Woof - that turned out to be a much longer hiatus than I intended! Since the last time I posted here we've finished redoing the family room, spent a couple of weeks in the vicinity of Boston, done a mad cleaning of the house top-to-bottom, for a visit of Rob's boss from the west coast, had Aaron's birthday party (a visit to the local amusement park), registered the kids for the new school year, and are now in the throws of buying school supplies, getting haircuts, and otherwise prepping for school to start in about ten days.
We have a whole passel of new students at the dojo, and it looks like several of them are likely to stay on. They're a fairly homogenous group - all between ten and thirteen years old, all but one boys, three are related, and three of them are in the same school (two of them are in the same school, grade, and section as Robbie - if they stay, the seventh grade of RVMS will be providing about a third of our students!). Robbie seems to like the idea of being senior to other kids his age, and Sensei and I are hoping that realizing they will be looking to him for how they should do things will keep him on his toes - so far so good on that score.
I've gotten quite obsessed with the show Criminal Minds over the last few weeks. We just got a DVR, and suddenly I can watch shows without having to fight for time on the TV. At the rate I'm going, I'll probably catch up with watching the episodes in another 3-4 weeks. The show analysis over at matociquala's livejournal is really addictive - the show does quite a lot of good character development and overarching narrative, without losing the episodic nature (I.e. it doesn't turn into a soap opera).
I've also decided that instead of Nanowrimo this year, I'm going to try Novel_in_90. I've done Nano for years, but this year there's just too much going on in November to make writing 50,000 words feasible. Spreading it out over three months in the fall, on the other hand, sounds like something I can do.
And last, but not least, I haven't forgotten the next post on breathing. I'll get that up in the next day or so.
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Sunday, August 08, 2010
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Have a Novel - and a Basset
Done! I'm done, done, done, done, done!
The novel, tentatively entitled Drowned Deep, is finished. The first draft stands at 50,646 which includes two (2!) prologues, an epilogue, and various other word boosters. As I noted before, I actually hit the end of the story at about 43,000 words, the epilogue, first prologue and a couple of internal scenes got it to 49,644 as of this morning. Whereupon we hit the road home, and between car troubles, dinner, and getting back in gear at home I didn't actually get back to the file until eight tonight. Fortunately, 300 something words is a cinch at this point - though figuring where to stick them was something of a problem. Hence the second prologue. One or both of them may eventually go away. One or both of them may eventually move into the body of the novel. But right now they're prologues. The epilogue is probably staying. I like it, and it matches the epilogue at the end of Ghost Dancer fairly nicely.
Now I'll ignore the file for a month or two, because if I go read it right now, I'll be convinced it's a pile of crap. Whereas if I wait until my memory has faded somewhat, I may be pleasantly surprised - or not - but at least it won't be certain that I'll hate it.
In the meanwhile, have a basset. Nicky is glad to be home. Being one of four dogs is exhausting. Unfortunately for him, he's going to have to get used to it, because sometime in January or February, my father-in-law is moving in with us (until we can get the house sold, and him into an apartment, which will probably take some time), complete with his three dogs. Rest up while you can, Nicky!
Friday, November 28, 2008
Two Second Update
Posting from my FIL's computer with the wrong kind of keyboard, so this will be short.
I finished my Nano storyline today, which marks the first time I've ever completed a story, instead of just getting the 50,000 words. Unfortunately, the story as it stands clocks in at just over 43,000 words. When filled in it will definitely be over the mark, but that kind of filling in is generally slower than full-forward writing. So my task for the next two days is to find 7000 words worth of additional scenes, description, and anything else I can come up with.
The hopeful part is that since we're at my FIL's, I don't have too much else I need to do but write. And since I have my laptop with me (early Christmas present - thank you, Love!), I can write the whole four hours on the way back home Sunday.
Wish me luck!
I finished my Nano storyline today, which marks the first time I've ever completed a story, instead of just getting the 50,000 words. Unfortunately, the story as it stands clocks in at just over 43,000 words. When filled in it will definitely be over the mark, but that kind of filling in is generally slower than full-forward writing. So my task for the next two days is to find 7000 words worth of additional scenes, description, and anything else I can come up with.
The hopeful part is that since we're at my FIL's, I don't have too much else I need to do but write. And since I have my laptop with me (early Christmas present - thank you, Love!), I can write the whole four hours on the way back home Sunday.
Wish me luck!
Friday, November 21, 2008
A Matter of Time
I ran into this article in the Guardian on-line, thanks to Erin of A Dress A Day (excellent site for anyone interested in sewing).
It's a summation of the notions in a new book by Malcolm Gladwell called Outliers: The Story of Success. It was so fascinating that the book went on my Amazon wishlist before I'd even finished reading the article.
The summary of the summary would be essentially: there is no such thing as inherent genius. There are bright people, certainly, and talented people, but what makes a genius is opportunity, perseverance, and time - 10,000 hours of time, to be precise. And all of it boils down to that time.
The opportunity is what allows somebody to spend 10,000 hours perfecting a skill - that's not a trivial amount of time. Working eight hours a day, five days a week - I.e. making your desired skill your full time job - it would still take five years to put in 10,000 hours. And how many of us are truly working at improvement every minute for a whole work day, even if we're lucky enough to be making a living at our skill? A would-be designer working as a dressmaker or a writer actually having a day-job that requires writing would generally be considered exceptionally fortunate. Most genius comes from middle and upper classes, simply because people lower down the economic ladder don't have that kind of time to devote to perfecting skills - they're too busy keeping afloat.
