But I did just finish a translation that turned out to be 132 pages long. At no more than 3-4 pages per day, tops, that's a lot of translating. What a relief to be done.
Now I get to buckle down on a merely 60-page translation. I would joke that it will be a walk in the park in comparison, but it is reporting on medical breakthroughs by researchers at the university here. I am learning A LOT about hepatitis C, and that's just the first person being featured out of about 10. *sigh* Still, it's better to keep busy.
Plus there's another short web text to edit, but I can do that when I get back from Switzerland!
Friday, October 29, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Ch-ch-changes
At this rate, I’m never going to get anything finished, much less published.
I had gotten some writing in, and I was generally pleased with it, although not completely married to it. I realized I had neglected to factor in X detail, which meant I had to change Y. After altering this and adding that, I realized I wasn’t getting past the first thousand words. Between the fear that I had hit the turd-polishing stage and the realization that there was still a lot I didn’t know about my characters, my will to write took a nose-dive.
The story is still there, percolating under the surface, but it is more the slow blub-blub of a tar pit, when I think I need it to be more of a fast boil. Hmmm…
I had gotten some writing in, and I was generally pleased with it, although not completely married to it. I realized I had neglected to factor in X detail, which meant I had to change Y. After altering this and adding that, I realized I wasn’t getting past the first thousand words. Between the fear that I had hit the turd-polishing stage and the realization that there was still a lot I didn’t know about my characters, my will to write took a nose-dive.
The story is still there, percolating under the surface, but it is more the slow blub-blub of a tar pit, when I think I need it to be more of a fast boil. Hmmm…
Monday, July 05, 2010
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Workin' workin' workin'
...and then we die some more!
Have been too busy editing to do any writing recently, but I am almost done with that (1 doc on my computer and 1 doc coming in a few days), and then I will be back to translating. Which hopefully means that I will also be back to writing. More thinking has happened, but I want to see where it takes me before I start waxing philosophical about it.
Off to the last doc in my possession!
Have been too busy editing to do any writing recently, but I am almost done with that (1 doc on my computer and 1 doc coming in a few days), and then I will be back to translating. Which hopefully means that I will also be back to writing. More thinking has happened, but I want to see where it takes me before I start waxing philosophical about it.
Off to the last doc in my possession!
Sunday, June 27, 2010
LNR has been on my mind a lot recently. That is one of the nice things about working with other people's words for a living--they stay on the page at the end of the day. I don't find myself wondering about the development of the educational system in the Renaissance or democracy in the Philippines after 5 p.m. I usually find it interesting while working on it, but then I can set it aside. With my own writing, it spends a lot of time lurking around in my brain.
Just deciding that you having some characters you want to write a story about is not enough, I have discovered. It is a little like planning a wedding: you go into it thinking it is pretty straightforward--dress, flowers, ring, church--and find out there are a ton of decisions to be made that then affect other decisions to be made. Some details flow naturally from the context and others have to be consciously decided on.
A few posts ago, I mentioned tone. Recognizing that it was something I would have to take into consideration was good. Unfortunately, it occurred to me later that I hadn't really been thinking about my character the right way before, that I hadn't gotten down her tone. And that in turn was because I hadn't thought my way through the story. All I really had was that she was there, with her own baggage, something terrible happens, and...? Not exactly the stuff of great literature. A story can't just be A happens, then B happens, then C happens, the end. There has to be a change. Static characters are boring characters.
Quest stories--popular in fantasy--are one way of doing this: character goes on a journey, faces internal and external perils, learns something about the world and himself, reaches a goal, and returns successfully, a changed person.
A character doesn't have to fight a series of (literal) monsters to change, though. Dealing with the consequences of his or her actions can change a character, too, as I discovered in Haddon's Spot. The characters are the members of a family, and most of them change over the course of the book from kind of selfish jerks to people trying to be more aware of themselves and the people around them. This happens in part because they stop trying to deceive themselves, or start trying to see what is really in front of them.
I realized that my main character sounded somewhat like me, with my background and experiences coloring how I act and perceived the world. But that is not her history. Looking at the situation I have placed her in, I have to decide how *she* would respond, and what kind of person that would turn her into. I also had an idea for a final scene, and there is no way that the person on page one, as written now, could be the person on the last page. So there is more thinking ahead of me on that point.
