Browsed by
Month: May 2011

What editing looks like for me

What editing looks like for me

Tools: Written outline, printed draft, scissors, tape, post-its, blue pen, red pen, lots of floor space.

Where we left off yesterday in the checklist:

  • Write a new beginning – done
  • Do a basic rewrite of the existing story, smoothe out prose – done
  • Fine-tune character motivations – done
  • Print draft, get out the scissors and tape, evaluate structure, fix – in progress
  • Improve beats, heighten tension
  • Groom for economy: cut, cut, cut!
  • Groom for voice. Find the section that reads exactly the way I want it to, get that voice in my head, and carry it through each paragraph.
  • Read aloud/proofread, fix anything that I stumble over
  • PROFIT. I mean…what? Submit, and cross tentacles.

I spent a little time just writing down the outline and identifying the acts and scenes. I feel pretty good about the general structure, but I’m definitely moving some things around.

I only got through half of the story tonight, but I have a narration that’s way overdue that I need to finish editing, so the second half will have to wait. That’s probably best anyway; I’d been focusing on it for two straight hours and was losing stream. Better to come back to the second half fresh tomorrow.

Rewrite progress and standing desk update

Rewrite progress and standing desk update

The rewrite is coming along pretty well, I think. I really enjoy the editing process–first drafts are like pulling teeth for me, but editing a story into shape afterward is great fun. I feel like this is exactly what I needed. I’m looking forward to getting this one out the door, but there’s a lot of work to be done first. I’m taking it in steps:

  • Write a new beginning – done
  • Do a basic rewrite of the existing story, smoothe out prose – done
  • Fine-tune character motivations – in progress
  • Print draft, get out the scissors and tape, evaluate structure, fix
  • Improve beats, heighten tension
  • Groom for economy: cut, cut, cut!
  • Groom for voice. Find the section that reads exactly the way I want it to, get that voice in my head, and carry it through each paragraph.
  • Read aloud/proofread, fix anything that I stumble over
  • PROFIT. I mean…what? Submit, and cross tentacles.

Those are the steps that seem to produce the results I’m happiest with. I’m hoping to get this done by the end of the weekend. I’m fond of this story and hope that I can do it justice finally. (It is kind of funny to think that John rejected this story back in 2006, long before I had any idea who he was.)

In other news, the standing desk experience is improving. The first three days were pretty painful, but today wasn’t too bad. I find that I need to stretch and/or sit every two hours or so. Moving helps, breaks help, but by the end of the day I’m definitely ready to get off my feet. We’ll see how it is at the end of this week.

In general I’m feeling pretty good. I feel like these are two good things for me to be doing right now. The next three months promise to be absolutely crazy, so I’m enjoying slowing down a little and focusing on the work.

When the word well runs dry

When the word well runs dry

I’m sure I’m not the only person this happens to: Stuff starts happening in life, and the creative waters just dry up. There’s so much on your mind, it’s impossible to make up new problems for your characters to solve–you’re too busy trying to solve your own. That’s where I’m at right now. Planning a wedding, trying to get a kid into college, stressing over a partially written novel with a workshop deadline, various financial concerns, day job nonsense–it’s like each of them is a stone tossed in the well, until all of the water has been displaced, and my mind is just a dark hole full of rocks.

It’s terrible timing. I have a little free time on my hands right now, with John traveling, and I’ve sat at the keys two nights in a row unable to find anything to say. This was supposed to be my super-productive time.

The problem is that when I’m not writing, there hardly seems to be a reason to get up in the morning. Seriously. I’ll think melodramatic things like “What’s the point? I can’t write.” I did exactly that this morning. I lay there and thought about my novel and short stories in progress and just couldn’t find it in me to care about my characters’ troubles and goals, and decide what happens next.

So I decided to fix an old, broken story instead. It was the second story I trunked. Reading it now is pretty painful–there is some really terrible writing in there! But the heart of the story is good, and I think it can be saved. I’ve been at it for a couple of hours now. This is something I can probably have out the door by the end of the week, and I think that will go a long way toward helping me feel less useless.

I don’t know whether it’ll do anything to free up my mind for new material. That might only happen when these other life things get resolved.

What do you do when the well runs dry?

Getting off my ass

Getting off my ass

Literally.

When you have friends like fitness professional Sandra Wickham it’s pretty hard to keep ignoring your fitness or lack thereof. (Also hard to ignore is when one’s clothing no longer fits. Since I started working from home a year and a half ago I have “grown” two full dress sizes.) A lot of my friends are currently working on their fitness levels, some of them directly with Sandra using her Virtual Bootcamp program, others on their own.

In the past year I’ve been slowly working out what does and doesn’t work for me. Big changes that require a lot of will power don’t, so a sudden change in what I eat results in disaster after a week or two. I’m a good sprinter, but a lousy long-distance runner (metaphorically speaking. Literally speaking I’m lousy at both.) I’ve slowly honed my diet so that I know what my caloric intake is, I avoid fats, eat a lot of vegetables, and don’t eat a lot of processed anything.

