If you want to be a writer, then why aren't you -- you know -- writing?

Guess it’s good we moved here.

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

So today while my mind was less then engaged at work I kept turning over a scene I need to write for Cawdor. The scene was born out of a need to establish elements properly before they become essential later on in the story. However a scene that does nothing but establish is dull and without life. It’s better to turn it into a narrative bit, but I did not want to do that. So, I was stuck. How could I find some conflict in the nature of the two characters that furthered the plot and did not force either character into a falseness that would render the scene hollow?

Today when I got home from work my sweetie-wife and I went to the gym in our Condo complex and I got on the treadmill to start building up my endurance again. (I had been doing pretty well until the sneeze over the July 4th weekend wounded me.) So I set out to do a brisk mile on the treadmill. (Brisk walk, not a jog. Not with these arthritic knees.)

About seven minutes into my set I realized how to fix the scene. I found the conflict, I found what both characters wanted and why it was in opposition and I even found the best point of view to write it from. I turned to my sweetie-wife and proclaimed that this treadmill was the treadmill of plot, because more time than not, when I used it I solved some tricky bit of plotting.

01.09.2010 Writing, life 1 Comment

A successful night

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

Tonight was the third meeting of the Mysterious Galaxy Writers Support Group. We have not had a large die-off yet and I think perhaps we may not. In fact we picked up two new members tonight. (One is currently writing a collection of Orcish poetry. He read a few and we all really enjoyed them.)

For the first time ever I read out-loud a piece of my own work. I have workshopped stuff before, but I have never stood and read. Yesh I stammered and barely got through it all. (I only read five pages — we have a time limit otherwise I would be there still.)

My work was well received and I was quite happy for that. I also got some really good feedback on where it was weak, and since this is the opening of the story that is important.

31.08.2010 Writing, life 3 Comments

SF history

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

Anyone who has been around lit SF for any amount of time is likely aware of the nearly instant debate that can be generated with a single name: Robert A Heinlein.
Depending on who you ask, Heinlein was….
A Communist
A Fascists
A Hippie
An Authoritarian
A Libertarian
The best Sf Writer of all time. (including future tense)
A Hack
A talented creator of female characters.
A sexist.

And he was all these things at the same time. Truly he is the Rorschach test of SF Fandom.
One of his most controversial works was the novel Starship Troopers. He wrote the book as a juvenile, it was rejected, new material was added and ti has not been out of print ever since. This is the book many point to when they call Heinlein a Fascist.

I have stumbled across — thanks to the comments and discussions at TOR SF – an archive of criticisms and defenses of Starship Troopers spanning a time from 1959 when it was being serialized in F&SF through its publication as a novel and ending in 1963.

Wow. The Heinlein flame wars are sort of like the 100 years war. This was a fascinating series of comments and essays to read. It has not moved my thoughts on the matter. (I’m a Heinlein Fan, but I worship no man. Something I think got from reading Heinlein; though — like Ayn rand — fantatical followers are upsetting and close-minded.) The essay comparing Starship Troopers with The Star Dwellers has made me want to find a copy of The Star Dwellers and give it a read.

If you have any interest at all this link is worth your time.

19.08.2010 Culture, SF, Writing No Comments

Monday Monday

Monday, August 16th, 2010

‘Can’t stand that day.’

Seems to be an off Monday all around. I have been having one and off headaches, while my sweetie-wife has been suffering from migraines.

I have managed to edit a chapter and a half tonight. (Typing in the edits is a fairly brainless job, as the hard calls were made when I put the changes down on the manuscript with ink and paper.) I have two new scenes to write for Chapter 7, but they will have wait for my faculties to improve.

As it stands I am about a third of the way through and I haven’t burned the manuscript yet.

16.08.2010 Writing, general, life No Comments

Hmmm Not as finished as I thought I was

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

So I was doing more ink-on-paper edits to Cawdor and continued making a mental list scenes required the establish things I used int he payoff at the end of the book. Originally I had figured I needed three or so scenes to plug my narrative holes. (a Narrative hole in my terminology is quite different from a plot hole. A plot hole is a problem that if not resolved destroys the structure of the story. For example is the floating mountains in AVATAR are floating because they are dense with unobtainium, why aren’t the terrans just grabbing these floating mountains and boosting them to orbit? A Narrative hole is a missing scenes that helps fully explain the events or motivations of the characters, but the logic of the story is still sound.)

Anyway I though maybe another 2-3 thousands words to fill in the narrative holes. Today I wrote down my list of scenes and found it was 11 scenes long. (Mainly because a background character stepped up to increase the tension and now she has to be back established to fulfill that function.) Now I figure I may need anywhere from 10 to 15 thousand words to properly full out this story.

I have the room, the manuscript was on the small side and the story will be stronger for it, but *sigh* there are miles to go before I sleep.

22.07.2010 SF, Writing No Comments

What an in process Manuscript looks like.

Saturday, July 10th, 2010

So I’m going over with for I am calling my 1.5 revision. Every page that I am editing has been edited once already. However in the case of some of those pages that first edit was several months ago and ideas I ha about the novel have evolved since then.

Here is a peek at just how massive the edits are, even after a complete pass.

I do think that my life would be easier if I could somehow learn to wtire it correctly the first time.

