Sad lack of Wiscon
This is the first Memorial Day weekend in a good long while that I haven’t been at Wiscon, and I can’t help feeling a little melancholy. I’d gotten very used to that moment of connection and thought and outright silliness. (And there’s a very materialistic part of me that misses the clothing swap, but since I hit the jackpot last year I really have no right to complain.) My thoughts are with everyone there; raise a glass for me.
In the meantime, I’m drowning my sorrows in Rock Band, cinnamon rolls, and hiking, not in that order. I also took a quick break from revision to write something new, and while I’m still too close to know whether I did a good job, it feels like a good story. Not least because I got to write several mad-science monologues.
Best part of revision recently: fixing a logistics problem and in the process making one character delightfully more sinister. No matter how well it’s justified or how true it is in-story, the line “this is for your own good” immediately makes the scene a little more unsettling.
Bring back the extras!
Best part of revision today: bringing back some minor characters in order to create some emotional resolution. Also, there’s something satisfying about cutting out whole swaths of text. I know I’ll have to write more to make up for it, but the act of paring down has its own satisfaction.
Or by turning the fight scene into a dance-off. That’d work too.
Best part of today’s revision: realizing that I can fix most of the problems with a chapter by moving the action to another location — which will give me a little more of a chance to flesh out a previously-flattish character. Simple solutions rock.
also, hijinks and/or mayhem
Best part of revision today: reducing an entire chapter’s worth of comments to “ADD SHENANIGANS.”
It’s the little things that make it worthwhile
Best part of revision so far: finding a comment of “FUCK YEAH!” and a scribbled heart. I love my crit group.
when blog back bring pie
After a lovely weekend in which we celebrated Piemas (the holiday when everyone sits around and eats pie), I’ve decided to try to update a little more in the coming weeks. Unfortunately, there are two stumbling blocks: I’m currently composing a first draft — and we’ve seen how well I do with blogging first drafts — and BRAWL will be giving me comments on a novel manuscript at the end of the week. Or, more accurately, they’ll be handing me a heap of shredded pages and some very kind but adamant critiques. Funny, but the closer I get to the crit session, the more I’m convinced that this draft really wasn’t up to snuff, and I’m going to get my butt kicked for it.
Of course the next step is to remove butt from floor, dust off, and revise — but waiting for that kick is a little annoying.
In the meantime, though, I’m planning to post a bit this week, probably on research and structure. Between that and this first-draft work, I might be able to keep my mind off the crit.
And I should make more pie. Because pie is always good. Sometimes strange (the margarita pie? the “liquid pie” cocktail from a few years back? the rabbit-and-crayfish pie with crayfish sticking out of the top?), but always good. Even if I’m just regarding it from a distance (those crayfish were looking at me funny, I swear).
Boskone schedule
Friday, 9pm: How Much Steam Is There in Steampunk?
Is steampunk destined to remain a distinct subgenre, or will its edges blur into the rest of alternate history? Why does it appeal to us? Are its appeals enduring aspects of the genre? Rosemary Kirstein (M), Margaret Ronald, Stephen Segal, Genevieve Valentine
I have a couple of quibbles with the assumption in the panel description that steampunk belongs with “the rest of alternate history.” I write steampunky stuff that is decidedly not alternate history, and I think the aesthetic as a whole is stronger than just one niche of a niche. However, I’ve also readily admitted that I lack much of the steampunk aesthetic, so it’s possible I’m just rationalizing my use of the relevant tropes. I’ll be interested to see what comes out of this panel.
Saturday, 2pm: The Heroine’s Path
Maureen Murdock’s 1990 study The Heroine’s Journey served as a complement (and sometimes corrective) to Joseph Campbell’s work on the Hero’s Journey. Both put deep store in stories drawn from world myth. But what do working genre writers actually do with these theories or materials? Are they present at the creation, or useful for analysis afterward? Do they affect your characters or their origins, relationships, arcs, or resolutions? Which mythic or theoretic elements have you actually incorporated? What path do — must — your own heroines tread? B.A. Chepaitis, Greer Gilman, Theodora Goss (M), Margaret Ronald, Phoebe Wray
It’s hard to say whether I consciously use these tropes in creation, but I certainly use them in revision, either as touchstone or warning. And while I do enjoy incorporating mythic elements into the story, whether they make it as deep as the story structure itself is another matter entirely.
