I’ve been on a roll with the writing this last week.  So far in January I’ve written 30,000 words of the new Mr. Nightcrawler, and it’s coming along pretty darn good.

I’m a super fast writer, but terrible editor. I crank out words at an alarming rate, filled with nonstop typos, misspellings, and general mangling of the English language. I have this weird, almost idiot-savant thing going on. I’ll get on a roll, and then when I look up, it is five hours later, three o’clock in the morning, and the last hour I was writing utterly incoherant crap involving zombie walrus attacks and magic beenie babies, that is just going to get thrown out when I look at it again with a brain that isn’t fogged up.

There have been a few times where I’ve picked an argument on the internet, and the other guy felt somehow vindicated because I had written so much. Like the volume somehow proved that I cared too much or something. Beats me. I just don’t think most folks realize how fast I crank stuff out. The last time I took a timed typing test, I was at 85 words per minute. And when I get on a tear, I’m just pounding away, and I barely slow down to wipe the slobber off the screen.

This is the first novel I’ve written with a partner. Our styles are radically different. Mike will work a scene over and over and over, looking for perfection, trying to get everything just right. He’s a master of dialog. A day later he’s written a 1,000 word scene that is just beautiful, capturing all the emotions, and really telling the character’s story. Meanwhile, I’ve written 5,000 words of utter nonsense, and I’ll have to go back and spend five days trying to figure out where to put all the commas and how to correctly spell. (I’m still #1 on Google for the mispelling of Sweadish!) So I guess it all works out.

I’ve got another story idea that’s developing now. It is kind of sci-fi, and I’ve not done a real sci-fi story other than my screenplay (which I’m still waiting to hear if they want it or not). So now I’ve got another thing to write.  But it goes finish Mr. Nightcrawer #1, re-edit MHI 2, write the Africa book, write MHI 3, re-edit Mr. Nightcrawler #2, before I can even think about another one.

I heard an interview with Orson Scott Card once, where he said that he usually wrote a book in about 3-5 weeks of actual writing, but that was after years of having the idea. At the time, 3-5 weeks sounded insane, but then again, I was working like a madman, and writing really late at night, having exchanged sleep for Vanilla Coke. This being a semi-unemployed writer guy does have some perks. Not only do I get more time to write, but my kids actually like… recognize me and stuff.

I swear, when MHI:2 actually hits shelves, I’m going to write the dedication to the caffeine of 1,000 Vanilla Cokes.

I also taught 2 CCW classes this week. That was nice, because A. I need the money. B.It is always good to teach. I love teaching CCW, and I look forward to it warming up so I can teach some pistol again.

I’m still a long way from having the Baen version of MHI released. When it first went up for preorder on Amazon, a bunch of you ordered copies, and we shot way way way up the charts for a few days. It has tapered off now. And now we wait… and wait… and wait… Man that sucks.  Right now we’re floating in some nebulous super high number, which I guess means they might sell a preorder copy now and then. I’m just dying to see how good it does when there are actual books to ship. On that note, if you haven’t ordered yours yet, http://www.amazon.com/Monster-Hunter-International-Larry-Correia/dp/1439132852/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231696024&sr=8-1