Godsend the Novel

Posting the book

2008-02-13T09:35:00.001-08:00

So here's the plan, people:

I'm going to register a website under the title of this book, and then I'm going to get someone to put up the site, and make the whole thing look fancy, and interact fancy, and all kinds of stuff. The thing is, I'm gonna have to ask some favors in marketing this thing.

See, I'm gonna print up some post cards with a rundown of the book, and where it can be read. So I'm gonna go all over the city, and leave these cards in coffee shops and book stores and whatnot. But as much as I love NYC, I want people all over the country - if not the world - to read this thing.

So I ask you, fellow readers, to help me out. Let me know if you live in a reasonably large city, and if you'd be willing to leave these post cards in your local bookstores and whatnot. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours in return.

Online novel?

2007-08-29T15:11:00.000-07:00

I've been talking to a friend about this novel. I've been filling in blanks in the novel, sending out queries, and so on. The thing is, there've been few if any bites. I've been thinking of actually posting parts of the novel here. And I don't mean piddly little chunks of the novel - you know, 20 pages here, 10 pages there, 5 pages up the road - that kind of thing.

No, I'm talking about, say, one sixth of the novel, right here, right now. It'll require some math on my part, which I feel I'm up to. There's a complex plan involved, which isn't that complex, really, but a little tedious. And it would require an output of cash. And some help from friends and family in cities other than New York. And some phone calls on my part.

The plan? Well, that's for next time, dear reader(s). Stay tuned.

Been a looong while, hasn't it?

2007-05-15T08:00:00.001-07:00

So I haven't written about this in a long while, and to be honest, when you're dealing with simple edits, there's not much to say other than, well, I did some more editing today.

But the thing is, there was a long stretch where I didn't do much writing. I was moving from Queens to Harlem. The specifics aren't important, but when I moved, I had to restock my apartment, set things up, and so on. I had to settle in, in other words, and that kept me occupied. I also wondered if I should even continue with this novel, with novels at all.

And I've decided that I should at least get the damn thing into shape. And that's what I've been doing, getting it into shape. Right now, I'm going through and implementing all the edits. Once that's finished, I'm going to have to get into the rewrites, then back into editing. Hopefully that'll be the end of it. Since I've been getting back into the groove, I've been pretty good about working on this monster. Perhaps it'll go faster now.

I've been working... really, I have!

2007-02-09T08:38:00.000-08:00

I've been working on Godsend, but I've been taking a slightly different approach to the material this time around. When I first sat down to write this story, I wrote all the fun, juicy bits first, and left the connective tissue for later. Well, I'm easily bored sometimes, and this perhaps wasn't the best idea, since I dragged my feet on writing the boring bits.

But now, I'm doing the grunt work first. I'm not re-writing the thing from the ground up, but I am fixing things, like punctuation and spelling, and cutting things out and so on. But there are scenes to write. And since I enjoy writing scenes, I'm saving that for last. So it's like dessert. Before, it was like I had a dessert of chocolate cake before I had my supper of saw dust. Now, I'm having the supper first and saving the cake for later.

Let's hope this works.

2007-01-12T08:21:00.000-08:00

I'm writing a sequence - well, I don't know if it's strictly a sequence - where our hero, Christine, is getting up in the morning and getting ready for work. She's got a bit of a hangover, but that's not really important. What's important is how she gets ready for work.

Or is it?

What does a person's morning routine say about them? Before, I had about a page and a half about what Christine did to get ready for the day, from washing her face all the way to walking out the door. It wasn't too detailed, despite it's length (it's in 12 point Courier New font, double spaced - anything you write covers a lot of page space like that). But now I'm wondering, considering the direction the novel takes, should I go into some small details.

One thing is for certain, Christine is going to use an electric toothbrush. And she's going to meticulously floss and rinse her mouth. That's three things for certain. A fourth thing, I'm not going to spend a page and a half on her morning routine, either.

Hmm.

I think I know what I need to do here.

2007-01-03T07:09:00.000-08:00

Holy crap! I've been ignoring this for too long, especially since I've done a little work on the old girl. It wasn't much, but it was something. I got to my new place last night, and I was able to sit down and work on a few pages of edits. Mostly it was just some basic grammar stuff, reworking a sentence or three, and a slight restructuring, but it's something.

