Skip to content

Tag Archives: WIP

Release the queries!

So, I’ve started shopping my latest story. Here is the work-in-progress description. Next week, I’m thinking of adding another excerpt on the blog from later in story. Like the news lately, it’s about unarmed people gathering together and facing threat from armed forces. [UPDATE: Uh-oh, the scene also has a couple spoilers in it, so [...]

Posted 21 March 2011 † nickyp § Books § Marketing § Writing ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: , , ,

It’s a story

Look! Second-draft is done! No pages remain on the bottom shelf, no scene notecards above them. All pages on the top — done, done, done! I used up all the 500 loose-leaf notebook pages in my pack, so had to switch to the yellow pad for the last two scenes. Structure is solid, promises are [...]

Posted 12 September 2010 † nickyp § Writing ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: , , , , , ,

Making the turn

So yeah, it’s taking longer than I thought, but this story is even better than I thought, so there. I’ll be running silent, running deep until vacation in a couple weeks. I really want to be done with this pass and take a complete break, but as the parents say, “we’ll see.” On scene 50 [...]

Posted 14 July 2010 † nickyp § Learning § Writing ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: , , , , , ,

Off-line, on deadline

So, I’ll be running silent, running deep for a bit (like, 4-5 weeks) as I plow through the big second-draft revise. This pass includes the massive plot revise, character sharpening and combining, story rearranging, scene setting, and fluff cutting. I’m finding this nearly as hard as the scene-for-scene cards I did in April, and for [...]

Posted 11 June 2010 † nickyp § Learning § Writing ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: , , , , , ,

Second draft hurtles into view

So, after a sluggish start and some mild howling about the first draft of my Manchester story, I managed to build a weekend’s-full of space to get down to reorganizing and shaping this behemoth. This is the revised sentence-for-scene outline, all 15.5 pages of it. It took me 17 hours over two days and the [...]

Posted 07 April 2010 † nickyp § Learning § Reading § Thinking § Writing ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: , , , , , , , ,

History of English, for no credit

The month and next, I’m walking through my current WIP (work-in-progress), scene by scene, and then line by line and, ideally, word by word. The story is set in England in 1815, and I need to rein in my modern-English tendencies. “Felicitations” is OK (first used in 1628), but not “sugarcoat” (1858), though it is [...]

Posted 30 March 2009 † nickyp § Learning § Writing ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: , , ,