they must need bears

Steve Brust would like you to know about 4th Street Fantasy Convention, an intimate little con in Minneapolis.

For those unfamiliar with it, the Fourth Street Fantasy Convention is a fairly small convention that ran during the 80s. It’s oriented toward, well, how to read and write better. Or, put another way, it’s a convention of people who like to read, write, and edit good books, and want there to be more good books to read, write, and edit.

We’re bringing it back.

I will be the Guest of Honor, and many other fun and wonderful people will be there.

Also, my short story "And the Deep Blue Sea" is available as of today as a podcast at StarShipSofa, read by Amy Sturgis. Which is pretty darn cool.


Progress notes for 2 April 2008

Chill:

New words: 669
Microsoft wordcount: 52622
Manuscript wordcount: 62000 
Deadline: May 1
Mammalian assistance: snuggy cat. her favorite thing is when my lap and the sunbeam are colocated. 
Reason for stopping: Intense frustration and brainlessness.

Man, this book is still not going well. I am stringing words together, but I'm not sure they make any sense, and the sentences certainly aren't. It feels like trying to write with brain damage. If it weren't for the fact that apparently everything else is working normally and I know I'm a hypochondriac, I swear I would suspect a micro-stroke, or possibly a tumor.

Gah. I am such a basket case about my writing right now anyway. I am toiling under a triple threat: one helping of post-Clarion syndrome, which has actualized my internal editor to the point where all I can see about what I'm writing is what the words aren't, one helping of trying to write a book that's so unripe, I think I would be better off trying to write it in 2009, and meanwhile, an extra-large helping of being deep in the throes of processing some sort of incipient skill jump that has made me incompetent to do things I used to do with ease, until the backbrain figures it out and frees up some processing power.

Now I know that the end result of this particular crisis will be me as a stronger writer (heck, maybe this is the final veil, and if I get through this, I will be a grown up writer and not a journeyman anymore) but trying to work through it is hard, hard, hard. And it hurts. And I wish I could just stop.

I think what I am going to do is take the rest of today off, give myself tomorrow off. This weekend is I-Con. And then I will start work on the page proofs for Ink & Steel. (Page proofs for the mass market paperback of A Companion to Wolves are also landing this week, and by the 18th I should have the ones for All the Windwracked Stars... at which point I will be at Penguicon.) After the page proofs, perhaps I will see if I have grown any story in my head.

(I even know what happens in these scenes. I just can't seem to write it at any level of competence above, oh, Fourth Grade. Gods, this is frustrating.)





Darling du jour: Hazel, he supposed the color was called--but tawny was the right word, for everything about her should be defined in terms of predators.
There's always one more quirk in the character:  Tristen really, really does not want to tell me how Aefre got killed. I mean, I already know--I knew last book. But boy howdy he does not want to talk about it.

Today's words Word don't know:  n/a
Words I'm Surprised Word Do Know: n/a 
Sustenance: Steamed buns. Again. And a mango.
Mean Things: Family deaths. War crimes.
Other writing-related work: none

Exercise: none
Miles to Lothlorien: 245.8
Guitar practice: Just gonna go do that now. Or maybe I will have a nap first.
Mail: nomail

Progress notes for 1 April 2008

So much for my productive day off. I blew it entirely on being stressed out on Internet drama.

Fuck this. Maybe I do need to turn off comments, much as I would regret it.

Chill:

New words: 189
Deadline: May 1
Mammalian assistance: There is a cat on my knee as I type this, holding on to the cloth of my jeans with her clawtips and purring. She must be cold. Or want something.
Jury-rigging: Dream sequences. Hate 'em, Jake.
Sustenance: steamed buns with red bean paste, courtesy of the frozen foods section of the local Asian grocery 
Exercise: Climbing last night, five routes. I am still thrashing on my project wall, which is a 5.7 that really doesn't seem like it should be that hard. At least I got past the point where I was stuck until last week, and did it with relative grace and professionalism. And then I got to the traverse.

