May 30, 2005
french peasants
I'm in California. I survived a four hour flight next to the ADD posterchild and, stuck in Sky Harbor with nothing better to do, read through all of Kushiel's Dart. I'm also making brisk work of Life in a Medieval Castle.
We'll need notes. Lots of notes.
All this is reminding me of the semester in high school when I read through some book by Eugen Weber that covered the French peasantry as they went from unwashed, superstitious farmers to the modern century. And yes, Dear Reader, I realize that statement is ripe for the jesting, but seeing as I misspelled "reining" as "reigning" in my last entry I shall withhold my snarkiness for another day.
Anyway, French peasantry have always been a grounding point for what medieval settings I write, and I blame Dr. Weber and my history teacher, Dr. DiLeo, for it. I'd read it again if I could remember the title. Dr. Weber has a marvelous, dry sense of humor, which is sorely needed in scholarly books of that girth and weight.
Posted by sdshaver at 01:36 AM | Comments (0)
May 27, 2005
revised - ch. 3
Revisions on Chapter Three done, and I still am enjoying the more dynamic storytelling of these rewrites.
My schnozz keeps getting tangled up in my sensei and their hands and shoulders. A lot of women complain about aikido resulting in broken collarbones, but of course my subconscious DEMANDS ORIGINALITY. It demands a broken nose, apparently.
(And Adam, if you read this -- it wasn't your fault. I obviously need to work more on reigning in my focus during class.)
I have a long list of crap to do before I leave tomorrow (wash the cats and feed the laundry, plant the sheep and shear the crops) so I am going to bed Early with my alarm set for Even Earlier.
Na-na-na-night.
- This is the last time I'll abandon you
And this is the last time I'll forget you
I wish I could
Posted by sdshaver at 01:44 AM | Comments (0)
May 26, 2005
short form
I admit to being intrigued. Kitsu seems to be, as well. We'll see what falls out.
In 24 hours I will be on a plane to California. My regular deluge of posts will probably be suspended during the next week. Though, now that I said that my subconscious will no doubt set out to prove me wrong.
At any rate, I do not have Winter done as I wanted, but I blame a month of overtime for that. It would be done, were it not for the burnout, the hours, and the insomnia.
Posted by sdshaver at 01:23 PM | Comments (0)
still chugging
Chapter Three is still poking along. I got 20 minutes with it tonight, and wrote what I could, but I'm yawning like crazy and it's time for bed.
We went to see Episode III again. I contend that it was better the second time around.
And chances are, I will see it again.
Fannity fan fangirl....
Posted by sdshaver at 02:44 AM | Comments (0)
May 25, 2005
chapter three-ish and bad press
Midway through Three. Going to salvage parts from other bits of the book for this one, too, if I can.
I spent an hour floating through LJ communities run by people who intensely dislike a particular well-known St. Louis paranormal romance author. I'm admittedly always amazed by anyone who goes to THAT much effort to "bash", but then, who was the dummy who burned an hour warming her eyes by their flames?
It's the same in fiction as it is in gaming. For every five kudos I see about the project I'm working on, there's always one weasel who not only hates the game, but hates the company, hates the team, hates our pets, and even hates the chair I'm sitting in.
And after eleven years of working in a soup that contains these people as part of the ingredient list, I have this to say -- if I ever get to the state where I have a whole hate community dedicated to me, I will dance with glee, for then I will know that I have truly, truly made it.
There's no such thing as bad press, and if they want to say I'm fat or my beliefs are wrong or my writing sucks, go ahead. It's all publicity, and it's all good. Mwah! I love you like Jesus!
Posted by sdshaver at 01:28 AM | Comments (0)
May 24, 2005
chapter two - revised
I plead Revenge of the Sith as to why I only finished Two tonight, and did nothing on Three. Alas. Alack.
But Chapter Two is done, and I'll be on to Three tomorrow. I am digging the new, more determined heroine. She's still afraid of things, but she is using her goals to shield herself from her own fear. Too bad it won't last forever.
Queries went out. I was cranky today. Episode Three made me sad, but satisfied. Obi-wan is still my favorite Jedi ever. And "Duel of the Fates" is playing over and over in my iTunes.
