Some People
October 14th, 2010

I think of myself as a halfway intelligent, reasonable, and level-headed person. I respect other people, strive to be polite, and only very rarely throw up at fancy dinner parties. So I'm often befuddled and flummoxed by the behavior of some people. This involves observing said person's behavior, shaking my level-headed head, and saying, "What were they thinking?"

I bring this up now for one single reason: the latest (as of today) entry on Slush Pile Hell:

I received your rejection notice, and I want to let you know that even if you would have offered representation, I would have turned it down. You obviously have no taste in literature and are a hack. I look forward to your failure as the publishing industry goes down in flames.

There are so many things wrong with this, I don't even know where to start. What makes people behave like this? First of all, I'm positive the person is lying. If this agent had offered to represent the book, I highly doubt the response would be, "You have no taste in literature and are a hack." No, this person somehow would have managed to find it in his heart (and yes, I'm assuming it's a "his") to actually thank the agent and move forward with getting that book deal.

Some people!

You know, the worst part of all this is the realization that my book(s), if I ever finish writing it(them) will never get published. Because of this one guy's rejection, the entire publishing industry is going down in flames. What rotten luck for me. Oh well. At least this happened after the seventh Harry Potter book got published.

Posted in Musings | 2 comments
And the Slump Returns
October 13th, 2010

I was looking at a comparison of my writing progress for this month versus where I was during NaNoWriMo last year. What a difference a year makes. And I don't mean that in a good way. Total word count is now 12,694, which isn't bad. But that's over ten thousand words behind this month's pace and less than half my word count during last year's NaNo.

Granted, this means absolutely nothing in the long run. What surprises me is that unlike last year, I actually feel like I have a purpose this time around. Last NaNo I was pantsing it, this year I'm plotting it. Last year I had no idea where the story was going. This year I know exactly where the story is going, and even have the soundtrack music already picked out for the movie's climactic scene.

But that ain't gonna happen if I don't get my behind in gear. These books just don't write themselves, you know! So guess what I'm going to do now as soon as I submit this post? That's right! I'm going straight to bed.

:)

Posted in Progress | 2 comments
Nearly Back on Track
October 8th, 2010

Day thirty-eight of PBWQ. Made up for some lost time tonight and the manuscript sits at the delightful word-count of 11,101. I have a feeling this time around it's going to end up around 80,000 words, so it feels strange to be pushing the 15% complete mark. My main goal this time around is to make sure the story doesn't drag. So I should probably stop and read what I've written so far, but that takes time away from the actual writing.

I should be at 14,888 words today. The one big advantage PBWQ has over NNWM is (you guessed it): October is 31 day. That means only 1613 wpd instead of NaNo's blistering 1667 wpd pace.

Have a good weekend.

Posted in Progress | 3 comments
Fast and Furious
October 4th, 2010

I'm three days into the fast and furious writing phase. I'm taking a slightly different approach this time too; which I can probably sum up as: "not getting too hung up on every last word." I've done that in the past and it always leads to what we call in the software development world as "premature optimization." In short, it means you're polishing something up before you even know if you'll even need it. I've wasted countless hours on words that will never see the light of day. It's paramount I get the story structure solid first. It's like working in clay: throw a lump on the wheel then begin to shape it gradually. Each pass gets closer and closer to your vision. In no case do you perfect the eyeball first and then figure out what shape the head is going to be.

Hope it helps!

Posted in Progress | 3 comments
PerBoWriQua 2010: Month Two
October 1st, 2010

October. OCTOBER! We'll ignore the discussion about how September only lasted about eight days this year and instead focus on the fact that the second month of the first-ever PerBoWriQua begins today. If you're following the traditional pattern (and by "traditional" I mean "the one I just made up at the end of August") then all your outlining, planning, and synopsizing is done and you are ready to begin the first draft of your manuscript today.

If you're like me, you didn't get any of that finished. So today's the day you're going to take your good, yet incomplete, plans, and wing it. That said, I still feel positive, though admittedly a bit nervous. I always get nervous at the beginning of a project. I'm not sure why. I'd love to tell you how I feel at the end of a project because, well . . . my projects never end.

Here's hoping to break tradition.

Posted in Progress | 3 comments
Storytelling
September 30th, 2010

I'd like to tell you the story about how and when I knew I wanted to write. I'm sure my story is very much like yours. I mean, there can't be that many different ways a person is drawn to this endeavor, n'est-ce pas?

Didn't the writing bug also bite you that one day you left middle school right after lunch due to the flu and on the way home you were abducted by aliens? Then, after being gone several years, they returned you back to the exact time and place they took you? And you were pretty much none the worse for the experience except for the curse they laid upon you: the ever-present desire to write novels but without the ability to construct a plot that would hold a reader's attention for more than half a latte? Didn't that happen to you too?

