Been Busy

Hallo, blog. Sorry about the break. There was a birthday to cater for and celebrate (mine, he-he) and a neglected house to clean so my weekend guests weren't too overwhelmed by dust bunnies, and emails with pictures of overly cute cats and kittens wearing conical party hats to read, and ponderous buses to catch to the Arvo Job instead of speedy trains both last week and this week (this yearly fortnight of track maintenance is another reason why I usually take my Annual July Winter Writing Break around now, but alas, I've already had lots and lots of time off from the Arvo Job, and I'm still not sure if I'll need more this year), and a new, dark, bird-based story that suddenly appeared whole in my head to write for an upcoming deadline, and since I can't write on buses, it had to be beaten into shape here at home (done, and pretty close to dusted after I cannibalised parts of a flashback from an old story that I rather liked but never used), so something had to give.

Anyway, I've got a post about dialogue on the boil, inspired by a couple of tiresome gents who sat behind me on Tuesday's bus ride to the Arvo Job. I was going to finish it today, but Wednesday R&R (some of it spent on finishing up that bird-based story) got in the way. I'll try to finish it ASAP.

Why, just yesterday...

Another Sunday of solid writing - I'm well pleased with myself, I am. Today I gave my "Berlin Wall" ghost story a final polish and submitted it, making it my fourth new story for 2012, and tinkered on the sf/f tale that I'd like to get done in time for a certain reading period next month.

Then that'll be it for short stories for a while because I want to put aside as much time as possible in March to get stuck into my YA novel again - you know, the one that doesn't have a kick-ass title yet and which I workshopped at the Year of SF & F writing course way back in 2010. I did work on it during my 2011 Annual July Winter Writing Break, but not so much since then. I've decided that the time has come to get it done before another year suddenly passes me by!

Time wastes our bodies and our wits, but we waste time, so we are quits.
Author Unknown

Woof versus Doof

Hmm, personally I'd far prefer Steve Cameron's woof woof to my doof doof, but I have a feeling the cats would disagree.

Facing the final curtain

Well, the end of my AJWWB, at least.

*sniff*

And after a spate of pesky, sunny days full of doing other stuff, I've got a nice, gloomy, rainy day at home to squeeze in a few more words (doof doof permitting) and brace myself for my upcoming return to the Real World.

You can't stop the doof doof

It's actually been pretty quiet here over the past 2 weeks, which was wonderfully unexpected, and this morning was lovely, but right now, I'm well into my third hour of unneighbourly doof doof and can no longer work with it. So I'm admitting defeat, shutting up shop and heading off for a walk. Drats! I wanted to finish a revision - I'm cutting story from an indulgent 9000 words down to a lean and mean and more to the point 6000 words (I only have 392 more words to go) - so the story could sit a while before I submit it on Sunday.

Hopefully the doof doof will be over by the time I get back.

Ah well, "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley."

Poetic failure

I'm settling into my AJWWB, which, alas, will soon be over. I can feel my next week return to the Arvo Job nibbling at the edges of my mind. I must ignore the thought! Now I remember why I usually take 3-4 weeks off. But that's next week. For now, I get up (no rush), feed the chook (who is waiting at the back door every morning and clucks joyously when I pull back the kitchen curtains - what a suck!) and the cats, make a pot of tea, read. Then I spend the day writing, reading, walking, writing, wrestling with ideas, cursing my writing slowness, chatting, writing, wishing I were a speedier wordsmith, and taking photos of the cats chasing the chook. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I could live like this!

This morning's pot-of-tea-and-reading session included the VWC's July writing magazine. The theme was 'How's your Motivation?', which all seemed somewhat theoretical because at the moment, motivation is NOT a problem. However, I know that once I'm back amidst the rushing around of Real Life and the effects of my AJWWB wear off and it's been ages since my last acceptance, every so often, most probably when I'm tired and come home to another rejection, I'll raise a fist to the heavens and cry "Why, why, why am I doing this to myself?"

So I really liked Paul Bateman's article, with more advice on dealing with rejections (I can never get enough of that) and, very importantly, he eloquently counsels on how to cope if you never achieve your writing goals: ' But if it never happens - and it very often never happens - stay open and alive to life. Be yourself. Be kind and content. Be secret and exult.'