I haven't been as good to Godsend as I have been to other projects. But I hope to treat her better this year. I'm 31, and I want to finish this before I'm 32.

Moving on

2006-11-27T07:53:00.000-08:00

Sometimes you have to look at your work and realize that you have to move on from it. I'm not giving up on the novel, but on the scene I've been worrying over. The thing is, I haven't been able to get that scene the way I want it. Christine's boss is introduced, and then... I have to have him act mean. But my heart isn't in that right now.

So instead of letting this one scene - something that won't be more than two paragraphs long - I'm letting it sit right now. It's the best thing to do for it. There are so many other parts on which I need to work that I can afford to let this go. I cannot, however, forget about it. Not that I"m going to forget it. I hope I'm not, anyway.

But you get the idea.

Thinking Outside the Box

2006-11-08T17:52:00.000-08:00

All right, I know it's a cliche, but I'd rather let out all the cliches here than in the novel itself, so deal with it.

Also, I'm writing on a Mac, and fo some reason, there are only two buttons, spell check and insert a freakin' picture.

Basically I'm writing this to say two things:

First, I've found a way around the problem I was having last time. Instead of figuring out if I want Christine's boss to be passive aggressive or just plain aggressive, I've decided to put things off for a bit, and just have him be plain insulting at first. I'll deal with the question of aggression later. This serves two purposes. The first is that I can build a little tension (that's the plan, and no, it's no perfect) with the character. So he didn't blow up right now. Fine. Each encounter can get a little worse. The second is it gives me time to refine who and what he is. Now, I could just hold off on the scene, and I may just do that, but either way I'm simply delaying the job.

Second, there actually hasn't been a lot of activity on the novel lately because of the film script on which I'm working. Not much has moved ahead (if you want details, go read the damn blog!), but suffice it to say that I've been giving it my attention more than I have to "Godsend." Hopefully in the next few weeks I'll be able to devote more time to "Godsend," as it is near and dear to my heart.

Damn cliches.

Not working

2006-10-18T11:02:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I got through the cutting, and I started the stitching, such as it is. I went through and marked what needed to go where, what needed to happen, who needed to be there, what needed to be said, and so on. And now I have to do it.

And I did some! I started an addition to an existing scene early on in the novel, where Christine (our heroine) talked to her immediate supervisor (a new character) about her computer (exciting!) when the deputy managing editor comes in! Now I've stalled out. I'm on the bit where the DME rips Christine a new one, though what's stalled me is the how of the ripping.

Should I go with passive aggressive? Should I go with plain old aggressive? Plain old aggressive would be simpler. It's straight forward. But I'm leaning toward passive aggressive. That would require some shading, though he'd still be an asshole. The question has halted me for a good time now, even though I carry the manuscript in my bag constantly. I have yet to finish that scene, and I'm using it as an excuse to not write any other scene - it's the whole "I'll get to those when I figure this out" thing.

Having just written that, I think I'll move on to another scene and come back to this one later. It seems most expedient at the moment. I'd do it now, but I'm at work. And that's not an excuse.

Okay, maybe it is a little excuse.

The Bloodletting is Over

2006-10-06T10:17:00.000-07:00

Now it's time to stitch up.

But let me talk about the blood letting for a minute. Because simply marking up a hardcopy of a manuscript is no big deal. It looks bad, because all that red can put you a mindset of actually bleeding something to death (it does to me anyway - I'll stop writing "you"). But then comes the actual cutting from the copy itself. And by that I mean going into the file, highlighting and hitting delete.

A lot of people have a problem with that, and I can understand why. When you've spent so much time putting words on computer screen, crafting sentences and fleshing out characters and so on. But the fact is, sometimes you have to do it. This time around, though, it wasn't so bad. I was able to make the marks on the hard copy, then go in and get rid of it in the file. In the end, I cut over 100 pages of superfluous crap. I cut a character. I cut a plot point. And in the end, the book went from a bloated 462 pages to a too lean 330.

The thing is, the book will bulk up again. Those cuts have to be stitched shut. In some cases, I'm going to have to rewrite scenes. In other cases, I'm going to have to create scenes that are basically connective tissue. And the toughest part of all, I'm going to have to rewrite the Daniel character.

When I come back, I'll have started on that stitching, and I'll let you know how it's going.

