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THIS WEEK'S PROGRESS
Project: Falcons Rising
Pages Revised: 0
Pages Cut: 2
New Scenes: 2 --- 9 pages of new stuff! This particular section has allowed me to apply what I've learned about Show vs. Tell
Bad Things that Happened: A bridge comes tumbling down
Good Things that Happened: Nobody was on it
When Daniel Pool of Larks Fiction Magazine reviewed my novella Mists of Blackfen Bog at the Examiner,
one of the few criticism he had about it concerned the "Interlude" that
I included near the end. It's a linking scene, summarizing the passage
of time while including the important details, between the rising action
and the conclusion. He called this a "hiccup." Now, I'm indifferent
about the matter. I can't agree or disagree with his opinion, but I see
his point. How does that relate to my novel Falcons Rising and
the revisions it's suffering through? Don't tell, but I had an
"Interlude" there as well, in which I summarized not the events of a few
days, but the highlights taking place over a couple of years.
The reader does not need to know every event that occurs during those
couple of years, but some important things do happen. How to handle this
information has proven a problem in the past couple of weeks.
My
conclusion is to choose the major pieces of information and show them
in full detail, while tossing in the tidbits of other important info, as
my POV character learns of it, letters, hearsay, battle reports, etc.
If "telling" must done (and it must b/c there's just too much info),
then let it be done through the characters themselves, their words,
their thoughts, rather than a very, very ... very ... distant omniscient
narration. It's been tough trying to decide how to present the
information in a more interesting way without belaboring the issue and
drawing out the book to ridiculous lengths. But I think the reader will
appreciate the results, if not the immense effort involved.
So,
if nothing else, it's good to read the negative comments as well as the
good, in the hopes that one's future endeavors benefit. Have you received a less than favorable comment that helped strengthen your writing later?
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Friday, October 7, 2011
Monday, October 3, 2011
Falcons Promo
A bit of promo art, anyone?
Well, ideally, I'm not lying about
the date. Okay, okay, it's not a date, it's a season, which gives me
lots of leeway. Friend Virginia is getting very, very upset that this
project isn't finished yet. She only got to read the first half of this
novel, and she's anxiously awaiting the rewrites for the rest. I can't
let my new head cold get in the way. Rewrites must go on.
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Tuesday, September 27, 2011
I can breathe now...
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I had to wait until I had a moment to breathe before I could spend decent time posting. Things have calmed down a bit. I gave up on the LeFiWriMo project, which helped immensely. The writing frenzy was a good learning experience, however. I learned that I'm writing more in a day than I thought I was. All these years I felt as if I wasn't doing enough, not accomplishing enough in my day-to-day tasks. Now I know that's not the case. Seriously, when you write rough drafts longhand for years, you go by the number of pages you've filled with your increasingly horrible scrawl, rather than word count. Now I know I can type 2000 words a day without much effort at all -- as long as the story itself is flowing clearly. So, I will now be typing all my rough drafts. I know, I know. Welcome to the modern era, lady!
In the meantime, colleague Brian Fatah Steele contacted me, along with several self-published writers he's acquainted with, and asked us to be part of an anthology he's putting together. When he said it was to have a Halloween theme, initially I was intimidated. Brian is a horror writer. I canNOT write horror, so I was relieved when he said my story could be of a different genre. Now I'm intimidated because the results are on the almost-too-long end, and barely of any speculative genre at all (which is a first for me!). Literary Americana with a smidgeon of fantastical happenings. I hope it fits. If not, oh, well. I had a wonderful time writing it, and feel that the story has something to say about small town life, about decency to neighbors. Best of all, my very honest husband loved it. *whew*
So if all goes well, be looking for a new Halloween antho this October. I won't release the details until I have permission.
My verse during busy times:
"Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10
Which is powerfully interpreted as "Stop striving and know that I am God."
.
