Been a while since I've posted one of these.
Miledrop42,000 of ~100,000
Not a huge leap forward, but that's progress after a gentle revising of some 10k today. Half a chapter's worth of tinkering to go and I'll be breaking new ground again.
Meanwhile, the Aztec story stands at about 2800 words. I can't tell yet if it's any good overall, but little pieces of it are very satisfactory. Probably going to have to wait until it's finished and sat for a bit before I know.
I have to say that the current kerfluffle over on Making Light (as pointed to
in my previous entry, as if it's possible for anyone not living on Mars to have missed this by now) has made me much more motivated to get back to my own writing. Part of what has held me back over the last few months (other than Real Life stuff) has been the realization that I'm nearing the point where I need to progress to the next level, and not being exactly sure where/how to do so, or even what that next level *is* exactly. Listening to
matociquala talk so eloquently at VP about the nitty-gritty of the craft of writing has made me feel like an unenlightened boob on some level, just winging it as I go with nary a thought to the finer art. Which is probably not really true, but there is certainly a good extent to which I rely on instinct rather than conscious analysis of my own work to carry me through. I can't say as how it's led me wrong, but I worry that there's only so far that will take me and maybe I'm almost at the end of that road.
Or maybe not. I look back at the older stories I have sitting around and, no matter how fond of them I may be, I've come to realize that they are sufficiently far enough behind where I am now that they no longer adequately represent what I am capable of. I don't recall feeling like I was moving forward from them and it's only in hindsight that the differences are so clear, so maybe in a year or two I will look back on the current work and feel much the same way.
Certainly, in either case, the only way to get to the next level is to keep on writing.
Onward!