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December 28, 2003

the day she became a question

Chapter Six (rough) done. I have a feeling some of the first three chapters will be further condensed before all is done, but so far I'm enjoying the flow of the story. I'm averaging seven single-spaced pages per chapter; a good length. I don't know how I do it, but it seems to always come out to about that.

So when I get home I have a lot of stuff to attend to, and hopefully I will. I've got to get back to my old pattern of exercise and sleep before midnight. I also probably need to stop eating out every other night.

Eating in means more writing time.

More writing means faster completion.

And then all of you who complain I never share my stories can stop complaining. NYAH, BEE-YOTCH.

Golly. I actually have a hope of completing a book and dropping my last thirty pounds by June. Around the same time one of my best friends is getting married and I may or may not be testing for brown belt.

Welcome to my exciting life. Have some sangria. I'll be right with you.

Posted by sdshaver at 04:03 AM

December 26, 2003

grave wax

Have I ever mentioned how much I don't like CSI? I probably haven't. I am an avid Forensic Files/Medical Detectives fan, but I find CSI to be pretty dumb. Moments such as when a detective walks into a fully lit room and whips out her flashlight are brilliant examples of why I don't like it. Oh, I know -- it's just a show. Forgive me. I'd rather watch the Discovery channel.

But sometimes I visit my family, and some of them are CSI addicts, so I end up watching it, and muffling my need to criticize.

There's not a whole lot that makes me shudder in disgust when it comes to cinematic gore. Slit throats, pulling out nails and teeth -- that's pretty much it. I have to hide my eyes every time I watch Braveheart, when Mel's honey gets the knife.

But, anyway -- on CSI tonight they had neat little segment on grave wax. I suppose maybe I could watch this show if I just kept my hand on the FF button, and muted it. So grave wax wound up in the book tonight....

Struggling with the idea of making villains creepy. The Christmas package is a good example of how to do so. What you imagine it contains is often far more interesting than what you actually get. Except on those rare occasions when your family exceeds your expectations. Which mine seems to do on a regular basis. But that's why I love 'em.

Um. Where was I? Ah yes. Villains who are creepy. I think I want to keep them all as under-described as possible. They should be poetic; that is, few words for more impact.

I had a great dream here about six demons based on six Greek gods, though they really weren't. Hermes, Poseidon, Hades, Time, and two more I never got around to. Time was by far the creepiest. She was a black smudge who aged the tide of her enemy's army until they had dissolved into compost, then flowers. And how the hell do you fight that?

I'm babbling. But I'm also halfway through chapter six. Stuff is happening! Yeee!

Posted by sdshaver at 03:43 AM

December 23, 2003

capon

I finished reading Watchtower. There are definitely some style similarities, and some definite dissimilarities. I can see the effectiveness of how she chooses to write, though. It's not entirely my style, but elements of it are.

And on that note, the rough version of Chapter Five is done. It appears that Chapter Six is where Stuff Will Happen.

Also, I got to use another new word I like: capon. Thank you, Lynn Rosetto Casper.

Posted by sdshaver at 03:03 AM

December 16, 2003

on writing

Don't die, and don't give up.

I'm in the midst of a serious writing jones. Or maybe it's just the massive amounts of coffee I drank today.

Hard to be productive, but I'll slog through it somehow. Urgh.

Posted by sdshaver at 05:12 PM

December 14, 2003

"Watchtower"

After a whole lot of runaround, I finally got my hands on Watchtower by Elizabeth Lynn. I got two pages into it, though, and was a little creeped out. So far (and yes, I know, it's only two pages) her writing is a lot like mine, but more refined. I'm told by people who read her early works that she improved as she wrote. Hm.

I'm sure as I continue reading this will change. I mention it mainly because the first thing I thought when I saw the similarity was: "Hey. Maybe there's hope for my writing after all."

So, anyway -- my home was broken into. This has cut into writing time for psychological and temporal reasons. I leave on the 19th to go home to my family. I'll be sending copies of the book with me, as I tend to get a lot of writing done when I visit them (usually at night, when all the woods are sleeping).

