David D. LevineScience Fiction Author

Word count: 96217 | Since last entry: 2758

I’ve been very good at meeting my 1000-words-a-day writing goal since the Solstice, and the result has been that the novel is absolutely flying by. Compared to the months I spent thrashing around in mid-year, things are now happening so fast that I’m having trouble keeping it all in my head. This is both in terms of events per chapter and in terms of events per writing day, though mostly the latter.

The events per chapter count is definitely much higher, though. Where I felt before (in mid-novel) that I had to come up with more stuff to fill out the chapter, I now (just finished chapter 13 out of 16) am having trouble getting everything from the outline into a chapter of reasonable length. There may be some rebalancing and squishing-about of stuff in the revision phase.

My current writing pace has me finishing a chapter a week rather than a chapter every three weeks. At this rate I’ll finish the first draft by the end of this month, as planned. Look at the uptick at the end of this chart!

I have to point out that I have not increased my writing speed, only my writing productivity. I still draft at around 300-500 words per hour, but I’m putting in more hours per day. The downside is that most days I’ve been getting to bed after midnight (but still generally waking up around 6:30, a habit from my working days I have been unable to break). What I should really do is start writing earlier in the day (duh!) but the press of Other Things (chores, decluttering, email, LiveJournal) and stupid inertia has prevented that so far.

Today is going to be a busy day and I should really be doing something more productive than graphing my word counts in Excel (I tried to use iWork, but I couldn’t figure out how to import data from a text file) and blogging.

Word count: 93459 | Since last entry: 2405

Here is The Plan for completing novel #2:

I have a large printout of this on the wall near my writing chair. I will put a star on the calendar for every day that I write 1000 or more words or spend at least an hour and a half editing.

It has stars on every day so far.

Meanwhile… Edd Vick has blogged his recent trip to Portland, including our expedition to Glowing Greens, a pirate-themed underground black-lighted (blacklit?) miniature golf course. It was, as Amy Thomson said, like playing mini-golf in a cheap carnival dark ride, but it was fun and very silly.

And if Edd ever invites you to mini-golf? Beware. Total shark.

Word count: 91054 | Since last entry: 2396

New Year’s Eve was a pirate-themed party at Willow Cottage. Despite the fact that we’d known for months about the theme, did we start work on our costumes before Thursday? We did not. And there wasn’t a decent tricorn hat to be found anywhere. So Kate knitted me one. Yes, she knitted a tricorn, and it was fabulous.

The party itself was a little strange at first, being populated by large numbers of young people that we didn’t know. Turns out this was the children of the household, who used to run around underfoot, then had their own party upstairs, and now were the party. After midnight things quieted down a bit and we got to chat with Howard and some of the other folks our own age. The first thing on the iPod when we got in the car to head home was “League of Notions” by Al Stewart, followed by “My Boyfriend’s Girlfriend” by Must Be Tuesday (MP3), which both seemed incredibly apropos in a difficult-to-explain way.

New Year’s Day brought the usual potluck brunch at the home of our friends Marc and Patty, which marks the 23rd anniversary of the day Kate and I met.

January 2nd we had a professional organizer come in and help us de-clutter. Kate blogged it, so I don’t have to. Personally, I got rid of at least three large boxes of papers and old diskettes (the diskettes are going to GreenDisk today) and we’re both jazzed up and will keep chipping away at it for the rest of this month.

All during this time I kept up with my quota of 1000 words a day. Sleep? What’s that?

And this morning I learned that “Titanium Mike Saves the Day” qualified for the Nebula preliminary ballot, with 12 recommendations. At least, it’s on the draft ballot that was posted this morning for inspection. So it’s on the preliminary preliminary ballot, and there’s many a slip ‘twixt the cup and the lip. But it’s still very encouraging news.

More decluttering today, more writing, more great stuff. Happy 2008, all!

Word count: 88658 | Since last entry: 4586

2007 was a heck of a year. We traveled to Singapore, Thailand, and Japan, and I retired from my day job. From a writing perspective, it was mixed — focused on my next novel, I only wrote one new short story and made only two new sales (one of which was to a market that folded before the end of the year). But I saw a lot of stories in print, including my second in F&SF, a bunch of translations, and my first Gardner Dozois Year’s Best appearance. I also sold a collection of my short fiction to Wheatland Press, and “Titanium Mike Saves the Day” got at least 8 Nebula recommendations (I’ll find out soon, I hope, if it made the 2007 preliminary ballot… even if it didn’t, it has until April to pick up 2 more for the 2008 ballot).

