The jury is out on the fourth draft – Locked In is coming soon

I finally polished it off enough that I feel good about sending out the fourth draft of Locked In to a select group of people for proofreading. It’s my first work of fiction, and I am more than a little nervous at its reception.

At this stage, I feel like I can’t get much farther in a vacuum. I need more eyes. Right now any changes I would make are minute – word substitutions and random grammar edits that slipped though. If there is something huge wrong with it, then somehow I managed to miss it in the last three edits.

Now, for June’s story, Locked Out. (See what I did there?) I hope you like zombies. (You don’t? Tough luck, for now.) I love zombies, but I hate the rote “group of survivors” stories. If I want that, I can play Left 4 Dead 2. I’m looking at things from different angles. Locked In is about being a zombie. Locked Out is about the researchers trying to stop the infection while under seige. There might be a third on the horizon, but I think that’s enough spoilers about my zombie apocalypse for now.

The cast is called, the outline is written and I just need to put my fingers to the keyboard. The story exists, I just need to put it onto paper.

Locked Out will be much more complicated than Locked In, and possibly much longer. I wrote Locked In to get momentum, to prove to myself that I can do fiction. Locked Out is a more nuanced story as I’ve planned it, and the characters are much more human (they’re not zombies, which helps interaction). I see Locked Out as the practice precursor to my first novel. I have several ideas for novels, but I’m torn on whether to write the fantasy/steampunk epic, a hard sci-fi story on the edge of the galaxy or a cyberpunk future dystopia. All of these seem like a great way to get my geek on, but I don’t want to ruin them with inexperience.

I have some reviews to do tomorrow and the next day. A good week all things considered.

Third draft done. Bring on the fourth

I finally got it inputted. Finally. I agreed with most of the changes I made, and even threw in a few others. It reads much more smoothly and is more involving.

I started laying down the outline for June’s story. It just might be something.

I have come to the conclusion that I may, in fact, be demented. I am completely okay with this. Nothing beats coming up with the most depraved supernatural romance ever. It is possibly also the only dark romance I’d want to actually read. There’s also nothing like zombie stories to make you question your own sanity.

Life’s just more fun when you learn to love being insane.

Internship approved my idea. I’m so happy. It’s time to write about some anarchy!

Now, time to whip out the red pen of doom and finish this.

May’s short story rough draft complete.

I’m not bringing out the champagne just yet. More like a hacksaw. The first parts of the story illicit  a “who wrote this crap” reaction. The rest needs significant cleaning up, and I need to break my love affair with certain words.

I’m still in love with the concept as much as I was initially. Now that it’s all down on paper, I can start doing it real justice. I’m my own harshest critic, and I know that I can be a real monster.

I’m hoping I’ll be comfortable enough to put it out here for the world to see in the middle of May.I have a slight fear that I’ll pigeonhole myself into writing nothing but existential zombie stories forever. However, since I’m not exactly a traditionalist, I don’t give a damn about what anybody expects of me anymore. I’ve spent enough of my life worrying about shaping up to other people’s dreams. So I’ll write whatever lame genre fiction, nonfiction or literary prose I like, and everyone gets to like it!

I might have to hold off on starting the edits for a couple of days, because I have a giant consulting project to research and work on, with preliminary mind-maps due Monday.

Maybe the technological and creative pursuits give me a kind of balance and grounding. I can always turn one off and work on the other, if needed.

Maybe I’ll go play more Portal 2. I’m on chapter 7 and I really want to know what happens!

Hello world: Now less automatically generated.

Creativity is an odd beast. It eludes me some days, and others it seems as though I can barely adapt to the deluge of new thoughts and ideas.

I’ve been writing for a long time, chiefly for academic purposes. I always took pride in a prize, or a well-received composition, but I never thought of it as a lifestyle. Then, in 2010, I became a reviewer and began to see writing in an entirely different light. Far less formulaic and subjective than the rigors of academic prose, it was a gateway to inner creativity. My task now is to show readers what the film/play/concert was like, with my own voice and style, rather than proving some dreary thesis statement. It is fascinating, but I feel that I am simply a mirror that reflects what it sees, in the end I create nothing.

Recently, my thoughts turned to fiction, fantasy, science-fiction and horror; genres which have captivated me all my life. While the perks of being a reviewer are great, and it is a lot of fun, I want to create works of my own, create worlds and stories and take readers to emotional highs and lows.

Greetings and welcome, I hope you enjoy your stay.