I seem to have a weakness for creating short story length plots for characters I spend any time on creating. It is now the 11th of March, and I have no plot for my wizard character. I've tried ditching the character and finding new ones and spending less time on development and more on plot. But my brain is not budging. Wizards are not inspiring me right now. For that matter neither are Witches or Sorcerers. I'm trying to hard and stifling my creativity.
Adding to the pile, as I work on my outlining skills I realize that I am not very disciplined in crafting stories on demand. I can do it, but nothing I come up with speaks to me, or has an ending. The stories are boring and I don't get excited enough to write the thing.
Maybe I just need to write the story by outline and see what happens. Doing so will help me feel out what I am doing with outlines verses characters.
At this rate, I don't think I'll make my deadline on March 31st. Hmm... maybe no Internet for a week if that happens?
Currently Reading:
Fantasy: Little, Big - John Crowley
Scholarly: The Mabinogi - Patrick K. Ford
Writing:(I'm slacking here)
Submissions out:
Flash: 0
Short: 0
Agent: 0
11 March 2010
07 March 2010
burnt and busy
I've been busy and regrettably not as much with reading and writing as I'd like... GUILT...
I have been feeling a little burnt out with everything. There's been drama at work, drama with my apartment, travel and taxes. I've been so busy with work since the holidays I'd even taken time out from my local writing group, Rocketship Unicorn, and skipped this year's Boskone. Much Sadness.
But now, work has calmed down and I've ironed out many of the wrinkles that have cropped up recently. So I've said enough. Enough wishing, enough wasting time. I'm back to doing and getting things done. Finally getting back to my writing group last Wednesday really helped. We've changed the format a little and I think it was a great change. We're actively working instead of waiting for work to come by. Everyone was really energized about it and it just felt great to talk about writing to writers again.
I recently got a peek at Jeff Vandermeer's blog and one of the lines on it has impressed me greatly. "I'm not online tomorrow." Meaning he'll just be working on writing, not reading e-mail, surfing or reading blogs, or posting blogs, or sending e-mail. "Oh, my," I thought. "Just imagine how much time I'd save, how many more words I could write if I limited myself like that." When I think of actually doing it, I think that I can't possibly not check my email every day, not read my blog list, not chat with all my distant friends and check up on facebook's feeds. This, to me, looks like I'll need to change my lifestyle a little to fit my priorities, to accomplish my dreams.
I'll end this with some writing updates. I don't have any page counts, but I can say that I've written one story, a cyberpunk about the Ark of the Covenant that I got 'shopped in my group. I look forward to revising it and submitting that soon. Other than that I've been brainstorming on two other stories that I just can't pin down.
My next deadline is March 31st for an anthology called "Way of the Wizard" edited by John Joseph Adams. I have a really great character, now all I need is a plot. Looks like I shouldn't "be online" tomorrow huh...
Currently Reading:
Fantasy: Little, Big - John Crowley
Scholarly: The Mabinogi - Patrick K. Ford
Writing:(I'm slacking here)
Submissions out:
Flash: 0
Short: 0
Agent: 0
I have been feeling a little burnt out with everything. There's been drama at work, drama with my apartment, travel and taxes. I've been so busy with work since the holidays I'd even taken time out from my local writing group, Rocketship Unicorn, and skipped this year's Boskone. Much Sadness.
But now, work has calmed down and I've ironed out many of the wrinkles that have cropped up recently. So I've said enough. Enough wishing, enough wasting time. I'm back to doing and getting things done. Finally getting back to my writing group last Wednesday really helped. We've changed the format a little and I think it was a great change. We're actively working instead of waiting for work to come by. Everyone was really energized about it and it just felt great to talk about writing to writers again.
I recently got a peek at Jeff Vandermeer's blog and one of the lines on it has impressed me greatly. "I'm not online tomorrow." Meaning he'll just be working on writing, not reading e-mail, surfing or reading blogs, or posting blogs, or sending e-mail. "Oh, my," I thought. "Just imagine how much time I'd save, how many more words I could write if I limited myself like that." When I think of actually doing it, I think that I can't possibly not check my email every day, not read my blog list, not chat with all my distant friends and check up on facebook's feeds. This, to me, looks like I'll need to change my lifestyle a little to fit my priorities, to accomplish my dreams.
I'll end this with some writing updates. I don't have any page counts, but I can say that I've written one story, a cyberpunk about the Ark of the Covenant that I got 'shopped in my group. I look forward to revising it and submitting that soon. Other than that I've been brainstorming on two other stories that I just can't pin down.
My next deadline is March 31st for an anthology called "Way of the Wizard" edited by John Joseph Adams. I have a really great character, now all I need is a plot. Looks like I shouldn't "be online" tomorrow huh...
Currently Reading:
Fantasy: Little, Big - John Crowley
Scholarly: The Mabinogi - Patrick K. Ford
Writing:(I'm slacking here)
Submissions out:
Flash: 0
Short: 0
Agent: 0
sticking to it
Even though I haven't posted here, in my reading/writing blog for some time, I'm sticking to it. I'm coming back and journaling my most recently finished book, which I've had finished for a few weeks, but have not had the time to blog it.
