Back to work

Blue Heron

I had a wonderful weekend. My new chapbook came out for the convention and sold a few copies. I did two panels, one on blogging (laughs) and the second on outlining. Had a great time on both. Talked with two different FM/Vision people, and lots of others as well. It was a fun time. And we stopped at one of my two favorite wildlife refuge sites on the way down and on the way back up.

I entered the Story in a Bag contest at ConQuesT-- pull five slips of paper and write a story in one hour. I had intended to write it on my old Clie with the the keyboard, but I forgot to reinstall the keyboard driver. Duh. Lucky for me, Russ showed up with the printer and the laptop, and I was able to use that. Started nearly twenty minutes late, though. And my slips of paper?

• A murder
• A left sneaker
• An angry ferret
• An occult shop
• And the opening line had to be: The town was gone -- just gone.

So I wrote 903 words in 40 minutes -- and apparently I won in the Pro Writer Horror category. Horror? Well, okay there was a ghost. And it was a true horror when I realized my keyboard wasn't working.... (grin) They announced the winners at the closing ceremonies, but we couldn't stay that late. Two different people wrote to tell me, though.

Had a note today that someone else wants to use one of my zoo photos for a publication. That's twice now. Maybe I'm in the wrong business.

Anyway, I'm back and need to get all kinds of things done. Russ leaves for Atlanta in the morning and we're crazed here right now.

But I thought I should check in!

Going soon....

I'm on the last steps, preparing to head for ConQuesT in the mornning. I'm not ready. I won't ever be ready, of course. It always goes that way.

But this has been a particularly hectic day, with no really good reason why it should be. I seem to have a lot of those days.

I think I'll be happy to have May over with. June sounds much nicer. I've always liked June.

I'm starting to get crazed tonight. I think I'll go take a nice warm bath and think through whatever else I need to do.

Oh, before that, load the two 2YN classes. They're done and ready to go. I don't want to have to worry about them after I get back.

(Zette goes bouncing off to do something else now....)

It's a whole new world!

Ah, that's better. I got up today and realized that for the first time in five months I don't have to go in and work on rewriting those same damned three chapters.

I'm free! I'm free!

I talked to a couple other publishers and published people over the last couple days, and the general agreement is that it was too many rewrites and I shouldn't have been so stubborn and stuck to it so long. I knew it wasn't going to work, but I wasn't going to give up... until I realized that I was ruining a good book trying to make it into something it wasn't.

Will I ever sell Ada Nish Pura? Maybe not. But sometimes you have to trust yourself as a writer.

Today I've spent working on the short story, Preparations. I'm down to the last sections, but I had to reread it all because in the swarm of other things I'd lost the feel. I think I have it back. The story is over 7k words now. I hope to finish it up below 10k.

The Internet has been up and down all afternoon for me. You would think this would help... but it doesn't. I end up checking more often than I would if it were up. It's some kind of nervous habit, I guess. There's not even anything there I want to see at the moment, but I still go bouncing in, trying a couple different pages. I'm positive this is a local problem since the connection was down on Sunday as well. I sure hope that they get it back up.

I've been involved in a conversation elsewhere about writing articles about writing. The last statement appears to say that if someone is writing an article about writing, then they aren't concentrating enough on learning how to properly write. I don't know.... I have to disagree on that one. I know many of the writers who contribute to Vision since so many are from FM. I know what they're working on, and I know that sometimes the act of writing about writing helps to bring the technical side into focus.

But it won't work for everyone. And of course there will always be some people who will do anything but write the stories they should be working on. But then I've know a few pros who do that, so it isn't just a new writer problem.

There's the other side of this, too, of course. The fact that people are doing their best to help others counts for something. Offering to share what has helped you and what you've learned is what Forward Motion and Vision are about. It's great when pros step in with answers... but there are far too few of them who can give the time to help new writers.

So here we are with FM and Vision. And if I went along with the ideas of a few others, I'd have to at least shut down Vision if not both, and tell the 4k or so people active there that they're going to have to move forward on their own.

I believe that FM and Vision have helped some writers. So I guess we'll just keep going and hope for the best.

Oh, and I need articles for Vision....

Decisions and choices

Sometimes things just do not work the way you expect. When I had an offer from Aio for Ada Nish Pura I asked for an explanation of what she meant when the publisher said there would be major rewrites. And I got a reasonable answer:

...The most major change revolves around the level of complexity. Basically, you’re sitting on a gold mine of potential world-building and culture, which in turn affects the main character. Right now you’ve got a great frame; you’ll just need to fill in more (much more, some of which you probably already have as backstory in your own mind), and in places, you’ll need to consolidate.

I’ve also got serious questions as to the science the book is based on. Right now that part is very thin. No worries that I’m talking about quantum mechanics or physics—more along the lines of geology and biology.

