Just wrote “The End” on the manuscript of John Carter and the Gods of Hollywood
Last night, I’m happy to announce, I finally made it to the finish line and wrote “The End” on the last page of the manuscript of John Carter and the Gods of Hollywood. This doesn’t mean it’s finished but it’s an important milestone. Now the rewriting and editing begins in earnest.
Psychologically, editing and re-writing is — for me at least — like doing jumping jacks while writing it the first time is like bench-pressing 500 pounds. I’m not quite sure why that is, but that’s how it feels when I’m writing extended pieces.
The book is 140,000 words right now — about 500 pages. I am going to try to bring it in at a nice, tight 100,000 words or 350 pages. Some of the stuff that gets cut will go as “Special Features” on the eBook version.
What have I learned?
Basically that it’s a pretty interesting and I hope, compelling story — not just for John Carter fans but for anyone who spends much time thinking about how things work in Hollywood, and anyone who cares deeply about ERB’s legacy as virtually all of us here do.
Here is a screenshot of the Table of Contents. The page counts are a little misleading in that the pages at this stage are full 8.5 x 11 pages and will end up as 6 x 9 pages after formatting……..
As you’ll see the fan story is part of it and quite frankly an important both because it matters and because without it, by the time you get to the end — even though it’s a compelling story–you end up so disgusted that you want to bang your head on a wall until it’s bloody. The fan component give a feeling of hope and reminds that the film did reach a lot of people who have become new ERB fans, and will continue to do so for years.
Oh, by the way, the pic is webcam shot of me at the moment of writing “The End” — pretty happy moment.
15 comments
It’s not everyday that you get to combine a life-long passion with 100 years of rich history. Thank you for documenting the roller coaster for us. 🙂
Absolutely. Embargoed until 2016, though. 😉
Just kidding.
Great work! Many congratulation.
CANT WAIT TO READ IT :3
Awesome.
Good to hear it’s done. The question is this really the end or will there be a “to be continued” at the end?
Congratulations. Really looking forward to this. An important topic that reaches beyond ERB fandom, and we’ll all learn a lot from it, I’m sure. I have admiration for your word count, as well, having accumulated half of that total for my work on Burroughs artist Mahlon Blaine.
For a writer, there’s no feeling like writing “The End.” Congratulations, Michael. With the foundation laid, I know that the editing and revision will go well.
Congratulations, Michael! I look forward to buying and reading it soon.
Man I’m so excited I can’t even express it!!! So proud of you, Michael, and SO looking forward to reading the finished work! Love the chapter titles. Makes me hungry to dive in! 😀 Huge Congrats!!!
Congrats! and good luck with it. I expect you’ll be sending me a review copy?
Congratulations! I very look forward to read it!
Congrats! Looking forward to the day I can order it.
Hooray, hooray, hooray! Congratulations on a job well-done. Just don’t cut out anything important.
Congratulations on finishing. I look forward to reading it sometime in the near future.