- Korah Matah
Korah Rahtahmah
Posted by sdshaver at 02:37 AM | Comments (0)
May 23, 2005
chapter two - rewrites
Chapter Two mostly salvaged and rewritten. Next three chapters are going to be almost entirely rewritten, but it should be easy going. I know what I need to say, and where to go with it.
The henna betrayed me, so I went back to good ol' dyes and chemicals. My hair is now once more dark-brown-brick-red. Like dutch cocoa. Or devil's food.
Considering renaming the book The Firebird's Wish. Fits my needs. Fits the storyline. Gonna go with it. Despite that, I'll continue to refer to it as Winter for now. Once revisions are done, we'll see if the new name sticks.
Posted by sdshaver at 02:09 AM | Comments (0)
May 22, 2005
chapter one - revised
Revised version of chapter one done. This is the beginning of changes to fix the problem I'm having with a key aspect of the story.
Things I learned from overtime under the cut.
If you have a finished book and overtime hits, it's probably a good idea not to continue on the finished book.
Writing is easy. Revising is tough. I can write plenty, I'm still not completely certain about my revision process.
This is probably why my brain tried to drag me over to Kitsu's camp. I should have gone. In fact, I still plan to commit at least one night a week to her cause while I'm writing the HJ book. She's just too much fun.
I never got stuck anywhere while writing Winter. I sat down, and I wrote, and that was that. I now find myself jammed on revisions, and I don't know why.
Ah well. Always learning. Never churning. Butter, that is. Dreadfully dull work.
Posted by sdshaver at 01:46 AM | Comments (0)
free agents
Wrote a query letter. Picked some agents I'd like to represent me. Off the mail goes. If all three turn me down, I guess I'll look for three more I like.
It's a good time to send this sort of thing, as I'm leaving next week to go to California. While my letter is out waiting for someone to respond to it, I'll be out getting a pedicure, making cornmeal cookies for Mom, and visiting my nephews and niece.
Of course, this has also served to remind me of how crappy my printer at home is. Hm.
The business end of the business. Grunt. Ugh. Snarl.
Posted by sdshaver at 12:02 AM | Comments (0)
May 20, 2005
ideally
Ideally, I would like to switch my body over to eXtreme!!! mornings (6 AM or so). I get very good writing done when I first wake up. But my body is very stubbornly refusing to do this, and with good reason: I have, like the grandfather I take after, ALWAYS been nocturnal.
I'm talking way back, even in junior high school, when I'd finish homework (or not) and write until my mom ordered me to bed.
Tomorrow night I'm planning on looking for a natural remedy of some sort to cure the problem. I hear a shovel to the head works nicely.
Posted by sdshaver at 12:36 AM | Comments (0)
May 19, 2005
revisioning
One facet of the story has been bugging me, and so I'm going to struggle to work it out this week. It'll involve some important rewrites. That chapter one hook...oh, what a bastard it is.
I spoke a bit too soon, re: overtime. I ended up staying at work until 1 AM last night. Ah yes. Such is the life of a bonny game-makin' lass.
Over on Livejournal, I found a really wonderful fan-created soundtrack for Song of Ice and Fire. <3 Now I want to read it.
Posted by sdshaver at 02:31 AM | Comments (0)
May 17, 2005
resurfacing
Battle Overtime is OH-vah. And I slept 13 hours. I'm now about to attempt mowing the lawn. Pray for me.
The thing about working in gaming is that it leaks into my writing. There are good sides to this. I became a tighter, more efficient writer after working in text-based MMORPGs. I have an excellent understanding of finances and deals. I know what media exposure does to a company. And (I can hear the Almighty Mel snorting now) I take criticism and apply it to my work with minimal whining.
And then, there is the bad.
Bad because I lay in bed at night and wonder what on earth is fresh/inventive/interesting about my writing that five zillion other 20- or 30-something writers haven't already thought up. And I wonder if I might have another ten years to find that something.
In the meantime, I write, submit, and wait.
Posted by sdshaver at 03:39 PM | Comments (0)
May 13, 2005
mr. brightside
I got home at 4 AM last night. 3 AM the night before. 2 AM the night before that. There is a fearful symmetry to all this. Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be game designers.
