Saturday, November 19, 2005

Nano Nano

Since November is National Novel Writing Month, I have tried to get back to regularly working on my novel with the working title of "A Canadian Werewolf in New York" - I've neglected it for a while due to editing work on North of Infinity II, reading submissions for North of Infinity III and, of course, a slew of self-promotion activities through October and early November.

But no more excuses, have to keep chipping away at this novel. I'm up to about 21,000 words. It's coming along slowly, but at least it's still moving and isn't at a dead stop. And no, I won't finish it by the end of this month, but I'd be good to knock off a few thousand more words.

Cdn Werewolf in NY
21601/ 70000 (31%)

Along with working on the continued story of Michael Andrews, my Canadian werewolf living in Manhattan, I'm still working at the original 10,000 word short story that ended up turning into this novel project. With a bit more tightening, I think it would still make a nice story in and of itself.

I also recently started a "back and forth" story with friend Carol Weekes. It was a tale that I'd written the first scene for but then wasn't sure where to go next. When I flipped it over to Carol, she not only polished up the original scene, making it into a tighter, more fulfilling piece, but she also gave the tale a new momentum. I've since added my own section to the tale and sent it back to her -- it's been ages since we've done this type of work and I'm delighted to be working with her again. Carol is a brilliantly gifted writer, and it's always very inspiring to collaborate on writing projects with her.

1 comment:

Magdalena said...

Wow, this entry has really encouraged me to get back to my own novel, which has been sorely neglected of late, but whose characters and story constantly lurk in my mind and will not be silenced!

Chris and I do editing for each other and sometimes I think that I am the most horrible person in the world when I give him back a section of his novel that is practically dripping with corrections, questions and suggestions. But it is never because I don't love the story but that I want to see it develop into an even tighter one. It is nice though to have someone to share your work with. And luckily for us, we don't take the criticism and advice personally, otherwise we would probably hate each other and never speak, like the egomaniacs in most of the creative writing classes that I have been in who truly believe that their work is absolutely perfect and beyond any constructive criticism.

Ah, well anyways, now I am excited to get back into the writing groove and get things rolling for my characters. Thanks.