Another thing--and this is going to sound stupid, I know, but there it is--that had me worried was how I was going to fill up enough pages to make a novel. As I said, dumb. Now I recognize that this, too, was related to me not thinking through the story. I didn't have any idea of how long of a time-period I was looking at for the action of the story. I originally thought I would stick closely to the point of view of my main character, but then I realized there were other characters with their own stories to tell. Unfortunately, one of them is going to get the whack part way through, but that is what it is.
I'm not a very demonstrative person, so the thought of writing about other people's thoughts and feelings when I have trouble expressing my own is rather daunting. I think this aspect of writing is going to be my own personal quest.
Just deciding that you having some characters you want to write a story about is not enough, I have discovered. It is a little like planning a wedding: you go into it thinking it is pretty straightforward--dress, flowers, ring, church--and find out there are a ton of decisions to be made that then affect other decisions to be made. Some details flow naturally from the context and others have to be consciously decided on.
A few posts ago, I mentioned tone. Recognizing that it was something I would have to take into consideration was good. Unfortunately, it occurred to me later that I hadn't really been thinking about my character the right way before, that I hadn't gotten down her tone. And that in turn was because I hadn't thought my way through the story. All I really had was that she was there, with her own baggage, something terrible happens, and...? Not exactly the stuff of great literature. A story can't just be A happens, then B happens, then C happens, the end. There has to be a change. Static characters are boring characters.
Quest stories--popular in fantasy--are one way of doing this: character goes on a journey, faces internal and external perils, learns something about the world and himself, reaches a goal, and returns successfully, a changed person.
A character doesn't have to fight a series of (literal) monsters to change, though. Dealing with the consequences of his or her actions can change a character, too, as I discovered in Haddon's Spot. The characters are the members of a family, and most of them change over the course of the book from kind of selfish jerks to people trying to be more aware of themselves and the people around them. This happens in part because they stop trying to deceive themselves, or start trying to see what is really in front of them.
I realized that my main character sounded somewhat like me, with my background and experiences coloring how I act and perceived the world. But that is not her history. Looking at the situation I have placed her in, I have to decide how *she* would respond, and what kind of person that would turn her into. I also had an idea for a final scene, and there is no way that the person on page one, as written now, could be the person on the last page. So there is more thinking ahead of me on that point.
Another thing--and this is going to sound stupid, I know, but there it is--that had me worried was how I was going to fill up enough pages to make a novel. As I said, dumb. Now I recognize that this, too, was related to me not thinking through the story. I didn't have any idea of how long of a time-period I was looking at for the action of the story. I originally thought I would stick closely to the point of view of my main character, but then I realized there were other characters with their own stories to tell. Unfortunately, one of them is going to get the whack part way through, but that is what it is.
I'm not a very demonstrative person, so the thought of writing about other people's thoughts and feelings when I have trouble expressing my own is rather daunting. I think this aspect of writing is going to be my own personal quest.
Friday, June 25, 2010
The subconscious is really a lovely thing. Here I've been working out the details of my characters' lives, and suddenly smack! There's a detail changed, and for the better. What I mean by "better" is that it is not as obvious as my original plan, or is more original, and it is something I think I can research and not make a fool of myself writing about it. Sorry to be so vague, but at this point the detail in itself is not what I wanted to write about, just the recognition nothing is ever set in stone when you are writing (or rather, planning for writing).
I often find myself having these aha! moments when doing mindless things, like straightening the kitchen (because I am messy in there) or washing dishes. Luckily, as I found out today, excitement about a new idea doesn't always override common sense. For instance, today (in the kitchen, of course) it occurred to me that I could tangle up my main character's love life by first introducing a love interest who is totally unlike her (she has some unique qualities, let us say), but then having someone who has the same qualities as her show up, only he turns out to be rather a bastard. That's when some other part of my brain said "Cliché!" I'm not saying I think I am so original that whatever I write will instantly receive special snowflake status, I just don't want to perpetuate a trope that shows up in every third novel that has a romance in it. I'll just set my subconscious to work on that and see what shakes out.
