Story Progress II

To put it bluntly, trying to write this new story has been giving me fits. I've started, stopped, restarted, stopped, busied myself with other things and thought furiously, busied myself with other things and tried to blank my mind, taken long showers and written copious notes. Finally tonight I've written some more on it. I have about 2500 words now and my character is in a lot of trouble. I guess that's a good thing.

It would be better if I knew how I was going to get her out, of course.

I know that in general, I work better under pressure. Give me a deadline and I'm good to go, while without deadlines I meander along, succumbing to procrastination and the distraction of shiny things. This time seems different. This time having a deadline seems to be making me crazy.

However, however. Now that I've made some further progress perhaps the rest will fall into place. Time to go off and think some more, I guess.

Lists and Journals

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed right now by all the things that need attention. Last night I made a list, since that usually helps me start to feel more in control and at least I stop worrying that I'm going to forget about something.

I also read an article in the April issue of The Writer about keeping a "treadmill" journal for writing. The author, Gregory Martin, suggests that writing is like exercise, and that the best results come from regular, planned effort. He also finds that keeping a journal of this sort helps us overcome our personal "evasion strategies."

Oh, evasion strategies. I know all about those. I've been feeling particularly worried of late by the amount of time I seem to spend a) procrastinating and b) wasting time. They are not necessarily the same thing, although they can be. I seem especially good at them when I have a lot of things that need attention all at once. Things with deadlines. Like now.

So, I'm going to try Martin's plan. I dug out an old writing journal (only a few pages filled and the last entry is from May, 2000) and will use Martin's 5-point entry system. These daily entries include the time and date, how long I plan to work, what I plan to work on, a brief report on how it went, and when I will work the next day. The entries are brief, so it's not daunting. In the "how it went" section I intend to include ways I procrastinated or wasted time when I was supposed to be writing. I'm choosing to do it in a paper journal instead of online because for anyone but me, it would make extremely dry reading.

Should be interesting, if I can keep it up for a while.

Four Things

Hurrah! My sister Krista has finally started her blog, and now I have a new place to snag memes. Well, she actually tagged me with this one (she's tagging anyone who reads it, and I qualified). I shall have to put my thinking cap on for some of these...

Four Jobs I've Had:
1. Writer
2. Lawyer
3. Community Recreation Coordinator
4. Preschool Teacher

Four Movies I Can Watch Over And Over:
1. Mystery Men
2. Alex and Emma
3. Raiders of the Lost Ark
4. Galaxy Quest

Four Places I've Lived:
1. Sydney Mines, NS
2. Halifax, NS
3. North Sydney, NS
4. There is no #4!

Four TV Shows I Love:
1. Firefly
2. Battlestar Galactica
3. Wonderfalls
4. The Dresden Files

Four Places I've Vacationed:
1. Nassau, Bahamas
2. Milwaukee, WI
3. Ingonish Beach, NS
4. Prince Edward Island

Four Of My Favourite Dishes:
1. Lasagne
2. Steak...on the barbecue...mmmmm
3. Fish & Chips
4. Birthday cake

Four Sites I Visit Daily:
1. www.scribbletalk.com
2. www.cbc.ca
3. http://com4.runboard.com/bthewritersblock
4. www.helenparocha.com

Four Places I Would Rather Be Right Now:
1. On a writing retreat
2. At the library
3. Anywhere warm with a beach
4. Actually, it's quite nice right here...

Four Bloggers I'm Tagging:
(Let's see, who's commented on my blog lately...)
1. Helen
2. Karen
3. Alan
4. Let's just say, anyone else who happens to read this.

Okay, now that I've finished, I'm wondering, where is the section for: "Four Books I've Read Lately"?? I mean, it really should be there, shouldn't it? So I'm adding it.

Four Books I've Read Lately:
1. Forty Signs Of Rain by Kim Stanley Robinson
2. Storm Front by Jim Butcher
3. Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot
4. Work Work by Bruce Holland Rogers

There, NOW it feels finished.

Story Progress

This morning I wrote an entirely new beginning for my story. Is this actually progress?
;-)

Workshop thoughts

The first session of the writing workshop I'm attending was today. The guest presenters were two literary agents, Don Sedgwick and Shaun Bradley of Transatlantic Literary Agency. They were spectacular and it was a really great session. I came away from it thinking that agents may be much more accessible creatures than I had previously thought. Perhaps it was just these two lovely specimens, but it was a very positive experience.

