Crunch time to get this damn thing done. Reviews will be forthcoming.
Author Archives: Michelle
Writing
Many of you know I’m working on a novel. I’m working on line edits, and have some minor revisons based on beta reads I’m waiting on.
It’s almost done.
I’ve been working on this novel for 10 years. Why so long? Well funny enough a bachelors in English does not give you much insight on writing a novel. In some circles, it’s actually frowned upon. I wasn’t even sure I had a novel or (or three or four) in me until I’d been working on it for a year.
Writing takes practice. People practice on short stories, essays, articles, novel drafts and even blog posts. The novel is one of the most complicated pieces of writing around today….next to a sonnet. Sonnets are the hardest form of poetry imo.
It doesn’t seem like it should be complicated. After all, what is a short story but a mini 3 act novel?
The problem is that not every story is a 3 act novel.
It could be 6 or 9 or even 1 act. You may have three characters or 3000. You have to be able to sustain the story for tens of thousands of words or worse, hundreds of thousands of words. You have to plot, describe, and kick characters in the pants. You may write 100,000 words only find you forgot a whole nother view point you had to add or that you for got which side of a river the mountain was on.
I started Without Honor as a short story. Then I realized it was long enough for a novel. I got halfway through and found out that it was only half a novel and I had to write another half. Then I realized I needed maps, outlines, character sheets. Then I had to change the begining because the end had changed. Worse I changed the ending because I realized it was much more interesting if a pivitol character said no, and therefore had to change the beginning again.
Then after writing THE END. I found out that there were threads for reglion, and a sequal that had to be polished.
Over the years writing became soemthing I did, rather than something I just wanted to do. Yet, I still had to learn to spot the mistakes, to find my darlings and kill them, and to just know when something was way more workable than not at all. And I’m still wrong.
I have other novel manuscripts in various stages of done. They are going much faster simply because I took my bruises and learned. Lately, especially over the last four years, I find I have less time for other things because I must be writing. I will get this done. I will not stop.
I just hope it all leads somewhere.
Snow
At least I’m dry now.
Riding RTD is a Crapshoot
For the second day in a row, the 0 failed to show at 6:50 at 17th and Market. The 6:40 left early again and so three express buses came and went before the 0 at 7:00 was ready to leave.
RTD for the Denver metro is one of the worst run bus systems in the state. Drivers often don’t know their routes, and niether do the dispatches. Buses can not be tracked, route posters are indecipherable. Every long time rider knows the dreaded beep of a bus break down, where drivers are ignored until they can no longer use gravity to keep the bus going.
The bus system isn’t cheeper or faster than driving a car. The dispatchers are often rude and never seem to know what a stop number is. I’ve had drivers try to charge me double, give me expired transfers, and refuse to stop.
When I started riding the bus regularly two years ago, I could take a bus downtown and it took about an hour to get across town. Now it takes three buses and three hours to for a trip across town at leat two to get down town, one which must be a regional or an express.
We’re all waiting for fastraks, which should be called maybe one day traks. Rtd can’t write off late trains at least.
Awesome Replacing Thank You?
The feature at Job of Irony yesterday was QA. What they look for what they want, etc. We listened to a few calls and did some group QA’s on them.
In one call there was an absense of the words ‘Thank You’. Many dinged the call for that but the head of QA shrugged her shoulders and said, “Well, she said awesome and that amounts to the same thing. It’s another way of saying thank you.”
The room was immeadiatly split. Half were outraged, the other half stopped short. We do say awesome in replace of thank you sometimes.
Some postulated that it was an age difference. However, the head of QA was over sixty and thought it was okay. There was a stratification of Southerners and East coasters who were against it but not all of them. In the end we all put it aside.
As I think on it though, I realize it has invaded popular speech in that way. My friends do it, I do it. We use it scarcasticly, to replace great. We say awesome when we are given things, or when things are done. It doesn’t happen all the time but it does happen.
There is always that moment when you realize you’ve been saying something in a certain way and it is not how you use to say it. Is it from TV? From the internet? From our region? From our background? I don’t know, but it is interesting.
Have you ever caught yourself saying thank you without actually saying those words?
Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin
I wanted so much more from A Dance with Dragons, I really did. What I got was a rehash of Feast with a tiny nibble towards the end of the book.
