Category: Uncategorized

Spent some time today working on the plot for a new project. 

This time I’m trying to use notecards from beginning to end.  For other books and projects in the past, I’ve used whatever technique seemed best for whatever piece of the story I was thinking about at the time.  Milkweed started out on one giant whiteboard, and then I worked on notecards and scraps of paper as I got into the details of each book, act, and chapter.

So, the completely legitimate email I received today begins with this salutation:

IL TREGILLIS of U.S.A., Congratulations on Your Nomination to Who’s Who in Medicine and Healthcare

Finally!  Some validation.  It’s like the folks at Marquis Who’s Who have known me my entire life.

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned that I prefer to edit the old fashioned way, with pen and paper.

I’ve been doing quite a lot of that lately.  Enough that I used up one of my favorite editing pens this evening.  So I thought it would be fun to post some pictures of how the pages actually look once they’ve been savaged by the dreaded red ball point.  (Or, failing “fun”, at least it’s an easy blog post.)

Below the cut, photos of a work in progress.

In just a couple of weeks, I’ll be heading to Tempe for Leprecon 37.  

Why not consider a weekend trip to Arizona?  If you come to Leprecon, we can hang out!  When I’m not on programming.

Speaking of which, my schedule is below the cut.

For me, revision is the most rewarding part of the writing process.  It’s the time when all the false starts fall away, when the infelicities of language become fully functioning turns of phrase.  When all the hard work of original composition has been completed (mostly), and I can turn my attention to issues of language and character.  

And, because I’m old-fashioned when it comes to revisions, working with pen and paper, I can physically see the work improving.  I can touch the improvements.  Feel them.  I do it this way because I’m practically incapable of carrying out successful, big-picture revisions purely on my laptop screen.  I can’t see the sentences as they’re actually written, can’t see the story, if I can’t also touch it.