KillZone Blog

The Journal, Thursday, April 26

Hey Folks, Well, another all but sleepless night, but due to my own stupidity. Something I ate, late, when I knew better. Then I spent the first few hours deflecting a crapstorm. I won’t go into it here, but I had to include that much as part of the accounting of the day. Suffice it to say I’ll be late getting out to the Hovel today. So we’ll see how that goes. *** Got to the Hovel around 9 and started a new story. Then I remembered something else I had to do up at the house, so I headed … Read more

The Journal, Monday, April 23

Hey Folks, Well, let’s start today off with a Topic: If You’re a Writer and I’m a Reader, You Owe Me Something There were a lot of good comments on James Scott Bell’s “Editing is Dying, Grunting Soon to Follow” in the Kill Zone blog. You can find the post and the comments at https://killzoneblog.com/2018/04/editing-is-dying-grunting-soon-to-follow.html. Reading the comments was an eye-opening experience. Someone, a writer no less, actually advocated for the spelling of “all right” as “alright,” which, honestly, is just laziness. It’s the same reason some folks write “enuff” instead of “enough” or “no” instead of “know” (I’m not … Read more

The Journal, Sunday, April 22

Hey Folks, Well, I’m posting this very early today. The sun has almost come up. (grin) Today will be a non-writing day, but some good items in “Of Interest” below. After a very short night of sleep, I still managed to get out to the Hovel early, as I’d hoped I would. I continued the current story/chapter, then hit a snag and cycled back to repair it. That took me almost to the beginning of that chapter, so I settled in and read through the whole thing, still cycling. I added a few hundred words, but not enough to count … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, April 21

Hey Folks, Well, surprises happen. Last night not long after I’d gone to bed, my wife came in to say my son and his wife and three of my grandchildren were on their way down from Flagstaff for the weekend. I got up and we got things ready. Still, I was determined to get up earlier than usual to get as much done on The Storytellers as possible. The story is really running. The structure is interesting too, as it’s developed. There’s an introductory section, which is the beginning of the overall story that wraps the novel. Then there’s a … Read more

The Journal, Monday, April 16

Hey Folks, Well, I don’t have a lot to report today, but a really good “Of Interest” section. I was determined today to have less than 25% of the edit left to finish tomorrow. With that in mind, I leaned into it from around 4 a.m. until I stopped at around 3 p.m. So a good 11-hour day, with a few breaks here and there. As I write this I have 15% of the edit left to do, so I should finish it tomorrow. Then, unless the gods frown on me. I should be able to return to my WIP. … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, April 12

Hey Folks, Wow. I woke up right at 2:30, which has become my recent norm. But for various reasons I went back to sleep and didn’t wake up again until 4. Problem is, that throws off the whole day. The ladies asked me to stay close so they could go out in the pre-dawn yard. So I didn’t get to the Hovel, which means I didn’t get to the novel. One drawback to having a dedicated writing space and a dedicated writing computer is that when I don’t get there, I don’t write. Then I spent a couple of hours, … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, April 11

Hey Folks, Sorry I took off yesterday from posting the Journal. The first day of a copyedit is always the most difficult with the most concentrated effort. As a result, I totally spaced posting an edition of the Journal. So to today… Well, I’m writing again. The current copyedit is a long one. It will probably take me the better part of two weeks, and I didn’t want to go that long without writing. In fact, on my recent two and a half-day camping trip, I was already jonesing to write on the morning of the second day. So this … Read more

The Journal, Sunday, April 8

Hey Folks, Hmm. Somehow, I was thinking Friday’s post was Saturday’s post and hadn’t gone out yet. So I amended Friday’s post. Mark it up to a very good case of exhaustion. Anyway, we didn’t get back until yesterday (Saturday) morning and then I didn’t post a Journal. Not a lot going on today. Weird. The morning of the second day of the camping trip, I was jonesing for writing. From now on when I go, I’ll take my laptop along. Just in case. But now I’m back, and this morning I didn’t feel like writing. Since it’s Sunday, I … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, April 4

Hey Folks, All right. Well, I finished the novella this morning. I’ll go over it one more time (reading aloud to myself) before I publish it, but the final word count will be very near what’s posted below. *** A few days ago, a subscriber asked in a comment about my after-writing process. Do I send my work to my first reader before I read it aloud? Do I print it before I read it aloud or read directly from the screen? Just as importantly, the commenter wrote “I’m working on getting better writing a clean [first] draft….” I was … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, April 3

Hey Folks, Well, the current WIP is going to be a novellette or a novella. I don’t usually write to a particular length, but I know this one won’t get into the short-novel range. Something occurred to me after I wrote yesterday’s post. Write This Down: The only real difference between a short story and a story of any other length is that a short story is about One Event. Not two, not a few and not several. One. This story is about two cases, a new one and a cold case that all but mimics the new one, and … Read more