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| Also, whilst I'm sermonizing: A family member is having to move into assisted living, and the rest of us are closing up the house where they lived for 60 years. This entails figuring out who gets the china, the crystal, the beautiful silver, the table linens, the rugs. The thing that is kind of breaking my heart is a package of gorgeous little embroidered tea napkins...still in their wrapping. From 1960. Friends, buddies, dear hearts: if you love your pretty teacups, or your embroidered table linens, or your fancy soap, or the good chocolate, please, please please just use it. Use it up. Burn the candles. Wear the paint off. Let the corners of the book get foxed. These things exist to serve you and bring you joy. You've got this one life! What are you saving your joy up for? Have the joy now! (We have been given the relative's tea set, and this is me resolving to drink my coffee from it every day.) |
| I read a thing today, from writer I'm not going to name or link to, who is feeling like unless they make a living only from their writing and/or win literary awards and/or become a bestseller, there is No Point To Writing. And I thought of years ago, when I had a friend who wasn't married and really wanted to be, and they told me once, passionately, "you just don't understand! When I spend all afternoon cleaning my house, there's nobody to come home and say, 'wow, babe, you worked so hard cleaning, why don't I just take you out to dinner'! I don't get to go to dinner!" At the time I was extremely married and also extremely covered in toddlers at all times (three kids under age 4). I frequently spent all afternoon cleaning only to have the toddlers undo it in spectacular fashion. While my husband is a diamond among men, I don't think it ever occurred to him (or me!) that if he DID come home and the toddlers had been thwarted, we should then push our luck by hauling them to a restaurant. Mostly we just fell asleep on the couch a lot. I didn't want to discourage my friend by telling her this, so I said "but you're the only person you have to coordinate schedules for, so if you want to go to dinner, you should! You don't have to have permission, right?" I think writing is sort of like that. It's easy to assume "successful" writers have the equivalent of a spouse who whisks them to romantic post-cleaning dinners. In reality, every Professional Author I meet is covered in literal or metaphorical toddlers. Almost nobody can make a living at writing or any other art. But you can make a life in your art. You can take yourself to dinner, as it were. That is, you can write whatever you want and find readers. I mean whatever you want. (A long poem about anthropomorphic trains? Listen, I am positive someone on Ao3 wants that.) It's nice to make money. You should use good business practices and be picky about contracts. But I know exactly one (1) Professional Author who doesn't have a day job, and they live with two people who DO have day jobs (and insurance). It's the writing and the readers that actually feed the soul, my dears. Don't define your win condition in such a way that you can't win. A great thing about WdC? It's loaded with win conditions. So if you're feeling be-toddlered today, take heart. (/end sermon) |
| Good morning, my friend, and I hope it finds you well! This is quite a pep talk, and one that is, on the face of it at least, quite a good analogy. We've all been single, but those who have never been married or parents have no idea how "the other half" lives, and never will unless they go all-in for the long haul with another human being. Love it or hate it, you have to stay alive unless you view suicide as a viable life option. But no one has to write, and we all decide what success is for us. When I set out to be a serious writer some fifty years ago, I was looking at apartments in New York and clearing my schedule for the late-night talk show circuit. Life has a way of slowly and methodically beating such nonsense out of you. If you aren't one of the 0.1% ~ and I doubt it's that high ~ who make a viable, worthwhile income from your writing, you have to decide whether it's worth continuing. I made my choice, you've made yours, and in my case, any writing I do is strictly for my own enjoyment as a hobby. I display it on writing.com, and mostly, people like it. Here in the twilight years, that's enough. Some people would consider that a waste of their time, and good for them, it's their choice. If you don't think writing without monetary reward is worthwhile, then start a stamp collection, buy an off-roader, hike the Muir Trail; do something that makes you happy! We'll all be the better for it. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to work on a story that I'll never see a dime for, but I've already seen a couple of boffo reviews, and could some day see a Merit Badge or AwardIcon because of it, and that's plenty of reward for me. You be safe and have a wonderful week! ...  |
