2013 was Not a Year of Much Writing. That has of course been mirrored here by a lack of updates.
Gonna work on this, this year (writing and blogging). I have continued to read a lot, and listen to many writing podcasts. More on those in later posts.
Life continues to be complicated. One of my resolutions for this year is to exert more control over my life and attention. I continue to hang with the Magic City Writers Group, and I'm on the hook for a chapter of some sort by the end of the day, January 18th. I'll have a few updates for the Works in Progress sidebar, and possibly a WIP post between now and then.
More to come!
-Rich
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Friday, January 4, 2013
Glad that year's over!
Man, was 2012 a pain. Not that good things didn't happen, but lots of bad, distracting and draining things did. The less said or dwelt upon about it, the better.
With that out of the way, on to the future! The plan for this year includes much work on Darwin Colossus, which received a radical restructuring recently that has me excited. The plan is to get it out on Amazon Digital Publishing this year sometime, which might be aggressive, but hey, no guts no glory.
Not much else to say at this point, other than keep watching this space: I'll be posting some work in progress excerpts and other commentary as I go.
-Rich
With that out of the way, on to the future! The plan for this year includes much work on Darwin Colossus, which received a radical restructuring recently that has me excited. The plan is to get it out on Amazon Digital Publishing this year sometime, which might be aggressive, but hey, no guts no glory.
Not much else to say at this point, other than keep watching this space: I'll be posting some work in progress excerpts and other commentary as I go.
-Rich
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Been Quiet Around Here Lately
Life has been a complete bear of late. Not in the negative sense (though there's been some of that), but in the sense that there's been so much to do and deal with in my personal life that there hasn't been much writing time, or indeed time to blog here.
Let's see, short list:
-Rich
Let's see, short list:
- Changed departments at work
- Ripping out carpeting at the house (long overdue, especially since we have pets)
- One of our cats had six kittens
- Two of the kittens died after much care (probable birth defects), causing my wife and I no small amount of grief
In the process I've read a fair amount and produced a couple of chapters of Darwin Colossus for Magic City Writers, but sadly writing has gotten pretty short shrift. Luckily we may be nearing the end of both the near-term floor refurbishing work and the kitten drama.
In other news, Brant from Magic City Writers has had the entirety of his novel At The Lady's Behest Comes... workshopped by the group, so congratulations to him! Thirteen chapters, and more than 150,000 words, revised in full twice. The raw achievement of this has inspired me, so I'll be working to make more progress on Darwin Colossus from here out.
-Rich
Friday, May 18, 2012
Congrats to Nancy DiMauro on her New Release!
Nancy (author site; blog) is a friend I've known since college at the University of Richmond. She's a lawyer and a mom, and has had her nose to the writing grindstone lots longer and more consistently than I have. I'm bitterly jealous, Nance. Way to go!
Here's her new book, Paths Less Traveled! Click to see her announcement, which in turn links to the publisher's site.
I've read it, and it's awesome. Nancy has a way with compelling female characters that goes beyond their simply being interesting: instead of (like so many writers male and female) her characters acting sexless, or worse, like male stereotypes in dresses, Nancy's portrayals of Vonna and Falcon are unique, uniquely their own people, and uniquely, powerfully feminine.
Nancy has a story in the Women Writing the Weird anthology as well, and a short-story collection Shots at Redemption coming out in June.
-Rich
Here's her new book, Paths Less Traveled! Click to see her announcement, which in turn links to the publisher's site.
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I've read it, and it's awesome. Nancy has a way with compelling female characters that goes beyond their simply being interesting: instead of (like so many writers male and female) her characters acting sexless, or worse, like male stereotypes in dresses, Nancy's portrayals of Vonna and Falcon are unique, uniquely their own people, and uniquely, powerfully feminine.
Nancy has a story in the Women Writing the Weird anthology as well, and a short-story collection Shots at Redemption coming out in June.
-Rich
Monday, April 30, 2012
Priorities
It's the bane of most yet-to-be-published writers: with everything else going on in my life, how do I make space to write?
I'm hardly an exception. Between requirements at the Day Job and personal obligations like heading to the gym, spending time with the spouse, taking care of household chores and the like, it can be hard to block out time for writing. Worse, when I've finally sat down with some writing time to use, sometimes there's just nothing left to pour onto the page.
