Whispers

I've read it from two sources recently—haikujaguar and P.C. Wrede—to keep putting one word in front of the other. Just write a sentence, then a paragraph, then a page.

I went wandering through some notebooks the other day (virtual ones on my tablet) and bumped into my 7 sentence challenge where I wrote seven sentences a day on a story, anywhere in that story, and it was separate from the big stuff I was writing. Guess what? I rarely stopped at seven.

On that note: I'm going to start scribbling a sentence again. I've even picked a story just because.

On a sidenote: I've totally gotten myself started on a languages anthropomorphic ficlet. Whoops?

On a second sidenote: I'm going to have to do Yuletide bookswap because seriously, I'd like some poetry. A book of it to fill space on my bookshelf and in my hand. I've got several books to give away and several ebooks I'd love to introduce someone else to.

I broke down and watched The Voice like Dean Wesley Smith has been telling writers to do for years now. The interesting thing about it is after I wrote down the writing lessons I picked up from it, I wandered back through my email archives looking for a manuscript I'd emailed myself and discovered some things that my beta taught me and they ran along similar lines.

The Voice: Go all in. Lay everything out there. Lose yourself in the moment.

in_the_blue: Get down and dirty and write it all out.

 

The Voice: Overfeel, not overthink. Own the moment.

in_the_blue: Don't apologize.

In short, it took me this long to get a handle on what in_the_blue was actually telling me. There is one story that was her favorite of the Vardin shorts I wrote before I did the 365 challenge (which was a nightmare for my novel-writing skills apparently, though it did wonders for my shorts), and that was Portrait of a Butterfly. She told me it was unapologetic for the characters and their motivations and the hierarchy of Vardin came alive and took over.

I'd like a whole lot more of that, where something I wrote without trying to cater it to the uninitiated came together in a way that came alive.

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There is a simple concept so intrinsic and fundamental to Vardin society and its root cultures that I only now, upon rereading all three stories in Gone Hunting, realized I have yet to convey it in writing anywhere and that it is such a fundamental law, tradition, societal code, and aspect of who they are that it is the basis of many of my characters' decisions there, including Rhiannon and Miraia, another whose family's reaction to her marital choices puzzled the one person I bounced them off of.

That code is this: outsiders must become family before they are trusted with the knowledge of the gifteds or are considered members of Vardin society. They must have what is called 'cahnten,' an inner circle of friends and family by whom any Vardin individual is measured.

Outsiders can become insiders and are given very specific avenues into how to do so, but Vardin's is an insular culture, so anyone who does not become an insider is neither trusted as one nor treated as one. This particular rule came out of life and death wars and slaughters in their history where too many died over this issue for their people to ever take it lightly.

As a side note, they don't consider mindreading an alternative as mental gifts are to be used on others with permission where possible, with knowledge and open communication where impossible, and by force only in life or death situations and war. Rhiannon wasn't at war.

Miraia broke the rules at a whole different level: she married a man and refused to make him a "son" of her household. In short, she refused to make him family and an insider. She had reasons, but that's not the part that puzzled the one I was talking to. The family's reaction was entirely overkill by our cultural standards. She had just broken a law that would result in her being disowned or worse and talked them into exacting a blood debt instead as if she had killed a son of the house.

It only makes sense in the context of a culture with intense insider/outsider rules for leaving, entering, or crossing those lines. It doesn't make sense in a culture that is simply protecting a secret. It only makes sense in a culture that is a secret.

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I have three different writerly skillsets and intense practice of one makes it very hard to slip into another apparently. I write poetry, I write shorts, and I write long chaptered fiction. I can mix up the first two fairly easily, but the last two don't get along so well. I used to write a ton of chaptered work and kept on it too, then my life blew up and I switched to shorts as a temporary thing to keep in writing practice. Didn't work. Why? I had a very hard time writing chapters after that. After a second life blow up, I almost lost the ability altogether.

At least I get that now and have an idea of how I'm going to approach Nano. I suggest, thecatisacritic, that you don't read my Nano posts because I am going to be yakking about how I work this project for my own personal information in the years ahead, and you've already told me you don't want to know about it if anything goes wrong. So heads up.

