Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
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7:06 am - A good start
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antares
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I've got a good start at NaNoMo; 6,666 words so far. The problem is I'm used to working with two monitors, and one of mine just crapped out.
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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Thursday, October 23rd, 2008
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10:03 am - NaNoMo
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antares
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I don't know why, but I signed up for NaNo next month. I've got too much going on at the moment as it is. Watch for major breakdown next month. :)
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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Friday, July 18th, 2008
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12:51 pm - Quick!
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Thursday, June 26th, 2008
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9:09 am - Idea Files
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toliver
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I've decided to start an idea file. Does anyone have one of these?
Some of the news lately is so stupid that really it deserves to be used in books. I'm almost at the end of Evanovich's latest (I'm listening to it) and I have a feeling that she does that. This one is a little um, less than riveting by the way. A couple of good bits (very few) strung together by a really weak plot. So much so I think I may give the next one a pass.
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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Sunday, June 15th, 2008
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11:31 am - Getting Stuck
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toliver
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Last night I filled out a fantasy world building exercise by Patricia Wrede (NOT all of it, just a portion) at http://www.sfwa.org/writing/worldbuilding1.htm and started writing dialog and promptly got stuck after about four paragraphs. I then spent a long time refining those 4 paragraphs and couldn't think (I'd stopped in mid comment) what the character intended to say. Just... baffled by it. It was one of those "then she said, to change the subject" and really had no clue what she wanted to change the subject to.
What do you do when you get stuck?
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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Wednesday, June 4th, 2008
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10:12 am - Mary Sues
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toliver
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A day or so ago I skimmed a new book that I was half inclined not to read because it is one of a series and the last few have been less than satisfactory. (This author has never been on my friends list and will never read this, by the way.) I didn't like the book. The kiss of death for me was that I started reading the author's blog, which I stopped doing because it became too annoying.
It was a shock to discover that her hero was a Mary Sue - oh other people had said that and I kind of saw it. It wasn't until I read her blog that I realized the two voices were exactly the same. Plus I realized why no other characters were developed. The spotlight, in her books and life, was squarely on herself. Her first 4 or 5 books had plot, character development and interesting characters. All that has dropped by the wayside. Before I started reading her blog, I thought that it was a series she was tired of writing but it turns out she just is now completely focused on her Mary Sue and thinks she knows what her readers want even though they tell her plot and character development are missing.
This of course caused me to rethink my writing. Do my characters sound just like me? Do the secondary characters exist to make my Mary Sue look even better? I don't know.
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(7 comments | comment on this)
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Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
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5:38 pm - Wanna make sure your character isn't a Mary Sue?
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Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
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8:53 am - Organizing
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toliver
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Jim Butcher has posted an article on Jim's Livejournal in case anyone is interested. It is about "Organizing This Frickin' Mess" a place where I fall down. I'd heard about character pages and I'm doing that but the story arc on a big sheet of paper is a new one. He says other authors use index cards. How do y'all organize your plots?
I'm using Scrivener which is a writing program for mac that I like a lot. It actually has index cards but I don't think that I am using them to best advantage. I was trying to organize chapters but it looks more like scenes to me. Maybe I should just go with that. How do you do it?
Link to article:
http://jimbutcher.livejournal.com/profile
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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Wednesday, March 5th, 2008
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8:24 am - There's hope for us!
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antares
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Just think, if we can finally finish writing a novel, I would think we could get it published.
Try reading this. It's the first chapter of the next book for a "New York Times Best Selling Author."
Personally, I don't see how such drivil gets published. Maybe I'm biased because her earlier books were actually interesting. I've seen better writing in fanfics and rpgs.
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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Wednesday, February 20th, 2008
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3:54 pm - Not much today
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antares
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I spit out another 185 words today. This brings my total for February to 1304. I made the mistake of going back and editing a bit of what I'd already written, that took away from adding new stuff.
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(comment on this)
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Tuesday, February 19th, 2008
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4:14 pm - A few more words to the heap
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antares
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I got another 388 words in today. My total so far is 1119, just 881 more to go to reach the goal for the month.
How's everyone else doing?
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(comment on this)
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Monday, February 11th, 2008
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12:57 pm - Started!
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antares
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OK. 326 words. It's a small beginning. The problem with a lot of the ideas I have is figuring out how to start.
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(comment on this)
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