Day Four, and it's already noon

Bad writer.

I didn't get started as early as I should have, but I ate breakfast and had to finish something for work, so it's not -just- because I was lazy.

So, let's see. I started yesterday around 12,314 and endded at 13,557. A little over 1,000, but again, I'd like to do better. I had my writer's group yesterday and I sort of want to go over those early pages. They asked some good questions, but I don't know if there's anything that will have a major effect on what I'm writing now. I'd rather not go back and revise--this week is about new pages.

On a related note, one person asked, in a curious way, whether I might be hiding from my story. I think I almost understand what she means by it. I don't think I'm hiding from my story, but I've never written a story with a mystery bent, so I am playing with which facts to reveal when. And I want the protagonist to discover things like magic and werewolves are real as teh story progresses, not start him off knowing everything. That's no fun.

So off I go, to avoid computer games and editing, to try and write many more new pages. Hopefully. Theorectically. We'll see how it goes.

Day 3 and my love of sleep

I've been having trouble sleeping lately, waking up earlier than I need to and taking forever to fall asleep in the first place. Usually my night is punctuated with waking up at leat a few times in the early morning.

But back to writing.

I ended yesterday at 12, 314. So that was about 1,000 words? I now have too many numbers to remember which one I actually started at yesterday. In either case, I'm hoping to make better progress today. 1,000 is okay, but I was a little stuck and decided to play computer games instead of working through the issue. They're addictive. And not so mindless, so I couldn't play and think of my writing problem. And then I tried to go to sleep and see mahjong tiles in my head.

I'm going to try and get through the day without playing any of those games and hopefully I get more done.

And I was just reminded that I don't even have five consecutive days, because Friday I go up to campus to buy my u-pass and some of my books (I'll be fine as long as the total isn't over 500--that's what I get for transferring a bunch of funds into my savings account). I also need to order some textbooks online. Upside for one or two classes--I already have some of the required reading from previous classes.

Okay, time to write. Wish me luck.

Day 2 of my week off work

Well, week off of my regularly scheduled work.

I was supposed to have a meeting yesterday, but it was canceled, so I started writing yesterday--granted, since this is my vacation time I decided to take it a little easy that first day--but now I'm really going to buckle down. Writing is the purpose of this week anyway.

So, yesterday I started somewhere around 9,500 words on HS, the story I want to finish as much as possible. I eneded yesterday at 10,431.

I'll come back and edit this post of the end of the day and we'll see how much further I've gotten.

Writing Progress

So I actually have to force myself to take a week off of work in order to get some significant writing, but I was honestly concerned I wouldn't be able to. Work's been busy, so I was going to give up on that week-long desire, but my wonderful and understanding employees encouraged me to take some time off, so I am forcing myself to take most of next week off. In the meantime, I've been trying to do some writing every day.

I haven't succeeded in doing so every day, but I am making headway. I guess there's just something about a song based on the Lady of Shalott and Kermit the frog singing "Creep" and "Hurt" that scream urban fantasy with werewolves and demi-gods to my imagination.

So anyway. ~waves~

Okay, I'm off to see if I can't finish these two scenes, if not this chapter.

Post 4th of July post

We barbequed yesterday. Well, I didn't per se--I spent my day on the computer, chatting with a couple of friends on AIM and editing. A few weeks ago I was on chapter 8, stuck there for the longest time, then I got through to chapter 11. This weekend (i.e. yesterday so far) I finish editing chapter 11 and ended my day somewhere just shy of the middle of chapter 13.

Today I hope to complete the edits.

I will have to go back anyway, though. There are a number of places where I left notes to myself in bold to double-check where character X disappeared to or see if I mentioned issue Y in an earlier chapter. As I'm editing I doing a little chapter by chapter summary for myself (not a chapter by chapter synopsis, yet), so some of those will be answered when that's complete.

Just one more way to give me a wide view of the story, instead of getting bogged down in the details of a chapter, scene, or paragraph.

In another news, for those looking for a distraction: Cabinet of Wonders is a website/blog that's really interesting. I found it some time ago and keep stumbling across it through various avenues, learning new tidbits. The most recent post has some beautiful pictures of the clock tower at the Piazza San Marco in Venice. Full of gorgeous pictures. Enjoy them. I'm of to get some more work done.

You'd think this would be the feature...

But I feel like I don't have more to add to that "preview" from the day before.

In brief, I enjoyed these two books, "Night Life" and "Unshapely Things." Both had interesting takes on the contemporary world where werewolves and the fae walk the streets.

Night Life: The idea of the riots and the fact that the protagonist, Luna, is a copy who really has to restrain herself to hide her secret adds a nice layer to everything going on (as if, not only do I have to deal with this case and this and this, but no one can know this other thing, either).

Unshapely Things: Again, I like the main character. To deal with a world that's more than mundane, most protagonists in this genre, it seems to me (I could be wrong, so let's not hold me to certainty), have some form of power. In this book, he used to, but now it's about squat, and the people around him are right at the point where they don't really want to hear him feeling sorry for himself anymore. It creates a different dynamic between characters that I haven't seen so much.

