614 words for the day.
It was like pulling teeth, but mainly because I needed to do extra research on the hoof.
editing
January 24
641 for the day, all on a piece that is for a prompt with a 2k word limit. My effort now stands at just under 2.5k, and there’s still about 500 words to go, maybe more. Good job I’ve got until the end of Feb to cut it down.
Now, I’m going to watch the end of the NEvDen game, and go get some sleep.
January 21
January already feels about eight weeks long, and I hate it and want it to stop now. That’s mainly because it’s contained my Nanny’s funeral, and about 2,800 miles of driving (and our car is not comfortable). A corollary of the driving was my back going out. On Tuesday if I stood straight up my torso tilted from the waist up by about 15 degrees. Stage one of straightening me out happened yesterday, and session two is next week. Now I just feel like my back has been used as a punch bag.
With all of this, I haven’t been able to concentrate on writing much. I’ve done bits and pieces but thought maybe editing would be worth focusing on. For that I pulled up some files from 2014. I’d forgotten how focused the first 9 months 0f that year were (the last 3 got really gluey, and are in no small part responsible for our move to Cornwall).
I want to get back to that. I am going to get back to that. I’m starting tomorrow. And I’m going to do daily word count updates. Kinda boring, but needs must. I need this.
When I’m writing regularly again, then I’ll start worrying about actual writing projects.
November 30
The last missive from these quarters told of a pending move to Cornwall. Said move has now occurred. What a month.
There’s still loads to do in the house, which will take time to work through (and money) but already the move has been worth it. The house overlooks the lake and I have already got plans for a small table and chair at the end of the bed where I can sit and write with the window wide open so I can hear the gulls, smell the sea (which is at the end of the lake), watch the villagers going to and fro, feel the wind on my bare arms.
As for writing, I haven’t done much. Moving proved a burden to great to bear. That’s fine, writing isn’t my job, caring for the family is. We all got moved safe and sound, so that’s a success in the necessary areas.
But now, time to start carving out time to write. Currently I’m looking at a slot of 9-11pm (which will knock out my sitting by the open window plan). And I want to work on the novel I have started. For December I probably will concentrate on planning the writing structure, deciding on key plot points, fleshing out character sketches, etc.
I also want to plan a couple of stores for anthologies that are opening in January. One of them already has an idea floating around, the other remains a tabula rasa a this point.
There is also a plan to return to a set amount of daily writing for 2016. This year has not been as productive as I wished and I have definitely lost the writing rhythm which I had in 2014. If I can work that 9-11 writing slot I think a plan of one hour writing, one hour editing previous work would be a sensible plan. And I need to learn to edit to death, because for my novel I will be utilizing the services of an editor, and need to not have her wasting time, even if I am paying for it.
Next month I will do a little round up of the year, do a little bit of bragging etc.
25th May
Last time I wrote was over a month ago. Pretty shocking, especially as I anticipated another post a few days hence. Instead we ended up in Cornwall for two weeks. Since we got back it’s just been hectic. So let’s try a small recap.
At my last post I mentioned doing a few classes with Cat Rambo. They were great, helpful, and interesting. I’ve done a few with her, and should her schedule allow (Congrats on SFWA presidency!) for classes that coincide with not the middle of the night for me, I hope to do another one.
With respect to my story about bees, that I intended to sub to Shimmer – it’s with them now. I am in trepidatious anticipation of a response. Whatever the status of that it is a story I am immensely proud of and I need to say a big thanks to Mark & Gio for help in polishing the story.
Why am I suddenly writing a post today though? And why the hiatus?
Well, the trip to Cornwall turned into a scouting trip. We are looking to move down there. The climate is just that little bit better, and it helps my wife’s (and my) health. We know the area we want to go to, and we already have some friends in the area (some of them new). This means that the past couple of weeks have been a flurry of examining costs and ensuring that what we want to do is both practical and affordable. On top of that, I’ve still been writing and editing and so the blog slid by unnoticed.
So what prompted today? Mary & Patti from Nebraska. I’m sat in my local coffee shop doing a little light editing when they sit down at the adjacent table. As I’ll literally do anything to avoid editing I engaged them in conversation and they were kind of amazed that someone in rural Scotland had any idea where Nebraska was, never mind that the big college football team is called the Cornhuskers. They asked if I had any details, and there was only my blog. which I suddenly realized had been neglected.
So thank you Mary & Patti. I hope your trip is fun, enlightening, educational, and productive.
I also have some publication news.
My story Shell County Vodou is part of the Slave State anthology put together by Chris Kelso. It’s available on Amazon NOW (i.e. – spring a few bucks and read not only me, but a whole bunch of wonderful writers).
I’ve also had acceptances for a short story and a couple of poems, though details will follow later.
March 4th
Update
Nothing much is happening. I’m working on the first draft of another submission for the Far Orbit: Apogee call. Robinson Crusoe in Space is the loosest of interpretations.
The draft is nearly finished. Then it’s time for edits and re-writes and away by the end of the month.
After that I will be writing my Orthographic Ligature story, well the first draft anyway. I know where I want to submit it to, and I have until later in the year to work on it.
So my focus will be on working the ten stories for my first volume of These United States. I’m looking forward to really digging into these.
As a finalé I’m going to talk about reader comments. Some of the markets I submit to provide reader comments as part of their rejection feedback. I like these. I have a writing style that is developing and I’m aware that some of the structures I use don’t work for a majority of readers. Having an idea of where individual readers had an issue is allowing me to consider how much I amend my personal style.
A few days ago I received a(nother 😀 ) rejection. Hey-ho. There were four comments. Two of them succinct, suggesting the story wasn’t weighted correctly for a flash piece. Valid opinions. A third saying it needs to be a longer story. Fine. And a fourth that lambasted my choice of character names and called into question my familiarities with the realities of which I was writing. There was nothing about the story itself, just a diatribe (based on the readers ‘feelings’ on the matter) and an attack on me as the writer.
