...and we're ROLLING!

First week back, like really back. Huzzah!

Monday Night Writing Session was awesome.  I loved being back there and getting work done on Gravedigger.  It was good to see my friends again as well!  I enjoy the break from writing at home, being out and yet still being productive.  The pervasive scent of coffee mingling with and energizing my creative flow.  Mmmm... coffee.  Right, where was I... yes, productivity.

I was behind and now I'm ahead.  I had slotted to finish my restructuring of Gravedigger by Friday.  Instead I finished it last night.  That means I get to start plugging in the phrases that worked from my rough draft and then write whole new ones for this second draft.  I'm super stoked... the Larry Brooks website (storyfix.com) was really helpful as was the beat sheet format.

So, by February 1st, my goal is to have Gravedigger done and ready for another review.  Then, I get to try my hand at query letters!

Tonight is blogging and Facebooking.  Then tomorrow night, if not the gym then the start on Gravedigger.  Hopefully I can get some work on it this weekend too.

This process has been pretty wild, but I'm starting to get an idea of what I need (and I'll be happier when I don't have to schedule my writing around a day job).

Anyroad, I originally came up with this blog to outline my process in hopes to help others and to document my journey from start to finish.  It's been (and will continue to be) emotional, difficult, a true test to my mental endurance, but it's also been (and will continue to be) rewarding.  Not just for my successes (and there WILL be successes) but also for the successes of those that I help inspire through this blog and through my encouragement.

Keep up the awesome work!

As always, thanks for your support and thanks for reading!

~Stephan

Word... or not, actually.

So, faithful readers, here is my weekly blog-post.  I hope to do more in the future, but now this is it.

So, aside from being knocked down by a stomach bug this week, I also had a change in work schedule mid-week.

I now work something more akin to normal workday hours, giving me more time with the family, and more time for writing.  Also, I'm able to attend the Monday Night Writing sessions again!  Huzzah!  That means more blog updates!

Given the change and the sickness (which I'm all but recovered... still a bit of stomach grumbly), I didn't get accomplished what I wanted to this week with Gravedigger, which was to work the beat sheet structure to completion.

Fortunately, I have all of next week to do that!  Starting with the Monday Night Writing session.

Also, Larry Brooks wrote an awesome blog update over at storyfix.com about the Trifecta of Fiction.  I shared it on my Facebook page and recommend it to all my writer friends!

So, other than that, not much to report, but looking forward to a more productive week next week!

Also, looking forward to having drinks with Matt Darst (author of Dead Things) and Dennis Kuhn coming up in the not too distant future!

As always, thanks for reading!

~Stephan

...and then, Life happened.

So, it's been almost a whole quarter since I've posted a blog entry.  Yeah, right after I posted that last one, I got a job.  It is a stressful job where I joined up right at the busy period, but managed to pull through without losing any appendages (literal, familial or metaphorical).

Now that I have things on a more even (or less turbulent) keel, I will list my plan for 2013 and for the two projects I've started:  Blood Stone, the novel and Gravedigger, the short story.

In the time between their writing/first rough edit, I've digested the book Story Engineering and now have a solid plan on where to go next with these two projects.  Back to the outline, for both.  Not that I'm scrapping the 70K+ words that I've written.  Just that I'm reforging the outline and then taking the material that I have and working it into the spaces of that outline.  Like a puzzle... a hot mess of a puzzle.

So that's the plan.  Starting with the characters, their definitions, their lessons and then the outline (based on those presented by Larry Brooks).

If only I had that book before I started... blah blah blah.

I have it now.  I have the motivation, and I have the scheduled time to do it.

There will be a progress report in about a week's time, since one of my 2013 goals (NOT resolutions... goals) is to write a blog post once a week.

So I look at the stack of paperwork in front of me, the blank beat sheet form and am not feeling at all overwhelmed... I just think, "They've got me surrounded... those poor bastards."

As always, thanks for reading and thanks for your support!

~Stephan