NaNoWriMo - Hitting the Top Early

My eighth year of NaNo!

I posted about how I got a late start with NaNoWriMo again this year, but that I figured I could still pull it out because I usually get a few hot writing streaks during the month.  Well, I can't believe it, but I hit 50K words on November 16.  And that is considering that I only wrote for 12 of those 16 days.  This comes out to (what for me) is a blistering 4430 average words per day, on those days I was writing.  I'm pretty astonished.  This is the fastest I've ever reached the 50K NaNo goal.

So if you are a NaNo-newbie, maybe you are wondering how I did it ... and if you can, too.  First of all, I'm sure that you can do it!  What I'm not so sure about is if what works for me will work for anybody else.  But on the off chance that it might ... here are a few thoughts on how I'm cranking away this year.

1) Writing in all the spare moments.  I usually like to write when I can sit down and really focus, but that's not always an option.  I find this year I've been doing a lot of writing in 100 to 200 word bits and pieces.  A few lines of dialog here, or a brief description of a scene there.  I keep my computer open and ready to go, and whenever I have to wait around, I write - waiting for laundry means words, waiting for an email from a colleague means words, waiting four minutes for my tea to steep means words.  It is really adding up.

Wow - 50K on day sixteen.
I wonder if this graph is just going to flatten out
now, or if I'll keep on writing at this pace.

2) Having so much fun with the book.  This year, I picked back up on a piece of writing from the past that I really enjoyed.  It needed a lot of work, but I liked the way the first part of it came out, and wanted to finish it.  This is a book I'd want to read, myself.  It has vampires, zombies, battles, true love, and, well, it's not Princess Bride but you can't have everything.  So I say, when it comes to NaNo, don't settle for an idea you feel ho-hum about.  Pick something that you are really emotionally invested in.  That emotion will carry you through the dry times, and keep you going. 

3) Defining the characters.  When I do get times to focus and just write for a while, the words have been flowing out of my fingers fast.  Part of this is because I did a pretty good job of defining the characters in the first chapters.  Now all I have to do is put them in situations and write down what they say and do.  It is a total adventure for me.  Even though I know the ending of the book already, I'm not exactly sure how the characters will get there, or even exactly who will be alive at the end.  So it's all pretty exciting.  The characters are leading it all, and taking me along for the ride.  And they talk a lot (and spend time running from zombies, and fighting with a vampire war-lord, and on and on ...) - that's a lot of words.

4) Recognizing that writing is good for me.  I've been very distracted by the world these past weeks.  For some people, the reaction is to freeze up and not be able to write anything.  For me, I noticed that I felt better after writing, even if it was a very tough writing session.  So I pushed myself to write even (especially) when the world was pressing in.  My last post was to keep on writing, and I feel it is keenly important, now more than ever, that we do indeed keep on writing.  Give it a read for some encouragement.

Image Credits:  Particpant badge from the NaNoWriMo site, and a screen grab of my own data, also from the NaNo site, on my page.

NaNoWriMo 2016 - Getting Started

Pen, Paper, and Computer
The tools of the proverbial trade.

November!  Which for me of course means NaNoWriMo.  If you don't know about NaNoWriMo - that stands for National Novel Writing Month.  Many fanciful people like myself take November and ADD 50K of writing to their normal workload, along with feeding ourselves, and doing laundry, dealing with the day job, doing whatever other writing we said we do, etc. 

And a large subset of those writers so inclined and dedicated head over to the NaNoWriMo.org site.  At that site they can track their progress, interact on the forum, and keep in touch with other writers in their local area.  I love the word tracking tool - nothing like giving a nice data display to a scientist.  It's also the place to find out about 'write-ins' that happen nearby, which gives you a chance to meet other local writers and have some company while pounding out some words.

I think one of the reasons I enjoy NaNo so much is that I'm a terrible perfectionist.  I'm often stymied by trying to make everything I produce just so.  It was and is NaNo that gives me permission to just write those fiction words without the constant pounding of my inner editor.  In fact, I now have lots and lots of words drafted into novels that do indeed desperately need an editor ... but that's a different challenge!

Right now it's NaNo time!  That means just put pen to proverbial paper and get writing!   

I've had a slow start, as usual.  This year I'm only two days late, but this is a month packed with other commitments, not to mention, as always, Thanksgiving.  Getting words in over the T-giving holiday is always the major challenge of the month.  Still I recall I started one NaNo nine days late, and spent the entire month playing catch up.  So I'm not too far behind, and am very optimistic about my progress thus far.  Almost 1.8K of words a day will do nicely, if I can keep up the pace.  I have a tendency to write nothing for a few days, then pound out a few 3K and 5K days in a row.  But you don't want to count on the time to do that.  Better to keep that steady pace up to ensure reaching the goal.

How about you?  Do you have a book idea that is just burning to be written?  Did you take the plunge this year for NaNo?  Might be time to give it a try!

Image Credit:  Image - Writing Tools Creative Commons CC 2.0

Poem Up in Dragonfly Arts Magazine 2016

Dragonfly Arts Mag 2016

Dragonfly 2016 is out and I'm very happy to have my poem "What We Choose to Keep" appearing in this year's issue.  I had three poems in their inaugural 2014 issue, and then wasn't able to submit for 2015.  So I'm glad to be back on track with supporting this fantastic publication for 2016.  Dragonfly Arts Magazine is a publication of the HopeWorks center of Howard County in Maryland.  The magazine has poetry, stories, and artwork that reflect on "life, love, trauma, and hope."  It is a snazzy little mag with a high-gloss cover and some riveting color artwork and compelling writing.

