Saturday, May 13, 2006

Deadlines Blow

Ever feel like you've bitten off more than you can chew? I've bitten off more than I can conceivably eat. Everything always rolls in at the same time (haven't you noticed?) . In the next two weeks, I have deadlines approaching on Asphodel, Darkshifters, and a little erotica e-book I wrote for fun.

Bad enough that I have to do major rewrites on all three projects, but even worse that they all occur simultaneously. I figure if I work 20 hours a day I might get two of them completed by the end of the month.

As a writer, my greatest skill is volume. I can produce upwards of 10k words per day if I am undisturbed and the Muse stays out of the vodka. Asphodel is already 7 books, almost 2 million words and still going--my three year project. Darkshifters/Coils is two books, 350k words; I've been working on it since October. Goddess' Revenge is 20k--an erotica novella with a sequel. I've been working on it for two weeks. If you add in the numerous short stories, etc., that puts me at approximately 4 million words in 3 years. Scary.

Not all of those words are good words, however. As one of the members of our writers' group (Now no longer with us) mentioned on a first draft: "...No editor worth his/her salt would ever consider something with this many adverbs..." (The asshole, who is unpublished, had no clue I was already working iwth an agent and even less clue about the state of my writing. He helpfully directed me to a website for 'amateur' or 'novice' writers so I could 'learn' my craft. The website was criminally misspelled.) My rewriting process is painful for me. Nine times of ten I find myself rereading the story, double-checking its flow and storyline, instead of checking the grammar against one of my numerous college textbooks. The tenth time, I wince.

Typos.

I hate typos. They always manage to be pretty funny, however, like something from "Gone With The Wind." I's going to consider this carefully. If I were writing dialect, that would be brilliant. From a sage, however, that's pretty fucking retarded. Ah, the complexities of language! Perhaps someday I'll manage to type something letter-perfect from the beginning. Until such time, however, I'm destined to cringe at every little typo.

Can't afford typos at the moment. I have too much to get done. I'll let you know if I survive it.