A Brief Dramatization:

The Jeff (on belay): "What seems to be the problem up there?"
Our Heroine: "(&^%(*&^(*^ traverse."
The Jeff: "Oh, yeah, that traverse. That traverse sucks."
Our Heroine: *falling off wall again* "Yeah, I noticed."
Alisa (wandering in a little late): "Which one is she doing?"
The Jeff: "Blue route."
Alisa: "Oh, yeah, the one with the sucky traverse."
Our Heroine: "*&^%^%#$*^%!"

Ahem.

After that, I tried another 5.7, which is on the level of, I sent it once but have not yet been able to reproduce the feat--I also did not send it last night, as I was too worn out from falling off that damned traverse--and then I did a 5.6, a 5.5, and a 5.7 on the slab that I had never tried before, which I sent pretty well, once I figured out a sticky spot after the transition to vertical. I am getting really good at smearing; it's the one place where being heavy and having big flat feet works to my advantage.

I have picked out a 5.11 that I would really love to be able to climb. Someday, my prince will come....

This morning, 2 mile run in the warm (for this time of year) rain at dawn, which was much more like a run than last week's two mile runs. I only did four intervals, but they were much longer intervals, so I actually ran--okay, dog-trotted--about half the distance. And there were a couple of actual sprints in there, too, which was the only time I got winded, which is incredibly exciting to me. (The other times, I dropped out of the interval because either my arches or my calves hurt too much to push through, but that will get better as I adapt, and as my weight drops and these shoes break in.) First mile in 15 minutes, five minute break, second mile in 17 minutes because after the last interval, I stopped to look at the crocuses and snowdrops carpeting a neighbor's lawn for a minute.

Not too shabby, all things considered.

The lovely thing about going for a run first thing in the morning is that it fulfills the Live Frog clause. Nothing worse is likely to happen to you all day.

Also, I went for a walk to the package store on the corner, because I needed beer.

Miles to Lothlorien: 235.8
Guitar practice: My right hand appears to be developing a mind of its own. It does stuff now without consulting the neocortex, which is encouraging--that's what we hope to train it to do--but  little disconcerting, because now it often will not do things it used to know how to do. However, it taught itself a new finger-picking pattern recently, though it kind of still sucks at it, and it just randomly invented a bridge for "Brown-Eyed Girl" the other day. I had nothing to do with it. (It was not a good or complicated bridge, but it was definitely a bridge, and it kind of freaked me out. The hand seemed happy, however.)
Mail: Dust is number 4 on the Locus best seller list for April. Of course, that is the April Fool's edition. But the story about me sharing a bunk bed with Margaret Atwood? Total fact.
The Internet is Full of Things:  Snake and mouse!

Progress notes for 31 March 2008

Chill:

New words: 1920
Microsoft wordcount: 51764
Manuscript wordcount: 61000
Deadline: May 1
Mammalian assistance: The cat might learn that loving me very much when she wants wet food is a bad way to get it, especially since that's the only time she ever gives me sugar at all.
Reason for stopping: Time to go climb.





Darling du jour: "And have you kept your conscience, Sir Tristen?"
Tyop du jour: violent-blue
Jury-rigging: Tristen is in Scary Danger. Finally, some peril.

This book needs more scary danger on the next draft. Maybe I can add some lighting effects and creaky foleys.

There's always one more quirk in the character:  Aw, Tristen. Poor you. Poor your angst.

Today's words Word don't know:  cookstoves, tailtip, nevermind, shadowless, kinslaughter,
Sustenance: bean burritos
Mean Things: inherent nobility
Other writing-related work: I did not open the page proofs. Maybe tonight when I get home.

Exercise: none
Miles to Lothlorien: 248.5
Guitar practice: none. maybe tonight
Mail: page proofs!