Perseverance is the will and desire to keep pushing at your desired skill, to keep working at it and loving working at it for years.
Both of which add up to - more time spent learning, perfecting, and pushing the limits of your skill.
Apparently the thresholds run as follows: if you want to be better than average - but no great shakes - you need to spend about 4,000 hours perfecting your skill. For really good - but not genius - about 8,000. For genius - 10,000 and up.
This would jive with my experience of my skill levels in various things, thus far. My one, true, genius-level skill, would be my reading ability. I read fast, voraciously, and continuously. Hard reading material doesn't slow me down much - and I retain what I read, often to the point of being able to tell you position on a page for a given bit of information.
Timewise? Well, I learned to read independently somewhere between two and three. I puttered around in children's books until I hit five years old. I can still remember the day, a few days after the end of kindergarten, when I was bored silly. I was past the children's books and board books. I had read all the intermediate books we had (not many) to death , and Mom and Dad's books were still beyond me. I was kicking around the house, desperate for something to read, and my eyes lit on this row of blue hardback books in the den, just to the right of the fireplace. These were books my brothers read, and maybe, just maybe they weren't beyond me? So I pulled one down and looked. It was a Hardy Boys book, and it had pictures - not many, about six for the whole book, but enough to convince me it wasn't a scary adult book. So I took it off and read it. It took me a few hours, but I liked the story, and went straight into the next one.
Long story short - I read the entire set of Hardy Boys that my brothers possessed at that time (32 plus the dectectives handbook, and two random Nancy Drew books) in the summer between kindergarten and first grade. By the end of the summer it was taking me less than two hours to make it through a book, and I never looked back. In fourth grade at Christmas, my eldest brother gave me some Fantasy for Christmas (Dragonsong, Night Mare, and Ogre, Ogre). By middle school I was reading three or four hours a day every day - more on weekends. On one notable occassion, I killed off the entire Lord of the Rings set, plus The Hobbit in one 27 hour reading marathon. On another I checked 27 horticulture books out of the library on a Friday, and returned them, read, on Monday after school - though this was a bit of a cheat, since the material was often very similar book-to-book.
So I put in those 10,000 hours reading and then some. Small wonder I'm a bibliovore.
Singing on the other hand, I probably log in at the 4,000-6,000 mark - and indeed, I'm a good , strong singer. I stand out a mile in the average church choir - but I'm not even professional performer level, let alone a genius at it. And these days I don't push my skills singing. I just sing at the level I am and enjoy it - so I doubt the time I spend now accrues.
Which brings me to my current most desired skills - karate and writing, which is what I've been pondering since these links came my way. Here, I'm still short of even the 4,000 hour better-than-average range. My best figuring would put me at about 1,000 hours total practice in karate - perhaps bolstered somewhat by the sheer amount of time I spend visualizing and reading and thinking about karate. Still a long way to go. Years, most likely. Likewise for writing, where I come in slightly higher - but not very much - perhaps 2,000 hours.
Which is followed by the next thought - do I want these skills badly enough to put in the 10,000 hours required? Or, presuming I persist in both these pursuits over the years, how many years is it going to take me?
Writing seems more doable - more related to reading, perhaps. I can see myself spending multiple hours a day, every day, writing - even if that's a rarity right now (well, not right now, it is NaNo month, after all). I have trouble seeing myself putting in that kind of daily effort into karate - daily practice, yes, but not hours and hours of it.
On the other hand, it wasn't all that many years ago, I couldn't see myself doing karate at all. Only time will tell.
It's a summation of the notions in a new book by Malcolm Gladwell called Outliers: The Story of Success. It was so fascinating that the book went on my Amazon wishlist before I'd even finished reading the article.
The summary of the summary would be essentially: there is no such thing as inherent genius. There are bright people, certainly, and talented people, but what makes a genius is opportunity, perseverance, and time - 10,000 hours of time, to be precise. And all of it boils down to that time.
The opportunity is what allows somebody to spend 10,000 hours perfecting a skill - that's not a trivial amount of time. Working eight hours a day, five days a week - I.e. making your desired skill your full time job - it would still take five years to put in 10,000 hours. And how many of us are truly working at improvement every minute for a whole work day, even if we're lucky enough to be making a living at our skill? A would-be designer working as a dressmaker or a writer actually having a day-job that requires writing would generally be considered exceptionally fortunate. Most genius comes from middle and upper classes, simply because people lower down the economic ladder don't have that kind of time to devote to perfecting skills - they're too busy keeping afloat.
Perseverance is the will and desire to keep pushing at your desired skill, to keep working at it and loving working at it for years.
Both of which add up to - more time spent learning, perfecting, and pushing the limits of your skill.
Apparently the thresholds run as follows: if you want to be better than average - but no great shakes - you need to spend about 4,000 hours perfecting your skill. For really good - but not genius - about 8,000. For genius - 10,000 and up.
This would jive with my experience of my skill levels in various things, thus far. My one, true, genius-level skill, would be my reading ability. I read fast, voraciously, and continuously. Hard reading material doesn't slow me down much - and I retain what I read, often to the point of being able to tell you position on a page for a given bit of information.
Timewise? Well, I learned to read independently somewhere between two and three. I puttered around in children's books until I hit five years old. I can still remember the day, a few days after the end of kindergarten, when I was bored silly. I was past the children's books and board books. I had read all the intermediate books we had (not many) to death , and Mom and Dad's books were still beyond me. I was kicking around the house, desperate for something to read, and my eyes lit on this row of blue hardback books in the den, just to the right of the fireplace. These were books my brothers read, and maybe, just maybe they weren't beyond me? So I pulled one down and looked. It was a Hardy Boys book, and it had pictures - not many, about six for the whole book, but enough to convince me it wasn't a scary adult book. So I took it off and read it. It took me a few hours, but I liked the story, and went straight into the next one.
