Monthly Archives: August 2006
Cover Letters
Packing all the tools before taking the futon frame apart? Not a good plan.
In lieu of content, have two links I was saving for Sunday:
Mensa gatherings are all about sex, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
What not to do in a cover letter, compared to picking up a woman in a bar. Continue reading
Writing Links
Moving Tips:
The best advice I ever got was to ask liquor stores for empty boxes. They’re sturdy, small enough to be good for books, and they’re free.
Another good idea: you know those old bills, receipts, and credit card offers that’ve been sitting in the to-be-shredded pile for months? The technical term for that stuff is “packing material”.
Link(s):
![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
raleva31 on writing as an inborn talent vs a practiced craft. It begins
Another little controversial thing I hear once in a while is this idea that good writers are just born that way: They have this different, special way of looking at the world that the rest of us can’t even hope to see unless we see it through their eyes. They have this very special “gift” with words and thoughts.
I am going to disagree with that.
I agree with her. There is such a thing as talent, but it’s not going to do a lazy writer any good. And the “writers are special” thing doesn’t appeal to me, especially when self-proclaimed writers use it to set themselves above other people and then fail to actually write.
On a related note, the AP begins an article on Nora Roberts with Endless reserves of imagination aren’t all it takes to write 165 novels. It also requires the discipline of a drill sergeant.
Goals for the week:
Pack the rest of the books and start the dishes. Almost. The books are done!
Writing Summary:
Another most of a week off, though I’m *almost* caught up on critting. If someone hadn’t posted a new chapter today, I’d be all set. I’m following three novels on OWW and one off the workshop, and everyone posted once or twice in the past two weeks.
I suspect next week will be off as well, though by Saturday I missed the book and so worked on the synopsis a bit. But having a synopsis or a few thousand words written or revised will do me no good if the movers show up and I’m not ready.
And yes, I could take the critting time and turn it into writing time, but my brain hasn’t been in the right space for it. Despite the stuff in the Links section above. :)
Sunday: some critting
Monday: none, busy
Tuesday: none, lazy/busy
Wednesday: critting
Thursday: none, busy
Friday: none, busy
Saturday: critting (and I was all caught up til someone posted a new chapter). some synopsizing.
Exercise Summary:
Sunday: short walk
Monday: jog/walk, 45 min
Tuesday: none, busy
Wednesday: none, busy
Thursday: none, busy
Friday: none, busy
Saturday: none, lazy
This week:
MOVE Continue reading
A Note on the Lack of Paragraphs
For some reason, when I edit posts imported from LiveJournal, WordPress kills all the paragraphing and I can’t put it back in.
Locus Sales Information
Useful or Cat-vacuuming?:
Melinda Goodin has compiled the sales information from Locus into a spreadsheet. Useful if you want to check which authors sold what to which editor via which agent etc.
Random Link:
The National Christmas Tree Association has a “Today’s Tree” feature and links to the game “Attack of the Mutant Artificial Trees.”
Found While Packing:
One empty box previously labeled “books. No emus.” Or possibly “books npcmus,” which is not an improvement. (There were, in fact, no emus.)
Goals for the week:
3 days of exercise onePack a few boxes of books
Writing Summary:
I was going to work on a synopsis this week, but decided I’d take the week off and give myself a break from the book instead. That worked out well, since I barely had time to miss the book until yesterday.
Sunday: none, busy (packing-type stuff)
Monday: none, busy (packing)
Tuesday: none, busy
Wednesday: none, lazy. and procrastinating on non-writing stuff that should have kept me busy.
Thursday: none, busy.
Friday: none, slept.
Saturday: some critiquing.
Exercise Summary:
Sunday: walk/jog, 50 min
Monday: busy. short walk.
Tuesday: busy. short walk.
Wednesday: none. forgot to bring clothes so I could go jogging after work.
Thursday: none, busy.
Friday: none, slept.
Saturday: lazy.
This week:
Pack the rest of the books and start the dishes. Continue reading
Writing Links
Recent readings:
M.J. Rose questions whether blogs are an effective promotional technique.
Rachel Vater has been discussing the perils of writing in more than one genre, here and here.
Star Trek motivational posters and Make your own motivational poster.
On Tuesday, Sony Classical will release compositions by 14-year-old Jay Greenberg.