This really comes down to priorities. If working on the novel is important enough, making time becomes simpler (if not necessarily easier). But there's a subtler level, too: none of us is infinite. We all have to marshal our time and our energy. Just because I've managed to score some free time doesn't mean that I'll be able to use it effectively. If I've been shorting myself on sleep (and I frequently do) or failing to take care of myself in some other way (eating well, exercising, keeping my personal life as drama-free as possible), I won't have enough left to do anything like a good job, or to get any sort of fulfillment out of the experience.
The temptation is there to gut it out, to stay up until all hours and bleed onto the page--damn the torpedoes! sleep is for the weak!--but I know that I don't accomplish much by clawing a few hours clear if my brain is tapioca and all I can do is stare at the screen or write journal entries about how I'm so tired and nothing's coming to me. People at work have a right to the best you can do for them; why is your novel worth anything less?
Summing up: one mark of having your priorities in order is carving out the time you need. Another mark is spending yourself wisely: if writing is important, do what you can to make yourself--your best self--available for it.
-Rich
I'm hardly an exception. Between requirements at the Day Job and personal obligations like heading to the gym, spending time with the spouse, taking care of household chores and the like, it can be hard to block out time for writing. Worse, when I've finally sat down with some writing time to use, sometimes there's just nothing left to pour onto the page.
This really comes down to priorities. If working on the novel is important enough, making time becomes simpler (if not necessarily easier). But there's a subtler level, too: none of us is infinite. We all have to marshal our time and our energy. Just because I've managed to score some free time doesn't mean that I'll be able to use it effectively. If I've been shorting myself on sleep (and I frequently do) or failing to take care of myself in some other way (eating well, exercising, keeping my personal life as drama-free as possible), I won't have enough left to do anything like a good job, or to get any sort of fulfillment out of the experience.
The temptation is there to gut it out, to stay up until all hours and bleed onto the page--damn the torpedoes! sleep is for the weak!--but I know that I don't accomplish much by clawing a few hours clear if my brain is tapioca and all I can do is stare at the screen or write journal entries about how I'm so tired and nothing's coming to me. People at work have a right to the best you can do for them; why is your novel worth anything less?
Summing up: one mark of having your priorities in order is carving out the time you need. Another mark is spending yourself wisely: if writing is important, do what you can to make yourself--your best self--available for it.
-Rich
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Plotting and Scheming
I haven't posted here much lately because I've been focused on making progress on the Darwin Colossus rewrite. I gave an introductory scene to the Magic City Writers group for critique, and it was universally seen as an improvement. This is great news. I still have plans for horror novel The Work, but I'm giving Darwin Colossus priority for now, because A) I think it's a more complete concept right now, and B) there are a few steampunky movies debuting in the next few years, and since I enjoy writing it anyway...
I may or may not use much actual prose from the original short story in the novel, but I've been characterizing, plotting and analyzing the material I have and want to add to a fare-thee-well, working toward a Big Novel-Writing Push. I do, however, need to expand the scope and complexity of the plot to support a novel-length treatment. I think I have a handle on that, as of this evening: I have six major arcs identified, a three-act structure roughed out, and a theme of sorts to bring it all together.
Next up is a detailed series of milestones. I'd normally call it an outline, but I've come to realize that I split the difference between strict outlining and "discovery writing": I come up with goals for each scene and/or chapter to accomplish, and then in the process of writing each scene or chapter, I tend to find and figure stuff out about the characters and story that I might not have known going in. Thus, rather than easily calling myself an outliner or a discovery writer, I call myself a milestoner.
In any event, I'm excited about the story and writing marathon to come. As they come, I'll post interesting work-in-progress excerpts (WIPs), as I did during this past NaNoWriMo. I've got a visit with the parents coming up this weekend; I'll give myself until then to get my prewriting done, but after the visit, it's Damn the Torpedoes: nothing but work, sleep, exercise and hard-charging drafting.
-Rich
I may or may not use much actual prose from the original short story in the novel, but I've been characterizing, plotting and analyzing the material I have and want to add to a fare-thee-well, working toward a Big Novel-Writing Push. I do, however, need to expand the scope and complexity of the plot to support a novel-length treatment. I think I have a handle on that, as of this evening: I have six major arcs identified, a three-act structure roughed out, and a theme of sorts to bring it all together.
