The TalynMana project hit a snag a couple weeks ago, when Becky’s day job got slammed with, well, the economy. Not just her job, you see, but the company she worked for, too.
So she’s in the middle of changing everything, and the jewelry part of the TalysMana project is on hiatus until she gets through this particular disaster.
And the contest is on hold until Becky can participate in judging the entries along with me. We’re looking at–realistically–a couple of months for this to happen.
On my end, there’s still a bunch of craziness going on, but it’s winding down. So I should be able to get back to writing TalysMana in another week or two.
{ 249 comments… read them below or add one }
Ah well, we’ll all wait anxiously for things to settle down. :3
<3 I hope things smooth out soon… and not just because I'm biased and want to read more of Talysmana and see the results of the competition, but I also know how shit it can be when things turn to custard. You've inadvertently helped me a number of times to get out of the quagmire of custard and I really hope it lifts very soon for you.
Kia kaha, e hoa ma (be strong, friend)
Googamooga, that’s awful news. I’m really sorry. You guys hang in there, we’re patient (and busily obsessing over WABM and other writing projects, so we’ve got plenty to keep us busy)
Hang in
Best wishes to Becky — it’s a nasty place to be. Hope things turn around quickly for everyone!
Nancy
That’s rough, but as long as you can see (or at least imagine) light at the end of the tunnel it helps.
Good vibes to you both
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I’m sorry to hear that, Holly. I hope things turn out better soon both for Becky and you.
As for me, I’m back! *waves hand to all WABWM pals* Hi guys!
Finally writing again after a bad 3 weeks hiatus due to various stuff (Easter holidays, coming back to live with my SO, a change of office, and more). 271+554 words from the last time I posted. I’m not going to spoil on the details, but things are still going from bad to nasty for Erthel, and Faurel’s picking up the pieces. But we still have a long way to go making things worse before we reach the bottom. Mwahaha.
Welcome home!
Hi there! I saw you finished book I in your saga, congratulations!
thanks!
I am feeling really down on it at the moment.
I’m not making much progress on book ii and what I have feels wrong.
mainly because work is leaving me so exhausted (up at five, home at six) that I spend the whole day with my brain bubbling with ideas and unable to write…then get home, stare at the screen and keel over. Rinse and repeat.
also, my brain is itching to write the lost-world scenes that come much later on, but I have to get through a lot of political track-laying to even get my heroes on the damn ship.
but as holly says, ‘ONLY write the good stuff’, so I need to somehow make this tangled web of political crud left hanging from the end of the last book into the Good Stuff.
It felt Good in the script, it doesn’t feel Good here.
Well, nobody really forces you to write your new book in strictly chronological order! I don’t know how you usually work, but you could start right away with the lost-world adventures to get your creative juices flowing, and then work around those. Of course you’ll be missing some details, but then that’s what revision is for, isn’t it? Also, this might help you to see all that “political crud” differently, identify unnecessary parts and figure out the Good, interesting way to take care of your dangling plot threads from the previous book.
Also, do you have the feeling sometimes that your world is a bit overbuilt, or there’s too much stuff going on at the same time? This, and much worse, happened to me all the time while I was *trying* to write a series (which lately I dropped until I understand what I really want to do with it), and often resulted in what I called “boring necessary parts”. Just my two cents of course
564 words on the 23rd of April, another scene done. I feel like I’m planting seeds with this scene, seeds for very important things that will grow in time. Faurel has helped Erthel to face with the consequences of her being dismissive, and Urwyn, the nobleman who was supposed to help them rescue her mother, very clearly states that if these are her actual limits and difficulties with the gift, then he will have to work alone. He has no use for her.
Erthel is currently unconscious, but she’s not going to like this. Still, it’s nothing but the truth.
did I ever mention I really like your character names?
Uh thanks! I’m glad you liked them
I’m rather proud of the names for this project, actually, mostly because it’s the first time I attempted a rough sketch of a language (only the barest bones, the minimum required to be able to guess consistent names) before naming characters. What I did previously was simply to guess names on the spot, leading to:
1 – a couple of really cool names
2 – a lot of really lame names
3 – an unbalanced mix of invented names and western civilization names I had *no reasonable justification for* other than “hey this fantasy world came into contact in the past with our Earth, so I can snag all the Earth names I like!”. Just to clarify, “came into contact” implied a few instances of small groups of people traveling from one world to the other – NOT some kind of lasting, civilization-overhauling contact like a war, clash of cultures or a centuries long domination. This could’ve worked if the fantasy world considered Earth names at least a bit unusual or exotic – but over 3/4 of the native characters ended up with Earth names. So in the same group you could have Ansleth (invented name I really like), Ardhan (invented name I don’t like much) and Elizabeth (self-explanatory). LAME.