Killing Your Darlings

2006-10-02T08:43:00.000-07:00

As I move through the editing stage of Godsend, there are times when I have a decision to make: To cut a scene or line that I truly love but has no place in the story, or to leave it in and try to work around it somehow.

I've come to two scenes where the main character - Christine - meets her soulmate - Daniel - in a bookstore. Each time, she's looking for books (the first time it's for a gift, the second, it's for a book she herself needs). But because of the changes, these scenes will have to be cut and then re-written. There are two reasons for this.

The first is that a major plot line has been excised from the story (or is being excised), which means Christine's behavior toward Daniel will change. The other reason is that Daniel is something of a wimp in these parts of the story. He reacts when he should act.

But there are some good lines in those scenes, especially from Christine. She's assertive, especially in the second scene, and that's part of her story arc. She has to go from something of a wallflower to an actor in her own life, and in those scenes she begins to. But who would be attracted to a wimp, or a guy who was a reactor? I suppose it's possible, but mutual action would be better for the story.

I suppose years from now I might look back and what I'd cut and think that it was all crap and it deserved to be cut out. Or I could wonder what possessed me to cut it in the first place. Looking at it right now, some of those lines might be darlings, but they need to be killed.

More cutting

2006-09-22T12:53:00.000-07:00

It's getting to be a bloody mess here in the editing suite. While more cutting has taken place, I've come to the conclusion that huge swaths of text are going to have to go before I'm done. I'm thinking that about 70 pages will be excised from the final draft of Godsend. And while I lament the loss, I do feel a little invigorated about the prospect of doing it. There will be some re-writing, but the novel will be tighter, and more realistic in a lot of ways. It's something that should have happened before. Once I get all the re-writes done this time, I'm going to re-submit to several agencies that expressed some interest before.

Someone asked on a message board about killing your darlings, which, for the uninitiated, means cutting sentences, characters, subplots, etc., that you really love from your work. A lot of people have a hard time doing this. But I really don't. If I'm so into a sentence, I keep it for future use. If I like a character, I'll place them somewhere else.

In this case, though, I don't think these pages will find their way into another story. They will be cut away, and will survive for historians to peruse when I'm gone.

Editing: You only hurt the one you love

2006-09-19T11:18:00.000-07:00

See, I have to make some cuts in Godsend, some pretty deep cuts. I have to cut out a secondary character who runs through a major subplot. I have to cut this guy out, because I need to cut out a plot device. If I cut the plot device and leave the character intact, then it won't make a lot of sense the way the main character - Christine - will end up acting.

The problem is, it's going to take a lot of work. And while it's fun to think up the plots and even the words, getting my ass in the chair is the toughest part of the gig. Because really, writing is about getting the shit on the page. You may have the greatest story idea in the world, but it doesn't mean a thing if it never gets set into a Word file, or gets down on a piece of paper.

So I'm off to work. Wish me luck, or a broken leg - whichever's appropriate in this case.

2006-09-18T11:40:00.000-07:00

Godsend is a novel I've been working on for the last few years, and it's something to which I'm very attached. I've been querying agents - about 30 so far - to no avail. One asked for a partial manuscript, another asked for a full manuscript. Both rejected me. But there are more agencies to go, and I plan on going through as many as seems reasonable.

What I want to do with this blog is to let everyone know what's going on with Godsend, how it's coming along, the highs, the lows, the rejections, and the final acceptance. I would love for Godsend to find a home at a major publisher. If that doesn't happen, there are other options, which I'll go over here at another time. I can't exactly reveal my master plan right away, now can I?

So come along for the ride. Some day soon, I hope to post some excerpts, which will give you an idea of what the story is like and what my writing style is like.

The story

2006-09-18T07:32:00.000-07:00

This is how the universe works: Everyone gets a soul mate. And for Christine Barclay, a lonely, frustrated research associate at a national newspaper, it’s a man named Daniel Delacroix, a chef living and working in Washington, DC. But because of a clerical error in Heaven, Daniel died last night before they ever had a chance to meet.

To correct their mistake, agents of Heaven invite Christine to live in a parallel universe where Daniel is still alive. Of course she accepts. But there are differences in this universe. And soon, Christine discovers a dark family secret held in a box of photos. It’s a secret she feels she must avenge. But if she acts on this impulse, she will lose the love of her soul mate.