Progress notes for 30 March 2008

Chill:

New words: 1750. There may be a second sitting later tonight, when the gang shows up in chat. The live of the working artist is pretty much ceaseless toil.
Microsoft wordcount: 49844
Manuscript wordcount: 58750 
Deadline: May 1
Mammalian assistance: Mebd mugged her catnip banana and beat it brutally
Reason for stopping: quota, needed food badly, caffeine-deprivation headache from failure to stop working long enough to get tea





Darling du jour: he could have had wings, if he wanted them badly enough to put up with the nuisance value
Jury-rigging: arbitrarily closed off an avenue of exploration
There's always one more quirk in the character:  Chelsea is now humming the Hawaii 5-O theme...

Today's words Word don't know:  hyperoxygenated,
Sustenance: I just walked down and got a Subway meatball grinder. That was kind of exceptionally bland and way too sweet. Why did I think I wanted that?
Mean Things: still more carnivorous plants
Other writing-related work: none

Exercise: walked to Subway. ;-) Should try to yoga later, maybe, though not too much, as today is technically a recovery day.
Miles to Lothlorien: 248.5
Guitar practice: Just about to start
Mail: nomail

Progress notes for 29 March 2008

Chill:

New words: 1444
Microsoft wordcount: 48094
Manuscript wordcount: 57000 
Deadline: May 1
Mammalian assistance: Mostly, I was neglected 
Reason for stopping: There's nine hours of work in that six pages. It seems like a lot of effort for very little return. They're a pretty awful six pages, too, which makes me unhappy.

Also, the space bar on my damned laptop is dying. Replacement gets closer and closer.





Darling du jour: I hate every word.
Jury-rigging: Well, I figured out what Jsutien's job was. That's nice to know on page 220. Something else to fix in the next draft. Thank God writing is not a performance art.
There's always one more quirk in the character:  None of these people have personalities. Something else I hope they grow by the next draft.

Today's words Word don't know:  astrogrator, astrogation, tzaraath,
Mean Things: Parental angst
Other writing-related work: Some SU stuff. I seriously need to get some deadlines pushed back here; I'm going to have a Serious Malady of some sort otherwise. Or possible just lose my ability to communicate. Or write. Or write anything but hackwork.

Exercise: crunches, "ran" two miles. (When we say "ran," we mean "waddled.")
Miles to Lothlorien: 248.7
Guitar practice: I was low-blood-sugary, but I did practice somewhat. Poorly, because I was hungry and clumsy. God, was I clumsy today.

Progress notes for 27 March 2008

Chill:

New words: 1349 (hopefully I will get the other 651 words tonight after archery, but if I do I will just stick it in tomorrow's wordcount.)
Microsoft wordcount: 46426
Manuscript wordcount: 54750
Deadline: May 1
Mammalian assistance: the cat is using me as a backrest while she sees to her toilette. 
Reason for stopping: must leave in 45 minutes





Darling du jour: "We're the carnivorous plants."
Tyop du jour: chookbones
Jury-rigging: My novel has daddy issues.
There's always one more quirk in the character:  Dear characters: While not nodding, can you also stop wincing in sympathy? Thanks. Love, Bear.

Today's words Word don't know:  Today I learned that the plural of labellum is labellums. I would have guessed labelli. Anyway, Word doesn't know any of those. Also: harlequined, microwaved, dragony, rictus, agave,
Words I'm Surprised Word Do Know:
Sustenance: steamed buns, applesauce
Mean Things: cultural relativism
Other writing-related work: none

Exercise: none
Miles to Lothlorien: 245.2
Guitar practice: For some reason, I can only sing Tom Petty songs in a Southeastern accent.
Mail: nomail
The Internet is Full of Things:  Orchid anatomy

Progress notes for 26 March 2008

Logging yesterday's wordcount today! (I didn't get this done until about 1 am, what with one thing and another, and then I went to bed.)

Chill:

New words: 2514
Microsoft wordcount: 45077
Manuscript wordcount: 53000 (Chapter breaks, how I love you for inflating the hell out of my apparent wordcount.)
Deadline: May 1
Mammalian assistance: The P.C. decided I wasn't being enough fun, and went to go get stoned about halfway through the afternoon. I had great fun watching her make out with her catnip-filled zucchini, or whatever that thing is supposed to be. She's lost all her glitterballs under things again, which is usually my cue to sweep, but right now, I am deathmarching. (And you should see the state of my sink. Uck. Gross.)
Reason for stopping: Quota, chapter, tired.