Next up is a detailed series of milestones. I'd normally call it an outline, but I've come to realize that I split the difference between strict outlining and "discovery writing": I come up with goals for each scene and/or chapter to accomplish, and then in the process of writing each scene or chapter, I tend to find and figure stuff out about the characters and story that I might not have known going in. Thus, rather than easily calling myself an outliner or a discovery writer, I call myself a milestoner.
In any event, I'm excited about the story and writing marathon to come. As they come, I'll post interesting work-in-progress excerpts (WIPs), as I did during this past NaNoWriMo. I've got a visit with the parents coming up this weekend; I'll give myself until then to get my prewriting done, but after the visit, it's Damn the Torpedoes: nothing but work, sleep, exercise and hard-charging drafting.
-Rich
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Back After a Hiatus
Hey, everyone! I'm back!
Sorry for taking off without notice, but I decided to try switching to a very aggressive exercise program analogous to CrossFit at the end of January, and after a month's work at it (and the attendant exhaustion, recovery fatigue, immune-system depression and dietary chaos), I've decided that doing it amounted to writing a mental and physical "check" that I had no business trying to cash. Nothing whatsoever wrong with the gym or its program: it's just not a fit for me where I am physically, and where I need to put my energy in terms of my other commitments (writing among them). I'll be returning to Planet Fitness and my previous resistance-training workout this week.
Ambiguous enough? Good! Back to writing, now.
Novel-length redrafting on Darwin Colossus is the Project in Question at the moment, so I'm taking that back up this week. This weekend has been devoted to good success in catching up on neglected errands and dubious success in staving off a creeping sore throat. Sleep awaits, tonight, and resumption of a more reasonable schedule tomorrow.
-Rich
Sorry for taking off without notice, but I decided to try switching to a very aggressive exercise program analogous to CrossFit at the end of January, and after a month's work at it (and the attendant exhaustion, recovery fatigue, immune-system depression and dietary chaos), I've decided that doing it amounted to writing a mental and physical "check" that I had no business trying to cash. Nothing whatsoever wrong with the gym or its program: it's just not a fit for me where I am physically, and where I need to put my energy in terms of my other commitments (writing among them). I'll be returning to Planet Fitness and my previous resistance-training workout this week.
Ambiguous enough? Good! Back to writing, now.
Novel-length redrafting on Darwin Colossus is the Project in Question at the moment, so I'm taking that back up this week. This weekend has been devoted to good success in catching up on neglected errands and dubious success in staving off a creeping sore throat. Sleep awaits, tonight, and resumption of a more reasonable schedule tomorrow.
-Rich
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Darwin Colossus Rework; Plans to Self-publish
I'm taking a bit of a break from The Work to do some major surgery on Darwin Colossus, the short story from a few months back. It occurred to me that I want to get something out on Amazon that's in some sort of publishable state, and I can much more easily do that with a large short story than a novel. Might as well get it out there earning a little money: Steampunk is still doing very well, and I want to get a little bit of Amazon experience racked up as I continue with The Work, so that's the plan!
I'm really pleased with the concept behind Darwin Colossus, but it needed a lot of help in the areas of characterization and wordsmithing in its original form: the story suffered from overwrought prose and shallow character development. Some real distance from the manuscript has done wonders for my perspective on it, and I'm doing a rewrite of it: A) in the first person, and B) from more of a blended sci-fi/horror perspective than before. I'm also taking the time to flesh out the characters properly, which will shore up all manner of weaknesses the original plot had.
So, beta readers, I'm looking forward to buzzing this past a few of you again in a month or so, after an initial look from Magic City Writers, my local writing group. Be ready!
-Rich
I'm really pleased with the concept behind Darwin Colossus, but it needed a lot of help in the areas of characterization and wordsmithing in its original form: the story suffered from overwrought prose and shallow character development. Some real distance from the manuscript has done wonders for my perspective on it, and I'm doing a rewrite of it: A) in the first person, and B) from more of a blended sci-fi/horror perspective than before. I'm also taking the time to flesh out the characters properly, which will shore up all manner of weaknesses the original plot had.
