On seeing that light at the end, getting closer . . .

I'm about three-quarters of the way through the first draft of The Sorcerer's Daughter now.


This happened quick, too! It seems like yesterday I was not even a third of the way, and, right after I hit the halfway point, suddenly I start feeling that ever-decreasing word count.


I still need to resolve a major event that's happening with the part I'm working on now, then, after cooling things down for a little bit, ramping up the final, cataclysmic finale. And, I need to do that with around 25,000 words.


That sounds like a lot of words, doesn't it? But trust me, it ain't.


I don't really have a hard-and-fast final word count to shoot for, but I'd love for it to come in at 75,000. Though, it just might get up around 100,000 before I'm done.


In fact, the higher word count may be better. I hate it when the writing in a novel gets choppy and out of rhythm because the author had more story than the word count would allow.


Anyways, I'm rocking right along on this thing. When I finally hit that last page I'll take a week off before starting on the rewrite. My goal is to have this thing ready to ship out to publishers by the end of the year. Maybe even sooner.


So, wouldn't you know it, but a pretty damned good idea hit me last night, for another novel. In addition to the TV show thing that just will not quite go away.


On top of that, I'm trying to find a short story I read years ago, in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction., because I'd love to try to adapt it to a script for a short film. It was a beautiful story, one I found deeply moving, but I can't remember the title or the author. I've searched my back issues and can't find it, searched the archives at the magazine's website, and didn't see it there, either. I also emailed the magazine and haven't heard anything--doubtless they think I'm some random nutcase.


Who knows, maybe I am. I may find this story again, finally, and discover that it really isn't as good as I remember.


Not matter what, now, though, The Sorcerer's Daughter takes priority now. TV shows and other novel, short film, and movie ideas, will all have to take a back seat until I'm done with it.


The ending is still a long way off, but I can see it now. It's coming up, a lot faster than I realized.

Sory I haven't been around much lately . . .

I haven't exactly been inundated by concerned emails from the folks who read this, demanding to know why I haven't been around much lately.


Which is no surprise, actually, and any outrage you may be picking up on is feigned on my part. This blog is mostly just me talking to myself anyway--if you dig it, great! If not, then you won't be reading this anyway, so, again, I'm talking to myself . . .


Anyways, I haven't been around much because I've been devoting all of my writing time to The Sorcerer's Daughter. It's sort of interesting to me--I'm now at the point I'd reached during my previous attempts and instead of just completely losing interest in it like I did before, I'm obsessing over it and spending as much time as I possibly can working on it.


Which is a good thing. It means this time I'll finish writing the bloody thing.


I'm still thinking over this idea for a TV show, too, and actually sketching a few ideas for different things that'll be prominent in it, but I've finally reached the point where that thing is content to be on the back burner for now. It's still in my head, still making noise, but it's being a lot more polite about sharing think-time with the novel.


And, so far, I'm liking what's showing up on the page. Yes, it'll need a serious rewrite, but this is a first draft. Nobody is going to see it but me, so it can be embarrassingly bad in places. I'll fix all that with the rewrite.


That was the secret, really, realizing that the first draft is not the final draft. I'm not going back and rereading and rewriting stuff this time--I'm just letting it sit there, not worrying about it, content to let it wait until I come back to it during the rewrite.


You'd think I'd know that by now, considering how much of my life I've spent writing. For some reason, though, it's a difficult concept for me to grasp, and it's really gotten in the way in the past. Hopefully this will be a breakthrough for me, and I'll be finishing more stuff now.


Anyways, that's my weekend--writing, making as much progress on this as I can on this novel, meditating on the TV show thing, watching some TV, too . . . maybe making some more art, if I get inspired. Who knows?


In any case, I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and it's getting closer and closer . . .