Writing

Uphill all the way down

Jun 24th, 2011

My brain is full of science, but I’ve also been writing fiction, trying to write a couple hundred words a night. That’s not much — I can write 10,000 on a really good day if I’m remarkably motivated and already know what happens — but it’s something. Science takes a lot of brain power, and there’s only so much to go around.

Even that tiny bit is work. I’m writing a science fiction story, and I have a backdrop and opening that make me happy, and an ending that both fits and provokes, and I can’t for the life of me connect them. I’ve already tried and discarded a range of middles, and none of them work. There has to be a way for A to meet B.

Right?

I mean, with an opening line like, “A can-can line of blue elephants gyrated through the wormhole void,” how can I go wrong? Lots of ways, apparently.

Then there’s novel revisions, a whole different class of struggle. Confession time: I finished the first draft in January. I haven’t even read the whole thing yet.

Yeah.

I could make excuses, but really. I can’t even read a single short novel in five months? The draft is under 80k, after all.

Apparently not.

I know what I need to do to it. In the process of writing the first draft, I figured out the major themes and motivations and character points, and now I need to go back and work them in in such a way that it looks like they’ve already been there. I know all the major plot points, all the twists and turns, the underlying political and social structure, what distinguishes my story from Standard Fantasy Plot B (I hope).

More mechanically, I need to take out two POV characters: my neat parallel POV structure relating age and gender doesn’t work, and needs to go. That’s not a big deal. I also need to make sure the sentence-scale writing matches my current ability level, greatly improved since I started the project. I can handle that; mechanics don’t scare me.

It’s all that other stuff. It all fits together so beautifully in my head, and there’s no way I can make it do the same on paper. I read enough author blogs to know that not only am I not alone in this, it’s pretty much universal.

That inability to bring the elegant concept to life on paper isn’t unique to novels. Short stories are easier, though, because the concept is by necessity simpler. Not that short story writing is easier, but managing 3000 words of theme and concept is a less-daunting task than managing 80k, or 100k. There’s room for a lot more, and a novel needs its full quota of stuff if it’s going to be any good. The time and skullsweat investment for a short story is a lot less too. I can manage several week-long rewrites, but even contemplating several multimonth rewrites is nearly impossible.

Nonfiction has the same requirement, if expressed and executed differently, but I’ve been writing professional-level nonfiction for a long time and I know how to do it. And I’m starting to grasp the techniques for short stories. I suppose that means that I can learn them for novels.

But I have to read the damned thing first, don’t I?

If I’d done it right the first time

Jun 12th, 2011

by Sarah.

2 comments

After the fun of the Friday night story, I’m back to the slog of novel revisions. Finally decided that the thing that I’ve been worried about really doesn’t work, and that I’m going to have to rewrite a fair bit, including the climax, to make it work. Not amused, but also not surprised.

I’ve had lots of help to keep me going.

I’d hoped to get a lot of revising done this weekend, but what with one thing and another I’ve only made it through three chapters, and they were some of the most polished ones. This may take a while…

Morning Cat Face

by Sarah.

5 comments

Back in the days of Twitter, Morning Cat Face was a meme. You probably don’t remember those, do you? Memes were kind of like viruses. No, don’t make that face. They were ideas, not really viruses at all. But they were ideas that spread from person to person. When there was an internet, everyone could share their ideas immediately, and twitter was the fastest way of all. I had a couple thousand followers, could tell them all something any time I wanted. But only 140 characters.

But what was I saying? Oh, right. Cats. If we still had twitter, and memes, and all that, I’d take a picture of this beast and add it to the list. I still don’t know how the damned thing gets into the bunker, but every morning it’s standing on my chest. I don’t think cats carry the virus though. Do they?

Yes, the damned thing is cute, and you like to make it chase bits of string. But I still wish I knew how it got in here.

And yes, we had electricity and computers and internet connections, and we used it for Morning Cat Face. I know, I know, you’d do it differently if you had all those resources. If we weren’t so busy trying to grow food and not get bitten and simply stay alive. We wasted it all. But how were we to know?

