Episode #116: Where Do We Go From Here, Now That The Ink Is Dry

This was taken during my initial hike of the 2022 season. The weather was unusually warm for mid-March, and this pic is of the stream that starts way at the top from a pond and meanders a good two to three miles towards the center.

So the post title up above is the question to the answer of "I've finished the first draft of the novel. Now what?"

Note: what some people call their initial draft of their story, that is, the original version before doing rounds of editing. Personally, I call the draft after the initial round of edits my 1st draft. The original is my initial draft.

Anywho, I did my usual round of editing (tightening/expanding sentences/grammar, fixing typos, etc) and wound up excising a grand total of 71 words, making a brand new word count of 55,939, with the handwritten percentage still hanging at a robust 59.3%. None too shabby, in my opinion, but still, I thought it would be greater, north or south.

And thus, here I sit, pondering what to do next after putting away this particular manuscript for the next year or so. I should point out that the reason for that length of shelving time has to do with the promise I made to myself at the beginning of 2021, which is when my retirement truly kicked in, which was to have at least three stories in the on deck circle, all primed and ready to move on to the next level.

Story #1 is actually a rewrite of a previously published novella that may or may not still be showing on this blog's side & static page. I wasn't really happy with some aspects of the book, so last year it was number one on my list of things to fix (e.g. new cover, new title, new p.o.v.); Story #2 is another re-write that I had professionally edited about eight or nine years ago. Some of the comments she made were ignored but others were acted upon. Changes were made and I'm quite happy with the way it turned out (split up the chapters among other things); and finally, the aforementioned Average American Novel.

Now since the blog post title was part rhetorical and part real, this is what we've ultimately decided to do. I've pulled out story number one and stuck a sticky on it to remind me of what has to be done next, but that won't be acted on for a few months or so. I've also finally started reading a fantasy/supernatural/romance trilogy put out by Rebecca L. Frencl (I also follow her FB page) that I had purchased during the Christmas season (don't judge my reading speed), which I had told her the magical words, "you pick", which is an excellent way to expand your reading horizons.

While all these things are indeed on my to-do list, ultimately, my to-do list starts with my den and part of the basement, mine again. I finally got started on it late last week by moving my c.d. racks and my c.d.'s down to the basement and purchasing wooden crates for my 45's. I anticipate this complete move in/purging to last until May.

So while I may not be doing any writing of any kind beyond blogging, I will be keeping myself tortuously occupied with sorting and moving. And just to give you a basic idea on how many c.d.'s I have, they got packed away into 6 1/2 Banker Boxes, an empty 500 count #10 envelope box and a smallish Amazon shipping box. I've already sorted 1 1/2 boxes plus the other two boxes mentioned and halfway through box number 3. Total count as of this post is 260.

Yeah, I am so doomed.

But, I should note that this was my original plan back in the early summer of 2021, which was to organize and rearrange me den, because, you know, I am retired and I needed something to occupy my time.

I'm still doomed. 😎

{c} 2022 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #115: Do You Use Enough Words When Titling?

This was taken back when I was more sharing of myself at my former agency, circa 2007-09. People, baseball is upon us, but, is the passion still there?

Today's post was inspired by a comment string in my FB writing group, as well as a comment made by Arlee Bird about my last post. The two comments in question were about book titles.

In the writing group, a friend/fellow writer asked if anyone had ever heard of a rule about book titles having to be at least five words in length. This brought a very lively and interesting conversation about the various word length for title, and what everyone's personal preferences are.

Over here, Arlee complimented me on my title choice for my latest project The Average American Novel, mostly about how interesting/intriguing it was. I briefly elaborated on what the title was/what it meant, etc., but it did get me thinking about what is and what isn't acceptable for word title length.

In the writing group, the general consensus was that 1} no one had never heard of such a rule and 2} three to four word titles seemed to the norm. I, of course, threw in my two pence worth, by saying that the majority of my book titles were three words, with just a few being slightly longer, and I said this with confidence. Sad to say, my confidence was misplaced, in that the bulk of my book titles are MORE THAN than three words (sometimes four or five is the rule of thumb), and not the other way around.

