Sunday, January 31, 2010

Sleepy Sunday

Sara has finished her revisions, in the way that sara is never actually finished with anything when she says it is. So it's time to let the story stew a while. Do a little marinading, a little simmering. And it's a good thing too, I'm kinda sick of it.

Overwhelmed I'd say, and who'd doubt it after managing to revise the whole damn thing in like 2 weeks.

So for a while I'm going to crochet, and read something that doesnt kill brain cells, and maybe, finally, finish cleaning my craft room.

And do my Wednesday writing prompts. Those, though I've only done one week, I really like. And yesterday when I was at work, on a horrid call (it is incredibly rude to eat while you're on the phone with someone. don't do it.) i wrote this little sentence that so perfectly indicated my disgust that I made myself to write 2 or 3 more. I figured if I could write things that gross me out so well that I actually get grossed out reading it, that would be good practice for descriptive writing now wouldn't it?

Mouth sounds -

the hollow wet sound of a sucker being moved fromone cheek to another, clattering over teeth and followed by a slurpy swallow.

Wet Hair -

The knot of twisty brown in the drain after a shower, still wet and speckled with bursting soapsuds. You can't quite grab it and it slips when you pull.

The smell of Vanilla (and coconut) -

The heavy thick shade of yellow I can't begin to describe. One cloying fist clenches the stomach while the other turns my brain 3 degrees to the right.

*shiver*

i'm never doing that again. i gotta go puke a little bit now.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Just, just!

My hatred for the word has extended into the Prequel.

I have used it while I write, but every time I see it in revisions I cross it out.

There will be only minimal use of the word 'just' in my novel.

"The wolves came in close to snap at their heels, their teeth only a breath away, their snarls just this side of friendly."

Only where it belongs. Only how it's supposed to used...



Please excuse my crankiness - I'm a bit frustrated in the book I finished yesterday. Officially the worst I've ever read. Its a Cochlear Implant, not a Colloquial Implant, but that isn't even the worst of the awfulness of that book...

If that book can get published I believe I should have no problem doing the same with mine.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Its Legos

So it seems that Chapter 11 really was a turning point because everything after it has had uber upgrades and corrections.

yesterday i got to chapter 16 which i think is second or third from the last and my goodness is it bare!! But i realize what was going on. On the last few chapters I was hurrying up to finish because I was coming up on November and I didnt give a shit about anything but Nanowrimo. I just had to get the rest of the story on the page, but since I was writing the last useless bits of a story that i already knew by heart and knew i would remember later, these chapters are almost nothing but outlines!!

I realized that revision on a novel like this is crazy. The environment surrounding me and the way i am forced to write in snippets makes me scratch out mostly stream of consiousness paragraphs. At the end i'm sitting there looking at this huge mess that must be taken apart and put back together in the correct order.

Its not a puzzle, because all the pieces fit with all of the rest of them. It's more like legos. Only thing is I didn't have any intructions, so the kit that was supposed to make a spaceship intead looks like a castle.

and i'm telling you, a castle is not what i meant to build.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Writing Prompt 1

From Elite Writing Prompts from last sunday http://elitewritingprompts.blogspot.com/2010/01/word.html
Use the following words in a poem or a short story that is no longer than 500 words: Elongated Critical Epitome Locksmith Dainty Monster Claw Rapture Swirl

For some reason the words made me think of the characters of The Spaceship Story. And because I'm rather uninventive sometimes I decided to use them. It's easier sometimes than making new ones :) 500 words exactly. I finished with 507 so I had to delete 7 useless words. Sorta hard!

Dartia sat, chin in hand, at the counter in the kitchen. He watched mildly as Nesris put dinner together, unmindful of her audience. She moved easily in the kitchen, her long years of life as a slave had not made her dainty, but solid and sure in the things she did. Dartia could have been admiring her, but his mind had wandered away to other things.

One of the elongated metal ceiling grates above the table suddenly rattled. Dartia turned to look at it, Nesris gave it only a momentary glance before returning to her preparations. After a moment the grate swung down on its hinge and a pair of legs followed it down. Kint landed on the table in a furious crouch, the fingers of his hands curled into nasty claws and a snarl on his face.

“The resident monster has arrived,” Dartia said calmly over his shoulder to Nesris.

“What would your mother say if she saw you standing on the table Kint?” Nesris answered without looking up.

Kint jumped off the table and crossed to the kitchen area. “What are you making. Dessert?”

“Yes, dessert. Picori Rapture, your favorite. Would you like to help me with the picori fruit swirl?”

Kint assented and Nesris got him set up to do the chopping and blending needed for the dessert’s cream topping. With Kint occupied and most of dinner baking or simmering she turned her attention to Dartia.

“You are the epitome of distraction today,” she told him.

He blinked and his eyes cleared of their distant stare. He smiled and shrugged. He opened his mouth to speak but the crackle of the intercom over their heads interrupted him.

“Alert,” Ion announced in his most automated of voices, “Greenhouse air purification tanks have reached critical volume.”

“What’s going on?” Nesris asked the computer, concerned instantly about the little greenhouse kept the lower compartment of the ship.

“There is a malfunction in the relays,” Ion answered in his normal tone, considering, amused and vastly intelligent. “I’d fix it but the gardener is obsessively controlling and I’m locked out of the system.”

Nesris rolled her eyes. “Just override my lockout. You know how to do it.”

“I am a super advanced artificial intelligence, not a locksmith.”

“You’re a super advanced artificial intelligence that is directly linked into the Orbitor’s systems. If you let those relays stay fused what other kinds of problems could occur to ruin your operating system?” Dartia scolded his friend.

