Under The Stars

Thanks, Tor.com

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:10:00 +0000

As some of you may know, October was Steampunk Month over at Tor.com. The month was jam-packed with interesting blog posts, steampunk tips for DIYers, beautiful free wallpapers, and tons of giveaways. I didn't stumble upon things until at least partway through the month, but then I entered every giveaway after that.

And, I won one!

My copies of Jay Lake's Mainspring and Escapement arrived in the mail today, quite promptly I must say. Also included in the parcel were a Tor bookmark and a handful of buttons, so it made a nice little prize package.

I was especially pleased to win this prize, because I am a big fan of the columns Jay Lake writes (often with Ruth Nestvold) over at IROSF (I always snag this one to proofread when I can!). If you are not familiar with the columns, I recommend you click over and check some out. They are available in the archives, many under the "features" tab, and are easy to find. Sadly, I haven't had an opportunity to read enough of his fiction, so I'm really looking forward to these books. They may even jump the line in my TBR pile, since I just finished reading George Mann's The Affinity Bridge last night and need something new to add to my being-read list.

Reading break

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 10:48:00 +0000

I've read more short stories in the last few days than I have in the last year, I think. But no, it was not simply for pleasure. That was just a welcome side benefit.

In a couple of weeks, I'm giving a presentation on writing speculative fiction, to a group of writers who don't write specfic as a usual thing. Some of them have likely never written anything in the speculative genres, and possibly never read anything in those genres, either.

For that reason, I thought I'd like to assign them a few stories to read before the workshop, just so that we would have a few more talking points and all be on the same page (no pun intended). I had a few criteria--the stories had to be of short-to-moderate length, available online, accessible to readers outside the genre, and had to exemplify a couple of the things I'm planning to talk about. For example, the importance of good writing regardless of genre, the difference between story and mere anecdote, a certain depth of characterization.

I found that "accessibility" was the most difficult criterion to fill. For readers who are unfamiliar with standard genre tropes, I felt that stories with a minimum of SF jargon and a setting that was at least somewhat Earthlike might be best. However, it becomes obvious that we speculative fiction writers expect a lot from our readers--or is it that our readers expect a lot from us? I begin to think that specfic writers tend to start invoking the "sensawunda" as soon as possible at the beginning of many stories, dangling a tempting hook for our readers so that we can quickly reel them in. For readers coming to specfic for the first time, however, I think many of these stories would be too unfamiliar, offering too much "difference" too soon, for non-genre readers to stay with them long enough to become invested in the story. To get their specfic legs under them, so to speak.

And of course, personal taste enters into it and can't be separated from the selection process, so the stories I chose would not necessarily be the ones someone else would choose. Still, it was an interesting exercise. I've asked the workshop participants, if they begin reading one of the stories and don't finish it, to make a note of where they stopped and why. Could be some interesting comments there.

Anyway, after a few days of (mostly) enjoyable reading, I settled on four stories to recommend. Three are science fiction, and one is fantasy. Since I'm recommending them in my workshop, I thought I'd recommend them here, too. They are:

SF Short story - "Jimmy's Roadside Cafe" by Ramsey Shehadeh http://www.strangehorizons.com/2008/20080630/roadside-f.shtml

Fantasy Short story - "Sun Magic, Earth Magic" by David D. Levine http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/story.php?s=9

SF Short story - "Ghosts and Simulations" by Ruthanna Emrys http://www.strangehorizons.com/2007/20071112/ghosts-f.shtml

The last piece is a novella, but since it won a Hugo award at WorldCon in Montreal this summer (and I was there to see it!), it is definitely worth the time investment:

SF Novella - "The Erdmann Nexus" by Nancy Kress http://www.asimovs.com/hugos_2009/ErdmannNexus.shtml

If you read any of the stories, please tell me what you think of them. Happy reading!

*Magazine cover art from http://www.bigmeathammer.com/gallery.htm

But when is it ready?

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 02:29:00 +0000

Yesterday morning I opened an email from a publisher I'd queried about The Seventh Crow. To my delight, they were requesting a look at the full manuscript.

Now, this manuscript has been pretty thoroughly edited, revised, redrafted, read by three trusted readers, run through the trusty Cliche Cleaner, etc. I made sure it was ready before I even thought about sending out queries.