Long story short - I read the entire set of Hardy Boys that my brothers possessed at that time (32 plus the dectectives handbook, and two random Nancy Drew books) in the summer between kindergarten and first grade. By the end of the summer it was taking me less than two hours to make it through a book, and I never looked back. In fourth grade at Christmas, my eldest brother gave me some Fantasy for Christmas (Dragonsong, Night Mare, and Ogre, Ogre). By middle school I was reading three or four hours a day every day - more on weekends. On one notable occassion, I killed off the entire Lord of the Rings set, plus The Hobbit in one 27 hour reading marathon. On another I checked 27 horticulture books out of the library on a Friday, and returned them, read, on Monday after school - though this was a bit of a cheat, since the material was often very similar book-to-book.
So I put in those 10,000 hours reading and then some. Small wonder I'm a bibliovore.
Singing on the other hand, I probably log in at the 4,000-6,000 mark - and indeed, I'm a good , strong singer. I stand out a mile in the average church choir - but I'm not even professional performer level, let alone a genius at it. And these days I don't push my skills singing. I just sing at the level I am and enjoy it - so I doubt the time I spend now accrues.
Which brings me to my current most desired skills - karate and writing, which is what I've been pondering since these links came my way. Here, I'm still short of even the 4,000 hour better-than-average range. My best figuring would put me at about 1,000 hours total practice in karate - perhaps bolstered somewhat by the sheer amount of time I spend visualizing and reading and thinking about karate. Still a long way to go. Years, most likely. Likewise for writing, where I come in slightly higher - but not very much - perhaps 2,000 hours.
Which is followed by the next thought - do I want these skills badly enough to put in the 10,000 hours required? Or, presuming I persist in both these pursuits over the years, how many years is it going to take me?
Writing seems more doable - more related to reading, perhaps. I can see myself spending multiple hours a day, every day, writing - even if that's a rarity right now (well, not right now, it is NaNo month, after all). I have trouble seeing myself putting in that kind of daily effort into karate - daily practice, yes, but not hours and hours of it.
On the other hand, it wasn't all that many years ago, I couldn't see myself doing karate at all. Only time will tell.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
State of the Brain
I spent the last few days getting my pituitary MRI again, plus blood tests various and sundry. This morning I went trotting off to the endocrinologist for the review.
The good news is that the adenoma hasn't changed at all in the eighteen months they've been watching it. Both my endo and the neuroendocrinologist agree that I can safely drop down to having an MRI every other year. Yay for fewer MRI's and resultant less money spent taking pictures of my brain!
Also in good news, my weight is stable despite a summer of much less activity than my norm, due to the combination of travelling and trouble getting to the gym while the kids are home from school.
The less good news is that except for thyroid, which is stable, all my other numbers are showing the effects of the more sedentary life. Everything is still in a decent range, but cholesterol is up, HDL is down, insulin sensitivity is down, LDL is up.
Fortunately I get back into my normal schedule next week (The Y is shut down for annual cleaning this week), and there shouldn't be any difficulty with kicking my numbers back into place within the next few months. Next week I'll go back to yoga and pilates, once I've recovered from those sore muscles, the next week I'll put back the Turbokick, and then the weight work. I'm debating between going back to the weight class, which was what I was doing before, and going to the weight room to do my own workout. I tend to be more loyal to classes, so I'm more likely to actually get regular hard workouts if I take the class. On the other hand, the class does a lot of lunges and squats, which aren't always on when my knee is acting up, and is somewhat awkwardly placed time-wise, as it starts 15 minutes before the kids' swim lesson, and ends at exactly the same time.
All this is at an apropos time, since my major work of the week is revising my article on pituitaries for the Damn Interesting book. It's somewhat frustrating because Alan wants the article done in a significantly different way from the way it now is. Instead he wants it - exactly the way I initially wrote the dratted thing last year, before I was asked to do major revisions. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure I didn't save my initial draft. Blarg.
Karate was all drill, all the time last night. We worked up a pretty good sweat, and Sensei was in an explaining mood, showing us bunkai from the early katas, and alternate ways the sequences of moves could go. Friday is kumite.
The good news is that the adenoma hasn't changed at all in the eighteen months they've been watching it. Both my endo and the neuroendocrinologist agree that I can safely drop down to having an MRI every other year. Yay for fewer MRI's and resultant less money spent taking pictures of my brain!
Also in good news, my weight is stable despite a summer of much less activity than my norm, due to the combination of travelling and trouble getting to the gym while the kids are home from school.
The less good news is that except for thyroid, which is stable, all my other numbers are showing the effects of the more sedentary life. Everything is still in a decent range, but cholesterol is up, HDL is down, insulin sensitivity is down, LDL is up.
Fortunately I get back into my normal schedule next week (The Y is shut down for annual cleaning this week), and there shouldn't be any difficulty with kicking my numbers back into place within the next few months. Next week I'll go back to yoga and pilates, once I've recovered from those sore muscles, the next week I'll put back the Turbokick, and then the weight work. I'm debating between going back to the weight class, which was what I was doing before, and going to the weight room to do my own workout. I tend to be more loyal to classes, so I'm more likely to actually get regular hard workouts if I take the class. On the other hand, the class does a lot of lunges and squats, which aren't always on when my knee is acting up, and is somewhat awkwardly placed time-wise, as it starts 15 minutes before the kids' swim lesson, and ends at exactly the same time.
