned interesting.

Nighthunter’s Bite now has some backbone, and a basic outline is set. All I need now are the words.

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Plotting

Posted on 08/12/2008 | Leave a comment

Sometimes plotting is easy, and sometimes it irritates me to no one because I know the story is there, I know it needs to be written, but something is evading me, and I can’t figure the ‘why’ of the story. I remember now why I had stopped working on Nighthunter’s Bite. Gutsy character with enough spunk to challenge her goddess, and a nice confrontation scene between the two. But why is there this confrontation? And what the hell does it have to do with the moon bracelet I’m fixated on? Time for some celtic research, maybe something there will coax some answers out of my muse, not that I know where SHE went to. Probably took a nap after all the editing I’ve been doing . . .

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Moving Along

Posted on 08/06/2008 | Leave a comment

I managed some decent writing today. Nighthunter’s Bite is coming together in my mind, and I’ve got some more notes. Sunguard is definitely moving ahead. I went back to redlining on paper with pen instead of using MS Word’s track changes, and I feel like it’s made all the difference. I redlined 7 of 17 pages today, and handwrote a new scene, plus bits of some other scenes that needed additions.

Is it possible I’m getting somewhere? 🙂

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Tempting Fate

Posted on 08/05/2008 | Leave a comment

Yes, I tempt fate. My promise to myself “edit Sunguard no matter what comes up” was derailed by Mother’s Nature’s attempt to blow my city away with massive thunderstorms and sightings of funnel clouds. Niiiice. Thanks, Mama Earth. Love ya. (smooches)

Today was fairly productive, surprising considering how little sleep I got last night.

Over lunch I completed the crit that was troubling me. I don’t usually read, never mind crit, flash fiction. The author is someone whose writing I respect, so it’s always tough for me to get into crit mode in that situation. It IS harder for me to crit for someone when they’re less of a stranger, but that’s okay. I’m learning to handle it better, and I’m learning from the people whose work I’ve learned to critique.

I also started reviewing my notes for Nighthunter’s Bite. I like the concept of the story better now than I did before, and am looking forward to writing it. This is going to my submission to the celtic fantasy anthology and really does have the right foundation for it, I just need to research some details to make it just right.

I’m working on Sunguard now, I won’t get through it tonight though. There’s too much I need to change. But I’m slogging through the handwritten notes, reentering the edits I made last week before I had lost that version of the file. It’s tough going, but I am making progress. Then I can go back and and the two new scenes. I need to do some character work, as two characters that had only been mentioned before, will now have more significant roles. And they weren’t even mentioned in the first version of the story. It’s fun watching how these things develop.

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