Writing Prompt: You are dead

Or are you? This one comes directly from my spam folder. I received an e-mail with the subject line "Is it true you are dead?" Write a story around such an e-mail. Bonus points for not making it a variation of the Nigerian inheritance scam.

gathering the links, February 19

Hope everyone had a great week and weekend. Time for another link round-up.

Jon Gibbs, an Englishman in New Jersey:
Interesting posts about writing – w/e February 19 2010

Margaret McGaffey Fisk:
Friday's Interesting Links
(These are last week's links, as this week's aren't up yet. I love the research section!)

SFSignal:
SF Tidbits for 2/19/10
SF Tidbits for 2/18/10
SF Tidbits for 2/17/10
SF Tidbits for 2/16/10
SF Tidbits for 2/15/10

Jay Lake:
Link salad hopes for an easy day of chemo
Link salad tries to go lite, fails
Link salad says it’s just desserts
Link salad, at first just ghostly, turns a whiter shade of pale

Author Scoop:
Friday Morning LitLinks
Thursday Morning LitLinks
Wednesday Morning LitLinks
Tuesday Morning LitLinks
Monday Morning LitLinks

Mike Brotherton:
More Starlinks…
Super Late Sunday Starlinks on Tuesday

If you know of another site that does great collections of links, let me know in the comments! And if there's one of these sites that you enjoy, please let them know.

back from Boskone

I posted con reports on my other blog: Friday, Saturday, Sunday Enjoy!

short break

I should have mentioned this earlier in the week -- I won't be doing the links or writing prompt today, and the writing progress post will be delayed until Tuesday.

I'm going to be at Boskone! Which is clearly still writing related.

writing progress, January 31-February 6

The week focused on my freelance work, but I did consistently write at least one page (250 words) per day, for a total of 1,957 words on the new project (M) over the week, and 37 words on a short story.

Again, background reading for Sundered Sword.

Squeezed in a quick crit for a friend on a short story and discussed cues for POV.

Only one submission sent out. That put me, for 24 very sweet hours, in the position of having all of my short stories out to market at once. Two short stories and two poems rejected.

More freelancing to start this coming week, and Boskone's at the end of the week, but I'm hoping to maintain at least the page a day on M.

Writing Prompt: Missing Time

Several times in history, the calendar has changed. For example, in 1752 in England, September skipped from the 2nd to the 14th as they finally moved to the Gregorian calendar. The beginning of the year was changed from March 25 to January 1. At other points, new months have been added.

What does such a change mean to your characters if they live through it? Do they notice? Do they rail against it? Or maybe you have a character pushing for a new way of tracking time. If so, why, and who doesn't like it?

gathering the links, February 5

Time to see what links everyone has posted this week!

Jon Gibbs, an Englishman in New Jersey:
Interesting posts about writing – w/e February 05 2010

Margaret McGaffey Fisk:
Friday's Interesting Links

SFSignal:
SF Tidbits for 2/05/10
SF Tidbits for 2/04/10
SF Tidbits for 2/03/10
SF Tidbits for 2/02/10
SF Tidbits for 2/01/10
Amazon vs. Macmillan
SF Tidbits for 1/31/10

Jay Lake:
Link salad gets ready to head for the infusion center
Link salad, mostly weird science edition
A summation of my posts on Amazon vs Macmillan
Jay is headed in for another infusion of chemo. My thoughts are with him.

Author Scoop:
Friday Morning LitLinks
Thursday Morning LitLinks
Wednesday Morning LitLinks
Tuesday Morning LitLinks
Monday Morning LitLinks
Author Scoop also does nice author quotes and book reviews. Check them out.

If you know of another site that does great collections of links, let me know in the comments! And if there's one of these sites that you enjoy, please let them know.

monthly writing progress, January

Words for month: 10,513. Split between new scenes to old work, new ideas, and short stories. I wrote 16 of 31 days, and averaged 339 words per day (counting all the days of the month).

Started outline for the next novel I want to write. Also did a fair bit of background reading, though no complete books yet. Organized notes for two other ideas so the background material is all in one place for me to outline from.

Short stories: Progress on several. Completed one. Wrote one article (book review). Did 27 submissions this month.

Crits: Made some progress on all three that I'm juggling.

Did not attend GSHW meeting this month. Won't be able to attend next month. Hoping for March.

