The final word was typed last night. Today the last two chapters will be gone over and then the manuscript will be given a cooling-off period before a hopefully final edit. I use Grammarly to help correct documents. This program has to be treated like spell check to be certain the suggestions it offers are in line with the actual intent of sentences. As mentioned earlier, future projects may be limited to short stories, except I reserve the right to complete a few long manuscripts already begun.
DRY WATER is a writer's blog for Charles "Mitch" Turner. His blog of free stories is here: https://cturnertales.blogspot.com/ Author of Mexican Red, Gwenn Wrenn, or, The Hollow Planet, Bonobos, Sam Paine, Spelville, Beyond the Dark Water, Ebenezer's Ghost and Poppy Fields of Mars.
Friday, June 26, 2020
Tuesday, June 23, 2020
About Mexican Red
It's my first effort in western novels. Begun at least two years ago. I generally know what I want to say, but it's a major operation to put all the elements together. Most of my first drafts are comparable to an artist who begins a canvas by drawing stick figures on it and then alters a line here and there until realistic portrayals of people emerge from those simple lines. It depends on the artist how well it turns out.
Years of writing verse almost exclusively has turned my prose into a bare bones operation, making the stories fill fewer pages while telling just as much story as works thousands of words longer. Some prefer long winded writing. It's okay to like whatever you want to like.
Many instances of my language can be nit-picked for not being authentic old west. It's the same with history. Not a history lesson. It's more Hopalong Cassidy than Parkman's The Oregon Trail.
Others may find discomfort in the fluidity of moving the narrative from character to character. I couldn't tell the same story if I did it another way.
So as I prepare to write the final several pages, it would seem it is almost ready to be read. But not so fast. Then it will sit unread by me for a time and then almost certainly undergo some revisions when I revisit a final time or three. Or four or five. And then most readers may hate it. By then I may hate it too.
Years of writing verse almost exclusively has turned my prose into a bare bones operation, making the stories fill fewer pages while telling just as much story as works thousands of words longer. Some prefer long winded writing. It's okay to like whatever you want to like.
Many instances of my language can be nit-picked for not being authentic old west. It's the same with history. Not a history lesson. It's more Hopalong Cassidy than Parkman's The Oregon Trail.
Others may find discomfort in the fluidity of moving the narrative from character to character. I couldn't tell the same story if I did it another way.
So as I prepare to write the final several pages, it would seem it is almost ready to be read. But not so fast. Then it will sit unread by me for a time and then almost certainly undergo some revisions when I revisit a final time or three. Or four or five. And then most readers may hate it. By then I may hate it too.
Friday, June 12, 2020
Because I write so slowly I am able to slip in the occasional short story.
So yesterday I began a short about a man not willing to be conscripted to fight in the Civil War, who heads out west.
Wednesday, June 3, 2020
Getting Closer
I'm getting closer to the end of Mexican Red. There are a few issues to address before it can happen.
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