All in all, two very enjoyable books, and apparently Del Franco's third book won't be out until late 2008 or early 2009, so I'll really have to draw out my enjoyment of book 2 when I get it.



In other news: I was sick yesterday. I'm still a little sick, throat a bit scratchy and nose a tad stuffed up. But I never had a proper fever (which woul leave me completely brainless and would be even more unpleasant in this humid heat) and I'm not as bad off as I was yesterday, so I'm off to work today. On the upside, if I can get through the next three days, we get Friday and Saturday off for the holiday.

In the past week or so, I got through another three chapters of editing, so I'm hoping to finish this round by the weekend. I've been mostly MIA this summer so far, so I'm trying to reconnect with friends I ususally only talk to via the internet. It's very good motivation to turn on the computer. Ah, but work beckons, as does the rest of my morning cup of coffee.

Previews

I was going to post a real live post, but the long day and the heat hashit me suddenly, so here's teh gist of things and I'll go on in more detail tomorrow.

1. I now manage the store I work at, and basically manage the other one while a new manager for that store is being found and trained. I'm hoping the pay raise will help save even more for my last semester of gradschool (two to go, one's already paid for).

2. I'm probably going to be doing a 699 class with two other students--a directed reading class--which is fine except I don't quite have the best grasp of what that sort of course would entail, especially since usually it's one student to one professor, not 3 to 1.

3. In the past week, I've read Laurell K. Hamilton's "Blood Noir," Caitlin Kittredge's "Night Life," and Mark del Franco's "Unshapely Things." I enjoyed the first, more than "Danse Macabre," but a little less than "The Harlequin." I enjoyed greatly the latter two, to the point that I am looking forward to Kittredge's next book at the end of August/beginning of September--Hawaii seems to get new releases a week or two later than the expected dates. Werewolves in the modern have been done often now, but I like hwo this world is set up and the relationships, especially between Luna and her cousin is interesting.

Del Franco's I also devoured in a day or two. I know the second book is already out (actually I picked up the first because I'd read something about the second that sparked my interest), and the third is either out or will be soon, I believe. Alas, they didn't have any at my local Borders Express (it should be at the regular Borders, though, so I'll pick it up on Wednesday when I go to my writer's group).

4. In the meantime, I still have a stack of books borrowed from (read: foisted upon me by) my older sister, some library books and a few books I've bought recently that are calling to be read. I think I'll start with "Music to My Sorrows" by Mercedes Lackey, then to Gaiman's "Anansi Boys" (crazy I haven't read it yet), and the slew of comic books I picked up at the week-long book sale that started this past weekend. We always go the first day and I picked up an Edward Gorey book, Sandman and Books of Magic comics (the newer incarnation, I believe) as well as a few other books.

Completing collections and starting new ones.

5. Editing has picked up again. I'm just a few chapters from the end of editing Hounds, then one more read-through, then queries to agents. That's my goal this summer. Even if I don't have an agent by then, I'll feel good just getting on the road to having one.



Uh, heh, so I'm sure there was something else I'd planned to add, and this was all going to be shorter, a 'here's what I'll write about tomorrow, but I'm waving hello right now,' but my eyes are hurting so I'm signing off now. I feel like I've been getting a cold for over a week and sneezing for weeks, but can't really afford to take a day off unless I really need it. Ach, headache. We have Friday and Saturday off, but I could use Monday or Tuesday off, too. For now, I'll have to settle for sleep.

The Life of a Grad Student

It's almost 1 in the morning, I am eating chocolate chip and cherry cookies that I baked earlier today and working on the first paper of three that is due this semester.

The key is that it must be anarcho-scholastic, utilizing both an academic and creative structure, blending the two in form and content. I'm working off of a desire to play with marginalia (incorporating the notes I'd scribbled in the margins into the body of the work) and letting the writing itself flow naturally.

Some students may be more inclined to the all-nighters, but I've never been good at them. Actually, my paper isn't due until Wednesday, but I work that day and I'd rather not put four hours on the bus on top of 5+ hours at work. So I'm doing most of the last of it now, but I think I'll leave the very last of it for tomorrow. My eyes are starting to get strained. (That's really my problem, not that I get so sleepy, though I do sometimes, but my eyes start to hurt and I can't read anything anymore).

I just thought I'd drop a line and say hello to all the people out there whose brains aren't turning into mush like my occasionally feels like it's doing (as evidenced by all the awkward phrasing).

Hello.

The Last Evening of My Spring Break

So this past week has mostly been filled with my job. I had two full days off, which I usually get because of my Tuesday and Friday classes--my own fault, I never got around to asking for the time off, but we were losing someone so we'd either be short-handed or training someone new, and I figured I wouldn't get the time off anyway--and opted out of my usual Sunday routine to get a third day free.

Tuesday and half of Friday was spent reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman, which I loved for so many reasons I can barely verbalize. (Mostly I'm stuck sitting here motioning with my hand, to pantomime the words are spilling out of my mouth as a tumble of letters, incoherent.)