Of course that really isn’t possible. Aside from the spelling errors and typos that need to be found, there is the little matter that I really don’t understand my novel from my own outline. It is the process of writing the novel that teaches me what it is really about and what I really need to concentrate on.

What made sense three-four months ago is no longer the themes I am pushing.

10.07.2010 SF, Writing No Comments

Sneezing injuries are less than funny

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

It’s strange just how much my side hurts from the freaking sneeze injury. It’s worse that every time I sneeze I seem to re-damage the damn muscle. At this rate I will never recover.

Can you herniate a muscle with a sneeze?

I sneezed twice at work and boy you should have seen every suddenly looking at me. I nearly fell out of my chair with the pain.

However on the plus side my oral surgeon says my mouth is doing well and that it looks quite good from only one week out from the extractions.

I started the work up on version 1.5 of Cawdor. I’m not getting as much done per day right now because my day job is taking up CPU cycles from my writing time, but that special project ends on Thursday and then I can dive full speed into the 1.5 edits.

I have stumbled on a great resource for writers. Kristen Nelson, literary agent to Gail Carriger and others,  has posted on her site a number of query letters from clients. These are the actual query letters that got her attention enough to ask for submissions from these writers.

Kristen goes through most of the letters and tells you point by point why it worked for her. This is really really cool. Only the internet could bring resources like this to unpublished writers. You should google Pub Rants and follow her blog.

06.07.2010 Writing, general, life No Comments

Surviving, but not pleasantly

Monday, July 5th, 2010

So Today was my first full day back from the convention, but sadly it was not as care-free as I would have liked it to be. I injured myself at the convention and that injury has continued to plague me.

On Saturday morning my sweetie-wife and I were walking back from a spot of breakfast before the convnetion when disaster struck.

I sneezed.

Now you are probably expecting at this point something like I tripped while I sneeze and fell hard to the ground. Or that when I sneezed I lost track of where I was walking and walked into danger or some such exciting event.

Nope, I sneezed and noting more. When I sneezed a sharp pain stabbed me in my side. Very much like a cramp from running too far too fast and I thought I had triggered a cramp. The rest of the day it hurt to walk, to get up from sitting or to go down to a sitting position.

The next day, yesterday, I sneezed again and it was clear that I had strained a muscle or muscle-group in my left side. the pain continued throughout the day.

Today I went and saw Toy Story 3, a fine film and a worthy sequel, it was very funny. That turned out to be not the bets of things. It hurt to laugh. When I sneezed twice today, I really put pain into my left side.

There’s no doubt about it I have injured myself with the power of my own sneezes.

One the plus side I have a new idea for a short story; something fairly subversive in my opinion. It’ll be fun writing it when I am through with Cawdor,

05.07.2010 SF, Writing, conventions, general, life 1 Comment

Cawdor is going shockingly fast

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

I’m rounding on 200 pages or about 50,000 words done on the first draft of Cawdor and that when massive hits to my productivity due to bad sleep and headaches. I am on track to complete a first draft version by mid June and that will be simply astounding to me.

The plot has decided to deviate from scripted outline, but that is no cause for concern or panic. An outline is just a guide, showing me where I want to end up, if it turns out that Route 66 is more exciting than Route 8, but both get me where I need to be than there’s nothing wrong with Route 66.

What had started off as a re-intrepretation of Macbeth has now become an exploration in paternalism and the cynicism of the viewpoint. The book actually now has villains beside the Macbeth analogs. It’s quite a turn but one I am very interested in and very excited to explore.

27.04.2010 Writing No Comments

A Brief Walk Down Memory lane, writing version

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

This week my speedy progress on Cawdor has been hampered by my lack of good sleep. I am even more tired all the time than I have been recently and that has dropped my per day productivity by half. I am still making progress and I am in many ways very happy with the product. (While still certain that no one else in the wide world will like it the way I do.)

The speed of this novel has mee thinking about the other novels I have written and how long it took, editing included.

My first novel was Freeholder an SF novel about liberal, pacifist survivalists. It was written while I was in high school from Sep 1978 through May 1979. The poor suffering readers of that novel endured a really horrid writer with no edits. Yesh, I pity them now.

Freeholder – 47,000 words over ten months

The next novel I wrote was much much later and it was The Mark of Cain. The first draft was written between January 2004 and July 2004, about seven months. It went to beta read, got properly savaged and I produced a new version by December of 2004

The Mark Of Cain – 121,000 words about seven months, plus five months re-write and edits.

The third novel I have written is Love and Loyalty.  I started writing it October 2005 and finished the first draft February 2006. I spent two months editing that manuscript for the beta readers and it was ready by April 2004.

Love and Loyalty – 92,000 words five months to write and two months to edit.

(A special note on Love and Loyalty, In May of 2008 I started a line edit to tighten the prose and that turned into a major rewrite as I had an inspiration in how to improve the novel. So the final version experienced  and additional round of edit lasting about five months.)

Cawdor has been different, it has been about two months and I am half-way through the first draft, and this is really surprising because I have been doing a rolling edit for the first time. I write a chapter, edit it, correct it, then move on to the next chapter. If I stay on this track Cawdor will take about 4 months to write AND edit.

21.04.2010 SF, Writing 2 Comments

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