Writerly Ramble.

Here’s me, finishing up Alien Blue:

• You know you’ve been blogging too much when you start typing HTML tags instead if CTRL-i for italics. (Is there a mod or setting for Word that lets you get away with this?)
• Pandora radio is good, but it won’t be as good as having a human being picking out songs for you until programming allows for other associative factors than just music. Hook it up to IMDB, fergoshsakes, and have it start making music choices on your favorite movies, for instance. What year you were born (and therefore went to high school). The song playing during your first kiss…my personal Turing test: when a computer can make a competent mix tape.
• Okay, I’ve backed myself into a corner what I thought would be a few sentences from the end. Now what?
• An hour later, I write two sentences, and I’m done, unless someone yells at me for having a stupid ending. Because one of the things I changed during this last revision was leaving a door open for a sequel, I think this one works.
• Final wordcount: 82,301 (by word) or 86750 (page estimate, 347 250-word pages).
• Yes, I backed it up.
• The song I listened to, about twelve times in a row, to finish the last two paragraphs: “We’re in this together now” by NIN. “The further I fall, I’m beside you.” Which is apt.

Next steps: Go through the story and write down all the plot holes, areas with not enough description, etc., and fix them. Including some bad jokes and melodrama. Give a copy to Lee and see what he says. Draft a query letter. Continue to fix the things my writer group finds, damn them. Send it out. Whee!