Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Dark of the Moon
Jupiter Retrograde
Sunny and warm

Work was fine yesterday.

I had an unofficial conversation with an editor interested in my work and spun out a bit of an idea. The editor’s enthusiastic. I explained that this was only in idea stage, and I was just talking off the top of my head. The editor wants to know how quickly I can cough something up. Since I expect this to run about 300 pages, I need awhile.

Taking a page (pun intended) from Mildred Wirt Benson’s career, with a great deal of discipline and little distraction, I’m shooting for a first draft by the end of May. Whether I can actually do it or not is something else.

I’m going to do a few chapters, polish and send them with an “are you serious about this?” letter and we’ll go from there. I’d like to nail down a contract before committing to the full 300 pages, even though I don’t have the track record yet to make that demand.

The working title of the piece is Real and I can’t talk much about it because it’s still in a delicate stage. The plot moves to several locations around the world; the theme is discerning the difference between real and illusion when you’re in the business of creating illusion.

I wrote a rough writer’s outline yesterday and the first ten pages. I’d have written more, but ran out of arm. My arm was sore from the theatre – in addition to the regular work, there were several principal turnovers.

I also need to finish the first draft of the mystery this week, so I can let it sit, revise it next week and get it off to that editor before she forgets she requested it.

“Writing in my head” while I do the day work seems to work pretty well. I can’t do it on a film set or actually working a show, because that required a good deal of concentration, but while I’m prepping, I work out quite a bit in my head and then it flows easily when I sit down at the page.

I could probably work faster if I sat down at the computer and composed directly on that; however, with my weird schedule, I have to carry the work around with me and work whenever I can. Since I can’t switch out on a project between longhand and computer – I know, weird, but that’s me – I’m doing the first draft in longhand. I prefer first drafts in longhand anyway – the quality tends to be better than on screen, because more thought goes in to every word, even when it flows.

I have to work on the apartment today, so I’ll write in my head for a bit, then get it on the page, then write in my head as I work on the apartment, then put it on the page. Hopefully, it will be a productive day.

I also have a stack of letters to write and some more proposals to go out.

The Evil One was slithering around the building yesterday, so I hear. He better not become a distraction again – I don’t want to lose this opportunity.

The Circadian Poem will be up later today – I’m having trouble with posting on that site. I haven’t tried Dog Blog yet – Part II of the Exercise goes up today. I hope you’ll do these exercises with me over the next few weeks. Because yes, even with this other writing, I’m going to do the exercises. It will be a good break.

Happy Writing!

Devon