Goals for the week:
Finish typing chapter 4Play with the earlier chapters3 days of exercise
Novel Stats:
Made-up Deadline: 12/31/06 (needs to be changed.)
Current Wordcount: 18392 (two months ago: 18626. 24 hours ago: 19480.)
Percentage (of 100k): 18
Words per Day Needed to Meet Deadline: 579 (two months ago: 403)
Current Average: 52 (two months ago: 64)
Projected Completion Date: 11/29/2010 (two months ago: 12/13/2009)
And people wonder why I complain about my slow progress.
Writing Summary:
Saturday, since I was fighting with Shadow Play, I decided it’d be a good time to finally update my outline (it was stuck four or five chapters ago). Doing that reminded me that back in February, inspired by John Braine’s How to Write a Novel, I tried and failed to write a synopsis of the book.
I’ve decided to try the synopsis thing again. Maybe that will straighten out the book. If I can manage to write the synopsis this time.
Got a lot done, considering I was visiting my family most of the week.
Sunday: finished typing ch 4
Monday: critting
Tuesday: revised query letter
Wednesday: typed all the revisions to ch 5-6
Thursday: a bit of work on ch 9
Friday: fun with queries
Saturday: slash&burn on chapter 1. updated outline. worked on synopsis.
Exercise Summary:
Sunday: none, busy
Monday: none, lazy
Tuesday: jog/walk, 30 min
Wednesday: none, lazy
Thursday: none, busy (flying)/lazy
Friday: ~30 min. tried the Christi Taylor I didn’t like again; got bored after 20 min and started the strength workout on the same dvd; got tired and quit.
Saturday: ~60 min: Christi Taylor’s Strength, Balance, and Flexibility
This week: will be busy.
Attempt synopsis of Shadow Play
3 days of exercise
Pack a few boxes of books Continue reading
Pork Chops with Syrup
Ok, it’s really Pork Chops with Cherry Preserves Sauce (Cooking Light, Aug. 2006). But I should have read the recipe more closely before I decided to make it, as the sauce is just cherry preserves and a tiny bit of vinegar. Waaaaaaaaaay too sweet.
Next time I’ll stick with the pork-and-plums recipe I love so much from a previous issue. That fruit sauce is dried plums+wine+chicken broth. Much less sweet.
And I thought I was lucking out since cherry preserves were on sale. Continue reading
Peach Tapioca
Writing is such a pain in the rear.
I’d hoped, when I started this book, to save myself from the endless round of rewriting that I had to do on the previous book. No such luck.
This week I finished typing in the revisions I’d scribbled onto printouts of chapters 4-6, then reread the book so far (it ends in early chapter 9). Unsuprisingly, it gets off to too slow a start, so I’ll be deleting the last scene of chapter 1 and the second scene of chapter 4. Yay, more rewriting.
I also have to rewrite chapter 8, since I made a big change in chapter 7 to keep all my characters from getting killed.
Would anyone like to loan me a new writing process? This isn’t as tedious as poring over the thing trying to add more description, but it’d be nice to write a scene and not have to rewrite it, or delete it, later. (My cuts files already have two chapter’s worth of words in them, and that doesn’t include the old version of chapter 1 or stuff that only got heavily rewritten. That means I’ve cut nearly 20 percent of what I’ve written. Fantastic.)
Anyway, today I am going to whip chapters 1 and 2 (now called chapter 1) into shape, and then write more of chapter 9. (I finally started writing new story again on the airplane [1]. It’s been ages. (I will probably cut it again later.))
Yesterday I did no work on this book but did a million other things. Including making Peach Tapioca. That wasn’t what I wanted to make (I need to hit the grocery store), but it was pretty tasty:
Peach Tapioca
1 15 oz can peaches, undrained
enough soy milk to make 1 c of liquid
~2 TBSP quick tapioca
cinnamon and brown sugar to taste
Mix everything in a saucepan and let it sit for several minutes. Bring to a boil, stirring occassionally. Turn off heat and let sit for ~20 minutes.
[1] This would have been easier if I had a non-wireless keyboard for my Palm. I had a laptop, but it seemed too much trouble to drag it out for the short Chicago-Detroit hop. Continue reading
Vellum, Hal Duncan (9)
Hal Duncan’s Vellum is an awesome book. I finished it a few weeks ago, but was holding off on the review until I could say something more profound. I have since given up thinking of something to say. Go read … Continue reading
