Progress, Progress, Progress

by:  Keith M.

An update on Across the Chasm, my KindleWorlds novella written in the world of Hugh Howey’s Sand.

Back in November, 2014, I finished the first draft of the novella, and I was a bit terrified about the next steps.  When I finished the draft of my novel and started editing, that’s where the whole fucking thing fell apart.  Suddenly, it was crap and I needed to do a full re-write in order to salvage any of it.  I didn’t want to have to do that with this novella.  So, before editing, I took a step back and re-read some of the draft.  It was rough, and needed tweaking, but . . .  I liked it.  It didn’t suck.  So, I started editing.  I had lots of help, and eventually, I got through my first round of edits.  And it still didn’t suck.  So, I did a full read-through.  I tried reading like a reader, not like a writer or editor.  I read it for the story, for the plot, for the suspense, and for the characters.  There were some cringe-worthy parts, so I highlighted those and kept reading.  Soon, I had finished reading the whole thing, and had a handful of highlighted sections to work on, and a smattering of notes to work with.   But on the whole, I STILL like it.

And, really, that’s what’s most important to me.  I like it.  Me.   Ironically, being a part of critique circle has taught me that the opinion that matters most is your own.  There are lots of critters, beta readers, friends, editors, lovers, haters, strangers, butchers, bakers and candlestick-makers who are willing to give their feedback and opinion about your work, and it is all valuable, but only to a certain extent: only to the extent that it helps you get your work to a point where you love it MORE than you did before said feedback.   What made me stop moving forward on my novel is that I didn’t like it.  It was riddled with mistakes, inconsistencies, plot holes, cornball-cheese-tropey nonsense and other stuff that, quite frankly, I just could not see putting my name on.

Being able to step back, read objectively and decide for yourself whether you truly love what you’ve written is a critical skill.   This is what I’ve learned.

I’ve read a lot of work that is littered with the mistakes that I made in my novel, but the writers either published it in spite of that, or defend it from those who point out those short-comings.   It reminds me of a story that author Terry Lacy told when I interviewed him on this blog over a year ago.  He talked about a writer who asked him to proofread her work, just for punctuation and grammar.  Terry found other horrible writing sins in the work, but she wasn’t interested in fixing them.  I would say she, and others like her, lack the ability to read their own work objectively and decide whether its like-able.  Maybe they love it too much, losing the ability to see it objectively without that love taking over.

I shy away from giving “advice” on this blog, because what the fuck do I know?  I am the definition of “fake it ’til you make it” when it comes to writing.  But I really need to put that critical piece of knowledge here, most importantly because I don’t want to forget it.  And I figure this is as nice a place as any to put it in print so I can find it again later.

Oh, one other REALLY cool thing happened . . . .

CC member Dfross, who isn’t a writer, but who has a keen eye for graphic design, got bored one day last week.  Now that, in itself, is not significant.  Judging by how much time he spends in CC Chat, I assume this happens often.  But in this particular fit of boredom, he offered to spend 45 minutes throwing together a book cover for my novella.  Now, I was quite certain that in 45 minutes, the finished product would be about 45% dog shit, and 55% Microsoft Paint.

I was wrong.  So, so, so wrong.  See for yourself:

Crap-your-pants-worthy cover art by Dfross.

The beauty of this is how well it fits in with Howey’s cover, but isn’t a rip-off.  It nods to the source material, respectfully.   Take a look at the original:

Hugh Howey’s cover for Sand, cover art by Jason Gurley.

So . . . did I just do a cover art reveal?  I suppose I did . . .  wow.  Another first for me.