Or so I thought. To make the submission, I had to convert the file to MS Word, so I thought, "might as well run it through Word's spell/grammar check, too." Two days later, I have just now sent the file out.

Now, much of this is due to the fact that Word's grammar checker is...weird. I know, I know, this is one of the most difficult things to program because of context issues, style issues, usage variations--but still. Of everything it flagged, I would guess I changed less than one-eighth. Don't get me wrong--I am not saying I know better than the program when it comes to strict right-or-wrong questions. It was useful to me in pointing out a number of things I'd missed along the way. But the vast majority of issues it flagged were non-issues. Hence the two days it took to go through 324 pages (and not counting kids, puppies, husband, laundry, meals, and sundry assorted other distractions, of course).

At any rate, the real point of this post is in the title...how does a writer know when a piece of writing is ready? Really ready to go out into the world and stand on its own?

Two answers spring to mind for me: feedback and critiquing. I think it's extremely important to have some trusted readers (or at least one!) who will provide honest feedback on a story at various stages, and who have some facility with the technical end of writing--who can tell you that you're using too many passive sentences, or semicolons, or that you've used the word "recalibration" three times in two paragraphs. And of course, you have to be willing to listen to them.

Conversely, you need to develop your own critiquing skills by reading and commenting on the work of other developing writers. It's the best way I know to become a good self-editor, which is one of the most difficult skills to master; and in today's publishing world, one of the most important. It is crucial to be able to bring your own work to a highly polished level before submitting it. By critiquing stories for other writers, you learn to view the work with a detached eye, and in time will be able to apply a similar level of detachment (although never quite the same) to your own stories.

But still...when is it ready?

Honestly--I don't know. Some say, if you're changing less than 10% of the words, send it out. Some say, when you feel like you can't improve it any more on your own, send it out. Some say, when you can't stand to read the damn thing one more time, send it out.

All good advice. I think the main thing to take away from this post is that you make the work the best you can, and then you send it out. And then...you cross your fingers and wait.

Less than 46 cents per story!

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 02:06:00 +0000

Last year I was pleased to have my short story, "Summer of the Widows," appear in an anthology titled Speculative Realms: Where There's a Will, There's a Way. It's a wonderfully eclectic mix of fantasy, science fiction, and horror stories from a global collection of writers.

In "Summer of the Widows," one of my recurring characters (a young female wizard's apprentice with a knack for attracting trouble) is suspected of murder, and must find the real killer AND save her master from an even more dangerous threat--marriage!

Right now, I see that Amazon.com is offering the anthology for a sweet $5.88. That's less than forty-six cents per story for the thirteen stories in the book. At that price, I'd suggest you get it while it's hot!

The afternoon so far

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 17:56:00 +0000

I almost bought a new sewing machine this afternoon. I mean, I was *this* close, I'd done the haggling, and the deal was practically sealed. But I came home empty-handed.

It was one of those "inventory clearance"-type things at a local trade and convention center, huge overstocks, great deals, etc. The place was busy and people were walking out with machines in droves. And there were some half-decent machines, although most of them were a generic name that I didn't recognize or know anything about. My mom and I strolled around and saw demonstrations on a number of machines that were very nice.

But there was one sewing/embroidery machine that I sort of fell in love with. It was a Brother, so a good name, and had nice lines and great features. Over the past few years, when my mom and sister have both bought new machines and I've looked at a few myself, I've come to the conclusion that buying one is a lot like buying a car. You can look at all kinds, test-drive them, compare features, but in the end there'll be one that just speaks to you, and that's the one you want.

So this one spoke to me, and it was fairly pricey, but not completely out of the range of what I'm willing to spend. My current machine is quite ancient, and although it still sews beautifully, I suspect and fear that one day it's just going to stop.

Now, I'm not a haggler. I like to think I will haggle, but when it comes right down to it, it's not really in me to do it. With my mother egging me on (she's not a haggler either, but she can encourage others to haggle) I got the price down to a point where I could live with it. At THAT point, I found out that this particular machine was not available on-site (except for the demo) and I had to pay for it and have it delivered next week.

That's when alarm bells went off in my head and I walked away from the deal. Most likely there was nothing to worry about and all was on the up-and-up, but--I didn't want to chance it.

