Hey, remember when I used to post entries here on a regular basis?
Yeah, I don’t either, but anyway, I’m back. Did you miss – ah, who am I kidding?
As noted in a previous entry – with swearing – and confirmed by the graphic on the right, I successfully met the challenge of writing 50,000 words in 30 days for National Novel Writing Month.
Writing that, of course, is what ate up most of my time for the better part of the month of November.
So now that I’ve finished that (sort of; more on that in a bit), I can get back to posting my usual canny, incisive, and endlessly fascinating observations.
Or, you know, the usual boring crap.
Before I do, however, I’ve decided that I’m going to share the fruits of my not-quite a month’s worth of labor here for everyone to read.
What you’re going to read (or, more likely, aren’t going to bother reading) is a very rough, unedited first draft. It’s probably rife with typos and continuity errors, and I’m sure that there are places in in where I restate – incorrectly – something that I stated earlier. Also, there’s not much in the way of formatting, so it might not be the most readable document from that perspective.
(And it might be unreadable in general.)
When I hit the 50,000 word mark, I found that while the story as envisioned wasn’t complete, I was actually at a pretty good stopping point, so, given that I was feeling kind of burned out, and also given my general laziness, I decided that, having met the terms of the NaNoWriMo challenge, I would stop where I was. After all, what remained of the story could probably be easily expanded into a second novel of roughly the same length.
While there are a lot of stories still to be told about Fontaine and her world, it was my thought that, with the cliffhangerish ending, this particular novel would be the good start to a series, with the next book picking up where this one leaves off.
Of course, the question of what I’m going to do with the thing naturally arises. Unlike previous NaNoWriMo efforts, I feel pretty good about this one and actually think that it has a chance – however slim – of actually getting published. If I want to try to get it published, is it suitable, as I think it is, to be the start of a series? And if it’s not, should I then bring it to its original intended ending, tacking on another 20,000 words or so before attempting to publish it?
So that’s where you come in. I want feedback on it. Does it feel too incomplete, even as something with an intended sequel? Does it work as is? Does it suck huge donkey balls, leading you to conclude, as Dr. Zoidberg might say, that my writing is bad and I should feel bad?
Give me honest feedback. Forget that you like me, and tell me what you actually think. Or, in the alternative, forget that you don’t like me and tell me what you actually think.
So that’s the purpose of posting this raw, unedited copy here. I want to find out first of all if it’s suitable as is – with editing, of course – or if it needs more. Then I want to know if it’s something worth setting myself up for rejection over.
So, that’s why I’m posting it here.
If/when I decide to try to get it published, I’ll probably pull it down. And if/when I get enough rejection slips to decide that it’s not worth trying any further, I may self-publish via the Web (in which case I expect all of you to buy at least one copy, and I don’t want to hear any “But I already read it when it was free” nonsense. The same holds true if I get it published, by the way.)
In any case, here it is:
Blood Drift
3 comments:
Not sure how well it will show up on Scribd, so here's my comment.
You bastard. That cliff-hanger wasn't at all fair. I want more.
Also, you seem to have lost a chunk of writing in the physical description of the Llani. It just ends mid-sentence.
This is good stuff. There is a good amount of exposition running throughout, but it's split up and delivered in a way that doesn't ruin pacing. Your characterization and descriptions were good, too. Although, it did seem like many of the characters are a bit over-sexed, but that's probably the prude in me talking. Most of the scenes were set beautifully. I didn't have a problem visualizing Fontaine's apartment or the lion's cage. Some of the other sets could use a little more embellishment, like Jennifer's or Kelly's place. Then again, you have to tread a fine line between sparse and Stephen-Kingian descriptions. Even those that had less detail were still represented in my mind's eye fairly clearly. All of the action was fantastic and very well-written. The scenes between the family characters were all poignant and made me feel sympathetic to each of them. By the end, I really felt I understood how flawed and troubled Fontaine is.
Also, poor Jon, getting shot down so thoroughly at the bar.
I really do want to read more. Please don't let it end here.
Hmm...I wonder if the text got lost in the conversion or if I just took a break while writing then came back and forgot to finish it. Probably the latter. I'll have to check.
Anyway, I appreciate the feedback. Some of the descriptions are a little light simply because I was in a hurry, and because I was writing about people/places that I haven't given as much thought to. I've actually drawn Fontaine's apartment, for example, but I've never really thought about Kelly's place.
I tried to avoid doing too much info-dumping, but there's a lot of info to dump. Glad to hear it was well spread out.
As for being over-sexed, well...yeah. That's kind of the point. I've actually got a lengthy, self-indulgent post in the works that explains that.
Anyway, thanks again.
Nicely done Miggida Maki. Thats a crapload of work!
Post a Comment