Mark Lee Taylor's Blog, page 2

First draft in the tank!

This morning I finished the first draft of Foul Territory. It clocks in at between 61,000 and 62,000 words, which qualifies it as a novel. That's good news. My plan now is to ignore it for a couple of months, then haul it out and read it to myself. I'll make some additions, and some deletions (hopefully not too many of those) and have a second draft ready for review by some of my fellow writers sometime around the holidays. The final product should be ready for publication in early 2016. Woohoo!

An insightful review

I know, I know. It's been more than a month since I posted. I have a list of excuses, but you don't care, right?Something happened the other day that, coincidentally, also hadn't happened in about a month: I got a new review on Amazon. When I discovered it, I couldn't wait to read it to see what had been written about my novel, as usual.This one was different. The reader gave me four stars and was effusive in his praise, which, of course, is always appreciated. But he also took me to task for what he called "a wtf sublplot," the one involving Brian and Kate, and what they do during the overnight hours. He didn't like it, and said he thought the novel would have been better without it.Bravo, James Reagan. Out of all the reviews I've read, and all the word-of-mouth commentaries I've gotten onA Pebble Tossed, yours is the first one to call me on what I have always considered to be the book's most glaring weakness. (Wait ... did I say that? I meantonlyweakness, of course.)I had a lot of fun writing that little subplot, which is part of the reason it's still there. The character of Brian was difficult and at the same time rewarding to write, because he was neither good nor bad, but a little of both, and it was good exercise for me to write that and make it work. At the same time, it served to account for Kate's overnight activities and her mental progression (deterioration, some might say) during that time period. It would have been unrealistic for me to write that Kate simply went to bed while her husband was missing ... no spouse would do that. So what did she do? Aha! She met up with Brian, who conveniently knocked her out, taking her out of the picture until morning. Problem solved!However, I feel that it could have been handled in a few paragraphs, rather than a few chapters as it currently stands. And in the exceedingly unlikely event that the book is someday picked up by a traditional publisher, and some editor tells me I have to pare it down to 100,000 words or less, that entire subplot is slated for eradication. So read it now, folks, if you want to get the full uncut version, the way it was originally intended by the author!Much respect to James Reagan. I'd like to be able to meet him someday. I have a feeling we could talk.

An insightful review

I know, I know. It's been more than a month since I posted. I have a list of excuses, but you don't care, right?   Something happened the other day that, coincidentally, also hadn't happened in about a month: I got a new review on Amazon. When I discovered it, I couldn't wait to read it to see what had been written about my novel, as usual.   This one was different. The reader gave me four stars and was effusive in his praise, which, of course, is always appreciated. But he also took me to task

The Pros and Cons of Writing in First Person

Progress on my second novel has reached a temporary roadblock.   I said temporary!   A few things are going on. First, I have another job, and this week I work 10:00-6:30, which gets me home around 8:00. I don't do much but sleep and work during this shift.  Second, I'm at a point in the novel where the outline I've been working from is hazy, because at the time I wrote the outline, I wasn't sure how things were going to pan out. Now I know how they panned out, but I still have to get from Point

The Pros and Cons of Writing in First Person

Progress on my second novel has reached a temporary roadblock.I said temporary!A few things are going on. First, I have another job, and this week I work 10:00-6:30, which gets me home around 8:00. I don't do much but sleep and work during this shift.  Second, I'm at a point in the novel where the outline I've been working from is hazy, because at the time I wrote the outline, I wasn't sure how things were going to pan out. Now I know how they panned out, but I still have to get from Point A to Point C in the plot, I just don't know where Point B is. I'll figure it out in due time.My third problem is that the novel is way, way too short. I'm at 33,000 words now, and well past halfway through. I need to get to 60,000 words to reach the generally-accepted lower limit for a novel, which means I may have to go back and insert some additional backstory, more description, more characterization, or some combination of these things.When I wrote Pebble, I started out with around 150,00 words, then managed to cut it down to 128,000 after I found out that the upper limit for novels, if you want to be picked up by an agent or a publisher, is 99,000. Anything more than that, and you basically have no shot.No problem, I said to myself. Pebble is Pebble, it's too long but it's done, and my next novel will be shorter. I've learned a lot since then about the kinds of bad habits that contribute to wordiness, and expunged them.Seems I overcorrected. Here I am, looking at a 45,000 word novella, if I don't do something to fix it.How did this happen? When I had only an outline, it seemed like a complex enough story to stretch out over the requisite number of words. In fact, I feared I might once again be struggling to keep it under the limit. But the story simply flew off my fingers, and I think a large part of the reason is that I'm writing it in first person.I wrote parts of Pebble in first person, specifically the dream sequences that Tim had, while in the well, about his childhood. But this is the first time I've tried to write an entire novel in first person. I've found that there are pros and cons, and one of the cons is that it results in a shorter story! That's because any information that doesn't come to the reader via action or dialogue has to come from the mind of my main character, and in my writing I'm constrained to what he would know. It's much harder than I thought it would be.After this novel, I don't think I'll try to write in first person again for some time, but I'm not sorry I did it. I think it's great exercise, and every writer should try it at least once. It's good for me, because it forces me to stay in the head of my character. Anything I want to say has to come out of his head, and any idea I want to convey about what another character is thinking has to come through dialogue or facial expressions or body language. This is a useful skill to have, whether you're writing in first person or not, and I think it's well worth honing. That's what I'm doing. Honing.Anyway, it's gonna take a boatload of work to beef this manuscript up enough so I can legitimately call it a novel. Hopefully it won't set my projected release date back too much!

1st draft, half done

I reached 30,000 words today, about 115 pages double-spaced. Again, the story is progressing so quickly that I'm beginning to worry about it wrapping up too soon. I may have to go back and add a few chapters or flesh out the ones I have, or I may not end up with enough words to call it a novel.   This is a new problem for me. In my first novel, I battled constantly against long-windedness, had to cut ruthlessly to get it down to its present size, which is still considered too long for a novel by

20,000 words!

I know I've been lax in my blogging, but I'll offer the same excuse. I've been working on the novel. I just reached 20,000 words, and it's really starting to take on a life of its own now. The story is taking me places I hadn't expected to go, and I'm having a whopping good time. Hope my readers enjoy it as much as I do.   The story is progressing a bit more quickly than I expected, too. I estimate I'm roughly a third of the way through, and if that holds true, then the finished novel will be

Progress report

Sorry I haven't made any blog entries for a while. I've been concentrating on my second novel. You'd rather have me doing that anyway, no?   I just hit 10,000 words on Novel 2, and it's coming along quite nicely. It's a bit more of a psychological thriller than Pebble, and hence a bit slower paced, but there's a hint of creeping menace that will keep my readers turning the pages. You might almost call it a mystery. Actually, I haven't yet figured out where to pigeonhole it, it's just a story

A busy weekend

I feel like I've been through a whirlwind.   CD theme night with my buds on Friday night. Held myself to a single beer (although it was a Peg Leg, sort of like having two of most other beers) because I had to work the next morning. Sucked at pool as usual, but had a good time anyway. Home by a little after midnight.   Work Saturday morning. How I loved that. 'Nuff said.   Listened to the Terps on the radio on the way back from work, picked up my daughter, and got home just in time for the

Novel 2 now in progress

Mark this day down.   It's been two days since the finest day in sports of this year so far, two days since the Terps went to 14-1 by whooping Minnesota and the Ravens dominated the Steelers in the Wild Card game, and I've just now caught my breath.   I had to say something about that, but that's not why I'm posting today. The real reason is that ... drum roll, please ... I finally started on my next novel today!   That's right. I started by installing the newest version of Microsoft Office on