Writing Journal: 1/13/2012

It wasn't a productive week, I'm afraid. I've had a sinus migraine for the better part of the last two weeks, adjusting to a new sleep schedule and hammering out some domestic issues.

It's arguable that, in so many words, if I can make excuses now, then I'm an amateur writer. Butt in seat, and all that. Yes? Yes. However, one doesn't put a roof and walls on the house before the foundation is built. I know, from my experience, that I can be extremely productive once my environment is settled. So, right now, I'm focusing on settling domestic concerns and taking care of my health. Also, because I can - I'll worry about handling deadlines when I actually have them. ;-)

Not sure yet what I want to include or not in these posts, so for today, it's short and sweet, just to keep me on my program. Have a great weekend!

Original Writing:
Dirty Girl. Scene. Erotica*. 1282 words.
Best to indulge and reminisce, rather than to forego and regret.

A Gift. Flash fiction. Erotica. 305 words.
The lingerie draped her soft, feminine curves, in just the right way - revealing some, alluding more.

2012 Goals post. Essay.

Next project: Book review of Conqueror by Conn Iggulden, for Librarything.

Editing / Revising:

Catalyst: Revised and shortened Chapter 103 to completion. (Not an actual chapter number - just coding for my reference.) Forwarded to beta reader. 2,728 words.

Orcs occasionally were found in the western passages. They were few and far between, never organized, and easily dissuaded. Over the years, of course, there had been some fighting, some unfortunate deaths when a Dwarf was caught unawares, but the creatures remained a vague threat. One was more likely to fall in a river of lava, or die beneath a cavern's collapse, than to be killed by an Orc. 

Began revisions to Chapter 105. 6720 words. Material to be carried from excisions in 103, material to be removed, and material to be pushed forward. Tribal dialects to be removed and replaced.

Total Word count, as of 1/14: 133,468
Goal: 125,000 (or less)

* A note on writing erotica. Sex scenes are often the most criticized in any fiction. However, done correctly, they are able to reveal a character's truest sense of self, vulnerabilities, passions, etc. Additionally, bedroom and relationship dynamics are often a reasonable way to explore cultural and gender beliefs and nuances. Lastly, it is the use of a scene in order to evoke an emotional response from the reader. While I enjoy writing provocatively, writing short erotica pieces allows me to hone my skills of visual, emotional and physical interactions. I could probably omit mention altogether, but I am simply not that shamed by it, and these reports are as much for my own use as they might be interesting to anyone else.

Wednesday Writer's Report

Tada! Finished? No. But this is the last one you will see for awhile (or not, if I can conceive a solid story idea for Nanowrimo).

I have one or two chapters left. And I'm going to stop there. Although I'm a completionist, this is the resolution of the story. The hard parts are done, over. Now I need to tie on a bow. And the bow should be meaningful, as opposed to making the reader want to sling the package across the room.

I realized, about 20k words ago, that I will need to redefine the characters in "Tribe E" - so it follows that anything I write now for their ending will be meaningless and will need to be redone. Seems a waste of time to do it now, only to have it to do it all over again later.

It's actually rather telling. At this point in the story, their ultimate conclusion should be relatively predictable. No, I won't offer spoilers, but the fact that I'm staring at the screen and realizing that I don't have a fitting dialogue... that was telling. I can say more, but I think it would be spoiler-ish.

All the other characters have an ending sequence. The other characters need some polish and such. But these characters, no. They need help.

There will be a lot of editing, though. The book is too big for the story - the prose is decent, but not quite as lush as say, Jacqueline Carey, so that tells me there's a bit of babbling. Additionally, it's been suggested to me to introduce more POV's - and that's going to add words, not subtract. That means I'm going to have edit even more heavily to be able to fit in the additional "complexities".

Don't even get me started about the two "stories within the story" that aren't finished.

So! Parts of the story are going to be rewritten from different (new) POV's in order to reduce the word count and speed up the pace. Current arcs need to polish the characters, now that I figured out what I want them to do, from beginning to end.

This could take a while.

The upshot, however, is that I was pretty close at predicting my pace - good news for the future. This is by far my largest single writing project.

And no, I'm not querying yet.