As you know from reading the blog here, I'm a strong proponent of writers being paid for their writing.  I don't generally submit work to publications that do not compensate writers with at least some token payment.  But for Dragonfly, and a few other publications, I make an exception.  It's not for the exposure - it is to support the mission of the publication.  Submitting to Dragonfly is something that I do both for myself and for them - as a survivor myself, crafting suitable poetry for this market is a exploration in healing.  I'm honored to have my work in this magazine, and hope that it helps in some small way to promote the healing that HopeWorks tries to nurture.

Image Credit:  Dragonfly Art's Mag. Visit HopeWorks.

Monthly Meeting and a little Sci-Fi

This evening was the monthly meeting of the Maryland Writer's Association Howard County Chapter, of which I am a member.  We had hopes to hear something along the lines of "Everything You Need to Know About Writing Science Fiction" but alas, our speaker never arrived.  While we waited, our President had us play a writing game or two, which was fun.  But when we finally resigned ourselves to the fact that we 'speakerless' we took the matter of our continuing entertainment and enlightenment into our own hands.

We held a free form discussion about Science Fiction and related speculative fiction genres like Fantasy and Horror.  Of the dozen-ish people that were present, five were sci-fi writers, including myself.  It was interesting to hear other writer's takes on the definition of Science Fiction, as well as how they became interested in the genre, and why they write in it now.  A lot of us were influenced by popular movies and TV, as well as some of the 'classic' writers, as one might expect.  Also not surprisingly, most of us had been writing in these genres since we were pretty young.

Also nice was the random chance that found me seated next to someone I had met a few years ago, who has since written and published her memoir.  So I have yet another book on my to-read list, and this one not fiction for a change.  The addition of great home baked treats like blueberry-lemon doughnuts and cookies assuaged our sadness over our missing speaker!

One topic that was brought up as we closed out the meeting was the topic of critique groups.  I still don't have a critique group, and would really like to be in one.  With my crazy travel schedule, though, I've been avoiding trying to get involved in a time commitment I can't meet.  But yet I keep considering it - there has to be some form of group, perhaps an online group, that would work for me.

Last thought - did you catch that great full moon tonight?  It has me thinking of fall and Halloween already, two of my favorite things ... oh, and that chapbook of childhood horror poetry that is coming along oh, so slowly ...

Image Credit - Logo for the MWA Howard County Chapter.

Research for Fiction Writing - The Pheasant

A pheasant before all that
hunting and prepping business.

I am always amused by where I end up when doing research for my fiction writing.  You know how it goes - you want to write a few sentences about some topic or other, and the next thing you know you've spent five hours on the internet learning all about it so those sentences are at least somewhat informed.

Before writing the scene I just finished, I had no interest in learning about how to hunt and then prep a pheasant for consumption.  And then one of my characters in this scene decided to hunt and prep a pheasant for consumption.  Again, you know how it goes ...

I really knew nothing about it at all.  I imagined I'd just have my character saunter off, shoot a pheasant (bow and arrow, we are talking fantasy here) then roast and eat said pheasant.  Then I got to thinking ... what about all those old-timey movies and paintings showing pheasants and rabbits and such hanging from the ceiling?  What's the deal there?  And what about the game Skyrim?  Can't walk thirty paces without running into rabbits and pheasants hanging from metal contraptions or even fallen on the floor.

Pheasant and rabbit hung
from ceiling - as one does.

My character was out camping, so he really didn't have the time to hang a pheasant from the back of his horse for a day or a month or whatever.  And then I'd assume when he finally ate it, it would probably taste a lot like the back of his horse.  Maybe this pheasant idea would not work out after all.  But characters, as you know, can be persistent.

So off to the wonderful world of the internet.  I'm a bit squeamish, so this was not easy research.  I did find out that yes, one basically saunters off and just shoots a pheasant.  Takes time, know-how, skill, and the rest that you'd expect, but no magic there (which is funny, again since I am writing a bit of fantasy at the moment).  Ok.  Only have to watch for shots that tear the gut open and might contaminate the meat.  Lovely.  So my character happens to be an excellent shot ... And of course with a shotgun there is actual bits of metal in your bird to avoid, but again, I'm in a bow-and-arrow situation.

So, we assume bird-in-hand, literally.  Now what?  Well, as it turns out, that whole hanging thing is really just for birds that are other than very young ones.  The young ones are tender enough without hanging.  BUT of course, most birds in the wild are not very young just statistically speaking.  Most are middle aged, and some are rather old.  So hanging a pheasant was sort of required to ensure it was tender.

Let me be more specific.  Hanging a pheasant.  Some sites recommended three to seven days.  Of just hanging at cool, not cold, temperatures.  Not hot at all, because that would be gross, but not actually wintertime sort of stuff, either.  So you just go ahead and hang the pheasant from it's head, not upside down.  And let it ... sit ... there.   For days.   Or more.  Some sites suggest that in ye olden dayes, people would allow the pheasant to hang until it was so ... rotted ... it dropped.  And then you knew the meat would be tender.  Seriously.

I think I'll chalk this up to my naivete.  Chalk up the fact that this had never occurred to me.  All the press and advertising around food is about how it should be fresh.  So very fresh.  Well, apparently you do not want old pheasant meat to be fresh.  Apparently you can eat it rather ... not so fresh.

Whatever.  I had what I needed for my character.  In the end, yes, he just sauntered out and shot a pheasant.  Because, aha!  It just so happened to be a young pheasant.  No need for it to hang from the back of the horse until it fell apart.  Yea!

Still.  There is the preparation to consider.  And so I read more about plucking pheasants when they are cold and hot and wet and dry and warm and whatever to really keep me satisfied for some time.  I'll not put the specifics down.  But I know a heck of a lot about plucking pheasants now. (Yes there is a naughty little song about this, let's not go there.)

And as with most of this fiction-style research, it isn't really going to be terribly useful now that the scene is written.

