Category Archives: Writing

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…

Writing Summary:
I took the week off from writing, mostly, and may take this week off as well. Needed a break, and needed time to do some other things.

Also, my brain thinks it should be in story-producing mode, rather than editing mode or writing mode. Story-producing mode means daydreaming. It seems incredibly non-productive (because I lie around in bed producing nothing tangible), and it steals creative energy from whatever I should be working on, but without it, there would be no stories to write in the future.

Though it'd be nice if my brain weren't stuck on a story that's so far down the to-write queue. Maybe I can make these scenes into a short story. They're more bits of the Joceln-and-Arthos book, and I'm already trying to sell the prologue as a short story. And it could be more emotion-practice….

Should do in the next two weeks:
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.

Monthly Checkup:
My February goals have morphed into March goals. But I made progress on the more important ones, and on various things that came up since I set them, so whatever. I seem to have two big problems with setting medium-term goals: changing my mind partway through, and a lack of motivation since I have no deadlines.

I try to think of them more as guidelines, and as long as I'm being productive on something, to not worry about it much. It'll all even out eventually.

Misc.:
So I'm reading this book that shall remain unnamed. And, argh. It's a sequel to a book that I liked a lot – enough that I picked up books 2 and 3 without any reservations. But oh, the angst! Why is it so much more annoying than in book 1? Possibly because it isn't new? Or is the author really beating me over the head with it that much more in this book? Or is the plot just not as interesting/fast-paced as in book 1, and so doesn't make up for all the whining? Or am I just over sensitive to emotional stuff because that's what I've been working on lately?

(Those would be rhetorcal questions, though you're welcome to answer them anyway.)

There are a lot of little bits that seem very repetitive. I feel like the author tells me everything twice. I was going to put it down at chapter 10, but kept going — there is just enough plot to drag me through the slowness, and the angst seems to be dropping off (after a bit with too little emotional payoff) — and then I hit a bizarre statement about wine transportation that made no sense, and important plot points ought to make more sense.

Sooo…..maybe I'll just move on to the next thing on the to-read shelf. You only get to annoy me so much before I put the book down “temporarily” and neglect to pick it up again. Even if I do want to know what happens, it may not be worth my time.

There are probably lessons here for me as a writer, but I suspect they're not ones I should be learning. I tend to err the other way — not including enough, rather than too much.