Where we live, it's bitter cold most of the year. A month and a half ago, though, we had a day that was almost warm enough not to freeze to death outside, and my wife suddenly says to me "when are you going to get the hot tub cleaned up and back in service?"
Like a dutiful husband, I understood exactly what she meant: "it's time for you to clean up the hot tub and put it back in service." Which is what I did, exactly two weeks and 28 reminders later that it was "hot tub season" according to her.
Unfortunately, the jets didn't work. She was extremely bummed not to be able to use the hot tub, and I was bummed that she wouldn't be running around in a bikini, which is pretty much my only interest in the hot tub. That was about two weeks ago.
Tonight, for reasons unknown to me, a cosmic force compelled me to go treat the water today. I turned on the jets out of habit, and they came on! Suddenly the jets work! The hot tub is alive!
That means that rewriting is done for the evening. It's time to go hot tubbing. Because all work and no play makes Colin a very dull boy.
Update: I don't know where she found that frogman suit that she wore, but needless to say, I was not a fan. Perhaps next time...
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Just where I thought!
I always figured that the last quarter of Switch was ripe for reduction. Now that I'm in the back half, I find that I was correct. I just rewrote a fifteen-page chapter, and ended up cutting it to six pages. Took out a minor character, an unimportant sub-plot, another plot point I didn't really do anything with, and tightened it up to flow much better. Unfortunately, it's a stub chapter now and is bizarrely shorter than the others.
So I can either combine it with a later (or earlier) chapter, or I can leave it alone, or I can chop up some of the other chapters. Frankly, I wonder if chopping up other chapters isn't the answer, since I always wonder where to do chapter breaks.
I always do it by feel - if it feels like a break, then I do. Some chapters will cover multiple days, while others just one continuous scene. I always wonder if I have a good feel for it or not.
So I can either combine it with a later (or earlier) chapter, or I can leave it alone, or I can chop up some of the other chapters. Frankly, I wonder if chopping up other chapters isn't the answer, since I always wonder where to do chapter breaks.
I always do it by feel - if it feels like a break, then I do. Some chapters will cover multiple days, while others just one continuous scene. I always wonder if I have a good feel for it or not.
Writing is exhausting
For me it is, at least. I have a day job, and it's no cakewalk, but it's not too bad. It's not physical, either, but rather mostly mental. I'm capable of dealing with it, and then coming home and dealing with my family, and then going to bed. No big deal.
When I throw writing in there, though, I start going to bed exhausted. The constant mental focus on what word goes where, and what each character says and how they say it, and the on-point mentality needed to examine every turn of phrase and every punctuation point starts to wear me out.
Last night I was totally wiped out and slept like a log, even snoring enough that it disturbed my poor, long-suffering wife.
I guess I could down a whole bunch of energy drinks, but then the characters would start racing around and acting like hyper two-year-olds.
When I throw writing in there, though, I start going to bed exhausted. The constant mental focus on what word goes where, and what each character says and how they say it, and the on-point mentality needed to examine every turn of phrase and every punctuation point starts to wear me out.
Last night I was totally wiped out and slept like a log, even snoring enough that it disturbed my poor, long-suffering wife.
I guess I could down a whole bunch of energy drinks, but then the characters would start racing around and acting like hyper two-year-olds.
Monday, April 28, 2014
Hacking and Cutting
I'm about 2/3 of the way through my rewrite on Switch, and so far I've managed to cut about 10,000 words. Which is not a lot. But I'm into the section of the story where I knew there was some fat, because as I wrote it, I felt like I was padding here. So I'm hopeful that there are another 10,000 words remaining. Unfortunately, that's about a third of what's there, so I find it unlikely that I'll be missing anything.
I've already cut whole characters and scenes to tighten up the story. If I want to cut more out, I'll probably have to excise some plot threads. It's not easy. Writing is rewriting, though, and if I want a good story on the other side this is what I have to do.
It's unpleasant, though. Now I really know why it's called "killing your babies."
