Yeah. That happened. It is strange, how characters are their own things. Half the time I think writers are truly schizophrenic. Well… maybe we are. But at least keep it on the page, right?

-My play was produced! Yay. And it actually was a good success. Reviews are here and here. Not bad at all for a first play, if I say so myself.

-I have been super busy with JordanCon prep, and the Writers’ Track this year is going to ROCK! (If I say so myself)

-I have also taken to directing an Improv troupe as my involvement in the Browncoat Pub and Theatre here in Wilmington has been expanding. Yeah, that eats up time.

-And finally, not on a writing notice but a general grouse about society: why do 1st graders now have 2 hours of homework a night? Who ever in their right mind thought this was a good idea? Seriously. /rant.

So, this space is probably going to continue to be somewhat neglected for now out of simple prioritization. Tijervyn and the short stories will still be there, though, as well  all the back log. So that’s something, eh? And I’m sure one day I’ll get back to here. Just dunno when. You can still follow my shenanigans on facebook and twitter, though. Just saying.

Perhaps we like that little last punch of reality. The “and life goes on, not good or bad, but just on” feeling that bittersweet gives us. From the razing of the Shire and Frodo’s obvious PTSD to Ender’s role as Speaker for the Dead in Ender’s Game. I also have to wonder if it is both an attempt by the reader and the writer both to make the world live on past the ending. I definitely know that stories with bittersweet endings make me long to read more about the world, to pine for the end of the story, far more than any happy ending ever has. Even if the happy ending doesn’t wrap up every little plot thread, it lets us end on a high and jump back into the real world, where the bittersweet ending takes a part of us and leaves it in the story.

I also have to wonder if part of it has to do with the emotional impact. A book can probably make us happy just as easily as it can make us sad, but the nature of the human condition is that we remember negative feelings so much more sharply than positive ones. So if the book goes out with that little cutting bit of sadness, we remember the book as one that deeply effected us, even if it might have actually inspired less sadness in relation to another book that gave us great joy.

Not really sure where I’m going with this, but just trying to get into the habit of rambling a bit more often (such as my website implies I do). Anyone have some thoughts?

Now, I’m not saying it is because I don’t think I’ll ever be able to craft words in such a fashion as to be able invoke that power on a reader. No, it is because, when I read my own writing, I am always editing it. Every word is suspect, and I’m always wondering if I should have done something differently with the prose. And when I line-edit, it is the worst.

Right now, I am line-editing Revenant, getting rid of those last typos before I see if I might be able to market it better. And as I am going over those words, looking for misspelling or even word-choice errors (and there has been some word-choice editing and a few added lines of description here or there), I see the words, force myself to see the words, and it dispels the illusion.

I feel decently confident in my writing ability, but I will say, doing a line-edit sure makes me feel like a novice again.

So, aside from that, what have I been doing?

Well, work is progressing well on the manuscript rewrite I’m doing entitled “Of Brass and Blood”. It takes place in the same world as Tijervyn, but five years later and in the city of Adervyn, with honestly none of the same characters aside from Quintin Lazris (actually just wrote his introductory scene). I’m hoping to have the manuscript done sometime before my birthday in November, and to have it polished to submit to an editor or agent by the holidays. Wish me luck.

I’m also working quite a bit with the local theatre I’ve become involved with, The Browncoat, and have been doing edits with a director to a play I wrote that is being put on there this December. It is actually a bit different from my normal stories, as it is more of an urban weird fiction. If you happen to be in Wilmington this December, keep an eye out for Cheating Destiny by Richard Fife, being put on at the Browncoat Pub and Theatre.

Finally, I’ve been working hard on lining up my guests and program participants for JordanCon 2013, where I am the director of the Writer’s Track. Part of my time at Dragon*Con this past Labor Day was even spent doing that (when I wasn’t drinking my Kraken or being all crazy at the RJWoT Track panel). Really excited for it, and if you are in Atlanta in mid April and are an aspiring writer, you should come just to attend my panel, even if you know nothing about Robert Jordan. It is going to be that awesome.

And that is basically it. As always, I’ll try to get updates more often, but right now, I typically think “Update blog, or actually write…” Yeah. Again, as always, easier to keep up with me via my Facebook and Twitter feeds, linked over in the side bar. Lates!

1)    The biggest thing for me is that I am now the director of the writer’s track at JordanCon. This has eaten up some of my time as I’ve been thinking about what I want to do with the track and have been sending out emails to editors, agents, and writers to see if they would be interested in coming.

2)    I’ve also been brought onto an Advisory Board for a local independent theatre, the Browncoat Pub & Theatre. While they don’t strictly do SFF type stuff, they are themed after SFF and have put on geeky shows fairly regularly.