So I almost had a beautiful new machine, but decided to err on the side of caution. *Sigh* It was awfully nice...

Space Casey by Christiana Ellis

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:51:00 +0000

Space Casey by Christiana Ellis

GoodReads Rating: 4 of 5 stars

I intended to listen to just the first episode or two of this audiobook to see if I liked it, while I was working on some things for Second Life; ended up putting it on my Zune and devouring it. The humour is engaging, the production is good, and the story is just fun overall. A great read/listen!

I snagged it from podiobooks.com.

View all my reviews.

Wow

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 01:49:00 +0000

Wow, it's been quite a while since I wrote anything here. Some of the time, I've just been too busy, sometimes I didn't have anything to say, and lately I've been considering a whole blog redesign/shift to another venue.

Looking around here, though, I think it just needs a thorough housecleaning and maybe some spiffing up. Going to think on it a little and see what we come up with. Stay tuned.

Life-Changing Books

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 01:22:00 +0000

In response to a high-school English teacher who wants her students to read something "life-changing" but seems to have very narrow ideas of what might fit that category, I'm doing a little research. I would love to hear from anyone on this.

Have you ever read a book (or books) that you would consider "life-changing"? By that I guess I mean, a book that affected you deeply, or changed your view of the world, or your understanding of human nature, or made you think about life in a different way--or anything along those lines.

Send me your answers any way you'd like--comment here, send me an email, catch me on Facebook or Twitter, whatever. I'd just like to hear some opinions. You don't have to explain how the book affected you unless you want to--just tell me title and author if you want (although of course I'd love to hear more!).

Thanks! I'm looking forward with interest to your answers.

First Letter Meme

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 02:00:00 +0000

Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real...nothing made up! If the person before you had the same first initial, you must use different answers. You cannot use any word twice and you can't use your name for the boy/girl name question.

1. What is your name: Sherry

2. A four letter word: shoe

3. A boy's name: Stephen

4. A girl's name: Shauna

5. An occupation: shopkeeper

6. A color: silver

7. Something you wear: sweater

8. A television show: Star Trek

9. A food: spaghetti

10. Something found in the bathroom: shampoo

11. A place: Sydney Mines

12. A reason for being late: slept in

13. Something you shout: shoot! (expurgated version)

14. A movie title: Shawshank Redemption

15. Something you drink: smoothie

16. A musical group: Simple Plan

17. An animal: sheep

18. A street name: Strathcona

19. A type of car: Silverado

20. Title of a song: So What

Bonus:
21. A personality trait: shy

Saying Goodbye to a Friend

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 23:39:00 +0000

Usually when people ask me about my brief legal career, I laugh and say, "It was one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time." In reality, however, many, many good things came out of that decision, and I would not go back and change it if I could. Mainly because of the people I met along that path.

Matthew Ryan, QC, was one of those people. He was one of two partners in the small law firm where I spent my legal years, and one whom I counted as a good friend. He passed away on Thursday after a battle with leukemia that lasted the past couple of years. He was only 62.

Those of you who know me, know that my memory for many things is not good. I often joke that I won't remember most of my life until I develop Alzheimer's and it all comes back to me. However, I clearly remember the first time I met Matt.

It was the summer after my first year at law school, so working at a firm seemed like a good idea. Matt was on vacation when I went in for an interview with his brother David, the other partner in the firm, and David offered me the position for the summer. Matt was still on vacation when I started work, and I had been there a few days before he returned. By the time he came back, I was ensconced at a desk and had some assignments, so I was busily working away that first morning. He said hello to me as he passed my desk and I reciprocated, of course. A few times over the course of the morning I noticed him glance at me thoughtfully, but we were both busy, so I didn't have too much time to wonder about it.

Finally, when the day was almost over, he came back to my desk and said, "Who are you, anyway?" I guess everyone thought that someone else had told him I had started working there. We had our first laugh together (of many) over that. I went on to work there as an articled clerk and practice law for a number of years, so we became good friends and colleagues.