I've already cut whole characters and scenes to tighten up the story. If I want to cut more out, I'll probably have to excise some plot threads. It's not easy. Writing is rewriting, though, and if I want a good story on the other side this is what I have to do.
It's unpleasant, though. Now I really know why it's called "killing your babies."
Sunday, April 27, 2014
What makes an author?
Let the great war of publishing begin!
The sides in this fight are fairly predictable. On the one side, we have professional writers manning the walls of the gatekeepers. On the other side, we have the rampaging barbarian hordes who wish to access the treasures within.
This is fairly predictable, and parallels any of a number of other technological disruptions from the past. It's also going to be similarly experienced when 3D printing comes of age and we hear the same arguments around manufacturing and construction.
Kozlowski specifically mentions science, which is a bad analogy. The practice of "professional" science is a fairly new thing and historically you have numerous stories of amateurs who upended the prevailing theories or made discoveries. These people weren't credentialed or accepted by others, and often faced massive amounts of resistance, yet they were ultimately correct. They weren't any less correct because they didn't have the support of "professionals."
The most famous, perhaps, is Copernicus, who went against the professionals of his day with a heliocentric universe. But you have plenty of others, including some recent Nobel-prize winners in economics (Daniel Kahneman in '02 and Robert Aumann in '05) who weren't economists. The whole history of Renaissance polymaths is all about people doing things outside their field.
Always throughout history the credentialed and licensed have sought to prevent others from practicing in their field. Sometimes, society has permitted this because bitter experience has proven that we must (medicine, military, foreign affairs).
Otherwise the prevailing social impulse should always lean towards the most inclusive set of conditions possible. It is true that much of what gets produced will be dreck in this model; however, we must acknowledge that professionals can create dreck, too.
To borrow from economics, we should allow the market (whether it be readers or clothes shoppers or car buyers) to decide what, ultimately, is worth paying for and what has no value, and then the market will align itself accordingly.
The sides in this fight are fairly predictable. On the one side, we have professional writers manning the walls of the gatekeepers. On the other side, we have the rampaging barbarian hordes who wish to access the treasures within.
This is fairly predictable, and parallels any of a number of other technological disruptions from the past. It's also going to be similarly experienced when 3D printing comes of age and we hear the same arguments around manufacturing and construction.
Kozlowski specifically mentions science, which is a bad analogy. The practice of "professional" science is a fairly new thing and historically you have numerous stories of amateurs who upended the prevailing theories or made discoveries. These people weren't credentialed or accepted by others, and often faced massive amounts of resistance, yet they were ultimately correct. They weren't any less correct because they didn't have the support of "professionals."
The most famous, perhaps, is Copernicus, who went against the professionals of his day with a heliocentric universe. But you have plenty of others, including some recent Nobel-prize winners in economics (Daniel Kahneman in '02 and Robert Aumann in '05) who weren't economists. The whole history of Renaissance polymaths is all about people doing things outside their field.
Always throughout history the credentialed and licensed have sought to prevent others from practicing in their field. Sometimes, society has permitted this because bitter experience has proven that we must (medicine, military, foreign affairs).
Otherwise the prevailing social impulse should always lean towards the most inclusive set of conditions possible. It is true that much of what gets produced will be dreck in this model; however, we must acknowledge that professionals can create dreck, too.
To borrow from economics, we should allow the market (whether it be readers or clothes shoppers or car buyers) to decide what, ultimately, is worth paying for and what has no value, and then the market will align itself accordingly.
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Flash Fiction
A few brief thoughts on flash fiction, mostly because I'm dodging working on Switch so that I can avoid having to make hard choices and cut my beloved story down.
I was introduced to Flash Fiction a few years ago, and when I first heard about it I got all excited because it felt like a great way to crank out stuff in short time, and if there was a market for it you could therefore just pump out a tremendous amount of work with no effort. I gave it a shot.
I am an epic failure at Flash Fiction. Turns out I can't say anything in less than about a thousand words (as this post so adequately demonstrates), and I have no skill to develop a complete story that's not nonsense that fits into 500 words or less.