I often find myself having these aha! moments when doing mindless things, like straightening the kitchen (because I am messy in there) or washing dishes. Luckily, as I found out today, excitement about a new idea doesn't always override common sense. For instance, today (in the kitchen, of course) it occurred to me that I could tangle up my main character's love life by first introducing a love interest who is totally unlike her (she has some unique qualities, let us say), but then having someone who has the same qualities as her show up, only he turns out to be rather a bastard. That's when some other part of my brain said "Cliché!" I'm not saying I think I am so original that whatever I write will instantly receive special snowflake status, I just don't want to perpetuate a trope that shows up in every third novel that has a romance in it. I'll just set my subconscious to work on that and see what shakes out.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Too tired
Too tired to post much today over here, now that I wrote about Hannah coming home late and upsetting both me and her dad on my other blog. I had actually worked a bit on LNR and was pleased with what I was getting done when I got sidetracked by that other stuff. And now my brain kind of hurts, so I think I will finish my cup of tea and head to bed.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Yesterday, I posted once here and once on my "regular" blog. I went back and ran a word-count on the 2 posts and found that I had managed to write 1.5 times as much as I had set as a (small, easily manageable) daily goal for myself. Today, I just posted on my regular blog and managed almost double my daily goal, without even having made it over here yet. But for me, the point isn't just that I write over a certain number of words every day, but that I (1) think about my writing on a regular basis, and (2) reach out to my friends and family through my blog more often.
Our grandmother passed away in March. She was the only person I exchanged letters with any more. Toward the end, I was sending her weekly (or so) postcards, just so she would now I was thinking about her. That's not really the format for long descriptions of what we have been up to, but it was still contact with someone I love. After she passed and I got back home, I realized that my blog would have to be my mode of writing chatty letters back home--not really saying much about anything, but just giving tidbits of our daily lives that our family couldn't experience directly. Like I used to write to Grandma. It took me a while to do it, though. There was a reluctance to overcome. I don't know why, but now I seem to have reached a place where I can try to be a better "correspondent" via my blog(s). So that is one thing that is driving me to be more wordy.
-----------
Yesterday, after writing here about my little insight on writing, I went back to LNR, and I figured out how to do it, how to start it. I wrote 1K. I stopped when I couldn't see what was happening anymore in my mind's eye. And then I got a little nervous, because there was a (what felt to me like a) long-ish section that was mostly dialogue, with little narrative in there. So I did what I always do when I am uncertain--I looked to see what other people have done. (As an editor and some-time teacher, my motto is You don't have to reinvent the wheel.) I looked at Alexander McCall Smith's The Sunday Philosophy Club and Haddon's Spot again. I realized two things. First, my section of dialogue was not too different from some of theirs. Check. Second, it is ok for me to add bits of my main character's mental responses and mental digressions, and even a few bits of info from the narrator. I don't have to stick so closely to what can be seen from the outside, like a little film of the action. I haven't had time today to go back and consider where I could apply this new-found knowledge, but I am really excited about doing it, whenever I finally do get the chance.
Our grandmother passed away in March. She was the only person I exchanged letters with any more. Toward the end, I was sending her weekly (or so) postcards, just so she would now I was thinking about her. That's not really the format for long descriptions of what we have been up to, but it was still contact with someone I love. After she passed and I got back home, I realized that my blog would have to be my mode of writing chatty letters back home--not really saying much about anything, but just giving tidbits of our daily lives that our family couldn't experience directly. Like I used to write to Grandma. It took me a while to do it, though. There was a reluctance to overcome. I don't know why, but now I seem to have reached a place where I can try to be a better "correspondent" via my blog(s). So that is one thing that is driving me to be more wordy.
