Category: Status Update

An ugly draft is still a draft

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

I buried myself for an hour or two in the basement today and finished a first draft of my End of the Rainbow story.  It took some wild diversions from the original outline and feels a bit disjoint now, but it’s finished.  I’ll set it aside until the weekend and rework it then.   really need to trim it down.  It’s a pretty simple storyline.  I also need to do more with one of the important characters.

This is probably the sloppiest story I’ve written in quite a while.  Maybe that’s why it went so fast.  It still took the better part of two weeks.

No school tomorrow for me.  I stuck a rake in the snow out front; it sunk in eight inches.  I think I hit a deep spot, but still, that’s a lot of snow.  It’s enough that it’s over my miniature dachshund’s back.  I may be out all week.  We Tennesseans don’t cope well with snow.  No chains, no snow tires, few plows.  We stockpile salt, but that only does so much.  They usually clear the main roads pretty quickly, but it’s a backroad world here.

I’m going to scrounge up the notes I made at Starbucks the other day and see if I can grind out a flash story inside 24 hours.  (That reminds me, Jack Bauer’s on tonight!)  We’ll see if I can make those kinds of schedule holes.  After that I’ll target one of the two stories I have up at OWW.  Neither have gotten many comments, but enough that I have some direction to wander.  A character to cut out of the comedy; a transition summary to add to the tragedy, as well as a more defined character arc.

So much to do, so little time.  Oh, I have lots of time if you add up the three minute blocks my daughter gives me.  She summons again.  I must fetch a Fruit Roll-Up.  Bye for now.

Bad story. No soup for you.

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

I am in a very bad place with my current story.  I get the feeling it’s a place I never should have ended up.  It’s a slow place.  I’ve writtem and rewritten this place at least five times and it’s still not working for me.  I need to check my story notes (I think I have some…somewhere) to see exactly what direction it’s supposed to be going.

My most recent attempt employs the age-old advice to use narrative summary to push through the boring parts.  It’s time to put in the plot twist that drives most of the drama.  I also have a fear that I’ll need to cut half of what I’ve already written.  *sigh*

This one will probably take some time to work through.  Wish me luck.

Turnaround

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 2 Comments

Gotta love the turnaround at Clarkesworld magazine.  It took a massive two days for them to reject the story that put me on the CW waiting list last year.  Now I need to have an even quicker turnaround shipping it back out.

To Duotrope!

UPDATE: I’ve decided to try Lightspeed.  Won’t be ab easy score, but I need to really work the high price markets before looking lower, especially with this story.  I have faith in it.

Trapped in the snow…yay!

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 1 Comment

The snow came midday Friday.  The ice and sleet came down later.  Now the roads are covered in snow that is protected by a nice candy shell.  The sun is working hard, but it’ll be a few days before I get out to go anywhere.  I dare predict there won’t be any school tomorrow.  Aw shucks.  🙂

This has good and bad influences on my writing.  It’s good because I am home, where most of my writing takes place.  It’s bad because of what else is at home: mountains of dishes and laundry that need to be done, video games that beg to be played to compensate for being trapped, a daughter that wants to be entertained every minute, and a ncie comfy bed with an electric blanket.  All things call to me at once; my daughter calls with her not-so-little voice, the chores call with my wife’s voice, the games and bed seem to speak with my voice.

The keyboard beckons to me, too, and I’ve been trying to answer that call.  I’ve tried to plow through a difficult transition in my current story and maybe I can get some momentum going again today.

What I have accomplished is getting some older stories back in circulation.  They’ve been lying dormant for no good reason.  I sent one to Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine and the other to Clarkesworld.  The mail isn’t running, so electronic submissions were the way to go.  (Thank God we still have power!)  Both markets have quick turnarounds so I may get them back out again before I’m back in school…unless one of them gets picked up.  ASIM holds stories they want to buy for up to three months in a story pool, waiting to be selected for an issue.  If the three months pass without selection, they release it.  So even if they want to buy the story it might not sell.  Still, the whole process is about as long as other magazines’ slush process.

So I have five stories out, technically.  ASIM, Clarkesworld, Weird Tales, my WotF finalist, and my WotF Q1 entry.

I also have two stories up at OWW.  The funny one needs to have a character cut out; she doesn’t really add to the story.  I had plans for her when it was supposed to be a novel, and I may put her back if I resurrect that project, but for now she’s got to go.  The other story needs a better defined arc of growth for the main character.  It’s supposed to be that he finally views the value of a personal life over his professional one, but not until it’s too late.  It comes across, but necessarily as growth as it stands.  I’m hoping for a few more comments (2 reviews each, so far) before I start repairing them.

Well, that cleaning voice just walked in the room and requested my presence in the kitchen.  I can work a few hours before writing.  I hope.

Why am I still awake?

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

I am going to be tired tomorrow.  And now I’m blogging?  Idiot!

I did a little fresh writing on my current story today and a lot more remodeling with the stuff I already had.  Still not the progress I wanted.  Rumor has it we’ll get snow Thursday night, so maybe I’ll have a lot of writing time Friday?

I reread my Adams-esque comedy story and put a spitshine on it.  It was originally supposed to be a novel but makes a pretty darn good short.  It may have some elements that don’t quite fit the story length, though.  I tossed it up at OWW to see what people say.  If you’re a member there and need a good laugh, go read it.  (Still not revealing titles here so you’ll have to look it up through my name.)  I can’t guarantee laughs, but I think it’s funny.

Okay, now to bed.  Night all.