This wasn't exactly a banner weekend for writing. I spent most of Saturday involved in a bathroom remodel. Today, I went out with my wife and we're preparing to watch the Oscars.
I did put together a fairly lengthy blog post last night about the importance of self-editing. However, as far as "new" fiction words are concerned, Friday night was it. On the plus side, I did write two short stories this week. I won't post the Peytonometer, but both are now in the "Audibles" stage, which means I need to work on revisions. I think one of these stories will actually fit quite well with an open anthology, but it needs a little spit-shine before I send it in.
I abhor the office work side of writing (the proof is here), but I'd better do some of it this week. I'm going to release a couple of short stories "out into the wild." A story idea may strike at any moment, but for now, I'm devoting the bulk of this week to revising one of my novels. This is the time for I, Crimsonstreak to get a long-awaited, much-needed fourth revision.
I originally wrote the comic superhero story (and by comic, I mean humorous and not comic as in comic book...I know, my head is about to 'splode, too) back in 2008. It features a super-speedster who must save the world after his father decides to play...and win...his own personal game of Risk. Over the years, some of the pop culture references have lost their meaning and I've also grown quite a bit as a writer. What seemed "good" two years ago seems "amateurish" in 2011.
Several months ago...last summer I think...I began reworking I, Crimsonstreak. The revision only covered about three chapters, so I have a lot of work to do. The novel is on the short side, a hair over 60,000 words. I would like to tell 2008 Matt Adams that he should probably try to bump up the word count a bit. The novel also includes an additional 25,000 words of meta-fiction (character bios, journals, newspaper articles, etc.) that need to be re-arranged and put in some kind of appendix format. Right now, the different texts are not in any chronological or thematic order.
The primary goal, however, is to dig into the text and eliminate clunkiness, instances of "telling" instead of "showing," and other deficiencies. The good news: I like revisions. The bad news: I hate revisions.
Such is the life of a writer.
