It’s too late to apologize August 19, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Writing , add a commentI made it a rule when I started blogging to never apologize for not posting in a long time. That’s what RSS feeds are for. So, without further apology, let me just say that I got a new dog, and it’s taken me longer to get adjusted to him than it took him to adjust to me (and I’m still not sure that I’m fully there yet). Yeah, I know, I was worried that this guy would get bored from laying around all day while I work from home and turn on his masters in a show of bored ferocity:
But seriously, look at those fangs:
In other news, I started and stopped StarCraft: Nova. I made it through about 50 pages and then just couldn’t handle the writing. I imagine it’s mostly because it was written more for a teenage video game playing audience than a mid-twenties video game playing audience. I did like the concept, though, and it was exactly what I would have wanted to read if a) I were a teenager or b) it was written in a more adult style.
So, now I’ve started A Canticle For Leibowitz. Evidently it’s a classic or something.
[Writing] Word Count Wednesday 7/30 July 30, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Writing , add a commentThis week’s fiction: 429
This week’s non-fiction: 0 (uh-oh)
So, if I write 429 words per week (which seems to be my max at this point), I’ll have 90,000 in only 4 years!
In the mean time… I need to figure out when I’m going to finish all my player profiles for the fantasy basketball draft guide. I guess since I set the deadline of tomorrow, I’m going to be pulling an all-nighter tonight.
Neal Stephenson is an NBA fan July 25, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Writing , add a commentI don’t remember anyone pointing this out in any of the various blog post recaps I read of his seminar at Gresham College came out just after the seminar, but Stephenson said (about 26:08):
It’s a miracle, actually, that Gresham College was able to get me over here during the middle of the NBA playoffs.
I’m really only pointing this out because I am a fan of both Neal Stephenson and the NBA, and it makes me happy to know that Neal (Mr. Stephenson?) is also a basketball fan. As a resident of Seattle, I wonder what his thoughts are on the Sonics moving to Oklahoma City. Well, if he is/was a fan of the Sonics then he probably wouldn’t even have to explain. But, since he grew up in Iowa, I can’t help but wonder if he didn’t become attached to the Bulls during high school (the Timberwolves didn’t exist when he graduated in 1977).
Anyway, here’s the video (thanks Google Alerts!):
[Writing] Word Count Wednesday 7/23 July 23, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Writing , add a commentSo, despite spending 3 days in NYC (working during the day, partying at night) and then driving 13 hours on Saturday (not to mention spending 4 hours in Scranton), I managed to get 446 words this week, topping the 416 cobbled together over the prior 2 weeks.
Another random picture (taken by my wife, painstakingly color edited by me; you can click on it for a larger version):
Add to the Reading List: Karen Traviss’ City of Pearl (Free!) July 22, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Writing , add a commentClick here to get Karen Traviss’ first book City of Pearl for free, available until August 1st. Traviss is the author of four Star Wars Republic Commando books and three of the Legacy of the Force books (of which I’ve read one).
You can preview City of Pearl with this fancy little widget:
The Spirit (from SF Signal) July 18, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Writing , 1 comment so far
I had just seen some posters up (NYC-style 8×2 glue-up posters) for The Spirit last night, and then found SFSignal’s “At the Trailer Park” (one of my favorite series on their site) with a trailer for The Spirit.
Oh, wait, I still haven’t seen Sin City nor 300. It does look good, though… but not as good as Terminator: Salvation (trailer also featured in the SF Signal post).
[Writing] Word Count Wednesday July 16, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : The Nine Mothers, Writing , add a commentNow, I didn’t do WCW last week because I was on a schooner, sailing around islands in Maine. I should have been writing (well, at least, I should have been writing more), but instead I read Stephen King’s The Gunslinger. I did at least get through the whole book. And in the mean time (over the past 2 weeks), I wrote 414 words of fiction (for The Nine Mothers). I also got a lot of thinking and note-taking in as well.
And to make this post a little more interesting, here’s a picture I lomo-ized from the trip:
Multitasking July 5, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Writing , add a commentThis list from Elizabeth Bear makes me feel better about having several projects started/in progress.
[Writing] Organization July 3, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Writing , add a commentSince I used to spend way too much time trying to figure out how professional writers, you know, write, I wanted to throw out a blockquote - from this post by Diana Pharaoh Francis on SF Novelists - to others who might be looking to assimilate such information.
When I write, I put the chapters in separate word files and print them out as I go. This is partly as an extra backing up device, and partly because sometimes I find it easier to flip pages looking for what I’m after than digging through computer files, trying to guess just which chapter I mentioned that particular esoteric item in. I can also mark notes on the pages for later and this prevents me from going back and revising too much before I really know what I need to revise.
I take post-it notes and write the chapters numbers on them and tape them to the beginning of each chapter so I can flip through more easily. I put them in a binder with one of those plastic sleeves on the front that let you slide in a cover sheet. I then slide in a cover sheet with the title of the book on it.
So this is what I’ve done today. I’ve emptied the recently finished book out of the binder and bundled it up with the outline that turned out to be not so useful and the pages of notes and etc. that I had made. And then I printed out a title sheet for the new book and slid it in and have printed out my chapters for it and my (eventually useless, I’m sure) outline.
I’d probably just buy a new binder to put the new book in… nevertheless, it’s good to find out how one published author does it.
[Writing] Word Count Wednesday - 7/2 July 2, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Writing , add a commentOkay, I’ve decided to revamp my WCW. So, instead of provide a somewhat humiliating day-by-day accounting, I’m going to just sum up the word counts by project. This will be humiliating in a whole different, I’m never actually going to finish anything, sort of way. But it will also allow me to include word counts from non-fiction projects so I won’t feel like I didn’t write anything.
The only bad part is, for this week at least, I didn’t actually keep track of how much I wrote in the Fantasy Draft Guide… but I did note where I started and where I was at a couple points during the writing, so I have a rough idea. So, here it is:
Fiction Writing (all projects): 0
Give Me The Rock Fantasy Basketball Draft Guide (non-fiction): ~2000
Whew. Okay, glad that’s over with.