3)    Subsequent to that, a play I wrote is going to be produced at the Browncoat this winter. So I’ve been giving that a few more polishes. I suppose, after a fashion, it will be my first sold fiction, although not to a recognized “pro” market.

4)    I have written a new short story, and after talking getting some advice by some good friends, I have taken a fresh approach to “Of Brass and Blood”. So work on that is resuming.

5)    Sadly: I am no closer to finishing anything to do with Tijervyn, and at present, it really is on the backburner. I will probably use editing it as a mental break from other writing, but no promises, really.

So that is where we are. More regular blog posts? Eh, not for certain. But if I am quite, just pretend it is because I am busy writing. If I hear anything big, I’ll let you know.

But, there is a problem.

The manuscript is kind of in a “not worthy of toilet-paper duty” state. Yeah, four years ago when I wrote it, it was a good example of where my craft was. Well, I’ve kind of grown as a writer in four years. I look at the prose, the dialog, everything really, and I cringe. The basic story is still pretty good (although I do want to tweak it here and there), but I am basically looking at 97k words of uselessness. So, I need to redraft.

Let me be clear in what that means. See, a second draft, in my opinion, is after you do a substantial passthrough-edit that might change somewhere around 20-30% of the words. Thus far, I have never actually done a second draft. This is because I am what is sometimes called a “one draft author.” This means I spend a bucket-load of time outlining and plotting and world-building in separate documents, and then I write a first draft that is pretty dang good and needs maybe 5-10% editing done.

Okay, so, I haven’t sold a book yet, so I guess they need more than that, but it feels like I have pretty well represented my potential at the time of the draft with the first draft. I let it set a bit, then look back through it, and find a few changes I want to make, but mostly am okay with it.

So, what is a redraft? I redraft is where the author realizes the first draft was more like a practice run and rewrites the whole dang thing. I have done I once, with my first manuscript, and it did massively improve the book, but gorram was it a painful process. See, this is because I cannot just use the old prep material. I have to look through it all, decided what is good and to be kept, and then I have to decide what needs cut out. It sounds like it should speed the process up, but honestly, I feel like I am slowed down as I double and triple examine everything, both trying to remember what I ignored to begin with in the manuscript, what I have changed in edits, and what I might have once thought was a good idea and now don’t like.

I am thinking of taking a leaf from what Tijervyn has taught me and just (re)write the first chapter, cares-to-the-wind style, and see how I like it. I mean, I know what I need to foreshadow already: I have written this book before, and who knows, maybe the characters will help me decide where I need to take the new parts of the story.

In fact, I probably will do that. I wrote Tijervyn as an exercise, so I had best use these new muscles. A bastard hybrid of organic writing and world-builder/outliner writing. Mwahaha and all that.

-Start writing for the monies again, in particular, manage to sell blog posts to Tor.com again.

-Do a massive revision on a novel I wrote tentatively called “Of Brass and Blood” which takes place in the same world as Tijervyn, but a few years later (although I wrote it a few years before)

-Write some more short fiction and start really actively shopping the new stuff and some old stuff I haven’t posted to markets.

-Get Revenant into dead-tree form and start working on actively selling it. Which leads to:

-Do yet another edit pass for typos on Revenant, as I found three in Chapter Five alone as I was reading the book for pleasure on my new tablet.

-Maybe (and this is pending everything else getting done) finish Meister of the Secret. Woo! (and I’m sure April will want to kill me)

So yes, busy times, and my funk of the last four months is pretty well banished. I feel great! I will hopefully start getting more regular blogs with musings on writing up here, but that is kind of a minor thing for me at this moment, so while this space might stay quietish, my twitter and facebook will probably be more active. Time to live up to that Phoenix icon I have up on this site, I think.

BUT

I have to face a grim truth. I don’t have any novel manuscripts in condition to be sent out to editors or agents right now. Why? Because I’ve spent the last year writing Tijervyn. Now, Tijervyn has been fun, and quite a learning process besides, but the simple truth is that I cannot write for profit and for free at the same time. And sadly, I just don’t have resources and time to completely and truly self publish Tijervyn, so as a project, I’m afraid it has to be shelved. In fact, RichardFife.com is going to go kind of dark. Not in the “going offline” sense, but the “no new content” sense. Consider this more of a web-folio of writing projects, I suppose.

And, to allay the fears of you my loyal readers, I am not going to completely end Tijervyn. But updates are going to much more sporadic. Maybe once a month? I will use writing chapters of Meister of the Secret as a rest-writing exercise. Subscribe to the RSS feed (either main site or Tijervyn only) and you will see whenever I get around to putting up a new chapter.

Thanks for being readers.