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Here are the Blogs in the My Own Writing category.
Saturday, 17 December 2011
Back in the writing saddle.
Recently I took another look at the blogging aspect of my writing career. I had a good run this year, blogging nearly 5 days a week for a number of months. I had built a pretty good habit and got a little of a following going; however, that all came to a screeching halt last month when I realized that ...Read More...
Posted on 12/17/2011 11:33 AM by thomas@thomasmcauley.com
Thursday, 1 December 2011
Writing update and a hello after a blogging break.
I've got to say I'm impressed that I can post from my new iPhone. I would have expected the experience to have been more difficult, but no, typing -- once one gets used to it -- isn't so bad. And the tools show up well, if a tad too uncomfortably small.
But what does this have to do with ...Read More...
Posted on 12/01/2011 12:51 AM by Thomas@thomasmcauley.com
Wednesday, 2 November 2011
When not writing (new stuff) is not only acceptable but beneficial
At last week's Drafthouse critique, one of our members announced that she would likely not be writing for the remainder of 2011. There followed a palpable pause. Judging from the members' expressions, the general take was that this unnamed person had spoken something akin to blasphemy.
To ...Read More...
Posted on 11/02/2011 8:14 AM by Thomas McAuley
Friday, 14 October 2011
Okay...I can do this submission thing
I'm going into this weekend far less frightened about the submission process, thankfully. If you'll recall, I was running into a mental block trying to decide which publications would be the best fit for me. I had outlined all sorts of problems I was having.
Well it's all behind me now, ...Read More...
Posted on 10/14/2011 7:19 AM by Thomas McAuley
Monday, 10 October 2011
Reducing my novella's word count OR Serious chops
Though my wife would have preferred it to be otherwise, this weekend was dominated by chopping hundreds of words from my novella, Forever By His Side. I had planned to spend the time researching and submitting the story to at least two markets. I only got half of it done, though, as two of the markets ...Read More...
Posted on 10/10/2011 7:42 AM by Thomas McAuley
Friday, 7 October 2011
Finding a publisher for your novella OR Bringing that piggy to a skinny market
With Forever By His Side done, there was but one thing to do -- find someone to publish the thing. Thus began what I fully expected would be a couple low probability pitches to the two or three publications that touch novellas. And based on my initial search on Duotrope.com, my suspicion seemed to be ...Read More...
Posted on 10/07/2011 3:44 AM by Thomas McAuley
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Forever By His Side submission begins.
No, really.
My novella -- that's right, just a novella -- Forever By His Side has been a work in progress for a year and a half. I've done other work -- Susurrus, a 5k-word short story -- as well as two or three rough others that I'll be revisiting soon, but my primary work in that time has been Forever.
It's ...Read More...
Posted on 10/04/2011 2:32 AM by Thomas McAuley
Thursday, 1 September 2011
ArmadilloCon '11 downtime proves surprisingly productive
A couple very noteworthy items to mention related to ArmadilloCon '11 in Austin, Texas.
As with any convention, not every planned event can be of specific interest to all its participants. This was not exception in my case. I attended somewhere in the neighborhood of ten panels and that was ...Read More...
Posted on 09/01/2011 1:13 AM by Thomas McAuley
Friday, 19 August 2011
Will he or won't he (finish Forever before ArmadilloCon) ?
The race is on to finish Forever By His Side, my Appalachian ghost-ish story that I've been working on for -- well, let's just say a long time. I will get this done. I don't have an option. It's been my constipation all of this and most of last year. I've worked on other stories ...Read More...
Posted on 08/19/2011 9:05 AM by Thomas McAuley
Friday, 8 July 2011
Receiving excellent critique feels better than getting the writing right the first time.
Imagine you have a shiny new Audi (insert whatever other car inspires you). If that car screams along rough back roads better suited to four-wheel-drive trucks, it won't get far. Now, imagine you've got printed directions to get to wherever? You know not to start at step five when step one is ...Read More...
