March 31, 2006
engage your mind
Collab work. I know, it's been a while, but this is the stuff I love. The secrets in the story.
All stories gotta have secrets.
Posted by sdshaver at 01:44 AM
March 29, 2006
*slap*
Slap slap slap....
Nearing the end of this revision. I like what I've got. But I always do, don't I?
Posted by sdshaver at 12:46 PM
March 26, 2006
chapter one and so on and so on
Slappity slap slap....
The book's getting another chapter. There's just no way I can exposition all this in the allotted 7,000 words of space.
Posted by sdshaver at 03:55 AM
March 24, 2006
and again
More slapping around of the first chapters.
Bed now.
Posted by sdshaver at 02:49 AM
March 23, 2006
prologues
I think I'll write three and see which one I like best. Yes, that sounds like a grand idea.
Gah.
Razzlefraggin complicated world mrnnfgrrrffffrrr....
Posted by sdshaver at 02:11 AM
March 20, 2006
still plugging
Prologue got some attention. Collaborator and I talked. Still busy at work. Not much else to report.
Posted by sdshaver at 01:10 PM
March 19, 2006
George Orwell and the golden bough
It occurred to me at some point when I was writing about a utopian society that maybe I ought to read about a dystopian one, too. When it comes down to it -- scratch the surface of a a utopia and you'll find a dystopia screaming to get out. Ten years in the gaming industry have taught me at least this: it's impossible to make everyone happy, ever, without lobotomizing 99% of the population or keeping them so drugged up they don't know where or who they are. Even then, you'd still have a few complaining that their lobotomy wasn't as nice as Mary Sue's, who they heard got a lollipop when hers was over.
Ergo, and so, and thus, there's a good reason to read this book: it'll make my own better.
I find myself enjoying Orwell's writing style. Of all the literary literature I've read (or had to read), I have to admit this is some of the most digestable. I like that Orwell's observative on what reduces people to the state of nasty and brutish: desperation. Desperation over food. Desperation over shelter. Desperation over safety. There's a lot of desperation in 1984.
What's the point in commentary on a book that's been a classic for nearly fifty years? Because "classics" can become swiftly dated. For all that 1984 was written long before the personal computer, the book holds up well, and so do the characters, their world, and their motivations.
Also, I can't read it without thinking of John Hurt. If ever there was a man born to be Winston Smith, it was him.
Posted by sdshaver at 12:24 AM
March 15, 2006
on reading materials
I probably ought not to be reading 1984 right now. I ought to be reading Lois Bujold, or the next Darkyn book, or something cheerful -- like John Steinbeck or Ayn Rand.
Work is crazy. Which means no writing. I'm doing nothing but going home to sleep and bathe anyway.
I'll be back next week.
Posted by sdshaver at 03:06 PM
March 13, 2006
chapter 1, my eternal foe
Revised again. And this time, more action, and yet also more exposition. How can this be? Golly, I just don't know.
I'm not up early. I'M UP LATE. Because I stupidly asked the subconscious to do the work, I woke up at 4 AM with the solution and the words knocking too hard on my head to let me sleep.
Nuts. :\
- You are my only girl
but you're not my owner, girl
Posted by sdshaver at 05:42 AM
March 12, 2006
excessive
Too much work on Wednesday-Friday. No work on creative stuff, except for a fresh stab at chapter one in an attempt to address the problems with my letting people into my crazy world.
Obviously, I need to go to bed. And stop thinking about work.
Posted by sdshaver at 03:27 AM
March 08, 2006
cover letter funtime happy happy go!
So, in cover letters you are supposed to write a one to two sentence summary of the book. This is what I really wish I could write for Firebird:
- It is a story about a world without a sun and a heroine without a mother, and how her choices deliberately or inadvertantly change all that. There is also a cute boy who thinks she's awesome, and who she thinks is awesome, too.
That second sentence cracks me up. I am easily amused.
Back in the land of MZBFM, we never wanted cover letters from the unknowns. In fact, I would surreptitiously move them to the back of the manuscript if I saw them, because I knew how much seeing one sometimes infuriated the editor.
Good times. Good times.
Posted by sdshaver at 04:30 PM
March 07, 2006
oh god
I think I just wrote a prologue.
Anyone who complains is getting a boot to the head.
Posted by sdshaver at 12:20 AM
March 06, 2006
still here
Weekend was good for me and my brain, but not conducive to actual writing. And the nausea last night made pretty much everything impossible.
Back in the saddle soon.
Posted by sdshaver at 01:44 PM
March 01, 2006
thumbnails, weekends, and reading
Did the thumbnail deed for page ten. Will scan tonight and send it along to the esteemed collaborator.
My week is somewhat shot due to the impending seminar (Curtis sensei is in town) and other things. So Firebird's synopsis is still on hold until my hands become untied and my body decides to stop feeling so goddamn tired.
I need to rummage up new reading books. I ripped through If Angels Burn. If reading Robin Hobb is like wandering through a dense forest with something drastic lurking at the end, then reading Lynn Viehl is like going ninety on the speedway.
Except the trees are still there.
And they're not exactly dodging out of the way.
That's a recommendation, for those who couldn't tell.
Posted by sdshaver at 11:04 AM