The problem about being a writer is that all too often you make progress, but no one else knows you've done it. For me, I think I had a pretty good week, if you don't count two more queries going unanswered. I spent most of my time working on the rewrites of Familiar Stranger, one of the many projects I do that, at least so far, have gone virtually unnoticed by the outside world. I did about as many pages I had the previous week and I'm a little over a fifth of the way through the book.
No new queries sent and once again no word from the agent with the manuscript. At this point, I'm taking it as a "maybe" rather than an out and out "no", but still I'd really like closure one way or the other. It has been over a year and I hate to think I've been stringing myself along or that after requesting the complete manuscript and several nudges she wouldn't have the decency to respond. I guess I still expect the best out of people.
As far as blogging goes, this was one of my best weeks yet. Last Saturday I published a review of Blackboard Jungle and have gotten 126 pageviews so far, which for one week for me is a record of sorts. (It's also gotten 276 views on the TCM CFU site, which is also pretty high for a week.) Not sure if Blackboard Jungle hit a nerve, or I had a really good tweet, or what? Published a new one: Avengers: Age of Ultron, which was timed to be the 600th review on the blog.
Since Age of Ultron wasn't really appropriate for TCM, I posted a review there that I hadn't before, Out of the Past, which I reviewed back in 2012 before I started publishing on the CFU. In about a day I've gotten 41 views and a complimentary comment. Not bad if you ask me.
Even this past week's post on this blog got 8 pageviews, which is just enough to make me think someone is actually reading these posts. When I've counted pageviews on one hand most of the time, 8 is a very satisfying number. Thank you.
Wrote one new review, for the Blu-Ray version of Out of the Past, which I'm planning to run soon. TCM is finally getting back to the Summer of Darkness and I'm planning on publishing some film noir reviews I've saved back in honor of the occasion.
So that's really about all I've done with writing this past week. I always feel that I could have somehow done more, but that's always the goal for the next week starting now.
Sunday, May 17, 2015
Sunday, May 10, 2015
A Week in Writing #37
Not a great start to the week. One of the agents I queried last week rejected me with a nicely worded form letter. Disappointed? Sure. Rejection is never fun. This was an electronic-first agent to boot. I had read her interview with Chuck Sambuchino wherein she said she was looking for mysteries. It wasn't something I really wanted, but I'm getting tired of the waiting game and hoped maybe an ebook would be better than no book. Back to the drawing board, I guess. Add one more query to the list of things to do this week. I guess the one positive takeaway is that my email does work as this agent did receive my query. So I guess that rules out an easy excuse for all of the others who never reply.
Another rejection on Thursday. This is the one I sent out after the one I got on Monday. Quick turnaround, too bad the news isn't any better. What doesn't help is that the form letter came from her assistant. Again, the takeaway is that the email does work.
Spent my writing time getting back to Familiar Stranger. I know I've been through this manuscript before, but I started over again and really think I'm making it better this time through. I edited out the first introductory chapter and I've been working my way from there. I only wish I had gotten further than the 62 pages I've done.
The problem hasn't been the writing, but having the time. I find if I don't write every day (even edting) I have trouble sleeping, not that I don't have problems sleeping anyway. Twice this week I've been up at 1 or 2 working on the rewrite. Afterwards, I'm able to sleep. I think writing has become something I have to do everyday, like brushing my teeth or going to work. If I don't, something feels wrong and it throws me off worse than I already am.
Getting only a few hours sleep has thrown off other things as well. No review again this week, though I did publish a new one for Blackboard Jungle (1955).
Ending the week under the weather, which doesn't bode well for the next one.
Another rejection on Thursday. This is the one I sent out after the one I got on Monday. Quick turnaround, too bad the news isn't any better. What doesn't help is that the form letter came from her assistant. Again, the takeaway is that the email does work.
Spent my writing time getting back to Familiar Stranger. I know I've been through this manuscript before, but I started over again and really think I'm making it better this time through. I edited out the first introductory chapter and I've been working my way from there. I only wish I had gotten further than the 62 pages I've done.