-----------
Yesterday, after writing here about my little insight on writing, I went back to LNR, and I figured out how to do it, how to start it. I wrote 1K. I stopped when I couldn't see what was happening anymore in my mind's eye. And then I got a little nervous, because there was a (what felt to me like a) long-ish section that was mostly dialogue, with little narrative in there. So I did what I always do when I am uncertain--I looked to see what other people have done. (As an editor and some-time teacher, my motto is You don't have to reinvent the wheel.) I looked at Alexander McCall Smith's The Sunday Philosophy Club and Haddon's Spot again. I realized two things. First, my section of dialogue was not too different from some of theirs. Check. Second, it is ok for me to add bits of my main character's mental responses and mental digressions, and even a few bits of info from the narrator. I don't have to stick so closely to what can be seen from the outside, like a little film of the action. I haven't had time today to go back and consider where I could apply this new-found knowledge, but I am really excited about doing it, whenever I finally do get the chance.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Thinking Aloud
I think I mentioned that I had been writing and re-writing the opening to my work in progress. At the time, I was worried that I would end up stuck on that section, always re-writing and never getting past that scene. It could happen. It was happening. I don't know how many times I have re-written it now, taking more or less the same information and rearranging it over and over again. The fear of stalling out led me to my bookshelves; I wanted to see how other people went about it.
The first thing I realized was that I don't have many books set in the present, and no urban fantasy (well, it might be a stretch to call what I am doing urban fantasy, but I am using it for want of a better term).
The next thing I realized was that not only does the opening set the stage for the rest of the work, it also sets the tone. I'll try to explain what I mean by that: opening Mark Haddon's novel A Spot of Bother, I read
At first, I thought this sentence was rather dull, the subject rather prosaic. But I kept reading. And then it struck me that it reflected the personality of the character George, who is a little dull and prosaic. In this particular novel, Haddon later switches the point of view to the different members of this family, and the narrative prose changes as well to reflect their personalities.
I realized that I had been describing my character's actions without really setting her tone. She's deeply cynical and a little bitter, and she will take some major hits, but she will also continue to hold close the few people she is close to and hopefully add another one to the mix.
The first thing I realized was that I don't have many books set in the present, and no urban fantasy (well, it might be a stretch to call what I am doing urban fantasy, but I am using it for want of a better term).
The next thing I realized was that not only does the opening set the stage for the rest of the work, it also sets the tone. I'll try to explain what I mean by that: opening Mark Haddon's novel A Spot of Bother, I read
It began when George was trying on a black suit in Allders the week before Bob Green’s funeral.
At first, I thought this sentence was rather dull, the subject rather prosaic. But I kept reading. And then it struck me that it reflected the personality of the character George, who is a little dull and prosaic. In this particular novel, Haddon later switches the point of view to the different members of this family, and the narrative prose changes as well to reflect their personalities.
I realized that I had been describing my character's actions without really setting her tone. She's deeply cynical and a little bitter, and she will take some major hits, but she will also continue to hold close the few people she is close to and hopefully add another one to the mix.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Editing
No one, and I mean *no one*, should love the colon as much as this author. He's not even German! (It is used more frequently, more legitimately in German than in English.)
*sigh*
*sigh*
Saturday, June 05, 2010
Banished
I am sitting at my computer, banished upstairs--or is it a voluntary withdrawal--while Hannah has a belated birthday sleepover. Five 13-ish year-olds. Oi. I don't remember many of the specifics of sleepovers at the age of 13, but the hyper, loud, trash-talking--that I remember.
But anaway...
The last few nights, I have worked on my opening to LNR, and 3 attempts later, I have something I am fairly pleased with. Of course, that is not set in stone, either. I have already erased one sentence of it, and the last sentence is still a fragment. But it is progress, and that is a good feeling.
Now I am going to think about it some more while I wait to be summoned downstairs for birthday cake. Then I am going to bed.
But anaway...
The last few nights, I have worked on my opening to LNR, and 3 attempts later, I have something I am fairly pleased with. Of course, that is not set in stone, either. I have already erased one sentence of it, and the last sentence is still a fragment. But it is progress, and that is a good feeling.
Now I am going to think about it some more while I wait to be summoned downstairs for birthday cake. Then I am going to bed.
Thursday, June 03, 2010
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Checking in
I am trying to build more writing habits, one of which is to not neglect my blogs. After I had a bout of logorrhea here the other night, I went bed with my notepad and jotted quite a few new notes about LNR. I am not certain I am satisfied with that, but it is something.