I also remember one time he "came to my rescue." This was after I had been practicing with the firm for several years. I had a client in my office, a client who had ignored my advice and consequently found himself in a pickle. He was angry, and starting to yell, and although I was handling it okay, I suspected that it would not be long before I burst into tears (confrontation not being one of my strong points, hence one of the reasons I'm not a lawyer any longer, but I digress...). Anyway, Matt obviously realized what was going on, knocked and came into my office, sat down and started talking to the client in a very reasonable way, got him to admit that he had caused his own troubles and it was no fault of mine, got him to apologize to me, and quietly got him to leave. To me, he was like a knight in shining armour, although of course he shrugged it off like it was nothing. He never made me feel like I needed rescuing (although I think I did). He was just helping out. That's the kind of man he was.

Matt was a very kind, easygoing person, not the kind of lawyer who is overly impressed with the fact that he's a lawyer, if you know what I mean. All those lawyer jokes you know, were not about him. All those lawyer stereotypes, ditto. He was a great teacher and mentor, but never seemed to feel that his experience gave him any particular status other than the ability to pass along some advice to those learning the ropes. He taught me more about drafting contracts and drawing up wills and dealing with clients (even the difficult ones--maybe especially the difficult ones) than any law professor did. And more importantly, he modelled integrity, professionalism, and care for others--things we should take away from law school but often don't.

Honestly, I could go on for a long time here, but I won't. I have laughed while writing this, and cried, and I think if we have friends who can exert this much influence over us even after they've ceased to be part of our day-to-day lives, we can be confident that they'll stay with us for a long, long time to come.

It comes down to this: I am privileged to have known and worked with Matt, and I will miss him.

Ending the Hiatus

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:09:00 +0000

Yesterday and today I'm working on a new issue of The Scriptorium. It's been "on hiatus" (read, "on my list of things I just couldn't get to") since the November issue. Not really surprising, but I could do better with a little planning. Planning...now that's another whole post.

At any rate, I'm trying out a couple of new ideas to freshen things up, which you really have to do with something that's been going on for eleven years now (!). I'm introducing a new networking option for readers (since our old message board has pretty much died), and working out the details for a new page I'd like to add, featuring some kind of blog feed from writers who blog regularly about writing. I haven't quite figured out the best way to do that yet, so it might have to wait until the March issue.

I'm also losing my columnist, Sue Lick, which is very sad for me. Sue has been a faithful contributor for several years, but she has to turn to other things in her life right now. I'll miss her "Everything But Writing" columns.

But, onward and upward! Time to see if I can get it online today.

I did it!

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:21:00 +0000

Whew! I met my deadline of finishing the edit of The Seventh Crow by the end of the month, and entering it in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition. I feel great!

My purpose in taking on this challenge was a dual one. Of course, I'd love to win--a nice publishing contract from Penguin! But I'm fully cognizant that I may be eliminated along the way. That will be okay, because my second purpose was to have another novel manuscript submission-ready--and now I have that!

Over the next week I'll be doing some market research and deciding where I'll submit the novel if the competition doesn't work out. And then I'm going to relax for a few days!!

Blueful

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 23:19:00 +0000

A friend sent me this link today: http://www.blueful.com/

If you have half an hour or so and would like to experience a really innovative combination of creative writing and the internet, follow the link, follow the instructions, and follow a trail of creativity that weaves its way across the web, through various transformations and incarnations. It's part interactive poetry and part treasure hunt.

Although it's not entirely creativity for creativity's sake, I think you might enjoy it.

Twitterhea

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 01:18:00 +0000

Okay, I don't know for sure if I'm the first to invent this word, but I've just coined it for myself, anyway. I am enjoying Twitter, but there seem to be some folks who are just addicted to it. They can't go five minutes without sending a tweet, and they often send out five or six in quick succession. They send out so many that you get tired of reading them to find the interesting bits.

I've decided those folks are suffering from Twitterhea. I don't know if there's a cure.

The real blog revolution

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 02:41:00 +0000

Today I was thinking about all the really great, funny, interesting, and thought-provoking blog posts I write in my head, but which never actually make it onto my blog.

Recently I've written a rant about misspelled signage and one about being sick of winter, a post about editing, one about geekdom, one about Second Life, and one about raising kids who are readers.

If we ever get to the technological point where I'll be somehow "plugged in" to my blog all the time and will only have to think things to have them appear on the page, I'll be a very prolific blogger indeed.

