Author Archives: Stephen Merlino

4-DAY WRITE = COMPLETE DRAFT

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This was my view for three straight 12-13-hour days of writing. Many many thanks to my uncle John and auntie Sue for letting me camp at their dining room table in their absence.

And guess what? I revised and polished two chapters, wrote two new chapters (including the last), and completed the draft! 

Better than that, 90% is ready for the copy editor, and the rest just needs the usual critique and development. 

Perspective From Samwise Gamgee

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Thanks to Jeff Weaver for this quote from The Return of the King.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Samwise saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”

Knave Update: Two More Chapters Down!

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Nailed down TWO MORE CHAPTERS yesterday. Here’s the post. New venue: Miro Tea. Needed some cleaner burning fuel. I know the image is sideways, but that’s what my head feels like on hours and hours of caffeine and writing, so it fits.

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THE KNAVE OF SOULS is posted on Wattpad!

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Last night I finished the 90% Beta draft of The Knave of Souls and posted all 35 chapters on Wattpad. Check it out!  The cover is just a temporary image, but the text is all there. wattpad_logo_280

< Click here to see it!

 

Wattpad is free, you just have to register to read, and there is a handy phone app for reading on your phone. It allows you to make inline comments to ask questions or give feedback, and when you do, it sends me a note so I can respond if you want. Great interactive media for authors and readers! 🙂

I look forward to hearing from you!

Knave Update: Cafe Fiore All-Day Push

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Today begins a string of all-day writes. 

Goal: Complete Beta draft to 85%, and send it to Beta Readers. While they read, I finish the last 15%. BOOM!
Notice the headphones: Thanks to the inestimable Martin Shoemaker (a 2015 Writers of the Future winner) for showing me that Instead of typing or writing at a desk, I can dictate passages while I hike or walk. 

So often it seems I face the choice between writing and exercise, but thanks to Martin’s revelation, I need not always face that choice. Today I will transcribe* two “foreshadowing” passages that I composed on a walk I took while waiting for a ferry in Fauntleroy .

*Martin actually pays a service to transcribe for him. He composed a novel this year commuting in his car to his day job. Kevin J. Anderson also composes this way.

Some of my “Foul Papers”