Here we are at the end of July, and so far, it’s been a good round.
Writing:
– I started the rewrite of my Fast Draft novel last Saturday, and so far I have 3,566 words. Admittedly, not much, but I’ve spent a lot of time doing what I should have done upfront.
– Next week is the start of the August Camp NaNoWriMo. Still working on an idea for that. I will have one by the end of the week.
– I’ve kept up with my Tuesday and Thursday blogging. Which reminds me, I need to work on tomorrow’s.
Reading:
– Continuing with my promise to actually read the books that I was assigned in high school, I’m halfway through J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. I’m remembering why I got about halfway through it and stopped. Nevertheless, I will fight through to the end.
– Fellow Fast Drafter Gene Lempp mentioned last week that he has been reading Writing Love: Screenwriting Tricks for Writers II by Alexandra Sokoloff. I thought the title sounded familiar, and went prowling through my Kindle. I found my copy among the books I swore that I would get to eventually. I’m getting to it now, and it is worth the read.
And that’s all from my end. Hope your round is going well, too.
The Sound of One Hand Typing 
Go John! Fast Draft is an amazing learning process. It really pushes you doesn’t it? So glad you’re giving it a try, no matter the outcome it’s a great project.
Keep working on that Salinger! I love that book, but maybe you’d like Franny and Zooey better.
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What I learned through Fast Draft was that I’m really wasting my time if I try to “pants” my way through the first draft. My story ended up looking more like the outline that I should have written in the first place. Still, setting yourself to the task of writing twenty pages a day is a good discipline, and I’ve gotten some excellent advice from the Revision Hell notes that I’ve incorporated into the rewrite.
I’ll have to look into Franny and Zooey; Holden Caufield is simply not holding my interest. I came to the same conclusion forty years ago, too…
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i gave up reading a book to the end a long time ago. lol
i’m going to take a look at this writing book – sounds good.
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I gues it wouldn’t be much of a sin not to finish “Catcher in the Rye”. Most of the stuff I had to read wasn’t worth finishing. But do check out “Writing Love”.
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I have to wonder about forcing oneself to read a book all the way to the end, even if one loses interest. Noble, certainly, especially when the work in question is widely regarded as a classic.
I think I do the same. Even if I’m not really enjoying a book, I can’t just give up on it. I often end up not reading much at all, as I don’t want to pick it up, but I don’t want to start something new either.
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Oh, I have no qualms whatsoever about dropping this book and picking up something else. In fact, it’s reminding me that nearly everything I read (or was supposed to read) in high school and college was dead boring. The only novel that I can remember enjoying was Deliverance. I’m going to give Salinger a chance to redeem himself and then put this aside.
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