Otherwise, while not quite the content heavy blog I promised for this month so far, there's still a couple weeks left. Cheers.

Wednesday Writer's Report

Pace was down this week. It wasn't so much that life got in the way, it's moreso that I let it. If it is my intention to be a writer, I'm going to have to learn to live with Crohn's Disease, and keep writing in spite of "uncomfortable" days. Additionally, even *I* watched some football on Sunday with friends, then there were some family things that required my time.

Mostly just distractions that pushed at the heart of what I'm facing. I have two critical scenes that were pivotal in steering towards the events of the climax. I've had some misgivings about my characters and those are starting to show up now. Glancing up, I see that my word count may come in a bit high for what the story is. I managed to do one of the scenes, and the other is staring at me like a homeless guy in a downtown crosswalk.

The food for thought, this week, is that when you're facing difficulties, it is easier to find reasons not to write. I certainly didn't have to spend an hour watching the Fox Fall Party Webcast, in spite of my eager anticipation for season 7 of House. The misconception is that the scenes have to be great - and they don't - they just have to get written.

Rule # 4: Write now, Edit later. (I may have mentioned this last week, huh?)

So my answer has been to break up my routine, which I started on Monday, and it seems to be working. Previous to now, I had one writing session per day, and that session would go until I concluded a scene, a chapter, whatever my daily goal was. It was never about word count, it was about completing it in bits and pieces.

Mostly, that works for me. However, this week I've started two writing sessions a day. The first is 250 words or thereabouts, early in the day, before my internal editor comes online. The second, in the evenings, picks up where that left off and finishes the scene, and keeps going until I'm out of brain juice.

I share that with you because I know Brian and Luna are writing as well. And the following is for your benefit, too.

Rather randomly, I glanced over at the Suvudu thread of unread posts, found something that caught my eye, and that led to another blog, which led me to Jim Butcher's Live Journal, which he hasn't updated in over two years.

I haven't read the Dresden Files (yet), for which he is more well known, but I am doing a reread of his Codex Alera next month. It's not a bad epic tale, and I think more people should learn about it.

Butcher's LJ has only about 15 posts, and most of those are to do with craft. Oddly, many of his suggestions are ones that I was already doing (particularly where concerned the "Great Swampy Middle"), but there were plenty of things I haven't paid enough attention to. Well worth the couple hours (or less), it took to read through his advice.

Aside, I know it's been quiet here lately. I'm holding off until I recapture my pace, before I post the few things I've set aside for now. I'm sure you understand.

Raine, I know, has started a new job and other things going on in her household, plus I think she told me the last book she read wasn't worth a review. Gotta love that. Once she gets her schedule settled, I'm sure she'll be back in action.

This is a picture of my favorite dog, Rocky, who belongs to some friends of mine. He is a male Bull Boxer.



What I'm doing is showing the size of his gigantic melon-sized head by holding it next to a regulation size tennis ball.



Big, monstrous dogs make me happy, and they're fun to write. Truth is stranger than fiction.

Wednesday Writer's Report

Had a good week, comparatively speaking. Have had to slow down to take 2-3 research days, as the story approaches new geographical and cultural challenges.

Much of my research has been in animal behavior. So far, the story has stayed within relatively predictable and populated areas. The E tribe has ventured outside of their known territories, meeting new people and new lands (to them), and it's fun to write about.

But I want to do it right.

I'm going to be putting up a few tiny animal video clips from youtube over the next few days. I want to share what I'm doing. I've probably logged 20-30 hours of watching documentaries this past week.

A book would be more informative, but raw video I find to be inspiring for conveying imagery. Movement, behavior - that's stuff you have to see. I'll take my own African Safari after the book has sold.

Currently Reading: Infinite Possibilities by Mike Dooley, from my mother. Not sure if I've mentioned this book or not yet, but it has really helped me get over the writer's block I had, and stay focused on the end game. It's arguably "new age", but he presents things in such a way as that they are pretty easy to understand. More later.
The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams. I'm having a hard time with this one. Either it's slow to start because it's part of a trilogy, or it's a YA book and I missed that in the description. It's an older book, and I've heard very good things about Williams, so maybe this one just takes a while to get into, or it's not a good sampling of his work.