Saturday, 5pm: Creating Worlds for Online Gaming
How do you start to create a world for online gaming? Is it harder to start a game from scratch, from a book, or from a movie? What’s different about worldbuilding for a narrative that’s meant to be played instead of read? Walter H. Hunt, Margaret Ronald, Melinda Snodgrass (M), Timothy P. Szczesuil, Brianna Spacekat Wu
I actually assigned myself homework for this panel, since I’m coming at it from the perspective of an end user rather than someone experienced in worldbuilding for games. So I played Bastion all weekend (wow), started watching a playthrough of Dark Souls (eek), and have been trying to figure out some of my thoughts on implicit versus explicit storytelling.
Saturday, 8pm: Artifactual: The Warehouse 13 Game
Inspired by Syfy TV’s popular Warehouse 13, this brand-new game show is an SFnal cross between “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” and “Fictionary.” For each round, the MC comes up with a strange new happenstance, such as, “Reports say people have begun turning green.” From the TV show, we know that behind every odd occurrence is some strangely powerful object. So our panel of out-of-the-box thinkers compete to guess that artifact, such as, “It’s the Wicked Witch’s hat from The Wizard of Oz” or “It’s Larry Bird’s Celtics jersey.” Competitors are encouraged to embellish their guesses to the max; audience members clap hardest to get their favorite guess the win! Daniel Kimmel, Bob Kuhn (M), Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Margaret Ronald, Steven Sawicki
Oh boy. I’m much more familiar with Warehouse 23 than Warehouse 13, but for this game I suspect the distinction will be moot. This could go horribly wrong or horribly right. Either way, it’ll be fun to watch.
Sunday, 10:30am-10:55am: Reading: Margaret Ronald
I’m planning to read the lobster story, since it’ll be coming out in Beneath Ceaseless Skies sometime soon. And because it’s a really fun story to read aloud. This does, however, mean I have to rehearse it so that the best part of the story will fit within 20 minutes.
Sunday, 1pm: The Twilight of Twilight: Staking the Heart of Paranormal Romance?
Let’s look ahead to the November 2012 release of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2, the concluding flick to be made from Stephenie Meyer’s planet-bustingly successful series. How good are these books and movies? Does Twilight fandom serve as gateway fanaticism for similar stories? Or will the end of this crepuscular phenomenon take paranormal romance down with it? Debra Doyle (M), Margaret Ronald, Leah Wilson
Confession time: I have not read Twilight. But I think the mood it captures is not exclusive to paranormal romance, nor to certain strains of YA fiction. I think the id button that Twilight pushes is independent of the paranormal or vampy aspects of the story, and so I’m not sure that the end of Twilight will signal an end to paranormal romance as a whole.
That’s a lot of panels. I think come Sunday evening, I’m going to want to put my feet up and ignore everything for a while.
In the meantime, mmm, half-price candy.
Love and auctions. Also, a sandwich.
I have my Boskone schedule — I think the programming folks must have a defunct email address for me, because I didn’t realize I was on a whopping six items (four panels, a reading, and a game) until the preliminary program went up. Whoops. I’ll have it up tomorrow, because today is a holiday.
That’s right — it’s Half-Price Candy Day Eve! Tomorrow, all sorts of tasty chocolate in foil wrappers of varying shades of pink will be on sale. Even if you’re like me and end up ogling the Cadbury Creme Eggs instead (with their insides so goopy and sweet and possibly not actually meant as foodstuffs), Half-Price Candy Day is an important yearly event.