Friday from 4 pm on was spent hanging out and taking to dinner another coworker who was leaving. I did read a few pages walking to work on Wednesday and Thursday and finished the last thirty pages Saturday morning/afternoon (just before and just after a five-hour work shift). Maybe I'm a little too pleased to have read about 300 pages each day for two days.

So I'm a few years late, considering it was published in 2001, but I've had it for a little while and just didn't have the time to read it before. Using it for a presentation for one of my classes is always nice motivation. One of my favorite parts of my workshop course this semester, we chose our own reading lists, and I added to my required 5--I read all three Patricia Briggs' Mercedes Thompson books, a couple of writing books, including Terry Brooks' "Sometimes the Magic Works," and the Dave McKean-illustrated children's books by Gaiman 'Goldfish' and 'Wolves'. Oh, and since I received the soundtrack to "Wicked" for my birthday in February, I read the Gregory Maguire book it was based on, as well as the sequel, "Son of a Witch," and found all 14 L.F. Baum Oz books for $2.00 each at a used bookstore. I'm on book 2 of that last one ("The Land of Oz"). I've also begun "Unshapely Things" by Mark Del Franco and "The Good Fairies of New York" by Martin Miller (which I bought before seeing a mention of it on Gaiman's website, who has an introduction in it, though I'd have picked it up even without the introduction, it's pretty interesting so far).

Needless to say, something about this semester has stimulated me into reading book-books lately (I talked about that strange aversion to it for a while, where all I wanted to read was manga, yeah, I like comics, but I love novels as much, if not more).

So American Gods: I think there's a combination of long story arc, as we follow Shadow following Wednesday, with the almost episodic, now we're traveling, now we're staying with Mr. Jacquel and Mr. Ibis, now we're in Lakeside, etc., that engages all my attention. I finished the last few sentences wishing it wasn't the end, which is a good sign for me, but I had a smile stuck on my face and I was content, even if I didn't know what would happen to these people next.

I was taking extensive notes while I read, which I thought would disrupt the flow of my reading, but which didn't, for the most part. And while not fully versed in mythology, I know a bit of almost everything, so it was fun to see a hint of something and either know what it meant or know it meant something important and excitedly read on to see what the something was. There's a line said to Shadow, page 483--it sums up my feeling about the end in a much more succinct way that I, with my rambly blogging ways, consistently fail to do--"Not only are there no happy endings...there aren't even any endings." The story's over but this isn't the end. That figure walks away, but he's also walking toward something, and just because the reader doesn't know what -that- something is, doesn't mean all the characters stop moving around once the book is closed.

(Think of that childhood wonder/fear some kids have, that when they leave the room their toys move around, have conversations and live, but as soon as someone walks back in, they are perfectly still and in their original positions. This book ends with a sense of the completete opposite.)

And then, to prepare for my presentation, and having recalled a few links in reference to AG on his journal (linked on the sidebar) I searched his archives and read up on the journal from when it was solely an AG blog. (And I noticed he started his blog a little more than a year before I started mine, not this one, though.)

And then my laptop decided it didn't like me or the warm weather and started giving me trouble, so I took a break for dinner, restarted the computer and went to finish up preparation for that presentation. Finalizing my other presentation will have to wait until tomorrow after work. I know what I want to say I just have to organize it.

And all of this to say that reading words by Neil Gaiman, whether it's his books or his journal, or listening to audio clips, really motivates me to write. In this instance, I ended up writing about him and books, but I finally feel like I accomplished something today.

Also, if you haven't read American Gods, find it, buy it and read it. I think it's available for free online (you can find the link on Gaiman's journal) for at least one more day.

The Lighter Side of Writing

In a class last week, the phrase "purple prose" arose, like a great, winged bird of description, overshadowing the smattering of plot-towns and roads of plot-threads. then someone asked where it came from.

As a person who loves to find new words (I am running into others' use of niggling again, still a great word, regardless of where it originated), I figured I'd look up the origins.

So,

Purple prose is defined as, basically, overly flowerly langauge, description that goes way beyond what's necessary and "draws attention to itself."

It originates from a passage from Horace, the Roman poet in his Ars Poetica (lines 14-21):


Inceptis grauibus plerumque et magna professispurpureus, late qui splendeat, unus et alteradsuitur pannus, cum lucus et ara Dianaeet properantis aquae per amoenos ambitus agrosaut flumen Rhenum aut pluuius describitur arcus;sed nunc non erat his locus. Et fortasse cupressumscis simulare; quid hoc, si fractis enatat exspesnauibus, aere dato qui pingitur?


(Your opening shows great promise, and yet flashy purple patches; as when describing a sacred grove, or the altar of Diana, or a stream meandering through fields, or the river Rhine, or a rainbow; but this was not the place for them. If you can realistically render a cypress tree, would you include one when commissioned to paint a sailor in the midst of a shipwreck?)


Purple was a rare dye to find, so it was only used by the wealthy. Apparently, some people in the time of the Roman Republic who wanted to be viewed as wealthier than they actually were, so they put patches of purple cloth on their clothes to play into that purple=rich. (Most people know that connection between purple and royalty.)

Information from Answers.com.

Happy writing.