Darling du jour: ruptured bulkheads frozen in twisted alloy petals like balloons captured at the moment of bursting
Tyop du jour: I'm sure I'll find one when I revise
Jury-rigging: Oh, my god. Did I actually just write lit up with a startled smile? I'd cut my hands off in penance, but I need them to climb. Nevermind, highlight it and fix it later, press on, press on.
There's always one more quirk in the character:  Tristen requests that, in future, he be allowed to skip all scenes relating to dead children. I have informed him that he needs to check his contract, and also that he knew the job when he signed up.

They never believe you'll follow through.

Today's words Word don't know:  viewports, karst (but it offers to correct it to "karsts"), cofarming, rebraided, jowled, cowled (I laugh at the coincidence), neurochemicals,
Words I'm Surprised Word Do Know: metronomic, tilapia
Sustenance: Dirty rice from the freezer. Freezer food: the resource that makes possible a proper literary deathmarch. Well, that and cookies.
Mean Things: ghosts from the haunted past

Other writing-related work: none
Exercise: crunches. There was climbing, too, wherein I actually finished every route I tried, including two 5.7s (with a certain amount of flailing and dogging on the rope, but I think both climbs were reproducible, which is exciting, because so far my technique for anything harder than a 5.6 has been to flounder at it until I either get too tired, or, luck out and find some way up that I can never seem to find twice.) after which my forearms and triceps hurt so much I just did a 5.5 and two 5.6s on the slab. Also, I did some sun salutations to stretch out. Need to do more yoga. Maybe Saturday.

Good meatpuppet. Brave meatpuppet. You did good.

(Please note, use of "meatpuppet" here is highly ironic. I am all too aware of the fact that the body knows all sorts of stuff it doesn't tell the brain, and that the entire brain has all kinds of information it never tells the neocortex, and that the neocortex itself does tons of work it doesn't bother telling that little patch of the left brain that calls itself I and puts on airs. It's a little bit like the Reagan administration: we just give the big guy plausible deniability by never letting him find out anything that might disturb his afternoon nap and jelly bean snack.)

Miles to Lothlorien: 245.2
Guitar practice: In addition to "Yellow Submarine," I am learning "Breakdown." Which of course is in A minor, because it seems that if I like a song, it will inevitably be in A minor. I know more songs in A minor than anybody needs. But it is also the key that best suits my (limited, untrained, breathy-chick) voice.
Mail: nomail

Progress notes for 25 March 2008

I despair of this book. It has no plot, no character arcs, and not even a ghost of thematic resonance. I think part of the problem is that I have no idea what its argument is, and so I am just writing stuff and hoping my right brain knows what the fuck it's doing, because it's sure as hell not telling the left brain.

I just keep reminding myself, I didn't know what One-Eyed Jack & The Suicide King was about until the third draft, and that came out okay.

Oh book, what are you about?

Sigh.

Stupid book. Why can't you be more like your brother?


Chill:

New words: 2362
Microsoft wordcount: 42563
Manuscript wordcount: 50,000 
Deadline: May 1
Mammalian assistance: Mostly, these days, I work with a cat curled up against my thigh. Or draped over it. This suits us both, mostly. Except when I want to work on the desktop, and she pitches a fit. 
Reason for stopping: 13 hours is enough work for one day






Darling du jour: The mammoth was still screaming.
Tyop du jour: gradonflies
Jury-rigging: What the hell am I doing with this mammoth? Oh, look, a cobra!

Today's words Word don't know:  bioweapon, handsfuls, vambrace, debriding, coatsleeve, planetside, terraforming,
Words I'm Surprised Word Do Know: cambric
Sustenance: English muffins, nachos, lots of water
Other writing-related work: read Will's SU story.

