First draft number three--finished!

[thehefner]

And there we go. The first draft of the Harvey Dent novel (tentatively titled THE LAST HONEST MAN) is completed at 82,000 words. My third finished manuscript. Heh, maybe I'll even get one of these bad boys published sometime.

Of course, it's not done, by any means. No, there are tons of parts that still need work, but this is going to be a long-term project. I'm planning on editing this for at least two more years, keeping it on the back burner while I focus on Hefner Monologues and whatnot. Shit, I have to tour those shows and try to get those books published, above all others!

Meanwhile, I'll hopefully feel ready to finally tackle THE ADVENTURES OF BUB AND JOHNNY GO at some point, once I've researched a lot more and actually done some road-trippin'. I fear that I'm not quite good enough for what this series deserves, not just yet.

(Hopefully as a comic, if I can just find a good artist)

And, of course, there's the Herakles novel I'm doing with my brother, Edd. Oh my, yes, wouldn't want to forget that.

Eventually, hopefully, one way or another... I'll make a big enough name with myself that--when I feel the Dent novel has been sufficiently edited and revised until it's about as damn well near to perfect as it deserves to be--I'll finally make the long-shot proposal to DC.*

And if it doesn't get published, well, it can exist on my website as a free big of epic (let's face it) fan-fiction, rather like David Brin with his story "Thor Meets Captain America." Yes, I could be happy with that. Just as long as people were reading it, one way or another. But there's nothing quite like the "legitimacy" of published work.

So while I'm far from satisfied with the novel, I can't help but feel mightily accomplished. When I have six or seven projects going on at any given time, it's really quite something when one actually gets finished once in a while.



*And while I'm dreaming, I can has David Mazzucchelli do the interior illustrations?

Comments

[suburbfabulous.livejournal.com]

Keep going, Hef.
You are an inspiration to us all, unless you do some kind of weird dance while waiting in public restroom lines.
Yours in rock,
Guthrie

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Nah, the only weird dancing I do is in the comic book shop when I'm alone, to Oingo Boingo tunes. Man, I really do need to get that filmed one of these days.

Thankya, pally. This is another reason why I can never do NaNoWriMo, which even if you are still "bombing," as I believe was your phrase, takes balls and commitment that I just don't have. I'm a "one book per year" kind of person, myself.

[suburbfabulous.livejournal.com]

Dude, I bailed.
Everything I wrote is here. I'm having so much fun, coming up with the little pieces to make a funner whole (as opposed to, say, a funnel whore; I've no idea what one of those might be, but I'd bet it's illegal in several states, not to mention weird to witness...)
I'm just writing. No contest, no pressure, nothing to achieve outside of telling the story the way I want, and at the pace I want to tell it.
Sure, I wish there'd be money involved, but part of the reason I don't sit around and write ALL DAY is because I have a decent day job.
(That, and if all I did was write, huge chunks of varbage would take over the world. I just don't shut up. Ever.)

[angrylemur.livejournal.com]

That's a pretty awesome project there, Mr. Hef.

(By which I mean the Harvey Dent novel. Not that I don't think your other projects are awesome, I just have not read/do not know enough about them to make that call.)(Not that I've read the Harvey Dent thing either, but I'm also ridiculously biased what with thinking that Harvey is the best crazy person ever and all.)

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Aye, as you're my most recent friend, I don't think I ever did tell you exactly about it! Good thing you already like the character, otherwise you might think me totally nuts for what, god help me, essentially amounts to epic fanfiction.

In brief: it's my retelling of his origin and life. My girlfriend a couple years ago and I both were frustrated that no one ever really fleshed out who he was before the scarring, and while I never do fanfic, this just needed to be written.