Image Credits:  Pheasant.  Used under Creative Commons 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons, author Lukasz Lukasik.  Hanging Hare and Pheasant, 1798, Swiss National Library, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Considering that First Draft of that NaNo Novel

I was over at Ana Mardoll's "Ramblings" blog and spotted this post, with a pie chart describing the first draft of a novel.  The pie chart is from Finding Wonderland, and it shows a humorous breakdown of what a first draft of a novel might look like.  Ana Mardoll uses the plot to illustrate the importance of rewriting that first draft.

It was inspiring.  I am definitely in the write-rewrite-iterate camp of writers.  Edits and rewrites are what make musings turn into masterpieces (more or less).  Anyway, I took out my draft of my NaNoWriMo novel and paged through, looking for what *my* first drafts seem to include.  Being a scientist with data in hand, I had to plot it up of course, with many thanks to the inspiring influences:

My version of a plot inspired by Finding Wonderland and Ana Mardoll - It shows the general contents of the first
draft of my NaNoWriMo novel.  It is surprising how my first drafts all seem to look pretty much like this.

The first half of chapter one turns out to be all completely unnecessary conversations between characters talking about their lives and stuff.  I thought it made good sense when writing, and now I see I can just jump right in to the action and really not lose anything at all.

Also fun to note is that I have far too many homages to various pop culture icons and works, such as the Hitchhiker's Guide, MST3K, Star Wars, and even the Simpsons.  I really want to keep them, which is something of an indication of their need to go.

And wow, there are a lot of holes here.  Especially the times I say "We'll have that discussion with so-and-so soon" and either the discussion never happens, or so-and-so does not actually exist in the book.  Or both.  I also see that I get through my initial draft writing by just jumping past anything that stumps me.  Say like important connecting scenes.  Or the names of anything at all.

Of course keep in mind this is a NaNo draft, which means one is trying to write like crazy to get those 50K words by the end of the month and still have time to cook and eat a Thanksgiving turkey.  So leaving gaps behind is a very functional strategy - for a draft.

And the sex scenes, well, most of them are actually plot critical.  So I guess I'll just have to make sure I send them to a publisher that likes that kind of thing.

In the end, I'd say about 50% of what is here is workable, and the other half just needs to get thrown out.  My challenge is figuring out which half is which ...

Image Credit:  My pie chart of my novel data.  Inspired by Finding Wonderland via Ana Mardoll.

Writing Another Textbook - Everyday Trials, Tribulations and Triumphs

A few science books in the collection ... and now I
can add one of my own among them!  Happy!

I wrote my textbook "Inner Planets" during a very difficult time.  It was a struggle to write a single word, let alone the 80 thousand necessary to finish the book.  Without my courageous co-author, it would not have come together.  Still, I'm very proud of the outcome.  We worked hard, and the textbook is a great undergraduate introduction to the inner planets.  The chapters on different processes are especially well done, with my favorite being the one on radiometric dating, a subject near and dear to my heart.  The introduction is actually very useful as well, with a glimpse at major ideas in science and how scientists approach their subject.  My co-author did an outstanding job with the history of the various missions to the planets.

It was gut wrenching to get that book out, but times have changed, and my health is much more stable.  I'm also in at a point where my science and education contracts are not carrying me for 100% of my time.  With all that in mind, when a friend hooked me up with a publisher last year, a publisher looking for a graduate text in planetary sciences, I jumped on the opportunity.  I convinced my previous co-author that this was an opportunity not to be missed, and we put together a winning book proposal and signed a contract.

So January has been filled with writing and research.  Tough going in places.  Fortunately I know lots of experts in various fields, and am interviewing them as often as possible.  My co-author and I want to create a really useful and gracefully written book.  As I said, it's still been tough.  Writer's block isn't just a fiction writer's problem, it's just a problem in general ...

Going through exercises like NaNoWriMo means I can put my head down and just produce text, no internal editing (or not much internal editing), giving me something to work with.  It's a very good skill to have acquired.  I have created a good outline to work from, but the reason why the book will be useful is that there really isn't anything quite like it out there.  So I'm doing a lot of trailblazing in terms of content.

And every month from now until October requires me to turn in a draft chapter.  About 7K words each (on average) plus figures and images for each one.  Trivial in terms of word count, but a challenge in terms of highly targeted, effective, and informative word count.  It's going to be a wild ride, but I am committed and focused on creating something any instructor of planetary sciences will want to use, and any graduate student of any related science will want to own and read.  It will also be useful as a resource for scientists who want to either brush up on some things, or get a head start in an area that's out of their discipline of choice.

AND of course ... I'm still trying to jam in a bit of fiction writing.  It's been about ten months, I think, since I've submitted any of my work, anywhere.  Much too long.  I've plenty to get out there, but submission takes a solid, dedicated effort, and I want to be sure I'm sending my material to the places that it really fits.  Again, that takes research.  But research is something I'm supposed to be good at :) 

Image Credit:  My pic of my books

It Was a "Very" Interesting Week

I did indeed do my experiment to eliminate the word "very" from my writing and speech for a week.  It was actually ten days, for reasons that are opaque even to me.  Anyway, here's what I discovered (at least for what is pertinent my own word usage.) 

"Very" in speech isn't easy to remove.  Substituting other words often results in conversation that doesn't seem natural to the ear.  Reconstructing sentences to avoid the need for the word seems to make for stilted speech.  While the exercise has expanded my thinking, I've chosen to change my word usage in speech by only a small amount.  This holds for most of my written dialogue as well, which isn't a surprise.  It is easier to spend the time to construct good sentences without "very" in them during writing as opposed to "on the fly" during speaking - so it is in fact easier while writing to reduce the use of the word and still create believable dialog.  But not using it in a situation where someone would "obviously" use the word again makes for conversation that just comes out wrong. 