Here I am, more than seventeen years after my abduction, and I'm still living with this issue. I may someday fill you in on what happened during those intervening years, but not right now. Suffice it to say I spent a good chunk of it writing non-fiction. I certainly figured out how to write words good . . . but then I made a naive mental leap. I assumed this meant I could write a novel. "You're a great writer!" my imaginary friends would tell me. "You should be able to write a book without any problem at all."

If by "without any problem" my invisible pals meant "with lots and lots of problems," then they were spot on. Simply being able to write good is not the same thing as telling a good story. For a number of years I had an uneasy feeling this was the case. Fortunately, two very non-imaginary people, Jack and Jill, took a look at my work and pointed this out to me. They each employed a constructive manner using plenty of terms that couldn't possibly terminate a friendship.

As I prepare to give this another go tomorrow, the second month of PBWQ, I'm hoping the story structure I've worked and reworked over the last four to six weeks or so pays off. Otherwise I'm calling those aliens and demanding my money back.

Posted in On Writing | No comments
The Succinct Synopsis
September 27th, 2010

If you're one of the two-to-four people playing along in the First Annual PBWQ, then you should be painfully aware that the end of the first month is upon us. Have you spent it planning? Plotting? Writing? Sleeping? Or did you do what I did and wasted too much time making a synopsis that looked a wee bit too much like the final product?

Productivity-wise, I had a pretty good week. In spite of the fact that I had several nothing-at-all days, the (essentially) two days I was on were good ones. As I mentioned in my PBWQ update yesterday, I decided this week to visualize the entire storyline as a series of bullet points. So instead of writing a long and winding synopsis like so:

At this point the protagonist decided to fix a bowl of cereal. He had been up all night trying to figure out how he was going to get out of his current predicament. He decided to talk things over with his buddy right after breakfast. His buddy always knew what to do.

I ended up with something quite a bit more succinct:

  • o Bob eats breakfast.
  • o Buddy helps out Bob.

It's easier to read, understand, edit, manipulate and discourages the fluff that tends to creep into my synopsizing. Which is another way to say: it's virtually darling-proof. If you're taking the whole just-the-facts-ma'am approach, you're not creating little literary gems all over the place. If a bullet point doesn't fit, out it goes and no one cares. It's refreshingly clinical. I wish I'd thought of it fifteen years ago.

Posted in On Writing | One comment
Running out of Time
September 23rd, 2010

As of the time of this writing, we're now about an hour and a half into the fall season in the northern hemisphere. (And did you catch that full harvest moon last night?) This means September is almost over. This also means the first month of PBWQ is almost over.

Month One, for me, meant pure R&D. It was about "getting it together" and pretty much nothing else. I've plowed forward into dense forests before only to find myself completely lost and out of energy. I swore I wouldn't let that happen this time around. I was going to do my homework and have the clearest blueprint ever before writing Word One.

Overall, I am happy with the progress. Things feel like they're coming together and, in spite of the fact that I don't have everything completely nailed down yet, this still feels right. I managed to spend some time on it even while out of town the last several days.

Let's just hope this translates into a good story. Because all the planning in the world isn't enough to make a book actually enjoyable.

Posted in Progress | One comment
Staying Motivated
September 15th, 2010

Think about your dream job. I mean your all-time, number-one, could-do-absolutely-anything-you-want dream job. If you can't think of one right off the top of your head, don't worry. Here are some ideas I pulled out of my newspaper's classified ads for you:

  • WANTED: Man or woman, age 21 to 129, to taste-test new chocolate candy recipes. Twenty hours per week. $120K/year and up.
  • GREAT OPPORTUNITY: Are you a real go-getter? Because we need someone to go get our coffee. Up to two hours per week. $1,750/hr.
  • NEEDED: Highly-motivated individual to stress test beach chairs in the Bahamas. Travel expenses and per diem included. May be required to test beer and/or margaritas up to 10% of the time. Starting rate: $6,000/month. Winters off.

While your dream job sounds kind of nice, let's face it: sooner or later every job becomes a job. You may find it incredulous that anyone could tire of tasting chocolate or fetching coffee or even sitting around on the beach. But sooner or later it happens.

Read the rest of this awesome post »

Posted in Musings | 5 comments
Twenty Minutes
September 6th, 2010

post image: Twenty MinutesI find it ironic that I frequently find myself lacking any sort of ambition when it comes to doing the thing I want to do most: namely, drink beer. Er . . . wait. No, I mean write. I mostly want to write.

Most of the time it's because I'm too dejected to write anything. Storylines hit brick walls. The brain goes numb. Everything I've done for the past six weeks is crap. I know I need to keep at it if I'm going to knock down those walls, reignite the brain, or turn the crap around. But it can be really difficult to harden myself to the task at hand. I think Gimli summed it up best during his orc-chase with:

"Well, let us go on," said Gimli. "My legs must forget the miles. They would be more willing, if my heart were less heavy."

Read the rest of this awesome post »

Posted in On Writing | 2 comments
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