You’ll understand why this had to stop. Holly’s Create a Language clinic was a huge help with that!
I decided that since names are the least important thing about my characters, they will be subject to change at the last minute in revision. But Erthel and Faurel are my favourites.
Wrestling with the resurgence of an old problem; how much of the fauna and flora of a fantasy world to invent whole cloth, and how much to allow to be Earth-like? There were always going to be dinosaurs, dragons, horses, wolves, bears, lions and birds of prey in this world, as well as my exotic created lifeforms. I have a (spoilertastic) excuse for earth critters, BUT.
Coming up to the Elder Shores book has me chewing my lip; go with my original plan (dinos, dinopeople and dinodragons) or messing with it to create new, more fantastical beasties, and possibly risk ‘Smeerp’ syndrome and comparisons to recent pop culture (Avatar, the Monster Hunter games).
Hey Daste! Welcome back!
You know things are bad when you have a desktop wallpaper about writer’s block with a caption “What action takest thou?” and you STILL can’t get your characters to work for you.
I don’t know what’s wrong. I know where the story is going. I know how it’s going to get there. But I write a hundred words and suddenly I’ve got characters from other stories arriving through a wormhole, an F16 landing in the middle of the battlefield in a world where they don’t believe in powered flight, and the stoic religous leaders admitting that they only took the job for the power trip. I just feel like my characters are union members on strike for Wanders Nowhere’s book (no offence intended).
none taken, mine are striking too x.x
not my MCs, though. I love you guys. You’re my main men. Er. Man-and-two-women.
Danzier, know that I demand to see that wallpaper.
Mostly because I’m a huge nerd and stuff written in Ye Olde English reminds me of the old Ultima pc games.
(And yes, I know Shakespeare plays are written that way too, no need to smack me over the head for my shameless Ultima fangirling.)
I sent the pic and a short commentary to you via e-mail. And I won’t dis your fangirling if you won’t dis mine ;D
In reply to DasteRoad, because I ran out of reply space above:
Yeah, sometimes I do worry the world is overbuilt, or more that the world is underbuilt and the plot is overcomplicated. I mentioned to Holly a while back that I found my embarassing high school first draft (of this same story) and while it made me cringe in so many places, the simplicity of the plot back then was refreshing compared to the current one.
Not much of a spoiler, but the plot of the original was: three young heroes find out they’re the chosen Avatars (boy, do I need a new name for that) and must face the primordial evil called the D**k T***d.
That’s still the plot. Only back then it went straight on rails from A—>B. Now it’s stuffed full of subplots. The story of the humanoid nations healing the rifts between each other and the original inhabitants of the world in order to unite against the coming darkness, the (extremely sentient) planet dying slowly as the evil eats it from the inside out, the revelations about the origin of the ‘younger’ races, the story of the villains and why they are doing what they’re doing, and the heroes’ personal stories, the list goes on and on and on, and all of which are not actually separate from the main story but orbit the central artifact like planets around a star.
I love all of these threads and think the story would be a lesser and far less epic tale without them, but they require some phenomenal juggling to keep the focus where it needs to be, that is only going to get worse as the series progresses. In a lot of ways what I’m writing is not a good first novel and I am Bat Shit Insane for even attempting something of this scope at my novice level. But it’s what I have, it’s waited 15 years for me to write it, and it wants to be written NOW.
Also, I just, finally, read the Earthsea quartet. Ursula LeGuin makes me weep from the beauty and richness and simplicity of her writing, that I know I may admire from afar, but will never attain.
But I am recovering from my downer. The cure was simple: read my book again. No matter what else happens, I love this story and its people, and I love reading it, and I love writing it, and hopefully others will feel that love when it’s done.
Now to get my desktop computer fixed and get a damned printer…
WandersNowhere, I’d have a lot to say about the whole issue, but for now let me say just that I understand completely. And this is precisely why I’d have a lot to say: it derives from my own (bewildering, fantastic, awesome but also painful) experience.