In honor of said candy, here are a few links:
Keep the…uh…lupercal in Lupercalia?
BUT WHAT IF I USE THE WRONG KIND OF STAPLER THIS IS IMPORTANT TO OUR RELATIONSHIP
The sandwich that means I love you. (Seriously, read this. It is relevant to your interests. I promise you.)
And speaking of sharing the love, the Con or Bust auctions have opened! So if you want some beautiful signed first editions, unique jewelry, tasty foodstuffs, or a chance to make Genevieve Valentine watch and report on your favorite bizarre movie, go and bid!
More revisions, day eleven
This was unexpected.
I finished the revisions today. Yes, the chapters at this end of the story are short, and yes, the very last few weren’t too bad to begin with . . . but I really didn’t expect to be done this soon. I think this may be the difference between a major reconfiguration draft (such as one that follows a critique) and a polishing draft.
Overall, it’s a good novel. It has flaws, but that’s why I’m asking BRAWL to take a look at it. In the words of another BRAWL member, they will fall upon the manuscript like a pack of erudite hyenas. And when they’re done, I’ll have an idea which flaws can be patched and which are dealbreakers.
And now? Now I set it aside, fix those short stories that have been awaiting edits and send them out, and then get back to work on research for the tangled next project. I have a couple of scenes in mind already; maybe I’ll write those and then see where they fit later on.
More revisions, day ten
Two more chapters, one of which had been giving me some trouble before. I may have reached fatigue point with this manuscript; I think there are flaws, but I can’t yet see them, and knowing they must be there is driving me nuts. Or perhaps I’m just overthinking it.
And I get a few more pages into Chapter Twenty-three while I’m at it. I should get more of it done, but I’m trying a new morning schedule and if I’m going to get moving, I need to finish up quick. Maybe I’ll take care of it when I get home from work.
Actually, that sounds like a good idea. (Later note: yes, but I didn’t do it. Oh well.)
Comments from manuscript:
No longer true
He knows in prev. chapter — change there so he finds out here
Change names to some consistent form
Condense and put earlier
This sounds pompous (well, more so than usual)
Need physical details
Where are they?
Is this necessary?
No time for a long discussion here
More revisions, day nine
Chapters Nineteen and Twenty, both of which need lots of work. Nineteen is too long by far, partly because a lot happens and partly because the fight scene is far too padded. There’s also a good deal that needs to be glossed over, unless I want to write a tedious travel scene.
Chapter Twenty has a scene that I wrote back when I was still working on the first draft of the prior book, and while it’s a great scene, it also shows its age. Names and circumstances have changed, one so substantially that I stop work to go back through the manuscript to make sure one character is no longer referred to by a certain title. I find two instances in chapters I’ve already revised. That’s embarrassing.
Three-fourths done. This might work.
Comments from MS:
Condense into 1-2 grafs at most
Cut entire page (usually indicated by one big slash of the pen)
They’d have no need for this
He knows this already — no need to tell
Make sure reader knows where [thing] is
What does this mean?
Reconcile with several-day journey
She’s heard this language before, would know its name
More revisions, day eight
For a number of reasons, I get time to revise, but not with my marked-up manuscript. So I spend the time revising a short story instead, one that BRAWL took a look at some time ago. Strangely, it takes longer to revise twenty-five pages of short story than twenty-five pages of novel, probably because short stories have much less room for error. Or maybe it’s just that I know this novel will be going to BRAWL, while the story’s closer to sending out. It still needs a readthrough, but it’s almost ready to go.
It’s also an example of a weird-inspiration story: I dreamed one of the major scenes in this story almost ten years ago, then tried to write a story around that scene. It failed, miserably, but the story remained on my computer. Then last fall, I started poking with some of the ideas, switched around a few characters, and took another crack at it. And this time, it worked — and that particular scene is still very close to the dream. It doesn’t happen often that I get handed gifts from my subconscious (or gifts that don’t need tailoring, anyway), and it feels a little strange to have the context for it now.