All this is at an apropos time, since my major work of the week is revising my article on pituitaries for the Damn Interesting book. It's somewhat frustrating because Alan wants the article done in a significantly different way from the way it now is. Instead he wants it - exactly the way I initially wrote the dratted thing last year, before I was asked to do major revisions. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure I didn't save my initial draft. Blarg.
Karate was all drill, all the time last night. We worked up a pretty good sweat, and Sensei was in an explaining mood, showing us bunkai from the early katas, and alternate ways the sequences of moves could go. Friday is kumite.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Weapons!
Rob is down at his father's this weekend. In good news, it looks like his Dad is coming up the weekend of April 11th, which means I get to caravan up to Michigan for a weekend weapons camp - woohoo! I get to go regardless, but if Da is here, then I can carpool up with everybody else, pay 1/4th of the gas, and arrive in time for the evening session. Whereas if he weren't, the odds are I would have to stay until Rob got home from work (about eight hours later), and not only pay more and miss the Fri. evening session, but I wouldn't arrive until about 2am, which would leave me groggy for the Sat. session. Not good when playing with weapons!
Weapon choices are tunfa, sai, nunchuks, gusan and kama, and I need to decide which one I want to work on while I'm up there. Kama is out because they'll only teach black belts kama. If I want to do gusan or nunchuks, I need to decide now so that I can buy some, whereas I already have a pair of sais and a pair of tunfas. My initial reaction is to try tunfa - I already have them, but outside of Weapons Connection, I won't learn anything about them for another year or more. OTOH, I am already learning sais, and it might do me more good to consolidate my base level of knowledge there before heading further afield.
Aaron graduates from PT on Thursday! He's been going weekly since Sept., and he's come a long way in core strength and general coordination. This last session he managed to ride a bike (with training wheels) about 1000 feet. It might not seem like much, but when we tried him on a bike last summer, he could kind of steer, or kind of pedal, but neither went very well, and he was completely hopeless at doing both together. This coming Tuesday is an OT evaluation, so he should be able to move smoothly from PT over to OT, and with any luck get help with all the self-help tasks the school OT doesn't do, like buttons, zippers, knives & forks, or (God help us) tying shoes. Aaron retains skills very well, but gets discouraged easily when learning new stuff because it's so hard for him compared to other kids his age. In some ways I think his very intelligence works against him right now because he understands intellectual things easily comparative to his classmates and his tendancy is to stick to the areas where he shines and avoid the things where he doesn't show so well. He's so proud of himself when he learns a new skill though. It's awesome to see!
Writing progress:
A Country for Children
Finally finished rewriting the scene I lost before. For some bizarre reason it was much harder to write the second time than it was the first. Sent it back to L for updating.
Previous Word Count: 17,027
New Words: 1238
New Word Count: 18,265
Ghost Dancer:
Still working on the new scene. No precise word count, but approx. 500 new words today. I need to come up with an excuse for a third roommate to move in with Kira, since there's nothing like a little conflict to liven things up, and Ms. Gray (the potential new roommate) would definitely add some conflict. Plus she's relevent to the political background I'm trying to work in. Of course, then Kira needs to be living alone by the next big plot twist, since that's already written such that roommates will not work. But there's a year's book time in between, so I'm sure I can work something out.
Weapon choices are tunfa, sai, nunchuks, gusan and kama, and I need to decide which one I want to work on while I'm up there. Kama is out because they'll only teach black belts kama. If I want to do gusan or nunchuks, I need to decide now so that I can buy some, whereas I already have a pair of sais and a pair of tunfas. My initial reaction is to try tunfa - I already have them, but outside of Weapons Connection, I won't learn anything about them for another year or more. OTOH, I am already learning sais, and it might do me more good to consolidate my base level of knowledge there before heading further afield.
Aaron graduates from PT on Thursday! He's been going weekly since Sept., and he's come a long way in core strength and general coordination. This last session he managed to ride a bike (with training wheels) about 1000 feet. It might not seem like much, but when we tried him on a bike last summer, he could kind of steer, or kind of pedal, but neither went very well, and he was completely hopeless at doing both together. This coming Tuesday is an OT evaluation, so he should be able to move smoothly from PT over to OT, and with any luck get help with all the self-help tasks the school OT doesn't do, like buttons, zippers, knives & forks, or (God help us) tying shoes. Aaron retains skills very well, but gets discouraged easily when learning new stuff because it's so hard for him compared to other kids his age. In some ways I think his very intelligence works against him right now because he understands intellectual things easily comparative to his classmates and his tendancy is to stick to the areas where he shines and avoid the things where he doesn't show so well. He's so proud of himself when he learns a new skill though. It's awesome to see!
Writing progress:
A Country for Children
Finally finished rewriting the scene I lost before. For some bizarre reason it was much harder to write the second time than it was the first. Sent it back to L for updating.
Previous Word Count: 17,027
New Words: 1238
New Word Count: 18,265
Ghost Dancer:
Still working on the new scene. No precise word count, but approx. 500 new words today. I need to come up with an excuse for a third roommate to move in with Kira, since there's nothing like a little conflict to liven things up, and Ms. Gray (the potential new roommate) would definitely add some conflict. Plus she's relevent to the political background I'm trying to work in. Of course, then Kira needs to be living alone by the next big plot twist, since that's already written such that roommates will not work. But there's a year's book time in between, so I'm sure I can work something out.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Alarming (and not so alarming) Things
Yoga class was interesting on Tues. Our teacher had an emergency phone call halfway into class, and then bolted out the door. Apparently one of her dogs had attacked and killed the other. Which seems likely to cost her both dogs, since she has young children. At least I can't see trusting a dog that has attacked another child-sized mammal in a household with kids. The instructor the Y sent in to sub didn't know yoga at all, so we kind of muddled on through on our own, with one of the advanced students leading the class.