Glen Cook
The Chronicles of the Black Company
Omnibus of the first three books in the Black Company series
I read this book in a strange circumstance. I read the second omnibus (last three books) before this one. So I already knew the characters, and what would happen to them in the future. Cook so dutifully referenced and explained many of the events of the first book in the second, I could say to myself, “ah yes, I remember this,” as I came across new scenes. This is a rather disappointing way to read a book. So I’m chalking up my less-than-thrilled reaction to that.
While not making for good reading, reading out of order made for good studying. I could see how he dips back to describe old events in the here-and-now later on--the amount of detail and action he needed to evoke the memory but not to go off on too much of a tangent.
Reading out of order also presented another odd reaction in me. I liked the characters more, and quicker upon starting the second book than the first. I also thought they were more fully introduced and described going into the second than the first. I would have thought this would be the other way around. But again, I got a lesson from this. Cook had probably gotten more into the characters’ heads after three books, and better knew how to introduce them later on. And also, he didn’t stop popping in insights and descriptions of them no matter how far into the story he got.
Another theory on my more intense character attachment later in the series is that they started different, more important roles in the beginning of the second book. One thing Cook is known for is telling stories from the point of view of the common man instead of kings, princes and heroes. In the first book, the characters are all no-ones in a mercenary outfit, however they are doing important things. Yet by the second book, they all of a sudden take on new, more important roles. I don’t want to put in spoilers here, so I won’t be specific. I’d almost argue that they aren’t “the common man” anymore. Yes they still have their roots in peasantdom, but they have considerable power over others via reputation, which draws them up in society. This seems just a little contrary to the “common man” motif Cook is known for.
So after reading the middle through the end, and then the beginning to the middle, I felt a little let down by the end of the first book. This was a major turning point in the series, and their world too. There was build up, and foreshadowing tension and suspense throughout the book, and I knew what was coming. But what I was interested in was how it would happen. And, I’ll say again, it didn’t seem like much. I think he could have written it “bigger.” What it boils down to is two, or three people fighting, be they gods or beggars, it still kinda looks the same. When you watch, or read about, an even match, it doesn’t look like much. What makes it impactful is the sense of importance the author imbues in it, which is directly related to the buildup of suspense/tension. What will happen if the good guys win? The bad? What are the implications? We knew what these were, but didn’t really see, at the end of the book, what the fallout was.
Recalling the beginning of the second book, that is where the fallout occurred. Cook structured his books, his six book series, to keep the readers buying. But for me, who read them out of order, it just made it fell flat.
Currently Reading:
Fantasy: Little, Big - John Crowley
Scholarly: The Mabinogi - Patrick K. Ford
Writing:(I'm slacking here)
Submissions out:
Flash: 0
Short: 0
Agent: 0
Glen Cook
The Chronicles of the Black Company
Omnibus of the first three books in the Black Company series
I read this book in a strange circumstance. I read the second omnibus (last three books) before this one. So I already knew the characters, and what would happen to them in the future. Cook so dutifully referenced and explained many of the events of the first book in the second, I could say to myself, “ah yes, I remember this,” as I came across new scenes. This is a rather disappointing way to read a book. So I’m chalking up my less-than-thrilled reaction to that.
While not making for good reading, reading out of order made for good studying. I could see how he dips back to describe old events in the here-and-now later on--the amount of detail and action he needed to evoke the memory but not to go off on too much of a tangent.
Reading out of order also presented another odd reaction in me. I liked the characters more, and quicker upon starting the second book than the first. I also thought they were more fully introduced and described going into the second than the first. I would have thought this would be the other way around. But again, I got a lesson from this. Cook had probably gotten more into the characters’ heads after three books, and better knew how to introduce them later on. And also, he didn’t stop popping in insights and descriptions of them no matter how far into the story he got.
Another theory on my more intense character attachment later in the series is that they started different, more important roles in the beginning of the second book. One thing Cook is known for is telling stories from the point of view of the common man instead of kings, princes and heroes. In the first book, the characters are all no-ones in a mercenary outfit, however they are doing important things. Yet by the second book, they all of a sudden take on new, more important roles. I don’t want to put in spoilers here, so I won’t be specific. I’d almost argue that they aren’t “the common man” anymore. Yes they still have their roots in peasantdom, but they have considerable power over others via reputation, which draws them up in society. This seems just a little contrary to the “common man” motif Cook is known for.
So after reading the middle through the end, and then the beginning to the middle, I felt a little let down by the end of the first book. This was a major turning point in the series, and their world too. There was build up, and foreshadowing tension and suspense throughout the book, and I knew what was coming. But what I was interested in was how it would happen. And, I’ll say again, it didn’t seem like much. I think he could have written it “bigger.” What it boils down to is two, or three people fighting, be they gods or beggars, it still kinda looks the same. When you watch, or read about, an even match, it doesn’t look like much. What makes it impactful is the sense of importance the author imbues in it, which is directly related to the buildup of suspense/tension. What will happen if the good guys win? The bad? What are the implications? We knew what these were, but didn’t really see, at the end of the book, what the fallout was.
Recalling the beginning of the second book, that is where the fallout occurred. Cook structured his books, his six book series, to keep the readers buying. But for me, who read them out of order, it just made it fell flat.
Currently Reading:
Fantasy: Little, Big - John Crowley
Scholarly: The Mabinogi - Patrick K. Ford
Writing:(I'm slacking here)
Submissions out:
Flash: 0
Short: 0
Agent: 0
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