But as for writing, I found many places where I was using "very" in a lazy fashion.  This applies to all kinds of writing - my blog, essays, papers, fiction, whatever.  A little extra effort in any place where I was about to use the word "very" usually resulted in a more interesting and more exact sentence.  This might mean using a different word, or better, restructuring to eliminate the need for the word completely.  That is, saying what you mean more directly, rather than using qualifiers to make the point (i.e. "exhausted" rather than "very tired").  This is not news, since writing coaches and "how to's" have been giving this sort of advice for years.  Still, it is nice as both the scientist and experimentalist that I am that I have the chance to prove it for my own personal condition.

Oh yeah, I forgot to add - this was a real pain for ten days.  We speak and write so freely.  Watching every word, and then going back over and correcting for the stray "verys" that got in there?  Serious pain.

Image Credit:  Once again, it is me and my awesome PowerPoint skillz.

And off we go again - NaNoWriMo

Amongst the crazy things one can do in November is to decide to write 50,000 words in 30 days, i.e. the NaNoWriMo challenge.  I've done this five years running now and I do like to keep up a good streak.

But.

Writing 50K words in *20* days, that's even crazier.  And that's the position that I'm in because I only just started today.  This month has been so demanding.  The whole fall has been that way, actually, with proposals to write, classes to teach, science to do, education research to publish, conferences to attend and my usual Halloween bash to throw.  And then I got sick.  For a week.

At first I figured I'd just skip NaNo this year, since it is always tough, and I really don't need the extra stress.  But that idea just wouldn't sit right in my gut.  I kept on coming back to the idea that I had this great streak going, and didn't I really enjoy the pressure in some weird way, and wasn't it in fact a great way to get some writing done after all?  In five years I've managed to produce the full drafts for about 2.5 books.  Not bad.  That on top of my usual writing means about a novel every two years.

Now if I could manage to get them edited and published ... but that's another thing completely.

Right now is about the 'write now.'  And that's what I've decided to do ... so off we go with the scary zombie/vampire story with a dash of gay romance and a twist of apocalyptic flavor.  It may never get read, but I know I'm going to have a fun time writing it.

UPDATE:  I did indeed manage to pound out the 50K again this year!  This was the easiest time I've had of any past year, as well.  (So I can never use the "I'm late" excuse not to start.)  I think it was because I had a really solid idea and some scenes and chapters sketched out in my head.  Plenty to write about.

November is Nuts - From Cons to Composition to Comets

Comet ISON

November is nuts.  This one moreso than any previous November because both NaNoWriMo and the Tucson Science Fiction Convention overlapped.  This was the first time I'd been to a TusCon, and even though I had to spend a lot of time working on my science presentation for that venue, I still refused to give up on my yearly encounter with NaNo.  Which means I am way, way behind 'composing' my latest novel.  (In this case, the third in the 'Voidspace' trilogy).  I am writing this at the airport, taking a break from NaNo noveling.

This recent adventure started in October, since I had to spend time getting my science talk pulled together.  And worrying about it on the side, which is a pursuit unto itself.  This meant no prep for NaNo this year.  I was also giving two different versions of the same talk - one for the science institute I call home, and the other for the Con.  And THEN I was also invited to be on a writing panel at the Con.  Wow.  Fun, but a lot of work to get it all done. 

So November started, I traveled to Tucson, gave the firs talk, and then the second.  I am very, very happy to say both went well.  I received a lot of positive feedback from both talks, and generated a lot of questions and good discussion at the Con.  I have to admit I was a little surprised, since I had intentionally taken myself out of my comfort zone and talked about a topic upon which I have done very little study - astrobiology.  I'll be posting a review of the material in another blog post.  Can't really get the whole feel of the talk down unless I post a youtube performance, and I am definitely not going there.  :)

The panel was sort of 'eh'.  I enjoyed the panels I attended but the one I was on was too 'combative.'  It's the first time I've been a member of a writing panel instead of a science panel, and I was disconcerted by how there was no structure.  The panel chair said he would poll the panel with questions, but by the time things would have gotten to me, we were on whole 'nother subject or question.  Once or twice I sort of wedged myself into the conversation so I could make a quick comment or two, but for the most part felt unneeded and superfluous.  Still, it was a very good experience for me.  There always has to be a first writing panel, and it was good to have something of a learning experience.  Hopefully next time it will be a smaller panel with a more definite structure.  They are probably all very different from one Con to the next, and even one subject to the next.

Certainly giving the science talk was my cup runneth over, so I maybe I should focus my efforts on that area when offering my services at a Con.

And of course, one cannot forget that we have Comet ISON in our skies right now, screaming it's way towards the sun.  For the moment, it appears that ISON will survive its close approach with our star.  But it is always possible for a comet, especially one like this, to disintegrate completely as it endures both the heat and the flux of particles.  It might get quite bright, might stay mostly the same, might disintegrate - it's definitely worth watching to see how things evolve.

More posts to come with details about TusCon, my astrobiology talk, and naturally, NaNoWriMo.

Image Credit:  Photographer Michael Jäger via Sky and Telescope Magazine

Matching Your Story to the Perfect Market

Finding a good home for your story can be a challenge.  Doing a good job when looking for the right home can mean saving a lot of time and grief for everyone involved.  In the end, a good match means happiness for writers, readers, and editors. 

1.  Know the Genre of your Piece
This seems easy at first, but genres can merge and blend.  Additionally, the publishing world is always coming up with new genres and sub-genres.  Do you know the basic definitions for your genres?  What makes a story a sci-fi story?  What are the types of fantasy?  How much romance makes for a Romance?  What is Slipstream?  After you've identified the genre(s) and sub-genre(s) of your piece, consider the style or tone in which it was written.  Perhaps it is humorous, surreal, dark, technical or some combination.  It may be helpful to write out the words that fit your story to have on hand as you are considering markets.  As an example, a recent story I finished has the "classification" Horror, Monster, Apocalyptic, Romance, Dark Humor. 

