Misc:
• lavenderbard has started a community for Life Is Too Grim Already, an organization (still being developed) that she came up with to promote the creation and distribution of “not grim” science fiction and fantasy, largely by making it easier for readers to find this kind of book.
I like grim quite a lot, but since it is sometimes nice to read something not-grim, I'll keep an eye on this. I went over my reading list from the past few years and came up with hardly any not-grim books.
• frost-light on whether to tell someone that the book you're critting for them stinks: Honesty is golden when it comes to critiquing. Now, you don't have to be rude and say “this stinks” or “you're the worst writer ever!”, but an explanation of the how, what and why is important. Mentioning what you DID like also is important, because that shows the writer where their strengths are (at least in your opinion).
Absolutely right. If someone's serious about improving, it doesn't do any good to not tell them the problems you see. (Though figuring out whether they're serious or not can be tricky.) But rudeness doesn't actually help get your point across.
• Justine Larbalestier forwards a question about good day jobs for writers.
• Yesterday I discovered hockeyfights.com. Ratings, reviews, and videos. I am both amused and happy that I can see fights from games I don't watch.
Writing Summary:
Goals for the week fortnight (halfway through):
Finish unstickynoting ch 11-15, Finish ch 1-3, Type ch 4-10, Notebook notes for ch 11-15.
Not the scenes-that-could-be-a-short mentioned above, darn it. Have successfully resisted.
Unexpected stuff that came up: Revising a short story, and some critting on the OWW.
This week I need do to more critting, which is only partly a blatant attempt to get more reviews. I also have a few reviews to return. And I continue to test the “learn how to write better by critting” thing that so many people have mentioned…