Speak Stiltedly and Wear a Yellow Shirt

Word count: negative

The cool title is stolen, in honor of the blackout. We had power here in Boston; my personal experience of our Third World infrastructure consists of not being allowed to run an air conditioner off the Third World electrical wiring in my apartment building, frequently being unable to dial out on my modem because of the Third World phone wiring, and driving over the many condemned bridges and overpasses of Massachusetts.

I grew up in the First World; I’m not sure where it went.

I did lose about 150 words editing Colony, but my first draft of the Revised, Expanded Version is done. It’s a weird draft - some parts are complete as they stood in 2000, some parts are complete from 2002, and a few parts may even be complete from this month. Other parts are barely more than a paragraph and some directions, or raw talking-head dialogue.

What marks the draft as complete is the presence of 97 scenes corresponding to the 97 couplets in Locksley Hall. The original Colony used only scattered, appropriate couplets as inscriptions; part of my crazy scheme to rewrite Colony was to use the whole poem, in order. I’m surprised how many couplets still match their scenes.

Colony was 34,000 words when I posted it in 2000. As of today, it’s gained over 15,000 words, leaving about 30,000 to go for my goal of an average of 800 words per scene. I fully acknowledge that word and scene counts are no way to write a novel, but the more traditional method of waiting for the muse to drop a subplot in my lap was leading inexorably to the Borg, that last refuge of the uninspired.

Right now I need a break from Colony to pursue other fic. I think I’ll get back to it in late September or October for a second draft, if Stargate doesn’t distract me too much. I want it done in time to be eligible for the ASC Awards, although as a revision it may not be eligible at all.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 16th, 2003 at 11:33 pm and is filed under Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.