Exercise: Climbing yesterday. Burned out on two 5.7s (One of which I have done before, but hey) and sent three 5.6s.
Miles to Lothlorien: 245.2
Guitar practice: cursory, but we made the attempt
Mail: I hear a rumor that the ARCs for Ink & Steel are out, though I have not yet seen one myself.

Progress notes for 24 March 2008

[12:17] stillsostrange: *escapes the sloth*
[12:17] stillsostrange: *watches it hog the covers*
[12:18] matociquala: I have sloth too
[12:18] matociquala: perhaps this scene needs a sloth
[12:22] matociquala: (Benedick suffers from anhedonia)
[12:22] matociquala: (But the sloth cheered him up)
[12:22] matociquala: (It's hard not to be cheerful when you see a sloth.)
[12:49] stillsostrange: there, unslothed
[12:50] matociquala: My sloth is extreme, and my whole body aches.
[12:50] matociquala: Perhaps I should stay home from climbing tonight
[12:50] stillsostrange: EXXXtreme Sloth!
[12:50] matociquala: It's chrome-plated
[12:50] matociquala: and has pinstripes.
[12:50] matociquala: go faster stripes on a sloth.
[12:50] matociquala: now THERE is irony.
[12:52] tanaise: Does it have a spoiler?

Shadow Unit:

New Words: ~400
Things Chaz and/or Hafidha ate, considered eating, or refused to eat: nothing, which may shortly become problematic


Chill:

New words: 2032
Microsoft wordcount: 40200
Manuscript wordcount: 47250
Deadline: May 1
Mammalian assistance: Dogs and cats, living together....
Reason for stopping: bored. Oh, look. It's the middle of the book. I can tell, because I am bored, bored, bored, bored, bored, bored. Also, I hit my quota. I might try to write a little more tonight, after climbing. Tomorrow I have no plans, so I might go for a real hardcore day and see if I can hit 50K. That blessed 200-page-mark is almost within sight.





Darling du jour: But it was hard not to cheer up when you saw a sloth.
Tyop du jour: Benedick booked his knees over a thick bent limb
Jury-rigging: Shockingly, that went about as I anticipated.
There's always one more quirk in the character:  Hey! it's hard not to smile when you see a sloth!

Today's words Word don't know:  mirthlessness, anhedonia, deus, suckery, mushed
Words I'm Surprised Word Do Know: muciliaginous, microenvironment
Sustenance: a ham and cheese sandwich, tea, fruit.
Mean Things: mirthlessness. anhedonia. cyberleeches, as promised. man-eating plants. more giant arthropods.
Other writing-related work: none

Exercise: none
Miles to Lothlorien: 245.2
Guitar practice: Fear me, for I am learning "Yellow Submarine." On the theory that I should know at least one song in which nobody dies.
Mail: nomail
The Internet is Full of Things:  But they all make me crabby.

Progress notes for 22-23 March 2008

Ooo, I wrote a pretty sentence. That always makes me happy.

Chill:

New words: 4160
Microsoft wordcount: 38,168
Manuscript wordcount: 44,750
Deadline: May 1
Mammalian assistance: the cat is picketing for something. And stealing my chair every time I get up.
Reason for stopping: Quota, scene, tired. Chapter 10 is done. Chapter 11 is happening.





Darling du jour: Overhead and alongside darted tiny jeweled birds with sewing-needle beaks, whirring like soft-spoken insects.
Tyop du jour: burst and rotten foot
Jury-rigging: I like the part where when I'm floundering through a draft, I just kind of write the scene I structurally know needs to be there, without any idea of the work it's meant to be doing. And then in the last two sentences I figure out what the work was supposed to be, so I go back and make a note at the beginning of the scene that goes, roughly, "Next draft make this scene do X."

