I just finished my work day, and I’m starting to feel a little punchy. I may take a nap before I play video games with my friends, like we do every Wednesday night. But first, I must complete day 3 of the 366 marathon!

Personal News

I feel like I should say a little bit more about the depression I’ve lived with the last couple of months. The season contributes to it, but the lack of writing seals it. All of the dark voices in my head grow in volume, and I start to believe the terrible lies that linger in the shadows of my mind.

I’m not working on any fiction at the moment, but I’m writing every day in this blog. It helps. I’m already more productive at work. Some of my confidence is returning. I feel more in control of my emotions.

But the darkness is still inside, and the lies still linger like a bad aftertaste.

I don’t want to dwell too much on it because I still want to keep things positive around here. I’m sure I’ll talk more about it this year, though.

Upcoming Events and Such

Arisia is still looming. Melissa and I will fly out on Thursday the 11th, and fly back on the following Monday. I’m going to miss a couple of days of work, and considering we have a new person starting that week, I will be missed. But this was planned out well in advance, so they’ll just have to soldier on without me.

I am not on the program for Arisia. I’ll be in the dealer’s room most of the time. I’ll bring my microphone, and we may have a Live at Arisia episode of the Small Publishing in a Big Universe, if the recording comes out well.

The Topic: Jennifer Brozek Made me a Better Writer

I’ve mentioned Jennifer several times on this blog. She’s my go-to example of someone that is a great outliner. She’s organized and efficient, and she does a great job teaching her techniques. Once or twice, I have attended courses taught by her and Cat Rambo.

When I was putting together One for the Road to give to Melissa, I knew I wanted to make it a Christmas present, and I knew I didn’t have time to let the story rest. I like to let my stories sit for a month or two before working on revisions, just so that I can get some distance and fresh eyes. I didn’t have months for Melissa’s story, though. I had days. So I reached out to Jennifer to see if she could take a look at it for me.

She agreed to help me, and rather than just sent me the story back with some comments, she sent me a full edit. It was incredible. There is a reason she’s a Hugo nominated editor.

I… uhm… didn’t give Melissa that version of the story. I read it, though, and I studied the places Jennifer changed. I went back to Scrivener, revised according to what I’d learned from Jennifer’s edit, and gave that revision to Melissa.

One of the key things I learned from Jennifer’s edit was that I tend to overstate things. I still do from time to time, but now I know to look for it. Jennifer left a note suggesting that I don’t trust the reader enough. The truth is, I don’t trust myself, so I cram more words onto the page when fewer would be better.

Over time, my critique group has gone over my story, and I ran it through a Writing Excuses Workshop in Utah. I’ve also worked with an editor with Water Dragon.

Jennifer isn’t the editor of One for the Road, but I made sure to include her in the acknowledgements, because she not only helped make the story better, she made me a better writer.

So… you should go check out her books.