In the meantime, maybe I'll get to write a few things down sometime soon. *Sigh*

Domino Effect

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 19:29:00 +0000

Ever notice how sitting down at the computer to do what you expect will be a relatively easy task so easily dominoes into a huge, time-devouring project? That's the kind of day I'm having.

I decided that, of the many projects on my list, today I would work toward getting electronic versions of my stories for sale on my website. I've already made PDF files and cover images for the ones I'm starting with. While I spent some time looking at the ZenCart system in the fall, I decided it's a bit more complicated than I need right now--a page on my site, some PayPal buttons, and download pages are really all I need for now. Should be do-able, right?

I started setting up the page, uploaded my graphics files to Photobucket, and started in on the first ebook. Hmmm, I thought, I should make it available in more formats. Easy enough. I have both Mobipocket Creator and Microsoft Reader on my computer. That would give me three formats, which looks pretty reasonable.

Well, seems that the Microsoft Reader add-in for MS Word (to convert .doc files to Reader files) no longer works with Word 2007. Kind of a big oversight there, for the folks at MS Reader. Some time eaten up trying to determine whether I still have Word 2003 installed on one of the computers in the house. Oh yes, I do. However, for some reason, the add-in doesn't recognize it. Sigh. Okay, time wasted, forget offering the files in MS Reader format. Grrr.

Mobipocket Creator--great, easy graphical interface. Wait a second, only opens MS Word files. Okay, load up a story and transfer it into Word, save it. Make the e-book, easy as pie. Wait, the formatting is no good. Back to Word, change the layout. Make ebook again. Better, but not great. Ah, this should look better. Well, it would, but Mobipocket doesn't translate it the same onto the page. Off to the Mobipocket page...huh, there's a different edition that will import .pdf files--which I already have. Download, install.

I'm about to try that. That's where I am, after about four hours. Sigh. Cross your fingers for me. Right now, it looks like I could be at this all night.

That time of year...

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 15:13:00 +0000

...when I'm run off my feet with all the things to do! For a few days last week I didn't even turn the computer on, which is pretty strange for an Internet geek like myself.

In a nutshell, the Undercurrents book launch was a fabulous success, I'm (fairly) close to being ready for Christmas, but still have a long list of things to finish up. So blogging will likely be at a minimum until after the new year. I'll post a fuller report on the book launch if I do get a minute, though, and I want to talk about some writing plans for 2009.

If this is the only thing that goes wrong...

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:14:00 +0000

So, it's the day of the Undercurrents book launch, and what do you know--my website is down. Perfect!

I have the problem straightened out now after a quick (okay, not-so-quick, counting the time I spent on hold) call to my domain company this morning. Problem fixed, but I have no idea how long it will take for my site to start coming up again. Could be hours (it already has been) or days, I suppose.

*Sigh* I suppose if this is the only thing that goes wrong today, I should be grateful. It's terrible timing, though. At least the Third Person Press site is running smoothly!

Many thanks to my good friend M.D. Benoit for the heads-up about the problem. Goodness knows when I would have noticed it without her!

Undercurrents--the launch

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 03:17:00 +0000

The book launch is almost upon us, coming up on Thursday evening. We had a meeting tonight to iron out the final (I hope!) details and go over our checklist of things to think of. I believe we're ready--at least as ready as we're going to be! Bringing this book into being has certainly been a learning experience, which continues even now that we hold printed copies in our hands. The work is far from over!

So, if you can't make it to our launch, please check out the Third Person Press website, www.thirdpersonpress.com, to find out more about the book, and maybe even order a copy!

Respite?

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:39:00 +0000

Yesterday afternoon and evening I took a brief and idyllic respite from the busy-ness of the past month. I started a knitting project. I played video games with my son. I did some online Christmas shopping. I hung out with my daughter as she finished her NaNo novel. It was nice.

Today I feel like I've jumped back onto the hamster wheel and it's spinning twice as fast now. It's the week of the launch! More books arriving! Last-minute promoting and details to finalize! More shopping, more lists, more things to get to now, now, now!

Don't be too surprised to see that my daily blogging stint comes to an abrupt and sad end.

Now What?

