It’s Work, not Magic
I think I have finally disabused myself of the romantic notion that letting stories “gel” in my “subconscious” will “work out issues” and “develop depth.” Nope – turns out the plot problems are still there, the motivations still fuzzy and the protagonist’s favorite color unknown. Then I sit down to write and discover her name is Genny, she’s afraid of horses and maybe burning down the town is the right idea, after all.
The Long Watch
I sent an email about this to my father, but wanted to capture it here too. Because if nothing else, this web site is a place for me to go on and on about Robert Heinlein and his effect on my life.
Reading all the news stories about the 50 people trying to keep the
nuclear factor under control in Japan, I keep thinking of the Heinlein
story The Long Watch. If you’re not as familiar with the story as my father and I am, the hero sacrifices himself to disarm some nuclear warheads and dies, isolated, of radiation poisoning.
I frankly don’t remember a lot about the story, other than hero is self-sacrificing, brave and ironic. But a final scene has always stayed with me: After he’s received a fatal radiation dose, he lights a cigarette, and blows a puff of smoke at the Geiger counter, which chatters wildly. He grins in reply.
We all pray it doesn’t come to this. God bless the power plant workers, and keep them safe.
Not-a-haiku for the end of Winter
Red birds in birch tree
Blue sky behind them
Promise of Spring
Update and Encouragement
People have not been knocking down my door, missing my blog updates. But it has been nagging at me that I’ve been absent too long – both from the blog and from fiction.
I went back to work full-time in September. It’s a fun job, with lots to learn. I love learning new organizations, systems and processes – it’s like mental candy. I feel like a Pac-Man gobbling up dots. And no ghosts so far!
My goal has been to keep writing, but it’s taken a bit to sort out a new schedule, commute, gym time, Jim time and have brain cells left over. As I suspected it would, though, the writing is sneaking from the back of my brain to the front with increasing frequency. First an idea for a story that is just a tiny bud and needs some work to grow, then an idea for a blog post (a real one, not this one), and then the thought of returning to a short story that might could be a novel.
The very day I went back to work full-time, I received a response on my latest story from a major magazine editor, saying it wasn’t quite right but they’d like to see the next one. It is so encouraging and exciting to hear from someone to whom I’m not related that my writing doesn’t suck. Unfortunately, I haven’t had a “next one” to send.
My goals for this year is to write and submit four new stories. Unless I go back to that novel……
To my Heirs and Executors
I know a lot of first drafts are bad. Some people, I hear, write quite decent first drafts to save time on rewrites later, or perhaps because they’re just that good.
My first drafts stink. I write in fits and bursts to get my thoughts down and I try and abandon different paths. I’ll leave an awful sentence if it gets the point across because I need to get all my thoughts down before they vanish.
Now that I’m working on a novel I’m moving forward with a general story arc but there are so very many things I still don’t know. And, since it’s science fiction, I have to create a whole new future, too! It’s a ton of fun, but I’m flying without a chart most of the time.
So, if I should die before a rewrite, please don’t think less of me and my stinky draft. It’s my process, people!
On Facing 100,000 Words and Not Getting Bored
I freaked out a couple of weeks ago. I had written a 2000 word scene for The Novel that I was reasonably happy with. Then I realized I had to do it 50 more times. Holy Crap.
I started thinking about how to break the novel down into three acts, and then roughly allocating the number of words per act. (That’s about 35,000 per act for those of you playing along at home.) Ken Scholes, who is an honest-to-god-published-sf-author, just finished a 34,000 word novella in four months. And he has a full-time job and twin babies. I have a part-time job and two cats. (I know he would also say that he’s been writing a lot longer. Good point, Ken.)
I realized that one of my science-fictional premises invokes a mystery, and I want to have that come home in the third act. The problem is I don’t know who-did-it so to speak. And that’s been hanging me up for a week.
Then today I meshed that hang-up with another one of my fears: that I can’t write a novel because I’ll honestly get bored before I’m done. I mean, I don’t finish a solitaire game once I know I’m going to win. So, as much as anything, my writing method needs to to keep me interested until the damn thing is finished.
I don’t need the answer to the mystery for the first act. So I’m going to write, and let my brain keep working on the puzzle of the upcoming mystery. I don’t know how it’s going to end. And that may be more fun. At least for 30,000 words.
Finishing-with-another-hypenated-phrase-since-today-seems-to-be-the-day-for-them.
Today’s Writing and your Cold War Trivia, for Friday, July 23
When I write something that makes me really happy, I clap. Is that weird?
And today’s trivia:
Did you know Nikita Khrushchev’s son is a naturalized US citizen? Truth is stranger than anything I make up.
http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/stalin/b1.html
New Editor
I have a new editor. This one works directly on the keyboard.
Editor Cat
Does this mean that he likes it or that it needs work?
Some Favorite Bad Movies
I hesitate to make a list of “Top Ten Bad Movies” because I fear commitment. No sooner would I post a list then I would think of another awful film and have regrets. So let’s just start with a few, shall we, and I’ll add them as my memory serves me.
Bad movies are best when you run across them flipping channels. Do not attempt to rent and watch a bad movie from start to finish.
Number One All Time Favorite Bad Movie: Commando
Demonstrating my inability to commit to my fear of commitment I do have an unequivocal number one.
Reasons I love it: Single Dad kills everybody to save his daughter. Arnie’s arms like tree trunks. Brave little Alyssa Milano spitting at a bad guy. Shopping at the weapons store with the hilariously well stocked vault. Rae Dawn Chong launching a LAW. Twice. Arnie in a swimsuit. Arnie painting himself with camouflage sticks. Machine gunning the heads off roses.
Best lines:
Arnold: Remember, Sully, when I promised to kill you last? I lied.
Rae Dawn Chong: “These guys eat too much red meat.
Other Favorite Bad Movies in No Particular Order
Zorro the Gay Blade
Reasons it’s Fabulous: Zorro has a gay identical brother. Named Bunny. Outrageous Spanish accents. Lauren Hutton’s acting range from A to B. Brenda Vaccaro going over the top, and back around and up and over again, God bless her.
Best Lines:
Fifth Don: I am Don Luis Obispo from Bakersfield.
Esteban: Walk like a sissy boy!
Esteban: Is it red like an apple or red like a radish?
Zorro: The sheeps! In the field!
My Blue Heaven
Reasons I love it: Steve Martin plays a mobster and chews up a Jersey accent. Rick Moranis is an unlikely Fed. Joan Cusack is in it. Joan Cusack is the love interest. Rick Moranis kicks a guy’s ass and throws him out the house. Demonstrates the value of knowing how to merengue. Scene title slides like “As I am not trained for anything else, I re-embark on former career.” This movie forever changed my tipping philosophy.
Best lines:
Steve Martin’s cousin: “I thought Wankel invented the rotary engine?”
Steve Martin: “It’s not tipping I believe in. It’s overtipping.”
Down With Love
This one’s really bad. Just watch the clothes. Appreciate that the filmmakers bravely swung and missed. Think of Ewan McGregor jetting around Hollywood in the vintage Porsche roadster he bought to get in the mood of the period. Wonder if you’d look good in a hat.
Best Lines:
Sssh. Don’t listen. Watch the clothes.