Then last night I spent the evening trying to get rid of a Trojan that was lurking on my laptop. I think I was successful, but it really sucked up my time and mental energy. Surprisingly, I have had a really good day, work-wise (editing), and am just using this little entry as a chance to take a brain break before embarking on some translating.
You know, I haven't missed the web sites I deleted like a Biblical plague, at all. And of the 9 that remain, I haven't gone and read all the new entries, despite them being marked as new!new!new! I have a heady feeling of control, and I like it, much as Katie Perry likes macking on chicks.
Ok, I don't think my brain is going to get any more broken than that, so time to get to translating!
Then last night I spent the evening trying to get rid of a Trojan that was lurking on my laptop. I think I was successful, but it really sucked up my time and mental energy. Surprisingly, I have had a really good day, work-wise (editing), and am just using this little entry as a chance to take a brain break before embarking on some translating.
You know, I haven't missed the web sites I deleted like a Biblical plague, at all. And of the 9 that remain, I haven't gone and read all the new entries, despite them being marked as new!new!new! I have a heady feeling of control, and I like it, much as Katie Perry likes macking on chicks.
Ok, I don't think my brain is going to get any more broken than that, so time to get to translating!
Monday, May 31, 2010
Not too rambling, I hope
Kee and I have been awol for various reasons since--hoo boy--November, I see. Time to see if this thing can't be saved from the junk heap of the Internet.
I have been going back and forth on whether I even want to write. I had convinced myself that I just don't have what it takes, whether I actually wanted to write or not, and my short story "Late Night Radio" walked up and hit me in the head with a bag of lead pipes and said, "Hey! I'm actually a novel, dummy!" Way to be decisive, Nee. So that is something I have been working on in my own particular idiom, which means daydreaming while in the shower or washing dishes or doing the occasional craft project, but not really writing much. Yes, yes, I am on the fast track to success, you see.
Last night, I was reading online, as is my wont, and I came across this essay by Roger Ebert. Yes, Roger Ebert the film critic. He has a blog on the Chicago Sun Times web site, and I have thoroughly enjoyed reading his writing there. He writes with conviction but politeness on topics that would reduce others to snark and name-calling. Anyhow, the essay I read last night was about his online reading practices, and how he worries that it is affecting the way his brain works. If you look at the essay, he even cites a study that shows physical changes in the brain as a result of regular Internet use. He is concerned that his online search for that little charge you get--the frisson mentioned in the title of the piece--is resulting in an inability to engage with longer or deeper material. I recognize this frisson he speaks of--I realize that I have been looking for it in the 2-column-long list of RSS feeds I have found myself scanning multiple times a day. One day recently, I kept going back and refreshing it, over and over, as if suddenly a few dozen people would have hopped onto their computers to provide fresh fodder for my reading pleasure.
It also occurred to me, beyond Mr. Ebert's points, that the sites I was frequenting were themselves not very informative or deep. I like snark, but a steady diet of it is probably not too good for one's soul. Or mind. Last night in bed, I made a mental list of the sites on my feed, and it wasn't pretty. So this evening, I went through and weeded out the majority of feeds. I now have less than 10, and none are of the same type. Only 2 or 3 of them post regularly, so I won't be wading through a lot of updates. They are a mix of entertainment and information, but those that fall squarely under the heading "entertainment" must also have a certain something extra: sparkling wit (not just snark), engaging writing, or a perspective I wouldn't normally get. If I am going to spend my time and attention on something, it should be worth my while. (And if I decide I want to read the other stuff, I have a brain that contains the names of the other sites and can certainly find them on the Internet. I just won't have them piped into my home computer.)
In another blog essay I read recently from the science fiction author Jay Lake, he discussed deciding that the 2 most important things in his life were his daughter and his writing, and everything else would either have to fit around those or go away. TV? Bye-bye. Video games? Never got a foothold. (I seem to remember that he has talked about this before, but I decided that going back into his archives to look for it would probably be such a time suck that I wouldn't get around to finishing this entry. Score! for the rational mind.) And I realized that there are plenty of things even beyond my growing RSS feed that I allow to encroach on my time, without thinking about whether they are going to bring me closer to my goals. (Not that I am a goal-setter by nature. Maybe I should think about that.) Anyhow, I decided that Animal Crossing could get on without me for a while longer. Whenever I play, *whoosh!* there goes an hour, easy. So I gave Hannah my permission and blessing to play as me and send all my money to her character. It was enough to pay off the mortgage on her house and let her get a basement room. That's a lot of digital peaches picked and fish caught and shells collected and bugs netted and trees shaken.