2.  Find the Markets 
You are probably already reading many of the publications in which you'd like your work to appear.  Finding new markets is petty straightforward, since most in our genres are listed with either ralan.com (free) or duotrope.com (charges a yearly fee).  I've also found markets by checking out the tables at various conferences, looking at the publication history of stories in anthologies, and looking at author bios for where they have previously been published.

3.  Know the Markets
You probably know the publications you read pretty well.  You know the tones, genres, styles, and subjects they like to publish.  Do the same for other markets that interest you.  The best way to familiarize yourself with a publication is to buy a copy and read it.  Online journals make this part of the research very straightforward, since the material is right there for the reading.  You also protect yourself this way - you might reconsider submitting to a publication where the stories have a lot of typos and grammar mistakes.

4.  Follow the Guidelines
Read the guidelines for each publication carefully.  The submission guidelines probably have details about what the journal is looking to publish.  There may be special issues, themes, or anthologies open for submission, individually or at the same time.

5.  Know the Editors
Check the "about" page of any journal, and find the editors.  Do some research on them.  See where they have published, for example.  This can be challenging, since not all publications make it clear who will be handling your submission.  Still, if the Editor-in-Chief is known to dislike vampire stories, it is probably a waste of time to submit them to the mag, even if the mag does not specifically prohibit vampire stories.  Keep an eye out for editor's notes or interviews.  For example, Duotrope has posted some interviews with editors that give a bit more insight into what they are seeking. 

6.  Other Issues
Along with concerns about genre and content are issues related to compensation and rights.  Some markets pay more than others.  Some markets buy more rights than others.  Be sure you know what obligations you incur whenever you submit piece of writing.  Such concerns may have you choose one market over another, as a better home for your work.

And there is it.  Hopefully these suggestions will help us both identify good homes for our stories.  Of course, the submission process itself is the food for an entirely different blog post.

Image Credit:  Magazines, photoxpress.com

Not a New Year's Resolution, Really

I've long been a detractor of New Year's resolutions.  After all, if I haven't started something important during the year itself, I'm not likely to happen to start it on January first, either.  Yet I have to say there is something compelling in the idea of a fresh start.  Of course, any day of the year could be defined as a fresh start, or the first day of the rest of your life, etc.  But for the time being I am succumbing to New Year's new-start fervor, and deciding to post a few goals.  Not resolutions, mind you, just goals ...

The first is my story writing goal.  Last year I started on May first with the idea that I would write a story a week.  I managed 15 stories during that run, with a smattering of others coming in later in the year.  Nanowrimo naturally took a bit of a toll on the story writing as well as the poetry writing.  Realistically, I now see that too many other writing projects get sidelined if I'm writing a story a week.  So this year the goal is going to be half that - 25 stories this year, while keeping up my poetry and novel projects.

The second goal is the childhood horror poetry chapbook I've been working on.  I'd really like to get that into shape for readings by Halloween of this year.  I'm hoping to use some of April and NaPoWriMo to get a few more new poems written for the collection, and then have some time later in the summer for editing.  Meanwhile, I'm hoping to get a few more of the finished ones published.  So we'll see how that project progresses.

I have one novel that needs editing pretty desperately.  I'm only up to chapter three on the new draft, and the rest has been sadly languishing.  Time to get that manuscript shaped up.  I also have another novel that needs just about 15K more of writing to be finished.  It would be great to get that one tied up and then into the editing stage.

Then of course, there are the science fiction novels I am perennially writing.  Would love to get the first in that series drafted ...

But I also had some notions of doing a bit more freelance writing, especially in the area of astronomy, outreach, planetary science, and the like.  I had drafted a proposal for an article on science and religion, and have an outline for that piece.  Perhaps there is a market out there that this might match well.

Okay, that is really enough.  Plenty.  And yet I know when new opportunities and ideas come along, I'll still find some way to make room for them.

What are your writing goals for the year?

Image Credit:  Happy New Year! by Jon Glittenberg CC 2.0 flikr via Creative Commons

Moving on from November and NaNoWriMo

It's been ages since my last post - but given that NaNoWriMo takes up all of November, I'm only going to count myself out of the blog posting for three months :)  Real life can be like that, as we all know.

But in spite of things being even more insane than usual, I did manage my fourth straight win with NaNoWriMo.  I was behind the whole time, but not quite as behind as last year.  I was also home more towards the end of the month, and usually I'm away over Thanksgiving.  So it was easier to come up the final stretch and finish off the 50K.

As usual, I think it is a good exercise, as well as fun.  I am always tempted to write and edit at the same time, and will sometimes derail myself if I do that.  NaNoWriMo helps get you into the habit of just writing the story down and seeing where it wants to go.  There are plenty of times it heads off somewhere new and better so long as I let it have that freedom.  Editing while writing seems to limit some of that mutability.

I love the badge with the "0 Excuses" part, but it isn't quite true.  I have plenty of excuses even when I win :)  November's a rough month to write half a novel.  But it does help to remind me that there really is no easy month to write a novel, after all.  And the lightning bolt is also misleading.  NaNo is not like motivation by lightning bolt.  It's like trying to charge yourself up by holding a D battery to your tongue for a month.  Still, I definitely enjoy it.  I always like lurking on the forums, seeing what interesting ideas folks have, the trouble they get into, and then eventually how things come out.  NaNo is like it's own little story every month.  The kind where everyone involved hopes they already know the ending.

