We’re down to the end of the campaign, and while it’s clear that Thrum won’t be a winner in the contest, you’re all winners of my own shrivelled heart. Thanks for your support, and sorry I couldn’t get over the top this time for you. In hopes of winning your (much more substantial) hearts, I’ll direct you to Thrum’s continuing home:
http://michaelgburton.com/thrum
By way of a thank you, I’ll be posting the next chapter shortly. I hope you’ll stick around for the rest of the adventure.
Just did a little ready-through of the newest bit of the draft. There’s a lot of stuff there that’s decent! And there’s a lot of rickety bits that aren’t complely coherent just yet, but I tied off the obvious ones as best I could, and it’s time to move on.
I counted the songs in the book earlier. In the first 116 pages, there are 20 songs. 20! That’s probably not Tolkien level, but it’s a fair number for the likes of me. Of course, it’s a lot easier to put lots of songs in if you only put in a verse or two, but NEVER MIND THAT, TWENTY SONGS I TELL YOU.
The next chapter you’ll read is called The Clatter-Wheel. It’s about 2500 words long, which means I’m committed to pumping out 5000 before I upload it. I want to get that done by Sunday. We’ll see how that goes. Could be a high bar! We’ll See!
I’ve often wondered how an author would end up with one of those six hundred page tomes that certain authors manage, but I guess now I’m starting to see how that comes about. The characters keep doing things, and then they need to deal with the consequences of those actions, and then it’s ten thousand words later and they’re still in the well how did this even happen?
Maybe that’s what an editor is for, WHO KNOWS?
In the meantime, I’d like to invite you to read some of my other fiction, which is science fiction and not at all in the same vein as Thrum, so it will definitely delight those of you who came strictly for the musical fantasy!
http://michaelgburton.com/tag/short-story/
There are a bunch of shorts there, none of the really tied together at the moment. There are also a few snippets of Thrum, though I think even the ones I’ve uploaded here have by now transformed quite a bit.
Nonetheless, I’d like to invite you to visit. You seem like a nice person!
I’m really excited to be able to share the next chapter, Unburdening, with you all tonight. This chapter introduces the second family in the story. They’re quite a departure from the singers that have shown up til now, though as you’ll see there’s more to them than first appearances would have you believe.
It’s been a bit of a hard road getting here, and I’m continually surprised both at how much and how little can happen on the way to a milestone. Tonight I hit 33000 words. That might not mean much to you guys, but an average novel weighs in right around 100,000 words. By those lights, 33000 is a solid representation for one third of a book.
Just as importantly, I’ve been able to write a plan for my writing going forward. I’ve only got 42 (the answer!) days left to share with you, but I’m hoping to make them the most fruitful and entertaing days you’ve seen in a good long time, and to send you new chapters a couple of times a week. By the time this contest is over (don’t forget to share this book with your friends!), at the very least you’ll be able to see the shape of things to come in the Lands.
Thanks so much for following the book, for preordering the book, and for sharing with your friends and loved ones. It makes a huge difference, and it engenders a lovely warmth in my little heart to know you’re out there somewhere, singing along.
Been a while. Sorry about that. Between home ownership and day job, it’s been a bit of a busy life of late.
I also had a spot of writer’s block there for a while. There are those who’ll tell you that writer’s block doesn’t exist, that the answer is simply to "butt in chair, hands on keyboard" your way through. I don’t know that that’s always the answer, but it’s no worse than "butt in chair, thumbs on phone", which is often the temptation these days.
Neither, however, solved my particular bout of block. I had to nibble on the next bit for a while, figure out what that missing idea was, worry at the edges of the shape of the book as a whole, and generally go back and understand where the story is and where it needs to go next. That can be pretty difficult at times, but in this case it worked nicely. I realized that I hadn’t really sorted out an important event, and in sorting that out I saw the way through this one.
So now Marrell has a new secret, and Mary’s keeping it for him because, well, she doesn’t know any better.
31600ish is the count, which means 1500ish til I can push out the next chapter. Wish me good luck with that. I’m hoping it’s just a few days’ worth.
It’s been a heck of a couple weeks. I spent most of my free time in the last 10 days tearing out the old floor in my basement and installing new flooring. It looks much nicer!
That means I haven’t got a lot of new words to report. I’m just over halfway to the next upload, and the words are coming hard again.
You ever know something is coming, but not exactly what? Like you know there’s a smell in the air, and maybe it’s rain and maybe it’s snow. Or you know you’re gonna hear from someone, and maybe it’s a phone call or a letter or...well, you get the idea.
