Weekly Wrap-Up: March 12

by Kestrel on Friday, March 12, 2010 · 5 comments

in Personal, World of Warcraft, Writing

What Is This?

Following the lead of my mentor, friend, and exemplar, Tami Moore, this is a weekly article to document progress in meeting my writing goals as described here. I use an Excel spreadsheet to track all my work by category (blog post, copyediting work, creative writing) and item. So all I need to do is add up the “words” column and I’m good to go. This article will be counted, minus the first 150 words. However, it will be counted in the following week’s total. All other blog posts and creative writing count full credit. Copyediting for other writers is counted at ten percent of the starting word count for the document; style sheets for that copyediting will count twenty-five percent. Editing my own work, if and when I get to that point, will count fifty percent of the starting word count.

Attentive readers will notice I changed the subject this week, from “Weekly Word Count” to “Weekly Wrap-Up,” which is considerably more descriptive of what actually goes on in this column. Besides a summary of the progress I made in putting words on pages over the preceding week, I’ve taken to discussing topics that don’t quite demand a full blog article. And let’s be honest: “Weekly Word Count” isn’t likely to draw in hordes of readers each week, now is it?

How Did I Do?

My weekly goal is 2,000 words. This week, my total is only 1,781 words. Disappointing, but no excuses. I simply wasn’t motivated to write this week. I suspect the excitement (if that’s the right word) of starting on my bathroom renovation was a distraction (especially on Thursday, when I spent a good part of the day prepping). Still, it’s not like there wasn’t time on Monday or Tuesday.

  • Weekly Word Count: March 5 – Blog post, 389 words
  • Feather Path, Chapter 9 – Copyediting, 264 words
  • Introspection on Writing – Blog post, 1128 words

Feather Path

I know I’ve mentioned Feather Path and its author, Iris Harper, many times in this blog. But I don’t believe I’ve really talked about them much. It’s past time to rectify that oversight.

I met Iris back in November, during NaNoWriMo, in the Saucy Wenches chat room set up by Breana. We quickly became friends, and when I started getting interested in copyediting, Iris asked if I’d like to edit her Feather Path series. Of course I said yes, and since then, we’ve developed an excellent writer-editor relationship. Iris doesn’t accept every suggestion I make, but where we’ve differed, we usually discuss the problem I’m seeing. As far as I can recall, the solutions Iris subsequently developed were considerably better than my suggestions.

But what is Feather Path? It’s a burgeoning fantasy novel, set more or less in the present, but one of the main locations of the book (so far) is Hell. Yes, it’s a fantasy of the underworld, but it’s an underworld unlike anything you’ve ever read before. One might argue there are elements of Milton’s Paradise Lost, Dante’s Inferno, and Piers Anthony’s Incarnations of Immortality series, but they are superficial and coincidental, at best. Iris’s Hell is very, very different from any of those. Furthermore, her account of the Fall is undeniably unique and quite thought-provoking (if you want to have your thoughts provoked; my recommendation is to simply read for the enjoyment!).

Briefly, the protagonist, Kaiyu, is a catlike demon. She’s a hunter, and she has been given an assignment to kill a particular angel. I have a suspicion who that angel may be, but if I’m right, it’s a huge spoiler. (And if I’m wrong, why should I set myself up to be pilloried in the future? *grin*) As the story progresses, we begin to see that Kaiyu’s assignment is not so cut and dried as it first seemed. In fact, there may be a conflict brewing in the underworld that may rival the Fall in significance—but right now, that’s just a guess on my part.

I will say, however, that Chapter 9, “The Pits,” has the most startling, most intriguing, and most jaw-dropping plot twist yet in a novel that is brimming with twists and intrigue. Iris’s style is clear, evocative, and enveloping. She publishes a chapter about every two weeks, but I’m constantly nagging her to “write faster!” If you give Feather Path a read, you’ll be doing the same.

Bathroom Remodel

On Tuesday, we got word that the new sink I ordered for my bathroom was in at Lowe’s. In a few hours, I’ll be meeting Mrs. Kestrel there to pick up the sink, vanity, and toilet. I’ll also be buying paint and possibly some accessories.

Yesterday, I spent much of the day prepping the bathroom: I removed the toilet, took down towel bars and hooks, removed the large mirror (36″ W x 30″ H, and heavy), removed the medicine cabinet (which I was going to repaint, but now I’m leaning toward replacing), and removed the old sink. Today, I’ll get the vanity out, then start spackling and sanding before painting, which I hope will happen Saturday.

The toilet is almost 40 years old, and when I turned off the water supply and then flushed it, the bowl filled from the tank water. I couldn’t flush it again, since there was no water in the tank, so I had to bail it out by hand. When the bowl didn’t empty on the first flush, I checked a couple DIY sites to be sure I was “doing it right” (I was). What struck me, though, was in the couple videos I watched, there was about three feet of clearance on either side of the toilet, so undoing connections and removing nuts was a simple task. Hah! In my bathroom, there is a gap of about 8 inches on one side of the toilet, and 10 inches on the other.