This is also why my Twitter feed is all post repeats - 140 characters is right out for me. I admire anybody who can be coherent in either format. I can only do things in long-form essays or fiction, which is why Switch needs to be cut down. I have a tendency to overdevelop!
Yes, it does not escape me that I am discussing how bad I am at Flash Fiction in a post that is almost as long as a typical flash fiction story. Irony is one of my strong suits.
I was introduced to Flash Fiction a few years ago, and when I first heard about it I got all excited because it felt like a great way to crank out stuff in short time, and if there was a market for it you could therefore just pump out a tremendous amount of work with no effort. I gave it a shot.
I am an epic failure at Flash Fiction. Turns out I can't say anything in less than about a thousand words (as this post so adequately demonstrates), and I have no skill to develop a complete story that's not nonsense that fits into 500 words or less.
This is also why my Twitter feed is all post repeats - 140 characters is right out for me. I admire anybody who can be coherent in either format. I can only do things in long-form essays or fiction, which is why Switch needs to be cut down. I have a tendency to overdevelop!
Yes, it does not escape me that I am discussing how bad I am at Flash Fiction in a post that is almost as long as a typical flash fiction story. Irony is one of my strong suits.
Friday, April 25, 2014
My bad habits
The editor really helped me see some bad habits in my writing, which is great. Now I have to slog through Switch and undo them all.
Bad Habit #1: Starting on apreposition conjunction. So I like to start sentences with conjunctions. But it's not like I do it for every sentence. And I think sometimes it gives the sentence a certain flair. Of course you have to be careful not to make it a habit. Unfortunately, I have.
(Update: yeah, I know those are conjunctions and not prepositions. What can I say? It was late and I was tired and confused and forgot the words to Conjunction Junction.)
Bad Habit #2: Towards not using really anymore. I always say Towards, instead of Toward. To remove that, I'm just taking the word out when I run across it. I use really all the time, because I really like the word really, as it as a really good sense to phrases. Apparently I also am terrible at using anymore properly, and usually write any more.
Bad Habit #3: Lay vs lie vs laid vs lied. Ah, forget it. I'm just going to have everyone and everything stand up.
Bad Habit #4: The great POV switch issue. I do really good at not confusing POV in the main body of the story, but I stick in all these authorial asides that are in the wrong POV (usually second person). That needs fixed, because it's really distracting. Typically the fix is to cut it out.
Bad Habit #5: Too many parenthetical phrases (like this one) and way too many colons: they're distracting. But I love colons! Almost as much as I like starting sentences on prepositions. I'm not so sloppy that any characters talk in parenthesis - that would be too much - but I do stick them in exposition an awful lot.
There's a multitude of other, smaller, less frequent things, but I've seen a giant surplus of those issues in the first seven chapters of the story. And I never noticed them before!
See, kids, this is why we edit.
Bad Habit #1: Starting on a
(Update: yeah, I know those are conjunctions and not prepositions. What can I say? It was late and I was tired and confused and forgot the words to Conjunction Junction.)
Bad Habit #2: Towards not using really anymore. I always say Towards, instead of Toward. To remove that, I'm just taking the word out when I run across it. I use really all the time, because I really like the word really, as it as a really good sense to phrases. Apparently I also am terrible at using anymore properly, and usually write any more.
Bad Habit #3: Lay vs lie vs laid vs lied. Ah, forget it. I'm just going to have everyone and everything stand up.
Bad Habit #4: The great POV switch issue. I do really good at not confusing POV in the main body of the story, but I stick in all these authorial asides that are in the wrong POV (usually second person). That needs fixed, because it's really distracting. Typically the fix is to cut it out.
Bad Habit #5: Too many parenthetical phrases (like this one) and way too many colons: they're distracting. But I love colons! Almost as much as I like starting sentences on prepositions. I'm not so sloppy that any characters talk in parenthesis - that would be too much - but I do stick them in exposition an awful lot.
There's a multitude of other, smaller, less frequent things, but I've seen a giant surplus of those issues in the first seven chapters of the story. And I never noticed them before!
See, kids, this is why we edit.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)