Falling In Love with My Own Writing #OpenBook Blog Hop

September 14, 2020

Tell us what you love the most about your work in progress.

I wrote The End today (Sunday). It felt really good to finish this first draft of The Ranger’s Dogtags.

I started way back in March and I didn’t expect it to take this long. I also didn’t anticipate that the story would be as many words as it is. I’ve been writing it by hand, and I’m guessing it has ended up in the 90,000 word range. That’s about 20,000 words more than any of the other books in The Harmony Duprie stories.

It’s the last book in the series. What do I love about it the most? 

I love how elements from other books in the series became part of this story. Things I hadn’t planned on including reached out and said “use me.” I can’t give you major examples because they would be spoilers. But if you’ve read the series, you know Harmony hates the idea of shooting at center mass.  That plays into the climatic scene. And here’s a quick (unedited) snippet of another reference.

Once upon a time and far away, we practiced yelling in the self-defense course. I drew on that memory now. Filled my lungs. And screamed.

My shout echoed in the night. His throw faltered. The light arched through the darkness. Bounced against the house. Landed in the juniper bushes that lined the front. He bolted towards the neighbor’s yard and beyond.

I had two choices. Chase after the arsonist. Put out the fire. The bushes were expendable.


Do you recognize the reference? 

And I love how Harmony adapted and changed after I took her out of her familiar surroundings and still managed to retain her character. I was worried about it.

Oh, and I got to kill off a character that’s been in the entire series. I didn’t plan on it, but it turned out to be the right thing to do. No hints. Just don’t hate me.

What don’t I like? I’m worried that I have too many characters and that \readers will get lost. I haven’t figured out who I can cut yet. Too many last names begin with the letter ‘s.’ That’s an easy fix. I need to make the villain more villainous. That should be fun.

Normally editing comes next. Not for this book. Since I wrote it by hand, I still have several paper tablets that I have to transcribe. I’d like to get them off my desk. Once that’s done, I’ll probably take a couple of weeks off to catch up on reading. I have let too many books pile up. Chances are I won’t have it edited before next year. There’s a lot of tweaks I’m already planning.

I wonder how the rest of our authors are doing. You can find out by following the links below.

Until next time, stay safe!

September 14, 2020

Tell us what you love the most about your work in progress.

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11 Comments

  1. I really liked. The action. Scene. Flowed. Nicely from. Event. To event.
    Just bustin’ your chops. I’m in the same place with one right now. To damn many superfluous characters. It was rocking along and got WAY off in the weeds.
    You people and your longhand. I used to talk to a cassette and then an SD recorder on long drives through nowhere getting to the next chunk of civilization. Even then I tried to get Dragon to listen so I didn’t have to do it twice. I suppose the benefit is all the jewels in the margins but I learned a long time ago to cut, not to delete and pull that stuff from Ditto at the end of a session and drop it in a misc thoughts chapter at the bottom of the manuscript. Finding the perfect pen is another issue. I love fountain pens but…

    • I am burning through my supply of “complimentary” pens. You know, the kind that you pick up at events and from hotel rooms. I think I’ve gone through 6 or 7 of them so far.

      • Once in a while you get a free one that writes perfectly. Most of time they’re bargain end BIC stick clones that build up that ball of ink goop and drop it at the beginning of a line. And when they smear they’re sort of a modern illuminated initial!

  2. I’ve got some I’ve picked up at writer’s events and technical conferences. They aren’t perfect, but they are a step above the hotel room variety.

  3. I love the extract, I want to now more. I love fountain pens but my writing is so bad, I could have been a doctor! I have to type notes up before I forget what I’ve said. Which kind of defeats the object.

    • My handwriting is an odd mix of cursive and block, and inconsistent. I’m looking at a random paragraph and three i’s are block and one is cursive.

  4. How interesting to write a book by hand. I never write by hand, I always type onto my phone, laptop or ipad. I do know other authors who write by hand though, so you are not alone. I’m delighted you like your characters. I like mine while I’m writing, but as soon as I’m finished they sort of fade away.

  5. I used to write by hand all the time, but I learned how to draft on the typewriter in journalism and then once I got a computer, I began to write as much as I could there to save a step. Now, I only write in a notebook if we’re out hiking or sometimes on a plane. It’s just too much work to transcribe it.

    But there is an advantage. I remember when I used to hand-write and then transcribe, it acted like an editing phase and a darned good one. There’s a scene in a later book of What If Wasn’t that was hand-written. I transcribed it this summer because notebooks have a way of going awry (Brad borrows them to write down something and they never make it back to where they belong). Anyway, it’s like this incredible poetic prose and I’m thoroughly in awe of it, though nobody will get to read it for a few years.

    I had a similar issue with both Cai Delaney and Jazz Tully in Transformation Project. They both need to step up and deal with violence in their world (apocalyptic setting, you know), but neither of them wants to kill people. Cai has and he’ll always carry that with him. Jazz hasn’t (yet). And then there’s Shane, who has no problem shooting center of mass until after the fact and that’s a problem for his mental health. And going forward from the events of “Winter’s Reckoning” he’s going to be dealing with that conundrum. Center of mass means they no longer threaten you, but does he always need to do that? Hmm….

  6. I’ve said this somewhere before, but my creative process is different writing by hand than on the computer. And you’re exactly right about the transcribing process, Lela, it does become a light editing round.

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