Definitely Needs More Seasoning

I started re-reading my rough draft last night, and made it about half way before the Sandman won and I was out like a light - I'm beat... and I haven't slept well in over a week: It started the day we got to El Paso, I was up for almost 48 hours... 5:00 a.m. wake up on Tuesday, 11/22 for work all day, and  then  we left San Antonio around 10:00 p.m. and didn't get to bed properly until 11ish on 11/23... I managed about a half an hour of sleep on the drive.  Then the shingles thing really hasn't allowed me to sleep comfortably... It was a rough week back to the routine - I always find it strange, waking up in one city and going to bed in another.  We were in El Paso just long enough to acclimate to the change in time zone and the routine over there; only to disrupt it all with our return.  Babbling?  Yup, I'm still tired.

Sorry, another one of my infamous digressions... Where was I?  Ah, yes, the re-read.  I completed the re-read today and I have to say the draft is worse than I thought, but better than I imagined.  In other words: the thing just might be salvageable, which is a huge relief... I thought I might have laid a gi-normous shit biscuit, but fortunately it looks like I have something I can water and feed and grow and care for, and maybe even allow to fly free someday.  The manuscript is about novella length right now, and since I did way more telling and not enough showing it's a pretty fast and largely unimpressive read, I really need to beef it up... but that's to be expected: these are the bare bones of the story; the foundation upon which to build.  It probably still needs another 200+ pages to bulk up to where it needs to be; to where it might actually make a real, readable novel.

I'm not an expert my any means - I don't have an MFA in Creative Writing, and I most certainly have never attempted a novel before.  I can write a decent and entertaining short story, that is, I can spin a yarn.  I'm not a literary writer - I'm not trying to be Hemingway, or Thurber, or Flaubert, or Dickens, or any of those guys; I actually identify more with storytellers than I do with novelists and authors.  I like cuentos, tales, the native storytelling traditions... gathered around a fire, and thrilling to the deeds of heroes and gods.  I mention all of this because what I'm going to embark upon in this blog is going to include advice, tips, recommendations, and cautions which will all come from my own personal experience without the claim of any kind of authority.  This is documentary, and should not be taken to imply that my advice will lead to any form of success; except perhaps that it might give you a body of things not to do. =^)

I'm still honing my skills, and developing as a writer... and I have a long way to go, so I'm not attempting to make any pretenses.  I'm learning and you all are certainly welcomed along for the ride.

Cheers!