E.R. Torre's Blog, page 67
October 5, 2018
On writing… persistence
Yesterday I posted that I was finished reading and pen/ink revising through my latest novel, the 9th draft of the book, and was looking forward to putting those revisions into the computer.
Last night, I slept really hard.
Lights out and goodbye.
Though it may not seem the case, writing is a very stressful, time consuming job. Job as in work.
I’ve stated it before but it bears repeating: Writing is WORK. At times very, very hard work.
I started this latest book in the Corrosive Knights series, believe it or not, waaaaaay back in 2014. I wrote some notes and sequences, amounting to maybe 10,000-15,000 words, then let it go while working on, among other things, Foundry of the Gods (Book #6 of the Corrosive Knights series).
When Foundry of the Gods was finished, it was back to Book #7, the conclusion to the Corrosive Knights series, and for nearly two years now I’ve been working on it and, incrementally, brought it closer and closer to its conclusion.
The first 4-5 drafts of the book were very incomplete, as most of my novels are in those early drafts. There are some segments that I have well thought out and write. There are other segments that may be presented as nothing more than an outline. Perhaps no more than one or two sentences!
Which brings us to the heading above: Persistence.
With each read-through, with each putting revisions into the computer, I move the proverbial ball forward. Sometimes the ball “moves” many miles forward. At other times, perhaps it doesn’t move forward nearly enough.
With each revision and if I’m paying attention -and, trust me, I try my very best to do so- the novel slowly emerges.
There are “a-ha!” moments, where you come up with some clever bit or sequence or dialogue that improves everything around it. But more often than not what you’re doing is realizing this doesn’t work or that sentence is bloated or that sequence is a repetition of a sequence that came before.
Rather than simply cracking open your cranium and letting your thoughts spill all over the page, what I tend to do as a writer is incrementally build my book over time. I’ve mentioned before that when I’m writing, a day doesn’t pass where I’m not thinking about some part of a book I’m currently on and how do I improve this or that.
This goes on for, on average of late, two full years as I write my latest work.
For some writers, the process is certainly quicker. Stephen King, as I’ve noted before, stated in his book on writing that he will write a book, put it away in a drawer (to, as he put it, “cool down”), then do a revision and off it goes to be printed. If he’s to be believed, that means his first run through a novel is very close to what he eventually releases.
I’m jealous!
Clearly what works for me may not work for others. I suspect if Mr. King took two full years to write a novel he might have given up the career.
But for me, as much of a pain in the ass as it is to so slowly, incrementally create a book, the fact of the matter is that this is how it works for me, and when I get to the end of this particular road I look back at all that hard work and the persistence needed to create it…
…and I’m proud of the work. So very proud.
And I finally, finally get to have a good night’s sleep! 
October 4, 2018
Corrosive Knights, a 10/4/18 update
As I mentioned in my last posting, I’ve been silent ’round these parts because I’ve been hard at work reading and pen/ink revising the latest draft, #9, of my latest Corrosive Knights novel…
[image error]As of today, I have finished the read-through and pen/ink revisions of this draft and, hopefully, by tomorrow or later today, being putting those revisions into my computer.
When I do, Draft #9 of Book #7 in this series will be completed and its off to Draft #10.
So, how does the book “read”?
Quite good.
There was very little I needed to add to the story. What I did add amounted to some lines of dialogue and clarification to some descriptions but, otherwise, the plot is pretty well locked down.
The best thing of all was that it took me from last week Tuesday, the 25th of September, to today, October 4th, to read through the novel and write up my revisions. That’s one week and two days worth of work, a very short amount of time given that in earlier drafts it would take me up to several months of time to get to a similar point!
The revisions that are to be made should, I believe, take me no more than two weeks to do. They are for the most part small though there are two segments of the book that require more in depth work, and these will certainly require a little more time to do.
The big question again looms: How long before I feel the whole thing is done?
Well, the book will require a 10th draft, there is no doubt about that. It will likely also require an 11th draft. The question is will it require much more than that? Will I once again go through 12 drafts before I feel the work is properly done?
Unfortunately, at this point I cannot answer that question, though I’ll likely have a better feel for how much more work the book needs once I start the read through of that 10th draft.
Regardless of all that, the work proceeds quickly now and the book is one more step closer to being done.
As I’ve said before and I’ll repeat here: Hang in there. We’re almost at the finish line!