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This rambly post brought to you by "I felt like writing out my pre-Nano/Yuletide/trovia's gift/collab wrap-up" feelings. Hope I didn't bore you too badly.

:grins:

First Nano prep post coming soon.

Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

April 2, 2014

Publishing

So I've got three proofs going back and forth with Createspace: a gift book for family members, Songs from the Dust, and the mass market edition of Dowse and Bleed, which is still gorgeous by the way. I got two ordered, one submitted, and the Kindle edition of Dowse and Bleed finally published. I also have some more editing of Songs from the Dust despite having a print copy on the way because I want to change something on the cover and forgot to add author info in the back. Wow, scribbler. Really batting a thousand.

Anthologizing and Completing Fiction

Creating an anthology isn't as hard as I thought if I have my arms around what I want from the collection. It seems a lot like writing fiction: once I have that handle on the overall arc, I can fly through the story. Same thing happened with creating Songs from the Dust. I knew what I wanted and it just came together with ease.

Today, I work on "Justice." I have an idea of what I want and there's the matter of theme. I've hit on the need for theme and I think thecatisacritic gave it to me buried in with the rest. Let's see what can happen.

Headspace

I spent some time cleaning out my inbox because it needed to be done. I didn't really deal with much, but I deleted a couple hundred emails and finally moved a few thousand into their folders to end up with 9. Yahoo has corrected the most egregious of their errors and so I could actually find my email again. Though the search is still wonky.

Writing

Started on "Justice," then got poetically side-tracked with a poem I want off that 'unfinished' list. Getting back on track. (No, it's not finished.)

Wrote 232 words. Hashed out ideas with thecatisacritic. Have bunny. And got it to 553 words.

Again, will edit this post if I get any more done.

Word Counts

• Fiction: 553 words
• Poetry: 102 lines | 530 words
• Blog: 400 words

( Read the rest of this entry � )

Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

About those challenges…

The seven-sentence challenge with the goal of daily production went by way of Sandusky. I don’t know that I’ll get back to it.

The publication challenge on the other hand:

Songs from the Dust

So the poetry collection is published book two for the year. (I’m supposed to be at three, so I’m not quite as far behind as I think, though I still have to wrap up the lagging Kindle and mass market version of Dowse and Bleed. Createspace printed most of the white letters on the back cover in black, with the exception of certain random ones.)

Lithiumlaughter is my poetry ally. She has inspired a lot of my stuff by her own favorites among my poems and those of others.

Currently, the most complex poem I have written to date is “Five Reasons I Love You.” There is a definite stanza scheme, a definite and careful choice about every line break and every stanza break, every bit of punctuation. I wrote in multiple meanings to the whole thing and even though it doesn’t rhyme and doesn’t have a defined metrical scheme, it has a very defined rhythm and plays carefully with the specific concepts being mined. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons it’s among my favorites. It means something different but also true if you read it according to the punctuation, or if you read it according to the line breaks, or if you read it according to the stanza breaks.

It was also written a single beautiful rush. I’m starting to like the epic poems that do that. “History Lesson on the Night Train” started the trend, then along came “Queen of Heaven” and “Five Reasons,” then “The Bringing of Light” and finally “Name You.” There’s something about these poems and what it did to me to write them. I’m really excited about how the collection came together and hope to have it out to the world soon.

Daily Scribbling

You may have noticed I’ve gone to daily tracking and irregular reporting. It works better for me because I’m writing and publishing on three different devices with different limitations and drawbacks.

In new words produced, I noticed that my fiction numbers were best in January, then dropped in February and rose slightly in March. Poetry rose slightly in February, then went crazy in March.

In completed words, I’ve solely produced fanfic and poetry this year (bummer), but steadily more each month. The method works, in other words, but I’m not entirely happy with the lack of original fiction work getting finished. Worked on is great, but finished is necessary. Going to try to correct that despite my Big Bang coming up.

Monthly Reading

January and February went swimmingly. March was a non-starter. I’m moving next month. I spent a lot of money at Costco the other day that I wasn’t intending to and bought some books. We’ll see when I actually have time to read them. :rolls eyes: They come after in_the_blue’s new fic. I don’t think I really read anything this last month at all that counted.

