I wanted to finish FOTS before EDM was born. A week before his birth, I realized that I had to focus on Fluffy more than the novel, so I set it aside. Well, until those long hours of labor when I got to work on a chapter. In the first week we came back home, I used EDM’s naps to finish what I call the “first sketch” of the novel.
Reviewing books is a hard thing. On one hand, it is a great way for people to learn about books or games they might not have played otherwise. On the other, reviewing a review of one of your books, games, movies is a brutal thing since you put so much love and passion into it, you don’t want to read about someone ripping it apart.
I skipped the writing group yesterday because they moved the inducing up a day. I figured I’d have a nice couple of hours to work on chapter 25 and 26 (stuck on the teenage angst of 25). And then, I would still be in the running to finish the book before EDM is born.
Didn’t happen.
One of the writers over at the Nobel Pen started asking me questions about DocBook 5, mainly because I’m doing so much with the `mfgames-writing-python` toolchain. It was nice being a somewhat knowledgeable source for stuff, but they were doing relatively simple stuff and it didn’t really push the limits of my skills. Still, nice to be considered. Speaking of the toolchain, it is moving around quite nicely. I got it so it will be idempotent while converting between Creole and DocBook formats. I also made it easy to create converters for DocBook and other text-based formats, like Markdown. It also now converts subject terms into DokuWiki tags, something I use fairly heavily.
Beyond the programming and working on a commission, I’ve just been doing “life” thing. Fluffy’s car broke down and we had to return it to get it fixed right. They are keeping it over a few days, so we are down to one car again. *sigh* At least it isn’t anything really critical.
I also got a chance to play the demo for Revenge of the Titans, a RTS tower defense game. I actually liked it; I normally like TD games but I haven’t really warmed up to RTS games. This one… I could enjoy. They have a special right now, 50% off ($13) for pre-ordering and I decided to pick it up. Amazing how many fun games you can get for under $20.
It was an interesting weekend. Fluffy and I went back to Illinois for the second (and last) baby shower. We got back pretty late on Sunday with a car full of pastels, an exhausted dog, and a $100 electric bill.
So, a lovely little writing contest for a book from an awesome writer. This is being done by Merry Sisters of Fate, who have some really cool writing.
http://community.livejournal.com/merry_fates/95549.html
Oh yeah, and Linger is coming out. It has a beautiful cover.
The Princess
“So, all I have to do is pretend to be uncomfortable and they’ll think I’m a princess?” She spoke with a southern accent with just a hint of whiskey and smoke. “What if they don’t buy it?”
Pretty good weekend, I would have to say. And it wasn’t doing everything I planned on doing. I played a lot of games, wrote a good chapter, and rewrote part of my writing tool chain. Oh, and cleaned the house.
I’ve been having a fairly good week, writing-wise. Like usual, the holiday weekend ended up being a working weekend. I had a large (15k word) commission, a story contest entry (250 words), and a chapter due.
The commission ended up being much, much larger than I planned. Over 25k words. I rewrote it quite a few times, but I couldn’t actually get it to fit in the 15k words. I got too into the story and I needed to finish the story properly instead of just short-changing the commissioner to fit a limited word count.
Once I finished that, on Monday, I was reminded that I had a chapter due for Noble Pen. Oops. I tried to write on Tuesday, but I honestly can’t write after working out. Those damn endorphines running through my system make it impossible to concentrate, much less get words out. So, on Wednesday night, I ended up writing very late to get out probably one of the critical chapters of the novel. Somewhere around midnight, I actually finished and sent it out.
… it was not my best work. But, I think it was a good chapter. I need to go back to it, but I feel like I have this blade over me, counting down the days until Fluffy finally gives birth. After that, I can’t help thinking that my time is going to be a lot less, well, free.
The story entry was the hardest. 250 words with a specific theme. I ended up writing it a dozen times, including two entirely separate stories. It was hellish, since my “sweet spot” is around 10k words, not 250.
The contest is organized like Project Runway, American Idol, and the other “voting off” type of contests. Every round will get rid of a person with the winner getting, hopefully, something good. Right now, I’m happy if I can make it to the second round.
Today, I worked on chapter 15. Going slow, like all the chapters, but at least it is going. Even though it won’t be submitted until the 24th, I’m going to still try to get two chapters a week.
It’s that blade held over me.
Been working through FOTS in the last few weeks. Hit one of those major milestones when I could finally plan out the last of the chapters. Before then, I’m still trying to “feel people out” as it is in the story. I have a much better idea of the various character’s personality, though still struggling with two of them. But, knowing how the next 16 chapters will run through makes me a lot happier. And, hopefully, increase my production rate.
I also decided to just shove forward through my sticking points. Instead of trying to polish each chapter, just writing it out and then polishing before submitting to the Nobel Pen for critiques. Seems to me somewhat useful, but we’ll see in a few more chapters.
Regardless, happy I’m writing.
Here I am, just past 05:30 in the morning and I can’t sleep.
My head gets filled up with ideas but the bandwidth to get them out simply isn’t enough. One little thing, like a dog barking, is enough to wake me up. And instead of going right back to sleep, I start thinking about PowerShell and WCF for work. And how to fix chapters 01-09 for FOTS and how to get chapter 10 actually done. Or worrying about my ankle hurting this last two weeks (though getting better).
That started at 03:12 this morning.
Somewhere around 04:20, I decided that I should just get up and try to do something. But, once I sat down at my computer, the words wouldn’t come. Instead, I cleaned up my hard drive and got rid of some cruft that I didn’t need.
Feel good to clean up stuff, I’m a pack rat when it comes to computers. I find files or articles ranging from nuclear reactors to non-photorealistic rendering to writing techniques. Some are online, in my ever growing To Do category, while others are just tossed into the Download folder to be read “eventually”.
A lot needs to get done this weekend. I need to get my “Zen and the Art of Standards” talk ready for Iowa Code Camp for May 1. I also need a short story finished and chapter 10 done by Sunday night. I suspect we’ll be taking it easy for most of the weekend, so I should be okay, but at the beginning of the list, it seems overwhelming.