I haven't discussed yoga here much, but I've been going to classes for about a year now. After I tore a groin muscle at the Break-a-thon (my holder flinched), I found I had lost a lot of flexibility once it healed. Plus had I been more flexible to start with, I could well have not torn the muscle in the first place. So I set off to work on my flexibility. It's been working, too. When I started I couldn't touch my toes even when well warmed up - in fact I was a good six inches short. Now I can touch them anything past stone cold, and if I'm well and truly warm I can get my hands wrapped around them. Other joints have been a little slower to succumb. I still can't touch my hands behind my back (one coming from above and one from below), and I'm a very long way from getting a side split, but even there I'm improving and it's nice to see.
No karate for about nine days for me. Thursday we have literacy night at the school, and we always go, even though it feels a little silly to be trooping around to all the activities to improve our children's reading. Both of our children are reading well past grade level already. Really, we're not too worried about it. It's a similar feeling to the alarmist looking-ahead-to-college class for parents that the Gifted & Talented coordinator offered on Tuesday. I didn't go (I actually went to karate), but Rob did. He reported that they were going on and on about how much college would cost, and how difficult it would be to get into any college, let alone one you could afford. At the same time, they were saying that >30 on the ACT, or >1200 on the SAT, and you could pretty much count on full scholarships. Which would tend to be the opposite of alarming for us. While we are not our children, they definitely show our same aptitudes school and test-wise. And these score levels made both of us snort in disbelief. (Rob scored a 34 on the ACT and 1390 on the SAT. I didn't take the ACT, but scored a 1460 on the SAT.) Plus, you know, we opened college funds for each boy the year they were born - to you know, to pay for college?
I shouldn't complain, really. It's good that the school is concerned and offering information on things like literacy and how to fund college. It's just occassionally tiring to have this kind of alarm aimed at us, when we're pretty sure it's simply not necessary in our case.
Writing Update: (Short today, it's late, and I'm tired.)
Ghost Dancer - no motion, working on A Country for Children - except that I accidentally managed to delete the most recent file of ACfC and lost two days worth of typing, which I'm in process of recreating.
A Country for Children - see note above.
Previous Word Count: 14,849
Current Word Count: 17,027
So forward progress being made despite brain-dead losses of productivity. I've managed to introduce the character around whom the central plot-thread revolves (at long last), so we may even get to make her vanish shortly!
I haven't discussed yoga here much, but I've been going to classes for about a year now. After I tore a groin muscle at the Break-a-thon (my holder flinched), I found I had lost a lot of flexibility once it healed. Plus had I been more flexible to start with, I could well have not torn the muscle in the first place. So I set off to work on my flexibility. It's been working, too. When I started I couldn't touch my toes even when well warmed up - in fact I was a good six inches short. Now I can touch them anything past stone cold, and if I'm well and truly warm I can get my hands wrapped around them. Other joints have been a little slower to succumb. I still can't touch my hands behind my back (one coming from above and one from below), and I'm a very long way from getting a side split, but even there I'm improving and it's nice to see.
No karate for about nine days for me. Thursday we have literacy night at the school, and we always go, even though it feels a little silly to be trooping around to all the activities to improve our children's reading. Both of our children are reading well past grade level already. Really, we're not too worried about it. It's a similar feeling to the alarmist looking-ahead-to-college class for parents that the Gifted & Talented coordinator offered on Tuesday. I didn't go (I actually went to karate), but Rob did. He reported that they were going on and on about how much college would cost, and how difficult it would be to get into any college, let alone one you could afford. At the same time, they were saying that >30 on the ACT, or >1200 on the SAT, and you could pretty much count on full scholarships. Which would tend to be the opposite of alarming for us. While we are not our children, they definitely show our same aptitudes school and test-wise. And these score levels made both of us snort in disbelief. (Rob scored a 34 on the ACT and 1390 on the SAT. I didn't take the ACT, but scored a 1460 on the SAT.) Plus, you know, we opened college funds for each boy the year they were born - to you know, to pay for college?
I shouldn't complain, really. It's good that the school is concerned and offering information on things like literacy and how to fund college. It's just occassionally tiring to have this kind of alarm aimed at us, when we're pretty sure it's simply not necessary in our case.
Writing Update: (Short today, it's late, and I'm tired.)
Ghost Dancer - no motion, working on A Country for Children - except that I accidentally managed to delete the most recent file of ACfC and lost two days worth of typing, which I'm in process of recreating.
A Country for Children - see note above.
Previous Word Count: 14,849
Current Word Count: 17,027
So forward progress being made despite brain-dead losses of productivity. I've managed to introduce the character around whom the central plot-thread revolves (at long last), so we may even get to make her vanish shortly!
Friday, March 07, 2008
Louisville SF Writers' Group
I haven't been part of a writer's group (off-line) since before Robbie was born. Honestly I hadn't been looking very hard. The Nashville group had both good and bad points, and while I wrote more while I was a member, I don't think it otherwise did me much good. The group was large, the level of writer was all over the map (I'm still haunted by the purple sapient broccoli and the walrus who wanted to date a supermodel.), and the critiquing likewise. Some of the writers could be downright brutal in their assessment of others work, which can be helpful if it's done well. Unfortunately, the most brutal critics (at least in this group) tended to be simultaneously unhelpful. Critques of a presented short story included the memorable "She should kill herself. At least then something would happen." of a first-person semi-autobiographical story (Yes, I know. I cringe too, now, but sometimes these things must be written and gotten out of the way.). Being told my work was boring, derivative and should never see the light of day (by the author with the broccoli, who also wrote poetry with metric schemes determined by fractals), was not generally useful.