You’re right. I get it. We knew about global warming and peak oil and water shortages and all that other stuff, and we should have been more careful. But it was hard, and we were distracted. I still say there’s no way we could have known about the virus.

I’m working. Do you have to keep bothering me like that? Go play with the kitten. No, I don’t want to go weed the vegetable bed. It’s raining. This is important too. It is not either stupid. We need computers to help us figure things out, so I’m building one. It’s a mechanical representation of logic gates. I’m sure Charles Babbage would have used Tinkertoys and Legos if he’d had them. You might be smarter than I am, though I doubt it, but you’re not nearly as well educated. So what do you know?

It’s getting dark out. You’d better come inside. I’m sorry I said that. It’s not your fault that you couldn’t go to grad school like I did, or even to high school. I know you’re trying really hard, reading books and asking questions. And it’s okay that you lost it there for a bit, though I wish you hadn’t smashed those bottles against the brick wall. We’re getting low on storage containers, and I don’t know a damned thing about blowing glass. The screaming bothered the horses, and me too really.

Come in, let’s have dinner. Maybe we could even have a drink. No, I know the fermented cider I tried to make turned to vinegar, but there’s a little bit of vodka left. I think now might be a good time to have a drop. Yes, we should save it for a disinfectant. You’re right. We won’t drink it.

I had a dream last night, one that I’ve had for a long, long time. I was going somewhere, driving. No, not the horses. I didn’t know anything about horse-drawn wagons until after. In a car, the old kind with an internal combustion engine.

Yes, gasoline. No, I’m not going to apologize again. I know we fucked up.

So I have this recurring dream, about driving somewhere in a car. But the car has a mind of its own, and it goes in the wrong direction, and it takes me somewhere I never intended to go and don’t want to be.

No, I don’t know what it means. Why does it have to mean anything?

Hey. Are you awake?

The kitten is in here again. It bit me on the nose. I think I know whether cats carry the virus.

No, I don’t think I’m going to get back to sleep. Maybe I’ll get up and make breakfast. I’ve got a few hours. What would you say to a scrambled egg sandwich? There’s bread leftover, and I found a few eggs yesterday. One of the hens pecked me, but I don’t suppose my sore finger matters any more.

You have some bullets left, right?

Friday night, home alone. I’m wrapped up in trying to write well, which is important, but is making it not-fun. I have enough other things in my life; if writing isn’t fun I won’t do it. That would be sad.

So I polled Twitter for writing prompts, with the idea of writing a quick story using all of them as a fun way to spend the evening. I got some good suggestions:
@marjorie73 zombies and kittens
@qitou things are not what they seem
@thejayfaulkner someone’s last meal and the things that led to it being their last meal
@quasigeo Charles Babbage’s difference engine.
@notanyani more food & booze
@ariandalen A screaming fuss fit, scrambled egg sandwiches, a brick wall
@ticia42 A possessed car should be in your story… Or a haunted spaceship.

The story owes a small bit to @kylecassidy too, for the Morning Cat Face meme.

It’s a rough draft, entirely unedited. I gave myself an hour, and no more, to turn the disparate ideas into a working story, or as close as I could come. It’s rough, but it was FUN, and that was the point.

Thanks, Twitter!

Writerly bits

Jun 1st, 2011

by Sarah.

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The short bits first: the monthly writer’s social project this time was six word stories. There’s an assignment every month, something suitable for discussing over beer and burgers.

My contributions:
My balloon rises, valve stuck open.
My garden’s overrun. Maybe it’s Triffids.

And the long bit: I have a new article at Clarkesworld this month: “Building Forests, Remaking Planets,” about the science and ethics of terraforming. Have a read, leave a comment. Science is fun!

Zombies and a reading list

May 19th, 2011

by Sarah.

4 comments

This is a clever marketing ploy: CDC disaster preparedness has gotten more discussion today that in the past few months, I’d guess. And you know, it is rather important to be prepared for the zombie apocalypse. Also flood, tornado, earthquake and fire.

And the rapture, since it is happening Saturday. The rest of us may need to have some supplies laid up.

Once you’ve got your canned goods and drinking water (and flamethrowers!) safely stashed away, you’ll need something to do. I’ve got you covered there too: the 2011 Hugo nominees have been announced, and once again there’s a Hugo voter’s packet available, containing most or all of the nominated works.

For reasons I don’t understand, the link to the login page is not on the packet description page. You need a userid and PIN to log in, so why not publish the link. But they didn’t, so I won’t either. The packet page does have an email address to contact for more information.

Edit: I was just ahead of the game, apparently. The login link has now been posted. If you are a member, you can get a packet here. You’ll need your userid and PIN.

And how do you get this bounty of first-rate SFF? You become a member. It’s online, it’s quick, and Worldcon membership entitles you to not only read the packet, but also vote for the best and nominate next year. What a deal! It’s kind of pricy: supporting membership is $50. But how else could you participate in deciding what the best SFF of the year is?

And yes, there are zombies among the nominations.

You can tell from the lack of posting that I’m swamped. This working-for-a-living thing, you know. I got a pile of things submitted, and all were promptly rejected. Dammit. I’m not too bothered, actually. I’ve been writing and submitting scientific journal articles for a long time, and fiction rejections are so much friendlier. Really.

I finished the first draft of my novel in progress quite some time ago. I intentionally set it down for a while, but I didn’t intend for it to sit this long. Oops. I’m really intimidated by the amount of work still to do, and a bit scared to read the whole thing and see concretely how much revision, rewriting, addition it needs. So there it sits.

Last week I figured out the two major things that were missing, things that had been bothering me about the background and structure. I hope that knowing the missing bits will help me settle into the revision process. It gives me a starting place: reread the whole thing with an eye to where those two story-things need to be worked into the existing structure.

Having an entry point is a major part of the struggle on any project of this size.

But notice how I said “the two major things” up there, like I won’t find many more as I work through it. Heh.

Polyfunctional prose

Apr 25th, 2011

by Sarah.

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Nick and I were on a road trip last month, and got to talking about writing. He’s become interested in telling his own stories, though right now he’s at the “lots of ideas but can’t get them on paper” stage. We were talking about ideas and execution and how to get a story going. Nick threw out a potential opening for something he was contemplating.

“The detective unsnapped the leash, letting his werewolf partner walk past the startled sergeant and into the murder scene on his own,” or something like that.

I thought about it for a few minutes, and came up with “Bob’s partner leaned on his leg, covering the freshly-pressed black slacks with golden-brown fur. He unsnapped the leash, releasing his partner to sniff around the corpse. The sergeant tasked to guard the murder scene shifted uneasily but didn’t interfere. Bob knew his partner could take care of himself.” Not perfect, but remember I was driving.

So what did I do, besides make the opening much longer? Two things. First, instead of telling the reader flat out that Bob was a detective with a werewolf partner, I showed some of the effects of that: fur on Bob’s slacks (also sneaking in character description of both Bob and the wolfie), the sergeant not interfering with something so odd (Bob must outrank her). I showed that there is something intriguing about the canine half of the team, but didn’t flat-out say what.

I also made sure that the opening was multifunctional: a bit of characterization, a bit of description, some background information, and that it advanced the plot. Not every sentence or paragraph has to do all of those things, but if it doesn’t do a couple then why is it there?

Squish squash scribble

Apr 24th, 2011

by Sarah.

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Happy Easter, to those of you inclined that way.

Crash-testing chocolate eggs!

More egg science.

And as if that weren’t enough, it’s time to play first lines! These are the first lines from everything in progress.

All the Leaves on Mars: “Whisper-thin sheets of stainless steel piled to the ceiling, compulsively stacked, impeccably organized.”

Gray Lady: “The sky was gray, as smooth as if it had been airbrushed, the same shade as the dishes she stacked in the matching cupboard.”

Oyster: “I’m going to find a blue one.”

Stars Move Like Clockwork Across the Sky: “I spring up, spinning to orient myself. Gravity, atmosphere, and that most significant detail: a quarter-moon floating enormous in the night sky.”