In 2008 we plan to do a lot of travel. We’re seriously considering 7 science fiction and 6 square dance events, plus at least two writing workshops and a trip to Germany in December. There will probably also be more travel that we don’t even know about yet. I’ll post a travel calendar when we get a few more details sorted out.

Last year’s resolution was to finish my second novel. I didn’t make it — got 12 chapters out of 16 — but I think I made a good effort. My resolution this year is to write 1000 words, or do the equivalent amount of revision, every single day. (Not yet sure how to measure revision or what the equivalent amount to 1000 words is. Maybe an hour.) That’s two or three times as much as I’ve managed in previous years, but I’ve been doing it for at least a couple of weeks now and I think it’s doable.

At that rate I should finish up the first draft of novel #2 by Groundhog Day. I’ll spend February revising it, send it off to the novel workshop on or before March 1, and workshop it at the beginning of April. Then I’ll do whatever revision it needs and get it in the mail as soon as I can, hopefully by May Day. After that, short stories, at least for a while (though I have a couple of novel ideas fidgeting in the waiting room).

Word count: 84072 | Since last entry: 2685

Neither of us has relatives nearby, and as Kate’s brother is in retail, her brother-in-law provides customer support for something that doesn’t stop even during holidays, and her mother’s a deacon, there would be no point in trying to visit them at Christmas. We’ll be gathering the clan in late January, as usual. So for now, we have nothing to do but hang out with our friends. I think we have some kind of party or dinner every single day this week and next.

Today we got up around 8:30 and made banana-buttermilk pancakes before opening our presents to each other. I got Kate an iPod-dock-radio (I found one with knobs rather than tiny little buttons), the new Linda Thompson CD, and a promise to clear off the mantelpiece and the floor on my side of the bed by January 15. She got me the Lord of the Rings trilogy on DVD, a big bag of popcorn, and a decorative glass dragonfly.

In some ways Christmas is no different than any other day, now that I’m not working. But it was very quiet when we went for a walk in the neighborhood, and everywhere we saw empty parking lots and darkened shops that are otherwise always bustling. And then… snow! A light dusting, just enough to stick, and the air just cold enough to justify earmuffs. Just enough to make the day special, not enough to be a hassle. Perfect.

We spent the rest of the morning cleaning and cooking for Boxing Day, when we’re having a couple friends over. In the afternoon and evening, our traditional movie-and-squid with our friend Michael. This year’s movie was Enchanted, which was even better than I’d expected, followed by, as always, the best pepper-salted squid on the planet. After dinner, another thousand words on the novel.

I like my life.

Here’s hoping your day was as fine.

Word count: 81387 | Since last entry: 1849

If it weren’t for deadlines, nothing would get done. Stayed up until 2am to get chapter 11 finished, and sent it off for critique this morning. I’ve been so productive lately that I was sure I would get this chapter done early, and start in on the next right away, but this one turned out about one and a half times as long as most of the other chapters. Lots of stuff is happening now. I am a cruel god to my characters.

Also yesterday, being the Solstice, there was festivating to be done. Started off the day at the gym, then drove out to Beaverton to have lunch with the guys I used to work with. It was so comfortable and familiar that, when we got back to the office, I was just about to sit down and get back to whatever I had been working on before lunch when I realized I didn’t work there any more. In the afternoon, we found a tree, hauled it home, and put it up. I wanted to put up outdoor lights as well, since it wasn’t raining, but at that point I needed to fall over, so I did.

A simple dinner, then a holiday party dance with the “C-Dogs” Challenge square dancers (hosted and called by M, who is doing much much better though he still can’t work or drive). Challenge dancing is really more like walking to music, but I still managed to do something to my left calf (which has been giving me minor problems for months, on and off) on the last tip. Ow.

Word count: 79538 | Since last entry: 1215

Day go voom. But I know exactly what I was doing every hour.

We started off by packing up all our Christmas presents that need to be shipped, then got them to the UPS store first thing. From there Kate went off to take our friend M to a dentist appointment.

Next I called an accountant and talked with him for an hour — my current tax guy is not going to be doing individual accounts much longer and I need a new one, someone who understands both investments and writing. This guy sounds like he’ll fill the bill nicely. Next I wrapped up Kate’s presents. All present-related tasks are now done (well, I still have one thing to do for Kate, but that won’t take long). Then the electrician arrived, right on schedule, to fix a dead light fixture in the kitchen and install an electrical outlet on the front of the house for outdoor Christmas lights. I ate lunch while he was doing that.