Still, I'm about 20K or 25K away from finishing this draft, so I have some more December work cut out for me before the editing can begin.  I'm thinking I might let it mellow a bit and tackle that in the new year. 

Image Credit:  Winner's badge 2012 National Novel Writing Month.

 

52 Stories - A Story Every Week - Update

Stories coming to life on the screen, yep.

As noted previously, I decided to take this year and write a story a week (starting May 1).  Last week was my quarter-of-the-way-there mark.  It's time for a progress report to keep me organized and honest.   (Follow along with Twitter hashtag #52Stories.)

Overview

Some weeks have seen the production of multiple stories, while others (especially when I was on vacation) saw no stories.  All in all, I'm one story behind.  I'm pretty happy with this progress, since while I've been writing the short stories I've also been writing and submitting poetry and continuing with edits on two novels.  Not to mention the blogs and ... well, you know how it is.
 
Here are the stories by working title, genre, and word count.

1. Priorities, Science Fiction - Robot, 99
2. A Natural Disaster, Fantasy - Urban, 697
3. +Hidden Things, Science Fiction - Dystopian, 850
4. ++Nanostories, Various, ~100 (Stories for Twitter zines, 140 characters each)
5. New Year's Resolution, Horror - Zombie, 4925
6. Walking on Eggshells, Horror - Paranormal, 6136
7. Hobby, Horror - Serial Killer, 100
8. How My Dog Almost Ended Poverty, Science Fiction - Humor, 7003
9. ++For Sale, Horror - Humor, 243
10. What God Says, Science Fiction - Urban, 995
11. Dark Gold Spinner, Horror - Fairy Tale, 4360
12. Learning to Taste, Horror - Werewolf, 6496 
13. ooops.

Observations and Issues

Total word count is 32,000 words, which is an average of 2667 for each of the twelve weeks.  I was thinking it would be closer to 3500 but there are a lot of flash pieces in there.

Good Stuff

Three of the stories above have (+) marks next to them.  "Hidden Things" has one + mark.  It made it to the very last round of screening for a professional journal.  I've yet to sell one of my stories or poems at a professional rate, and so this is a benchmark for me.  The journal sent the piece back with lots of great comments, and a lot of encouragement.  So I'm going to let it sit a while, go through another round of edits, and see if a different pro journal wants to pick it up.

The story "For Sale" and one of my nanostories "Blind Date" were selected for publication.  Another nanostory "The Skeleton" won a small online Twitter contest.  (I also had three poems published this quarter, and another scheduled.)  

Plans and Issues for Next Quarter

So during this next quarter I'll need to write 14 stories, and I'm going to see if I can write a little less flash.  I'd like to see more stories in the 3K to 5K range.  But there are going to be a couple of other challenges for the second quarter, which for me runs from July 30th to October 28th.

I had already decided to dedicate the month of September to finishing the next round of edits on one of my novels.  I don't know if I'll have time to write anything else at all in September.  I also have a week in October where I'll be at a professional science conference, and I suspect writing time will be hard to come by.  That means I lose five of my thirteen weeks.  If I am going to stay on track, I will need to produce two to three stories every single week in August.  I do have a week set aside for a writing retreat, but it might not be enough.  We'll have to see.

I am also continuing towards my goal of having a horror chapbook of poems ready to submit for contests and publishing sometime next year.  That process includes writing, editing and submitting individual poems to journals up front.  I had a few poems picked up so far this year, so I'm hopeful.

Well, I have my work cut out for me.  How about you?  What does the next quarter have in store?

Pax, All

Image Credit Computer, PhotoExpress.com

Create Your Own Definition of "Writer"

Reborn by Ruth-Tay

I don't think it's a good idea to let others define who and what we are.  Still, I did it myself when it came to deciding whether or not I was truly a writer.  I have a tendency to seek the black and white answer - to look for the special formula that will give me a closed-form analytical solution to any problem.  I sought out the "definition" of writer, and tried to locate the benchmarks that would let me claim the title without reservation.

It's ironic, because when I first started writing I wasn't thinking about being a writer.  I just wrote.  I had stories in my head, and I started writing them.  A point came when I felt like I needed to defend it.  I still don't know why, but other people had things they were doing that seemed worthwhile and important.  My writing was worthwhile and important to me, but I had a hard time believing anyone else would see it as more than a hobby.

Again, why do other people's definitions matter?  But I hadn't yet thought about that.  Instead, I started looking for the definitions, the benchmarks, and the perfect indicators of true writer-hood.

One of the benchmarks floating around out there is that if you do something for 10,000 hours, you will become an expert.  It was an idea originally suggested by Ericsson, a psychologist, and then developed in more detail by Gladwell in his book Outliers.  Ten thousand hours means essentially pursuing your interest 40 hours a week for five years (or fewer hours a week over a longer time frame, of course.)  I've definitely put in those hours, and then some, so I was happy to check that one off.

Another important benchmark I've heard bandied about is the one million words of crap idea.  I can't find the original source for certain, but it is probably Hemingway, and then rephrased by other sources like Henry Miller and Michael Crichton.  The concept is to just write, since the first million words are bound to be garbage, anyway.  After you put in those first million, then you can start with the good stuff.  Well, I have more than two million words of fiction on this computer as we 'speak.'  I was relieved to find I could cross that one off twice.

Still, I kept looking.  How many of other people's definitions did I need to satisfy me?  One was that a writer wrote every day.  That one was too ambiguous and caused me anxiety.  Write what?  Just the fiction stuff?  How about the blog posts I love to write, could I count those?  I've already published a textbook - did that writing count?  Then it got worse.  Some people said they only felt like writers when they got a story published.  Others said they had to get paid for that story.  Still others said it had to be a 'professional' level sale.  Then onto the novels - had to be written, or edited, or published in small press or big press or with an advance of whatever size and then ...