I had to wait until I had a moment to breathe before I could spend decent time posting. Things have calmed down a bit. I gave up on the LeFiWriMo project, which helped immensely. The writing frenzy was a good learning experience, however. I learned that I'm writing more in a day than I thought I was. All these years I felt as if I wasn't doing enough, not accomplishing enough in my day-to-day tasks. Now I know that's not the case. Seriously, when you write rough drafts longhand for years, you go by the number of pages you've filled with your increasingly horrible scrawl, rather than word count. Now I know I can type 2000 words a day without much effort at all -- as long as the story itself is flowing clearly. So, I will now be typing all my rough drafts. I know, I know. Welcome to the modern era, lady!
In the meantime, colleague Brian Fatah Steele contacted me, along with several self-published writers he's acquainted with, and asked us to be part of an anthology he's putting together. When he said it was to have a Halloween theme, initially I was intimidated. Brian is a horror writer. I canNOT write horror, so I was relieved when he said my story could be of a different genre. Now I'm intimidated because the results are on the almost-too-long end, and barely of any speculative genre at all (which is a first for me!). Literary Americana with a smidgeon of fantastical happenings. I hope it fits. If not, oh, well. I had a wonderful time writing it, and feel that the story has something to say about small town life, about decency to neighbors. Best of all, my very honest husband loved it. *whew*
So if all goes well, be looking for a new Halloween antho this October. I won't release the details until I have permission.
My verse during busy times:
"Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10
Which is powerfully interpreted as "Stop striving and know that I am God."
.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
No More, Please!
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I'm starting to freak out. Last post I said that my plate was full. Now I think LegendFire's ezine layout person has quit on us. She and I had a very . . . strange . . . disagreement. Or misunderstanding. I'm not sure what it was. Typing private messages back and forth over a period of weeks manages to conceal the body language and tone of voice that would confirm exactly what transpired. She proposed layout changes to make the ezine look more professional. I said great! Send me your ideas. Then, come to find out, she expected me to have the vision for something she proposed. ???
We have four days till Issue 7 is supposed to be released, I sent the content to her three days ago, and I've not heard a word from her. Which isn't odd in itself. There are often many, many days between my PMs to her and her replies, and because of her busy student schedule we've never once gotten the ezine released on its release date,even after we rearranged the release schedule to accomodate. So I could be worrying for nothing. Or I could be putting up with too much crap.
In her last message to me, she said that she would drop the project then. Does that mean she's dropping the project of standardizing and professionalizing the ezine? Or does that mean she's dropping the ezine altogether? I don't know! So now I'm chewing my nails, waiting to see if she sends me a copy of the zine to be checked for final edits or if I have to scramble around and take up yet another project that someone drops.
There's no way I can afford publishing software. Getting to know something like Scribus, which is free, will take time that I do not have. So, yeah, I'm freaking out. If this falls through, I'm tempted yet again to urge the ezine staff to drop the whole thing. I will shout, I KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN!!! Two years ago, some member proposed the idea, thinking, "Ah wouldn't it be great if we still received a newsletter every month." I turned around and asked that member (in slightly more PC language), "So you mean to take this project on, huh, b/c I do not have time to hold your hand and do all the unseen things it would involve." The member with the great idea says, "Uh, I didn't mean me." No, really? Yeah, I know exactly who you meant. I considered the matter dropped, until weeks later someone decides, "Hey, this would be a great idea! Not a newsletter though, but a quarterly ezine!"
I hold up my hands and say, "Fine, y'all industrious folks who have time, have at it. I can't take this on too."
Slowly but surely, I inherited one task for the ezine, then another. Every quarter, I have to spend time hunting up members to write articles, which often feels like begging for someone to step up and take action. In the meantime, the member who first proposed the idea is no longer even a member, due to busyness that took them away. No, really? Then our original editor got busy editing in the real world and vanished, so I'm now the ezine editor too. Somewhere in there, we learned that hardly anyone was receiving the bloody thing in their email inboxes, so I had to involve my husband to try to figure out LF's bulk email settings and server issues, just so folks will receive the product of our efforts. It was so bad that some members didn't know we HAD an ezine the first whole year it was out. *shoot me now*
So, after all this B.S. I have the eerie feeling that our layout lady has dropped us. She only ever showed up once a quarter to do the layouts anyway, which means she's probably looking for any excuse at all to sever ties with LF, and I do believe this was her excuse.