October 1, 2018
Sketchin’ 96
There are many films I’ve seen and covered here. Of them, I consider the subject of this piece, the 1977 Charles Bronson film The White Buffalo, one of the strangest, most bizarre films I’ve ever seen.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing!
You can be forgiven if you’ve neither heard of or seen it. I don’t believe it was terribly successful upon its release.
The movie’s plot is an odd variation of Moby Dick and Jaws (which was released two years earlier) but transplanted to the Wild West. Bronson plays Wild Bill Hickok, a man who returns to an area where he is very much not wanted because of recurring nightmares he’s having involving a white buffalo. He is forced to use an alias because there are many there who want him dead. Hickok eventually teams up with Crazy Horse, who is also using an alias. He will only regain his “true” name when he gets revenge upon that very same white buffalo which killed his wife and child.
The special effects of the film, especially the final stand against the beast, are often ridiculed because they look so unreal, but having seen the film following its BluRay release, I suspect the effects were very much intended to be that way. They create a sense of these characters caught in a surreal dreamscape and, in that respect, they work.
Well, at least for me.
September 28, 2018
Corrosive Knights, a 9/28/18 update
Sorry I haven’t been posting much in the past few days, but I’ve been very focused -and busy!- on draft #9 of my latest novel in the Corrosive Knights series.
This update will be short and sweet: On Tuesday I began the reading and pen/ink revision of the draft and, in a matter of three days (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday) I’ve made my way through half the book.
This is very encouraging.
The book, until this point, reads quite well and the revisions I’ve had to make on paper aren’t “major”. Most involve clipping lines or words here and there and adding only minor elements to the pages.
As I said in my last update (you can read it here), as my novels near completion, I find that the revisions that need be made become smaller and smaller and that certainly seems to be the case… at least with the first half of the book.
Today I will be into the second half. If this part of the book “reads” as well as the first half, then we’re getting really close to the end… and the release of the book!
Keeping my fingers crossed!
September 25, 2018
On writing… bloat
Bloat: unwarranted or excessive growth or enlargement; to make turgid or swollen
As I jump into draft #9 of my latest Corrosive Knights novel, I’m particularly interested in finding -and snipping away- anything within it which could fall under the above definition.
I’ve talked before about how difficult it is to write -and it is- but as one reaches the stage where I’m at, where your story is pretty much set and you’re moving away from creative writing and to revisions involving grammar and spelling, one should also try their best to see which sections of your book require pruning.
It’s not as easy as it sounds.
Let’s face it, authors fall in love with their works. Hell, they wouldn’t spend all that time on them if they didn’t love what they were doing, but the danger is that they get to the point where they may not realize parts of their beloved works, be they something as small as a sentence or two to as large as several chapters, would be better left out.
When I was writing my very first novel, Haze, I very much fell into that situation. Originally the book featured a very long opening section which served to acquaint the reader with the protagonist. It went on for way too long before we got to the “meat” of the story.
As I was very much a novice to the whole book writing business at the time, I simply was not aware of this bloated opening act. Luckily, I didn’t publish the work then and there and instead revised and re-revised the work over and over again and gradually developed an understanding of what worked and what didn’t.
I was also helped immensely by the fact that I put the novel away for a while -perhaps a little over a year or so- before getting at it again. It was at that point that I realized how much I could get rid of from that opening section without hurting the reader’s understanding of the protagonist and while getting that same reader that much quicker to the “good stuff”.
It was an important lesson for me and I’m fascinated to find book reviews where readers say something to the effect that a book needed “a good editor.” Usually the comment refers to a book being too long and featuring material that was unnecessary and should have been eliminated.
You know, bloat.
So, in the interests of brevity, here I go into my own novel.
Let’s see what I see…
September 23, 2018
Sketchin’ 95
Ah, Escape From New York (1981). I could write pages and pages about this vexing -and much beloved- film. The visual style of the film was supposedly inspired by the then recently released original Mad Max (1979). Kurt Russell, who would play the wonderfully cranky Snake Plisskin in the film, was supposedly the one to bring attention to that Aussie film to director John Carpenter.
Ah, but I mentioned the film was vexing. It is. I feel the film starts with a HUGE bang. I love the wonderfully wonky plot/premise: That the then future New York is closed off and converted into a prison. I love the idea of the President of the United States -played with a British accent by Donald Pleasance!- winds trapped in that hellzone. I love, love, love the first meeting between Plisskin and Hauk (a wonderful Lee Van Cleef) and I love the entry into New York and the bizarre citizens he encounters.