The problem hasn't been the writing, but having the time. I find if I don't write every day (even edting) I have trouble sleeping, not that I don't have problems sleeping anyway. Twice this week I've been up at 1 or 2 working on the rewrite. Afterwards, I'm able to sleep. I think writing has become something I have to do everyday, like brushing my teeth or going to work. If I don't, something feels wrong and it throws me off worse than I already am.
Getting only a few hours sleep has thrown off other things as well. No review again this week, though I did publish a new one for Blackboard Jungle (1955).
Ending the week under the weather, which doesn't bode well for the next one.
Sunday, May 3, 2015
A Week in Writing #35
Well, I finally did it. I sent a follow up or nudge on Wednesday morning to the agent with the full manuscript. As I've detailed here, it's been over a year since I first queried her and now it's been seven months plus since she's had the full manuscript. I may not like the answer I receive (if I receive one), but I'd like to know for sure what's what. I say if I receive one, since my last nudge, in February went unanswered. It's not like this agent isn't out there socially, as she tweets about most of her queries. I have never seen mine, which only means I didn't get rejected out of hand. But no matter how you slice it, seven months is a long time to wait.
The thing I like least about the writing process is the business-side of the equation, which right now is the query and wait game. You wouldn't think it would take that long to send a standard letter to a new agent, but I think each one takes about half an hour. Now true, some of that is spent double and triple checking to make sure you've got the right information in the letter/email and have attached the right amount of the manuscript, which is anywhere from nothing to 50 pages. (One agent wanted the entire manuscript, but thankfully as an attachment not embedded.)
And there seem to be so many little things in the process that seem to work against you. You might work out the perfect query letter in Word, but when you paste it into Outlook, there are several lines between the paragraphs, that even editing in Outlook never seems to fix. This is not meant to be an advice blog, but it never hurts to send your query letter email to yourself to see what the agents will be receiving.
So I have to painstakingly rewrite the letter into an email. One trick I've learned is to blind copy myself on the query and then move it back to the draft folder once I receive it. Again, I'm not writing to give advice, but that helps keep me from constantly rewriting the same query.
Another thing that makes me mad, is that for some reason there are passages in A Killer Blog that when I paste them into Outlook change font colors to blue. I've tried taking the sample from different versions of the book and retyping that passage in the email, but every time when the email gets sent those passages are blue. It doesn't help that the first time is the paragraph where J.D. meets Abigail Dietrich, who is working in an underground club as a waitress and J.D. notices how much cleavage she's showing. Sort of over emphasizes the blueness of the passage.
But I digress.
As far as actually writing, I didn't really work on the rewrites like I had hoped. Instead, I did some work on the comic book, in this case, doing some summaries of the stories already written. That exercise and working on the queries took up most of the time for writing this past week.
I did actually write a review this week, not for the Shakespeare film we watched this Friday, but for the new Avengers film we saw on Saturday. I'll be posting it in a week or two. It's not as if my reviews carry any weight, so there's no real hurry. I did publish one review this week for Stand-In (1937) from my backlog of reviews.
In the next week, I am hoping to get back to the rewrites. It's usually a case of time rather than desire, but I'm always hopeful.
The thing I like least about the writing process is the business-side of the equation, which right now is the query and wait game. You wouldn't think it would take that long to send a standard letter to a new agent, but I think each one takes about half an hour. Now true, some of that is spent double and triple checking to make sure you've got the right information in the letter/email and have attached the right amount of the manuscript, which is anywhere from nothing to 50 pages. (One agent wanted the entire manuscript, but thankfully as an attachment not embedded.)
And there seem to be so many little things in the process that seem to work against you. You might work out the perfect query letter in Word, but when you paste it into Outlook, there are several lines between the paragraphs, that even editing in Outlook never seems to fix. This is not meant to be an advice blog, but it never hurts to send your query letter email to yourself to see what the agents will be receiving.
So I have to painstakingly rewrite the letter into an email. One trick I've learned is to blind copy myself on the query and then move it back to the draft folder once I receive it. Again, I'm not writing to give advice, but that helps keep me from constantly rewriting the same query.
