Works in Progress Report

Guys… I’ve missed you! I feel like the proper blog posts are me giving a lecture and these kind of blog posts are just sitting down for a nice chat. I feel like I haven’t had a moment of calm in weeks though my brother did visit and few weeks ago and it was very nice to get to spend some time with him.

So, where am I with my various projects? Well, to start with, I’m taking a class on Playwrighting this summer. It’s *much* more work then I anticipated. Every week there is homework (which is often the kind of writing that, while short, is very difficult and takes a while), a reading and then you have to join in the discussion of the reading AND read and critique the work of 2 to 3 other people. This is every single week. From July through Sept. Not to mention that I had to hand in my own 20 page play submission twice over the course of the class (my second submission was last week so that, at least, is finished). Writing and editing like a madwoman amidst all the other things I have to do. 

My goal in taking this class was to polish up The Muppet Play with the help of teacher and critique group. I did get a ton of editing and work done on it but we’re limited in what we can hand in for class so I didn’t get feedback on as much of it as I would have liked. But the feedback I got on the parts I did share were very good so it seems like I am, indeed, onto something.

I didn’t intend to bust out The Library (which was my 2011 Screnzy play) for this class because it’s a train wreck. However, once we got started, there were some assignments that just didn’t fit The Muppet Play so I decided to start polishing pieces of The Library instead for those assignments. I feel like I’ve made some serious headway on this play but it’s still a real disaster in some ways. I did so much work that I ended up handing this in as my second submission instead of more of The Muppet Play. I’m getting better feedback then I would have thought considering what a mess I still think this play is.

Both of these plays are things I suspect I’m not a good enough writer to pull off. They are subtle and deep and… I’m not sure I can pull it off. Of course, this won’t stop me from trying! 🙂

Then, because this is how these things seem to work, I started two new plays. Both a comedies to counteract the fact that the other two are dramas. I’ve got over half of the one written and I just outlined the other. I’m excited about both of them so we’ll see what happens there. I’ll have to give them code names in a future post.

So, in the meantime, I signed up for the August session of Camp NaNoWriMo. I really wanted to hit 50k this month and I figured with all the extra writing and editing I was doing for the class, it would be possible. I’m currently at just over 20,000 words for the month. I’m not giving up but… I’m kinda behind. And burnt out. BUT today was a very big word day so we’ll see.

I’m knee deep in a non-fiction project I *have* to finish soon so there’s that. Also, I’ve been working on Wife Novel again sporadically while I try to figure out how to fix that.

Then I decided that I must finish Mistress Novel 2 and have it ready for Beta readers by February at the latest. Which means I really need to be working my butt off on it now so I’ll have time to finish it with all the NaNoWriMo/Holiday chaos the autumn brings. I actually compiled all my separate files of scenes and chapter into a master draft today AND wrote up a definitive outline of the whole book to work with as I edit/rewrite. Progress!

The good news is that I have the whole book solid in my head with no gaping plot holes and scenes are easier to write then in any other WIP because I already know the characters so well. The bad news is that I wrote most of this draft before I was finished editing the first one. So many things have since changed so I can use very little of my original draft. Also, what I thought was the end is really only the middle of the book so… much writing to be done. February may be impossible but I’m getting some good work done on it when I have time to write so we’ll see what happens. But it’ll be more less editing, more writing then I originally thought.

The other thing I’m frantically trying to finish is the project known as Asplode. I recently had a brain wave about Asplode and rewrote the whole beginning. The most exciting part of this was that I actually figured out what the book was about and it got an actual real title. The less exciting part is that there are still huge parts that make no sense. Also, this book is VERY different from Mistress Novel so it’s hard to work on them both at the same time without them just sounding like each other. I’m hoping these voice issues will buff out in editing when I’m concentrating on one book at a time.

I may be a NaNoWriMo rebel this year and use the Nov NaNo to finish both of those projects.

In an ideal world, I’d finish Asplode, give that to Beta readers and then only work on Mistress Novel 2 once I’d sold Mistress Novel 1. But we don’t live in an ideal world and since MN2 is closer to done, I’m going to just keep on working on both of them at once. Well, all four at once since I’d really like to give both The Library and The Muppet Play to beta readers before the year is up as well.

Guys… it’s official. I have too many works in progress. And these are only the ones on second draft and beyond. There are several more in a proto-state.

Anyway, progress is being made on a wide variety of things! I’m very close to finishing several projects, the hardest part is deciding what to work on first.

As for the year, where are we?

Past halfway! God, I’m tired…

Until next month!