So, beta readers, I'm looking forward to buzzing this past a few of you again in a month or so, after an initial look from Magic City Writers, my local writing group. Be ready!
-Rich
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Looking into 2012
Well, 2012. 2011 was certainly a momentous year for me, seeing the production of Darwin Colossus and the beginning of several other projects, and my shift of genre from SF/Fantasy to Horror/Weird in late November.
I took a big step yesterday and created myself an account at Amazon's Kindle Digital Publishing site. The more I think about it, and the more I read blogs like J.A. Konrath's A Newbie's Guide to Publishing, The more I think that submitting to traditional publishers is a bad idea, and, worse, a mug's game. Standard publishing royalties come to around 15%, and the usual time lag from acceptance to having a book on a shelf in a bookstore is more than a year; sometimes a lot more. Add to that the extreme fragility of the general midlist author's career when competing for marketing budget and shelf space with all the other hopefuls out there, and you have a recipe for low pay, huge stress and getting kicked to the curb the first time you produce a less-than-stellar seller.
Amazon's and other ebook "press" authors typically make either 35% or 70% royalties, and as Konrath is fond of saying, ebooks are forever because there's no such thing as a shelf that can run out of space, or an imprint whose budget doesn't have room for an author still finding his voice or her audience. Sure, you don't have a big New York press marketing, editing or making covers for you, but I'm thinking that for the difference between 15% and 70% royalties, and invulnerability from the vagaries of the traditional business model, I can learn enough in those skill sets (and/or outsource) to do at least as well as a Konrath, or any of the other dozens of authors he's let guest post over the past year.
The tradition is to make resolutions around New Year, but I'm thinking that a better idea may be to set goals. I'm a big believer in writing goals down, so here are the ones I am setting for this year.
- Finish The Work, or whatever I finally title it. I've got the entire plot outlined and dynamite characters worked up, so it's really a matter of keeping writing on it come Hell or high water. As I mentioned in my last post, I'm enjoying the process hugely, so there's no hardship there.
- Rework Darwin Colossus, using the things I've learned since its last draft to make it salable to some of the steampunks out there--you might have heard that retro-futurism is catching on lately.
- Write six horror short stories, exploring various themes from Lovecraftian mythos to ghost stories to social commentary. These will be for practice as much as anything else, but if they turn out well enough, I might well bundle them up in a collection volume for sale.
- At least get started on a second novel-length work. I have a few horror ideas I'm interested to get started on, and if SF or Fantasy is the better genre for them, I don't have to worry about being pigeonholed by my publisher!
One of the precepts Konrath, Hocking, Locke and others have hit upon is that quality, well priced and consistently produced tends to sell itself via word of mouth better than anything else does. I'm getting better at this every time I try it, and I'm willing to build an audience if Amazon and other pubs are willing to help me put my stuff out there.
Some other, non-writing goals for the year:
- Get my weight down to 240 or less. I'm looking the 270s in the face (35 lbs down from my start at 315), and I'm excited to be small enough and fit enough to be truly happy with the figure I cut in the mirror.
- Get my Java certification for the Day Job. It's really just the right thing to do, and having one's career eggs in several baskets is a good idea no matter who you are.
2011 was a hard year in many ways, rewarding in many others. Times have never been better to make big, gutsy changes--these are days when the question "what do I have to lose?" might have a different answer than you thought.
This year I will be turning 42 years old, and I realized the other day that I'm tired of telling myself that I'm going to get around to things for yet another year.
Take a chance, stick your neck out. There's no time like the present. Happy New Year!
-Rich
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Enjoying the Living Hell out of Horror Writing [WIP]
I've got a chapter of The Work nearly presentable for Magic City Writers, which is good considering that they'll need it tomorrow if they're going to have a week to critique it before our January 8th meeting.
This single 2,100ish-word chapter is the hardest-researched and most-thought-about prose I've ever written, especially given the short amount of time it's been since coming up with the story idea: December 5, so it's been less than a month. Behind the scenes, I've constructed a massive mind map to support the conceptual framework of the novel, written over 8,700 words of characters' backstory, and put together two full chapter-by-chapter outlines in Scrivener (I threw away the first).