I need to file an extension on my taxes too. :headdesk:

Plans

Get. more. disciplined. Finish something to publication. Finish fiction. Get my taxes taken care of. Consider picking up a book to read now and again, huh?

I always want to put giftfic first, but that doesn’t always work best. I’m considering how best to remedy that. I’m considering what to do when I hit up the collaborative novel again. I’m considering whether to read first because I want to check things off, not just make progress.

That’s the 2014 First Quarter Report.

How have you done for the first 1/4th of the year?

Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

This is what happens when I get tired and my brain shuts down. I end up writing poetry instead of fiction or research or anything useful or productive. At least something happened, but I feel woefully remiss towards certain people who were hoping for some cheering material soon, who are also not fond of poetry.

I’m very sorry
I hope you’ll forgive
The muse slipped out
O’ my ‘mind like a sieve’

March 24, 2014

So it started with this story that had played in my head overnight, but it was too long and complex to justify writing, so in the morning when it started coalescing into a poem on me, I memorized the lines and stanzas in my head and at work, I wrangled them into something I liked. All 136 lines of it.

I sent it to lithiumlaughter who likes poetry and she blessed me with an amazing review that inspired poem #2: "Tale of Domestic Life in a Series of Coffee Cups."

Did some research for thecatisacritic before brain stopped cooperating again.

Word Counts:

• Fiction: 0 words
• Poetry: 155 lines | 905 words
• Blog: 90 words

March 25, 2014

The idea of a poetry collection for Kingdoms and Thorn pestered me and then another poem did. I wrote it down and loved it.

I peeked inside the books of Billy Collins and got a little more inspired. There went four more small poems.

Did more research and chatting with thecatisacritic.

Tried two more poems with less than great success. I wrote "The Cup" and promptly deleted most of it. "Daughter" started out better—twice—before I gave up on it.

This evening, the mass market edition of Dowse and Bleed arrived. It's stunning and full of little fixes I need to make, but it is stunning. I love it.

Word Counts:

• Fiction: 0 words
• Poetry: 281 lines | 538 words
• Blog: 72 words

( Read the rest of this entry � )

Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

So I've been struggling with insomnia lately and other real life hecticness, like signing a lease on a new house with the family and trying to think straight in spite of said insomnia and writing only on a tablet and at work because hovering sister, which makes for a poor productivity rate, including in accountability posts.

That said.

March 11, 2014

Started a crossover short, "Justice," with thecatisacritic, in which I wrote 646 words. She initiated; I liked.

March 12, 2014

Wrote a 485-word prose poem while researching poetic techniques and Shakespearean plays for lithiumlaughter's giftfic "Blank Verse." Also 133 words on "Justice" and 66 on "Blank Verse."

Word Counts:

• Fiction: 845 words
• Poetry: 0 lines | 485 words
• Blog: 109 words

( Read the rest of this entry � )

Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

So yesterday, I put nose to grindstone and wrote 303 words on the collaboration, then 298 words on an invisible treat, and finally, 1267 words for my invisible assignment. It's finally done and off to beta.

I wasn't able to match my collaboration word count to my fandom word count due to an emergency last night, so I'll try to match it today instead.

Word Counts:

• Fiction: 1868 words
• Poetry: 0 lines | 0 words
• Blog: 63 words

( Read the rest of this entry � )

Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

February 28, 2014

This morning, I wrote 156 words puttering in my head from last night on Lovemark the Seasons, including another in-story poem. Rachelle is well-read.

So the trade paperback of Dowse and Bleed is available on Amazon. I still have to get all the other formats up: mass market and ebook to the various retailers. :grimaces: Later. I'm saving the whole book announcement post until then.

I'd like to get some good words on collab and on my actual assignment. I keep getting bogged down in author's notes and meta. And music. It's thecatisacritic's fault. She sent me "Poison and Wine" and I looked it up online the other day and have lost so many good hours since. I can't say wasted because seriously, the creative fire! Love their work.

Having a fandom moment:

See all of the covers here.