Jack o' Lantern  - Right on! I don't know if it's an American thing or what, but there's an idea that hobbies are somehow like... frivolous? When usually they're things that people are doing solely because they love them. They're the purest forms of art and practice there are, and they nourish people's lives. That they don't also always generate income seems kind of beside the point to me. Like never telling a joke because you can't get paid to be a stand-up comedian... |
Ghastly Grim And Ancient Raven  - It's been my experience that hobbies are what keep you sane, and tolerable to be around. You can almost instantly tell when you meet someone who doesn't have one... |
| Where do I do my reviews? Tonight, on my back porch, while the teeny frogs who live in my flower pots sing. |
| Ghastly Grim And Ancient Raven - I think these long, multi-wick candles were traditionally used to light bread boards, sideboards, and buffets. |
| I keep sharing my revision updates, btw, for a few reasons. One is because it keeps me motivated and allows me to feel like I'm making progress instead of wading through warm taffy. Very important, when you're trying to keep your speed up for 115k of novel. (Or rather, what will eventually be 115k, the thing keeps ballooning and shrinking and shrinking and ballooning. I'll do a post on how to cut without losing plot points eventually...) Another reason, though, is because I'm a working writer, and I think it helps less-experienced writers to know exactly *how much* revision is part of the game. Sometimes I think people get discouraged when they realize they even have to do revision in the first place. So I'm trying to be transparent here, so people can see that even a pretty good draft gets revised...about a jillion times. The drafting of Last Year's WIP went like this: 1. write first 7 chapters 2. revise them 3. show them to Max Griffin 🏳️🌈   who is a stand-up guy and a pal 4. write about a chapter or two per week 5. revise them 6. show them to "Crosstimbers Novel Workshop"  , a whole roomful of stand-up people 7. repeat that for many chapters 8. finish novel! yay! drink prosecco 9. move to Texas. This doubles as "leave novel alone so you can read with a fresh eye" 10. sort of accidentally write another novel, This Year's WIP 11. reread and do a rough revision of Last Year's WIP 12. send to agent 13. agent liked it, but has notes, also wants me to cut 15k of words 14. make revision plan/new outline 15. revise chapters 1-6 for voice and continuity with new outline 16. start structural revisions on chapters 7-15 ---->YOU ARE HERE See? You're doing just fine! Having the thing not be exactly right the first time you type "the end" just means you're bog standard as a writer. |
| In Revising Last Year's WIP news, I have gotten through fourteen of thirty chapters on the structural edits. We are almost to halfway, friends! Well--better than halfway, I think? Because after fifteen I shouldn't have to do *that* many more structural edits at the level of writing entire chapters of new prose. We may get these structural things done before Thanksgiving yet. After structural edits, then my plan is to make 1) a pass for voice, 2) a pass for worldbuilding details and description (I tend to just write things like "bread" when I'm drafting, when I should really decide. i.e. does this culture use rye? sourdough? flatbread? what), and then 3) a pass for Pretty Prose, where I tidy up sentences and make sure I don't use the same pretty phrase multiple times. (Once I read multiple stories by the same author, who is not on WdC as far as I know, and in multiple stories, multiple times he had people scootching across carpeting during a fight, and used the phrase "carpet bit her skin through her skirt". I know what he meant--rug burn is nasty--but probably that's one of those constructions you get to use only one time. Ever since I have been paranoid about checking my work to avoid repeats.) |
| The Dodgers ARE, in fact, doing their best to break my heart in game one. It's like they're not even listening to me! |
| Holy Smoke! It was 2-2 last I heard. I guess the Blue Jays made up for leaving the bases loaded in the 1st inning. |
Mordecai Grimsly