*

Interesting discovery of the week: Raptors, as made popular by the movie Jurassic Park, were incorrect in one depiction - they should have had feathers. Cool, huh?

This world that we live on is so full of fascinating geologies and biologies, cultures and histories, that I really don't understand why we don't see more of it in fiction. Maybe I haven't read enough.

Why create an imaginary creature when the ones that used to (or still do) walk earth are infinitely more interesting? I think centaurs are cool as a semi-intelligent creature goes, but dinosaurs and poison frogs and ambushing snakes and bears, wolves, giant cats that will stalk humans and eat them? So much better! Ah, you'll see. I got some fun videos coming up.

Til the next.

Wednesday Writer's Report

Back to work for me. My little summer break did me well, and now it's back to the grind.



"Grind" makes it sound like a bad thing, but it's not. I'm having fun. Probably writing too much material in relevance to the plot and storyline, but that's okay for now. I can edit more later.

As I was telling Raine yesterday, I'm reaching the part of the story that I have fantasized about for months (if not years), the key conflict/tensions that leads to the climax. I have been writing scenes for this part of the story for months; my desk and walls are filled with notes and many of them are related to this next section.

So, yes, I'm busy.

There's always some threads about writer burnout or why authors take so long to finish the next book in their series. I came to a realization of sorts over the break. Much of my writer's block was self imposed. Life always gets in the way. It's really a matter of not allowing it - and that's the discipline that agents and editors and successful authors are always going on about.

For me, though, it was more of a revelation that when I actually sit down and type, it turns out okay. Often better than okay. It's just pure belief in myself and the process of creativity. I think that can be hard to find sometimes, and I think that's why some writers take longer than others.

I'm as subject to burn out as anyone, I suppose. In planning for my "world", I made it overly diverse. My theory is that if I get tired of writing about Elves, I can pop over to another section of the world, and write about another culture or race.

I'm a little windy today, as it's been awhile since I've gotten to chat about the WIP, and I'm excited. Can you tell? :-p

But, let's talk about you! How was your break, what are you up to, what are you reading/watching?

Don't want to talk about yourself? Let's talk genre. Some random questions I came up with while lying in bed last night. No right or wrong answers, in theory.

1) Dragon Pregnancy: From the time two dragons mate, and the egg is laid - how long does a dragon need to sit on its egg before it hatches? How big is a newborn dragon?

2) If the author is writing in an era before modern measurements, we already assume that the dialogue won't include words like "foot, inch, yard, meter, pounds", etc. But what about description? Is it acceptable to say, "The giant stood 6'6"" or would you rather read descriptions like that from the POV of the protagonist: "The giant stood a full head and shoulders above them both."? The debate being the ease of understanding versus immersion into character POV.

3) What do you think about foreign words in dialogue, to show regional flavor? My observation is that fluent multi-lingual people, where English is not their first language, tend to color their English with the occasional word from another language, particularly in casual speech. If the meaning can be deduced from the context, then it should be bueno. Thoughts?

Or just say hi. Whatever. We have a few reviews that just went up and some more are scheduled, as I whittle down my TBR list.

Til the next.

Wednesday Writer's Report

Did you miss me last week?! Well, I was unwell. Covered that already. Moving on.

Being sick or distracted by the real world tends to bugger up the writing process, but I did spend a couple days earlier in the week spinwheeling out of the mud.

I admit that one of the biggest retardants to my creative process is the demon I've come to embrace in bloglandia. You see, I read a lot of agent, author, publisher blogs - for the advice, perspective, duh? - as well as a crapton of other review blogs, and sometimes I get this sense, this feeling that

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, THERE'S TOO MUCH COMPETITION IN THIS MARKET.

And, frankly, it's a little depressing. Then I go and try make comments to these GURUS, trying to make new friends (ten million posts on making friends in the biz, yo), and they go unanswered.

DOOM DOOM DOOM!!

Then, I stumble upon someone's manuscript. Not any of YOURS, gentle readers* - people chatting with agents and so forth, they post up their junk out of their trunk, word. (*Haha, gentle reader apparently is very annoying to many people.)

Anyway, I see that and I read it with a critical eyeball and I remember to think, "I'm at least half as okay as that." (In broader, more egotistical mental strokes, mind you.)