I’d like to talk about it, but I don’t want to flood Holly’s blog with huge comments. If you’d like to continue this conversation elsewhere, please send me an email (you’ll find the address on my tumblr blog) and the Crazy Italian Lady (which is how I, um, usually introduce myself as the real professional I am
) will get back to you ASAP 
Either I’m just plain going blind or I’m just plain stoopid, what part of the page is it on? XD
Don’t worry, it’s probably the evil gnomes being nasty. You’ll find it on the column on the right, under the “contacts” label. It’s cleverly (?) disguised to fool spammers of ebil, but in case you can’t find it, here it is:
dasteroad [at] yahoo [dot] it
Remove spaces and substitute the appropriate symbols for the words in brackets
DAHH. EVIL GNOMES.
You know, that sounds like a good fix. I haven’t reread my story in a while; I’ll try it. Thanks! I wonder if I’ve complicated this plot enough, but it seems to do all right for now. It is the prequel and the main hero’s backstory, but I’m also using the opportunity to straighten out five races that used to be one, figure out the “magic” of the place, and turn my hero from a scrawny kid into a tough young adult with a cause.
Meanwhile… the library FINALLY got a bunch of Holly’s books, I’ve been reading them straight through. I’d rather buy them, but honestly, I don’t have that kind of income right now. I caught the typo in Holly’s post, and since then all I can think about is how Talyn and Hawkspar would mesh into TalysMana. I’m telling you, Holly is a genius.
…I just figured out what’s wrong, writing that ^ . The scene I was stuck on two months ago has to come back, and it has to be here, after the hero/villain first fight, not back where it was. ‘Scuse me, I’ve got some writing to do…
On the topic of complications… I’ve done it both ways – writing a story that’s too simple and one that’s so overly complicated I lost the main thread somewhere in chapter 2. I find that writing is a constant balancing act. Too simple, you wind up trying to tape extra fabric to a weave that doesn’t mesh. Too complicated, you end up with a quilt of lycra, wool, and plastic with ketchup stains all over it that doesn’t make for something you’d want to throw over your bed.
Some of my favourite authors are just that because they somehow were able to create the perfect tapestry of main plot threaded with subs. From what I understand it’s all in the revision and how you cut and paste things together – because revision is where you’re supposed to really tie everything in to The Sentence.
Strictly as a reader, I don’t need all the back-story on a planet’s history, or the biography of secondary characters from their struggling childhood to present. Just give me enough to get a feel of where they’re coming from and let me focus on the current situation.
As a writer, I need to know the background and the biographies to set those implications on the page. Now how well you’re able to pull that off depends on experience, talent, and a bit of luck. I’m still working on that.
I hope things keep getting better! In case it might be useful for Becky, my favorite website for job-hunting is http://www.indeed.com – it lets you do an aggregate search of lots of job sites so you can save time and frustration.
Good luck!
I like indeed too. Plus don’t forget to make a linkedin.com account to collaborate with others in your industry.
Yay! 703 words last night!
My “Thinking” scene has become a giant brlorb in the middle of the story, but that’s ok; a lot of the dialogue can be put elsewhere, once elsewhere is written. At this point it’s useful for letting me know/remember what the characters’ motivations are, and how they need to progress.
And I scrapped the fight sequence I had because of remebering motivations. It was only two lines anyway; I choreographed a better one and wrote the first few steps. My self-resurrecting bad guy just died for the first of three times in the scene, instead of talking about how he could die and it wouldn’t matter. Yip yip yip.
I’ve let my characters know it’s ok to screw up in the rough draft; it’s only rehersals. It will get better; so do all the silly stuff and crazy stuff, hat-stealing and improv now, while the audience isn’t looking. Some of it is bound to be so great that we’ll add it to the performance.
That’s a damn good technique. o.o
Yeah… I wish I could take credit for it, but I can’t. Credit goes to Mr. Lynch, my theater teacher in high school. I came across it in my yearbook notes. He used to open rehersals with a similar statement, and things went better because of it (“Peter Pan” had a Tinker Bell because someone was silly enough to play with a laser pointer in rehersals).
I’m glad it helps, though; sometimes all we need is a free pass to be silly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| FREE SILLY PASS |
| Admit Everyone |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They had laser pointers in 1904?
Of course! How else could you break a laugh into a thousand pieces and send them all skipping about?
