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Julie Rose has a soundtrack for Jeff Sypeck at Writers and Their Soundtracks.

And the next installment of Blood is Thicker than Water is up at Las Habladoras. Yeah, I know it’s Wednesday. Welcome to the fall semester. 🙂

Today’s word count.

31,378 / 75,000 (41.0%)

This is mostly the addition of the new master outline, as I had one of *those* days at work. It’s the first day back, and the unregistered students are like woah…I have to go in tomorrow, but I plan to run away at noon and work on a couple of scenes from 12-3. Dangit!

So, some trivia. Since I’m rewriting Tony’s fantasy of the Lemaean Hydra tomorrow, can you tell me how many heads the hydra had? I also plan to rewrite the scenes establishing Tony and Bianca’s relationship, and write the first draft showing Leo’s interest in his boss Diana. A tad ambitious, but that’s what I want.

See you tomorrow!

I received my beautiful little Endowed Chair brochure yesterday. I’m going to try to get the picture from it into my icon mix. I look like some professor.

Tomorrow is supposed to be my first day off for writing, but I guess I have to be here to field student traffic. That’s sort of anti-climactic really, and I’m cranky about that. I want my Endowed Chair, and I want it now.

So, I guess this is me, suggesting for the second time publicly this year, that I could consider another job if my writing life took off, if I had enough to pay for those insurance/retirement things.

The rest would just be me being cranky, so I’ll stop now.

Catherine

Right. So, the master outline for Hulk Hercules is done. Hoo and hah.

It’s got subplots and action. It’s got romance. It’s got historical perspective. AND it’s got wrestling.

Tomorrow we begin again with the writing, so look for a Herc-o-meter near you.

I have a question for all of you agented writers. Recently, July 25th, an agent wrote me via email and said that he would send me some comments on Substance soon.

By the way, yes, this is a very good sign, I know. I think there might be some interest there, else why not just send me a rejection? At any rate, the mystery continues. Three weeks have gone by with no sign of any email or snail mail, both of which methods have been used by the agent in question.

How long should I wait before asking the agent if he might have sent anything? Would one month be appropriate, or should I wait two? I understand that publishing is a slow industry, and if the agent’s life has been like my own work life recently, I certainly understand. Yet, I do not wish to miss an opportunity by being unresponsive.

What would you do to look professional in this situation? I really don’t want to look more like a noob than I already do.

Thanks for any advice.

Catherine

I’ve been at a convention this weekend, and so have been very busy. And then, today, work was very intense. I leave you all to get back to my HH: PW outline, which didn’t get touched this weekend, because of all the teaching. It’s good. I’m ahead of where I should be, but I HATE getting off the routine.

Anyway, why write here at all? My copies of Indelible Companions arrived, the small publication with Yellow Cat and the Man in it. Yellow Cat appears to be the longest piece. Bryon picked them up Saturday morning by accident, and read the piece, and had to cry for fifteen minutes. I looked them over in the room, read it, and had to cry for fifteen minutes. We have to stop doing that.

So, I think this is all of you reading this who asked for a copy.

Cat
Dan and Lisa
Mark and Michelle

After I factor in family, I still have 2 extra, so I can’t figure out if those more comps, or if two more of you out there want them? Please let me know, because I’ve (stupidly) misplaced my list. If I’ve missed you, I’m sorry.

Must away to write!

Catherine

Time to confess. I am about to move out of first drafting and into second drafting.

Wait, you might say. You’re still writing the first draft of HH:PW. Ah, that I am, little buckaroos. And I still intend to have my first draft done by October 1st.

However, writing for many of us is a lot like taking a 4X4 out into the mud. You might remember doing this, back in the days of plentiful gas. I’ve actually only ever done this in my metaphorical redneck imagination, but if I *had* done it, I would’ve gotten mud everywhere. Yup, windows, doors, mud flaps…the salient point here is that writing gets messy.

So, I can write for a while, but that gets my brain clicking away on how it could be better almost immediately. Then I’ll start noticing crap, like how I really don’t know jack about wrestling maneuvers, or how I want the plot to go one way, not the way I originally thought. The characters’ voices become different than I thought, I’ll need to draw characters out in different ways than I thought, you get the idea.

So, then, I have to go back and re-frame and refocus. Then I’ll go back to that first draft, and expand, seriously expand what’s there. I’ll whack what I think sucks, and then I’ll add in those things that I wanted to after re-framing. So we’re sort of in the first and second drafts at the same time.

I know you guys do this. I know you do. Especially those of you who aren’t outliners?

So. Right now, tonight, after I’m done with my small confessional, my immediate task is to outline the labors, figuring out which ones will be wrestling labors, which ones will be zoo labors, and which ones will be Hera induced labors. Then I will weave in all the Tony/Bianca/Hannah school plots. Then the Modern Gods parts of the plot. The Hera plot points. The Leo/Diana/Polly subplots. The Tony/Bianca/Hannah subplots. And then I’ll organizing and expanding what I’ve already written, and take first cracks at what I haven’t.

So, bottom line is this: You won’t see a word count meter for a little bit. I’ll get started getting organized in Scrivener. I will continue to weigh in here. Remember, it keeps me honest.

I’m very interested in any discussion you’d like to share on your own process. To me, that’s fascinating stuff.

Off to outline in Scrivener. Woot!

Catherine

Well, I’d best explain this jump in word count.

My wrestling matches were getting samey. So, in lieu of producing plot today, I went out and researched wrestling moves. Ultimately, the ones I need will be integrated into matches, but right now, it’s all part of the rough draft.

I learned some fascinating things today, and I hope to learn more. For example, I now know what a lariat is. And how to do a Go To Sleep. Watch out! I’m walking dangerous. In my head, anyway.

Tomorrow, I hope to return to the regular Herc-o-meter.

***

While we’re here, yes, Cerebus’ tail is a snake. Keeping with today’s theme, do you know how to do a lariat? I know, that’s not mythology, but hey, Hercules *is* a wrestler too.

30,866 / 75,000 (41.0%)

I have purchased Scrivener for use on the Mac Air. Once I am through the rough draft, I will use it to revise HH:PW and let you know what I think. I found it irresistible as I ran through the demo last weekend.

***

Today’s Word Count:

21,010 / 75,000 (27.0%)

27 percent, baybee!

***

Yesterday’s trivia was correctly answered by Frankie: King Augeas of Ellis was our man.

Now, to change gears. Cerberus had three heads. What was his tail like?

And Herculean wisdom: Most of the gods who wanted to get even weren’t bad. They were like many of the people in stories. Someone had to be the bad guy. Someone had to be maligned. Even if the real perpetraitor of terrible events turned out to be a much worse scoundrel that the stories decided they would glorify.

Life isn’t fair, Hera. Life just isn’t fair.

The next installment of Blood is Thicker than Water is up at Las Habladoras.

And Julie Rose’s interview with Hal Duncan is up at Writers and their Soundtracks.

Catherine