Am I really, truly? Dunno. But navel gazing annoys me (wait for it before you scream hypocrit), so I don't want to get to this circle-jerk exploration that seeks validation in why I'm doing what I am doing.

In the past year, almost to date, I've written the count you see above. I can do better than that, and that's why I'm doing this. It motivates me to stay on top of my game, to watch my progress - and wait, why make it public?

I used to be a performing Emcee/DJ, and just before I'd start a show, I'd be very nervous, butterflies, anxious - but when I got up there to do my introduction, once that microphone was in my hand and I knew that people were watching me - I was a superstar (in my head)(in a low rent pub in the middle of nowhere)(something other modest goes here) and I felt the power. The power to succeed. Rawr.

You can ignore or comment on these posts as suits you (Precious LOVES comments), but I like to track what my thoughts are and I like to make it public, on a trend, so that I'm forced to feel that same power when I stare at my blank screen, as I used to feel before I took to stage.

***

Anyway, I am thinking of some more interesting content, and I was going to include that notion in this post until I started babbling - in short, because the warriorwriter said so, I want to chat about fantasy stuff in addition to books, movies, TV shows, etc., that I like.

Any fantasy tropes you wanna kick around? Vampires vs Elves, Vikings vs Pirates vs Ninjas vs Assassins, Dragons vs Griffons, etc, etc. Yea, eventually, I'm going to cover them all, because (ha!) I write about them all. I do. It's a REALLY big world and I like to mash things together that shouldn't BE together. (They have super cool conversations!)(Okay, I'm not really planning on Vampires and Werewolves, per se, but I do have a derivative idea where I can mock.. er.. mix them up a bit.)

Okay, don't answer that - I'll do another post tomorrow.

P.S. congrats to China Mieville for winning the Arthur C. Clarke Award.

Wednesday Writer's Report

Good morning (or good afternoon, for those in Europe).

In case it wasn't obvious, for the record, that "excerpt" was not real. It was an April Fool's thing. Ha ha?

A semi-productive week. Finished the revisionary/pacing on the E tribe's current chapter, knocked out a scene in the latest D tribe chapter, and am about 1/3 to 1/2 way through the first short story chapter.

This week's goal is to finish the D chapter (3k words should do it) and finish the first short (4-5k estimate). This weekend I am receiving the first 'heavy edit' return from one of my readers, regarding the first 8 chapters.

It's too early for serious revising, but there is backstory and exposition to cover along the way - so it's important to know when/where this stuff should go.

Catalyst starts out pretty active, then pauses for a few chapters (where I'm at now), then picks up the pace again to reach climax and slip towards resolution. I will have to reindulge myself in some research again in the near future, to refresh my memory.

Of note, this week, I've shifted my "schedule" in order to better deal with external factors. It seems to be working, though my daily average is just over 1k a day - I'd rather see that closer to 2k for this particular story.

I'd like to blame the world on my lack of productivity, but it's me. My self discipline has taken a dive. I'm easily distracted by shiny whatz-its and interesting noises.

*

I'm reading Terry Goodkind in prep for my first review. I figure he's such a staple of the genre that you can measure my response to him versus your own tastes. He's the litmus test, if you will.

I'm reading the first novel in his epic series, and coincidentally, I'm 40pct through it.

I'll leave the review for the review, but I want to ask you something...

How much do you need explained to you, when you're reading fantasy fiction?

In other words, would you rather be told exactly how the characters are feeling, sitting or standing, or would you rather figure it out based on available information?

For myself, I tend to write only the stronger sentiments, but otherwise, I let you try to figure it out with subtle gestures, body language and vocal tonality.

For instance:
1) Bill wanted to write a nice blog, but he was hungry and to make matters worse, he was hungover. But, he was almost done, so he pushed himself, typing fast at the keyboard. Finally, he leaned back and felt a sense of accomplishment.

or

2) Hunched over his desk, Bill clacked away at the keyboard. An empty wine glass from the night before kept vigil over his work. He stared at the screen with a vacant expression on his face and grunted in annoyance when his stomach growled. After a few more keystrokes he said aloud, "Aha. Done!" and leaned back with a smug smile on his face.

