For some reason, I find my self revising the second draft of Naga Story. And I’m not sure why. I finished its first draft a long time ago. Two jobs and three (or four?) novels have passed since then. I stopped production because when I was done, I just felt disgusted with it. I felt the quality of the writing was poor, I barely had enough story to make 90,000 words (which would be reduced upon the second draft). I didn’t know what audience this was for. It wasn’t commercial enough (what shelf do you put “lovesick snake girl” on in Barnes & Noble?). I remember being excited during pre-writing–the…
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Finished Naga Story
Well, I finished naga story. No title yet (besides “Naga Hide” which is a bit too heady of a pun still). I’m not sure when I started (sometime in June?) but I was getting down 1700-1800 words per day consistently in the last quarter of it. It’s a full manuscript, rough draft as it is. 90,061 words. Just barely squeaked over that 90K mark, even though I had 70+ scenes. And it’s shite. It’s just shite, all of it. Remember how I said every word sounded juvenile and unsophisticated and disposable. Yeah, that never got better. Shite’s the only word I can call it, it’s the most appropriate. I don’t…
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Should an Author Change a Story for Commercial Viability?
So while I’m composing the outline for “naga hide” story, I thought I’d share this anecdote. I was with my wife, walking our two poop-makers floor-destroyers inbred suicidal moronic pains-in-the-ass with fur dogs. And as I’m always desperate for conversation topics (being an introvert) I talked about the two novels I was planning — seeing which idea she thought had more merit. When I talked about “naga hide”, she had qualms about the main character. She said “women don’t like snakes” so that might diminish the marketability/commercial viability. That certainly got my attention. Commercial viability = people paying money to publisher = happy publisher = publisher paying money to agent…
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Another Hiatus
So another hiatus. Well, I call it a hiatus, but I should call it not doing my goddamn job. Not that it’s a job, just a hobby. But not committing yourself to the writing means you’re not writing. It’s not like knitting — you follow instructions, twist some yarn, and afterwards you got a cute little amigurumi. I will call him Squishy and he will be my Squishy. Writing is something that’s a creative endeavor. It means pulling something out of nothing. It means putting something out there that wasn’t there before. And that’s super hard. Unlike most other arts, it’s 100% sequential. One word has to follow the other.…