They discussed many things over the course of the four-hour-plus session: what agents do and don't do, the many considerations that go into the buying, producing, and marketing of a books, the responsibilities of authors, and much more. I learned some new things and had other impressions and information confirmed firsthand.

One of the interesting things I did learn was the term "platform," as in, what is the "platform" of a prospective author. One's platform is comprised of many things, which taken together form the basis for predicting one's following or the potential audience for one's book. It is part writer's resume, part education, part social and professional network, part experience...all rolled into one concept.

So (if I understood correctly), my personal "platform" would include:
- my list of previous publications
- workshops and courses I've taken
- my network of contacts, in person and online
- my experience as editor/publisher of The Scriptorium
- my experience as copy editor with IROSF
- my educational background
- workshops I've conducted
- readings

It's interesting to consider what my "total package" looks like, or would look like to an agent or publisher. On that count I have no idea. But perhaps in the future, I'll find out. ;-) At least now I will know what's being discussed if the term comes up.

"Well begun is half done"

Whoever invented that proverb was probably not talking about writing. I have begun my new story, but how can I tell if it's "well begun?" My experience with writing is that most of what you write at the beginning can be lopped off or severely cut down later. However, maybe this is part of the process and writing things you don't need at the beginning is helpful in getting the story grounded firmly in the writer's mind.

Perhaps planning the story in advance helps to make it "well begun." I did that, thinking for a few days, making notes as I like to do, in my notebook for just that purpose. So maybe it is well begun. I hope so, since there's a deadline looming. I've been writing most of the morning and have four pages written--not NaNoWriMo speed but not too shabby, either. Onward!

How I Got My "Writer" Groove Back

Despite being in the midst of a novel edit and having written a new novel just last November, I haven't truly felt like I've been in my writer groove for quite a while. I submitted some stories last summer in a flurry of productivity, but most of them have still netted no reply. I haven't written a new short story in ages.

That's about to change, however, as I've been invited to submit a story to an upcoming anthology edited by Julie E. Czerneda, to be published by DAW. I don't have a story ready that fits the guidelines for the anthology, so I'm busy percolating ideas right now. I have less than two months, which is short for me, but I will have a story to send. It's very exciting. It's making me feel like getting my groove back on.

So I've spent this afternoon going through my inventory of short stories and trying to put some new market plans together. I used to be good at keeping things in submission, but I've become slack. In a way it's no wonder: stories wait so long for a reply that by the time a reply does arrive, most of the market research one has done is out of date. Many, many markets are temporarily closed because of backlogs. Many more have cut their word count limits, pay rates, or publication schedules. There are still a lot of markets out there, but it takes a major investment of time to go through them, searching for the appropriate ones for just one story.

However, I'm not posting this just to gripe. I'm feeling good about getting back on track and having this new opportunity. I'm about to start a seven-session writing workshop that should also help me focus, and once this novel edit is done I'm going to start market research for that.

Hard work, all of it. But no-one ever said this business was an easy one.

A Big Fat Lie

I snagged this from Helen's blog (isn't that where I find most of my memes? oh, well). Below I am going to tell five true things about myself, and one big fat lie. It will be up to you to guess (and please leave a comment with your guess) which one is the lie. Sound like fun? Here goes:

1. I have a photo of myself wearing a live snake around my neck like a tie. It was taken on my honeymoon.

2. I was the valedictorian at my high school graduation.

3. Even though I spent six years in university living away from home, I have never been drunk (maybe tipsy enough that I wouldn't drive a car, but not DRUNK).

4. I have hiked up mountains in two Canadian provinces, and stood on a glacier in a third.

5. I have at various times been bitten by a horse, a rabbit, a dog, a cat, a guinea pig, and a mouse.

6. I once entered a dance marathon but didn't make it into the top ten finalists.

Which one is the big fat lie?


And now for the truth...

1. TRUE! Here's the picture:


2. TRUE! I probably still have the speech around somewhere. When I think about it now it was likely rather sappy and sentimental, but at the time I was very pleased with it.

3. TRUE! I've never really understood folks who need to get "loaded" to have a good time. I also like being in control (although I don't think I'm a control freak).