I love the last phrase, which is from a Yeat's poem:

To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Nothing
By William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

Now all the truth is out,
Be secret and take defeat
From any brazen throat,
For how can you compete,
Being honor bred, with one
Who were it proved he lies
Were neither shamed in his own
Nor in his neighbors' eyes;
Bred to a harder thing
Than Triumph, turn away
And like a laughing string
Whereon mad fingers play
Amid a place of stone,
Be secret and exult,
Because of all things known
That is most difficult.

So, once more, it all boils down to: write because to love it; write because you have to; write because you enjoy the actual process because sometimes that's all you've got (exult!).

Lockdown

I think I shall lower the drawbridge and venture forth on a walk, perhaps to the local village, perhaps not. Decisions, decisions. It's raining, naturally, which is why I'd rather stay cosily ensconced in my writing room and, well, write. But no, I shall be good. I shall get some exercise and fresh air ere twilight descends - I shall!

Now, where are my boots and brolly?

Wet weather writing

So this is what the view looked like from under my umbrella on my bracing walk today at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. I told you it was cold and wet.

After splashing around the botanical gardens, I'd planned to buy another notice board on the way home because this morning I suddenly became convinced that pinning up cards with storylines and characters to create an overall visual plan of the YA novel project would help solve my structural problems (I often think that acquiring the exact right officey organising doodah will provide writing salvation). Unfortunately, Chickenfeed (a shop full of cheapie bric-a-brac for those unfamiliar with the name) was all out of these magical writing aides. I'll search elsewhere tomorrow.

Rain, rain, stay today

I couldn't have asked for better weather for my AJWWB - it's been pouring down all week. Excellent snuggle up with the cats at the keyboard weather, the sound of rain on the roof adding to the cosy factor. So far, I'm getting about 6 solid hours of work done a day and am building up to more as my brain limbers up and remembers how to do long haul fiction writing. Each afternoon, after a morning of reading, writing, checking my emails for rejections and feeding the soggy-looking chook, I bundle up, open my umbrella and go for a walk and a think, then visit the library or catch up with folk, and possibly do a bit of shopping (which seems more like a recreational activity than a chore when you're on holidays) before heading home for the second keyboard shift. Evenings are for other things.

My big project seems to be a big muddle at the moment, which is to be expected at this stage, with the inevitable choices of what to keep, what to ditch and what to add whirling inside my head. When trying to second guess readers, editors and publishers gets too much, I take a break from the big stuff and work on a shorter piece. I finished the Spirit story yesterday. Now it can sit for a while.

Anyway, back to work :)

Doing inventory

I have:

The first two volumes of a big space opera trilogy in different draft stages. So far, I’ve knocked the first volume down from well over 230,000 words to approx. 179,000. The second volume weighs in at over 206,000 ish words. Both books are still too long. The project is humongous. I wrote a few thousand words of the third volume before putting it on hold indefinitely, which makes me sad because I’ve left my characters stuck on mountain ranges, caught in the middle of space battles, and trapped within planet spanning sea walls.

90,490 words worth of YA fantasy. Some of it got straightened out in the YOSF&F workshop last year. Reducing it and editing it will be my main AJWWB project. It still doesn’t have a kick-ass title.

5000 words of another YA fantasy, but one that will require a lot of research. One day...

7000 words of a book that started out as a paranormal romance, but keeps wanting to become something else. I love the heroine and want to give her room to stretch. Well edited, but under wraps for now until I decide which genre would be the best fit for it.

2362 words of a horror novella, or maybe a book, all that remains of a project that was mostly deleted. I still like the central premise, but its voice won’t gel.

6 stories out in the world, their status as yet undetermined.

8 completed short stories that need a good, hard edit before they too go forth. They’re slumbering in little computer cocoons, waiting to become butterflies.

5 big stories with that need endings. Or middles. I’m almost sure they’ll be finished one day, especially the one about the warrior Ice Queen and her dragon which just needs an historical event involving an exiled king (I know his name) clarified two thirds of the way through. But just what exactly is that event? Hmmm, I might get back to that one over the next 2 weeks.

6 big stories that keep getting rejected, but nicely. They keep almost making it. What magical tweak do they need to make them irresistible to editors?

Countless bits and pieces that didn’t amount to much. Most of them will probably remain fragments forever.

I filing cabinet full of typewritten stories on paper from my pre-computer, olden days of writing. I dimly recall a few titles and outlines. I really should fish out a few and give them a looking over. Who knows what perfectly usable sentences might be lurking in there.