The two paragraphs say the same thing, but the latter is closer to how I would write it. The latter forces you to draw conclusions based on evidence - I only provide observations that you would note if you were standing there.

Occasionally, I will let you inside a character's head, but usually when they are uncertain - because that's a subtlety in expression that would not necessarily be obvious to a bystander watching the world go by. But, I'm a keen observer of people, and by default, so is the reader.

Otherwise, I prefer to let the smirk or quip or comment carry the scene, and you can figure out if it's a legitimate response or a defense mechanism, etc.

I will do inner monologue if it's not obvious where the POV's head is at, particularly with those stoic types who are conflicted.

Anyway, if you've any thoughts on how much information you need to be told, I'd appreciate it.

Wednesday Writer's Report

If you want to write about outdoor adventures, it's important to actually get away from the desk and experience it a little. This is where my roommate and I went yesterday afternoon.


On the trail at Lake Norman State Park, photo by Joey the C.

The ivy covered the trees, like above, in one little section of the trail. Curious phenomenon, really.

The surreal part of the this, for me, is that I'm writing about "springtime", so the nuances of my observations help me to pretend that I'm making things more "real". For instance, there was a lot of detritus, moisture on the ground. Dead pine leaves. Not alot of animals, so we had to stalk the birds and listen to the squeaking of the baby avians.


One of the 6 or so Turkey Vultures we attempted to stalk, who caught onto us a bit too easily.

Lesson of the day: March isn't April. The childhood phrase, "April showers bring May flowers." comes to mind. I'm wanting to write about plush fields and vibrant flowers, and my recent hiking sojourns have impressed upon me that I'm not being accurate. Plant and animal life are struggling to be born, are coming out of winter's slumber, and are just now beginning to show the very first signs of what will be "plush and vibrant".

Aside, I envision a great many ivy covered trees (silver ivy, not green) in the forest where the story begins. Like the photo above. My revision will need to accomodate more for the dead stuff on the ground, methinks.

Last week's entry dealt with pacing, and this is mildly related. I mentioned last week of a "global event" that will adhere the pacing and character POV's, and the story is approaching this point.

In terms of overall progress I spent most of the last week revising the POV chapters to match the new pacing structure. Maybe 5,000 new words, of which 2/3 of them were filling in gaps and transitioning previously written (but incomplete) chapters. That will be one half of the writing tasks for the week ahead.

After that, the story will progress into new material that mostly is just lingering in my head, and follows a couple of rough outlines I've drawn up.

This week's question/concern is "Story within a story". I have two "Global Event" POV chapters to go along with the current (4-5 main characters) storyline.

The overall story does not require more than a chapter for the events in question, so I felt that deriving a separate arc(s) would deaden the relatively brisk pace of the novel as it is.

Why include them? Good question. One is to broaden the scope of the reader to the world, to impress upon them that other tribes and elements are indeed at work. Yes, this lays a groundwork for more complicated storylines in the future, but that's the point of this story, "Catalyst".

I also cover something in the Prologue that is potentially unresolved without these two chapters. There are 6 ugly fellas mentioned in the beginning, and the main story only covers 4 of them. The short stories cover the question that might come up, "Hey what about those other ugly fellas?"

I am of the opinion that a short story within the scope of the novel isn't a bad thing, and will break up what is essentially two broad perspectives at this moment in the novel.

One of the short stories (which I started yesterday, and then alas, got interrupted), involves a main character of the early chapters and is a follow up to actions he suggested that he would take. Otherwise, his POV isn't really worth following where concerns the overall tale.

The second one, however, introduces new tribes, new cultures and new POV's and is really the one that shows the vastness of the world. It needs to be written with a strong hook, arc, climax and resolution so that it stands alone. It will answer questions arising from the prologue - and - due to their cultural perspective, will provide a very detailed understanding of and response to the global event.

But, the resolution involves actions which will take time to put into place, and are otherwise uninteresting and unrelated to the main storyline. Thus, one chapter.

I don't expect to bang out both shorts and the other chapters leading up to the global event in one week, but stranger things have happened. My goal is to finish one main chapter revision and to finish the story I started yesterday. Beyond that, all bonus.

Discussion point for today's (lengthy) post: How disturbing - or not - is a story within a story?