Granted, Tink’s new nickname is the LFD, L for little and D for dot…
Still here. No new words. Getting organized.
Glad to see you’re here. From a disorganized person: organization is quite important. Good luck.
No words for…hmmmm…a few weeks. School and the RP forum I joined have kept me occupied. But started on some more world-building for the Rinaya and GvE story, which is good. And I’m going to try and do that between school work and RPing.
Of course I’m writing for RP, and that is a way of putting words down, on practicing without feeling like I’m writing something just to write. What does people say? 10’000 hours of writing to gain excellence, ey? Or something like that, well now I’m using RPing as one way to gain those hours.
Plus, I’ve decided to try out world ideas on the forum, starting RPs with my world and therefore having to expand on them and to see what others think about them.
What is RP?
Ah sorry. RP stands for Role-Playing. I’ll explain that further if you want, but if you already know it’s a looong explanation.
(Short version: Collective story-telling; Collective story-writing.)
Yes, interested in hearing this. Are you doing this as a gaming thing, psychology thing, writing .. or other. If you want to answer off list, I would understand. Not sure how to get my address to you though. I think I am off the HTTS forums since I finished… or not. Guess I need to check.
Thanks, sounds like a great way to work out characters and interactions. Will check the Forum.
If you join my name there is Miss_Dagger.
And if you have any questions just PM me there or shoot an email to me at:
felicia.fredlund [at] gmail [dot] com
With the @ and . instead of course.
And from what I’ve seen, usually from the character’s pov–first person.
Resurrected my ancient prologue scene again, this time cutting it down until it’s JUST the dino guys watching the meteor come in – segue to the MCs waking up together and the heroine remarking ‘So. I dreamed I was a lizard. How about you?”
I like it so far. I think I’ll keep it. That part of the prologue directly foreshadows where they’re going.
Nothing like a good fish slap. If you end up cutting that piece of dialogue, I’m soooo stealing it. You’re warned.
Watch it ;p those are dangerous words in a place like this.
Yeah I guess. Ok, if you decide that you don’t like that sentence after all, may I please have first dibs on using it?
*waves hand* Hi guys. Just wanted to say that I’m still here.
Sadly my grandmother, the only grandparent I had left, passed away last sunday night and we’re all still adjusting.
I’m managing to work a bit on PoB though, mainly plotting ahead and roughly outlining the way to the book’s ending (yes, it’s time to start thinking about it since I’m around half of the novel right now). I hope I’ll be able to get actual new words on the page soon, I miss the joy of writing – and I need it.
Deeply sorry to hear about it
as someone who’s lost a lot of family last year too, I know how it shakes up your whole life. Hang in there, and let the love of words ease you through.
All the best.
I’m sorry for your loss. I hope you find comfort in writing.
Oh Daste, I’m sorry to hear that. I hope your writing helps you get through this tough time.
*Sympathetic hugs and tears of comfort*
Hope it helps you to know that you’re not alone. And everyone else, thanks…it helped me…
I’m answering down here; it’s easier.
I’m role-playing because I like it and because it gets me writing. It gets me creating new chars and worlds. I have characters from when I role-played years ago that I know will fit in a story, as long as I get the story out.
So I role-play to write, create, have fun and meet new people. See how people think about my characters and worlds. It’s a place to test a story world or idea that you have and see if people like it.
I really, really enjoy role-playing.
@Danzier: Actually forum role-playing is almost never done in first person. It’s in close third person (aka thoughts and emotions are usually written). Most forum role-play frown on first-person because it gets so confusing when you have 2-8 first persons telling their story.
Hmmm. I haven’t seen that kind of RP, then. I should probably check it out. Thanks for the correction.
If you’re interested in a role playing forum that cares about quality writing and has put up some rules. I know the place. It also has an active OOC forum and chat room. FOG (the name of the forum) really wants good writing and for the members to strive for better and better writing.
Well…(www.footstepsofghosts.com) Anyway, I like the forum if that wasn’t obvious. >_>
I caved and wrote a hot rex scene as a candy bar.
Yes, you read that right.
Thanks, my dyslexia had me doing a double take! lol
*bom-chickawow* Raaaaarrrr!! *wiggles two fingers, stomps hoomins*
680 words today
Ch 1-8 done
I’m working on chapter nine with a total of 31,000 words. I have only been writing about once every two weeks. I think the main reason for the slowdown is that I know there is only three shuttle missions left and my book won’t make the window. My last hope was for the shuttle missions to be extended.