The vanity was no different: There are vertical pieces in the front of the vanity that preclude getting more than an arm under the sink. Believe me when I say I’m no longer built for some of the contortions I had to go through to disconnect water lines and remove the P-trap (which broke, incidentally: a sign that it was definitely time for this renovation). As soon as I post this article, I’ll be going in to finish removing the vanity. Oh, joy.

I should mention that I’m trying to be careful: There is a Habitat for Humanity recycle center in town, and we want to donate what we’re removing. While the pieces are old, they’re in reasonably good shape, so if someone can use them, we want to provide that opportunity. However, there was certainly a temptation once or twice yesterday to simply take my 5-lb sledge hammer to everything.

World of Warcraft

Finally, just a few words on WoW. Last week, WoW bloggers around the world started up a couple new guilds for the blogging community. Called “Single Abstract Noun” and located on Argent Dawn (Alliance-US and Horde-EU), the guilds are growing large. I created a Night Elf rogue, Kestrelator, on the US side. If you are a blogger, or if you read blogs, you’re very welcome to join. This article by Miss Medicina contains a lot more info, including the very few rules.

To cut to the chase, if you’re interested in interacting with some of your favorite bloggers (or some of your best readers!), roll a character, log in, and type “/join singleabstractnoun” to get an invitation.

Tagged as: accountability, bathroom, Feather Path, Iris Harper

{ 5 comments }

Instrospection on Writing

by Kestrel on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 · 8 comments

in Creative Writing, Writing

I’ve had a difficult time this week coming up with blog topics. I looked in my Idea Box, and was greeted with things like “commas,” “dashes and hyphens,” and “transitive and intransitive verbs.” Aren’t you glad you aren’t reading one of those topics right now?

So I reached out to one of my writer friends, who said, “Why don’t you write on writing? On what you are learning from Darklight. On the challenges you are having.” This really was a very good suggestion, since my writing funk has spread from my blog to Darklight, as well. Where I wrote almost 3K words last week, I haven’t been inspired to write word one this week.

I’m quite certain that if not for the continued encouragement (and sometimes nagging, but that’s okay, because sometimes I need at least that much impetus) from the two ladies linked above, as well as a couple other friends, Darklight would still be sitting at around 500 words, instead of over 8,000 words.

Part of my difficulty with the story is that it had a rather odd genesis. Most people get ideas for their stories more or less consciously: They want to write a story, so they start thinking of a character, or a scene, or a plot, then continue to build around those thoughts. They build a world in which their characters live, they determine what conflicts and challenges those characters will encounter.

In my case, I had a dream. Seriously: a dream. I dreamed about a woman carrying a 9mm pistol in a dark, shadowy place. She had a name, too—and not one that belongs to anyone I know in fact or fiction. There was also a male character in the dream, but it wasn’t me. (He didn’t have a name, though.) The pair were looking for, or hunting, something or someone, but there was also someone (or something) hunting them.

And that’s it. That’s all I had for my story. I mentioned the dream to someone (I honestly don’t remember who), and that person suggested I build a story around that scene. As it happens, the particular scene I dreamed about has yet to occur. The way things are developing, that particular scene (especially as I dreamed it) may never show up in the written story.

As I started actually writing, however, I did imagine a few more scenes. I still haven’t introduced any real conflict (although I have a pretty good idea of at least one point of tension), nor have I created an antagonist. That, too, is “coming soon.”

Now that I’ve embarked on this particular journey, though, I have come to a few realizations. (Most of you, I’m sure, will go “Well DUH!” as I relate the following, and I can’t say I will blame you. Sometimes, I can be pretty obtuse.) None of these are new revelations, nor are they especially profound. Empirically, they are fairly obvious; however, internalizing them has been the big hurdle—or series of hurdles—for me.

First, when writing a story, it’s a pretty good idea to have a beginning, a middle, and an end in mind. I am not sure yet if I have an ending; I think I have a middle. Or at least, a climax.

Second (and please understand these aren’t necessarily listed in any particular order), it’s probably wise to know what genre you’re writing—and, I’m sure, better to know earlier rather than later. I tell people that I think Darklight is science fiction. So far, it’s more like a mystery or suspense (although there is precious little of the latter, to be honest). In fact, it’s probably got more elements of a romance than either mystery or suspense. That was certainly not the plan!

To complete a story, one must actually write

Third, while it has been shouted from the rooftops, the mountain tops, and the word spread to every Middlesex village and town, it is only in the past couple months (and understand Darklight is almost a year old) I have truly understood that in order to complete a story, one must actually write. I am a naturally lazy person, generally taking the path of least resistance. I am also an epic procrastinator. Thus, I’m having to develop the discipline to actually put my butt in the chair, bring up Scrivener, and start typing.