Basically, this post is me saying that I have decided to not be so passive, to take an active approach to apportioning my time and giving myself the best chances to sit down and write. And that in turn entails acknowledging my fears (that is probably a post in itself) and not letting them dictate my actions. I can't decide if succeeding or failing is scarier, but doing nothing is saddest of all.
I have been going back and forth on whether I even want to write. I had convinced myself that I just don't have what it takes, whether I actually wanted to write or not, and my short story "Late Night Radio" walked up and hit me in the head with a bag of lead pipes and said, "Hey! I'm actually a novel, dummy!" Way to be decisive, Nee. So that is something I have been working on in my own particular idiom, which means daydreaming while in the shower or washing dishes or doing the occasional craft project, but not really writing much. Yes, yes, I am on the fast track to success, you see.
Last night, I was reading online, as is my wont, and I came across this essay by Roger Ebert. Yes, Roger Ebert the film critic. He has a blog on the Chicago Sun Times web site, and I have thoroughly enjoyed reading his writing there. He writes with conviction but politeness on topics that would reduce others to snark and name-calling. Anyhow, the essay I read last night was about his online reading practices, and how he worries that it is affecting the way his brain works. If you look at the essay, he even cites a study that shows physical changes in the brain as a result of regular Internet use. He is concerned that his online search for that little charge you get--the frisson mentioned in the title of the piece--is resulting in an inability to engage with longer or deeper material. I recognize this frisson he speaks of--I realize that I have been looking for it in the 2-column-long list of RSS feeds I have found myself scanning multiple times a day. One day recently, I kept going back and refreshing it, over and over, as if suddenly a few dozen people would have hopped onto their computers to provide fresh fodder for my reading pleasure.
It also occurred to me, beyond Mr. Ebert's points, that the sites I was frequenting were themselves not very informative or deep. I like snark, but a steady diet of it is probably not too good for one's soul. Or mind. Last night in bed, I made a mental list of the sites on my feed, and it wasn't pretty. So this evening, I went through and weeded out the majority of feeds. I now have less than 10, and none are of the same type. Only 2 or 3 of them post regularly, so I won't be wading through a lot of updates. They are a mix of entertainment and information, but those that fall squarely under the heading "entertainment" must also have a certain something extra: sparkling wit (not just snark), engaging writing, or a perspective I wouldn't normally get. If I am going to spend my time and attention on something, it should be worth my while. (And if I decide I want to read the other stuff, I have a brain that contains the names of the other sites and can certainly find them on the Internet. I just won't have them piped into my home computer.)
In another blog essay I read recently from the science fiction author Jay Lake, he discussed deciding that the 2 most important things in his life were his daughter and his writing, and everything else would either have to fit around those or go away. TV? Bye-bye. Video games? Never got a foothold. (I seem to remember that he has talked about this before, but I decided that going back into his archives to look for it would probably be such a time suck that I wouldn't get around to finishing this entry. Score! for the rational mind.) And I realized that there are plenty of things even beyond my growing RSS feed that I allow to encroach on my time, without thinking about whether they are going to bring me closer to my goals. (Not that I am a goal-setter by nature. Maybe I should think about that.) Anyhow, I decided that Animal Crossing could get on without me for a while longer. Whenever I play, *whoosh!* there goes an hour, easy. So I gave Hannah my permission and blessing to play as me and send all my money to her character. It was enough to pay off the mortgage on her house and let her get a basement room. That's a lot of digital peaches picked and fish caught and shells collected and bugs netted and trees shaken.
Basically, this post is me saying that I have decided to not be so passive, to take an active approach to apportioning my time and giving myself the best chances to sit down and write. And that in turn entails acknowledging my fears (that is probably a post in itself) and not letting them dictate my actions. I can't decide if succeeding or failing is scarier, but doing nothing is saddest of all.
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