Sunday, May 3, 2009

New room, not enough words

We had a spell of hot weather last week, and my mom discovered that her bedroom gets so much sun that it's sort of like a greenhouse. She doesn't like the heat, so she asked if I would change bedrooms with her. Her bedroom is twice the size of mine, with four windows and three closets, a windowseat, and her computer and TV and DVD player in it. Twist my arm!

Mostly we just moved our clothes and swapped mattresses (since I like my hard-as-a-rock mattress and Mom likes her saggy poofy one). It didn't take long. It's rained all weekend long, and the greenish light filtering through the trees just outside makes my new bedroom cool and inviting. I may feel differently in July and August, but for now it's quite pleasant.

My goal today is to finish revising "Never Be Alone," the 13,000 word SF story that made it to the WOTF semi-finals, got interest from pro markets, but ultimately has exhausted pretty much every paying market that will look at stories that long. I plan to send it to Panverse Publishing, a new publisher specializing in novellas. But to do that, I have to add to the story and make it at least 15,000 words! After all that work I did to get it under 13,000! That's okay, since I have an idea for a good scene or two, and I want to change the ending quite a bit.

8 comments:

Aaron Polson said...

Hooray for room switching!

You can sneeze 2,000 words. Go to it!

K.C. Shaw said...

I added about 700, and now I'm sort of stuck. I've moved to work on another story that only needs minor revisions (to take out the swearing and move the axe murder offstage, for a YA market) while I come up with ways to expand the first story. It feels good to be working on something!

Jameson T. Caine said...

What kind of SF is it? You could always throw in a temporal recursion loop and have everyone repeat their previous actions. Just copy the appropriate text and paste back into the story again! Presto! an instant 2000 words.

Sorry, I'm in a goofy mood tonight.

K.C. Shaw said...

If I thought I could get away with it, I'd do it. Alas, it's not that kind of SF.

Cate Gardner said...

Oh, I love that room. It looks so light and airy (despite the fact it's probably sweltering). I have always wanted a window seat and a closet.

K.C. Shaw said...

It actually is really light and airy, and since it's cooled down again it's not a bit sweltering. I've got a fan, and the house is air conditioned, it just isn't very effective upstairs in this particular room. So far I really like it! And the closets are especially nice.

Jamie Eyberg said...

Very nice looking room. It is calming and makes me sleepy just looking at the picture.

I saw that market yesterday and I thought of you. You can do it.

K.C. Shaw said...

I hope so! I fell asleep thinking of subplots I can develop. It's kind of nice to need to add words instead of cut them.