I started thinking about this around Easter but can't find it.
I seem to remember a Whatley story about a woman who becomes a devisor and becomes insanely angry at her boyfriend, in her madness creating a raygun that zaps him, turning him into a bunny girl. I believe the bunny then comes into her own mutant powers? I'm not sure if this was a one-off or if there were several stories about the bunny girl.
The first chapter in the new book is posted, this will be a little different than the original.
I'm writing this one almost entirely on an iPhone, during my morning and evening commutes, with editing work done on the weekends, on my laptop. (Thanks to all those who offered advice when I asked (see previous blog). I can say that PlainText plus DropBox does the job surprisingly well. Perhaps I'll move up to an iPad sometime, but the iPhone with PlainText is good enough that the need isn't as urgent as I thought.)
Okay, I *do* want to start writing again, and I'm starting this new job, which will entail a one-hour train ride each way.
So... two whole hours a day, potential writing time. The question is, what tools are the best for use on a commuter train?
I was considering an iPad, or some other kind of tablet device. My laptop is too large for this (17"), and pencil and paper aren't terribly useful, since a) it would have to be transcribed anyway, and b) my handwriting sucks even on a rock-solid desk, let alone a swaying train.
I'm starting a new job in downtown Manhattan in mid-January, and I need to locate a residence-type hotel where I can stay for a couple of months.
I'm hoping to find one far enough out of the city that it's less expensive (yeah, I know, dream on) but with a fairly straightforward commute on the train.
Is there anybody out there who can make some suggestions? Long Island? New Jersey? Connecticut?
I've written about 9000 words in what was supposed to be a 5000-word 'final chapter', Obviously I've miscalculated seriously. :)
Anyway, I broke the story at what I think is a good point, so I can post SOMEthing, at least.
I'm thinking now I *might* be able to wrap it up in 15,000 words, so that leaves two more chapters before I can wind the the story up properly. Fortunately, it's moving along fairly well, and though I don't write quickly, the time I do spend has felt productive so far.
I've just discovered my recent Chapter 7 post is sans single quotes. Fixing requires reading the entire story as HTML... *whimper*
If anyone can suggest the preferred way to get text (containing italics) from RoughDraft (MS rich text) into "Create Content", I would appreciated it; as my way seems to require multiple editing passes.
update: Some partial search-and-replace fixes have been done, but I know there's more to do. I'll give it another pass tonight.
another update: I think I've got them all. Ouch. :)
As I progress Out of the Ashes, I'm going to start involving one or two characters from other stories, in cameo appearances. In order to make sense of the whole who-knows-what-and-when thing, I've decided to apply a SLIGHT retcon to my original story, in order to fit the events in with the existing stories. Somehow I slipped up with this the first time around.
Part 5 is up, and part 6 is about half done. Originally I thought they'd be a single post, but I was having trouble with Part 6 and decided to share what I have. It's a good point to break, anyway. With luck, part 6 might go up on the weekend.
I envision at LEAST two more chapters after part 6 (more if I can't keep them concise!), with some special guest cameos.
My muse has worked overtime on a plot, but when it comes time to actually crank out the words, she goes for coffee and leaves the hard stuff to me. So it's coming, but at it's own pace. Bear with me!
I want to apologize, but that latest installment of Out of the Ashes is taking longer than I expected.
I know what I want to happen, and how it should happen -- and I'm kinda excited about it, but my muse isn't helping me to break it down into bite-sized story pieces just yet.
Plus that pesky real life keeps butting into my writing time :)
Anyway, just wanted to say I haven't abandoned Megan just yet. I think there's at least two more chapters to this arc.
... finally. It's a good deal larger than I'd imagined at the start, and it still feels hurried, but I wanted to get it out of the way so I could move on with the story :)
Please bear with me. I'm learning as I go, and the biggest lesson this time was the effort it takes to actually do this-here writing stuff :) I need to bite off smaller chunks, and focus on specific plot events, to keep each new chapter about half the size of this one.
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