Today's words Word don't know:  boled, Cattleya, somebodies, puddling, monodimensional,
Words I'm Surprised Word Do Know: multifarious, materiel, lossage
Sustenance: nachos
Mean Things: beetles in your hair, hypervigilance
Other writing-related work: SU easter egg hunt stuff

Exercise: went for a walk
Miles to Lothlorien: 245.2
Guitar practice: Kind of desultory, but there was some last night. And some better practice today. I am really, really not very good at this.
Mail: Congrats to M. John Harrison and Minister Faust, Who are (respectively) the Dick Award laureate and Certificate of Merit recipients this year.

Congrats also to the BSFA award winners:

BEST NOVEL: "Brasyl" by ianmcdonald
BEST SHORT FICTION: "Lighting Out" by Ken MacLeod
BEST ARTWORK: "Cracked World" by Andy Bigwood
BSFA FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY AWARD: BEST NOVEL OF 1958: Non-Stop by Brian Aldiss.

The Internet is Full of Things:  But who has time to go look for them?

Progress notes for 21 March 2008

Chill:

New words: 2165
Microsoft wordcount: 34008
Manuscript wordcount: 40250
Deadline: May 1
Mammalian assistance: Cat doing the vulture pose on my chairback.
Reason for stopping: Quota, and if I don't go do the Shadow Unit stuff I need to do, the web ghul is going to dine on my intestines.





Darling du jour: There was nothing in all the world so implacable as a tree.
Tyop du jour: just one tiny beat swelling along the myriad stems of the world
Jury-rigging: Still More Thrilling Scenery.
There's always one more quirk in the character:  And tonight, for your entertainment, Tristen will internalize about PTSD and daddy issues. You know, writing is easier when I remember that I am, in fact, allowed to narrate, and that words are not a camera.

Today's words Word don't know:  vasty, symbiotes (not to be confused with symbionts!),
Words I'm Surprised Word Do Know: cincture
Sustenance: cooooooooooffeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. grilled ham and cheese.
Mean Things: PTSD. Daddy issues.
Other writing-related work: Yeah, gotta do a heapload of SU scutwork tonight, and maybe if I am lucky, there will be a draft of an episode in my inbox tonight.

Exercise: hah!
Miles to Lothlorien: 248.2
Guitar practice: none.
Mail: well, there was that Hugo nomination...
The Internet is Full of Things:  But I had no time to go looking for any....

Five things twice make two posts... or one long eclectic one.

1) Profound and heartfelt thanks to everybody who offered opinions on my Quest for a New Laptop. I'm still not sure what I'm going to wind up with; I suspect I need to go down to a computer store and bang on keyboards a little. I even contemplate trying out a Mac for longer than fifteen minutes, on the theory that that might be long enough to get over my visceral revulsion for the interface, though how I'd manage that I'm not sure.

2) Thanks for the congratulations on the prematurely released Hugo nomination.The complete list of Hugo and Campbell award nominees is here.  Congratulations to scalzi, autopope, scott_lynch, casacorona (**points! MY EDITOR! MINE!), pnh, ianmcdonald, ellen_datlow, maryrobinette... and whole bunches and bunches of people who are not on livejournal.

The Campbell Tiara (yet another opportunity to look like a demented elf prince!) may be viewed here.

"Tideline," my nominated story, may be read here. And I'm guessing Asimov's is likely to put it up on the web too, and I will link it if they do.

3) Latest Criminal Minds fandom kerfuffle over leaked information from an upcoming issue of EW: my personal inclination is that the most entertaining possibility is the one where nobody on the team knows who the Daddy is, and they have to wait for the DNA test to come back...

Oh, wait. That's As the World Turns. ;-)

4) Livejournal boycott:

I'm not participating (obviously), and I won't be packing up for InsaneJournal any time soon--for a number of reasons.

One is because well, LJ hasn't actually done anything in contravention of their terms of service, and the revelation that this company is run by grasping money-hungry capitalists who disrespect their user base makes it exactly like every other company in the world. Corporations have no conscience. They are inherently sociopathic.

Two is because I have a permanent account, which means that not only is LJ not making any more money off me (except indirectly, by way of people coming to LJ to read this journal (God knows why you'ddo that) and thus encountering their ads), I don't have to look at their damned advertising.

