Update on Smoked

I’m still tweaking parts of Smoked, but to explain why that’s taking a bit of time I should probably talk a about my writing method. Normally, I type the manuscript from beginnng to end. Occasionally, in the interest of time, I’ll dictate some portions (using voice-to-text), and – as one might expect – that’s usually faster…even when I have to go back and fix things that the auto-correct messed up. I’ve done it in the past (e.g., with parts of the fourth Warden book). I also did it with Smoked. The problem is that when I dictate, my thinking becomes incredibly linear.

As to what I mean by that, let me give you an example. If I have a character who needs to drive across town quickly, it might look like this if I dictate it:

I floored it, zipping through traffic as fast as I could without causing an accident (although I came close a couple of times), and managed to make it there within thirty minutes.

But if I type it, the story tends to be more like:

I floored it, zipping through traffic so haphazardly that it’s a miracle that I didn’t cause an accident. That said, I almost sideswiped a transit bus at one point, and moments later I viciously cut off a sedan that – at first blush – seemed full of matronly, whitehaired grandmothers. However, my assessment of the women was completely wrong, because when I was forced to stop at a traffic light a few seconds later they pulled up on my left and the one in the front passenger seat – whose arms were tatted up like an ex-con – called me a “shithead no-driving asshole” while the one sitting directly behind her mooned me…

Basically, the action generally unfolds in my head the same way, but for some reason when I’m dictating I really just focus on getting from Point A to Point B in the story. When typing, however, I touch on some of the stuff that happens in between those points. I guess you could say that I tend to flesh things out a little more when I’m typing, and going back now I feel like some of that makes Smoked better overall.  (And, needless to say, I really want readers to enjoy the story.)