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 23:36:00 +0000

Well, that's not actually a serious question. Now that NaNoWriMo, and NaBloPoMo, are over, it's not like I have a dearth of things to do. I have to turn my mind to Christmas, finish preparations for the book launch this week...and I would like to try and keep blogging. I really enjoy it when I'm doing it, but it's an easy habit for me to fall out of.

Tonight I'm going to start a Christmas knitting project--nothing too difficult, it's quite a while since I've done sweaters or anything else really time-consuming. I have a couple of small projects planned, and if they go well we'll see what else I might tackle.

NaNoWriMo was a bit of a struggle this year, but I'm glad I participated, as usual. The story is structurally not good, but I know there are places where, for first draft writing, it's really improved. I saw a big change in my daughter's committment this year as well--she was really engrossed in her story and didn't need nagging or reminding to get those daily words in. It was fun working with her, and with some new NaNoWriMo buds, like my pal Chivalrybean from Second Life who kept me virtual company many writing nights, and others in the SL F&SF Writers Workshop, where we had weekly meetings to keep each other encouraged. As well, my usual supporters, like McDoogle, the AFWD group, and my friends and family had my back for the month. So, thanks, everyone!

I already have plans for a few writing projects to tackle in the new year. I'll keep you posted as they come up.

And done

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 02:01:00 +0000

Done, with a day to spare. Fifty thousand words in 29 days. It's not anything like a complete first draft, but yes, it has potential. I don't hate it, anyway.

Considering everything else I had going on in October and November this year, I'm feeling pretty good about it, all in all. I'm hoping to do quite a lot of rewrite work in 2009; I may not get to this particular project, but it will be on the list. I think it's mainly lacking the foundational work that I didn't have time for beforehand--if I worked up a better structure, the rewrite would be fairly straightforward.

I'm off to validate, download my certificate, and give my brain a break!

Home Stretch

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 15:55:00 +0000

Three days left in NaNoWriMo.

Three thousand words.

I think I can do it. :)

"Latest" Meme

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 01:33:00 +0000

I am running out of steam on many things right now--NaNoWriMo, book launch preparations, blogging...so today it's a meme again. This one requires some memory work so it could be rough...

Latest Road Trip: 2007 summer vacation to Toronto
Latest Bad Advice: Received or given? Never mind, I can't remember either
Latest Movie I Saw in a Theater: Twilight
Latest TV Show Watched: Kim Possible (?)
Latest TV Show I Enjoyed Watching: Heroes
Latest Book I Tried to Read: can't recall
Latest Thing I Left Home Without: Money to buy my niece a present to take to a birthday party
Latest Take Out Meal: KFC
Latest Celebration: My brother's birthday
Latest Item Loaned Out and Haven’t Gotten Back: Probably a book
Latest New Words Added to Vocabulary: "locus of the points"
Latest New Word of a Foreign Language Learned: attrire (French for attract)
Latest T-Shirt Acquired: Peace & Love graphic from cafepress.com
Latest Package Received: A new bellydance coin belt!
Latest Web Site Visited: http://ocremix.org
Latest Injury: an unexplained bruise
Latest Run In with the Law: n/a
Latest Place I’d Want to Live: I don't know, I pretty much like it here
Latest Physical Fight: I punched a guy once when I was in high school...
Latest Magazine Read: Wired
Latest Thing I Broke: a glass
Latest Thing I Fixed: a wooden rabbit
Latest Thing That Made Me Laugh: A new exclamation coined by my son; "mother catnip!"
Latest Thing That Made Me Go Huh?: my daughter's math homework
Latest Thought: how many more words to get to 50k?

The Daft Draft

noreply@blogger.com (Sherry) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 03:35:00 +0000

I told my sister tonight that this is the worst first draft I've ever written--in fact, I said, I should be calling it a "daft," not even a "draft."

However, I'm not letting that little fact get me down. Here's one thing that I've learned in seven years of NaNoWriMo--every novel is different. Not just in content; every novel experience is different. Some flow like water. Some flow like cold molasses uphill, as they say in my part of the world. Some turn out to be not nearly as messy as you first imagined. Some turn out to be, as my old boss used to say, a dog's breakfast.

But, what's the alternative? NOT writing? Is that really better?

I don't think so. So I'll be happy with my daft draft, whatever I have to do with it to make it to the 50k finish line.

Until I get to the rewrite...but there's lots of time to worry about that.