I've also been filling my head with great (well, awful, but a great kind of awful) material, for nearly four weeks straight now. In novels: Whispers by Dean Koontz, Misery by Stephen King, Odd Thomas by Koontz, and I'm in the middle of The Shining by King. And in audio: I've listened to eighteen or so half-hour episodes of the Pseudopod horror podcast in the car going to and from work. The podcast in particular has been helpful: Pseudopod is an excellent resource for what sounds good and is paced well for the ear, instead of just the page.
It's been lot of work in a short time for 2,100 words, true, but so far the result has been unlike anything I've ever produced. Rough around the edges, but almost entirely character-driven, and using better-realized characters: plot movement can just fall into place when the characters are people you feel like you know. Their motivations pull the story along, instead of the reverse.
It's all been surprisingly easy, and surprisingly simple, and yet frighteningly exposed: I'm used to a LOT more worldbuilding being required. The Work is taking place entirely in modern-day America, with only a few brand names changed to protect the innocent. There's no sheen from duralloy bulkheads or glow from magical thought-eating algae to hide behind here: it's just me, the characters and the reader.
TL;DR: this feels great. I'm enjoying the act of writing more than I have in years, and I've hardly been hating it. This is definitely a new phase of the craft for me, and I'm loving the ride.
And now, some Work in Progress:
This single 2,100ish-word chapter is the hardest-researched and most-thought-about prose I've ever written, especially given the short amount of time it's been since coming up with the story idea: December 5, so it's been less than a month. Behind the scenes, I've constructed a massive mind map to support the conceptual framework of the novel, written over 8,700 words of characters' backstory, and put together two full chapter-by-chapter outlines in Scrivener (I threw away the first).
I've also been filling my head with great (well, awful, but a great kind of awful) material, for nearly four weeks straight now. In novels: Whispers by Dean Koontz, Misery by Stephen King, Odd Thomas by Koontz, and I'm in the middle of The Shining by King. And in audio: I've listened to eighteen or so half-hour episodes of the Pseudopod horror podcast in the car going to and from work. The podcast in particular has been helpful: Pseudopod is an excellent resource for what sounds good and is paced well for the ear, instead of just the page.
It's been lot of work in a short time for 2,100 words, true, but so far the result has been unlike anything I've ever produced. Rough around the edges, but almost entirely character-driven, and using better-realized characters: plot movement can just fall into place when the characters are people you feel like you know. Their motivations pull the story along, instead of the reverse.
It's all been surprisingly easy, and surprisingly simple, and yet frighteningly exposed: I'm used to a LOT more worldbuilding being required. The Work is taking place entirely in modern-day America, with only a few brand names changed to protect the innocent. There's no sheen from duralloy bulkheads or glow from magical thought-eating algae to hide behind here: it's just me, the characters and the reader.
TL;DR: this feels great. I'm enjoying the act of writing more than I have in years, and I've hardly been hating it. This is definitely a new phase of the craft for me, and I'm loving the ride.
And now, some Work in Progress:
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Hitting the Characterization Part Hard; Horror's Needs
The past two weeks have seen me undertake something I'm ashamed to admit I've never really done properly before: sit down and do character sketches of all the major characters in a novel I'm planning to write. Not "write a diary entry about characters," or "ponder a character's background and write down a few thoughts," but "fill out a structured character sketch, from background to conflicts to an overview of what I want/need their character to do in the book."
It's been a humbling and exciting exercise: on the one hand, I'm having to answer all sorts of niggling questions I'm embarrassed not to have thought of beforehand, but on the other I'm having more fun and getting more enthused about my novel The Work than I have about any other project I've worked on, which is saying something...
The prospect of writing a horror novel is what's driven me, finally, to get my characters right. Not that SF or fantasy need good characters less (perish the thought), but to quote Stephen King, "You've got to love the people... that allows horror to be possible." At some level I know that if I fail to allow the readers to get into the characters, then when things begin to go bump in the night and the knives come out it'll fall flat in some measure, and that's death for horror, probably more than any other genre I can call to mind.
So, I've finally completed in-depth sketches for my four main characters. I need to do some brief reshuffling of the plot outline I have (thanks to knowing more about the characters, their motivations and needs than when I first did the outline), and then, probably tonight, I'll finally begin laying down prose.
Can't wait. The plot, as I tweeted the other night, is no longer by any stretch the scariest thing. I'm worried for my characters, now. How awesome is that?