Working as a First Reader with Spark: A Creative Anthology (another market that provides feedback) I am well aware that it can be tricky to remain polite and positive when writing a note. Thankfully we have an excellent point man who weeds out the snarliest of any comments that are made, and only passes along the most constructive and, if possible, positive comments.
I know how easy it can be to wonder ‘What were they thinking?’, but there is a Golden Rule in offering critique. Critique the writing, not the writer.
Now, I had done my research on the names used in my story. And I’d chosen to use a fiction writers prerogative to tinker with how I used them. For one I anglicized the name a little, for the other I dropped a letter (though I should have used an extension in the middle name of the MC). I know that, for all their ridiculousness, Ian Fleming always used real names in his stories, pulled them right out of the telephone directory. I don’t do this. Neither do I randomly assign names based on gut instinct.
I don’t know the reader, or what their real issue was. However, I was reminded that when I am commenting on a story it behoves me to remain polite, even if I can’t be positive.
3rd February
Writing is re-writing
I think the above is the biggest lesson I have learned as a writer.
It’s also the lesson I am struggling most with.
Looking back over a couple of years of concerted writing I can see a vast improvement. Firstly, the basics. Sentence structure, use of grammar, &etc. Having been an avid reader from the age of four, and blessed with a decent level of intelligence I was shocked to realize how much of these basic things I just wasn’t really aware of. I’m still no perfect and more than capable of splitting an infinity or dangling a participle. But less so, and I remember to attribute action and speech correctly on a much more comprehensive basis.
On the story and plot front, that seems to be okay – especially in the world building department, I keep getting compliments on that – though I still have a tendency to have things move to slowly at the front end, or even start in a place that doesn’t serve the story best.
Which brings me to the issue of the re-write.
I really struggle with it. I struggle with stripping a story down to the bones, and re-assembling it to resemble something different to the form I envisaged when doing the initial write.
A good example of this is a current story geefourdotalpha. I love this story, the tale of a robotic war machine that is mostly destroyed, that lies for centuries in rubble and a growing forest, that develops full sentience, that is discovered by a woman who chooses to live far from the hubbub of life, who then destroys the AI because it threatens her peaceful existence. This story has been around for about 9 months now. It’s been rejected six times (I had thought it five, but forgot the original prompt supplier had been the initial rejection). There have been some kind words on it, but I the most comprehensive response suggested I started the story in the wrong place. I couldn’t figure a way to change it.
I supplied the story for critique as part of my writing class by Cat Rambo and included my rejection notices. The basic agreement was to start the story elsewhere. Mark was very helpful in suggesting what scene to start with and, more importantly, why. But it is still difficult. Now I feel like I am writing a whole new story, but with a more comprehensive prompt. The difficulty is I know why I structured it in the way I did. So I am having to remove that backdrop and re-imagine the whole set up of the story.
This is a thing I am struggling with.
Especially as I know it is an exercise I am going to undertake with a lot of the other stories I have written in the last 12-18 months. At the same time, I’m still trying to produce new output, but hopefully of a nature that reflects he lessons being learned here.
But I also know that if I want to be more than a semi-enthusiastic dilettante then the re-write is a skill i must develop. It is a major item in the writers toolbox, to refuse to use it would be like a carpenter refusing to use a plane and sandpaper. The basic quality of the item constructed may be good, but it will always look unfinished, and therefore undesirable. Finishing a story is one thing, completing it is another. Presently I have finished a number of stories. Now I need to complete them, to polish them so that the grain is revealed, to add the lustre and shine which can add warm appeal.
I have written.
I must re-write.
January 15th
How vital is research?
Having never visited the US some may view it as the move of a putz to embark on a cycle of stories set exclusively in that country.
meh!
Writers constantly write about places they’ve never been. Hence the term, fiction writer.
But this week made me really appreciate how vital (yes, the title isn’t really a question at all) research really is.
My good friend Megan Lewis was taking an initial look at the story I have set in Minnesota. It’s an alien invasion story with a non-traditional structure (in that it ends a place where you think ‘What, is that it? But, what… grrrr, lazy writer’). In researching the story I had spent much time on google earth scrolling up and down roads and suburbs south of Minneapolis, for that is where the setting is. On her first read through Megan picked me up on some line-of-sights descriptions being unworkable, and a route taken by characters making no sense to a resident of the area. She also picked up some rogue Britishisms and a few incorrectly used Americanisms.
So what? Well, for me, it is where factual and fictional intersect. I’m more than happy for this process to be undertaken. I want my tales to have reliable and identifiable roots, even where other events are ridiculous and fantastical. And taking the time to do my own research, and then having someone local to the area check that research, helps me to do that.
Other things from the week include a great opening class with Cat Rambo, and it was nice to (virtually) meet fellow classmates Frances, Elizabeth, and Mark. The next five weeks look to be fun, and challenging.
Yesterday WorldWeaverPress held #SFFLunch on twitter. Editors from the various imprints of WWP made themselves available and some interesting lines of chat sparked of. I admit my main interest was in picking up hints for another submission to Bascomb James Far Orbit: Apogee anthology. While declining my first submission he was very kind in advising me that it was ‘sooo close‘.
Over at Spark: A Creative Anthology I am slowly getting to grips with my role as a Senior First Reader, and the whole first reading team is working hard to reduce the submission backlog. Brian’s determination to provide feedback for every submitter is one of the things that drew me to volunteering as a first reader in the first place, and now that I am more heavily involved in the process I remain convinced that his vision for the submitters is worth the enormous effort. We can always use more first readers. Why not come and do a bit?
The Lowing of the Bull 