Reading: 5 books completed this month. The Career Novelist, by Donald Maass; Destroyer of Worlds, by Larry Niven and Edward Lerner; The Burning Bridge, by John Flanagan; Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days, by Alastair Reynolds; Pushing Ice, by Alastair Reynolds

Other reading of note -- refreshed my brain on Getting Things Done and read bits of Making It All Work by David Allen, read more of Fire in Fiction by Maass, started Heirs of the Fisherman, read the first half of Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, and read both the Motivation and Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing blog series by Dean Wesley Smith (which got me rethinking having dropped my mystery story rather than submitting it).

Editing/submitting: Well, in addition to work on adding subplots to the urban fantasy, I have been working on brush edits of the cozy mystery. I've also written a query letter, started a synopsis, and winnowed down a list of markets (not agents) to submit to, as a test of Smith's ideas.

This coming month will mostly be more of the same, but I want to write every day, even if it's just a single page. Also, I'm going to Boskone mid-month.

writing progress, January 24-30

Less juggling and more dropping of balls this week.

No critting got done at all.

Didn't make any further progress on the new short story -- which means, clearly, that it didn't get submitted for the deadline yesterday.

Did write 791 words on the longer idea. (Hey, that's almost consistent progress!) Still not sure whether it's a novella or a novel.

No progress on Sundered Sword's outline, but I did get more research and background notes.

Made some good progress on a short story I started back in December. If I can squeeze in a couple of word wars on it this week, I should have a complete draft.

Wrote down two new ideas for high fantasy novels.

No other writing.

Very good on the submission front: ten subs sent out, including one story that's never been out before. One's been rejected already, but if I can get it back out the door, I will have my entire inventory of short stories out to market.

As I mentioned before, lots of freelancing this coming week (started the first project yesterday, actually), so not expecting a lot on the writing front this coming week -- maybe another 790 words on that longer idea? ;-)

Writing Prompt: Dwarf in Time

Somewhat more whimsical this week.

Take a dwarf -- a Tolkien dwarf, a D&D dwarf, a fairy-tale dwarf, whatever your favorite type of dwarf is -- and plop him (or her) down into a modern metropolis. What does the dwarf do for a living? What thoughts does she have about the world around her? Is he making any plans to go back?

gathering the links, January 29

As promised, here are some good gatherings of links:

Jon Gibbs, an Englishman in New Jersey:
Interesting posts about writing – w/e January 29 2010 -- Be sure to check out the comments to check for other recommendations, such as mine to Crossing Genres, a post by Michael A. Burstein on Apex's blog.

Margaret McGaffey Fisk:
Friday's Interesting Links -- The writing and research links are especially good; I loved the semicolon comic.

SFSignal:
Free Fiction for 1/29/10
SF Tidbits for 1/29/10
SF Tidbits for 1/28/10
SF Tidbits for 1/27/10
SF Tidbits for 1/26/10
SF Tidbits for 1/25/10
SF Tidbits for 1/24/10
Free Fiction for 1/23/10
But you should be reading SFSignal for the many other posts they have as well -- Mind Melds, TOC, updates on what's going on in the world.

Jay Lake:
Link salad wishes it spoke every language
Link salad flows down the river of night's dreaming
Link salad stumbles into town, just like a sacred cow
Link salad has tire tracks all across its back

If you know of another site that does great collections of links, let me know in the comments! And if there's one of these sites that you enjoy, please let them know.

Bonus: Advice to Writers Great quotes about writing.

writing progress, January 17-23

Still trying to juggle, and this week the writing fell by the wayside.

I critted 3 chapters for one friend, 2 for another.

Started a new short story, as well as a longer one that I'm not sure whether it'll be a novella or a novel. This is highly unusual for me, as I always plan and outline, so it'll be a learning experience. I'm managing a page a day on the long idea, so I got 794 words on it this week, and about 200 on the new short story. That's it for the week.

I got a good start on the next novel's outline (Sundered Sword), and did some more background reading and research, too.

Did pretty well on the submission front this past week, too, with five sent out, including the one review (which counts as a "new" submission in my database as it's never been out before).

