Tuesday, December 28, 2010

You better heed this critique: I worked enough to make it.

I'm going to my writers' group meeting tonight. They're supposed to critique the second chapter of my novel. I look forward to what they have to suggest and say. This chapter is . . . a little racy in a horror-story disturbing way. So, I'm a little insecure about presenting it.

There's another story being critiqued. I sat down to start with it last night thinking that it would only be a few hours, and I didn't finish with it until an hour ago. Yep. Missed a whole day of my writing to do it, but it would be worth it if I help the guy.

It looks like I'm not going to starve while writing after all. I've been granted disability. So, now writing is my full time job.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Churches vs. The Wealthy vs. Cities. Who wins?

I see that financially strapped cities have started to charge nonprofits including churches "fees." The fees, of course, are a euphemism for the "T" word. Being an atheist, I, of course, can't see one reason why churches aren't taxed. There's no reason why we should give people incentives to become ministers and found congregation, or found cults and splinter sects. Can't qualify to be an Anglican Minister and get paid tax-free? Why then, just splinter off and make yourself the leader of your own church. The qualifications for cult leader are always low.

So, now cities can't run anymore without raising further revenue because we've decided that the rich are too valuable to tax that much, and we long decided that churches are too valuable to tax at all. Never mind a billionaire can raise a family of 4 for 8,000 years without making another dollar (that's a conservative estimate). I'll admit that's an insane observation, but so is the amount of money they are commanding. Is there going to be dollars in 8,000 years? Is there going to be a United States? So, now cities have to break that other cardinal rule, that's not really a rule but just a joke we made up one day that nobody got, and now it's a "tradition."

Interesting, though, if it ends up that the cities can't tax churches and the Federal government can't tax the wealthy, what is going to become of our cities and municipalities, or even our state governments? It looks like we're going to get what conservatives have wanted: a starved government at all levels. Apparently enough tea partiers and others have been taken in by arguments that this is a good thing. It will be an educational experience for US citizens, but of those who survive the educating, let's see how happy they are.

Let's see if Ayn Rand's fantasy novels work out well in real life. I don't think it will, and I believe we will sacrifice our country to find out. When people wake up and find that they've done this, they should blame the likes of Grover Norquist, George W. Bush and finally, Ronald Reagan.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

More novel after three months

First, I'll be able to treat writing as my full-time job now, I got my disability. This also means that I can be less stressed with my free time.

In September I said I was taking time off to finish the novel. Then, I think I had 102,000 words written and had 33,000 to go, at most. Now I have 142,000 words written with 58,000 to go, at most. As you'll notice, that's a slight net loss. Comical, I know, the finish line that runs away from you. I can't wait for work to finally reduce my workload.

The problem isn't that I don't know how to end it. I've always had the scenes very well thought out (with a few changes). The problem is, I didn't know everything that came between, and with any scene I write I have a sworn duty to make it as interesting as possible, so they tend to take on a life of their own. It looks like I know just about everything that follows-- just about, and everything that could possibly be set up for it has been. So, I think 200,000 words, (or 660 pages) will do it. I wrote down a list of scenes and it looks like I'm finally safe in saying exactly where it will end. Considering I'm now able to write 8 hours a day, finally, I could conceivably get this done in 11 weeks.

So, what is this novel about? It's about a girl who's found unconscious in the snow with cut scars and needle marks all over her arms and is presumed to be a junky, but it turns out she's a werewolf.

If it sounds familiar to you, then you are familiar with Ginger Snaps: Unleashed. My novel is an alternate sequel to the movie Ginger Snaps. I started it as a practice exercise to prove to myself that I can write a book, and Ginger Snaps did inspire me that much. It wasn't that long before that I decided I wanted a bit more attention for it, so I've been posting it on fanfiction.net.

Why I loved the movie Ginger Snaps this much is a question for a different post. I'm going to post an analysis of the movie on youtube. As soon as I can figure out how to edit, but suffice to say, I really loved the characters. The theme is about devotion, the meaning of it, and its failures. As I said, though, it's better left to its own post. It has a subtext in its directing, and that's more dimensions than you find with almost any Hollywood movie now.

That all being said, Ginger Snaps is not my whole life, and even though I'm committing time writing a practice novel based on it, I just want the novel to be finished so I could go on to a project that I am going to sell.

Though it does feel good to finally write while getting paid. I'm not going to be able to retire, so it looks like this is my job for the rest of my life, which makes me happy, finally.

Update 12/26/10 01:40 a.m. Correction, it actually looks like it may run 210,000 words, or about 700 pages.