That’s what I’m facing in Thrum right now. Marrell’s about to find...something. I don’t know what it is, and I want to know quite a lot, but it won’t come out of the keyboard right now. Every word I write keeps sliding it further back.
But it’s coming. I’ll look forward to bringing it into the light, and to the day, hopefully soon, when you guys can see what it is too.
Just a note before supper to say thanks, as always, for your support. Today I crossed the 30,000 word mark today, which is a nice feeling.
Right now the Homelanders are getting ready to leave. There have been some hardships, and they’re reeling from what they’ve lost.
Starting a journey is always tough. You have to leave the safety of the familiar for the amorphous unknown. I’ve done a bit of it myself, and the only thing I’ve really learned is that your reasons for going have to be good enough to keep you moving forward.
Today I’m starting to believe in what I’m writing, but that’s not really why I do it. Creativity is something that everyone has to express somehow. I’ve tried a bunch of different ways. I’ve been lucky to do a little dance, theatre, art, and music as well as writing. Each one has its unique joys and its challenges, but the sensation of connecting with creative work is constant across them all.
I wish you each something to connect to today. I hope you’re well.
Another night, another 500 words. They all come hard at the moment. I find myself second guessing them as they come, despite looking back and loving a few. I’m particularly taken with this bit.
"They sang. It was unlike anything anyone had ever sung. Their voices turned and spired together and apart again, filled with neither the words their mothers knew nor the Wildspeech they feared. They made a new thing of their sounds, and it was as if the sun was pouring out the day itself in song instead of light."
Does that work for you guys? It works for me. I hope it works for you.
I’m not exactly writing song-fights right now, given that I’m letting myself away with leaving the Wild half of the fight to your ample imaginations, but even writing the sensible half of a pseudo-magical battle between singers is weird and wonderful. I’m discovering a lot of this world as I go, I think I’ve said that before, and these conflicts are elemental and powerful and more than half in my head. I wonder if they’ll make any sense by the time you read them.
This will be a quick update, as I’m still a long way from where I’d like to be tonight in terms of words written, but I wanted to let you know that Thrum has now officially hit the 100 page mark in LibreOffice. I did a little happy dance when that happened and I wanted to share the good news with you all!
Thanks so much for your support on the project. If you know anyone who you think would be interested in reading the book, please send them over. I’ve still got 70 days to figure out how to find 742 more people who like what they’re reading, but that time is very likely to absolutely fly now.
Hope you’re all well and having your own kinds of page 100 days. mgb
600 words down, 5000 to go. I worked most of the night, so this is the first time I’ve had enough time to tap a few more words into place.
I had to stop; my eyes are only working one at a time; I keep closing my left, and when I open it my right goes a bit weird. It’s nice, though. A few words tonight, a few tomorrow, and someday it’s a book.
What a magical process. I still don’t know what’s coming with this story. I hope you’ll stick around to find out.
We’ve got a few new people on the list! Thanks, everybody, for following the book. I’ve chosen the next section to chapterize. It’ll be about 2800 words, and it opens up some of the history between Anna and Will.
As I said in an earlier update, I’m aiming for 2:1 words written:posted, so I’ll have to add almost 6000 words to get this next bit to you. My goal is to do that by next weekend. It’ll require some pretty productive evenings of writing, but I feel good about it.
I spent today walking around downtown St. John’s and thinking about Gord Downie and the Tragically Hip. Tonight is the last time the Hip will play, on account of Gord having terminal brain cancer. They’ve been touring a new album despite that bad news, and the national public broadcaster, CBC, is giving the entire nation a chance to watch this last show.
It’s not something I can find an analog for anywhere in my memory. The Hip are singular - a band that most of the people I’ve ever known will listen to to one extent or another, a band that is famous in Canada and nowhere else. Canada is infamous for coming to appreciate their biggest stars - Celine, Drake, Nickelback (JK!) - after someone else has made them popular, but the Tragically Hip are undeniably the exception. Their music defines a piece of what it is to be Canadian in the last quarter century.
All across the country, people are gathering tonight - in homes, in clubs, and in outdoor venues - to watch this concert. I wish that you could see this from the inside, everybody else. This is one of those moments where something terrible is being turned into something amazing, something unifying. A gift from a dying man to a bunch of people who probably don’t deserve it, but who are receiving it gratefully and hungrily.
I was diagnosed with cancer five years ago. It’s not like Gord’s, of course. I like to say I had the easiest possible version of the experience - they cut a piece out, I get followups regularly, and now I’m five years out, which means I’m about as safe as anyone else from the big C.
But I understand from that experience a little about mortality. I understand a bit about wanting to leave some trace in the world. I’m grateful and hungry for tonight’s show, for the thing itself and for the light it will leave behind.