Hoping to do better on the writing front this week; next week I know will be a wash, as I have a few overlapping freelance projects booked. Also, since that newest short story is for a market that closes this coming Saturday, I need to get it done if I'm going to make the deadline!

gathering the links, January 22

As promised, here are some good gatherings of links:

Jon Gibbs, an Englishman in New Jersey:
Interesting posts about writing – w/e January 22 2010

Margaret McGaffey Fisk:
Friday's Interesting Links

SFSignal:
SF Tidbits for 1/22/10
SF Tidbits for 1/21/10
SF Tidbits for 1/20/10
SF Tidbits for 1/19/10
SF Tidbits for 1/18/10

Jay Lake:
Link salad heads for another day of chemotherapy
Link salad is a desperado under the eaves
Link salad hears the captains tell they pay you well

Writing Prompt: Childhood Memories

Think about your earliest memory. Now rewrite it as though it happened to you yesterday, at the age you currently are. Now try writing it as though it happened to a child fifty years from now. Now to a child fifty years before you were born.

What details changed? What stayed the same?

writing progress, January 10-16

I'm currently juggling completing my NaNoWriMo novel (Jim Bob), editing a previous novel (Pepper), planning my next novel (Sundered Sword), working on several short stories, and doing crits for 3 different friends. This is, perhaps, inefficient, as I'm not getting a lot done on any one thing at a time, but I am making good progress.

In the last week, I completed one short story and a book review, which will be submitted to Vision magazine. I also submitted six stories, including my novella that was short-listed for the Science-Fiction at the UPC award last year.

I added 3,516 words to Pepper in new scenes and 2,250 words to Jim Bob.

No progress on planning. Some work on the crits.

My plan for this week is more of the same, starting with getting a couple more submissions out today. Stay tuned next Sunday for the progress report. ;-)

starting off the new year a little late

New year, new goals, all that. Right? I'm going back to an earlier one -- trying to be more regular about updating my blog. I've got friends who, if nothing else, manage to post a link round-up on Friday so they're posting. Which is nice, and I might decide to do a link round-up. Or maybe I'll just post a round-up of link round-ups.

I want to aim for monthly consistency, and I'm going to be trying to do certain kinds of posts to do so. Some of my posts will be weekly, some bi-weekly, and some monthly.

• Where am I with my writing this week?


• Writing prompts (weekly)


• Every couple of weeks, a post of upcoming contests and anthologies


• Review series for writing books (monthly, most likely)


• A series I'm going to call "Digging Deep," about planning, organizing, control, and other things that might have an impact on where we plan to go as writers -- because those can't be things we do just once a year (monthly)

I'll also be writing posts as other topics occur to me, and I'll continue doing the occasional podcast review. (Watch for my review of "I Should Be Writing" -- I finally caught up with *all* of the back episodes!)

scheduling of days

This week, I tried -- well, not to do GTD, certainly. I looked at all I want to do with my time, and I tried to break up the time I have available in my working day to give me two concentrated sections of working on projects, split by dealing with stuff like e-mail, forums I frequent, and reading blogs. Then I roughed out what I thought I could fit into those slots each day.

It didn't work, of course.

The first day went okay, but I quickly realized I could either follow my time divisions *or* get the amount done on my projects that I wanted each day, but not both. The crit I'm working on is detailed enough that it's not 3 minutes a page, and the paying work (updating an index this week) took some time to find the most efficient method of working on it. So none of those blocks of time got used for writing.

By the end of the week, I was a bit cranky.

I still like this idea in principle, but the blogs and social networking and such -- that's going to have to be either early morning (before I'm dealing with getting kids out the door) or evening (while dinner simmers). That will give me larger chunks of time, in which I will be able to get more done. And I might have to discard the blog-reading on some days entirely to use that time for writing. Because as much as I want to know what's going on in publishing and with my friends and the people I find interesting in life, getting the writing actually done is more important.

Thus, there will be adjustments made. This week? Scheduling isn't going to work at all. Monday is going to be Christmas shopping. Tuesday, I've got stuff at my son's school. Wednesday, the next proofreading gig arrives. Oh, and I've agreed to beta read a book for another friend. So maybe next week, I'll give it a stab again.

I may wind up realizing I just can't do all I want to. If so, family, writing, and paying work take precedence.

time periods for a story

I've seen a few things lately denigrating horses-and-castles fantasy, anything set in medieval or pseudo-Dark Ages. Of course, my new idea, Sundered Sword, needs a historical milieu.

The idea started with the line from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. "[S]trange women lyin' in ponds distributin' swords is no basis for a system of government." Which got me thinking about Excalibur and wondering what would happen if two different people both got swords -- or part of the same sword.

I can't write about such a thing in a modern world or even post-Enlightenment. People don't believe in divine right to rule and haven't for centuries. That pretty much limits the sort of fantastical world I can create.