Shortly after the electrician left, I discovered that the dead light fixture, which we had both seen come back to life as soon as he wiggled it and had both agreed was just a loose wire, was dead again. Wiggling the wire did not help. However, because I’d seen him disassemble it I now could attempt a diagnosis that I’d been unable to do before. I hauled out my old voltmeter and determined that power was making it as far as the fixture (beyond where we thought the loose wire had been), and because all three (low-wattage halogen) bulbs were out it was probably a bad transformer.

Took the fixture down and drove to A-Boy for a new one. They didn’t have that brand, but suggested a couple places that might. Used my fancy-pants phone in the parking lot to call around, and found one place that had exactly one in stock. Asked them to hold it for me. Drove across town, bought the fixture, came home, installed it. One of the (expensive low-wattage halogen) bulbs was broken when I took it out of the box, but I just swapped it out for one of the ones from the old dead fixture. Success! Proper illumination for that corner of the kitchen for the first time in months.

Fixed dinner (broccoli and tofu in spicy peanut sauce, a household favorite). Sat down to write. 1200 words later, watched half of the pilot of ER (a recent DVD acquisition) with Kate. Blogged. Bed. Tomorrow is another day.

Word count: 78323 | Since last entry: 1810

Being retired means that I can get kind of disconnected from the calendar. We often don’t know what day of the week it is, and (you may find this hard to believe) we actually haven’t really felt the pressure of Christmas approaching. Some years it’s kind of snuck up on us, but this year it really pounced. As of this morning I had purchased exactly three presents, and we have no tree nor lights.

The good news is, I’m retired. So we drove downtown and did our shopping, and now I’m done with that. The crowds weren’t too bad, even this close to Christmas, given that we were shopping on a weekday. We will wrap the presents tonight, and they’ll go in the mail tomorrow. Also tomorrow, the electrician is coming to install an electrical outlet on the front of the house, so we can put up lights (as we haven’t been able to do since we replaced our porch light with a compact fluorescent fixture that doesn’t support those screw-in plug adapter thingies we used to use). We’ll get a tree soon.

Meanwhile, I’ve had a number of interesting writing and other workshop opportunities appear for next year. They’re all cool, but even for me there’s only so much time and money, so I’m going to have to make some hard choices. One unpleasant surprise: the workshop I want to take this novel to has a deadline at the beginning of March, not April as I’d thought. So I have to double my productivity if I’m going to get the damn thing done in time. A thousand words a day should do it.

So I wrote a thousand words today. It’s getting easier now that the plot is really starting to accelerate, but we’ll see how long I can keep this up.

Word count: 76513 | Since last entry: 2587

The other day Kate said that she was really feeling oppressed by clutter, so I’ve been watching out for places to do something about that. I got all the dishes done this weekend, yesterday we sorted out a box of posters, and today we completed a major swath of decluttering that began when Kate got a new stereo for her car.

Now that Kate’s car is CD-based rather than cassette-based, you see, there was no real reason to keep most of our stash of music cassettes. The only ones to stay were those that will never exist on CD (like the recording of my college synthesizer class final project) and/or have sentimental value (like the copy of Billy Joel’s Storm Front we bought while driving across France, with its 50F price sticker). Of the rest, about 1/4 are commercial cassettes (they go to Goodwill), 3/4 are cassette copies of music we own on CD (those will just have to be recycled, probably through GreenDisk), and about a dozen are filk (those will be donated to some fan fund).

After taking down the cassette racks, we now had several empty shelves, which I thought might be just about large enough to hold the CDs that have been piled up all over the house because there was no room to shelve them. I hauled out the power drill and made new holes in order to mount the extra shelf which we’d bought years ago for just such an emergency. We then sorted out the CDs onto the now-CD-sized shelves, and lo and behold they all fit with about 6″ to spare.

The final step will be a Goodwill run to dispose of the commercial cassettes and the old, ugly cassette storage boxes. We also have some nicer cassette storage boxes (4 silver wire mesh units, kind of like this but with 4 cassette-size drawers each) which Kate thinks would be a shame to take to Goodwill, as it’s so hard to find decent cassette storage these days. If anyone in Portland has cassettes (or anything!) that need storage and would like these, just leave a comment in Kate’s blog (there should be an entry for this very shortly, I can hear her tapping away in the next room).

Much else has been happening round here, including a delightful cheese party chez Jay Lake. I’ve been plugging away at the novel, making good but not spectacular progress; the good news is that the plot has really begun to pick up steam, and the climax is now visible somewhere down the track. Exciting though this is, I will need to make space for a short story project very soon.