🦇🧟  - I'll bet Griffin's (then) "favorite moment in human history" was pretty cool for you, then. From Men in Black III: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGN9B30GxVU (6:52 mark) |
| Listen to me, Dodgers, don't break my heart in game one. |
| Max Griffin 🏳️🌈 - It was difficult for me to laugh at your comment, because I've listened to a cricket match or two. Agatha Christie's fictional sleuth, Hercule Poirot, makes the comment, "I know of no other sport in which even the players do not know the rules." |
| Max Griffin 🏳️🌈 - Bren asks, "Has he ever done golf?" Robin Williams made some very amusing (and probably true) comments about watching golf while 'medicated.' |
| There! I finally managed to give a pair of characters their happy-ever-after. I'd been kicking around an ending that didn't feel right for a while, and finally couldn't take it anymore and did surgery, morphing two versions together. Now, with help from my faithful crit partners (and most especially Max Griffin 🏳️🌈 ), I think I finally got it done. Now maybe I can concentrate on OTHER characters who need a HEA. |
| Sometimes you read a book that does its thing so darn perfectly that you just walk around the rest of the day feeling annoyed you can't tap dance like that, you know? (It was a very clever combination of a gothic romance and a country house murder mystery, where the POV character recognizes the tropes of both genres as they pile up around him and flatly declines to go along with them. And I mean, *all* the tropes--flickering gaslights, ladies running out into the dark in floaty nighties, ancient curses, secret passageways. Great fun!) |
| Max Griffin 🏳️🌈 - I have a lot of friends who are very sweet to me, and I am very blessed to have them. |
| "It's October," I said to myself. "This is a very lightweight cotton sweater," I said to myself. "Isn't it sweater weather?" I said to myself, ardently looking at the clouds this morning, believing it might actually not get *that hot*. "It's such a pretty plum sweater! Maybe if I wear it with shorts." Well, I made it in the very lightweight cotton sweater until about 1:15 pm before crawling back to a tank top. I don't know how seasons work in Texas. |
| Ghastly Grim And Ancient Raven - You're making me so glad I didn't hang with my Texan Ex. October wasn't BAD but I was glad to be back home anyhow (even though at the time HOME was hotter.) Love this State Hello I mean OHIO with its 63 degree weather. |
Joto-Kai  - All my instincts are to expect a frost in October, so this is Quite Strange. I'm determined to love Texas, so I am gamely trying to get on board with hot October. I am just still a wee lamb... |
I get what you're saying. I'm in south Texas but not a Texan, I'm a transplant, a norther and a gringo. The first two years I was here, when it turned cool the back of my norther brain said it was going to get cold any minute. More than once I put on what used to be a fall jacket to go out in the evening and ended up carrying it instead of sweating in it. Lately the weather is just the way I like it. It's been low 70s as the sun comes up, perfect for a bike ride, then 90 or so by afternoon. Last year my last swim was on Nov 19th, the air was 85 and the Gulf of Mexico was just a few degrees cooler. Can't think of anyplace else I'd want to be. |
| A while back we shared pictures of offices, and mine wasn't done yet. It's done(ish) now, and I was enjoying it today, so I thought I would show you. Isn't my teapot pretty? |
SUPER  actually!! I love it! I think I'll snap a pic of my writing space this eve and post it. |
| citruspocket - I didn't actually choose it, it was just that color when we moved in, but I don't really care for the all-beige home decor that's in style nowadays. Thus I left the dark green walls and bought the bright yellow pattern drapes... :) |
| Since we moved in I've been doggedly wearing my Dodgers cap when I go for my "run" (it is a walk/jog, only kind people call it a run). I thought maybe if I look the same and go most days my new neighbors will at least be like "oh, it's that lady in the Dodgers hat". I sometimes pass an older gentleman out for his walk at the same early-morning time and we usually wave. Today I could see he wanted to talk so I pulled out my earbuds (I was listening to Zombies! Run! and can recommend it) and said "It's nice that it's cooler in the morning, isn't it?" And he grinned and said "HOW YOU LIKING OUR DODGERS LATELY?!?" I discovered that all these months he has apparently been seeing me and not thinking "boy that lady runs like a duck" but rather "it's me and her against the world! Dodger fans surrounded by Padres fans! we gotta stick together!" Warmed my heart. And (ahem) go Dodgers. (We might repeat the world series, you guys!) |