Granted, a caveat comes with that statement, in that the bulk of the short stories I've written have been three words or less. This is directly due to the fact that I am horrifically horrible at picking out a germane title for a story: case in point, one of my previously published short stories "Red Stripe" actually had no connection to the beer, and the original title of "The Inner Sibling" called "Line 21" had a very tenuous connection to the 1040 tax form.

So, to the issue at hand, my latest novel, which has a placeholder title of "The Great American Novel". As I've stated previously, I am horrifically horrible at choosing story titles. In the almost 11 years in dealing with this novel, it's had, at my last reasonable count, 7 different titles. And that's not including the previous incarnations in the various drives I had in those 11 years, which currently is sitting in a folder called, plainly enough, Novel_Project_3.

Because, although I know what the entire plot line for this story is from start to finish (very much a necessity), I still have no idea on how to approach it for a title. Thus the placeholder title, because if you devote about fifteen seconds of thought, you'd realize that a story about a turf war between two drug organizations does not lend itself to a title like that. Fortunately, one I get the first round of edits in, it'll be put into my needs-to-be-published pile, where it'll sit for about a year of so.

So how about you? What's your take on wordy titles, like them, loathe them or somewhere in the middle?

{c} 2022 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #114: Manuscript, Musings And Music

I know everyone is just completely over with Winter, but this is from the last snowstorm we had on 3/9, when I'd decided to gut it out for my morning walk. This was the best I could get at that time.

So early this morning, I'd finished transcribing the final 6 handwritten pages for my novel with the working tongue-in-cheek title Average American Novel. What's interesting about this novel is that it took me almost 5 months to complete the first draft, which clocks in at 56,010 words with about 59.3% being handwritten.

The reason why 5 months to complete is interesting is that I forced myself to meet an artificial deadline. What deadline, you may ask?

The deadline of needing to recreate and finish moving into my den. Roughly 90% of my stuff is still outside of my den (holding court in my basement), and I'd promised myself as soon as I finished the first draft and one round of pen-editing, I would concentrate moving back into my den on April 1st. I'm about two weeks ahead of schedule, so three cheers and a Eyeore for me accomplishing that goal.

So, to elaborate just a bit on the manuscript. It actually has no title beyond the tongue-in-cheek title that I've given to it on my blog. I'm still trying to figure out the minor nuances to the story, so as to have a better idea on what I'm dealing with beyond two drug organizations vying for power with tragic outcomes for everyone involved.

Like I've previously stated about handwriting/transcribing, using pen and paper has allowed me to slow down my process and plan things out more carefully while looking at the overall picture. It has also allowed me to really concentrate on my writing, which has led to the occasional bout of being severely startled.

Now, when it comes to transcribing, I mostly march to the beat of an out of tune snare drum. I hate music when I'm doing original writing, and this novel qualifies as original, but I have no problem in listening to it while I'm transcribing/editing, as was the case for my last two projects when I'd devoured some 100+ hours of classical/medieval/RPG/compilations of most genres/YT concerts.

Such was the case here, in which I whipped out the handy dandy c.d. player (remember those?) and started playing a boatload of c.d.s, both store bought and homemade. So, to give you a taste of what I was listening to while transcribing 9 chapters to the computer (that's the 59.3% previously mentioned), here is my list of 13 c.d.s listened top, plus short comments.

1} Oasis: (What's The Story) Morning Glory? This c.d. was their most successfully commercial release yet. A few Grammy nominations and about a half dozen FM radio staples. Rock/Brit Pop;

2} The Nields: Gotta Get Over Greta. Regional Folk/rock band that is now down to a duo/trio;

3} Steve Winwood: Back In The High Life. Comeback c.d. so to speak. Brit-Pop/Rock/Semi-Easy Listening;

4} Squeeze: East Side Story: Got this for their one monster hit. Brit-Rock;

5} The Seekers: Compilations: 60's folk at its finest;

6, 7 & 8} Samantha Fish: Chills & Fever, Kill Or Be Kind, Faster. Great blues guitarist;

9 & 10} John Mellencamp: Big Daddy & American Fool. Great Midwestern R&R;

11}McGuinn, Clark & Hillman: McGuinn, Clark & Hillman. Great rock with a country-folk flair to it;

12} Stray Cats: Built For Speed. Good rockabilly.