It won't be a strictly medieval world. I've been reading a lovely biography of a woman in early seventeenth-century Italy, and I'll be borrowing Renaissance and Baroque elements, probably including guns and cannon. But the absolutely critical point is at heart, people must believe in the right of kings (or queens) to rule, even if it has been generations since one has.

And that's my rationale for adding yet another horses-and-swords fantasy to the world.

on the setting of goals

Last week, my friend Bonnie wrote a post on impaired executive function, which focused on her knowing what her goals are but needing to figure out how to get herself to focus on them on a day-to-day level. We had a lot of back-and-forth in chat about setting long-term goals and how we translate that to actually working on them. I tossed off a comment about having monthly goals and drawing weekly goals from them, and then I realized that I don't, not usually.

Here's the way this year has gone:

• I came up with a short list of goals.


• I created a spreadsheet, with different writing areas as rows and months as columns, and plugged the anticipated work into slots, thus giving myself monthly targets. (I also marked off August as vacation time, though the actual vacation was mid-July to mid-August.) Some things got put on the spreadsheet that were not in my goals, such as "post to Random Walks T/Th."


• Every week, on the Daily Page & Word Count forum at Forward Motion for Writers, I would post a list of things I planned to work on that week -- including paying work, family events, and writing primarily determined by deadline. (Yes, the "Daily" forum is generally used on a week-by-week basis, with daily posting of progress. It's the way it has evolved.)


• At the end of each month, I looked at how I was doing compared to my initial annual goals. I also created an updated worksheet in the spreadsheet, showing what was actually accomplished through that month and changes to the plan coming up. Some things (such as the aforementioned blog posts) got carried over, even though I wasn't doing them.

Now, a few years back, I read David Allen's Getting Things Done. I implemented part of it (I'd never heard of a tickler file before, but it's been great for getting bills paid, as long as I'm good at checking it.), tried part of it (the brain dump of projects took too long . . . ), and said, "Are you out of your mind? I don't have time for that!" to other parts (the weekly review).

It dawned on me this week that I already do a weekly review. Every week, I sit down and figure out how I did on my goals for that week and write down what I plan to work on for the next week. I just don't implement it fully. I don't look at my monthly or annual goals to see what I should be working on if I want to get to where I want to go. I also don't look at the "Someday/Maybe" list to see whether there's something I should be adding in because it fits where I am at the moment.

Next Action (Okay, not really, but it's more GTD-speak than "now on my to-do list"): Review the section on weekly reviews in the GTD book and start implementing it more fully in my week.

Of course, this doesn't address Bonnie's original question. I've got a week's worth of things to work on (some from this week include crit for Myrrdin, write on Jim Bob or Sundered Sword or both, work on short stories) and no really good way to get myself to sit down and do any one of them at a given time. (And on weeks like this, broken up by family and personal illness, little inclination to do any of them.)

I do try, of course. Some things are dictated by deadline -- a lot of my paying work, for example. Some things I find go best if I consistently do a bit each day -- such as when I'm doing a crit -- I like to do enough each day to immerse myself in the story, but not so much that I'm not getting my own work done. I find about 30 pages a day is a good target (not that I did that this week).

So, in addition to working on that weekly review, which should help me break long-term goals down into more manageable chunks, I may be experimenting with weekly-to-daily translations during this next year as well. Check back for further updates.

2009 goals update

I took a look at my stated goals for the year, and although I've made progress on them, I'm certainly not going to get all of them met before this December 31.

Edit two novels and get at least one out to agents. I edited one, sent it out for crits, read the crits, and prepared a new edit plan for it. For the other, I've read through it and prepped an edit plan/outline. Nothing has made it as far as an agent.

Submit one novella and one novelette. Novella done, submiited, results as good as could be hoped for. Novelette was supposed to go to Nocturne Bites; I've decided to shelve that project indefinitely (i.e., trunk it), even though I am almost finished with the edits.

Outline NaNo 2007. Done as part of above editing plans.

And a new novel for NaNoWriMo? I certainly participated. I even won. What I did not do was write a complete novel, and Jim Bob is not going to be finished this month, either.

So the final score for 2009 goals? Actually, pretty good. I didn't get as much progress on novels, either writing or editing, as I wanted, but I did make progress.

What does this mean for 2010? I'll roll over the editing and writing, of course, as a minimum. However, I should get more done in the coming year. My youngest is in daycare now, which will give me mire time. Also, not taking as long a family vacation -- thus, expecting to get far more done and will be posting 2010 goals that reflect this.