The hardest part about reading this book was that I had already read a lot of it. Most of it takes place during Feast so at best it was what someone else was doing and at worst the exact same chapter with the thought bubbles reversed. It wasn’t until Martin caught up with himself that the story started getting interesting again. Of course he does away with the only piece of information in Feast that was worth while. So you could skp Feast and get most of the pertinant information, though it might be worth while to read Arya’s chapters and and the end of Cersei’s.
As for Dance, the profficy continues, I’m not sure whether John is justified or not and frankly, I cheered for Greyjoy when he jumped the wall. There is no doubt that Martin is a great writer, but he can’t seem to separate the wheat from the chaff in his own writing.
Morning Pages
Since I have some extra time in the mornings and I really should do more writing not just editing the novel, I thought I’d get back into the habit of morning pages. Also this is an excuse to post here every day. I warn you, no sense may be had.
I needed a coffee cup for Job of Irony. This is a green company, which is fancy talk for more trashcans with no idea what goes in which and we’ll charge you for cups, flatware, plates and bowls. Supposedly this is also a healthly company, but I can’t use those benefits yet. Except the vending machines which say they only stock healthy snacks. However, the nutrional value of the Snickers and Twix stocked in them don’t really fall into the realm of a “healthy snack”.
So I used to have a nice tea travel mug but some how all the parts are gone making it useless. Since I already have a humungo Camel water bottle, I wanted something smaller. Travel chopsticks and Hello Kitty travel flatware aside, I wanted something pretty.
Speaking of which, those ceramic tea and coffee travel mugs look beautiful! But really, how long do those even last? How do you not break them or die from the wieght of carrying those around?
I found this nice mug at Starbucks. It is small, only 8 oz. The lid fits well, and doesn’t do anything wierd like spout or well the coffee that misses your mouth back into the cup. But the bonus is that it is decorated by a rainbow scratch paper that you scratch your self. So I put stars, dragons and a creepy bear fox thing that stares at you from the corner. That way no one will steal it. (Or that’s what I tell myself).
ooo! I got my old bluetooth keyboard to work with my phone. It’s handy for just writing, like I am now. Not so much for the editng but at least that’s still happing. I officially hate the words come, just and look. Sucky stupid line edits.
I’ve put Manali and Memorial pages away long enough that I better get to editing them so I can send them out. That won’t take nearly so long but I’m afraid that Manali may grow to 10,000 words. Then what?
Okay, time for Job of Irony.
How to Write Comic Books by Peter David
I love Peter David. His sense of humor and writing style was a dear friend during my high school years in form of Star Trek books. I have enjoyed his comics and his novels.
So when I saw this book I had to pick it up.
How to write for comic books is one of the most interesting writing books I’ve picked up. His basic advice on characters, plot, and writing are priceless and filled with interesting ancedotes about writing for Marvel. The book goes into detail on who to write for the major comic publishers, format, and selling your work as well.
For the general writer, his essays on creating characters are excellent. He shows you how to give a character depth and then provides examples from major comic characters such the Hulk. The examples are priceless and for this reason alone I’d recommend this book to any writer.
For those of you wanting to write for comics, this is a must read. David gives examples for full creators as well as collaborators and valuable industry information.
Prisoner’s Base by Rex Stout
I first became fascinated by this story watching the Nero Wolfe series with Maury Chaykin and Timothy Hutton. Priscilla Eads comes by to stay with Wolfe and Goodwin until a certain. They turn her out and she ends up dead, but that’s not the worst part. No, it gets much worse as Archie tries to solve the murder case without the help of Wolfe.
The part that fascinates me is the game prisoner’s base. Trying to get from one point to another without being tagged is a thrill for nearly everyone. When Archie is honestly trying to save Sara, an associate / one time friend of Ms. Eads, he does the best he can from across town with only a 50′s era telephone system.
The show was very close to the book. I keep reading that part over and over. I’m weird like that.
Delving Back into Creatures 3
In 1996 I encountered a game on sale called Creatures.
And my addiction was born.
It was an experiment in AI. You breed norns, taught them to eat, listen to you and to communicate. They had to fight grendels.
In Creatures 2, Ettins were introduced. As were color genes, and more mutations. Then came creatures 3.
Once upon a time, I lived on alt.games.creatures. I experimented with breeds and Grendel torture. I found easter eggs. Laughed and shared my cobs. I bought new breeds, got holiday packs, and stared at the brain in the vat. In 2006, after an ettin wolfling run, I closed shop.
Last week I found out a Creatures 4 may be coming. I reinstalled C3 and docking station. Ah memories.