So when I found there was an SF Writers' group in Louisville, I was of two minds about going to a meeting. Comraderie is wonderful, and the impetus of having to read my stuff out loud to other people does tend to make me plunk my seat in a chair and write. On the other hand, was it really worth the effort of an evening away (much greater now than in pre-kid years) and driving halfway across town for the chance it might be useful?
I mentioned it to Rob - and then tried to back out by deferring to whatever Wed. evening thing he had going (which he does 2-3 Wed. each month). Instead he immediately said I should go, and made sure he was home so I could. So off I set, first three pages of Ghost Dancer in hand.
It's a wonderful group. There were about eight people there - enough for a good number of readers and opinions without being overwhelming. The level of writing quality was high - a great deal higher than I recall from my last group - which probably has something to do with three of the eight being either pro or semi-pro writers. Critiquing was positive and helpful both - they were looking for what they liked, and then pointed it out so you could do more of that. The specific question I asked (whether I had a good chapter break, or whether I should continue with only a scene break), got a specific, detailed answer - and one which makes a lot of sense. And best of all, these all seem to be genuinely nice people. Lots of laughing, no attempts at one upsmanship, all very comfortable with one another, even though it was straight to business and not terribly much socializing. I'll be going back as often as my schedule allows.
Of course the fact that they liked my opening didn't hurt my opinion of them any either. I'm as vain as the next person. "Your writing style reminds me of James Patterson" doesn't feel bad as an opening comment!
On the karate front, I've hit the jump-lunge in Kusanku - which is loads of fun to practice on a slick linoleum floor, let me tell you. My knees may never be the same. The jump-lunge is the one part of empty hand kata in Isshinryu that I've never done before. The last time I learned it, I was about five months pregnant, and OB's tend to frown (or more accurately, explode in horror) at the idea of leaping into the air and landing in a deep lunge. If I can clear enough floor in the family room to practice the jump at home it should go easier - at least I won't have to worry about having my feet slide and ripping my muscles if I'm on rug.
I'm hoping to get to the end of Kusanku by early April, so I can be letting it ripen by the time we hit weapons camp. I feel like I'll retain more if I'm not simultaneously trying to retain other new material.
Writing Update: Sorry to miss a couple of days - I mostly vetted Chpt. 1 obsessively on Wed., but did make some forward motion Thurs. & Friday.
Ghost Dancer - second edit
Word Count: 97,900 (the general trend is down, despite new words written. I think this is good. Tightening is good, yes?)
Words Edited: 14,454
Scenes Total: 54
Scenes Edited: 10
New Scenes Written: 1.5 (about 1000 new words)
Words which confuse Spellcheck: stroganoff, reconstituted, flinched, swallowing (though oddly enough it had swallowling - which I think is a baby swallow - who the heck programmed this thing?)
Task o' the day: Trying to come up with new and exciting ways to introduce fellow students and politics. This is likely to be the task o' the week, if not longer.
A Country for Children - first draft
New Words: 3326 - not all of these are mine. In fact about 2/3's of them are L's. But we're both moving forward, so yay us!
Current total: 14,849
So when I found there was an SF Writers' group in Louisville, I was of two minds about going to a meeting. Comraderie is wonderful, and the impetus of having to read my stuff out loud to other people does tend to make me plunk my seat in a chair and write. On the other hand, was it really worth the effort of an evening away (much greater now than in pre-kid years) and driving halfway across town for the chance it might be useful?
I mentioned it to Rob - and then tried to back out by deferring to whatever Wed. evening thing he had going (which he does 2-3 Wed. each month). Instead he immediately said I should go, and made sure he was home so I could. So off I set, first three pages of Ghost Dancer in hand.
It's a wonderful group. There were about eight people there - enough for a good number of readers and opinions without being overwhelming. The level of writing quality was high - a great deal higher than I recall from my last group - which probably has something to do with three of the eight being either pro or semi-pro writers. Critiquing was positive and helpful both - they were looking for what they liked, and then pointed it out so you could do more of that. The specific question I asked (whether I had a good chapter break, or whether I should continue with only a scene break), got a specific, detailed answer - and one which makes a lot of sense. And best of all, these all seem to be genuinely nice people. Lots of laughing, no attempts at one upsmanship, all very comfortable with one another, even though it was straight to business and not terribly much socializing. I'll be going back as often as my schedule allows.
Of course the fact that they liked my opening didn't hurt my opinion of them any either. I'm as vain as the next person. "Your writing style reminds me of James Patterson" doesn't feel bad as an opening comment!
On the karate front, I've hit the jump-lunge in Kusanku - which is loads of fun to practice on a slick linoleum floor, let me tell you. My knees may never be the same. The jump-lunge is the one part of empty hand kata in Isshinryu that I've never done before. The last time I learned it, I was about five months pregnant, and OB's tend to frown (or more accurately, explode in horror) at the idea of leaping into the air and landing in a deep lunge. If I can clear enough floor in the family room to practice the jump at home it should go easier - at least I won't have to worry about having my feet slide and ripping my muscles if I'm on rug.