Do I take up yet more slack? Or bury the ezine? I just don't know. Looks like I have four days to wait and see what happens. Then, the old red dragon may rear her ugly head.
.
I'm starting to freak out. Last post I said that my plate was full. Now I think LegendFire's ezine layout person has quit on us. She and I had a very . . . strange . . . disagreement. Or misunderstanding. I'm not sure what it was. Typing private messages back and forth over a period of weeks manages to conceal the body language and tone of voice that would confirm exactly what transpired. She proposed layout changes to make the ezine look more professional. I said great! Send me your ideas. Then, come to find out, she expected me to have the vision for something she proposed. ???
We have four days till Issue 7 is supposed to be released, I sent the content to her three days ago, and I've not heard a word from her. Which isn't odd in itself. There are often many, many days between my PMs to her and her replies, and because of her busy student schedule we've never once gotten the ezine released on its release date,even after we rearranged the release schedule to accomodate. So I could be worrying for nothing. Or I could be putting up with too much crap.
In her last message to me, she said that she would drop the project then. Does that mean she's dropping the project of standardizing and professionalizing the ezine? Or does that mean she's dropping the ezine altogether? I don't know! So now I'm chewing my nails, waiting to see if she sends me a copy of the zine to be checked for final edits or if I have to scramble around and take up yet another project that someone drops.
There's no way I can afford publishing software. Getting to know something like Scribus, which is free, will take time that I do not have. So, yeah, I'm freaking out. If this falls through, I'm tempted yet again to urge the ezine staff to drop the whole thing. I will shout, I KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN!!! Two years ago, some member proposed the idea, thinking, "Ah wouldn't it be great if we still received a newsletter every month." I turned around and asked that member (in slightly more PC language), "So you mean to take this project on, huh, b/c I do not have time to hold your hand and do all the unseen things it would involve." The member with the great idea says, "Uh, I didn't mean me." No, really? Yeah, I know exactly who you meant. I considered the matter dropped, until weeks later someone decides, "Hey, this would be a great idea! Not a newsletter though, but a quarterly ezine!"
I hold up my hands and say, "Fine, y'all industrious folks who have time, have at it. I can't take this on too."
Slowly but surely, I inherited one task for the ezine, then another. Every quarter, I have to spend time hunting up members to write articles, which often feels like begging for someone to step up and take action. In the meantime, the member who first proposed the idea is no longer even a member, due to busyness that took them away. No, really? Then our original editor got busy editing in the real world and vanished, so I'm now the ezine editor too. Somewhere in there, we learned that hardly anyone was receiving the bloody thing in their email inboxes, so I had to involve my husband to try to figure out LF's bulk email settings and server issues, just so folks will receive the product of our efforts. It was so bad that some members didn't know we HAD an ezine the first whole year it was out. *shoot me now*
So, after all this B.S. I have the eerie feeling that our layout lady has dropped us. She only ever showed up once a quarter to do the layouts anyway, which means she's probably looking for any excuse at all to sever ties with LF, and I do believe this was her excuse.
Do I take up yet more slack? Or bury the ezine? I just don't know. Looks like I have four days to wait and see what happens. Then, the old red dragon may rear her ugly head.
.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Me, A Teacher?
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I don't think I can pile anymore on my plate. This is going to be one insane month. LeFiWriMo starts tonight at one minute past midnight. So in addition to writing 850 or so words a day on Cataclysm, I need to be making progress on the novel project. In addition, two new developments are spicing things up.
Suddenly, I'm a teacher. My nephew, who is being home schooled, started 1st Grade this year, and I get to teach Art Appreciation. Luckily the text is very simple. But after fifteen minutes or so of looking at art, we also get to make some. I'm sure we'll have paint and glue and tissue paper strung out everywhere in no time. I'm honored that my sister would consider involving me in Seth's education already. I figured I'd be needed for High School Lit or something, but 1st Grade Art Appreciation is going to be awesome. Better, class starts on my birthday.