Another thing that makes me mad, is that for some reason there are passages in A Killer Blog that when I paste them into Outlook change font colors to blue. I've tried taking the sample from different versions of the book and retyping that passage in the email, but every time when the email gets sent those passages are blue. It doesn't help that the first time is the paragraph where J.D. meets Abigail Dietrich, who is working in an underground club as a waitress and J.D. notices how much cleavage she's showing. Sort of over emphasizes the blueness of the passage.
But I digress.
As far as actually writing, I didn't really work on the rewrites like I had hoped. Instead, I did some work on the comic book, in this case, doing some summaries of the stories already written. That exercise and working on the queries took up most of the time for writing this past week.
I did actually write a review this week, not for the Shakespeare film we watched this Friday, but for the new Avengers film we saw on Saturday. I'll be posting it in a week or two. It's not as if my reviews carry any weight, so there's no real hurry. I did publish one review this week for Stand-In (1937) from my backlog of reviews.
In the next week, I am hoping to get back to the rewrites. It's usually a case of time rather than desire, but I'm always hopeful.
Sunday, April 26, 2015
A Week in Writing #34
At 9:30 on a Saturday night I received an apology and a rejection from an agent I had given up on about a month ago. Seeing how that was 12:30 in the morning on Sunday, New York time, I wonder if they purposefully stayed up late to try and ruin my Sunday morning look at emails. As it was, the missive have ended up in my junk mail folder, which I guess is where it belonged in the first place.
I don't mean to sound blase about it, but I had already written them off as a no-go. Hearing from them a month later doesn't really effect how I feel.
A more productive week than most. I was able to complete the comic book script, at least a first draft. The story became four parts, 52 pages and over 10,000 words. I have to admit, I like the story, but so far the audience has been one, so I'm waiting for feedback. While I have the germ for the next story, I don't want to keep writing in a void. Hoping that this time at Comic-Con we can connect with an artist that can bring these words to life.
True to my word, I also completed a review for Shakespeare in Love, which was Friday a week ago's family movie. Didn't write a new one again, for the past Friday's film. Macbeth was up and we tried to watch not one, but two film versions based on the play. The first one starred Sean Connery and appeared to be a kinescope that had been remastered. The run time was a little over an hour, which made it appealing, but the play started several scenes in and seemed to be shot in mostly close-ups, the way many TV productions were at the time of small black and white sets.
Opted out of that one and tried to rent another version, this one with Nicol Williamson as the lead. But by then the hour was growing late and interest had waned. So no Macbeth review forthcoming.
Did publish one for Female (1933), ending a run of Pre-Code films. Not sure what to post next. A little mystery is good.
My writing goals for the next week are a little more simple. I want to get back to Barrister, either Public and Private because my editors given me feedback or Familiar Stranger, because it's time to put this one to bed.
I also want to send a few queries, which are always more of a time suck then you'd think. I really want to follow up this week with the agent who has my manuscript. We're coming up on a year since my original query. I'm anxious because I sort of fear the worst, but its time to rip that bandage off.
I don't mean to sound blase about it, but I had already written them off as a no-go. Hearing from them a month later doesn't really effect how I feel.
A more productive week than most. I was able to complete the comic book script, at least a first draft. The story became four parts, 52 pages and over 10,000 words. I have to admit, I like the story, but so far the audience has been one, so I'm waiting for feedback. While I have the germ for the next story, I don't want to keep writing in a void. Hoping that this time at Comic-Con we can connect with an artist that can bring these words to life.
True to my word, I also completed a review for Shakespeare in Love, which was Friday a week ago's family movie. Didn't write a new one again, for the past Friday's film. Macbeth was up and we tried to watch not one, but two film versions based on the play. The first one starred Sean Connery and appeared to be a kinescope that had been remastered. The run time was a little over an hour, which made it appealing, but the play started several scenes in and seemed to be shot in mostly close-ups, the way many TV productions were at the time of small black and white sets.
Opted out of that one and tried to rent another version, this one with Nicol Williamson as the lead. But by then the hour was growing late and interest had waned. So no Macbeth review forthcoming.
Did publish one for Female (1933), ending a run of Pre-Code films. Not sure what to post next. A little mystery is good.
