And Seeing Is Believing is DONE!
Aug. 30th, 2007 08:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marfiskDown to the wire with my next book already panting in the wings, Seeing Is Believing is done!
This has been a rough, long road, a good bit because real life kept demanding its fair...or more than fair...share of my time and energy.
Will the story hold together when I reread the draft? Well, I'm not expecting perfection, but the threads are there, it definitely has a beginning, middle, and end, and I like the characters. I'd have to say, though I expect a good bit of editing, I think it will hold, will stand, and will become something grand when I'm done kicking the tires.
Here I am at the end (well, of this step at least) and I have to look back and laugh.
This book began as a "simple" short story idea for the Gotham Writers SF workshop taught through Barnes and Noble University. It was actually my second attempt at a short story for the class, as the first also grew to novel proportions when subject to the provided world building techniques. There's a reason I don't do prework on short stories ;).
Anyway, what is now a complicated tale about a young man finding out who he really is while putting a post-invasion Earth on the path to recovery began as something simple.
The core?
LASIK.
The original idea was in a society where everyone's vision is corrected from birth to be perfect 20/20, what would happen if a renegade offered visual distortion as a pastime? Something along the lines of an opium den but with the "drug" being funny mirrors, distorted lenses, and the like.
If you've never had the chance, go to your local science museum and ask if they have a set of beer goggles. If they don't, tell them to talk to the San Jose Tech Museum (in California) about them. These are a pair of glasses with distortion lenses so you see the way you would if completely drunk. The goal is to walk a straight line...take a basic sobriety test...with them on. Let me tell you it is not remotely easy :).
Anyway, needless to say, this moved well beyond that original concept, so far that very few of those elements remain. Still, it's fun to look back to that starting point and trace the story's roots, which is why I shared the story.
And my final first draft stats:
New Words: 448 words (These last chapters grew tiny ;))
71 scenes
71 complete - 100% of the novel (Oh that 100% looks good :).)
0 Scenes remain
0 Remaining word count
91182 Estimated length - with an average of 1284 words per scene.
91182 Current Total -- (Until I edit that is :).)
This has been a rough, long road, a good bit because real life kept demanding its fair...or more than fair...share of my time and energy.
Will the story hold together when I reread the draft? Well, I'm not expecting perfection, but the threads are there, it definitely has a beginning, middle, and end, and I like the characters. I'd have to say, though I expect a good bit of editing, I think it will hold, will stand, and will become something grand when I'm done kicking the tires.
Here I am at the end (well, of this step at least) and I have to look back and laugh.
This book began as a "simple" short story idea for the Gotham Writers SF workshop taught through Barnes and Noble University. It was actually my second attempt at a short story for the class, as the first also grew to novel proportions when subject to the provided world building techniques. There's a reason I don't do prework on short stories ;).
Anyway, what is now a complicated tale about a young man finding out who he really is while putting a post-invasion Earth on the path to recovery began as something simple.
The core?
LASIK.
The original idea was in a society where everyone's vision is corrected from birth to be perfect 20/20, what would happen if a renegade offered visual distortion as a pastime? Something along the lines of an opium den but with the "drug" being funny mirrors, distorted lenses, and the like.
If you've never had the chance, go to your local science museum and ask if they have a set of beer goggles. If they don't, tell them to talk to the San Jose Tech Museum (in California) about them. These are a pair of glasses with distortion lenses so you see the way you would if completely drunk. The goal is to walk a straight line...take a basic sobriety test...with them on. Let me tell you it is not remotely easy :).
Anyway, needless to say, this moved well beyond that original concept, so far that very few of those elements remain. Still, it's fun to look back to that starting point and trace the story's roots, which is why I shared the story.
And my final first draft stats:
New Words: 448 words (These last chapters grew tiny ;))
71 scenes
71 complete - 100% of the novel (Oh that 100% looks good :).)
0 Scenes remain
0 Remaining word count
91182 Estimated length - with an average of 1284 words per scene.
91182 Current Total -- (Until I edit that is :).)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-08-30 03:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-30 06:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-30 06:49 pm (UTC)I love how many novels start as short story ideas, or how often a "simple idea" explodes like popcorn. :-)
no subject
Date: 2007-08-30 07:08 pm (UTC)And yeah, finding out so much more about the characters is a blast :D.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-30 07:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-30 07:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-30 11:17 pm (UTC)I like the idea and congrats on a momentous accomplishment!
Suelder
no subject
Date: 2007-08-30 11:34 pm (UTC)My little sister works at the Tech and she showed us all the neat stuff :). It's amazing how much of the disorientation in drunkenness is visual though!
no subject
Date: 2007-08-31 12:00 am (UTC)Suelder
no subject
Date: 2007-08-31 12:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-03 10:14 pm (UTC)Suelder
I's intrigued.
Date: 2007-08-31 11:30 pm (UTC)Your mind seems to go in the same type of directions as mine.... ;)
Cheers,
CA
Re: I's intrigued.
Date: 2007-09-01 12:15 am (UTC)Actually, I just read an interesting article in Scientific American about how normal people become monsters in the right circumstances. How this relates to Seeing? Not at all. It actually relates to a portion of Selkie. But I thought you might want to look it up regarding your 2YN. It's Bad Apples and Bad Barrels in the August 2007 issue. Just a teaser really, but...
Re: I's intrigued.
Date: 2007-09-07 04:02 pm (UTC)Cheers,
CA
I read it!
Date: 2007-09-07 05:04 pm (UTC)CA
Re: I read it!
Date: 2007-09-07 05:06 pm (UTC)Re: I read it!
Date: 2007-09-08 10:44 pm (UTC)Cheers,
CA