What’s a production manuscript?

It’s my attempt to set up for self-publishing, which I’ll do if no one ever thinks The Mungk is good enough (or long enough) to publish themselves.

Which, you know, I get. It’s short, real short. Like twenty thousand word short.

But it’s fucking good.

So, no matter what happens, it’s getting out there. I’ll give it one year to find a publisher, then boom.

Out the fucking door.

Target: 1000 words
Written: 1459 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: Mindset: The New Psychology Of Success, Carol Dweck
Comics: The Boys 67-70
Music: No Code, Pearl Jam

Here we go. Here’s what’s going out.

Here’s the party, guv.

Here’s… something.

Target: 1000 words
Written: 1576 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: Mindset: The New Psychology Of Success, Carol Dweck
Comics: The Boys 63-66
Music: An Unknown Album Of Angry Punks Singing About Black Flag That Shazam Doesn't Recognize, by Who The Fuck Knows?

All done.

There’s still some afterwork and maintenance to be done, but hell, by this time next week, I’ll be compiling a list of agents/publishers to send this bitch to.

Good night.

Target: 1000 words
Written: 885 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: The Sorrows Of Young Werther, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Comics: The Boys: Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker 6, The Boys 60-62
Music: Bootleg Nirvana 90-01-06 Seattle, Nirvana, I guess, probably

And so, the new prologue and epilogue goes.

Fuck ’em.

They’d make a cool short story in an expanded edition later on (as would the history/future of everyone else involved), but fuck it.

It ain’t relevant to the story of a little boy and the monster that loves him.

Well, love is a strong word.

More like takes malicious pleasure in turning him into another wasted shell of a human being, staggering through life like some kind of George Romero creation, pieces falling off, guts long ago fallen out, dead-eyed stare focused on nothing, save mere sustenance.

But that’s a preview, and we only do previews for good boys and girls, and expansion for the truly sexy beasts.

Target: 1000 words
Written: 355 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: Good Sex, Jessica Graham
Comics: The Boys 39-42
Music: Nico, Blind Melon (talk about sexy)

That’s what I feel like. I’m thinking about chapter identifiers, and I thought it would be cool to have a cartoonish (but disturbed/disturbing) little sketch to delineate each chapter/scene.

(I’m working on a vibe; I like the whole thing to be an event/theme.)

Of course, there’s an art to making art that looks like a child did it (but somehow still cool – sorry kids, you’re not hanging in the Guggenheim anytime soon).

And I feel like I’m drawing with crayons.

Which is sort of the point.

We all start with colours all outside the lines, and somehow, they teach us to stay carefully between them.

Of course, the best of us figure how to say fuck lines altogether.

The question to consider is: am I one of those, or just another hack?

Target: 1000 words
Written: 316 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: Good Sex, Jessica Graham
Comics: The Boys 35-38
Music: Nice Guys Finish Last, Green Day