David D. LevineScience Fiction Author

Word count: 78648 | Since last entry: 179 | This month: 4127 Basically all I did was copy the outline for the next chapter into a new file. But: well begun is half done, as they say.

Word count: 78469 | Since last entry: 1602 | This month: 3948 Nearly finished chapter 7 on Friday, and printed out and copied what I had, then wrote the last few hundred words and the summary of the previous chapter Saturday morning. Got everything printed out and copied with over an hour to spare. Luxury. Also got my critique of chapter F. In general, they liked it, though one person threatened to pummel me with oranges if I let Jason have a crisis of conscience in his next chapter. I knew this was going to be a tricky bit… I’m finding the process of writing to be rather oppressive right now. This might have something to do with the fact that I have raised the pressure on both main characters to Marianas Trench levels — it really sucks to be them right now. Unfortunately, being them is something I have to do in order to write about them. (At Clarion, Geoff Ryman said that writing is more like acting than directing.) This hasn’t been a problem with short stories, but for a novel I find myself going to that dark place for months at a crack. And it’s going to continue until September or October at this rate… But. Chapter 7 is done. On to chapter G! And I’m not going to let myself leave so much until the last minute this time. I’m not officially doing the Shadow Clarion Challenge, but I’m going to continue to try to write every day during the next 6 weeks.

Word count: 76867 | Since last entry: 1217 | This month: 2346 Finished up a scene showing Clarity at a difficult press conference, followed by a brief respite of lunch with a human friend (showing that she’s coming to identify more with the humans than with her own people). I had originally started to write the press conference as a task force meeting, but I realized I’ve been showing Clarity in a lot of internal meetings and ignoring the public-relations aspect of her job. I want to keep the pressure on her from all sides — from the humans as well as from her fellow Council members. There are a lot of things I’ve introduced in previous chapters (the press, the task force, her cousin Candor, etc.) that ought to be kept on stage to emphasize just how complicated and scary Clarity’s life is getting. One more scene to go in the chapter. If I can finish it tomorrow during the day, I can take care of the copying at work and then go to a movie in the evening. By the way, I failed to note in yesterday’s entry that I just passed 75,000 words. Three-quarters done! (Unless my estimate of 100,000 words for the whole thing is off; it might be a bit low.)

Word count: 75650 | Since last entry: 1129 | This month: 1129 After Wiscon I was very busy with various things that had to be done before the trip to France. Then we had the trip itself — much delicious food was eaten, castles and caves visited, etc., and I wrote over 1000 words on the plane heading there, but nothing while there and I slept most of the way back — and since then I’ve been suffering badly from jet lag and haven’t been coherent enough to write a thing. Another thing keeping me from the writing since returning from France is that we’ve had lots of stuff to do on the kitchen remodel — just signed the contract today, and wrote what I think might be the third-biggest check of my life. The final quote came in at almost 1.5x the original estimate, which was in turn nearly 2x what we’d originally expected. But it’s going to be gorgeous. I was hoping to get something written today, but at this point it seems it’s not to be. I have 1000-3000 words to go on chapter 7, which is due Saturday. Looks pretty grim. One bit of good writing news: when I came home from France I learned that my story “The Tale of the Golden Eagle” is a nominee for the Theodore Sturgeon Award.

Word count: 74521 | Since last entry: 613 | This month: 7899 I got some good writing in on the plane to the con, but nothing during the con, and on the way home I either slept or read. I always feel so ill-read coming back from a con like Wiscon. I’ll have a full con report later. For now, I need sleep.