David D. LevineScience Fiction Author

Word count: 81475 | Since last entry: 783 | This month: 2827 I just killed two red-shirts and a major secondary character (well, he’s not dead yet, but he’s not at all a well cat) in a gunfight — the first such action in this book. I hope I didn’t make any major firearms or wound errors, but one of my critiquers is a Vietnam vet, so if I got anything wrong I’m sure I’ll hear about it. The shooting itself was over in a couple of seconds realtime; tonight’s 783 words (a bit less than an hour and a half of writing) cover at most three minutes of the fight and its immediate aftermath. Here’s a funny thing. I’m a pacifist, solidly anti-handgun, and before starting this novel I had never even fired one. But my Writers of the Future prizewinning story was about a commando and a terrorist, and featured several gunfights. One of the WotF staffers was surprised when he met me — after reading my story he thought I’d be some kind of big, burly military guy (I’m five-foot-five, 140 pounds). So, as unconfident as I am, I know I can write a convincing gunfight, especially with friends to check my technical details. Jason and Sienna are now almost out of the U.N. They’ll be bursting onto a New York sidewalk — bloody and carrying guns — in a few dozen words. They don’t have a car. How the heck am I going to get them out of this? (Okay, I have some ideas…)

Word count: 80692 | Since last entry: 324 | This month: 2044 Having barely escaped one confrontation with guards, Jason and company run smack into another. Am I milking the situation too much? Maybe — if so, I can easily cut some incidents. I don’t want a James-Bond-style “slip unnoticed past the guards,” though — that seems unrealistic. But something is going to have to snap soon.

Word count: 80368 | Since last entry: 775 | This month: 1720 On the way out of the UN, Jason and company encounter a security guard. They almost manage to bluff their way past. Almost. I haven’t shot anyone yet in this novel (well, not onstage), but I think it’s going to happen soon…

Word count: 79593 | Since last entry: 606 | This month: 945 Still haven’t got Jason out of the UN — it’ll be another thousand words or so at this rate. The situation is sticky; it’ll be difficult to get him out in a plausible way. But this also means that the situation is fraught with dramatic tension, which is a good thing. Emotionally, too, Jason’s in a quagmire, but I hope to keep him so busy he hasn’t got time to cope with it. I got my critique comments on chapter 7 yesterday. Sara pointed out that there needs to be a big, specific reason in the Taurans’ history for them to do one of the things they do — an excellent point that I had not considered, and incidentally a possible hook for “making the aliens more alien” in the second draft. Even though she has threatened to beat me with a sack of oranges, I’m still so glad to have her comments.

Word count: 78987 | Since last entry: 339 | This month: 339 I am ashamed. This is the first time I’ve written a thing in almost three weeks, and I only managed five paragraphs. I’m clearly not going to have a new chapter done for Saturday’s crit group meeting. Woe. What have I been doing instead? I had a reading and signing (with Jay Lake) at a local bookstore, which went well. I attended a friend’s wedding. I went to Phoenix for a square dance convention. I had relatives in town for a couple of days (my niece’s having surgery at a local hospital — which was postponed, so they went home but will return next week). I’ve gotten some reading done and seen some movies. Not much, really — I’ve kept up with the writing through busier times. Mostly I’ve just been feeling mopey — lacking the energy to start anything either at home or at work. This feeds on itself, of course: not accomplishing anything leads to a sense of futility, which makes it harder to accomplish anything. But they say it’s easier to “do” yourself into “feeling” better than it is to “feel” yourself into “doing” better. So thanks to Kate for encouraging me to write tonight — something is better than nothing — and I will try to write something tomorrow as well. Excelsior!

Word count: 78648 | Since last entry: 179 | This month: 4127 Basically all I did was copy the outline for the next chapter into a new file. But: well begun is half done, as they say.

Word count: 78469 | Since last entry: 1602 | This month: 3948 Nearly finished chapter 7 on Friday, and printed out and copied what I had, then wrote the last few hundred words and the summary of the previous chapter Saturday morning. Got everything printed out and copied with over an hour to spare. Luxury. Also got my critique of chapter F. In general, they liked it, though one person threatened to pummel me with oranges if I let Jason have a crisis of conscience in his next chapter. I knew this was going to be a tricky bit… I’m finding the process of writing to be rather oppressive right now. This might have something to do with the fact that I have raised the pressure on both main characters to Marianas Trench levels — it really sucks to be them right now. Unfortunately, being them is something I have to do in order to write about them. (At Clarion, Geoff Ryman said that writing is more like acting than directing.) This hasn’t been a problem with short stories, but for a novel I find myself going to that dark place for months at a crack. And it’s going to continue until September or October at this rate… But. Chapter 7 is done. On to chapter G! And I’m not going to let myself leave so much until the last minute this time. I’m not officially doing the Shadow Clarion Challenge, but I’m going to continue to try to write every day during the next 6 weeks.

Word count: 76867 | Since last entry: 1217 | This month: 2346 Finished up a scene showing Clarity at a difficult press conference, followed by a brief respite of lunch with a human friend (showing that she’s coming to identify more with the humans than with her own people). I had originally started to write the press conference as a task force meeting, but I realized I’ve been showing Clarity in a lot of internal meetings and ignoring the public-relations aspect of her job. I want to keep the pressure on her from all sides — from the humans as well as from her fellow Council members. There are a lot of things I’ve introduced in previous chapters (the press, the task force, her cousin Candor, etc.) that ought to be kept on stage to emphasize just how complicated and scary Clarity’s life is getting. One more scene to go in the chapter. If I can finish it tomorrow during the day, I can take care of the copying at work and then go to a movie in the evening. By the way, I failed to note in yesterday’s entry that I just passed 75,000 words. Three-quarters done! (Unless my estimate of 100,000 words for the whole thing is off; it might be a bit low.)

Word count: 75650 | Since last entry: 1129 | This month: 1129 After Wiscon I was very busy with various things that had to be done before the trip to France. Then we had the trip itself — much delicious food was eaten, castles and caves visited, etc., and I wrote over 1000 words on the plane heading there, but nothing while there and I slept most of the way back — and since then I’ve been suffering badly from jet lag and haven’t been coherent enough to write a thing. Another thing keeping me from the writing since returning from France is that we’ve had lots of stuff to do on the kitchen remodel — just signed the contract today, and wrote what I think might be the third-biggest check of my life. The final quote came in at almost 1.5x the original estimate, which was in turn nearly 2x what we’d originally expected. But it’s going to be gorgeous. I was hoping to get something written today, but at this point it seems it’s not to be. I have 1000-3000 words to go on chapter 7, which is due Saturday. Looks pretty grim. One bit of good writing news: when I came home from France I learned that my story “The Tale of the Golden Eagle” is a nominee for the Theodore Sturgeon Award.

Word count: 74521 | Since last entry: 613 | This month: 7899 I got some good writing in on the plane to the con, but nothing during the con, and on the way home I either slept or read. I always feel so ill-read coming back from a con like Wiscon. I’ll have a full con report later. For now, I need sleep.