On top of those preparations that I'll be making, I'm also preparing study guides for our LifeGroup. That is, our church group of young married couples. There are about 14 of us, and we've decided to dig into the Book of Acts. Lots of history and culture and amazing happenings to read about. I know how much preparation my mother has to do to prepare for her Bible studies, and I'm finding out why. This is weighty stuff. Art Appreciation is one thing, but presenting God's Word to adults in a meaningful form is quite another. My mother always tells me, "As teacher, you'll get far more out of it than they will." That doesn't mean we're bad teachers; it means that we must be prepared, whereas the students may give the text only a cursory glance.
Needless to say, my gaming hobby is about to suffer. My evenings will be filled with writing and studying and cleaning up paint spills, I'm sure, rather than seeking treasure and dodging fireballs. Does this mean it's time to grow up at last? Hehe, whatever. It feels good, if a bit overwhelming.
.
I don't think I can pile anymore on my plate. This is going to be one insane month. LeFiWriMo starts tonight at one minute past midnight. So in addition to writing 850 or so words a day on Cataclysm, I need to be making progress on the novel project. In addition, two new developments are spicing things up.
Suddenly, I'm a teacher. My nephew, who is being home schooled, started 1st Grade this year, and I get to teach Art Appreciation. Luckily the text is very simple. But after fifteen minutes or so of looking at art, we also get to make some. I'm sure we'll have paint and glue and tissue paper strung out everywhere in no time. I'm honored that my sister would consider involving me in Seth's education already. I figured I'd be needed for High School Lit or something, but 1st Grade Art Appreciation is going to be awesome. Better, class starts on my birthday.
On top of those preparations that I'll be making, I'm also preparing study guides for our LifeGroup. That is, our church group of young married couples. There are about 14 of us, and we've decided to dig into the Book of Acts. Lots of history and culture and amazing happenings to read about. I know how much preparation my mother has to do to prepare for her Bible studies, and I'm finding out why. This is weighty stuff. Art Appreciation is one thing, but presenting God's Word to adults in a meaningful form is quite another. My mother always tells me, "As teacher, you'll get far more out of it than they will." That doesn't mean we're bad teachers; it means that we must be prepared, whereas the students may give the text only a cursory glance.
Needless to say, my gaming hobby is about to suffer. My evenings will be filled with writing and studying and cleaning up paint spills, I'm sure, rather than seeking treasure and dodging fireballs. Does this mean it's time to grow up at last? Hehe, whatever. It feels good, if a bit overwhelming.
.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
LeFiWriMo Begins Today!
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LegendFire's version of NaNoWriMo begins today. Instead of a month to prepare, we have one week (though most members who will participate have been planning already). Instead of 50,000 words, we have a goal of 25,000 words. Back in March we held the same event, but none of our members were able to complete the challenge, so we're holding the event again, in the hopes that someone, this time will meet the goal.
Because of the novel project that I've been slaving away on for a year now, I didn't have anything prepared for the March event. But there's a new idea spinning. I've been brainstorming on it since June, characters, structure ideas, dialog, etc. So I'm allowing myself to take time away from Falcons Rising to participate this time around. For want of a title on the LeFi project, for future reference we'll call it simply Cataclysm. Technically, since I only have to write about 850 words a day to meet the goal, I'm hoping to work on both Cataclysm and Falcons every day, but that's being very optimistic. I'm so behind on Falcons revisions anyway. What's one more month, eh? Blah.
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LegendFire's version of NaNoWriMo begins today. Instead of a month to prepare, we have one week (though most members who will participate have been planning already). Instead of 50,000 words, we have a goal of 25,000 words. Back in March we held the same event, but none of our members were able to complete the challenge, so we're holding the event again, in the hopes that someone, this time will meet the goal.