Lots and lots of ideas clamouring for attention. All I need is a few years of dedicated writing time to make them happen.

10Flash Quarterly

I just opened an email with this announcement:

The July 2011 issue of 10Flash is posted! Check it out at 10Flash Quarterly.

Yay! So you can follow the link to finally read my science fiction story Information Exchange, plus nine other assorted tales written around the theme Two Years and Still Counting.

What a lovely start to my AJWWB.

End of the Month Report: June 2011

Submissions: 4
Rejections: 4
Acceptances: 1
Published: 0
Stories out in the wild: 6
New stories completed: 2
Mood: Excited about my upcoming Annual July Winter Writing Break. Only one more day of Arvo Jobbing to go. Big writing projects here I come.

Here we go again?

I might have to dig out and dust off the Doof Doof Diary. *sigh*

Me thinks the kiddies next door are testing the waters once more with their mighty sub-woofers. Great. Just in time for my AJWWB.

Hanging out for my hols

So I sent off the painted rabbit story for the first time today, then, after a spot of pruning, my one and only vamp story also went out. This will be the vamp story's fourth tryout (it was held for consideration by the last publication I submitted it to, but then released back to me because they couldn't find a place for it and it's not their policy to hold stories for longer than three months - drats!) I love my vamp story. I hope that eventually someone else does too.

The ideas are still coming, which is good, but I haven't really submitted much this month, and most of my writing has been done on the train on the way to the Arvo Job. This mid-year slump is normal. I usually slow down around May /June, then speed up again after the Annual July Winter Writing Break.

So bring it on. AJWWB here I come.

But first, one more looooong week of Arvo Jobbing.

What's that I see ahead?

Yawn.

June = Long days at the Arvo Job.

Thank goodness for the upcoming Annual July Winter Writing Break.

And now, the end is near

That was that AJWWB then – it’s back to the Arvo Job tomorrow. *sigh* It’s been lovely. Days of writing and wrangling ideas to my heart’s content, cats popping in and out to say hallo or stopping for a snooze on the bean bag that I cunningly placed next to my keyboard to distract them from walking all over the keyboard whilst I worked, and lots of reading done in between.

Then there was the other fun stuff – movies, the European Masters exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria & the Tim Burton exhibition at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (this is a picture from the ACMI's after dark festivities) furniture shopping (the bedroom got a makeover), visiting, gardening, long walks etc, all done at a relaxed pace.

And yesterday I finished off with the YOSF&F workshop, which included a great, really informative talk given by a commissioning editor from Allen & Unwin.

I could live like this all the time. Honestly.

Lovin' it.

Spent the morning reading and writing. Still in my jammies :-) :-) but will get dressed and go for a walk now.

The ABE story is shaping up well, or at least I think it is. What was difficult last week is flat out writing joyousness this week. Am also well into a longer project, and having much fun coaxing a 'no-I-will-not-head-down-that-boring-path-you-planned-for-me-because-I'm-about-something-completely-different-you-moron' story into existence.

*sigh* The difference between one's everyday, gotta-fit-in-the-Arvo-Job brain and one's AJWWB brain is both astounding and just a little depressing.

Tomorrow, When the Work Began*

Okay, so I didn't exactly hit the ground running writingwise. Shopping (both functional and recreational), movies, reading, exercising, DVD box set watching (I'm finishing off True Blood Season 2 and aim to watch both seasons of the Sarah Connor Chronicles over the next fortnight, having been inspired to do so by The Big Bang Theory boys' many references to said series), food making and cake baking, guests and whatnot have kept me busy these past 3 days, but hey, I am on holidays.

Tomorrow, I swear, being another day and all that, will be packed with writerly diligence as I once more send off a few stories that have been recently rejected, and my brow will be soaked with scriberly sweat as I try to beat into shape a rather ambitious submission for the Anywhere But Earth anthology.

*Love your work, John Marsden, and am looking forward to seeing Ellie & co. up on the big screen in September.

AJWWB Opening Ceremony

I've ditched the Arvo Job for a fortnight, my once-mighty lurgy has been reduced to manageable sniffles and the occasional coughing fit, and my hitherto snot-sodden brain actually came up with two vaguely usable ideas on the train today just in time for my Annual July Winter Writing Break. Let me snip the red ribbon right now to make it official.

I have hopes, I have goals, I have plans. Let the word games begin.