The Blog Takes an Early Weekend… Sort Of
My laptop has been a little sluggish lately (aren’t we all?), and right now I’m in as much of a lull as I’m going to get, so yesterday I took it in to the local Mac place for a diagnostic. I figured, I’ll drop it off, run some errands, pick it up in an hour or two and be out a little chunk of cash but richer in peace of mind. Yeah, not so much, at least on the timeframe. “It’ll be a day or two.” [gulp] “You mean like twenty-four hour earth days?” If I’d realized Read more…
The Writer’s Environs: What Crosses the Road?
The film version of The Descendants opens with this great monologue where the main character discusses the image people from the mainland have of people living in Hawaii, that it’s Paradise and everything is Mai Tais and surfing and easy living all the time. “Are they nuts?” he says. “How can they possibly think our families are less screwed up, our heart attacks and cancers less fatal, our grief less devastating? Hell, I haven’t been on a surfboard in fifteen years.” I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. Don’t get me wrong–I’m not complaining about where I live. It’s more that I’ve been struck by how Read more…
And Now for Something Different… a Friday Five List!
As regular visitors to this space know, there’s a new Blog post every Friday. I usually write these on Thursday nights, but occasionally I’ll wing it on Friday. So here’s my dilemma. It’s currently Thursday night (as I’m writing), and most of the potential Blog Posts in my head are about rewrites, because that’s what I’m doing and—to be honest—that’s what I’m dying to get back to. But we have a contract—I deliver a weekly Blog Post and you pretend to read it—and I suspect by now you’re sick of hearing about editing. What’s a blog-blocked writer to do? Apparently Read more…
Arachnopocalypse, or The Things That Occupy a Writer Between Paragraphs
It’s a good thing it’s hard to fall asleep on a yoga ball chair. Yes, it helps your productivity to actually be awake at your desk. (Although I have heard a well-timed nap can do wonders, unless you have three dogs and a cat for whom human napping is anathema.) But right now, staying awake at my desk is a matter of life and death. The day I fall asleep may be the day they eat me. Following is a rough reconstruction of the Arachnopocalypse timeline. Day One: Oh, that little bitty web at the ceiling is too hard to reach, Read more…
The Joys and Hardships of Rewrites, and Survey Results So Far…
When does a draft become a rewrite? Is anything after the rough draft a “rewrite,” or does your story have to be farther along (i.e., less crappy)? Sorry—that’s probably a little too esoteric for a Friday morning. Maybe I’ll look it up when I’m not so busy second drafting/rewriting. Overall, I’d have to say I’ve enjoyed my first week of Book Five rewrites (gotta call it something), but it’s a contradictory process. There are entirely new scenes to be added (two in particular are going to be so much fun!), descriptions to flesh out and motivations to clarify. But I’ve Read more…
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