• WIP,  Writing

    Not As According to Plan As I’d Like

    by Writing is a very strange business sometimes. Actually, writing is a very strange business all of the time, but I have something specific in mind at the moment. When I try plotting something, or even just figuring it out in my head, I usually have a decent idea of the wordage something will take, at least at the scene level. I can think about what’s supposed to happen in a scene and guess roughly how long it will take. The first draft will usually wind up somewhere in the ball park. If I estimate a scene at 2500 words, it will almost certainly break 2000 and probably won’t reach…

  • Life,  Writing

    The Bechdel Test

    by I’m not sure how well known it is, but there’s this thing called the Bechdel test. It’s more or less a pass/fail test of gender bias. You can find plenty of detail with a quick keyword search (I like the Wikipedia article, actually), but it runs basically like this: Does the movie/story/play have: At least two women in it? Who talk to each other? About something besides a man? If you can answer all three of these with a yes, then the work in question passes the test. Interesting, no? I have no intention of arguing the merits of the test (or any of the tests derived from it)…

  • Writing

    2014 Writing Goals

    by Based on my 40s so far, projecting anything over an entire year is difficult. I’m going to try anyway. In the last three months of 2013, I proved I can maintain the pace needed to produce a significant body of work. I’d like to think the quality is high enough to be worth reading by someone who isn’t family. While I’ve sold short fiction in the past, and hope I continue to do so, the jury is still out on my novel length work, so I’m focusing a lot of effort there this year.   Writing Goals for 2014 Rather than setting a daily goal, I’ve got specific project…

  • Writing

    2013 Writing Recap

    by It’s been a turbulent year in some ways, but I’ve had worse in recent memory. Creatively speaking, the year has had equal parts frantic activity and abysmal nothingness. It rounds out not too badly. First, a quick re-cap, pulling a few choice bits of information from blog posts and plans of a year ago and reality measured up.   Writing Goals for 2013 1,000 words per day of new fiction, totalling 365,000 words, but with the relaxing caveat of every day being a new one and only the new target matters. Somewhere in this total, the first draft of Tashiik Dreams or Dreams of Freedom. Reality: I wrote no…

  • WIP,  Writing

    I Should Have Killed the Shepherd

    by In the novelette I’m currently working on, “Last of the Sorcerer Kings”, there’s a scene where one of the two POV characters comes across the results of the killer he’s chasing entertaining himself. In the raw outline, I just listed it as “The Shepherd Scene”. The idea was for the hero to further his resolve to catch the bastard who can do stuff like this to other people. When I got there, I realized I’d already hardened his resolve based on hints dropped about events before the story began. I also saw it as a way for the other POV character to impress the hero and develop her as…

  • Writing

    The TWD

    by So I may be a writer, but I’m also very fond of numbers. Obsessed, some people of my close acquaintance might say. The proper ordering of my universe requires numerical accuracy in addition to well understood grammar. As applied to my writing, this numerical obsession manifests several ways. Aside from the writing reports I’ve started doing monthly again, I actually have writing logs going back to when I first started to get serious about getting better at writing. (The first day in the first log is 15 August 2007, where I spent a few minutes each on four different stories, plus a short blog entry. I can’t find the…

  • WIP,  Writing

    November Numbers

    by Writing Report, November 2013 Keeping myself honest, and not because I expect many people will read this, it’s time for the first of the month writing update to cover the previous month. In this case, November 2013. I won’t go into the “productivity” experiment parameters again other than as they match up with the goals I reached or didn’t for November. Again, there are numbers involved, so if that bores you, skip ahead to the end. First, a quick reminder of the parameters of the writing experiment: Limited, but daily when possible, social networking, mostly over breakfast. (I’m semi-failing at this. FB has done well enough from me, but…

  • Writing

    The Next Project

    by It’s been a week for finishing things, creatively speaking. Aside from drafting the last scene of Universal Destiny last night, I also finished plotting the last few scenes of book 2 of the Godhead trilogy (planned to start drafting January 1st), and the final (read it out loud) draft of Ancient Runes (which I now need to figure out what to do with). This is not a writing report for November. There are still 4 days left, including today, and   hope  to pound out some additional wordage before the end of that time. That said, heady with success at the moment, I’m plunging straight into the next project, which…

  • WIP,  Writing

    The First Serious Month

    by Writing Report, October 2013 So it’s been a while since I’ve done the whole “writing report” thing. Because I’m conducting a kind of massive writing experiment right now, I’m going to revive the practice for the experimental period, the idea being a little objective analysis. If numbers aren’t your thing, much less the explanations behind them, I suggest you skip this post. It’s also likely to be long. First, a quick reminder of the parameters of the writing experiment: Limited, but daily when possible, social networking, mostly over breakfast. (I’m semi-failing at this. FB has done well enough from me, but only on a personal level, and I’ve probably…

  • Writing

    Do Not Disturb

    by So, I don’t consider myself a Horror writer. Science Fiction and Fantasy usually fall into my keyboard. My heart belongs to them, reading and writing. It’s not that I have anything against Horror, because I don’t, and not solely because it’s not my way to piss on other people’s art. Although that’s a nice rule to add to your personal book. But I don’t enjoy being disturbed by my entertainment. I get enough of that from my reality, thanks. No, I should correct that. I’m not interested in being disturbed by my entertainment when that’s its sole or primary purpose. There’s nothing wrong with having disturbing situations in a…