Finally I got a clue.  It was actually a difficult paradigm shift.  I decided to ignore all the other definitions, and chose my own.  It simply came down to the canonical "I write therefore I am."  I am a writer because without writing, I'm not me.

I chose "Reborn" for this post because I wanted to express the feeling of leaving behind the old, of becoming powerful, and of flying above it all.  When I realized that only I had the power to define myself, it was both wonderful and scary.  I'm a stickler for rules, and I wanted to do it "right."  Yet it is something only my gut could really tell me. 

No amount of formulas will make you feel like a writer.  It is something you come to understand about yourself, to claim, and finally say to #@*& with anyone else's ideas of what you are.

How do you define yourself and why?

Pax, all.

Image Credit:  Reborn by Ruth-Tay on deviantArt.com.  Used with generous permission from the artist.  Ruth-Tay is a young concept artist who lives in the Netherlands.  Her gallery is filled with hordes of fantastical creatures, especially dragons.  All have excellent color and sense of motion.  The artist sees the phoenix as "beautiful creatures with magical healing powers. They can become hundreds maybe thousands years old. When they die they burst into flames and are reborn out of there own ashes."

Celebrating Inclusive Spec-Fic and Poetry with A Zombie Anthem

It's no surprise that speculative poetry and fiction are growing to include more diverse points of view.  In this kind of writing, everyone gets to define "normal" in their own way.  As we as a species learn to value our differences, spec-fic offers an excellent platform for working out our unconscious (and conscious) ideas of how we can view the "other" as "just another one of us."  Here we can teach ourselves how to see all humans (and perhaps someday all robots and aliens) as "normal."

So along these lines, I have to say how happy I am that my poem "A Zombie Anthem" was picked up by Eye to the Telescope for their July 2012 themed issue of LBGTQ Speculative Poetry.  The poetry reflects a range of moods, concepts, and experiences which play with the whole notion of gender.  Also, keep your eye on this "Eye" since ETTT has a different editor for every issue, which offers up its own kind of diversity in themes and styles.

In the process of submitting for the above, I encountered some publications I didn't know were out there.  This is hardly an exhaustive list, but I thought I'd mention one or two.

Back in January, Stone Telling produced Bridging: The Queer Issue. This speculative poetry quarterly has been inclusive since its inception, stating, "we are especially interested in seeing work that is multi-cultural and boundary-crossing, work that deals with othering and Others, work that considers race, gender, sexuality, identity, and disability issues in nontrivial and evocative ways."

The speculative fiction magazine The Future Fire has published feminist and queer themed issues, and actively "seeks stories by women, people of colour, LGBTQ folk, and other groups under-represented in genre fiction."  They have an upcoming issue requesting "new stories told from the perspective of the colonized.  We want the cultures, languages and literatures of colonized peoples and recombocultural individuals to be heard.  We want stories that neither exoticize nor culturally appropriate the non-western settings and characters in them."

The twice yearly publication Collective Fallout is "dedicated to queer-themed sci-fi, fantasy, horror, mystery and other speculative short fiction, poetry, and art.  We hope what you find here opens your minds and makes you think about what queer literature means to our culture. It is not just entertainment. It is a teacher and a tool. It is a statement of past, present, and future."

The Outer Alliance is a group of "SF/F writers who have come together as allies for the advocacy of LGBT issues in literature. Made up of individuals of all walks of life, our goal is to educate, support, and celebrate LGBT contributions in the science-fiction and fantasy genres."  Their site offers news, links, and updates on upcoming themed issues of interest.

Of all the publications I've run into so far, the "encouraging diversity" award goes to Expanded Horizons.  Now I consider myself a very inclusive and welcoming individual, but EH has a list of types of diversity I had not even considered.  I mean it.  Beyond issues of gender, ethnic background, the physically and mentally disabled, they specifically call out those who are "otherkin" and those with unusual sensory perceptions.  The success of this approach is evident in their May issue, of which every single story is unique and engrossing.

I'm always looking for more.  What inclusive speculative fiction journals and resources are your favorites?

Pax, all

Image Credit:  Chalk Rainbow, by Pink Sherbet Photography, on Flikr via Creative Commons, CC 2.0

More of the Joys of Mixing Genres

Art:  "Dragon" by Raymond Minnaar

The idea of genre-crossing stories has always intrigued me.   I first wrote about it in a post entitled "Mixing Genres in Spec Fiction - Some Pros and Cons."  Some of the most influential movies and books that I loved in my youth were those that mixed genres.  Movies like "Alien," which brought science fiction and horror together so masterfully, and books like "Mirror of Her Dreams" and "A Man Rides Through," which mixed science fiction into a fantasy world - these were the sorts of influences that really crystallized my ideas of the boundless nature of all these genres.  Then of course there is art like "Dragon" by Raymond Minnaar, which feels right at home in the area between horror and fantasy.

This piece of art has made its way onto my blog via my business card.  As I was looking for art to help me represent my current efforts, I came across the gallery of Raymond Minnaar, who has pieces both on deviantArt and his own official website.  I enjoyed seeing the breadth of speculative genres represented in his portfolio, and I got it into my head that his art would be a perfect match for my own current place in literary space and time.  After working with the artist, I now have this particular piece of amazing art to grace my new business card.  

It is an interesting sort of commitment, and a strong statement, what one chooses to put on their card.  After all, you want a card to be something you are proud of, something that reflects on your interests as a writer, and something that will be remembered.  This is also a darker piece, which I wanted because my stuff seems to be largely cross genre horror at the moment, particularly the poetry. 

When I began writing, I was surprised and baffled to find that people drew hard lines between genres.  Science fiction over here.  Fantasy over there.  Literary books someplace else completely.  That was the hardest to swallow - the idea that my novel couldn't be a genre novel and also literary.  Seemed to me like a solid, character driven story with a crisp plot and an inventive setting (my definition of good novel in most any genre) could be as literary as anything else.