My writing goals for the next week are a little more simple. I want to get back to Barrister, either Public and Private because my editors given me feedback or Familiar Stranger, because it's time to put this one to bed.
I also want to send a few queries, which are always more of a time suck then you'd think. I really want to follow up this week with the agent who has my manuscript. We're coming up on a year since my original query. I'm anxious because I sort of fear the worst, but its time to rip that bandage off.
Sunday, April 19, 2015
A Week in Writing #33
Some days it just seems like I can never get as much traction going as I'd like. When I get home, if I haven't started writing before dinner, then I might not get another chance until it is almost time to go to bed. By that time, the mind is willing, but the body fails me. This has been one of those weeks for me. Never quite got into the groove. I'm not having writer's block or anything like that, there just don't seem to be enough hours in the day.
Family commitments basically took away a whole day, Saturday, though I did have time to post a review on Trophy Unlocked: Three on a Match (1932), another Pre-code film. The response has been better than I had expected. When you're counting pageviews in the tens, 25 in a day and a half is a lot. I don't really expect to get much more, at least not right away.
One of the things I didn't get a chance to do was write a review of our Friday night film, Shakespeare in Love, but I hope to work on that during the week. That may be my writing project, along with trying to finish the comic book script I started last week. I'm into a Part 3 on this draft and about 6300 words.
Spent some time this past week trying to rewrite the ending to Public and Private, but my editor did not like my efforts. We decided to table this bit and start in again from the top. I really appreciate the bad reviews as well as the good advice. As I always say, my goal is to make the book better and salable.
Nothing new on the query front, none sent and none returned. Haven't looked at my spreadsheet all week. As I said, I never quite got things going this week.
Family commitments basically took away a whole day, Saturday, though I did have time to post a review on Trophy Unlocked: Three on a Match (1932), another Pre-code film. The response has been better than I had expected. When you're counting pageviews in the tens, 25 in a day and a half is a lot. I don't really expect to get much more, at least not right away.
One of the things I didn't get a chance to do was write a review of our Friday night film, Shakespeare in Love, but I hope to work on that during the week. That may be my writing project, along with trying to finish the comic book script I started last week. I'm into a Part 3 on this draft and about 6300 words.
Spent some time this past week trying to rewrite the ending to Public and Private, but my editor did not like my efforts. We decided to table this bit and start in again from the top. I really appreciate the bad reviews as well as the good advice. As I always say, my goal is to make the book better and salable.
Nothing new on the query front, none sent and none returned. Haven't looked at my spreadsheet all week. As I said, I never quite got things going this week.
Sunday, April 12, 2015
A Week in Writing #32
It hasn't been a bad week, but I wouldn't say this has been my most productive. It started out pretty well. I made the edits to the final chapters of Public and Private, except I still need a new last line/ending. Hoped it would come to me, but it really hasn't yet. Need to finish this week.
The week also started out on a positive note as a recently queried agent wanted to see more of A Killer Blog. I have to admit, that felt encouraging after so many non-responses. I keep saying I'm going to do more querying, but that is really very time consuming. When I only have a little time to write, I'd rather do than query. At least writing seems comforting and of the two is something I have some control over.
For the second time in a couple of weeks, didn't write a movie review, though I did post one on Trophy Unlocked for Other Men's Women (1931) http://trophyunlocked.blogspot.com/2015/04/stubs-other-mens-women.html. Doing a whole pre-code theme in April, starting with Sinners' Holiday last week.
This Friday's movie was actually a British TV production of King Lear (2009), starring Ian McKellen in the title role. The movie was a long and rather incomprehensible 156 minutes. While it does tell the story of the play, it might have been better to have done it in mime, as the dialogue was very fast and hard to understand. We took two nights to finish it, so I decided against spending any more time with the film.
Did some work on another script for our non-existent comic book, PowerSquared. Wrote Part 1 and am into Part 2 of the new story (about 3700 words so far). Going to Comic Con again this year hoping again to find an artist/collaborator there. If nothing works out this time, I'm going to have to change tactics. Isn't there a saying that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is a sign of insanity? I don't think I'm insane. Does writing a blog that no one reads like talking to yourself? Isn't that a sign of insanity? So maybe I am.