I'm hoping to get to the end of Kusanku by early April, so I can be letting it ripen by the time we hit weapons camp. I feel like I'll retain more if I'm not simultaneously trying to retain other new material.
Writing Update: Sorry to miss a couple of days - I mostly vetted Chpt. 1 obsessively on Wed., but did make some forward motion Thurs. & Friday.
Ghost Dancer - second edit
Word Count: 97,900 (the general trend is down, despite new words written. I think this is good. Tightening is good, yes?)
Words Edited: 14,454
Scenes Total: 54
Scenes Edited: 10
New Scenes Written: 1.5 (about 1000 new words)
Words which confuse Spellcheck: stroganoff, reconstituted, flinched, swallowing (though oddly enough it had swallowling - which I think is a baby swallow - who the heck programmed this thing?)
Task o' the day: Trying to come up with new and exciting ways to introduce fellow students and politics. This is likely to be the task o' the week, if not longer.
A Country for Children - first draft
New Words: 3326 - not all of these are mine. In fact about 2/3's of them are L's. But we're both moving forward, so yay us!
Current total: 14,849
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Writing & Such
First the writing update:
Ghost Dancer
Status: 2nd edit
Word count: 98,300 (Not worth keeping track much closer than to the hundreds, since it's fluxing daily in both up and down dimensions)
Scenes: 52
Scenes edited: New: 6, Total: 10
Words spell check doesn't know: nutjob, stranglehold, sympathizers, trooped
Words I'm surprised spell check does know: nexon - seriously, did I teach it this and not remember? Because I'll be flabbergasted if nexon is a real word outside of Ghost Dancer itself.
The Good: Things are moving along surprisingly quickly thus far.
The Bad: Things are about to slow up, as I just hit the first of the inserted material which will need not just editing, but actual new wordage.
The Ugly: All I can see in my writing right now is commas, cliches, and uninspired generalities. The more I read, the worse it looks. So deep breaths and remind myself that people liked this. Complete strangers have liked this enough to call foreign countries and ask for more chapters. So there has got to be something there, even if I'm not seeing it right now.
A Country for Children
Status: 1st draft, collaborative
Word count: approx. 11, 523 (I'm on the wrong computer to check)
New words today: Unknown because I didn't think to count until the end.
Task o' the day: Hunting up names on the cheat sheet and inserting them in L's sections, as she tends to put in () and keep right on going when she can't remember a name. Which gets confusing over time.
Robbie is off at an enrichment class this evening. It's a free set of classes (3 in all) offered through the Gifted & Talented program here, where the graduate students of the local teachers' college who are getting certified in G&T get to gain some experience with kids while still in training. The 4th graders are doing politics. Apparently Robbie will be finding out about the Presidential candidates. He's supposed to pick which candidate he prefers (I'll be interested to see what information they give them), and then do up a campaign poster for next week's class. I'll also be interested to see how his political knowledge stands up against the other 4th graders. I've talked about this year's Presidential run with the boys quite a bit, but have stayed away from strong expressions of preference, trying to stick to more strictly factual information (though I'm afraid both boys are pretty clear that I don't think highly of W.).
Ghost Dancer
Status: 2nd edit
Word count: 98,300 (Not worth keeping track much closer than to the hundreds, since it's fluxing daily in both up and down dimensions)
Scenes: 52
Scenes edited: New: 6, Total: 10
Words spell check doesn't know: nutjob, stranglehold, sympathizers, trooped
Words I'm surprised spell check does know: nexon - seriously, did I teach it this and not remember? Because I'll be flabbergasted if nexon is a real word outside of Ghost Dancer itself.
The Good: Things are moving along surprisingly quickly thus far.
The Bad: Things are about to slow up, as I just hit the first of the inserted material which will need not just editing, but actual new wordage.
The Ugly: All I can see in my writing right now is commas, cliches, and uninspired generalities. The more I read, the worse it looks. So deep breaths and remind myself that people liked this. Complete strangers have liked this enough to call foreign countries and ask for more chapters. So there has got to be something there, even if I'm not seeing it right now.
A Country for Children
Status: 1st draft, collaborative
Word count: approx. 11, 523 (I'm on the wrong computer to check)
New words today: Unknown because I didn't think to count until the end.
Task o' the day: Hunting up names on the cheat sheet and inserting them in L's sections, as she tends to put in () and keep right on going when she can't remember a name. Which gets confusing over time.
Robbie is off at an enrichment class this evening. It's a free set of classes (3 in all) offered through the Gifted & Talented program here, where the graduate students of the local teachers' college who are getting certified in G&T get to gain some experience with kids while still in training. The 4th graders are doing politics. Apparently Robbie will be finding out about the Presidential candidates. He's supposed to pick which candidate he prefers (I'll be interested to see what information they give them), and then do up a campaign poster for next week's class. I'll also be interested to see how his political knowledge stands up against the other 4th graders. I've talked about this year's Presidential run with the boys quite a bit, but have stayed away from strong expressions of preference, trying to stick to more strictly factual information (though I'm afraid both boys are pretty clear that I don't think highly of W.).
Monday, March 03, 2008
Writing Accountability
A new regular feature, sure to bore most, but possibly helpful for keeping me accountable for writing progress. Having carved out a period of time for writing (which required telling some people emphatically, and not telling others at all, plus turning off the phone), I'll be posting the rough outline of writing progress for the day. Credit for the notion goes to Elizabeth Bear, who posts such things regularly, and in far more interesting fashion than I'm likely to.
Ghost Dancer:
Stage: Second edit
Current word count: 98,229
Words edited: 6930
Scenes: 52
Scenes edited: 4
Darling du jour: (dialogue) Never say one word when none will leave them more confused.
