March 31st, 2010 by Neal

But Hulk have regular pattern of work back, minus any funk, plus some sporatic sun, so Hulk not so whiny of late. Hulk also broke eighty thousand despite deleting 800 words wholesale and without mercy (HULK SMASH!), so Hulk no squish puny Bailey today.

March 30th, 2010 by Neal

More good hours of work. 4,500 edited today, added content. Good stuff. I am staying right on top of my goal, plus some, which is rad.

Not much else to say, alas, other than time to cut out for the day.

March 29th, 2010 by Neal

Usually when editing, I expand scenes or remove scenes, but I don’t tend to add many after the first draft. I just added one on a whim based on a friend’s story that rocks. Weird to shift gears from editing to typing, but also a welcome break. I’ve set goals to complete the novel, and now I’m ahead of them, which pleases me a good bit.

The weekend was very relaxing and awesome despite being busy, so I feel recharged for the week ahead. Now let’s see what the week ahead does.

Also, this is rad.

If you disagree, you are wrong.

March 26th, 2010 by Neal

At the Emerald City Comic-Con, right after I got word that it was okay to announce my comic adaption of The Anti-War Museum of Tuscaloosa, Alabama for the Nightmares of the Macabre series, I was interviewed by two purveyors of awesome, Shannon and Matt of the Seattle Geekly!

You can find my interview here. It’s filled with enthusiastic excitement of jubilant… well, okay, I’m a little hyper and excited. But why not?

Thanks, Seattle Geekly!

March 26th, 2010 by Neal

I’ve now mapped out my goals and plans to get the novel done by June, and I’m already ahead as of today. Good day. It’s hard to know how many pages you’ll get through in a day, and how much material you’ll add with my current style. I have to just kind of wing it. For instance, I’m at page 95 of 179 now, but I was at 82 of 175 when I started the day. So I’m going by what page I hope to be at on a given day (today’s goal was to be at 85 at least), and estimating that the final product will be 200 pages, which will become 225 for the next draft, maybe. I thought of a scene or two I want to add.

I need a break. I do. But I’ve got a big week (and weekend) ahead of me. I’m going to take next weekend (maybe Friday, too) and just kick back. I keep skirting the line of burning out, but thankfully I can see the line very well and know when to pull back.

See you all Monday!

March 25th, 2010 by Neal

Sometimes you come across scenes that just fly, obviously written in a passion. Most passion scenes still require a great deal of editing, but some seem like the muse herself just shit it right out into the bowl in a perfect spiral of words and love.

Bless that.

March 24th, 2010 by Neal

I lost my wallet, and have since been in the process of replacing it. I also had a bit of a funk overwhelm me, but today I fought back and kicked, putting in some good work. I’m headed north for a meeting with my new publisher, and hopefully Thursday Friday will be more productive.

As it stands, I think I’m pretty well back on track now, which is good, because five hours in a DMV will shake anyone’s faith in the world.

I have also received a lot of questions along the lines of “What the heck is this word count thing?” from people newer to the site. To fix that, I have added “What the heck are the Pie Charts?”

March 18th, 2010 by Neal

Sometimes when you’re editing you get too close, then you back up, then you get too close, then you back up. The hardest parts are when you know your grammar and good writing permits something, but your style doesn’t. There’s an instant war.

I’ve adopted a new rule with the last two books of the direct object varying regularly. There’s an argument that the sentence “I picked up a ball, threw it into the air, and smashed it with the racket.” is not as good or as effective as, say, “My racket smashes into the ball after the upward throw.” And there’s much merit to that. I find, however, that the direct object, if you utilize it in this manner repeatedly, clunks up the prose and makes it harder to read. Not too highbrow, necessarily, but perhaps less focussed on the onus of the scene, the character. Sometimes the first sentence, while less grammatically perfect, is more human.

I struggle with this subtle nuance more than anything else editing this book. The passive voice is a pretty easy thing to regulate now, especially given a first person present tense narrative (a dangerous affair for some, a stylistic boon for others, hopefully I rank among them), but the nuance of the direct object in proportion to style vexes me.

All of this is probably very boring to you, but I’m the direct object of this journal, so this journal demands you suck eggs.

Get it, because I changed the direct obj- ah, hell. Look! Cats flushing toilets!

March 16th, 2010 by Neal

They make it seem as if it’s snowing outside, because the blossoms have covered the ground. Beautiful.

My grandmother died a year ago yesterday. It beat me up last night, but today I’m feeling hopeful, optimistic, and productive. I’m sure she’d have liked that.

I polished the rest of a script this morning, wrote a new column, and pounded out about two thousand words of editing, and yet I feel like I’ve taken a half day. Bah, he said. Numbers don’t lie:

Daylight Savings is messing with my head. I say we just do “Fall Back” every two weeks until night is day, and cycle it, just completely screw with everyone’s circadian rhythm until zombies emerge from the ground and another earthquake spins the world off its axis. I mean, if we’re gonna fuck with time, let’s do it right, huh?

Speaking of fucking with time, remind me to tell you a little about Cura Te Ipsum some day. And that’s all I have to say about that.

For now.

March 15th, 2010 by Neal

Went to the Emerald City Comic-Con. Survived, somehow.

Beaten. Exhausted. Had a great time. Great people. Best con in a long time, actually, if hectic.

I have pictures of the desk for the long promised “desk” blog, and I also have Gornography, or “That Which Cannot Be Unseen.” I will explain this later. It will be framed, and on my desk, along with this strangely procured Elektra torso and a Black Lantern Martian Manhunter. Long story.

I have a White Lantern shirt, but I’m afraid to wear it because I have no idea what it means yet. Maybe I’ll put it on and see how I feel.

It was good to see many friends I don’t see all the time. Had a BLAST getting to know Creator’s Edge folk, which leads to my nice little announcement here:

NEW BOOK COMING!

Couldn’t talk about it because it wasn’t all nailed down, but now it is, so there it is. I have a story that I’ve been wanting to produce for some time called “The Anti-War Museum of Tuscaloosa, Alabama.” Many folks who have been my friends for a while will remember, perhaps, a small chapbook from half a decade ago. I did about fifty copies, then adapted it into a comic recently. Creator’s Edge will be putting it in their Nightmares of the Macabre anthology series, coming soon! More news as that develops, along with art, press releases, and other fun! There’s also potentially more coming down, more as I know more.

Woot!

I also have an interview on a podcast I will post here as soon as I have information.