-Rich
PS. Many thanks, by the way, to the people at literatureandlatte.com for including good project templates in the shipping version of Scrivener for Windows 1.0: there are many, many, many ways to write a character sketch, and one way is probably as good as another, but your inclusion of the sketch template in the Novel blank-project gave me an excellent place to start. Well done.
It's been a humbling and exciting exercise: on the one hand, I'm having to answer all sorts of niggling questions I'm embarrassed not to have thought of beforehand, but on the other I'm having more fun and getting more enthused about my novel The Work than I have about any other project I've worked on, which is saying something...
The prospect of writing a horror novel is what's driven me, finally, to get my characters right. Not that SF or fantasy need good characters less (perish the thought), but to quote Stephen King, "You've got to love the people... that allows horror to be possible." At some level I know that if I fail to allow the readers to get into the characters, then when things begin to go bump in the night and the knives come out it'll fall flat in some measure, and that's death for horror, probably more than any other genre I can call to mind.
So, I've finally completed in-depth sketches for my four main characters. I need to do some brief reshuffling of the plot outline I have (thanks to knowing more about the characters, their motivations and needs than when I first did the outline), and then, probably tonight, I'll finally begin laying down prose.
Can't wait. The plot, as I tweeted the other night, is no longer by any stretch the scariest thing. I'm worried for my characters, now. How awesome is that?
-Rich
PS. Many thanks, by the way, to the people at literatureandlatte.com for including good project templates in the shipping version of Scrivener for Windows 1.0: there are many, many, many ways to write a character sketch, and one way is probably as good as another, but your inclusion of the sketch template in the Novel blank-project gave me an excellent place to start. Well done.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
On Technology and Creative Friction
I've spent a fair amount of time this week, between plot outlining and character sketching for The Work (which is going outstandingly, thanks very much), refurbishing an old Dell Inspiron B130 laptop of Amy's. It's 2006-vintage with upgraded memory, which means it's a very competent Windows XP box. I'm typing on it now.
It's got a 15" screen and weighs several pounds, which is gargantuan by today's featherlight standards of netbooks, 13-inch Macbook Airs and "ultrabook" PCs. I do have a netbook which is doing yeoman's work as a primary machine (thanks to its capacious hard drive), but its keyboard, while usable, isn't quite big enough for fast or accurate typing with my big mitts.
I did need to replace the Dell's keyboard, though, which brings me to the subject of the post. Whether through heavy use or simple age, the Dell's original keyboard had become stiff and reluctant to recognize keypresses. Luckily Amazon offered a replacement for $10, which arrived yesterday. Yank the battery, pop a panel, unscrew the old keyboard, install the new, and suddenly the laptop types like a dream. Now that I've stripped off all the gnarly mid-decade software and run through Microsoft's patching gauntlet, it's become a quite respectable and comfortable word processing computer. So comfortable, in fact, that I may well make this computer my primary writing machine.
The Dell's 15" screen and full-size keys are like coming home: I used to use an old (2004-vintage) Mac Powerbook G4 for writing, but I let Apple OS-revise it into senescence: I really should have kept it on OS X Tiger, but wiping it and going back would be too much grief, now. Windows XP, by contrast, is still getting patched, still supports most Windows software (most notably Google Chrome, MS Word 2010 and Scrivener for Windows), and runs like greased lightning on cheap old hardware like this.
It's surprising the difference that a good keyboard and working environment can make for smooth writing. The netbook's screen is just a little too small, its keyboard a smidgen too cramped for comfort, which makes a big enough difference that I'd been using the netbook plugged into an external flatscreen and keyboard just to make it palatable. With the Dell, that's not an issue: despite weighing nearly double what the netbook does, I've been happily typing with the full-sized laptop on my lap-desk all morning, while I would have moved off onto the plugged-in desktop and its less-comfy chair by now with the netbook.
I know: first-world problems, right? Still, I try never to let little stuff serve as an excuse not to write, but getting the little stuff right can really help out by making writing just that much more pleasant and distraction-free.
-Rich
It's got a 15" screen and weighs several pounds, which is gargantuan by today's featherlight standards of netbooks, 13-inch Macbook Airs and "ultrabook" PCs. I do have a netbook which is doing yeoman's work as a primary machine (thanks to its capacious hard drive), but its keyboard, while usable, isn't quite big enough for fast or accurate typing with my big mitts.