| In Revising Last Year's WIP news, after writing it wrong about a dozen times I *think* I have finally written a version of chapters 11 and 12 that are at least good enough to go on with, and I'm finally getting there on chapter 13. Then, it is to be hoped, I can write the new chapter 15--which is action, and which doesn't require me inventing a map of a new location, and which should be easier to write--and then get to just revising already-written prose, which is MUCH easier than dropping in whole new chapters. If you're curious, I finally broke through last night with my Trick of Last Resort, aka "No Take Backsies". This is where you start typing and are not allowed to stop or hit backspace, even to fix a typo, for a certain amount of time--say 20 minutes. If you can put your head down and do it, you may write a bunch of nonsense, but odds are you'll also write yourself out of the stuck spot. (Nonsense can all be trimmed out when you go back later and fix your typos, anyway.) |
| Joto-Kai - The chaff is Editing Raven's problem. "No Take Backsies" is to get Drafting Raven un-frozen. Drafting Raven cares not for Editing Raven! Editing Raven is a buzzkill! |
| And friends I owe reviews to, I have not forgotten you! I've just been a bear of very little brain for like a week, what with flu shots and sick kids and whatnot. But tonight I have *some* brain and will pick up my reviewing pen, Lord willing and the creek don't rise. |
| I got mad at the revision, plus I got a sore throat, so--and in my defense, I picked this book because I'm reading Writing The Blockbuster Novel by Albert Zuckerman, and he gives you homework, and some of the homework is The Godfather--I read The Godfather this weekend. Like most other people in America I've seen the movie, but I had never read the book before. And reading it specifically because a book on writing told me to, I tried to read it like a writer, and here is my conclusion: friends, this is both a genius book and a deeply goofy book. It's a genius book because Puzo has impeccable narrative voice in his prose, and a really good feel for characterization. It's goofy because, in modern terms anyway, the pacing is off and the POV nonexistent. There's like four subplots that don't need to be there (why is Johnny Fontane in this book? why do we need to know about his vocal cord nodes? even more, why do we need to know what happened to Sonny's mistress who went out to Las Vegas and started dating the doctor who operated on Johnny's vocal cord nodes??). We hop from POV to POV with at least as much alacrity as Tolstoy--the undertaker, the baker, briefly Vito, Tom Hagen, Michael, the rotten bridegroom, Sonny, the maid of honor, Tom again, Luca Brasi, Johnny, Vito again... this is all the first chapter. And the interesting thing about this is, you're so invested in the machinations of the mob war that you forgive Puzo for doing all this. An author could never, ever get away with this nowadays, and I don't actually want to try, but it's fascinating watching someone break every single rule of novels and yet managing to write a legendary bestseller. (I know, a legendary bestseller that is like 50 years old. Still.) |
| Detective - I think it's the kind of story that interests people who enjoy picking apart why things work--it shows a lot of its moving parts in a way that in other stories often strikes us as irritating, I think. Because you're right, there's not a lot of terribly likable people in the story. My take on it is that The Godfather is a tragedy, the story of Michael inevitably losing his humanity in an almost Hamlet-type way. I think that's how Puzo and Coppola both meant it. Alas, I suspect young Pacino just looked too good and a lot of people pretty much saw the movie and just thought "dang, gangsters are so cool". |
| Ghastly Grim And Ancient Raven - That sounds about right. I love the Hamlet comparison. It makes a lot of sense when you think about it. |
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I'm trying to get into the habit of using our china at least every Sunday, and since I love my various teacups, of using them to drink my tea and coffee. We *are* pretty good at using the bits of silver we have already, probably because we don't have that much. (About to change. We're inheriting a set of silverware that has pieces I will have to look up in Emily Post to identify. I'm pretty sure there's something called an ice cream spade? Which obviously means we will have to eat ice cream more often, so the ice cream spade doesn't get sad.)