A writer is at a party where he meets a neurosurgeon. “So you write books,” the surgeon said. “I’ve always thought about taking a summer off to write a book.” “That’s funny,” said the writer. “I’ve thought about taking a summer off to do some brain surgery.”
So, we’re knee-deep in summer now, and for me it’s always more of a challenge to maintain my writing discipline, but I’ve been pretty good so far. The main thing I’ve been working on is editing, and that’s a bit harder to put a metric on. When you’re writing, you can use daily word count to track your progress. That doesn’t quite work with editing.
Given that, here’s where things stand, and where I plan things to go for the rest of 2013.
Thorn of Dentonhill, Holver Alley Crew and Maradaine Constabulary are, of course, out in the world shopping. I try not to dwell too much on the details of this process. That’s what agents are for.
Way of the Shield is finally finished as a rough draft. Editing it to a fine, clean draft that is worth sending to my agent is my current “main” project. Part of that is also outlining summaries for the planned Books Two and Three of Way of the Shield. Knock on wood, that stuff should all be send to the Agent by the end of July. Should.
Secondary project is fine-tuning the outline for Banshee, which has gone through a lot of permutations over the years. However, I’ve found a new angle that really excites me, and I look forward to tackling that once I send out Shield.
Beyond that, I’ve got a handful of loose ideas that haven’t quite coalesced into a plan. Of course, with any luck, someone will be wanting the Book Two for Thorn, Holver Alley, Maradaine Constabulary or Way of the Shield. I might even write a first chapter for each as a warm up. I’m thinking of also trying my hand at novelette/novella length works. We’ll see. I’ve had some Secret Projects that I’ve intentionally kept back-burnered until I finished the quartet. So something may beat its way into the forefront of my brain.
Also: Rayguns Over Texas will be an actual, printed book that you can hold in your hands in two months. Isn’t that exciting? I mostly consider it a small reward, a reminder that this hard work will be worth it. And it will. And as another reminder of that, here’s Macklemore to play you out.
Quite an ego trip. Bad writing does not kill anyone. Bad surgery can. There is no ultimate standard for good writing but the best a surgeon can do is restore full function.
I think you miss the point of the joke: that writing a book is often minimized as something anyone could do if they just bothered to. That it isn’t a process of hard work and study. The joke highlights that misconception.