Sunday, July 12, 2020

A Week in Writing #307 - Let the Rewrites Begin!


Hope everyone is well and staying safe!

This week, some real progress made on several fronts, including as the title suggests, rewrites. I know I'm supposed to be querying Broken People but instead, I started, in earnest, editing The Runaway. This is the part of writing I think I like the most. I will print out 25 or so pages at a time and then sit down with a pencil and read those pages out loud (softly to myself) and mark them up. Hearing the words has a big effect on the writing, at least for me.

It is through this that I find places where I've missed a word, like leaving out "not" which has a real impact on the meaning; or where the dialogue doesn't sound right. Speaking it makes it more real and I find I'm adding words and phrases that would be said that I hadn't written the first time through. Sometimes, I'll even extend the conversation or even a description, sometimes writing on the back of pages as I go. I try to make a concentrated effort to spell things out, as I know that my handwriting is barely legible as human communications. That along with a stubby pencil and words become graphite and smeared blobs on the pages if I'm not careful.

I'm also making notes, like "have I said this before?" or "does this get repeated later?" I know, really behind the scenes stuff. But the goal is always to make it better and this is the best way I can think of to do it. As an example, I mentioned a woman's perfume scent, without describing it. Then I gave it a memorable smell, that reminded my protagonist of his boyhood so that when he smells it again, later in the book, he'll be able to identify the woman wearing it based on that. I like little details like that and this is where they get inserted if they weren't there before.

This week, I've gone through about 200 pages, which is roughly forty percent of the book. It will probably take a week or two to get all the way through, if indeed that's all I work on this week. But alas, it probably won't be. There is another rewrite that I need to turn my attention to as well.

That would be the proposed pilot script for the Powers Squared animated show we want to pitch. This past week, we finally had a family table read, with my wife bowing out due to being under the weather (not COVID). So the boys and I read all the parts and I got Paul's notes. So that rewrite will start next week as well.

Speaking of editing, the next three issues of Powers Squared are edited as well, so we're ready to go with the next story arc, Mocha and Raven. A three-part story that will most likely take us into next year as far as production goes. We're trying to keep ahead of our artist, Rachel Wells.

Speaking of Rachel, we had a Google Hangout with her a couple of weeks ago, which we posted on Sunday on our YouTube channel. Curious about her or what it's like to work on Powers Squared? Well, here's your chance.

We've also had several pages come through in various states, from pencils from Rachel for Issue #15 to colors from Julia on Issue #14 to Trevor doing lettering, also on Issue #14. So, Paul and I have been busy with that as well. We used the opportunity to review Julia's work for our Friday podcast, On the Air with Powers Squared, though I'm sure it was probably better on Twitch. If you're curious about that process, you can check out the ways to listen and watch at https://powerssquaredcomicbook.com/join.

I did start a new review, last night as a matter of fact, for Scene of the Crime (1949) as part of our Drain the DVR Saturday nights. No telling how long we've had that movie, but I think it dates back to the last time TCM had a Summer of Darkness, so it's probably been a few years. I hope to finish it later today or tomorrow, but no telling when it will appear on Trophy Unlocked. This past week, the Wednesday game review was Little Nightmares: Secrets of the Maw (DLC), written by Trevor, and the Saturday Morning Review was Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, written by Paul.

Well, that about does it for me. Keep writing and we'll see you back here next week.

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