Because of the novel project that I've been slaving away on for a year now, I didn't have anything prepared for the March event. But there's a new idea spinning. I've been brainstorming on it since June, characters, structure ideas, dialog, etc. So I'm allowing myself to take time away from Falcons Rising to participate this time around. For want of a title on the LeFi project, for future reference we'll call it simply Cataclysm. Technically, since I only have to write about 850 words a day to meet the goal, I'm hoping to work on both Cataclysm and Falcons every day, but that's being very optimistic. I'm so behind on Falcons revisions anyway. What's one more month, eh? Blah.
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Friday, August 19, 2011
One . . . Step . . . Closer
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Ugh! Today was one super-long day. I realized how large my living room is when we hauled out the furniture a couple of months ago for renovations. It's even larger when one is scrubbing, Cinderella-style, with a sponge and bucket, washing up a mess you made on purpose. Yes, at last, we finished our stone wall with amazing chemicals, power tools, and painstaking labor. This week I got to prep the concrete floor, and today I got up early, turned off the air conditioner and opened the windows, so (hopefully) I could be finished by the time the temperature reached 100, dressed up like an explorer to Mars and started spraying acid all over my floor. Two coats of Golden Wheat, two coats of English Red in spotty, decorative patterns, and accents of Green Lawn (which is sorta turquoise-ish) in small puddles here and there.
My acne does not like rubber masks in humid heat. My lungs don't like it when I take the rubber mask off. What's a girl to do? Because I'm a (somewhat more) practical adult now, I chose practicality over vanity and left the mask on until I removed myself from the icky acid fumes. This evening my sister came over and she, my husband, and I scrubbed and mopped and sloshed all the acid into buckets, then celebrated with spaghetti and (well-deserved) screw drivers.
The floor still looks weird because the acid stain that soaked into the concrete looks powdery, with little color. So all day tomorrow I get to do the fun stuff, which is roll down the sealer. The color will pop, the floor will look perpetually wet, and I get to move my furniture back into my living room. It will feel good to have my house back in order. The only step left is picking out a color for the walls. Once, the idea of painting all that wall space sounded intimidating. Tonight, it sounds like small potatoes.
Once the sealer is dry, I'll try to remember to take pics and post before and after shots.
For now, I'm exhausted in the best way possible. After a day of hard work and much accomplishment. I mean, somehow I even managed to make progress on the novel project. Cool!
.
Ugh! Today was one super-long day. I realized how large my living room is when we hauled out the furniture a couple of months ago for renovations. It's even larger when one is scrubbing, Cinderella-style, with a sponge and bucket, washing up a mess you made on purpose. Yes, at last, we finished our stone wall with amazing chemicals, power tools, and painstaking labor. This week I got to prep the concrete floor, and today I got up early, turned off the air conditioner and opened the windows, so (hopefully) I could be finished by the time the temperature reached 100, dressed up like an explorer to Mars and started spraying acid all over my floor. Two coats of Golden Wheat, two coats of English Red in spotty, decorative patterns, and accents of Green Lawn (which is sorta turquoise-ish) in small puddles here and there.
My acne does not like rubber masks in humid heat. My lungs don't like it when I take the rubber mask off. What's a girl to do? Because I'm a (somewhat more) practical adult now, I chose practicality over vanity and left the mask on until I removed myself from the icky acid fumes. This evening my sister came over and she, my husband, and I scrubbed and mopped and sloshed all the acid into buckets, then celebrated with spaghetti and (well-deserved) screw drivers.
The floor still looks weird because the acid stain that soaked into the concrete looks powdery, with little color. So all day tomorrow I get to do the fun stuff, which is roll down the sealer. The color will pop, the floor will look perpetually wet, and I get to move my furniture back into my living room. It will feel good to have my house back in order. The only step left is picking out a color for the walls. Once, the idea of painting all that wall space sounded intimidating. Tonight, it sounds like small potatoes.
Once the sealer is dry, I'll try to remember to take pics and post before and after shots.
For now, I'm exhausted in the best way possible. After a day of hard work and much accomplishment. I mean, somehow I even managed to make progress on the novel project. Cool!
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