NaNoWriMo 2011, Day 22: Why write when there's TV?

Day #: 22
Words Written Today: 1028
Total Words Written: 53,085
Total # of Pages: 100

Awww yeah, it's procrastination time! That moment has finally caught up to me. When I'd rather watch TV shows than do my writing. Well, not really .But I wanna watch TV because it's cold, I'm still a little sick, and thus wrapping myself up in my futon and sweats and sitting in the dark watching crime dramas and lesbian melodramas is the only acceptable thing to do with my downtime.

Right?

...

damnit.

(in other news, hooray 100 pages!)

Weekly Writing Check-In: Sometimes Sleep Really Is More Important

Writing wise, absolutely nothing was accomplished this week.  I can blame my day job for that.  It was an hour-packed week, with full days and a whole lotta commuting all over the prefecture. My one-day weekend was spent restocking on food, cleaning, and I think a shower is gonna be shoved in there somewhere.  Of course, I did my appropriate amount of "OMFG I SHOULD WRITE" but I was so exhausted every damn day that I always crashed early and still felt like death even after 10 hours of sleep. But that week is over and now it's back to regular hour fun times! Great timing too, because Nano starts in a little over a week!

 One of the things I did this week to unwind was read through a lot of blogs and forums, like I usually do, but this week that (and watching movies) was all my brain could handle. Something I came across was the recent development of Amazon signing up authors at a place that is definitely not writing-topic centered. As anticipated, most of the comments centered around how this will just mean more people will self-publish fan-fiction because we all know it's still super easy for "real" authors to get published by the big names.

I'm used to reading this sort of thing - most people, especially those who aren't involved in writing/the publishing world, are understandably ignorant to what's going on in today's market. But that doesn't mean it's still not a massive headdesk moment (and not to mention, gut stabbing) to always read "Authors who self-publish just suck and their stuff is obviously drivel. ALL THE TIME. If it was any good a real publisher would pick it up!" Not only is this just not true, it also erases all the self-published authors who have chosen to forgo even submitting to agents/publishers in the first place for whatever reason.

Of course, that doesn't mean that a lot of self-published stuff isn't still...well, obviously not ready for publication. Part of our jobs as authors is to recognize when our work is not ready, or when WE'RE not ready, for world release. It's easy for us to fall into the trap of excitement and lofty ambitions, especially when it's sometimes super hard for us authors to get any sort of material validation for our works. But that's how it goes. It still does not also mean that there's a LOT of good self-published stuff out there. I know I'm looking forward to getting an E-reader at the end of this year so I can start reading my To Read list on the cheap.

Bleh. Now excuse me. I seriously have to try and finish this chapter in time for Nano. If I'm super good this week I may even get  more editing done! Like I said, folks, lofty ambitions!

Frivolous Friday! - aka "I'll do what I please to your memes!"

So a common meme I see around is "Teaser Tuesday", where you post a sentence or two (without spoilers) from the latest book you're reading. Thought it was interesting until I noticed the "Tuesday" part. WHY YOU GOTTA PIGEONHOLE ME, BROS? I'ma post this meme on whatever day I feel like! :'(

I'm actually not reading anything right now, but I just finished A Feast For Crows by George RR Martin the other day, and since it's literally right next to me at the moment...guess what you get!

"Evenfall found him sitting alone in the common room of White Sword Tower, with a cup of Dornish red and the White Book. He was turning pages with the stump of his sword hand when the Knight of Flowers entered, removed his cloak and swordbelt and hung them on a wall peg next to Jaime's.

"'I saw you in the yard today,' said Jaime. 'You rode well.'"

Admit it, your brain went there. (This passage also demonstrates pretty much everything I don't like about Martin's writing. Blah.)

AND NOW, just because I can, a similar excerpt from the chapter I'm currently tweaking in CROSS//Rebirth - and yes, I really did stop scrolling here, ha.

"She should have seen it coming, but in realityDanielle was too tired when she went to sleep to imagine what would happen inher over-active dream world. All hersexual frustrations came into fruition and Danielle found her projected selfslammed against the floor of the elevator, her body pulsating in sweat and herbreath seeping out of her as a very lecherous captain loomed over her like the'purring darling' she was."

"The fantasy relieved a sliver of tension inDanielle’s body. It was Danielle’s firsttime to blatantly dream about her superior: her soft, olive skin, her rounded thighs, herbordered calves, her modest breasts, her stable shoulders, her tipped chin, herhenna-colored hair…all defining the scene in Danielle’s mind, that switchedbetween that life and some other one in which Danielle felt her body crushedwith desire. Danielle was not ashamed ofthis dream. She allowed the fantasy ofhaving sex with Miranda in the elevator play out, and it did, as obtrusive andinappropriate as the suggestion itself had been at the time, but the sensations worth everything."

Context, how does it work?


Now excuse me, I have to go look at flight costs home and try not to cry about it because the fees are outrageous.