That was before I'd even come across the term "Speculative Fiction."  Just to have found that term was an immense relief, since some people were concerned about an author who wrote different genres in different books, let alone in the same book.  I found and happily embraced this term, finally feeling like it was a way to fit myself into the picture without too many constraints.  (For those who want more info, here's a wikiattack: Speculative fiction is an umbrella term encompassing the more fantastical fiction genres, specifically science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural fiction, superhero fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, and alternate history.)

Since I wrote my last post on the subject, I've seen more interest in work that crosses genres.  When a mixed genre becomes popular, say like urban fantasy, steampunk, or slipstream, it can expand the idea of what is included under the speculative fiction umbrella.  Some publications are specifically calling for mixed topics, settings and perspectives.  These kinds of opportunities are something I love to see - watching the literature adapt and grow.  I think it increases both the chances for bringing in readers, and the chances of something really new and interesting being available to read in the first place.

Pax, All 

Image Credit:  "Dragon" by Raymond Minnaar at deviantArt.  

If you are interested in commissioning art from Raymond Minnaar, he is available, and has his full portfolio and prices available at his website.

Silent Energy Creeps Into Niteblade

Image: Logo for Niteblade Fantasy and Horror Magazine

My poem "Silent Energy," which was sold to Niteblade Fantasy and Horror Magazine, has now been published in their June 2012 issue Carnivoyeur.  Niteblade is the kind of small-press magazine that reminds me of the periodicals I was reading in the 70's and 80's - the sort of mags that got me hooked on the genre in the first place, right down to the internal line art.  The issues have a bit of a retro feel, and the stories and the poems tend to more straightforward forms of storytelling.  I love reading and writing the surreal, but I still enjoy reading the kind of stuff I can actually understand from the very first sentence.  There are times you want to focus on the question "I wonder what is going to happen?" rather than "Why does nothing that is happening make any sense?"  Niteblade delivers genre entertainment that feels both authentic and enthusiastic.

I submitted my work to Niteblade for a host of reasons, one of which is that they are now on Issue #20 of a quarterly magazine.  That's practically tenure for a genre publication these days.  So many genre mags and ezines don't make it past the second year.  Twenty issues is a sign that both the creators and the readers have a long term investment and interest in the magazine.  So another reason I submitted here was that I wanted to support them.  We often think that the only way to support a publication is to buy it.  That is naturally a great way to offer support, but sending a magazine a piece that they think their readers will love is another way to make them happy. 

I also like their strategy for selling issues.  They ask a nominal ($2.49) price to download the current issue in pdf until they have reached their financial target.  From their site - "The web version of each issue initially offers only teasers of the stories and poems for free. With each issue we set a monetary amount that is a portion of the hard costs of producing that issue. Once we reach that goal through advertising, sales and donations, we will release the entire web-based version of the issue to everyone for free."  I do most of my own reading online these days, so I love a site with stories that are freely available, but of course a magazine has to find a way to get an income stream going or they won't last long.  Niteblade's financial model allows them to do both.  Best of all, their issues are completely ad-free.

Many thanks to Niteblade for buying and publishing my poem!  You can support them by downloading the issue (before financial goal if you have a couple of extra $, or after if you don't), linking, blogging, donating, and by spreading word-of-electronic-mouth.  You can support my writing by following and commenting on this blog right here, following my twitter @grierja, and of course, reading my pubs.

Pax, All

Brilliant Writer Award Thanks, and Other Updates

Art:  Writer Award

Many, many thanks to Deirdra Coppel at A Storybook World for presenting One Writer's Mind with her "Brilliant Writer Award!"  It is always an honor to have the blog get positive feedback from other bloggers out in the speculative fiction community.  I really enjoy blogging, mostly because it provides a chance to connect with other fans and writers of the stuff we all love.  So thanks to Deirdra and to all my followers and readers!

As far as updates, NaPoWriMo has ended and I did indeed produce more poems.  I didn't manage to create one a day but I ended with sixteen drafts.  Two of them are actually not bad at all so I'm feeling good about my effort for the month.

Apparently these crazy challenges like "write 30 poems in one month" or "write a novel in a month" actually work for me.  Since I've also been thinking of going into a short-story writing blitz, anyway, I've decided to try another of these crazy challenges.  The idea is to write one story a week for 52 weeks in a row.  I was inspired by Nicole at Rivera Runs Through It and couldn't get the idea out of my mind.  Now, I've seen this idea roll around for some years and have always talked myself out it.  Not this time.  I am tweaking the rules for myself to be 52 stories by May 1, 2013.  Naturally, the target is one a week but given my travel schedule I might write some ahead or have to do catch up.  Anyway, there is my stated intent - should be a very interesting writing year.

Pax, All

Image Credit:  Brilliant Writer Award, Deirdra Coppel at A Storybook World

NaNoWriMo 2011 Begins

Image:  NaNoWriMo 2011

Midnight, the start of November 1, 2011.  Which of course means NaNoWriMo is underway.  For the first time I have an outline worked out for the novel I intend to write (or start writing, anyway) for a NaNoWriMo.  Fifty thousand words is short for a novel, especially one of mine, given how I like to crank out text.  So NaNo is really an opportunity for me to get a story out and rolling.

It's also an opportunity to reach out to other writers, new and old, local and distant.  It's a great place to look for blogs and tweeple to follow.  (I can't even believe 'tweeple' is a 'word.')  Hanging out on the Forums is also a great source of time-wasting amusement.  Seeing as how the daily work of a writer can be so solitary, NaNoWriMo provides a way to include more interaction.  As well as some fun.  Good luck with the writing ...