This coming week, the plan is to finish Public and Private, finish the comic book script and then hopefully get back to Familiar Stranger (remember that one?). That's the plan, I'll write about the realities next week, even if no one else cares.
The week also started out on a positive note as a recently queried agent wanted to see more of A Killer Blog. I have to admit, that felt encouraging after so many non-responses. I keep saying I'm going to do more querying, but that is really very time consuming. When I only have a little time to write, I'd rather do than query. At least writing seems comforting and of the two is something I have some control over.
For the second time in a couple of weeks, didn't write a movie review, though I did post one on Trophy Unlocked for Other Men's Women (1931) http://trophyunlocked.blogspot.com/2015/04/stubs-other-mens-women.html. Doing a whole pre-code theme in April, starting with Sinners' Holiday last week.
This Friday's movie was actually a British TV production of King Lear (2009), starring Ian McKellen in the title role. The movie was a long and rather incomprehensible 156 minutes. While it does tell the story of the play, it might have been better to have done it in mime, as the dialogue was very fast and hard to understand. We took two nights to finish it, so I decided against spending any more time with the film.
Did some work on another script for our non-existent comic book, PowerSquared. Wrote Part 1 and am into Part 2 of the new story (about 3700 words so far). Going to Comic Con again this year hoping again to find an artist/collaborator there. If nothing works out this time, I'm going to have to change tactics. Isn't there a saying that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is a sign of insanity? I don't think I'm insane. Does writing a blog that no one reads like talking to yourself? Isn't that a sign of insanity? So maybe I am.
This coming week, the plan is to finish Public and Private, finish the comic book script and then hopefully get back to Familiar Stranger (remember that one?). That's the plan, I'll write about the realities next week, even if no one else cares.
Sunday, April 5, 2015
A Week in Writing #31
Spent most of the week working on the rewrites for Public and Private. There were about 500 pages that I had made notes on, but had not typed up. Made those edits, including some to the chapters I rewrote last week. Still waiting to hear back from my editor. Hopefully soon. We'll see where things go from here. Would really like to have another book to query. I'd like to think they're getting better.
No new queries this week and no new rejections, either. Coming up on a year since I first contacted the agent that has my complete manuscript. Not sure why I'm not hearing back from her.
Wrote a future review for Other Men's Women (1931), a pre-code film starring Grant Withers (yes that Grant Withers) with an appearance by some actor named James Cagney. Actually wanted to watch it for Withers, so look for that later. Posted a review for another pre-code film, Sinners' Holiday (1930). This one also stars Grant Withers and is Cagney's first film. Watched this one for Cagney. You can read that one here: http://trophyunlocked.blogspot.com/2015/04/stubs-sinners-holiday.html
Also started working on another script for the comic book I still want to get started this year. Did not attend WonderCon this year. Attended last year, but the Comic Creator Connection was a bust, I'm afraid to say. Scheduling didn't work out to attend this year.
This coming week, planning on getting back to Familiar Stranger, doing more work on the comic book script and hopefully finding the time to query more agents. Things never seem to stop.
No new queries this week and no new rejections, either. Coming up on a year since I first contacted the agent that has my complete manuscript. Not sure why I'm not hearing back from her.
Wrote a future review for Other Men's Women (1931), a pre-code film starring Grant Withers (yes that Grant Withers) with an appearance by some actor named James Cagney. Actually wanted to watch it for Withers, so look for that later. Posted a review for another pre-code film, Sinners' Holiday (1930). This one also stars Grant Withers and is Cagney's first film. Watched this one for Cagney. You can read that one here: http://trophyunlocked.blogspot.com/2015/04/stubs-sinners-holiday.html
Also started working on another script for the comic book I still want to get started this year. Did not attend WonderCon this year. Attended last year, but the Comic Creator Connection was a bust, I'm afraid to say. Scheduling didn't work out to attend this year.
This coming week, planning on getting back to Familiar Stranger, doing more work on the comic book script and hopefully finding the time to query more agents. Things never seem to stop.
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