Development diaries, 1-13-2015: How do I take these hours seriously?

Today’s challenge: I’m starting writing at 11:40. I’ll quit by 2:30. Then it’s a dentist appointment, then pick up the kids, then nighttime routine. The challenge is not “How will I make quota?” I’m not writing 4600 words in the next three hours. I mean, if it happens, that’s great, but I do plan on… Continue reading Development diaries, 1-13-2015: How do I take these hours seriously?

Words 1-14-2015

They drew up, at last, to the edge of the mine, a few hundred feet from one of the wide earth ramps that had admitted the great stone-wains to and from the depths. Hasina sat and dangled her feet from the edge, kicking her legs out once. Esker hesitated a moment. Hasina looked back with… Continue reading Words 1-14-2015

Words 1-13-2015

It was not until they could see the strip mine’s blotchy shadow begin to creep down from the horizon that Esker began to speak, still staring straight ahead. “The five of us would take food and water and come out here for a whole day,” he said. “Not when it was too hot—we knew better—but… Continue reading Words 1-13-2015

A brief note out of sequence

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the words I meant to write last night after the kids went to sleep have been replaced with a blitzkrieg campaign by my proxy ruler, Cyrus of Persia, against the Japanese, Aztec, and Roman civilizations in quick succession. The hostilities stretched into the wee hours of the morning, but all three enemy… Continue reading A brief note out of sequence

Development diaries, 1-12-2015: None of you fuckers loved me enough to tell me

Spent most of the weekend indoors with the kids, although they got out a bit on Sunday afternoon when it was warmer. My son R. is 15 months old—old enough to get into, over, or around almost anything, young enough to have at best a schematic sense of what one does not do if one… Continue reading Development diaries, 1-12-2015: None of you fuckers loved me enough to tell me

Words 1-12-2015

“Know in your bones you will,” said Esker. “The Nine, Epseris, what have you got against the damned girl?” “She’s nothing to me,” said Epaphos, “but if I must die, I’d rather be killed by you. That’s the Tungsten Kid out there. There might be a few runes stupid enough to use achrom in their… Continue reading Words 1-12-2015

Development diaries, 1-9-2015: I chose the paint color for the room with this in mind

Today has been horribly slow. At 11:30, I’m 800 words behind, which is not so bad in light of a quota of 21,000 on the week… but I would finish them if I could keep my eyes open. I literally can’t, not for fiction. And I have nothing to say about the day’s process. Walking… Continue reading Development diaries, 1-9-2015: I chose the paint color for the room with this in mind

Words 1-9-2015

There was no edge to Souktown that Esker could discern, only a slow decay; the crumbling foundations were less and less overbuilt, the lights weaker and less dense, the bright polyglot signs fading more and more into the ruined indecipherable glyphs of the ancients. With the dark came quiet, but not a calm quiet. Coiled… Continue reading Words 1-9-2015

Development diaries, 1-8-2015: A Weird West novel of manners

Today felt really slow—4300 words between 9:00 and 3:10, with an hour break for some kettlebell swings and lunch. So, actually, about 5:10 clocked for about 800 words/hour, which I think is about where I’ve been. I think I can do better, but it probably would have involved planning more beforehand (cue chiding from @ABEhrhardt).… Continue reading Development diaries, 1-8-2015: A Weird West novel of manners