Stopped writing in order to worldbuild and get into what I can do of HTRYN without a printer x.x
Still excited about Book II.
Still gonna write it if my fingers drop off in the process.
Hi all,
It’s been a ridiculously long time since my last post, mostly because I haven’t been writing. . . I stopped for a vacation (visiting family out of state) then couldn’t start back up again. . .
860 words now though,
My MC just made a promise that’s going to be damn-hard to keep, and trying to keep it NOW, instead of later is going to cause her to do Several Stupid Things, that will end this book in tragedy.
It feels good to be back.
398 Words.
Foreshadowing of Bad Things To Come.
I’m torn on whether or not I’m going to kill off my MC’s mom. Since someone else is going to die in grand style I think it might be to much, on the other hand if she lives she becomes something of a loose end. . . .
My MC is supposed to leave everything behind, and walking away from her mom, considering the relationship they have, won’t be easy. . .
Then again with the other Thing. . . . Idk, maybe having her mom alive somewhere would help her stay sane. And of course they bad guys don’t really have to leave her alone just because they don’t kill her now. . . .
Hmmm. There’s something about “thinking aloud” on this blog that helps me unravel plot-knots.
Thanks for the magic.
Started doing several things to make my writing more portable and accessible. First, I put all my HTTS files on a USB so I can look at them anywhere. Then I assembled two files “to go” of one of checklists and the other of worksheetstechniques plus a few “re-typed it for my own use” pages. I have found holes at work in which I can insert reading or writing time.
Also, decided to embark on a Masters degree. I knw it will take time away from reading BUT
1. because day job will pay for it,
2. it turns me back the direction I wanted to be in oh, so many, many years ago. It will provide me with day job or part time jobs even as I slide into retirement that is more to my liking AND might be more supportive of creative pursuits. My current job is not. Its almost in direct conflict.
(MS in HIgher Education)
Geez, if I did not have to pick up luggage, I would consider some kind of driving job … just so I would have all the down time while waiting.
Sorry, more tech talk. I also carry around a backup of my writing files. Will be uploading the usb version of Writers Cafe or Liquid Story Binder. And getting a more expensive but password protected USB too.
As far as other technoloy, I am a HUGE fan of the smaller the better. Tried a net book, though I loved it I had sent it back for a weird reason. The location of the mouse buttons was too close to the edge. If I leaned back and balanced it on my tummy or a pillow, the mouse keys were useless. I got a chance to play with an iPad last week, am waiting for the next generation, which will be closer to a fully functional computer than this first generation. I loved it, its about the size of a book I am likely to carry at all times anyway … !!!
That brings up a question…have you had any problems with Liquid Story Binder? I tried it, and it was fantastic, but it kept crashing when I tried to switch between windows.
And crashing when you’re writing is very very bad :/ so I stopped using it. Has anyone else had this problem?
I’ve had it randomly decide not to record, and stop recording when my screensaver starts and dump the recording. That’s all I’ve used it for so far; I’m hesitant to try any other functions at this point.
Now that I read the comments about LSb, I might just let it go. I could not get past how not-intuitive it is. I was dreading having to take time to “learn” it.
Finished my short story one April 30th. It is about 7,000 words long. Maybe longer. But about half of it will have to be completely rewritten.
Now I am planning my next project for HTTS. It is a YA novel and I am figuring it will be around 50,000-60,000 words for the first draft. I can hardly sleep I am so excited about it.
If all goes well I’ll be writing by the 7th of this month. But I know that real life can intrude so I won’t beat myself up if it takes a little longer.
I am off to do the character module!
I have about fifteen pages of research papers to write in the next few days, plus finals week starting Wednesday, so I’m going to be disappearing for a little bit. But after that is that glorious time of underlap–I’m out of school for the summer, my daughter’s still in school during the day, and I’m free to spend my time deep-frying some characters without interruptions.
I had a brainstorming sesh with a friend and fellow-writer here today.
Made me realise just how warped A. princess is shaping up to be, and how many readers may end up hating her guts if I don’t handle her…quirks…delicately.
I have had three, four days of holidays and done no writing. I suck, officially.
WandersNowhere- You don’t suck! And I hate it when characters turn into something I had not planned, well, I do when its bad! It usually means I have to kill them…good luck fixing your princess!
