ROW80 Update - When Popcorn Kittens Attack!

For those who haven't been following, "Popcorn Kittens" is one of those viral videos, which writer Kris Rusch used as a metaphor for what has been going on in her head ever since indie publishing came along. Read her blog post about it, and watch the video.

More about what happened to me this week in the Sekrit Projekt section below.

A Round of Words in 80 Days Update

Sunday Day 21 - 158 minutes.  Mostly working on the new blog project.  I wanted to do more, but I got a little delayed with this and that, and then I have to get up early tomorrow.

I came across this wonderful interview with Gary Oldman and Mark Strong about the filming of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.  It's just over a half hour long, and has some really good stuff about the process of acting and especially trusting the material and your own good sense.  (Also some funny anecdotes.)  Writers need to think like actors sometimes.  It's always good to listen to good actors talk about their craft.

Monday Day 22 - 168 minutes.  And I got a little distracted, or I'd have done more.  But the worst thing is, I had that terrible attack of Popcorn Kittens. (See below.)

Tuesday Day 23 - 121 minutes.  I got tired.  But I still got in two hours, most of it non-fiction.  (Support materials, outlines, and of course, things like the post below.)

(Here's the linky for everyone who updated their ROW80 effort today.)

Sekrit Projekt - Popcorn Kittens Run Amok!

Okay so I had this idea cool project for this summer (code named "Sekrit Projekt"): I'd take my ideas for the book I've been calling "The Serial" and have one of the characters blog it.  It'll be a great learning experience.  Lots o' fun!

But then I realized something:

My melodrama, Wife of Freedom (really titled The Whore of Freedom, but that title gets it blacklisted all over the place) has a sequel:  Test of Freedom.

It's deeply flawed and yet it's one of my favorite stories.  I have tried, off and on, to find an approach to rewriting it so I could publish it, but it's just too darned episodic.  Fragmentary, even.  It doesn't want to fill in and be a real book.  It's almost like.... Uh oh.  It's almost like this Sekrit Projekt idea.

OMG!  Test of Freedom is ideally suited to that.  It also fits in the same kind of genre as The Serial, because it is an non-magical alternate world story based on old adventure fiction.

The biggest problem is that it's LONG, and would take a long time to complete in 1000 word weekly blog posts.  However, it does break into two stories rather nicely, an possibly even three or four discrete stories. (However, the villain has a very strong arc in the second half, so that part might have to be one long story.  And when I get to that part, the episodes may be longer than 1000 words)

The best thing about this is that it ties in to an existing book.  So it could potentially do sales some good.  I am tempted to drop The Serial and do this story instead, and this week I am devoting some time to both stories to see if I think it will be a good idea or not.

I suspect not, though.  Test of Freedom would be more of a traditional serial, more formal and less of a learning experience.  (Plus I think the "keep writing!" imperative of The Serial should strengthen the skills I need to deal with some aspects of ToF.)

The advantage of ToF is that I have a rough draft in hand.  So it shouldn't be too challenging to do a once a week or even twice a week series with it.

The goal here is to turn my blogging time into something more fiction oriented, and more helpful to my writing.  Not to take away too much time and energy from the WIP.  Still, while I'm in this crazy mood, I think I may devote the rest of this ROW80 round to whipping the Sekrit Project into shape -- both stories. 

See you in the funny papers.