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At the end of my adventures I was drinking a case of sixteen-ounce tallboys a night, and there’s one novel, Cujo, that I barely remember writing at all. I don’t say that with pride or shame, only with a vague sense of sorrow and loss. I like that book. I wish I could remember enjoying the good parts as I put them down on the page. At the worst of it I no longer wanted to drink and no longer wanted to be sober, either. I felt evicted from life. At the start of the road back I just triedDown the rabbit hole….

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Yesterday I finally completed the first round of The Song of Forgotten Stars, Book Five: Embers of Future Flames. This book has taken a lot longer than I expected, but this phase is finally done. Also, even though there is a lot more to be done, this entire story is now more than half told. That’s quite a feeling. I embarked on this particular journey roughly 14 years ago, after all. Share This PostDown the rabbit hole….

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Actually, this photo is from yesterday. After taking a couple weeks off from even opening Scrivener once I finished the Forgotten Stars V draft, I launched it yesterday on a project that I’d been noodling with a bit during 2022, but now I want to actually get it done: a collection of various Star Wars-related essays I’ve written over the years, many in this very space! I figure, other folks have gathered their blog entries for collections, why shouldn’t I? I’m starting with Star Wars because it’s personal, and because I’ve written a lot about it. Should be fun! I’m going to try targetingDown the rabbit hole….

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Occasionally I find myself discussing the merits of Scrivener, the software I use for novel writing, to other writers who are curious about possibly making the switch (or they haven’t even heard of it), so I thought it might be useful to have a post here to which I can point in the future. I’ve been using Scrivener for seven years or so, and…well…huh. I wonder if I already wrote about Scrivener back in the day? Let’s go check! And it turns out that…why yes, I did. And I’m just going to quote that entire post below (at least theDown the rabbit hole….

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This weekend was Crunch Time. How did I do? Here’s yesterday’s total output: And at the end of that session, I got to type up these words: Yes, the first draft of The Song of Forgotten Stars, book five: Embers of Future Flames is finally done. I started drafting this book at the beginning of 2021. My goal was to have it done before we took off for Waikiki…a year ago. That didn’t happen, obviously. This one was a very difficult write, and I had to stop completely quite a few times just to think out what was happening and why. This book was hard.Down the rabbit hole….

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As of this morning, I am pretty much completely symtom-free. Huzzah! Unfortunately, as of this morning, according to the test I took when I got up, I am not yet COVID-free. Boo! I assume this just means that my immune system still has some work to do in escorting the hangers-on and the squatters off-premises. It’s a work-in-progress, and all that. So the timeline was basically this: Last Friday: Attended the Erie County Fair. Toward the end of the day, noticed a throat tickle and a bit of stuffiness. Attributed this to occasional seasonal allergies and being outside and not havingDown the rabbit hole….

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A bit of dialogue from Bull Durham: Crash Davis: I never told him to stay out of your bed. Annie Savoy: You most certainly did. Crash Davis: I never told him to stay out of your bed. Annie Savoy: Yes you did. Crash Davis: I told him that a player on a streak has to respect the streak. Annie Savoy: Oh fine. Crash Davis: You know why? Because they don’t – -they don’t happen very often. Annie Savoy: Right. Crash Davis: If you believe you’re playing well because you’re getting laid, or because you’re not getting laid, or because you wearDown the rabbit hole….

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The tale is in the numbers. For perspective: I count anything over 1000 words in a day as a really good day. Saturday: Sunday: I feel like I’ve finally cracked the nut that is the plot of Forgotten Stars V. This one has been giving me fits for several months now, and I’ve rewritten the same four chapters at least three times now, with two of those rewrites being from scratch. I’m not sure if this means I need to start being an outliner, or what. I just want to get this draft done. I’m also kicking myself for having decided to writeDown the rabbit hole….

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Diving a bit deep into the weeds of the writer brain, I’m always thinking about…quotation marks. Because my way of using them is, for most Americans, incorrect. This drives my poor friend and editor, Jason Bennion, to distraction each and every time I send a manuscript his way. And I am always sympathetic, apologetic, and…unwilling to change. What’s the issue? The problem isn’t quotation marks in passages of dialogue; those I deploy correctly (or when I mess up, it’s a genuine typo). My problem comes when using quotation marks when denoting words or phrases specifically, at the end of a sentence.Down the rabbit hole….

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I have recently finally started to unravel the plot of Forgotten Stars V: The Final Frontier (not the actual title), much to my pleasure. This one has been giving me fits, to the point that I’ve been seriously considering making the shift from Pantser to Plotter. This is because the key turns out to have been…plotting. OK, an aside if you’re not familiar with the terms ‘pantser’ and ‘plotter’. Some writers plot everything out, writing extensive story outlines of varying degrees of complexity from writer to writer, in order to get the story shaped before they ever start drafting. The ideaDown the rabbit hole….