As you can see, it's quite an eclectic mish-mash of music that I've listened to while transcribing stuff. And this isn't counting about half dozen radio stations as well. Music does make the world go 'round, and in my case, makes the sluggish 12 w.p.m. not be that sluggish.

{c} 2022 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #113: When You Troll, Nobody Can Hear The Crickets Of Indifference

Wishing for it to be Spring already, with the mountain in bloom, the chimes gently swaying in the breeze and leaving a cacophony of manufactured sound in its wake.

Hi-dee-ho neighborettes and welcome to my corner of the world, where nothing is as it seems, and we gosh darn like it like that.

Since I really couldn't think of anything related to the Average American Novel this week beyond a word count update:

Total: 49,502.

Handwritten: 26,682.

Percentage: 53.9%.

And mentioning that I just transcribed chapter 15 and that I have two more chapters to go, I decided to touch upon the mini-trolling I do in my spare time, both in the real world and on FB.

Being retired means I have a lot of spare time on my hands to help out with things like pesky telemarketers. Our house has done a really decent job at whittling them down to less than five per day, and I like to think I've had a hand in that reduction.

Depending on the telemarketing scam and who is performing it, I'll either play stupid or be a complete misogynistic butt-hole.

I will often answer in a voice that's a cross between a man and a woman in a sing-song tone, which usually takes a couple of tries for them to answer on the other end. If it's some "charity" pimping for a cause, I'll wait for the robo/real person to get going before going all Karen on them, which either gets them to stop or be put on their do not call list. If it's a woman doing the pimping, I will get extremely inappropriate by asking about their measurements and such, which usually ends the call in less than 15 seconds and gets our number to be put on a do not call list.

If it's for my car warranty, I will wait for the Indian telemarketer with the American name to come on, and start doing my spiel by saying 1} I don't drive, 2} I ride a bike or 3} can you help me acquire a car.

Now one time about two weeks ago, my mother and wife were getting harassed by a DirectTV scammer who would just not go away. So when he called again to complain about us hanging up on him, I went full one night stand/cruisin' mode on the guy (note, I are not bent nor do I care if someone is). I started off by asking how well hung he is, about the maximum size I could take, can he fulfill my needs, etc.

This seemed to throw him for a loop, so I kept dog-piling until I got him to drop an "F" bomb by telling me to do something physically impossible, so I told him that I would need his personal help in completing that pleasant task. Suffice to say, he hasn't called back since.

Trolling on FB has been harder as of late though. I used to get suggested FB pages from vanity-hybrid publishers, so the first thing I'd do is to investigate their web-page, and since it was chock-full of all kinds of expensive scam packages, I would go to town on their FB page asking pointed questions about their business model. They in turn, would either give an ambiguous answer designed to make me go away, or ignore me. More often than not, the end result would be me seeing the page, but otherwise being blocked by them from either commenting or using an emoji.

The best results from my trolling were as follows {all of these are T.L.;DR versions}:

1} Had another vanity publisher get into an argument with me on another vanity publisher's FB page. Thus, I was killing it with two different publishers. Had back-up on my side as well.

2} Had a very nice lady who offered editing and publishing services (offering to actually publish the book for them) follow me over to my wall to continue the argument, and no matter how many times I would explain what they did made them a vanity, they still couldn't get it.

3} A national labor union page. That one lasted about three weeks, with me going into excruciating detail on how bad public sector unions are (disclaimer, former public sector union member for about 8 years, then withdrew shortly after Janus v AFSCME), and others telling me how "good" their private sector union is (personally on the fence about that). Eventually though, I got blocked from that page as well.

My trolling has dropped like the popularity of the current administration, mostly due to FB tweaking their algorithms/businesses tweaking their audience reach. Now I mostly troll potential elected representatives from other states about how incompetent their social media managers are, or businesses/organizations representing/writing about things I disagree with popping up as suggested pages.

I certainly hope you enjoyed this little slice of my personal life and hopefully we can do this again very, very soon.

{c} 2022 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved