A Sample of My Genius!

Moving slow on the current section of "First". I've only been getting in about 500 or so words at a clip. Definitely below par for me but it's progress and I'll take it. The good thing is I like the words I've been getting. I like the feel of them somehow; they resonate for me. I've been making an effort to be more tactile in my writing. I have a tendency to push right through to action sequences and gloss over details and surroundings. I'm worried that might be making the work seem a bit 2-D. It's a strange balancing act; I don't want flat characters, etc. but neither do I want to bore the hell out of readers with paragraph after paragraph of prose about the color of the trees. (I tend to skip that crap when I read). I'm trying to add a bit more description in the regular work and maybe interspercing a few paragraphs here and there that are just setting. Here's a paragraph from "First" that I wrote at lunch today:

Kras Dhun -Roof of the World- a forgotten place in the midst of an unforgiving land. It was a place of ice; of coldness so deep and unyielding that the very earth itself had forgotten the warm touch of sun on its surface. Ice, covered by snow, covered by more ice was the entirety of the terrain. The great peaks of Kras Dhun towered above the insignificant lands below, their tops piercing so deeply into the painfully blue skies that one had to look down to see the tops of the misty white clouds that flowed like river water along the frigid currents of air that danced between mountains. Here, the warm blood of the earth did not flow. Here, the ice grew like a living beast, in shades of pink and steel blue so deep they defied description in human tongue. The warmest of days were so cold a man could perish in moments upon the frozen slopes, bitter winds robbing the precious warmth of his body and freezing the very blood within him. The nights, which could last for cycles of the moon, were worse. No living creature stirred upon Kras Dhun in the darkness. Even the shaggy, long horned, Hava huddled tightly together in deep grottos beneath the ice when night came to Kras Dhun. Night was a time of certain death, a time of winds that carried the coldness of the void in their teeth

It's rough, first draft, stuff of course but I like it. There's a decent amount of description without getting overly verbose (I hope!). It needs polishing (obviously) but it's the sort of balance I'm trying to hit. Actually, reading back over it, the whole "defied description in human tongue" thing is an annoying and cheesy dump out on my part but, I'll leave it in for your amusement . . .

I was watching a movie the other night (City of Angels) and they were discussing Hemingway's writing. Nick Cage points out that old Ernest never failed to describe how things tasted, smelled, and felt. That struck me as particularly important and I realized that it's something I have not been doing in my own writing. The five senses are all we truly know in this world. It strikes me as a particularly stupid thing on my part (no real surprise there, eh?) that I've been avoiding those senses when I write. Live and learn, right?

Gonna be a crazy weekend. The wife and I are running a fundraiser for the boy's Scout troop and I also have to start emptying the basement so the contractor can start next weekend (we hope!). I have no idea where I'm gonna put all of it but I'll figure something out. With a little luck, I'll get time in there for some more writing and maybe I'll find the nerve to jump back on the "Clans" editing! Just to keep you up to speed on the Agent queries: I'm starting a lovely collection of polite form rejections. (sigh) Still have two more outstanding but I imagine the results will be the same. I'm thinking the synopsis is not good enough to grab their attention. I'm positive the book is publishable but this is my first try at a synopsis. I'll take it back to the drawing board and try a second round of submittals. After that . . . I have no clue.

Later!