March 1, 2014

Sabbath and unexpected late-night family time. Wrote a poem in my head and didn't get it written down, just memorized.

March 2, 2014

I owe y'all an end of the month post and challenge check-in. Tomorrow! Today, I helped my aunt move and still need to plunk in 2 hours on packing my own things, plus got back my beta for invisible treats (which resulted in 6 words worth of edits, wow), plus submitted the edited cover for the mass market of Dowse and Bleed. Oh, and finally wrote down that poem.

I owe a bunch of collaboration material. I owe my Invisible assignment. I owe posts about indie community and fandom. I owe a lot of stuff, 'kay?

I have also been failing miserably at the 7-sentence challenge so went back last night and wrote 257 words on, unexpectedly, a very late fandom gift separate from challenges.

Word Counts:

• Fiction: 419 words
• Poetry: 16 lines | 99 words
• Blog: 270 words

( Read the rest of this entry � )

Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

What does it say that I spend so much time on my author’s notes for this piece? Meta, invisible fiction, creating the environment of a genre whole out of cloth and the culture that reads and writes it, metas it and reviews it, in the same way that I came out of fandom, people, and it’s something I can’t get away from and am slowly coming to the point where I can say I’ve stopped trying. I read, I write, I fangirl, and it gives me a very different view of how to engage with or engage in or speculate about literary culture.

I’m starting to really find myself examining this issue of literary culture in a way I sort of ignored before as unimportant in the same way I found engaging with the issue of race was unimportant for me though I am, in fact, multiracial with a unique culture that has come from the precise and rich melting pot of my family and family life. These things are easy to ignore because they hide around the edges.

But the more I write, the more I want to open these things up, the more I want to play with that literary culture and that social mesh and how that works for my characters and how it informs them and the themes I was already digging into with their lives. It interests me, though it was only a surface interest before. It interests me very much.

I got hooked on Save the Last Dance 2 last night, and this is what I bumped into, this concept of the cultural history of hip-hop music and dance and then of ballet and these words: I am here. It’s a genre making a statement that resonates and matters, that comes out even from the mouths and moves of the ignorant. It means something.

I’m still not that interested in engaging with my “own” genre: I write SFF for one reason only, it allows me to do anything I want to. Plus, less research. History and travel have never been my thing. I am interested, however, in culture and engaging with that in my SFF. This genre I love has a long history of doing just that, so I don’t feel all that out of touch by not caring even a lick about what others have been saying in genre. I talk to literature, but mostly classics and poetry. More than that, I talk to ideas and movements and religious questions and my own questions about identity and culture and family and relationships, etc.

Speaking of time, that was 258 words of author’s notes. :headdesk: I’ve got serious writer’s block just now, so I hoped that would loosen something up. Yeah. It didn't.

I'm not counting any fiction words since I deleted them all.

Word Counts:

• Fiction: 0 words
• Poetry: 0 lines | 0 words
• Blog: 568 words

( Read the rest of this entry � )

Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

Friday, February 21

Started off with cover specs from Createspace. Been busy with real life really.

So there went 499 words on the collaboration in an edit, re-layer.

Brain is fried. Doing more percolating than writing because brain fried due to unholy lack of sleep.

Word Counts:

• Fiction: 499 words
• Poetry: 15 lines | 83 words
• Blog: 42 words

Sabbath, February 22

Now obviously Sabbath isn't a day I go in gung-ho for writing. Kind of against my faith and all that, so not much here because before I got to the evening I was already dreaming longing of bed. Started two poems I didn't finish and got in my trade paperback proof for Dowse and Bleed, which I love but needs just a little lighter background behind the LI of the author name. Procured the right info to ship copies to my delightful betas/readers.

Also, got hooked on The Civil Wars. I've wondered at times what happened to Joy Williams. I'm kinda sad to see that her beautiful faith in a song from her solo album, "Do They See Jesus in Me," has gone by way of "Barton Hollow," musically anyway, but I like a lot of her new work, so no surprise I fell in love with parts before I had a clue it was her.

Word Counts:

• Fiction: 0 words
• Poetry: 9 lines | 56 words
• Blog: 0 words

( Read the rest of this entry � )

Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.