A Very Werewolf Christmas (Working title ONLY): “Snow swirled glittering in the streetlights, stinging my cheeks.”

If nothing else, doing this prompts me to polish my titles. It also reminds me that I like these ideas, and want to finish them.

Reading over these also shows me that my sentence-craft has improved in the past year. That’s encouraging.

Or rather, I knew it had, but I can see that in practice.

Hello from rainy Portland

Apr 8th, 2011

by Sarah.

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No, I’m not spending all my time in Powell’s. Of course I’m not.

See, I even finished a new Science in My Fiction post: The Plastic Economy.

I’ve also been working very hard, but today is a vacation day. Watch out Portland!

The good, the bad, and the zombie

Mar 7th, 2011

by Sarah.

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A few quick writing notes:

New Science in My Fiction post up today: Orbital Mechanics for Vampires, a companion to last month’s Orbital Mechanics for Werewolves. Both were a lot of fun to write, and also contain Real Science (TM).

New review at The Portal, of F&SF March/April 2011. I’m still not sure I’ve quite gotten the hang of this reviewing gig–20 years as a scientific peer reviewer has not prepared me to do battle with a few stories–but I’m flailing along regardless.

A story I sent out last May finally got rejected. A quick re-read, and back out it goes. I have two more ready to send out. If I get three out at once it will set a new personal record.

Rigor Amortis has sold far better than anyone ever expected, and will not only be reprinted but will be moving up in the world. The new edition will be printed by Edge Publishing, another imprint of Hades Publications. Absolute XPress, the current imprint, is basically the POD wing of Hades (though not a self-publishing outfit); Edge is a regular imprint with distribution. The editors, Jaym Gates and Erika Holt, have done a phenomenal amount of work to make this happen. More forgotten things: New release date October 15, 2011.

It’s been a mixed couple weeks: rejection, being approached for a new project, editorial commentary, zombie success. But that’s the way it goes, right? Just keep working.

Edit: Oh, right. I knew I was forgetting something. Several people have asked my thoughts on the purported alien fossils reported in the Journal of Cosmology. Well, I’m skeptical, and a whole pile of things set off my bullshit detector. That’s not conclusive, but I’m not expecting big things. I hope to have time to muster my thoughts and write something up this week.

Hello March

Mar 1st, 2011

by Sarah.

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And goodbye February. I’ve never gotten along with that month. In fact, I blame it for a lot of things. Good riddance until next year.

I was moderately productive in February, in the writing department. I finished and revised two short stories, and am just waiting on my beta reader before I submit them. I started planning a new novel, an urban fantasy I’ve been kicking the rudiments of around for a couple years. Now it has its own Scrivener file, an outline, some character sketches. Fun! I need to devote more time to finishing stuff this year (motto for 2011: “The End”), but its good for me to have several projects in various stages of completion awaiting me. I think I also promised to give a talk on social media for writers to the local writing group next fall.

For the other writer types, or those who spend time with writers: The Writer’s Survival Guide. From the article: “And so I give unto you: coping mechanisms. Fellow penmonkeys, compatriot wordslingers, if you want to do this job and not end up shellacked in your own snot-froth while hanging from the ceiling fan — if you are to survive at all with your mind and spirit intact — then you must do as I say. Do not deviate, lest you be struck down by your own lunacy.”

Here’s something I got from Warren Ellis. It relates to a less-well-developed novel idea that I should get to in a year or so, and I want to save it for then.

Immaterials: Light painting WiFi from Timo on Vimeo.

Developing new shiny ideas is more fun than finishing projects in progress, but it is now time to start rewrites on Paper Magic. I alternately feel like I know how to do this and have no clue at all what I’m doing. Fortunately I know enough writers by now to recognize that as normal, and to understand that the only thing to do is keep working.

Changing the subject entirely, if you can’t beat them, eat them: invasivory. Strike a blow for native species by consuming the invasives yourself. Complete with recipes!

And one more topic switch: things you can do with guitars!