Words spell check doesn't know: pinged, quarantined, obsessing, navigated, sips, spooked
Words I'm surprised spell check does know: none
Major edit type: comma excision - the queen of commas knows no master, but she can attempt to restrain herself.
Note to self: Spend some time training the spell check. This is not MSWord, but WriteWay, and apparently their spellcheck dictionary leaves something to be desired, as shown by the above list. If it doesn't know quarantined and navigated, I can't wait until we hit black hole physics later in the book.
I should have a second writing session later tonight with any luck at all.
Ghost Dancer:
Stage: Second edit
Current word count: 98,229
Words edited: 6930
Scenes: 52
Scenes edited: 4
Darling du jour: (dialogue) Never say one word when none will leave them more confused.
Words spell check doesn't know: pinged, quarantined, obsessing, navigated, sips, spooked
Words I'm surprised spell check does know: none
Major edit type: comma excision - the queen of commas knows no master, but she can attempt to restrain herself.
Note to self: Spend some time training the spell check. This is not MSWord, but WriteWay, and apparently their spellcheck dictionary leaves something to be desired, as shown by the above list. If it doesn't know quarantined and navigated, I can't wait until we hit black hole physics later in the book.
I should have a second writing session later tonight with any luck at all.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Stuck
I'm working on a revision for Ghost Dancer, and I've gotten stuck. It's not surprising I've gotten stuck, but it's still a problem. You see, I've now written hundreds of pages (hopefully one day to be thousands and tens of thousands) of material moving forward, but my experience as a revisor is much more limited. I'm not used to having to edit more comprehensively than minor line, or at most scene edits: correction of errors, or switching around some point of action or dialogue.
What's happening in Ghost Dancer is more elaborate. Having written the story of Kira, I've then gone and expanded her universe. Bad guys who were simply lurking around being bad now have histories, motivations and political movements. A larger context is now around the entire story, making it much more complex, even though the basic sequence of events is the same.
Which means that every scene in the novel now has many more implications and needs much more nuance than it did when originally written. It also means I need to add either some additional scenes, or add additional characters to existing scenes, because otherwise my readers are going to be seriously confused when politics begin to fly and nobody has said anything until now.
And this is where I'm getting stuck. Ghost Dancer editions 1 & 2 were pretty tightly plotted. A led to B led to C, without much room for extraneous motion. It's like getting all dressed to go running with the slick running outfit, only to realize you've got to bring your wallet and your great outfit has no pockets. Where the heck to you stick the thing? Except it's a lot of things. I've not only got to add the wallet, water bottle, snack bar and first aid kit, I've got to make those things integrate smoothly with what's already there, such that nobody watching me run down the street is going to see them hanging about oddly.
So how do I stick a really good sleek fanny pack on a novel?
What's happening in Ghost Dancer is more elaborate. Having written the story of Kira, I've then gone and expanded her universe. Bad guys who were simply lurking around being bad now have histories, motivations and political movements. A larger context is now around the entire story, making it much more complex, even though the basic sequence of events is the same.
Which means that every scene in the novel now has many more implications and needs much more nuance than it did when originally written. It also means I need to add either some additional scenes, or add additional characters to existing scenes, because otherwise my readers are going to be seriously confused when politics begin to fly and nobody has said anything until now.
And this is where I'm getting stuck. Ghost Dancer editions 1 & 2 were pretty tightly plotted. A led to B led to C, without much room for extraneous motion. It's like getting all dressed to go running with the slick running outfit, only to realize you've got to bring your wallet and your great outfit has no pockets. Where the heck to you stick the thing? Except it's a lot of things. I've not only got to add the wallet, water bottle, snack bar and first aid kit, I've got to make those things integrate smoothly with what's already there, such that nobody watching me run down the street is going to see them hanging about oddly.
So how do I stick a really good sleek fanny pack on a novel?
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Why Yes, I am up at 2am, Writing about Writing.
As mentioned previously, I'm currently in the throes of rewriting my first novel Ghost Dancer - again. This is the second or third major rewrite, depending on how you count. Since I've never done the serious editing thing, each time I try something new, I'm fumbling through, trying to figure out how this thing goes.
The first time I redid the book, I had a new plot twist to add. Despite coming early in the book, it proved fairly easy to insert. So easy, that I suspect that it was hiding around in my hindbrain from the very beginning. There was even foreshadowing already in place! So I slipped in the two new required scenes, altered a few references later in the book (to people as living that were dead in the new version), and voila! Good to go.
This time is proving a bit trickier - which is odd because the revisions are actually more minor. I've had a number of discussions about the GD universe and politics with my writing buddy Ledasmom, and consequently I now have a much more in depth and nuanced view of exactly what the bad guys are up to than I did when I first wrote the book. The changes aren't major - they still do the same things, just for more complicated reasons. They've switched from fairly stereotypical evil-overlord wannabees, to people who want something for good reason - they merely want to so badly they're willing to commit atrocity to get it. But to make this situation clear without resorting to a substantial infodump, or worse several "As you know, Bob" sessions, I have to drop little tidbits of background everywhere. Plus a few new characters to illustrate the opposing points of view with people more sypathetic than unrepentant mass murderers. As of last count, I had added two new scenes, and about 1500 new words, with at least two more new scenes to go. Fortunately for my ultimate total word count (trying to stay under 100,000), I'm also finding plenty of opportunity for tightening elsewhere.
I know that no book is ever perfect. But when the heck do you know it's ready?
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