Your writing will probably also take some polishing. (For instance, “however” rarely belongs in a work of fiction; it’s more of a term paper kind of word. And I’m not picking on that just because you used it in your email—it’s something I noted in ANP during the review!)

That seemed more than reasonable to me. We started in on the work and made very good progress, though we unfortunately had some stops while she took care of business matters (new company, and I perfectly understood). However, we started running into trouble when we hit the 'polishing' phase. And this is where it came down to a misunderstanding in terms.

After more than eight rewrites of the same three chapters I realized that we were not connecting. I started lining out what I thought she wanted and asking if I was right. I pointed out that I thought what she wanted was prose that delivers all the information in the most descriptive and non-obtrusive manner. That didn't mean simple words without adornment, just not lines written for the sake of a pretty phrase when it doesn't work as well as a simpler one would. I felt the art is in the whole of the story, not the pieces, and lines should not be created just to draw the reader's attention.

She disagreed:

Using transparent prose is definitely a school of thought, one with which I’m fairly familiar. We’re definitely not in that school at Aio. We do look for rather literary writing and we love lines that cause a reader to stop and admire it...

Now that changed a great deal of how I looked at the novel. Also, with the word 'literary' came another explanation, and one that I had missed on the site. She said Aio's intention is to publish only literary science fiction.

Now, here's the thing: There are certain literary sf writers whom I adore. Chip Delaney is the top of the list. I could spend months reading and rereading Dhalgren alone. The use of language by writers like Delaney amazes and enthrals me.

But I am not a literary fiction writer of any sort, and I would never pretend to be. My strengths are worldbuilding and culture and an exciting plot to go with them. I don't want to write lines that draw the reader out of the story. I want them to live in the adventure, not admire the grammatical nuances.

But even more than that, I don't believe that you can create a literary writer unless that is their true voice and style. It can't be 'polished' into being.

Today we both agreed that this was not working. So, Ada Nish Pura is now back in my hands. It's a stronger book for the increased worldbuilding and culture, and the writing itself is much better -- just never quite literary enough for Aio. I'm taking the opening back a few steps in the rewrites to where I was still comfortable with the language. Then I am going to rewrite the entire novel and submit it elsewhere.

I should stress that while we couldn't make this work, that doesn't make either side in the wrong. Aio is a new publisher, and I believe that they are still in the process of defining who they are and what they want... and though I looked like I fit the qualifications, three words had gone missing in the transaction -- literary science fiction. Those three words really did change the entire structure of what I thought I was meant to do with the story.

If you would like to read the first chapter, It's going to be up on my snippets blog for a couple days. I just wanted to share, because I really, really like this chapter, and I think when I get the rest of the novel up to this level, it's going to be the best thing I've ever written.

The things you learn....

Today I learned that reading the wrong writing-related book is going to lead to disaster. Many will die and the others will be forced to survive on the flesh of their fallen comrades. It will not matter if the advice given helps you in anyway -- or even, apparently, if you read many different books and find help in various places. In the end, unless the book is written by a known pro, it will ruin you and you will end up like the Donner Party, who tried to cross the Rockies with a guide book written by someone who had not actually followed the trail.

So my sincere apologies to anyone who has read any of my articles or -- far worse, I assume -- my book, Without a Fear of Words. My only excuse for the book is that I didn't know and thought that some other new writers might find it helpful to read something from someone who loves to write and wanted to share that love of the act of writing with others.

(Yes, this is a joke! I decided to drop out of a conversation on another journal and didn't think my humor would be appreciated there. Probably not appreciated here, either, but this is my blog so I get to post it anyway. So there!)

Today has been a long day. I didn't get to bed until nearly 5 am and I was back up at 10:30 am only to find my computer turned off. How odd. Reached down to turn it back on. Nothing.

Tried again. Nothing. Started pulling at cords. NOTHING!

AAAIIIEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

A moment to stop panicking remembering that just last night I had made a three cd backup. Good, good.

Then considered all the things that I hadn't thought to back up and panicked again. Decided to sleep for a while until maybe Russ got back home. He obviously knew and had gone to get something to fix the computer. (He didn't know, by the way.) Got up about an hour later and just started pulling cords, cleaning, seeing if there was any obvious problems. Russ came home. He was only mildly panicked. (He has his laptop next door, you see.)

I had pulled the tower out, cleaned off the back, checked the power cord. Plugged it back in, plugged the computer back in.

Power. Lights. Little whirling 'IT LIVES' noises.

It took it a little while, but it did come fully back to power. I think I found the problem too. A cat had chewed through a usb cord (an important and not easily replaced one, of course -- to my IPAQ, and now I can't sync it) and I think it just glitched. Lucky for me that the IPAQ wasn't in the cradle at the time.

So, computer up and running. All is great.

Until I pulled out the large drawer in my desk and it flew out of the desk toppled over and spread everything across the room.

On the other hand, I did find two missing rings.