Jeff Macfee » Moneymaker

Not a Blog

jeff — Fri, 09 May 2008 21:17:10 +0000

Jeff Macfee is a writer and IT Manager. He is the author of the unpublished novel Moneymaker, which will be published somewhere, someday.

Resume available here.

Everyone likes a hard worker

jeff — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 12:45:59 +0000

Apparently working a full time job consumes one’s writing time. Odd that my output has fallen now that I take orders from “the man”.

So, as my three readers will have deduced, blog entries will be posted infrequently.

Quick updates

Moneymaker rewrite proceding. I’ve got thirty new pages, which means more cuts lurk in the future. Halfway done I think, but been saying that for two months.
Wrote another short story better than the last short story, but I suspect to be equally as rejected.
Applied to Viable Paradise. Maybe pretending to be a writer for a week will do the trick. At the very least I’ll enjoy nice surroundings.

Chapter Eleven and Writing Gridlock

jeff — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 23:15:32 +0000

The Moneymaker rewrite is proceeding decently, and I would have said “great” before today. I was blasting through a scene, reveling in my artistic genius, when it hit me. This scene is important. I’ve got four or five main characters all in one room, with differing agendas, many of whom have been after the main character for most of the book. Agendas long put off are now going to be dragged into the spotlight.

And I’m just breezing through the scene. Not in a good way, I don’t think.

So everything ground to a halt. I’ve had to make sure I consider all the agendas, and whether they’ll be brought up, dismissed, sidetracked, or just plain sat on. It’s a big tangled knot in my head and even three Diet Cokes hasn’t helped yet.

To make things worse, I sidetracked myself by considering some writing contests, hunting for freelance work, considering then dismissing the impossible-to-schedule Clarion, considering then dismissing the more possible but still probably not a good use of time Viable Paradise, and finally just bagging the whole thing to instead waste time on the Internets.

What all my friends and family probably assume I am doing in the first place.

Maybe all the twists of turns of this Moneymaker scene will get sorted after some pizza and wine and sleep. If nothing else, I will still have pizza and wine.

Chapter Ten in rewrite-land

jeff — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 21:01:39 +0000

So the rewrite is definitely longer, as I’m into Chapter Ten now, which is only Chapter Eight in the first draft. And I might, might, be getting back to revisions of the original material, rather than writing new material. I was starting to wonder if the book was headed in a whole new direction. That would have been fine, but just a hell of a lot of work, and I am a lazy man. Ask anyone.

The job is only about three weeks away. Must get back to writing.

Chapter Nine and the New Stuff

jeff — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 01:14:29 +0000

I am now privy to the new sh*t. Rolled into the troubled parts of the book and came out with entirely new scenes. Even better, I like them. Now this judgement is pre-reread, but the scenes and direction feel more solid, more right, than the first time. I’m not sure if this path I’m on will meander its way back to the original destinations, but, in what I hope is a good sign, I’m no longer really concerned about it. I’ve found a reason for one of my minor characters to exist, and I’m really enjoying their voice as well. If this sounds like a bunch of writer crap, well, what can I say but that I love me some me.

Although I chopped maybe eight pages worth of material yesterday, I’ve written about fifteen new pages. And I know of at least six new scenes that have to be written. Thus, this rewrite is likely to make the book longer. No big deal, as I was hovering around 80k words as it was. Plenty of room to grow, and after the rewrite I’m sure there will be another draft, a draft likely to consist largely of cuts. I do expect that the heavy lifting will be mostly done at that point.

So hurrah for me.

Roughly a month to make as much progress as I can before the job. Go writer Jeff, go.

And I go see Jumper tomorrow. Hope it’s good and not all teenagey angst Anakin bs., or Life as a House angst. Please, no angst.