Friday, July 21, 2006
Random Shi --- er, stuff
1.
A Phrase A Week As you might expect, you get a well-known phrase explained, dissected, researched and documented once a week or so. Any historical author should subscribe. It's amazing and I love this newsletter when it comes. I learn all kinds of stuff.
2. Still working on Possession. I'm in a transition phase right now. It went like this:
Whew! The paradigm shift is done. Thank goodness! Hey, it really works, too. Write a bunch... Read a bunch. Uh, oh. This doesn't make sense. Plus it's boring and stupid. Who'd want to read this? Panic and depression during which I consider just giving up on the project. I chopped an entire chapter and gave up, for now, on the notion of two heroes. It's not working. For two days in a row, I bang my head against the problems with the plot and order of events and the motivation behind it. At LAST I realize there is not enough at stake for my heroine. My heroine is still not properly motivated. More head banging and futile notebooking. Then, yesterday, right after my 45 minutes of frustrated notebooking and peddling on the bike to no avail except sweat and 442 calories (according to the bike), I get in the car to go to work, freshly showered etc and the solution just kind of slides into my head. Very sneaky-like.So, when I was at the cafe and my son was at soccer practice yesterday, I went back and started fixing chapters from chapter 1 and I think I've solved that problem. I'm getting the feeling I want from my hero and heroine.
3. I was able to solve item #2 from sheer stubbornness and because I've read
Donald Maass's
Writing the Breakout Novel. What helped me most with that book was his recommendation that the stakes be high. As high as they can. Except saving the world doesn't count. I think about that book a lot. Sure Superman has to save the world and all, but the reason his character is so compelling is that he's crazy about Lois Lane. Is he going to save the woman he loves? Defeat Lex Luthor: good. Boink Lois Lane: Excellent.
4. Yes, I am going to RWA Nationals, even though I've recently, as in the last couple of weeks, been thinking about not going. Whatever.
5. When I put an image in a blog post, why does blogger put it at the beginning of the post instead of where my cursor was when I clicked on the insert image. Maybe blogger needs Ev back. (Ev is the guy Google bought Blogger from).
6. Ways in which education pays off: Today, Miss Snark has
this posted. I was reading along, because I've really enjoyed the poetry she's occasionally posted and I say to myself as I'm reading the lovely, poignant words, hey, this is Beowulf! And I was right. The Seamus Heaney translation is particularly good. Read the excerpt. It will remind you of how evocative words are. Lovely.
Donald Maass's Writing the Breakout Novel. What helped me most with that book was his recommendation that the stakes be high. As high as they can. Except saving the world doesn't count. I think about that book a lot. Sure Superman has to save the world and all, but the reason his character is so compelling is that he's crazy about Lois Lane. Is he going to save the woman he loves? Defeat Lex Luthor: good. Boink Lois Lane: Excellent.
