Still in re-writes. :)

Working out more plot snags that came up, but it was to be expected. It's rather exciting to see the story unfold the way it has. I'm enjoying it. Wish I wasn't so tired, though. The brain wants to do far more than the body allows. Sigh... ;p

Re-writes

Starting in on the refining of the story now, and there's times when it gets rather difficult. Some days words don't come to me easily. It's like trying to run through clam flats, rather slow and sticky. But if I stand still I'll start sinking, and get even more stuck.
Time to go draw on inspiration.

Details.

Now that I have 98% of the plot worked out, I can now start going into details. Like adjusting the voice for each section, adding more details, delving into the imagination...
I sat in my car in the parking lot at Borders last night waiting for my daughter to pick up her midnight release of Stephanie Meyers' book Breaking Dawn, (which is her latest book in the Twilight series) and I worked on revising the manuscript from the beginning, on my laptop with one of those USB powered LED lights so I could see the keyboard. It was getting rather exciting, but then my arms got kind of uncomfortable from the side position, as it wouldn't fit in front of the steering wheel, it was too high, and people could see me obviously working on my laptop on my car, and it attracted too much attention. So, it was on the passenger seat. Then I played with my phone and learned to surf the web and type using the phone keypad. Rather tricky, but interesting to learn.

Mechanics

Presently I'm reading through the manuscript and making notes of each scene, so I have a running synopsis. (as opposed to a sitting one) ;p
It also helps to pull the whole story together in my head , so I can clean up any inconsistencies that happened while writing it. And set up the details for the rest of the story.
This part is easy as far as thinking goes, but hard on me physically, because of all the writing. I spent about 8 hours yesterday working on it, just didn't want to stop! But I got very tired, and feeling a bit burned out, so I had to stop to do something else.
Progress is going right along.

Book splitting. :)

I sat and looked at this manuscript and felt overwhelmed. Then I thought, why not go ahead and publish book 1 separately instead of trying to publish both book 1 and 2 in one published tome? I realize book one does have a beginning, a middle and an end to the degree that it can stand alone as one published piece. I had initially thought that otherwise book 2 would need to have a synopsis of book one, and I realize it doesn't really need it.
You know, I'm not really a writer, per se. At least it is not something I want to do professionally. I just want to tell some stories, and hope people are willing to read them. I would like to consider myself a Latarikhin, a storyteller. Buuut, I think I'm more of a Vakhar Latarin, a seeker of words. Ha. Haa! (Nobody is going to get that except me, sigh...)

Oh yes, word count for the rough draft (2 books) is 103,658. :)

Rough draft!

Finally worked out the story plot, got the rough draft completed, and also have an ending for this book. Some resolutions, even if the main problem is not yet resolved, that is because it is not the end of the story. It's too big to put into one book, so it will go into two, as far as I can see it, now. So, I had to have a kind of resolution just to end this particular book, and then go on to the next.
I'm tired of typing.. so I'll wrap up this post for now.

Catch-up

Went into hiatus for a while, because my son not only got baptized and graduated high school, he also enlisted in the Army and is now off at Basic Training. I knew it was something he wanted to do, but it was rather sudden, and the reality hit me pretty hard. Then he goes to Airborne school, after that. Not sure when I'll see him again. And of course there's that whole thing around him going overseas into combat, because that's where he wants to be. So, it took some adjustment to not having him at home any more.
Which is why I was in a state of transition and couldn't really focus on writing.
I'm back on it again, though, rewriting the end of the plot, and hopefully soon will have the story completed in its entirety. That day will be a happy one, let me tell you. It's taking me so long just to figure out what and how I was going to tell it. So much else I wanted to get figured out as well, so that once it's written, there won't be any going back, really. Characters will be cast in stone, and I won't be able to make them into something else, after that.

It's going well. And yes, I'm proud to be the parent of a soldier. Come what may, he is doing what he wanted to do with his life.