In other news, it appears that I’m not dead. 
It’s been a hectic few weeks, leaving the story virtually untouched as the house gets remodeled. It’s hard to think about writing in a house mostly lacking heat, not to mention the predominant smell of fresh paint and a roofer tromping back and forth directly above one’s head. The wrong carpet was ordered (we’ve got our furniture on pressboard), which means that everything gets moved out of the carpeted rooms and back in again as of a week from today. I have also refrained from blogging about off-topic adventures, such as ‘My car protests the northern Idaho cold’, or ‘Why is the cat in the duct work?’, and “Haha, let’s not try to transport drywall on top of the car again’.
We have three and a half days until November 1st. Despite all these little adventures, I’ve been getting ready for NaNoWriMo. I even suspect that taking this month off to do so much distracting house work was good for me. My mom contends that truly excellent fiction is written by people who have experience in real-life situations and relationships, that pure escapism deadens even the most poetic prose. I’m not sure if that’s entirely it (reading and writing often helps), but I wouldn’t discount the thought.
Note to self: get a life.
I’ll see you guys in November!
Permalink
3 Comments
I admit it, I’ve been gone lately far more than I have in the past. Things have been a little crazy.
I quit my job two weeks ago (and four days after that, they laid everyone off at the company), moved up to a more remote location. I was set then to write full-time, but the new house has needed a lot of work. Old, smelly carpets to tear out, popcorn ceilings to scrape off, walls to spackle, everything needs to be painted. I’ve also taken on an informal job designing a logo, business card, brochure, and website for one of my neighbors, in exchange for a huge, gorgeous wooden desk that’s soon to be the center of all writing-related activities (not to mention the crowning glory of my bedroom).
So, the short of it is, we’re not moved in yet, and we’ve got a metaphorical ton of work to do before carpets get in, much less furniture. It seems that I’m taking a longer break from my book after all. It has, however, emphasized something that I’ve been thinking about for writing full time. You need a schedule. You won’t make the time if you don’t think of this as a business.
Or, at least, I do.
So. Since November 1st is the day our short-term apartment lease runs out, as well as the first day of NaNoWriMo, I’ll be sticking to a schedule, most of which centers on writing.
Priorities:
- Write ‘Blue Crystal’ (no side projects): 2,000 words a day. Estimated time… 4 hours?
- House remodeling. I’m not stupid enough to think it’ll be over by then. 1 1/2 hours.
- Spanish. Because I’m stubborn, and determined to learn it. 1/2 hour.
- 3d, art, and design work (such as that commission I took on). 1 1/2 hour.
- Exercise. I’m cranky if I don’t move at some point. 1/2 hour.
That’s eight hours. I figure that my house remodeling hour and a half will be replaced by my internet social networking time once work is done (it’s so much harder to keep up on now that I don’t have a boring desk job). So, with a bit of scheduling… my tentative schedule will look something like this:
09:00-09:30 – Exercise.
09:30-10:30 – Writing.
10:30-10:40 – Break.
10:40-11:30 – Writing.
11:30-12:00 – Spanish.
12:00-12:30 – Lunch.
12:30-02:00 – House remodeling/housework/blogging/networking.
02:00-02:10 – Break
02:10-04:00 – Writing.
04:00-05:30 – 3d, art, and design.
That’s a full eight hour day. If I don’t make my 2,000 words, then I get overtime. Too harsh? Too much to do? Anything I’m forgetting?
Permalink
6 Comments
I’ve started the 3rd draft of Blue Crystal today.
I haven’t finished my plot-scrub. I’ve made some changes, questioned some motives, filled in several characters, but the detailed chapter-by-chapter plot lies incomplete on my notebook. I think it’s time to admit that I’m not much of a plotter. Which isn’t to say that I won’t be using all the ideas that I did come up with for those chapters.
I’m resetting the word count bar. I’m also putting up the first five hundred words in my excerpt page. Go take a look– I think this draft is already much better than the last.
Permalink
1 Comment
A very good point. Learn this well.
Provided by the ever-wonderful XKCD, a web comic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language. You can find the original here.
Permalink
2 Comments
I’ve been reading through one of the Forgotten Realms series– not a particular favorite, but since D&D is a hobby of mine, and because some of the aspects of the books are interesting, I’ve been slogging through them.
One of the things that annoys me is just a little detail. Anyone familiar with the D&D magic system knows that the spells are geared to be balanced game mechanics, and doesn’t really hold a lot of internal consistency, or even any economic sense. I can accept fireballs, I can accept bolts of lightening flying from wands, teleportation, shadow-stepping, slow-falls, ect.
But I can’t accept an enchanted whip.
Not just any whip, either. This whip is fashioned to have snake-creatures instead of lashes, which will occasionally speak to their wielder, warning of poison, eavesdropping, ect. And when she uses this whip, the snake heads will sink their fangs into the victim, poisoning them.
I’ve seen this whip in action for three books now. And every time the snake heads bite down, they inject poison. So you have long, extended battles with this weapon in use, and all I can think of is ‘where do they get all that poison from?’.
Since the snakes never eat, never drink, never diminish, I can only assume that they somehow repeatedly conjure poison up from nothing, expending no energy or resources to do so: a never-ending supply of venom, by nature of the design. Nothing else in the book does this. I don’t see good, cheap poison readily available. It’s a ridiculous mental image, but I keep picturing the characters getting into financial straights and trying to figure out how to milk this amazing whip.
CHARACTER: “Here, you guys each grab a head. Now, whip, when I say ‘go’, start squirting poison.”
WHIP: “F*** you.”
CHARACTER: “Hey, you always contributed this stuff before…!”
WHIP: “I demand death first. It turns me on.”
CHARACTER: “Hmm. So you’d say that you’re rather ‘limp’ right now?”
WHIP: *attempts to murder the character*
CHARACTER: *holds up the vial, tries to hide behind it* “The tube, not me, the glass tube!”
Please, fellow fantasy writers. Do not do this. Please think carefully about your magic/magical items/magical effects.
Permalink
4 Comments