Posted on 07/08/2011 12:09 PM by Thomas McAuley
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
A productive editing Saturday countered on Sunday by PlaySatan 3
I'm not sure what got into me this last Saturday but I did my normal solo write-in at Local in the morning. It was a massive editing session to get my pages -- twenty was my goal -- ready for the upcoming critique on the 30th. The story is about 10k, so by the time I got to the end of the first ...Read More...
Posted on 06/21/2011 2:12 AM by Thomas McAuley
Monday, 20 June 2011
Two dark fantasy stories, two drafts done. In just three weeks.
I completed two dark fantasy story drafts in just two weeks two weeks. For me, lately at least, is ridiculously fast.
About three weeks ago, I typed "The End" to the next-to-last draft of Forever By His Side, my Appalachian semi-ghost story. And last Thursday, I typed it again after completing ...Read More...
Posted on 06/20/2011 12:44 AM by Thomas McAuley
Wednesday, 15 June 2011
Who knew nose-picking would be so involved.
Question: "Good news or bad news first?"
I'll do you one better. How about a good news, a "don't worry" and an only slightly bad news.
First, the good news: I knocked out another almost 500 words this AM before a very early start to my normal work.
Next, don't ...Read More...
Posted on 06/15/2011 3:10 PM by Thomas McAuley
Monday, 13 June 2011
Boundless joy at having typed the words "The End" on my Wady story
My critique colleagues seemed as pleased as i was about seeing "The End" at the end of the pages I submitted last week. To know what a struggle getting to that point in Forever has been for me is one thing, but imagine being one of the folks who have to critique all the failed attempts, all ...Read More...
Posted on 06/13/2011 6:04 AM by Thomas McAuley
Wednesday, 8 June 2011
Giving the world the finger with my nose-picking story
My nose-picking story is going well. I knocked out another 500 words before the fam woke up this morning. I only have two more scenes and it'll be ready for critique.
It's such a pleasant experience, such a wonderful change, not to be pinned to the difficult language and magic rules of my ...Read More...
Posted on 06/08/2011 6:31 AM by Thomas McAuley
Sunday, 5 June 2011
Old writing notes prove more inspiring than old/new books.
My wife -- bless her -- took it upon herself to clean out our game room. It had gotten to a point of clutter and filth that the hoarders shows would have envied. Computers, cords, speakers, broken pieces of a table. An overflowing bookshelf. An old couch with its cushions scattered, its surfaces reclaimed ...Read More...
Posted on 06/05/2011 12:01 AM by Thomas McAuley
Thursday, 2 June 2011
Crazy high word count. Yipee!
I mentioned a couple days ago that I felt like I was going to snap like a rubber band into my next story after putting Wady and Forever By His Side to bed. And damn was I right? Yesterday, I slammed out an pretty effortless 2,300 words on a story that looks like it'll come in at 20 pages -- close ...Read More...
Posted on 06/02/2011 8:17 AM by Thomas McAuley
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
Have you ever felt relationship guilt when moving from story to story?
For the first time in more than a year I actually wrote the words The End with a true belief that I was very near the end of my marathon novella -- are those terms at odds? Sounds so. I've probably driven the fact that I've been working on Forever By His Side for over a year, a crazy unproductive ...Read More...
Posted on 06/01/2011 8:41 AM by Thomas McAuley
Monday, 30 May 2011
All that's left is pinning the tail on the Forever donkey.
Looks like Forever will come it right around 17k words. I can't believe I've made it to the denouement. No...actually, I can't belive I took more than a year to get this story done. I suppose I'm in a bit of shock, right now. I've written the story over and over. Sometimes to completion ...Read More...
Posted on 05/30/2011 8:05 AM by Thomas McAuley
Sunday, 29 May 2011
Forever By His Side finally near the end of its first sucessful draft.
I'm finally sewing up the ends of my story, Forever By His Side. It's proven to be at the outside edge of my abilities. It's got a world to paint in. It's got tricky mountain-esque language. It's got a handful of characters that are separated through five generations. It's got ...Read More...
Posted on 05/29/2011 12:06 PM by Thomas McAuley
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