I’m still working through the modules. I swear if I am not outlining the book next week I will not be happy.
As far as prewriting goes I probably wrote at least 1,500 words. So a good start.
lol Tori, well, I LIKE the way she’s going, it just hit me that others might not.
It’ll all depend on whether or not she directly gets anybody killed, and whether or not she butts in on the major relationship, and how that pans out…
But I much prefer her as the unpredictable, sexually-charged cloudcuckoolander she’s ended up being, rather than the drippy distressed damsel of 1st-draft-script.
Did a bit of writing today. Feel accomplished.
Well, she sounds pretty awesome to me! And you know what I’ve tried writing characters the way I think other people will like them…and it always turns out bad. I either hate the character or end up screwing up the story royally somehow. So now I write the characters the way I would love them to be. Seems simple, but it was a huge breakthrough for me.
Yay for turning characters into much more interesting people! I’m in the middle of doing that right now!
Didn’t start the story yet. But I’m getting close. Will probably start sometime next week. Hopefully.
I have been writing in the last few weeks. But all have either been school work (one was actually a short story – 1000 words – but in Swedish) and for the role-playing forum. Wrote a 949 word post yesterday. So I’m exercising my writing and creative muscles, and for now that is fine. I know what I want to do more “career-wise”. I want to revise the novel I did with my friend, and as soon as I get it printed I’ll get on it.
Can’t think
Brain numb
Inspiration
Won’t come
Bad ink
Bad pen
That’s all
Again.
Yeah I have no idea who originally came up with that, but since nobody’s posted for what feels like a week, I thought I’d toss it out there. It’s not that I haven’t written, it’s that I wrote, um, papers. Analyses of tv production styles and lighting, and why KDKA (it’s the first U.S. broadcast radio station) is important to satellite television (because they were first to figure out the whole idea of simulcasting and getting the transmission without using a phone line).
I just came back from my UK trip to bring grampa’s ashes to rest, so no writing for me. It was truly amazing, if a bit of a whirlwind tour. (Sorry, no pics on the blog yet.) Discovered this morning I brought a cold back with me though, so not sure when I’ll have mind power to focus on writing again, EDJ (Evil Day Job) work is hard enough!
I hope you all have been successfully busy in the meanwhile.
Welcome back Jessica!
I hope the trip wasn’t too sad / stressful for you. Good luck with getting back on the writing horse and shaking that cold!
Did a little work on the book. Still stuck on that scene with the ambassador threatening the king, but liking it more.
I am going to work further on ambassador’s culture’s language, so I can use it to mess with the scene and have him manipulate the way his culture uses words (very indirect, a little like Japanese, all implication) to talk the King into accepting a declaration of war without realising that’s what they’re talking about.
The King is not a stupid man, but his culture are very straightforward and direct (a little like medieval Australians) so this scene can work, I believe in it.
I wrote a script!! It took me two days, and it is three thousand three hundred thirty-nine words long. 3339. It wasn’t on purpose, but I did a wordcount at the end and thought, WandersNowhere would get a kick out of that. So…Yay!
Also, I played with a fun little website that has a typing speed test. It’s speedtest dot 10 dash fast dash fingers dot com (bonus points to DasteRoad for the hackerproof link format). I type 47 words per minute, and that’s not a typo. It is, however a new record. My highschool typing teacher would be proud, I never got more than 42 in class.
And yes, it’s sad. The above post needs the following corrections:
“highschool” –> high school
“however” ——> however,
Yeah I’m sleepy. Have a good night y’all, or a good day if you’re in a different time zone and/or country.
Yes, I have noticed a dearth of postings. For me, caused by the aforementioned EDJ – ten hours a day, seven days a week of tough physical labor. I’ve been too tired or too busy to write more than a couple of pages in the last few weeks.
But – how’s this for a test of my faith in a future as a published writer: I’m a candidate for a different job, office work for the same company, same benefits, day shift only, no overtime, more than two dollars an hour less in pay (by my calculations about $360 a month less, not counting the loss of overtime and environmental pay). I haven’t had to make a final decision yet, but I’m inclined to think I’ll take it. Money is great – my health and my writing are more important (more greater).
I haven’t got the new job yet, so I have two hours of writing time waiting for me. Got to go, wish me luck. Evan
I think Jack London once said something to the effect of “You can work with your back until you’re too broken to do anything else, or you can work with your head and do what you please for as long as you like.” That’s not an exact quote; I read it while asleep about ten years ago for a class I dropped, so I’m amazed I remembered it at all. Anyway, the point is, I’d grab that offer in a heartbeat. Good luck.