Fourth, you don’t need to write an instant classic every time you put your fingers on the keyboard. In fact, you don’t have to do anything but write. The most important thing is to put words on the page, and do so for several pages. In the words of the esteemed science fiction author, Theodore Sturgeon, “ninety percent of everything is crud.” There is a reason the term is “first draft.”

Complete draft, then edit, because 90% of everything is crud

When I started Darklight, I wrote the opening scene twice. The first time, it was in first person. Then I realized I wanted the flexibility to change the point of view. I rewrote the opening, then rewrote it again. It didn’t take me long to realize that if I continued in that vein, I’d never progress—but I might have one helluva great opening scene. Or not. Think about it: Would you rather revise page one, two hundred times, or revise two hundred pages once? Yeah, I figured that out, too. Almost all by myself.

I wish I had hundreds…scores…okay, half-a-dozen stories inside me bursting to get out. Then I could write one of the others while Darklight percolates. I don’t have a bunch of characters dying to have their stories told. Maybe if I did, I’d have more stories to tell. And that leads me to my final “discovery.”

To write well, to maintain inspiration, and to understand the craft, you need to read. A lot. When I was in California last month, I did just that (since I couldn’t play WoW all night, every night).

The first “ah-HAH!” moment my reading led me to was that you can advance your story with narrative, as well as dialogue. Right now, I’d say eighty percent of Darklight is dialogue. That’s great if you’re writing a screenplay, I’m sure. And while I think my characters are having great conversations, neither they, nor the story, are actually going anywhere!

The next revelation was that different books had different characters, different plots, different conflicts. They aren’t all the same. In other words, there is more than one story out there. And, I hope, more than one story in me.

So there you have it, in a thousand words: Where I am with my writing, and where I would like to be going. Of course, the key is to not only keep looking forward, but to move forward as well.

{ 8 comments }

Weekly Word Count: March 5

March 5, 2010

What Is This?
Following the lead of my mentor, friend, and exemplar, Tami Moore, this is a weekly article to document progress in meeting my writing goals as described here. I use an Excel spreadsheet to track all my work by category (blog post, copyediting work, creative writing) and item. So all I need to do is add [...]

5 comments Read the full article →

National Grammar Day: A Quiz

March 4, 2010

Believe it or not, today–March 4–is National Grammar Day. To help celebrate this auspicious occasion, and to further grammar education throughout the Internet (always capitalized, incidentally), I have combed through hundreds–maybe even thousands–of blog entries to bring you the following quiz.

What you are about to see are errors of usage I have collected over the past [...]

13 comments Read the full article →

O, Canada!

March 1, 2010

If I weren’t an American, I’d want to be a Canadian. I used to think I’d want to be an Aussie, or a Kiwi. But the past fortnight has brought home to me just what wonderful neighbors we have to the north. I’ve been privileged to count Canadians among my friends for many years; I’m [...]

10 comments Read the full article →

Weekly Word Count: February 26

February 26, 2010

What Is This?
Following the lead of my mentor, friend, and exemplar, Tami Moore, this is a weekly article to document progress in meeting my writing goals as described here. I use an Excel spreadsheet to track all my work by category (blog post, copyediting work, creative writing) and item. So all I need to do [...]

3 comments Read the full article →

How To Use MS Word to Track Edits and Revisions

February 23, 2010

While flailing about, trying to come up with a post worthy of your time, Tami suggested this topic. I was looking for something quick, easy, and brainless, but the more I thought about it (and exchanged Tweets with Tami), the more the idea grew on me.
If you work with a coauthor, an editor, or simply [...]

7 comments Read the full article →

Weekly Word Count: February 19

February 19, 2010

What Is This?
Following the lead of my mentor, friend, and exemplar, Tami Moore, this is a weekly article to document progress in meeting my writing goals as described here.
I use an Excel spreadsheet to track all my work by category (blog post, copyediting work, creative writing) and item. So all I need to [...]

1 comment Read the full article →

Walt Disney World Follow-Up

February 16, 2010

This post started as a reply to comments on the preceding article, but I figured, why not make it a post in its own right? So here it is…

It’s been a great week, and Alison has been an absolute angel the entire time. Today, she and her parents woke early (after she slept in till [...]

3 comments Read the full article →

Weekly Word Count: February 12

February 11, 2010

What Is This?
Following the lead of my mentor, friend, and exemplar, Tami Moore, this is a weekly article to document progress in meeting my writing goals as described here.
I use an Excel spreadsheet to track all my work by category (blog post, copyediting work, creative writing) and item. So all I need to do is add up [...]

4 comments Read the full article →

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