War Wagon 2-16-2007 Update

So, I've been fighting a head cold for the past few days and haven't written much. Not much at all. I haven't even edited much more than changing the character names of a few people in the story.

So now I feel all yucky. Partly from the head cold, partly from not working on my story. I'm not where I had hoped to be, but there is some light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.

First, we have a bit of a blockage in creativity. I still know where I want the story to end (geographically) I just need to get the characters to that point. Right now, they haven't traveled beyond their immediate area (they need to travel several hundred miles to get where I want them). My big stumbling point at the moment is how to get them there. I have some ideas, but nothing that seems to fit with the story.

And yesterday I made the mistake of reading the last few lines of what I have written. It felt like a great ending point, something I didn't expect, nor like. So now I'm thinking about ending the story there and filling in the rest with other things, mainly details (something I kind of skimmed over while writing).

I think I'll have to sit on this for a bit before I can decide what to do next.

Second, I got some feedback from Epheros. Well, "some" is a major understatement. I sent him 2 pages of material and he sends back 4 pages of notes. Umm. Wow. I didn't know what to do with that. I've read his comments a couple of times and I'm a bit taken aback by the simplicity and complexity of the comments.

Some of my flaws are simple to describe and (in theory) are easy to fix. Number one being my passive voice. "He was driving the car" versus "He drove the car." I did a bit of looking and I'll try to stick to the "SVO" method a bit more (SVO = Subject Verb Object).

And he had some detailed ideas that needed to be thought out. Where was this character going, why was there no emotion here, too much drivel there, etc. All points well made and well taken. Criticism I don't like much. Constructive criticism I like.

Anyway, enough of this, I need to get back to my editing before I loose my edge for the day. The Vicks VapoRub under my nose will last only so long.

War Wagon
Pages = 26 (includes title page)
Words = 9,536
Characters = 40,228 (not counting spaces)
Paragraphs = 364 (there's a lot of dialogue)