Bright side? I'll be going into Winter with fresh eyes.
Whenever that is.
Posted by sdshaver at 04:16 PM | Comments (0)
May 11, 2005
infernal loop
How recursive would it be to write a contemporary novel about a fantasy/sf geek?
Answer: very.
Chances someone's already done it? Probably very high. Not that I care.
Something to add to the 2006 slate.
Posted by sdshaver at 06:32 PM | Comments (0)
May 10, 2005
short attention span
"The Short Attention Span Screenwriter" is a good article on what stops us from finishing a project. It easily applies to my neck of the woods. Link courtesy of my fellow E3 slave laborer Brian, who does not have a webpage anymore but does IM me often with jewels such as this.
A bit more about my moratorium on writing in the extended entry link.
Simply because I have stopped writing while I'm in Overtime Hell does not mean the narrator in my brain has shut up. She's still talking and feeding me information, and that's good -- and bad.
See, my brain is now trying to tell me the book is ALL WRONG and I need to FIX IT. This is a trick. This is doubt (not yet fear, but a close cousin) weaseling its way in and convincing me that what I've written up to this point has no merit. I'm very familiar with the feeling at this point.
The answer is to take notes for her and do only that. When I have time again -- and by time I mean at least four or five hours while I'm wide awake, not two half-asleep and stressed -- I'll read over the notes, consider what applies, and move them off to the list of "things to fix". The rest get added to the pile of "stuff that will be neat in a later work". Otherwise, I'll be here for another year, editing my career to death.
I took down three pages of notes from the brain-thing last night, and drew numerous firebirds (like the one to the right). I've drawn so many now that I think the book's going to need one in the title.
Posted by sdshaver at 09:47 PM | Comments (0)
May 09, 2005
on hold
Writing on hold for the rest of the week, as work drags me by my heels, kicking and screaming, into overtime hell.
My progress was pitiful anyway. Overtime will end on Tuesday of next week, and after that I'm going to try and meet my established deadline of finished Winter by the end of May.
Ugh.
Posted by sdshaver at 02:39 PM | Comments (0)
May 08, 2005
the dogs are barkin'
5.3 miles in 4 hours. We took the Clark Trail, which supposedly you can finish in 2.5 hours, but my hiking partner is not a fast walker, and there was no need to rush.
Despite the need to write I want to go to bed at midnight. So I'm resisting opening up that file. I'm resisting. I'm resisting.
Resisting.
Bugger.
Posted by sdshaver at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)
chapter one, part one
Found a new entry point for chapter one, and possibly a more tantalizing, less clichéd one. I fear the cliché, but since I am one big cliché, I don't know that there's anything I can do about it.
Anyway, this flowed whereas the other was somewhat forced, and thus I feel it has promise.
I'm supposed to be up in seven hours so I can go hiking at 1 PM. Foolish girl....
- lying alone in the twilight zone
waiting for your call to come in
Posted by sdshaver at 04:50 AM | Comments (0)
May 07, 2005
deadlines and overtime
It's been a rough day. Time to drink something girly.
Ahh, yes. That'll do nicely. I doubt I'll get anything done on the book tonight. Sorry, book.
Note to impressionable individuals: Aunt Steph should not be your damn rolemodel. Always make your own decisions and stick by what you believe in, unless you're totally wrong. In which case, consider making a career out of it. Like Ann Coulter.
Posted by sdshaver at 10:33 PM | Comments (0)
perhaps, perhaps, perhaps
No work done yesterday due to work. And, well, let's be honest -- also margaritas and Jade Empire (I played the latter while waiting for the former to wear off).
I'm not thrilled with the book's revision process. I really would have preferred to be done with it by now.
Will try something different for the next one.
Posted by sdshaver at 02:40 PM | Comments (0)
May 06, 2005
chop hack chop
Revisions continue on merrily. Six has been hacked at. I'm very tired, and it's far too late, and the cats are biting. Night.
