Just a quick update this week, mainly to say that I’m putting this here blog on semi-hiatus until I catch up on all this editing. I’ve also put all of my writing projects on the back burner until I clear my editing backlog.
Of course, my freelancing work is also ramping back up after basically being out of work for the last five months, so it’s still going to be a juggling act. Something’s got to give, and when my plate gets too full blogging is always the first casualty.
I’m still not quite one-third of the way through my revision of Deliverance. Like I said on Twitter last week…
My writing style: rambley story vomit.
What you read in my published books is actually my editing style.#amwriting #amediting
— Jean Marie Bauhaus (@jmbauhaus) March 27, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Cleaning up rambley story vomit is a long and painstaking process. It’s making me wonder if slowing down and editing as I go, rather than fast-drafting and then editing this way, might actually make this whole process faster overall? I may need to rethink my process when it comes to future projects.
Over the weekend I watched an interview between Neil Gaiman and Tim Ferris in which I was reminded of Gaiman’s process, in which he writes his first drafts longhand (in a very nice journal using very nice fountain pens that probably cost more than I make in a year), which forces him to slow down and be more thoughtful as he goes (rather than vomiting the story onto a screen), and then revises as he types up his manuscript. I’ve actually emulated this process before (a few chapters of Kindred Spirits were written this way), but alas, I’ve got an undiagnosed something-or-other going on with my right wrist (it’s like carpal tunnel, I think, but on my pinky side) that would prevent me from doing an entire manuscript this way. Plus, I’m trying to turn books out faster, and I’m not sure this method would lend itself to that.
At any rate, that interview is over 90 minutes long, but it’s worth every minute if you’re fan of Neil Gaiman.
In lieu of these updates, I’m lining up some guest posts from some fellow authors you might not have heard of, but whom I think you might enjoy getting to know. Watch for the first of those, from J.K. Bovi, author of Zombies, Y’all and other Southern-fried paranormal adventures, next week.
And although none of this is especially prank-worthy, considering the date I feel like I need to say that none of this is an April Fool’s joke.
And speaking of April Fool’s Day, did you know that every year on this date, Bill Waterson and Berkely Breathed get together for a collaboration as Calvin & Hobbes take over Bloom County? That’s not a prank, it’s a gift (and if you’re too young to even know what I’m talking about or care, you seriously need to get off my lawn). Click here to see this year’s strip.
Finally, please enjoy this photo of deer grazing on our front lawn, sneakily taken through the kitchen window blinds so as not to scare them off.
[wufoo username=”jmbauhaus” formhash=”r1l6mmnj13zvfei” autoresize=”true” height=”262″ header=”show” ssl=”true”]
Thank you for sharing the Gaiman interview. I’m catching up on some blog reading today and just saw this. I know what I’m going to watch at home tonight!
Hope you enjoy it! Have Kleenex handy for the part where he talks about Terry Pratchett.