Three is because, well, I have looked at InsaneJournal. Which site is exceedingly advertising-cluttered.

5) It's spring!

***

1) I might make 40K on the book today. Please God, let me make 40K on the book today. If I didn't have two conventions between now and then, I might actually be able to finish the dratted thing by April 21. Since I have I-Con and Penguicon to contend with, it's looking likely to be May. And then I have a novelette and a novella I have to write on exceedingly short notice.

Also in here somewhere, page proofs on Hell & Earth and All the Windwracked Stars. And finishing up "Ballistic" with the team, and doing the really real final draft of "Overkill."

So, in other words, Deathmarch continues until further notice. Or, as coffeeem and I have taken to saying to each other lately, "I'll think about that in June."

And then I get to fall down. And take a break until I have recovered enough to work on the edits on By the Mountain Bound and start plotting out Grail. Oh, and revise One-Eyed Jack & the Suicide King, if Roc decides they want to buy Promethean Age #s 5 and 6.

2) Am I signing up for programming at WisCon? I dunno. I have to decide this weekend. And figure out what my schedule for driving to I-Con is.

3) Today I have to go to the grocery store, cancel my old gym membership, call a DMV, and call somebody else I've forgotten I'm supposed to call, but I have it written down.

4) And then write eight pages. Or preferably a little more, as tomorrow is a busy day, and I suspect there will be minimal wordcount. Maybe I should buy some beer while I am at the grocery store. I should definitely buy some more naproxen.

5) But first, I have to shower for my massage therapy appointment. Because nobody likes a smelly patient.

So today was one of those periodic days of fussing that novel writing seems to require, during which I went through, broke the narrative out into chapters (I have nine chapters written! Yay!), deleted or put into comments all the notes I don't need anymore, and corrected my formatting, so I could actually do a formal manuscript wordcount rather than.

Net result, a 6K gain before I wrote today, and I have a third of a book done! Wow! Amazing how that happens.

And after all that, I still forced myself to get some words.

Benedick, I find, will chatter away at me endlessly in his internalizations, even if he doesn't say much to the outside world.

Tristen, on the other hand, does not let me in. He's just silent and observational. Watching, not judging. It makes him the harder one of the pair to write.

But then, he has more to be sorry for. I thnk it's all stuff he's not telling himself, either.


Progress notes for 20 March 2008

Shadow Unit

New Words: 670 on "Ballistic," about 300 on a DVD extra
Things Chaz and/or Hafidha ate, contemplated eating, or neglected to eat: Cake all 'round! Also coffee.


Chill:

New words: 1693
Microsoft wordcount: 31843
Manuscript wordcount: 38000
Deadline: May 1
Mammalian assistance: The cat is currently hiding her face in my leg.
Reason for stopping: End of scene, no idea what the Thrilling Scenery for the next bit is. Something low-gravity, I think. Maybe I will dream up the other details tonight.





Jury-rigging: I am getting kind of tired of inventing Thrilling Scenery. Gotta figure out sooner or later what this magic sword is for.
There's always one more quirk in the character:  God gave him a gift. Tristen exposits well.

Tristen exposits very well.

Today's words Word don't know:  amblyopia, nystagmus, unpigmented, carabiners, homeworld, resheathed, geegaws, nanotube,
Sustenance: lots of herbal tea, coffee, pasta, a sweet potato, chicken, chocolate cookies. The Archway Dutch cocoa cookies used to be awesome, and now, alas, they are not very good any more.
Mean Things: daddy issues, crushing guilt, exposition, patricide

Exercise: I tried climbing Wednesday night, and totally stank the place up with my incompetence. Le sigh. Still getting random twinges in my biceps and forearm muscles too, so between that and the Menstrual Incompetence, I decided to bail on archery today before I accidentally shot the ceiling.
Miles to Lothlorien: 248.2
Guitar practice: still working on that finger-picking pattern. Really need to do scales today.
Mail: nomail
The Internet is Full of Things:  All the Windwracked Stars is available for pre-order on Amazon.