But if I’m honest with you, I’ll tell you to me the film loses steam in its second half, though it presented a hell of an ending, complete with Plisskin’s second and last meeting with Hauk. But the climax leading to that ending…? Eh… not so much. It feels, to me, like the film’s very meager budget weighted what should have been a far more suspenseful showdown between Plisskin and The Duke.
And yet…
Even with that hiccup, there is just so much to LOVE about the film, some of which I mentioned above. Ultimately, I can’t help but admire the film and feel it is easily one of my favorite John Carpenter directed works (did I mention the soundtrack? It may well by John Carpenter’s best).
So I love the concept of this future. I love Plisskin. I love Hauk. I love all those other ancillary characters, good and bad and in-between, and, ultimately, I can’t help but love the film. Even after all these years, I’ll pop it on my television and give it a look see and think to myself…
“Plisskin? I though you were dead.”
And I’ll keep watching as he proves everyone wrong.
September 22, 2018
Corrosive Knights, a 9/22/18 Update
Meant to post this yesterday but wound up not having the time, but here’s the latest update: I have finished putting all the corrections/additions/subtractions into the computer and Draft #8 of the latest Corrosive Knights Book, #7 in the series, is done…
[image error]It took 3 weeks to read the book and put in the pen and ink revisions and 2 weeks to put all those revisions into the computer, for a total time spent on this draft of one month and one week.
It may seem like a long time, but that’s incredibly quick. Some early drafts of the book took up to five months to get through!
What that indicates is that the book is becoming closer and closer to being finished. This is logical: Each new draft I finish up should, in theory, make the book that much better/closer to being complete.
What’s next?
Welp, I print the sucker out and get right back to re-reading it and doing the pen/ink revisions. I feel a good chunk of the book is very close to being complete in all ways while there are a few sections here and there that could use more polish.
Draft #8 found the novel’s story pretty much all there. I did add a few bits of dialogue here and there to add a little spice to the story and found one full chapter needed to be moved to farther into the book -and, it turned out, pared down considerably- but otherwise things are getting that much closer to the end.
So it’s on to Draft #9 for me. I’m most curious to see how the book “reads” now and how much I’ll find needs revision. That, more than anything else, will give me an idea as to how close to the final draft I am.
Hang in there, folks!
September 19, 2018
Sketchin’ 94
With this piece, I’ve hit most of the “major” monsters that came from Universal and its been a blast. What’s next? We’ll see…
[image error]
September 17, 2018
What a weekend…
The weeks are hard and filled with work.
By the time I hit the bed on Thursday night, I feel it and can’t wait for the weekend. Not that I stop working on the weekend, mind you, but at least I can ease up on the accelerator just a bit.
Not so the past weekend, beginning with taking the car into the shop (and paying much, much more than I thought) and having to deal with picking the car up later on in the day (essentially freezing out any sort of activity I would have wanted to do that Saturday afternoon), and then, on Sunday, our AC goes out in the sweltering afternoon/early evening. We got that fixed, for even more $$$$, but at least it was something that could get fixed without replacing the whole damn thing.
If I get any more weekends like this past one, I’ll start looking forward to the work week!
September 15, 2018
Sketchin’ 93
Released in 1941 and featuring Lon Chaney Jr. (son of the famous actor who originated the roles of The Phantom of the Opera and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, to mention but two), The Wolf Man is another success for Universal Studios and their stable of “monster” features. Ten years had passed since the release of Frankenstein and Dracula and it was hoped this movie would further invigorate the monster genre. Also starring in the film were Claude Rains (Casablanca, The Invisible Man) and, in an important cameo, Bela Lugosi. The film features beautiful, foggy scenery and a truly tragic “hero”.
The movie’s director, George Waggner, likely reached his directorial peak with this feature. Mr. Waggner came to Hollywood in the mid 1920’s and for a while was an actor before becoming a screenwriter and songwriter and then director. He would direct theatrical films until 1951. His final two theatrical films, The Fighting Kentuckian and Operation Pacific, starred John Wayne. Mr. Waggner then moved to directing television episodes and became very prolific in that medium. He directed many episodes of different TV series, including Wagon Train, Maverick, Cheyenne, The Green Hornet, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and, in his last listed directorial credit work, ten episodes of Batman.