And “No overtime” only means they won’t pay you for it. I had an office job once where we stayed at the office, slept on the floor, for four days straight just to get bad data posted to the state soon enough…and out of a couple hundred places posting similar data to the state, we were the only place to get it in on time. No overtime…also, no pillows. 8P
Thanks for the encouraging words. I’ve been told by a source within the chain of command that I’m at the top of the list for the job, but I work for Civil Service, so it may take up to three months before they actually make the offer. By now, with a new bruise, ache, or pain just about every day, I’m certain that I will take the job when they do. Until then, I remain happy to have a job and do my best to find a few hours here and there to work on my book.
Due to circumstances, my scheduled deadline keeps moving, so patience and perseverance are becoming my best buddies. Maybe the extra time will improve my work.
Thanks again.
I’m still planning the story, slowly but surely. I REALLY hate the planning stage of things, but know if I don’t do it my story will fall apart. So I am on the third module…and have at least two others to do after this. Then comes the outline. ARGH.
But after that I will be able to start the story! I ache with the need to write it.
I have probably about 2,500 words at least of critical backstory written out. I shouldn’t need much more.
And I’ll admit I might be going so slow because I always seem to fall short at the Sentence Lites. They don’t come to me easily, but they are another thing I desperately need.
So…I know I’ve said this before, but I probably won’t be writing until next week. This time I’ve given myself the strict date of the 22nd of May.
Lets see if I can keep my promise this time.
Of course you can! And you’ll do better than you thought, too. And when you’re writing the story it will break all the fences you threw out there in the outline, and it will rock the world.
Update on avoiding the story I should be writing by playing with all the others…
I have about twenty small story ideas that have nothing to do with each other aside from having a female POV character who I can never think of a name for. Last night I figured out how to tie all of them together into a decent and interesting piece of entertainment. I’m excited about it.
But I *still* can’t get my main char in PH2 to go back to the town and help liberate it. I think he and I need to have a serious talk.
Finals are done, YAY!!! Now I’m going to sleep for 8 hours for a change and then I’m going to give myself a repetitive stress injury and try and belt out a few thousand words that have nothing to do with radio, tv, film, history, or why March should be removed from the calendar. Yeah I might be certifiable at this point.
Well.
I just wrote a 4,444 word short story in one sitting, about Sweeny Todd (Just watched the movie two days ago for the first time).
I’m not sure it’s publishable ever, because I pretty much did the movie from the point of view of a character I made up, and changed the ending. But It Was Fun!!!!
I have no Idea where it came from. (well the movie, duh.) But what I mean is, I DON”T DO SHORT STORIES. EVER. But I did, just now. It’s also the only thing I’ve actually finished other than bad (I think it’s bad) poetry and that one other creative-writing-class-forced short story.
and It’s 4:00 a.m.
And I want to do a happy dance: not sleep, which I haven’t done tonight, by the way. Not exactly a good thing.
but I can’t bring myself to care.
I FINISHED SOMETHING!!!!
I WROTE A SHORT STORY THAT DIDN’T TURN INTO A TWELVE-NOVEL SERIES BEFORE I FINISHED IT!!!!!
Okay, I’m done.
Guess I’m gonna try to sleep now .
Yay! Way to go!
Hi all
Back after a protracted absence – paid work and my brother moving out, resulting in a big painting/furniture shifting upheaval, being the main reasons. Also some distraction with my music project. I’ve been getting bits done, and still have some invigilation duties over the next few weeks along with some exam marking in June, but hoping to get back in here more frequently again.
Still working on KavI redraft. Most of the world-building is done – just languages left. Think I’ve pretty much got my cast clear in my mind now, so I’m basically going through my scene notes and making sure the conflict is clear and relevant and the padding is removed. I’m about a quarter of the way through them. Once I’ve done that, the plan is to finish the languages and world-building detail, then start on the write-in. Hopefully that’ll be in a couple of weeks’ time!
Danzier- Thank you for that! It was exactly what I needed to hear to get my butt in gear! And you know what? All I have left before I start is some book math and the Sentence Lites (from HTTS) and I’ll be writing! I should get a good portion done today.
