I am a bit disappointed with myself. I thought I had the drive and the will power to turn our dismal writing performance around, but I am as lackadaisical as everyone else. I blame it on the heat, but that is a lame excuse. The truth is, I am tired. I am frustrated by everyone trying to establish a "social" life or even a love life, at the expense of what is really important - our writing. All the lovers and even the friends will drop by the wayside, but the writing remains. We should be focusing all of our energies on that.
I am also discouraged by my weight. I've gained another five pounds in the past month, and I have almost no chance of getting rid of it. My sedentary life does not bode well for burning calories, and my lousy dietetic choices only add to my weight gain. I need a lot more discipline, and I simply don't have the drive and will power to do that.
I need to make a change in my life.
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
The Painful Part of Procreation
I like to compare the writing process to the stages of development of a life.
Coming up with a snappy idea for a story. Well, that's like the excitement of seduction, meeting someone for the first time, getting to know him and discover all his charms.
Solidifying the snappy idea into a meaningful structure for a story. Clearly, this is the act of conception. Messy, exciting, wondrous, mind-boggling. Tender, yet stimulating. So full of potential, it almost hurts.
Writing the story. For me, this is the time of labor. Seeing the idea develop into a real, living thing. It's not a story yet - it won't be a story until it is finished, the day it is born, but you know it's there. You can feel the pulsation of life as the story develops and develops.
Editing the story. This is comparable to delivery and birth. It can go fast, it can take forever, and it is always painful, difficult, tense, frightening. It is during the most intense moments of editing that you wonder, why am I still dealing with this story? Don't I have better ones to work on? But it's your story, and so you keep at it. Besides, what choice do you have?
Selling and marketing the story. This is the long, difficult process of raising your child, helping her become the person you dreamed about in those moments of seduction and conception. You experience periods of great joy at your off-spring's accomplishments, days of sorrow when you are confronted with bad news, until finally the day comes when your story stands on its own merits and your job as creator is finished.
Most of us like the first two stages of writing - coming up with the idea and developing it into a possible story. Only a few of us have the courage and determination to go the rest of the distance. And even then, the writing universe is littered with still-births, abortions, and abandoned babies. And sadder still, there are even a few really great stories that just don't get the nurturing and development they need to make them into living examples of a person's creative urges.
Coming up with a snappy idea for a story. Well, that's like the excitement of seduction, meeting someone for the first time, getting to know him and discover all his charms.
Solidifying the snappy idea into a meaningful structure for a story. Clearly, this is the act of conception. Messy, exciting, wondrous, mind-boggling. Tender, yet stimulating. So full of potential, it almost hurts.
Writing the story. For me, this is the time of labor. Seeing the idea develop into a real, living thing. It's not a story yet - it won't be a story until it is finished, the day it is born, but you know it's there. You can feel the pulsation of life as the story develops and develops.
Editing the story. This is comparable to delivery and birth. It can go fast, it can take forever, and it is always painful, difficult, tense, frightening. It is during the most intense moments of editing that you wonder, why am I still dealing with this story? Don't I have better ones to work on? But it's your story, and so you keep at it. Besides, what choice do you have?
Selling and marketing the story. This is the long, difficult process of raising your child, helping her become the person you dreamed about in those moments of seduction and conception. You experience periods of great joy at your off-spring's accomplishments, days of sorrow when you are confronted with bad news, until finally the day comes when your story stands on its own merits and your job as creator is finished.
Most of us like the first two stages of writing - coming up with the idea and developing it into a possible story. Only a few of us have the courage and determination to go the rest of the distance. And even then, the writing universe is littered with still-births, abortions, and abandoned babies. And sadder still, there are even a few really great stories that just don't get the nurturing and development they need to make them into living examples of a person's creative urges.
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Measuring The Hard Part
The hardest part of writing is always at the end of the story. This is when you have to go back through the entire novel, finding all the typos, erroneous words, poor grammar, plot screw-ups, factual errors, inconsistencies, character flaws - all the things that ruin a great story. It's hard, tedious work. And all of us hate doing it. It is also hard to measure your progress when doing this type of activity. But we now think we have a solution.
From now on, we will keep track of the number of words we add (or delete), since knowing the total size of our book is still important to us. But we will also track the number of pages we go through. This might actually give us a better indication of how productive we have been. We don't care if a page has a correction or is already perfect - it is important that the page contributes to the story's structure, tone, style, and content. If we were brilliant enough to write the page so well that it doesn't need any corrections, that's just peachy. If we have to make a lot of corrections, then that means our story was just not that well constructed.
Further, we can take the total size of the novel, divide it by the number of days we intend to edit, and get a daily target. That way, we can see how productive we really are.
And that is how we will measure the hard part.
From now on, we will keep track of the number of words we add (or delete), since knowing the total size of our book is still important to us. But we will also track the number of pages we go through. This might actually give us a better indication of how productive we have been. We don't care if a page has a correction or is already perfect - it is important that the page contributes to the story's structure, tone, style, and content. If we were brilliant enough to write the page so well that it doesn't need any corrections, that's just peachy. If we have to make a lot of corrections, then that means our story was just not that well constructed.
Further, we can take the total size of the novel, divide it by the number of days we intend to edit, and get a daily target. That way, we can see how productive we really are.
Thursday, July 11, 2013
My Stories
These are the stories I am working on:
The
Wright Quartet
My Sister Writes Porn
Best Served Cold
Cannon Fodder
Always
a Victim
Collected Stories of Sophie Lawson
Exiles of America
Tales
of Tonia Jackson
Searching for Periscians
Fool Me Twice
The Soft Light of the Sun
So, here is the status of each book.
My Sister Writes Porn - written, published under another name; need a revised cover, need to make corrections, and need to get it published again.
Best Served Cold - written, published under another name; I have a new cover for it; need to make corrections and need to get it published again.
Cannon Fodder - still working on the first draft, about halfway through. Need to finish this story up, develop a cover, and get it published.
Always a Victim - still in concept stage.
Collected Stories of Sophie Lawson - Published, need to make sure there are no errors or needed corrections. I would like to write some more stories for this book and re-issue it.
Exiles of America - I am not sure what I am doing with this series. It has a bunch of short stories associated with it. I could publish those as an anthology or collected stories. And it supposedly has a series of books associated with it. Lots of ideas, no real structure.
Searching for Periscians - Draft completed, needs a rewrite and a cover. Then see about publishing it.
Fool Me Twice - Draft completed, needs a rewrite and a cover. Then see about publishing it.
The Soft Light of the Sun - still in concept stage.
That's it. That's where I am right now. I have a lot of work to do, and the sooner I can get to it, the better I will feel.
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Progress
It's going to be a long, hot summer. Dak is busy revising his book (and doing it very slowly, it seems). Mila is trying to sabotage all of us by using up a lot of face time. Sandy I is brooding morosely. It looks like it will be up to me to be really productive this cycle. Maybe G2 can be productive too. I am not expecting much else from anyone else. And this was supposed to be our really big push cycle.
What a farce!
I just wish everyone would give up on the relationship issues. So we live alone? Who cares? We have more time for Felix and more time to write. Let's all get to it.
What a farce!
I just wish everyone would give up on the relationship issues. So we live alone? Who cares? We have more time for Felix and more time to write. Let's all get to it.
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