Avocadopx mentioned to me yesterday that I don't write as many updates as I used to write. So, I figured I should post a quick update while I'm still on my Boskone high.

Stonecoast is going well. I am currently working with Nancy Holder who is the nicest person ever! Her experience with multiple story forms is a perfect match for my project goals for this semester. In addition, Nancy is a wonderful instructor who knows just the right thing to say, even when what she's saying means I have a big rewrite ahead of me!

Since I'll be attending the Stonecoast residency in Ireland in July, I'm working on two stories that both have Irish roots. I've recently finished the first short story, which is an Irish fairy tale about the poet Thomas Moore. The second story is a legend that has been giving me trouble. I think my problem stems from not knowing who the main character was supposed to be in this piece. I have ideas on how to fix it; we'll see how they work.

Right now, I have two shorts in circulation and I should get these others revised and sent out. If only I had more time in the day! I see no way to get them rewritten and sent out in the next few weeks, so they will continue to linger while I do a quick revise of my 10K word Stonecoast packet for Nancy.

I'm about 25% through the first draft of my novel, Eighth Day. I still haven't perfected the dreaded elevator pitch. However, here's the basic idea behind the novel. Eighth Day is a science fiction thriller set in our distant future, during a time when the world governments have been replaced by corporate states with the ability to do limited pastward time travel. After learning about secret resource retrieval missions into the past, temporal Investigator Matt Osgood is forced to make choices that will endanger his relationship with the Chairman's daughter, the continued stability of the protected zones, and the world outside the protected zones - a world that is being destroyed by the temporal backwashes caused by stealing the resources of the past.

I'm also 20% finished with my screenplay adaptation, which I am doing as the practical experience component of my 3rd semester research project at Stonecoast. The title of my project is "The Art of Adaptation Between Multiple Story Forms". This project will focus on the craft of writing adaptations in any story form - not just screenplays. What I plan to show is how to break a story down into its essential elements, and how to use those elements when planting them into a different story form.

Since I will be adapting a poem into a screenplay, I will be writing a research paper on how the poem Beowulf has been adapted into the 2007 film and how that screenplay has been adapted into a novel and into a graphic novel. In addition to Beowulf, my research will include a variety of other stories that have been adapted from fable to short story, poem to novel, novel to screenplay, etc. My research will include books, articles, published interviews, and new personal interviews. My end goal (outside of Stonecoast) is to produce a series of publishable articles or a book on the art of adaptation.

I have also been building The Online Stonecoast Community Journal, which has taken a lot of my LJ alloted time. In addition, I've spent some time extra making YouTube fan videos of Doctor Who and other Sci-Fi TV shows.

I think that's pretty much it for now. I'll try to post more updates so that I don't have to write any more monster updates like this one!

Two weeks ago I decided to try breaking my novel down to an outline written on 3x5 note cards. The result has been great. I haven't written every day over the past two weeks, but every time I have written I was able to churn out a minimum of 1,000 words.

The main difference using this process has been that every time I sit down, I plan to write a single scene or finish a long scene that I started the day before. Also, once I finish, I look at tomorrow's 3x5 card and I have an entire day to think about the next scene and how it relates to what's been written and what's still to come. The result of using this writing method is that the words pour out of me. My words per hour have increased from 500 to 750, but I only have about 1-2 hours of new fiction in me per day. I'm completely sold on using these cards.

The latest word count on this project is 18,927 and my end goal is estimated at 75,000 words, which is the 25% mark. I hoped to finish the first draft of this novel by June, but it looks like I'm going to fall short. Still, I'll be 3/4 finished, which is pretty good.

Ok, I took the step. Here's what I came up with for my novel Eighth Day.

Eighth Day takes place in a future version of our world, which exists in linked pocket universes that are run by corporate governments capable of time travel. Matt Osgood, a temporal investigator, finds himself in the center of events that will either cause the destruction of life as he knows it in the protected zones or the destruction of the world itself - a world which is being torn apart by corporate governments that are plundering the resources of the past.

The whole idea of an elevator pitch is terrifying and exciting all at once. Taking 75,000+ words of a novel and condensing them into no more than 150 words or 30 seconds of spoken prose to convey the essence of a novel - all while riding the theoretical elevator with an editor that will make your knees melt like butter - is once heck of a concept to tackle.

75,000+ words! Which ones to cut out? Which ones to leave in? How can a person be expected to condense the themes, drama, action, characters, and plot of a novel into such a microscopic amount of information?

It wasn't until I actually finished my outline and had nearly 12,000 words of fiction that I found I could even talk coherently about my novel - or even tell people that I'm working on a novel. The problem now is that people are asking for the quick pitch on the story and, honestly, I have no idea how to condense it all down into something that takes less than a minute to say.

I'd love to hear some of your elevator pitches.

I just found out that my novel wants to be told through multiple POVs. I had only planned on a close 3rd POV. I've never dealt with multi-POV before. Hurmph! At least I know why I was feeling a bit stalled with my writing.

Are novels supposed to decide these types of things? Who is in charge here?

Thanks to everyone for their support as I take on the task of writing my first novel.

I have only written about 400 new novel words over the last two days. However, I have written a 1,200 word summary of the plot as well as a couple pages of notes on how much technology works. I'll be sending all of this to my mentor for feedback. Since this is my first novel attempt, I thought it would be a good idea to get some feedback on my concept and how I plan to write the story.

The great thing about the process so far is that I am not wed to any one way of doing things with this novel, so whatever Jim says will have a real impact on the choices that I make as I go forward.

I've started my novel, which has a working title of Eighth Day. I anticipate that the finished product will be around 75,000 words, and if all goes well, it'll be completed by the time I leave Stonecoast in July 2009 - if not sooner.

4,434 / 75,000 (5.9%)