My laptop died a couple days ago. So I am using a desktop that belongs to the family. So its hard to get all the stuff I need in such a short time frame, but I’m doing it. Oh, and I’m getting a refurbished laptop on Wednesday or Thursday…so everything will work out!
And I lost most of my writing that was on that laptop…everything but one finished short story. But I can’t worry about that if I want to write my novel.
So, I have more words, but still just planning. But I can finally see the ending in sight.
How is everyone else doing? Are you still working on your projects? Or have you started something new?
I signed up for How to Revise Your Novel next week, but having been on the country side I haven’t read the first lesson yet, and I do believe I need to print my story…well, when this school week from hell ends I’ll get to it.
I signed up for it last week, not next week. >_>
Five more scenes assessed and re-jigged today – one more than I was hoping what with invigilating this afternoon.
Now about half way through the scenes. Hopefully no distractions for a couple of days and I’ll be somewhere near through them come the weekend.
I have once again come upon part of the problem, and it’s roads. I think I have to redo a bunch of the culture work for this project; I did the cultures individually, but they have to interact with each other, too, and I didn’t plan for that. So now I have some treaties to write, and some maps to rethink in light of those treaties. My main character says he’s not going back to that town without a much more compelling reason, and I don’t have one for him yet. The only thing I can think of that would get him back is finding out that his mentor’s not dead, but that would regress the story and the character. He has to end up as a big hero, he can’t stay dependant forever, and now he’s out of the nest. Sigh.
Well, I finished my Sentence Lites. The first attempt anyway. I’ll probably toss a few out when I start writing, but I’ll reach that problem when I get there. I need to stop procrastinating. Because the core of the story is in my head. So what if not everything is clear. I’ll find my way. I can’t be perfect the first time through. I need to remind myself of that fact.
Tomorrow after making sure I’m starting my story in the right place I’ll be writing using Holly’s technique of standing inside my map, my story. I love this technique. It reminds me to actually start with the REAL story.
Well, I’m going to make some notes of what I want the first scene to get across. Maybe I can even come up with an awesome first line!
I’ll post my progress tomorrow.
Trying to figure out how to start my first scene. With every project…the beginning seems to be a very exciting but also very hard part for me. Staring at a blank page and trying to figure out what to put there can be a daunting task. But I am working through it. I have questions I am asking myself. Later today I hope to actually get into the writing. But for now I am fine with envisioning everything.
Anyone else find starting projects great fun but lots of work?
Heh. I love starting projects. I just write a little scene. But then I start asking all the questions it raises and get bogged down.
About two thirds of the way through my scene fixing. Feel the story is starting to come together, which makes me scan the pages anxiously for the one detail I haven’t thought about that will pull the rug out from under everything!
Scenes and characters have started to coalesce and I’ve trimmed down the number of locations, too, so the whole thing is starting to feel more cohesive and polished…
Hey! Sorry that the troubles found you and yours! Just wanted to say that I have been totally enjoying the story and am feeling pushed by my own voices to sit down and write again. Been a long time. Take care and if you are ever in Nova Scotia you have a lot of fans here!
Pam
Woot! I started writing! Problem is my scene is so, well, bare. And way too short. But I don’t want to freak about it. This is a first draft. I just keep having to remind myself of that. But its hard to do when I know there is something important I am missing.
Word Count for the day: 728
Anyone have any thoughts? Should I try to add more details? Or worry about fleshing it out during revision? I just hate not knowing what to do!
Hmm. Ok, short story time. No I don’t mean write one
PH2 is the prequel in my series.. I originally started with book one, AJCTA. I got the thing planned and hand-written, which does some bad things to word count and ideas of necessary stuff. It was slightly more than an outline with some dialogue, but still over 200 pages. So I decided to type it. When I did, I realized it was bare, so I buffed it up, but overdid it. I asked a writer friend to read the first 20 pages, and she commented that I’d put six pages of place description in for a place that the characters leave on page 9 and don’t come back to for two books. … And the moral is, go ahead and add a few, but keep it to relevant details. And if your writing is flowing, save the details for later when you just feel like describing stuff.
Hope it helps.
Oops, posted on the wrong thread. After a unplanned hiatus, I got 200 words yesterday, and about 30 scenes/thoughts/things to write on Bet1. It is not as orderly as Holly has taught us to do, but it is a growing list.
Now that I have Writers Cafe installed on a USB flash drive, I can write in more places now, too.