"In the name of copy-editing I will rewrite you!" and other ways Sailor Moon creeps into my author life.

What I see when I edit.

If you follow me on Twitter you've probably noticed that every night (er, my time) I've been re-watching Sailor Moon Super and live-commentating every episode I feel like watching. Well, imagine my ~surprise~ when last night we got an episode where the victim was an author and the monster-of-the-day sent after him was supposed to be...an editor.

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOL.

I am now a huge fan of Uhenshuu (the name of the monster, which essentially means the noun version of "editing"), and she's quite possibly my favorite monster-of-the-day in the history of Sailor Moon. And since there's over 150 of them (gotta catch 'em all amirite) that kinda says something. She's pretty much everything a nightmare editor is supposed to be, all the way down to her attacks. I would explain, but here! Have Youtube clips instead! (No subs so I've translated what she's saying down below.)

@ 0:17 : Are you obeying your deadlines?!

@ 0:00 : My ultimate attack, WHITE MANUSCRIPT HELL!
@ 0:12 : Next is PHOTOCOMPOSITION!
@ 0:19 : Heh, heh. Cut and paste...snip, snip!
@ 0:25 : Hey, wait...wait a minute! What are you planning?!
@ 0:28 : Make sure you get a good clipping of her!
@ 0:30 : Hey now!

@ : 0:10 : Even if it's a sudden storm I'm okay!
@ : 0:16 : G pen, round pen, and kabra pen!
@ : 0:25 : MANUSCRIPT HELL!!
@ : 0:37 : Sudden strength before a deadline!
@ : 0:41 : Borderline, safe!

I'm thinking that I could really use somebody like Uhenshuu in my life, man. You know, that editor in glasses and questionable fashion that yells things like "MANUSCRIPT HELL! HOW DOES IT FEEL?!" while throwing giant pens at me and making me cry until I finish my novel. But this could only work if I have Sailor Venus on hand to call her off whenever I want. She's like the IRL version of Write or Die!

Seriously, though, the whole time I was watching this I kept thinking about how "real" it is, when you consider her as a metaphor of writers and editors combined - we pretty much say all those things in our heads as it is. "WHITE MANUSCRIPT HELL!" is so hilarious because we've all been there yo. Staring at that white space going "WHY ISN'T THERE A NOVEL HERE OMG" and, if you have an editor/agent/publisher, hoping that they don't call up and ask you if you're "OBEYING YOUR DEADLINES!"

Then again you might get the "SUDDEN STRENGTH BEFORE A DEADLINE" and be "BORDERLINE, SAFE!"

You can watch the whole episode (with subtitles) here!

I'm done, indeed. Bye!

Disclaimer: Sailor Moon is copyright to Naoko Takeuchi, Kodansha, Toei, and everyone else who well, owns copyright to it. No infringement intended. Take it up with Youtube. Screencaps from soul-hunter.org
 

Oh goodness. Camping.

Camp has started on my side of the pond. As it approached I felt less and less like to do it, granted my other pressing writing projects, but once midnight rolled around I decided to give the new story a spin anyway...and i ended up writing 1851 words in an hour! Now, I currently do not have internet at my place, so that probably explains why...Regardless, now that the muse is stoked I may be able to finish Camp this year at any rate. But if I don`t I wont`t feel too bad about it, and it will be good practice for the actual Nanowrimo coming up soon enough this November.

As for what I am writing...it is one of two prequel stories for the CROSS// series, this one focusing on the main characters in their original incarnations.  I`ve been needing to write this story simply because I need to collect all my data and notes into one file that I can reference for the main story...damn, does it ever help to know the direction your characters are going in when you know where they are coming from!  But it`s the first time in a long,long time I am writing a story that I have to make up governments and geographies as I go along.  I have not done that since the earlier Nagnomei days.

So, just checking in to say that I am doing camp! Is anyone else doing it this month?  Did you do it last month? Or am I aaaalll alloooooone? ;)

"oneword.com" makes me wish I had come up with the idea, news at 11.

One (hardy har) of the links I've seen floating around the writing world as of late is that of oneword.com, a prompt site that gives you "one word" and a minute to write everything you can about it.  While prompt sites are not unique in themselves at all, nor is the idea of using "one word" to garner inspiration, this is the first time I've seen a site that combines both and also publishes what viewers have written (as well as including the damn timer!) I admit I've been having a bit of fun on it for the past few days. Here is my latest one word, one minute masterpiece~

Prompt: "expecting"

I was expecting nothing less from such a prompt. Usually it's some vague, or a noun that makes you go "wait, what, what am i supposed to write about that?" but the prompt "expecting" is quite easy. I simply write about what I was  expecting from a prompt. Oh, God, I think I'm running my brain into a circle.  Is this the part where I see forever? Or is this the part where I just get up and go get some cookies because I broke my brain again and it's time for cookies? I dunno. I wasn't expecting that.

 Pulitzer now, please.

(psst, post your own results in the comments please, I must be amused!)