StefanClaypool.com

So please, do not make me subject to your wrath, mighty readers. I know that I said that I’d be blogging about both Frank Zappa and Doctor Who, and I still intend to do so. I’ll get my review of “Absolutely Free” up as soon as possible and continue from there. Who will have to wait a bit – I mailed my Doctor Who DVDs to my girlfriend while she’s interning abroad so that she would have some entertainment when she needs it. So that’s on hold for a bit. But coming.

My schedule has been horribly thrown off these last few weeks following the GMAT. I’m getting it back together – my writing, at least, seems to be back on track – but certain things like blogging have been neglected. I’ll get back to it regularly after the holiday.

Additionally, I am curious about what you readers think about the current look/feel of the site. Do you like the minimalism, or do the people demand their sidebars?

Coming soon: review of “Absolutely Free,” review of Stranger in a Strange Land, commentary on trends in computing and consumption, and possibly a piece on politics. (Yes, n00bs, this was once a fiercely political blog – that is, before I started working in politics.) Stay tuned.

I’ve hit upon a plot twist in my story that, while essential to the telling, will require me to take some extra time to complete this second draft. The challenge I was faced with was creating not only a compelling antagonist, but also strengthening the internal conflict faced by my protagonist. This new twist solves both of those problems, in addition to bringing certain plot elements in the rest of the story into focus.

In retrospect, I feel foolish for not reaching this twist earlier. It was the obvious one, but I neglected it due to my desire to keep certain plot elements a secret until late in the story. By executing the twist and pushing a major revelation forward in the story, I am allowing myself to develop a different type of dramatic tension, while also strengthening my protagonist’s arc. But sometimes I guess you need to realize what’s not working and why before you can accept an alternative approach.

So now the story continues, albeit slowly. My pace has slipped. I devoted a lot of time in recent weeks to the GMAT (with spectacular results), but couldn’t spend much time writing as a result. Now, with a bit more time on my hands, I’ll hopefully get rolling again.

I don’t know if I’ve ever blogged about Lost before, but with tonight’s finale looming, I feel like I should say something.

More than any other show, Lost has taken viewers on a substantive literary journey, from the opening frame to the cusp of the finale. Has it always been perfect? No. But it has always been interesting, and I have confidence that tonight’s episode will be, if nothing else, memorable.

I plan on rewatching the whole series some time soon. As I do, I’ll be blogging with my thoughts on each episode. But for tonight, I’ll be content to sit back and enjoy as it all comes to an end. Hope you all enjoy it too.

Update: It was perfect.

New day, new look. Trying for something a bit more minimalist. We’ll see how long it lasts.

Oh, what a fool I was!

Having finished draft one of my novel, I thought I could go back and cruise to a second draft by making edits and adding to/subtracting from the whole. This has, after all, been my primary mode of writing to date. It is very rare for me to simply start over again, and I assumed that my old habits would carry me through this new adventure. Not so, it appears. As I have made my way through this second draft, it has become increasingly apparent that simple tweaks aren’t going to do the trick.

Think of it like an old code base: you can change bits of it, add to it, subtract from it, etc., but eventually you reach a point where if you want to move on, you have to simply take all the lessons you’ve learned and start from scratch, with a new code. And it’s hard to accept that, because you’ve put so much work into the first version, but if you want to get where you want to go, then you have to suck it up and do what the job demands, and that’s what I’m doing.

That’s not to say I’m abandoning what I’ve done. In fact, I’ve made tremendous progress on the story, the characters, the setting – really, every aspect of it – and I fully intend to finish telling this story. But to get it where I want it to be, I need to start from word one all over again. I know the story, I’ve got extensive notes, and I have my original manuscript to reference. Now it’s time to sit down with what I now know and write it again.

What I’m trying to say is that after trying to carve a second draft from a first, I have now decided to write a second draft. This is going to take time and it’s going to take energy, but having examined the options available to me, I feel it’s the best one left. My goal has always been to have something that I am personally happy with by December 31st, 2010. I think that this is the best way for me to achieve that goal.

So, here goes!