I did need to replace the Dell's keyboard, though, which brings me to the subject of the post. Whether through heavy use or simple age, the Dell's original keyboard had become stiff and reluctant to recognize keypresses. Luckily Amazon offered a replacement for $10, which arrived yesterday. Yank the battery, pop a panel, unscrew the old keyboard, install the new, and suddenly the laptop types like a dream. Now that I've stripped off all the gnarly mid-decade software and run through Microsoft's patching gauntlet, it's become a quite respectable and comfortable word processing computer. So comfortable, in fact, that I may well make this computer my primary writing machine.
The Dell's 15" screen and full-size keys are like coming home: I used to use an old (2004-vintage) Mac Powerbook G4 for writing, but I let Apple OS-revise it into senescence: I really should have kept it on OS X Tiger, but wiping it and going back would be too much grief, now. Windows XP, by contrast, is still getting patched, still supports most Windows software (most notably Google Chrome, MS Word 2010 and Scrivener for Windows), and runs like greased lightning on cheap old hardware like this.
It's surprising the difference that a good keyboard and working environment can make for smooth writing. The netbook's screen is just a little too small, its keyboard a smidgen too cramped for comfort, which makes a big enough difference that I'd been using the netbook plugged into an external flatscreen and keyboard just to make it palatable. With the Dell, that's not an issue: despite weighing nearly double what the netbook does, I've been happily typing with the full-sized laptop on my lap-desk all morning, while I would have moved off onto the plugged-in desktop and its less-comfy chair by now with the netbook.
I know: first-world problems, right? Still, I try never to let little stuff serve as an excuse not to write, but getting the little stuff right can really help out by making writing just that much more pleasant and distraction-free.
-Rich
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Thoughts and a Request: Nanowrimo Postmortem; Plunging into the Worlds of Horror and the Weird
Well, Nanowrimo didn't work out: November kicked my posterior this year, but the ways it did so were for the most part unpreventable and only slightly foreseeable, so I don't feel but so bad about it. I fell out of love with my concept about midmonth, too, which didn't help.
However, my falling out of love came largely because of a new enthusiasm: horror and weird fiction. In the run-up to Halloween this year, as I mentioned a few posts ago, the guys in the Magic City Writers group suggested that I look into horror writing, since I enjoyed our spooky/creepy exercises so much.
The more I think about it, my very tactile, very description-heavy style might well lend itself to horror/weird. I'm already a China Miéville fan, and some of the Dean Koontz and Stephen King I've read has been quite compelling. So, I've been buying up all the Kindle horror I can find/afford (and putting the rest on my Christmas wish lists), and I've begun a search for my much-neglected (and buried in my recent office renovation) copy of Vandermeer's anthology The New Weird, which along with comprehensive Poe and Lovecraft anthologies, ought to give me a suitably diverse place to start as I try to build up my literacy in these areas.
I've already got a few story ideas percolating to get started: as I produce prose I'll air some of it here, but I fully expect to be raw and stumbling for a while as I discover which ends are the pointy ones.
So, the request, for those who've read this far: in the comments, if you have favorite horror or weird-fic authors or titles, please recommend them! I need to read as widely and as deeply as I can, so I'm inclined to try a little bit of everything while I find my feet. Thanks!
-Rich
However, my falling out of love came largely because of a new enthusiasm: horror and weird fiction. In the run-up to Halloween this year, as I mentioned a few posts ago, the guys in the Magic City Writers group suggested that I look into horror writing, since I enjoyed our spooky/creepy exercises so much.
The more I think about it, my very tactile, very description-heavy style might well lend itself to horror/weird. I'm already a China Miéville fan, and some of the Dean Koontz and Stephen King I've read has been quite compelling. So, I've been buying up all the Kindle horror I can find/afford (and putting the rest on my Christmas wish lists), and I've begun a search for my much-neglected (and buried in my recent office renovation) copy of Vandermeer's anthology The New Weird, which along with comprehensive Poe and Lovecraft anthologies, ought to give me a suitably diverse place to start as I try to build up my literacy in these areas.
