Gray Metal Faces

4/1/17 – future work on the novel (such as the draft of chapter 8, which begins today) will be posted on Gray Metal Faces, a new private blog. Anyone WordPress user who likes or leaves a comment for this page will be automatically added as a Follower to the new site.

6/5/16 – added a summary for chapter 7, and made significant changes to Butch’s family

3/7/16 – been too long since I’ve updated this page, previously titled “Yeah, I’m Writing a Novel” and now updated with the novel’s title. I’ve also added summaries for chapters 5 and 6.

1/5/14 – finally ready to begin drafting Chapter 5. I’ve also added background materials on the novel’s title and structure, setting, and characters, as well as summaries for chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4.

7/20/12 – the draft of Chapter 4 is finally in the books (an outdated metaphor perhaps, but still quaintly appealing). Had no idea where I was going when I started it, don’t know if I liked most of the stops I made along the way, but I’ve ended this journey with a sense of accomplishment, and at this point that’s all that matters to me. Next project will be a little different — not a chapter, more like an independent short story using the same characters and setting as the novel (still searching for a danged title). Maybe I’ll work it into one of the early chapters. Don’t know yet — let’s take this idea for a spin and see where I wind up.

3/4/12 – finished the Chapter 3 entries this week. Started in early January with little more than a seed of an idea, and while what I produced was hardly a mature flower, my chapter draft has grown, become as much a living thing as it can be. Revisions are necessary, and there’s still characters who need a good deal of development, but I’m finally starting to feel momentum building. An entire chapter draft in two months — that’s pretty exciting for me.

1/26/12 – for those of you scoring at home, I’ve decided to label my 27th post for the current chapter as Chapter 3.2A, with the next being 3.2B, and so on. The thought occurred to me that I should rename my earlier posts Chapter 3.1x, but then I realized there were more important things I could be doing, like flossing.

1/25/12 – my experiment for Chapter 3, writing short sequential bits, has been far more successful than I had hoped, as suggested by my having exhausted all the letters in the alphabet. Since the team’s just arrived at the tournament, I’m probably half-way through with the chapter, perhaps a little less. Once I figure out the labeling sequence for my subsequent entries (start with Chapter 3.A?), I’ll keep going, and maybe even have a completed draft by the end of February — much sooner than I had expected, and a great confidence boost if I can pull it off.

1/2/12 – second chapter draft is complete. My plan is for nine total chapters, which means that if I continue my current pace I’ll have the novel completed drafted — drafted, let me repeat — sometime in the summer of 2015. If that’s what it takes, then so be it — all I care about at this point is finishing.

7/10/11 – The draft of my novel’s opening chapter is complete, and can be downloaded by clicking here. I don’t have a title for either the chapter or the novel itself — for now I’ll trust those will come to me later.

6/12/11 – I don’t know where I’m going with this novel, whether it’ll get published or even read by anyone else. All I care about is getting this novel to exist. Knowing that what I have in my head will be out there, apart from me – that is my only goal for now.

1/3/11 – It’s been said that everyone has a novel within. Don’t know whether that’s true for everyone, but I do know I’ve had ideas inside me that have been demanding to be put into a long work of fiction.

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