That’s been a step in the right direction, but obviously I needed exercise, too. Again, slow changes: I got the 100 Pushups and 200 Situps apps for my iPhone. I do “modified” pushups–the ones where I’m on my knees instead of toes. Right now I can do 65 pretty comfortably (in five sets, which the app calculates for me.) Once I get to 100 I want to start the program over with real pushups.

So Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I do my pushups and situps followed by twenty minutes of cardio, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays I do thirty to forty minutes of cardio. (I just pushed past the thirty minute mark this week. Took me a while.)

I certainly feel better having made those changes, but it’s not enough. I started reading about how bad sitting all day is (and I was sitting roughly 15 hours a day) and how it slows a person’s metabolism waaaaay down. It also puts us at higher risk for heart disease and all manner of horrible things. So today I made the switch to a standing desk.

I had read that the first three days or so are pretty hard, and it’s true. I made the change at 2:00 p.m. today and by 5:00 my feet and legs were definitely ready for me to get the hell off them, thank you very much.

But I immediately discovered benefits that I didn’t expect. I was able to focus better. I put on some music and caught myself dancing. I wasn’t cold–and I am always cold. Normally I sit with my space heater on all day, but not today. I felt like getting out of my sweats and into, you know, grownup clothes. My whole attitude was different.

I imagine that tomorrow I’ll be hurting by the end of the day, but it should start to improve after that. My writing desk (in a different part of the house) will remain a sitting desk, but I don’t spend much time here (sadly.)

I’m really hopeful that I will see changes in how I feel and how I look. I know other people are thinking about making the change, so I’ll be sure to report back on any progress or setbacks.

Sometimes, you just have to ask.

Sometimes, you just have to ask.

I’ve told you guys before about the writers conference where I sort of grew up as a writer. The Santa Barbara Writers Conference is a week-long, very intense workshop, highly focused on craft. Its real strength has always been in the variety of workshops available, and the freedom of students to wander from one to the other until they find the one that fits. There are workshops that focus on style, romance, poetry, YA/MG, children’s literature, literary fiction, travel writing, creative non-fiction, memoir, dramatic structure and play writing, screen writing, and–of course–speculative fiction. There is something for everyone, and a qualified instructor to teach it. It is particularly specfic-friendly, for such a general conference–Ray Bradbury opens the conference every single year, and SBWC is delighted to count Christopher Moore among its alumni (he has come back to teach a Master Class in years past.) There are three sessions per day–the morning and afternoon workshops are three hours each, and the nighttime (“Pirate”) workshops go from 9:00 p.m. until everyone has read, which is sometimes not much before the sun comes up.

I invariably ended up in Matt Pallamary’s “Phantastic Fiction” class in the mornings, usually Dale Griffith Stamos and Abe Polsky’s “Dramatic Structure” in the afternoons, and if I wasn’t totally exhausted at the end of the day, John Reed’s Pirate Workshop (wine is encouraged) at night.

The conference has changed hands, and has been on hold for two years to allow it to reorganize and the economy to recover a little bit. This year it’s back on, scaled down and moved to a new location (membership is capped at 200 this year.) I won’t be able to attend as a student or a staff member this time (I spent three years on the staff, first as Volunteer Coordinator and later as Merchandise Coordinator.) There’s too much else going on this summer, but the idea of not being a part of it at all is just too sad a thought. SBWC is home to me.

As I was thinking about it, I had an idea. The idea grew into a daydream, and then into a hope. Then I wrote an email.

Sometimes you just have to ask for what you want and see what happens.

The result is that I will be speaking to Matt’s class as an industry guest. :) My career has come on a bit in the years since the conference was last held, and I’m in a position to answer the questions that I had when I first started attending as a student. I’ll probably stick around for the critique session, and hang out to get to know the new batch of students better. John will likely come with me, to meet the local SFF writers and check out this conference I’ve been yammering on about.

SBWC has a particular attachment to the term “pay it forward,” as one of its long-time faculty members is Catherine Ryan Hyde, who wrote the book by that title. I was happy to serve as a volunteer, and then on Staff, and I’m so excited to be going back in a guest capacity, to carry on a long tradition of paying it forward. Many thanks to my first teacher, Matt Pallamary, for making it happen.

Way of the Wizard give-away!

Way of the Wizard give-away!

John Joseph Adams is giving away ten copies of The Way of the Wizard over on GoodReads.com. As you’re undoubtedly sick of hearing, that’s where one of my stories first appeared. It’s packed full of amazing stories by the likes of Delia Sherman, Neil Gaiman, Susanna Clarke, and George R.R. Martin.

Head on over to the site and enter for your chance to win! And if you’ve already read it, why not leave a review?

Contest ends May 31.

Housekeeping, and new post on Inkpunks

Housekeeping, and new post on Inkpunks

I’ve been redecorating over here at Inkhaven and the site is sporting a bright new theme! (Looking for a new WordPress theme is like shopping for clothes only I don’t feel fat.) I’ll be updating some of the information on the site over the new few days.

This week I’m working on a new narration for StarShipSofa. It’s been a while–I haven’t been doing nearly as much narration this year as last year. It’s pretty time-consuming, but I love being part of the Sofa crew. I’ll let you guys know when it’s released.

Today I have a new post up at the Inkpunks site, “The Dos and Don’ts of Your Online Presence.” Stop by and add your thoughts in the comments!