Maybe it’ll help with the writing. Maybe I can pass secondhand pieces of Gord to those of you who aren’t receiving him first-hand tonight. I can only dream of being as mysterious, as poetically incredible, as substantial as him. But it’s a worthy dream. A beautiful dream. I hope like the dickens I can bring a bit of it to you all.
Hey all,
We’re down to the end of the campaign, and while it’s clear that Thrum won’t be a winner in the contest, you’re all winners of my own shrivelled heart. Thanks for your support, and sorry I couldn’t get over the top this time for you. In hopes of winning your (much more substantial) hearts, I’ll direct you to Thrum’s continuing home:
http://michaelgburton.com/thrum
By way of a thank you, I’ll be posting the next chapter shortly. I hope you’ll stick around for the rest of the adventure.
All the love,
mgb
Hey everybody,
Just did a little ready-through of the newest bit of the draft. There’s a lot of stuff there that’s decent! And there’s a lot of rickety bits that aren’t complely coherent just yet, but I tied off the obvious ones as best I could, and it’s time to move on.
I counted the songs in the book earlier. In the first 116 pages, there are 20 songs. 20! That’s probably not Tolkien level, but it’s a fair number for the likes of me. Of course, it’s a lot easier to put lots of songs in if you only put in a verse or two, but NEVER MIND THAT, TWENTY SONGS I TELL YOU.
The next chapter you’ll read is called The Clatter-Wheel. It’s about 2500 words long, which means I’m committed to pumping out 5000 before I upload it. I want to get that done by Sunday. We’ll see how that goes. Could be a high bar! We’ll See!
I’ve often wondered how an author would end up with one of those six hundred page tomes that certain authors manage, but I guess now I’m starting to see how that comes about. The characters keep doing things, and then they need to deal with the consequences of those actions, and then it’s ten thousand words later and they’re still in the well how did this even happen?
Maybe that’s what an editor is for, WHO KNOWS?
In the meantime, I’d like to invite you to read some of my other fiction, which is science fiction and not at all in the same vein as Thrum, so it will definitely delight those of you who came strictly for the musical fantasy!
http://michaelgburton.com/tag/short-story/
There are a bunch of shorts there, none of the really tied together at the moment. There are also a few snippets of Thrum, though I think even the ones I’ve uploaded here have by now transformed quite a bit.
Nonetheless, I’d like to invite you to visit. You seem like a nice person!
Hope you’re well,
mgb
Hey everyone!
I’m really excited to be able to share the next chapter, Unburdening, with you all tonight. This chapter introduces the second family in the story. They’re quite a departure from the singers that have shown up til now, though as you’ll see there’s more to them than first appearances would have you believe.
It’s been a bit of a hard road getting here, and I’m continually surprised both at how much and how little can happen on the way to a milestone. Tonight I hit 33000 words. That might not mean much to you guys, but an average novel weighs in right around 100,000 words. By those lights, 33000 is a solid representation for one third of a book.
Just as importantly, I’ve been able to write a plan for my writing going forward. I’ve only got 42 (the answer!) days left to share with you, but I’m hoping to make them the most fruitful and entertaing days you’ve seen in a good long time, and to send you new chapters a couple of times a week. By the time this contest is over (don’t forget to share this book with your friends!), at the very least you’ll be able to see the shape of things to come in the Lands.
Thanks so much for following the book, for preordering the book, and for sharing with your friends and loved ones. It makes a huge difference, and it engenders a lovely warmth in my little heart to know you’re out there somewhere, singing along.
Hope you’re well.
mgb
Hey everyone,
Been a while. Sorry about that. Between home ownership and day job, it’s been a bit of a busy life of late.
I also had a spot of writer’s block there for a while. There are those who’ll tell you that writer’s block doesn’t exist, that the answer is simply to "butt in chair, hands on keyboard" your way through. I don’t know that that’s always the answer, but it’s no worse than "butt in chair, thumbs on phone", which is often the temptation these days.
Neither, however, solved my particular bout of block. I had to nibble on the next bit for a while, figure out what that missing idea was, worry at the edges of the shape of the book as a whole, and generally go back and understand where the story is and where it needs to go next. That can be pretty difficult at times, but in this case it worked nicely. I realized that I hadn’t really sorted out an important event, and in sorting that out I saw the way through this one.
So now Marrell has a new secret, and Mary’s keeping it for him because, well, she doesn’t know any better.
31600ish is the count, which means 1500ish til I can push out the next chapter. Wish me good luck with that. I’m hoping it’s just a few days’ worth.