I've already got a few story ideas percolating to get started: as I produce prose I'll air some of it here, but I fully expect to be raw and stumbling for a while as I discover which ends are the pointy ones.
So, the request, for those who've read this far: in the comments, if you have favorite horror or weird-fic authors or titles, please recommend them! I need to read as widely and as deeply as I can, so I'm inclined to try a little bit of everything while I find my feet. Thanks!
-Rich
Thursday, November 17, 2011
11,496 words! Still behind, but having fun. [WIP]
Feeling a little thin, plotwise, today. So tonight I decided to have a drink or two, put on SiriusXM Octane, and go for descriptive lushness.
And now, WIP for you:
And now, WIP for you:
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Progress Again: 9,494 Words and Counting [WIP]
November continues to be a month of multifarious obligations and unexpected tasks. Nevertheless, I persevere. I'm way behind on word count, but I will continue to forge onward. The point of it is to keep going!
And now, today's Work In Progress:
And now, today's Work In Progress:
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Back in the Saddle After Much Hard Riding [WIP]
7,176 words total, as of this evening. Dragging tail, energywise, after several days of heavy output, but we keep going, because we must! Onward!
And now, your Work In Progress excerpt:
And now, your Work In Progress excerpt:
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Word count is at 6,032: behind, but catching up [WIP]
Have had several crazy days in a row, and wound up not getting anything written last night due to complete brain fatigue failure, but tonight I slammed 2500 words down, and will continue doing that or better until I'm back at pace.
By the end of tomorrow night the NaNoWriMo benchmark is 10,000 words, and I've got another full day working with Amy in her henna booth scheduled tomorrow, so it'll be tight, but it's the end of Daylight Saving Time, so I'll have another hour's stamina to burn. I'd love to get 4,000 words written tomorrow evening. Wish me luck!
And now, some WIP from this evening's efforts:
By the end of tomorrow night the NaNoWriMo benchmark is 10,000 words, and I've got another full day working with Amy in her henna booth scheduled tomorrow, so it'll be tight, but it's the end of Daylight Saving Time, so I'll have another hour's stamina to burn. I'd love to get 4,000 words written tomorrow evening. Wish me luck!
And now, some WIP from this evening's efforts:
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Another 849 words tonight; some WIP to tide you over, though
I'm a fair bit shy of my daily goals lately, but it's been that sort of week. Tonight was gym night, and as a result I'm the kind of tired that makes it hard even to type well. :-)
Still, any progress is better than no progress, and I have this coming weekend to make up word count, in the gaps between the event I'm helping Amy cover with her henna business. I also resolved an issue with my remote-desktop software on my home PC, so it will be much easier to write over my lunch hours from now on.
And now, to bed. But first, some work-in-progress:
Still, any progress is better than no progress, and I have this coming weekend to make up word count, in the gaps between the event I'm helping Amy cover with her henna business. I also resolved an issue with my remote-desktop software on my home PC, so it will be much easier to write over my lunch hours from now on.
And now, to bed. But first, some work-in-progress:
A bit shy today (2,685 total), but I blame my full schedule. [Long WIP, too]
Had a Dia de los Muertos celebration to attend today, and wound up unable to get anything NaNo done over lunch.
Still, I think tonight's 800+ words were worth the trouble, and highly informed by the "Day of the Dead" mood of the evening. A lengthy sample of it follows, after this section break.
Still, I think tonight's 800+ words were worth the trouble, and highly informed by the "Day of the Dead" mood of the evening. A lengthy sample of it follows, after this section break.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
NaNoWriMo Day One in the Can! (Also: WIP)
1,744 words, better than the minimum-per-day of 1,677. Not a punishing pace, but a good start. They say that the first casualty of war is the battle plan, and that's certainly the way it's working out for me. The way I wanted the story to start is not exactly the way it's going, but that's okay!
I'm making great use of a Mur Lafferty tip this year: the placeholder. It's amazing how much leeway and momentum one can preserve by simply writing [scene where this other bit happens I don't want to think about right now] and keeping going. Great stuff.
Okay, work-in-progress excerpt:
I'm making great use of a Mur Lafferty tip this year: the placeholder. It's amazing how much leeway and momentum one can preserve by simply writing [scene where this other bit happens I don't want to think about right now] and keeping going. Great stuff.
Okay, work-in-progress excerpt:
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