Ion had no breath, but he muttered something none of them really understood before he clicked off the intercom. Dartia smiled brightly at Nesris. “I can watch all your pots if you want to go down and check it out.”

“Watch them boil over and burn and not notice a thing,” she kissed his temple as she passed. “Kint will take care of it.”

Nesris left the kitchen and Dartia returned his chin to his hand and distantly considered Kint as the boy prepared the night’s dessert.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Got Some Things Added

I added some links and whatnot so the blog ain't so boring, plus i have a great idea for a banner thing with the blog title!! i love great ideas.

I really wore myself out this week at work with all the revising. If I thought I had added a lot to Chapter 11, 12 went even further. Most of the white space of each page was filled with illegible little scribles and most of the white backs of pages were full as well. I'm proud that I have begun to turn the hardest parts of the story into something worthwile.

Revision of my Scribbled-quickly-between-calls-at-work writing is more or less finding the good and tearing it out if the grips of the bad that cling to it so desperately. And I find the best of the bad and of the good and it cheers or amuses me as the case may be.

Like this sentence I found on my first revision of my typed draft:

"Beside you warnings on saftey, mine are nothing at all."

While i get the gist of what is being said, I cannot for the life of me turn any of those words into a useful, comprehensible sentence. A friend said it sounded like instructions out of China. I can't say I disagree...

And then there's the times that you pause and reread something over and over, completely astounded that such a thing could come from you.

"The last night spent together they ran further than they had in a long time. They returned home long after they'd left, closer to dawn than believable. The boy found their Common forms, and then their clothing and their beds. The morning birds sang them to sleep."

I see that it still has it's little bristles of rough patches, but I could SEE it. actually see the shadows heading for their beds... I left the little paragraph unchanged in my editing binder because that is one piece that is going to need some precision editing and not quick-between-call-scribbles that are my forte.

There is a blog I have known about for many moons that I have never used. Its called Elite Writing Prompts and it was shown to me by someone in the Etsy community. From now on I will be doing at least one prompt a week. Wednesdays are my days to clean the house so i can wander about brain-writing and take short little breaks to finger write my response to the prompt. So wednesday will be my day for forgetting The Prequel and exercising the rest of my writing spirit. Of course I may choose a prompt from any day during the week rather than just sticking to wednesday's prompt, I am comfortable with that level of cheating...

Saturday, January 23, 2010

The Evil Chapter Eleven

Today i reached chapter 11 in my revisions and i despaired.


Chapter 11 was the chapter that was the most difficult to write. It was torture to later type it up. The first revision/creating-the-outline step was horridly sloggy. I even looked back at my 'outline' which is really just a quick summary of each chapter so i know where stuff happens. I also used it to write down errors or ideas i had at that moment and most chapters are the front and back of one page.


chapter 11 had 5 notations, all about how this point was clumsy or another was vauge. Compared to chapter 11 of the Spaceship Story which I was so excited to write i barreled through 8-10 just to get to it (i'll get a link later) this is rather unsatisfying.


Chapter 11 is sort of the turning point and quite possibly the most important chapter. It is the final revelation of the main character's deepest secret and it is also her lowest point, where succumbs to her greatest betrayal. its the stuff that has to happen in all stories and i have come to terms with being a terrible and spiteful god at times.


so today was slow going as i set to work. this is page 3 of chapter 11. i worked so diligently on it from top to bottom that when i finally raised my eyes to see all i had done i was shocked by what had been added. I fear i will not be able to make any of this out when I return in a few weeks to enact these revisions in my computer copy.

Friday, January 22, 2010

The First Post

I'm starting this little bloggy spot so I can have a place to vent over and study my own adventure into the next stages of writing my (second... but we'll talk about that later) sci-fi novel.

As of right now it is in First Draft format, typed up on my computer. Several of the chapters have been printed and revisions have begun. It was when I opened my binder yesterday and saw all the post-its - SO MANY post-its!!! - that I realized I was going to need a place to destress and write about something else from time to time to keep this thing from consuming me. I'm no good at writing in my crafty blog unless I do a custom order that I really like, so since the story is all I can think about, even when I want to take a break from the story, I will still be writing about the story... how's that for brilliant?

And on the topic of Post-its... yesterday I was paging through the old chapters that have already been revised and i opened to a page that was highlighted randomly in blue (i recognized the highlights as Important Topics that must make it into final, but i had not felt like rewriting the whole thing at that moment). On top of the writing was a pink post-it with words written with the blue highlighter (so i know they go together. i'm quite color coordinated in my binder if not in my clothing). All it said was "This needs to be more interesting"

really? Thanks for the constructive criticism Past Sara. Thank you oh so very much! there were no notes on what parts should be more interesting, or any tips or ideas. just the command to make it more interesting...

Well I mentioned before that this is the 'second' novel but I always say it with quotes. There is a 'completed' story which I refer to as the Nameless Monstrocity (and i will continue to refer to all my stories in their working titles which are usually ridiculous). I put this story on a drive and gave it to my dad for his birthday because I wanted him to be the first to read the thing I'd literally been thinking about and working on since 7th grade when my characters were born.

And then I started thinking about it and I realized I'd written the wrong story first. Just like me between 7th grade and now, the story had gotten bigger than I realized and I felt I had missed a lot that was important. I told my dad to stop reading (he can't read the second one first now can he??) and I began to write The Prequel. It is this that I am working on now. It is this that I will focus on, at least for the beginning of this bloggy adventure. I am sure breaks will come where I go to work on The Spaceship Story, or one of my National Novel Writing Month novels (Winner past two years. Woot) and you can be introduced the the rest of the crazy universe I created to hold all my brain plays.