Hope you’re well.
mgb
Hey friends,
Hi everyone,
Just a note before supper to say thanks, as always, for your support. Today I crossed the 30,000 word mark today, which is a nice feeling.
Right now the Homelanders are getting ready to leave. There have been some hardships, and they’re reeling from what they’ve lost.
Starting a journey is always tough. You have to leave the safety of the familiar for the amorphous unknown. I’ve done a bit of it myself, and the only thing I’ve really learned is that your reasons for going have to be good enough to keep you moving forward.
Today I’m starting to believe in what I’m writing, but that’s not really why I do it. Creativity is something that everyone has to express somehow. I’ve tried a bunch of different ways. I’ve been lucky to do a little dance, theatre, art, and music as well as writing. Each one has its unique joys and its challenges, but the sensation of connecting with creative work is constant across them all.
I wish you each something to connect to today. I hope you’re well.
mgb
Hey folks,
Another night, another 500 words. They all come hard at the moment. I find myself second guessing them as they come, despite looking back and loving a few. I’m particularly taken with this bit.
Does that work for you guys? It works for me. I hope it works for you.
I’m not exactly writing song-fights right now, given that I’m letting myself away with leaving the Wild half of the fight to your ample imaginations, but even writing the sensible half of a pseudo-magical battle between singers is weird and wonderful. I’m discovering a lot of this world as I go, I think I’ve said that before, and these conflicts are elemental and powerful and more than half in my head. I wonder if they’ll make any sense by the time you read them.
Hope you’re well,
mgb
Hey everyone,
This will be a quick update, as I’m still a long way from where I’d like to be tonight in terms of words written, but I wanted to let you know that Thrum has now officially hit the 100 page mark in LibreOffice. I did a little happy dance when that happened and I wanted to share the good news with you all!
Thanks so much for your support on the project. If you know anyone who you think would be interested in reading the book, please send them over. I’ve still got 70 days to figure out how to find 742 more people who like what they’re reading, but that time is very likely to absolutely fly now.
Hope you’re all well and having your own kinds of page 100 days.
mgb
600 words down, 5000 to go. I worked most of the night, so this is the first time I’ve had enough time to tap a few more words into place.
I had to stop; my eyes are only working one at a time; I keep closing my left, and when I open it my right goes a bit weird. It’s nice, though. A few words tonight, a few tomorrow, and someday it’s a book.
What a magical process. I still don’t know what’s coming with this story. I hope you’ll stick around to find out.
Hope you’re well,
mgb
Hey folks,
We’ve got a few new people on the list! Thanks, everybody, for following the book. I’ve chosen the next section to chapterize. It’ll be about 2800 words, and it opens up some of the history between Anna and Will.
As I said in an earlier update, I’m aiming for 2:1 words written:posted, so I’ll have to add almost 6000 words to get this next bit to you. My goal is to do that by next weekend. It’ll require some pretty productive evenings of writing, but I feel good about it.
I spent today walking around downtown St. John’s and thinking about Gord Downie and the Tragically Hip. Tonight is the last time the Hip will play, on account of Gord having terminal brain cancer. They’ve been touring a new album despite that bad news, and the national public broadcaster, CBC, is giving the entire nation a chance to watch this last show.
It’s not something I can find an analog for anywhere in my memory. The Hip are singular - a band that most of the people I’ve ever known will listen to to one extent or another, a band that is famous in Canada and nowhere else. Canada is infamous for coming to appreciate their biggest stars - Celine, Drake, Nickelback (JK!) - after someone else has made them popular, but the Tragically Hip are undeniably the exception. Their music defines a piece of what it is to be Canadian in the last quarter century.
All across the country, people are gathering tonight - in homes, in clubs, and in outdoor venues - to watch this concert. I wish that you could see this from the inside, everybody else. This is one of those moments where something terrible is being turned into something amazing, something unifying. A gift from a dying man to a bunch of people who probably don’t deserve it, but who are receiving it gratefully and hungrily.
I was diagnosed with cancer five years ago. It’s not like Gord’s, of course. I like to say I had the easiest possible version of the experience - they cut a piece out, I get followups regularly, and now I’m five years out, which means I’m about as safe as anyone else from the big C.
But I understand from that experience a little about mortality. I understand a bit about wanting to leave some trace in the world. I’m grateful and hungry for tonight’s show, for the thing itself and for the light it will leave behind.
Maybe it’ll help with the writing. Maybe I can pass secondhand pieces of Gord to those of you who aren’t receiving him first-hand tonight. I can only dream of being as mysterious, as poetically incredible, as substantial as him. But it’s a worthy dream. A beautiful dream. I hope like the dickens I can bring a bit of it to you all.
Hope you’re well.
mgb