My book is slowly getting around to a major action bit. I have sewn most of the intrigue in the first four chapters (I hope). I have a feeling I may need to cut it by a couple chapters in revisions, but for now that's the pace I'm writing at.

And now I am off to market. Bye!

Posted by sdshaver at 11:47 AM

December 04, 2003

editing tricks

I tried to go to bed early, honest. But Chapter Four was so close to being done, and I ended up coming downstairs and finishing it. It's the first appearance of Sudja. Yay!

I'm now further along than I've ever been on this iteration of the story. I think Chapter Five is where More Stuff Happens, but we'll see. The book will go at its own pace for now. Plenty of time to tighten up later, when I have it finished and some perspective.

And that's the answer I meant to give you, Mark W., but then we wound up doing forward rolls, and I didn't have a chance to go on and on and on. I plug on, then I toss it in a drawer for a while, I go to several weeks of aikido or I bake a cake or I make a batch of soap or I do whatever, and then I go back and look at it. That's how I edit. Put distance between me and it.

Also, read it out loud. Word by word. That's a great way to find problems with dialogue and sentence structure. Would you believe I read every chapter of my first book out loud before sending it off to the publishers? Yeah. You can see how much THAT helped. ;)

But I think it did. It still sucked, but it sucked at a higher level.

Looking forward to Chapter Five. No aikido tomorrow night, unfortunately. Still ill, tired, and unable to do much of anything but climb in and out of bed, tap on a keyboard, and amuse cats with my slack-mouthed drooling.

Posted by sdshaver at 02:11 AM

December 03, 2003

no rest

I wasn't as far into CHAPTER the FOURTH as I thought, but I worked on it last night. Being sick and cleaning up my home has caused some delay in writing. Plus, it's holiday season. And I worked on my aunt's coffee site.

Sometimes I skip my lunch break at work so I can take a "nap break" later. I bought a couch for my office ($70 at Good Will) just for these breaks.

I am admittedly greedy when it comes to sleep, and have been chastised by family members and boyfriends alike for my tendency to want to sleep at least eight hours a night -- sometimes more. What can I say? I like sleeping. I like the sensation of being on the edge of sleep, I like slowly waking, and I like feeling rested. Doubly so when I'm sick with a cold (like now).

Sleep is the great healer, in my book. When I'm sick, all I want to do is sleep it off. Give my body a chance to do the work of recovery without my getting in the way.

So as I lay recumbent on my couch today with the intent of nursing my cold, I closed my eyes, and instead of the sleep I was expecting, she came to me.

She is my head bad guy, and she has been notoriously hard to pin down. She has no name (yet) and she had no image until now.

There's a lot about souls, blood relations, and inheritance in the current novel. I like the phrase "the eyes are the window to the soul", and I'm working with that a lot.

So with that mental stew brewing in my head, she came to me, and if I can come up with a decent sketch of her, I'll put it up on the site. In the grand scheme of things, she's not a villain like Snidely Whiplash; she's more of a force of nature. An evil force of nature ("I am an evil herbivore....") So in theory one should never really see her. But I have to. I'm her mother, after all.

Thanksgiving was wonderful. I am finally making my Chicago trip this weekend, and two weekends after that I'll be in California. I have an idea for a novella that takes place in my world, and it's at the end of the three books I want to write, so I may write it to get rid of some of the jones I've got to get to the meatier stuff. Right now I'm dealing with the characters-as-apprentices, and those are their own special fun to write, but characters-as-masters are also a heady thrill. The middle book, as you might imagine, is supposed to be about characters-as-journeyman; forgive me for my obviously European influence.

Some of this is also somewhat analogous to my experience in aikido, and I'll ask you to forgive me for that, too. While there have been times in my life where I have transitioned from raw beginner to more experienced beginner, very few of those experiences have had as much structure as the martial arts. Progress and rank are measurable -- and yet, not. There are times when I wonder what sets me apart from the guy who's been studying for three months or the guy who's been working at it for three years. Some days I can't see the difference.

Anyway, it'll be interesting to write about where they end up; I'm sure it'll give me some idea of where they came from.

P.S. Italics are fun.

Posted by sdshaver at 04:55 PM