4. TRUE! I've hiked mountains in Nova Scotia and also Gros Morne in Newfoundland. Here's me standing on the glacier in (I think) 1981. It's the Athabasca Glacier, part of the Columbia IceFields, and the picture was taken in Jasper National Park, Alberta.

5. LIE! I've been bitten by a horse, a rabbit and a cat, but never by a dog, a guinea pig or a mouse, although they've all had opportunities. The horse attacked me while I was riding another horse, grabbed me by the side and pulled me right out of the saddle. I had to get a tetanus shot. The friend I was riding with laughed so hard he fell off his own horse.

6. TRUE! The dance marathon was a fundraiser in high school, but my erstwhile boyfriend and dance partner turned up drunk so we didn't get very far. That was also the end of the relationship and probably part of the reason behind truth #3. ;-)

The Sad Truth About the Internet

It's a bit of a cliche to say that the Internet has revolutionized life in our time. Business, finance, leisure, and personal relationships are all different because of it. We have acquaintances and social networks all over the globe that would not exist without it.

However, the sad truth about online communication is that it is seriously flawed. A huge portion of human communication comes about visually and audibly; that is, through body language, facial expressions and tone of voice. Communicating via text only strips away all those nuances and leaves us with the bare bones of words. Hence, of course, the rise of the ubiquitous "smileys" as a textual aid to enhance communication of the true meanings behind our words.

The other danger in non-visual or audible communication is that mistaken identity is extremely easy to orchestrate or to have happen by accident. Which is what prompts me to write this post as a warning to others--I've been the victim of a case of mistaken identity, and it has had ramifications on a friendship. Instant messaging or chat can be a fun and friendly way to communicate, but there's no way to guarantee who's actually at the keyboard. Misunderstandings can arise too easily. A message taken the wrong way by an unintended recipient, and BAM! it's like a bomb exploding. A friendship is ruined while you were innocently shopping at the grocery store.

And here's the most dangerous part of all: the ease with which we can sever the lines of Internet communication. In "real life" misunderstandings often get sorted out because personal interactions are inevitable, or friends in common act as go-betweens, or because it's just not as easy to avoid someone who's trying hard to make explanations and set things right. On the Internet, however, blocking someone's messages takes only one angry click, as does deleting that explanatory email without reading it. Humans are, sadly, reactionary and impulsive creatures, and the Internet allows us to act on those reactions and impulses without really thinking them through.

SFBC Book Meme

(I believe this meme has been circulating around LiveJournal for a while.) This is the Science Fiction Book Club's list of the fifty most significant science fiction/fantasy novels published between 1953 and 2002.

Bold the ones you've read, strike-out the ones you hated, italicize those you started but never finished and put an asterisk beside the ones you loved. (Since I don't have strikeout I'll put the ones I hated in red.)

*1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
3. Dune, Frank Herbert
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
*12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
*16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
*25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling
*27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
*50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

I was a little surprised to see how many of them I've read, although some of that is thanks to the Science Fiction English course I took in university. Apparently I don't hate a lot of science fiction, either. ;-) And there are many more authors on this list whom I've read; just not these particular books (MZB, James Blish, Harlan Ellison, Orson Scott Card, Roger Zelazny, Theodore Sturgeon, and Gregory Benford, to be exact.).

Bonsai Story Tree

This is soooo cool. The Bonsai Story Tree takes some of your text and transforms it into...something quite different. Garbled, and yet making a strange sort of sense, with some bits of real beauty mixed in. I pasted in a few thousand words from The Seventh Crow and here's a snippet of what I got back out--some strategically placed line breaks and it's quite poetic, really:

Well, and gleaming with the rhyme,
muttering the other six crows, gold...
she searched for the horses to eat,
and a flash of rock on the side
regarding her
Just you and me.
Well, and all three crows,
a small clearing, and done,
but her feet closer to the front of her
and a thought,
or the memories
away for about ten minutes ago

I also particularly liked this sentence: "She walked with a polished glow in the long curved sword, perfectly balanced."
Very intriguing to play around with!

Monster and Cyborg names

Just for fun I followed the link from Helen's blog to find out my Monster name, which turned out to be:

Get Your Monster Name

And then, of course, I had to follow the further link to find out my Cyborg name:

Get Your Cyborg Name

Don't know about the "yelling" part, though. I'm not much of a yeller! ;-)