- get me neil on the line
no i can't hold
Posted by sdshaver at 02:39 AM | Comments (0)
she's so awesome
I was looking for the name of a Madeleine L'Engle book I loved when I was thirteen, and instead I found a great interview with her. She's so awesome.
The book, by the way, was called And Both Were Young. For YA fiction it was memorable enough that sixteen years later, my brain can still clearly remember certain scenes. And like many kids of my generation, A Wrinkle in Time was the first science fiction book I ever read, and it was the one that opened the door to those worlds within worlds.
Pondering: In writing, it's okay to be afraid. It's not okay to be timid. There's a stark difference between feeling the fear and acknowledging it, and letting it crush you underfoot and stop your forward momentum.
Just sayin.
Posted by sdshaver at 12:39 AM | Comments (0)
May 05, 2005
cohesion
Going to bed early. The book is starting to make sense again, once I figured out a few key things and marked them down on my list of crap to do and applied an order to the list of crap and sorted the list of crap and beat the list of crap with a wire whisk.
I like structure, in case you couldn't tell.
Also, I'm over 100k words. For now. I can see the chewy nougat and crusty end of the book are going to probably be written whole.
It's good to have vision again. I was starting to worry.
Driving back from the store, listening to Loveline, I caught the tail end of something that Dr. Drew muttered and it stirred up the imagination. According to him, drugs like Ecstacy can burn out the memory and emotional receptors in the brain. Other so-called designer drugs can trigger Parkinson's Disease in people prematurely.
Interesting. Very interesting.
Posted by sdshaver at 01:14 AM | Comments (0)
May 04, 2005
"you bought a haunted toaster?"
I didn't get downstairs until midnight, and then I sat and stared at chapter five and wondered deep thoughts about my fiction and the sucking sound I hear when I put my ear next to the monitor.
Aaaagh. Out, out, damned demon of self-doubt! All that said, I really do need to figure out why there's a giant calendar in the center of the Temple in my story. Denderah Zodiac, anyone?
I can blame some of this lack of productivity on the overtime. It's an hour here, an hour there, and before I know it it's 3 AM and I haven't gotten a damn thing done on the book.
Posted by sdshaver at 02:07 AM | Comments (0)
May 03, 2005
migraine
They're not really migraines, but they're bad headaches that make me nauseous and cut me up about once a month. Ironically, Wire in the Blood's season finale was all about head conditions and head trips, headaches and tumors. I took the night off to watch it, and wrote notes, and came up with sigils because I like drawing alphabets.
Which led to masks. One of those things that reoccur across my work. Masks, deceptions, the public face versus the private.
There's still no word on the anthology, but the editor has vanished off the planet, so either she's off in the Andromeda star system eating blancmanges or she's busy deciding which ones she's going to buy, which ones need rewrites, and which ones need to be ditched through a window and trampled on by a herd of Lipizzans.
Posted by sdshaver at 02:05 AM | Comments (0)
May 01, 2005
self-propelled
Self-propelled. As in: Lawnmower. But okay, it can refer to the writing, too.
Anyway, the lawnmower. Pretty much rocks my world, despite the fussiness of a gas mower (check this, lube that, fill this, yank that -- sounds like sex, actually). It chewed up my lawn and spat it out as tiny clippings. My life is $200 poorer, and several hours richer. Fair trade.
Bread is rising. The sponge I started last night tried to take over my kitchen. I've never seen a cat absorbed into a yeast blob before, but let me assure you -- highly amusing.
Writing tonight, after dinner. Yay dinner.
Posted by sdshaver at 07:55 PM | Comments (0)
i'm still at work.
Time for bed. With no commitments tomorrow other than mowing my lawn, I hope to dig in and slay the dragon of major scene changes.
Visited the Nebula IRC chat tonight, talked to several nice people (hi, Vera!), and after thinking about the winners (congrats, kids!) I launched myself into ponderings about what makes really good fantasy good. I suspect pondering this too much is dangerous to one's health and the chestnut hue of one's hair.
New goal: Finish changes by Friday, print Saturday, start work on read-through revisions.
My overall goals for the year keep changing. More news as that reveals itself.
Also, I bought a hat.
Posted by sdshaver at 02:33 AM | Comments (0)