The always-fascinating Jim Macdonald wrote a post some years back on the Absolute Write forums (you’re a member, right?) on the subject of becoming an instant expert in a subject.* There’s nothing hugely ground-breaking here, and yet… nobody ever really bothers to spell out this process, do they? To summarize (though you should read his post): […]
A month and a half after VP, and my submission piece is about ready to go. I got a lot of good feedback and advice on this one, and (after giving it a month to sink in so the text would be fresh to me) I have finally gone through it all, listened again to […]
This weekend was busy as hell — among other things we had to finish insulating the kitchen ceiling. Three micro-centuries in a Tyvek bunny suit working over my head. Yay. But as you can see, it really needed to be done: I had expected to be trying to steal time this weekend to work on […]
Spent part of the evening talking over my short story The Body and the Bomb with Marko. This is an Inspector Crandall mystery, one I’ve several I’ve written, in which I had experimented with having a co-investigator, local Constable Nouri. One of his comments sort of threw me for a loop: I don’t really need […]
I’ve hit pause on my NaNoWriMo progress for a few days in order to fulfill a few other major obligations, particularly, writing and practicing a lengthy talk I’m giving Tuesday. Also, I’ve been feeling ill yesterday and today, though I’m hoping that will pass. I’m expecting to restart Tuesday evening, but that means that I’m […]
Well, NaNoWriMo is proceeding apace. The story is outlined in Scrivener, with 25 scenes planned out and named. That means I’ll need to average about 2,000 words per scene in order to hit the 50k total. So far, I’m averaging 1k per scene. This suggests that I need either another subplot or another fairly major […]
Having tentatively decided to do this YA novel for NaNoWriMo (I’m registered as jpmurphy, by the way if you’re looking for writing buddies) I decided that I should firm up a bit of the setting. Actual writing is not allowed until November 1st, but outlining is, and research definitely is. So I am doing both. […]
No, not me (the thought!) but the ever-talented Jesca Hoop: Once you manage to decipher the lyrics, it’s a very nice description of the creative process. And if (like me the first few times I heard it) you can’t figure out what she’s singing, it’s still a very pretty song! 🙂 Why is it, do […]
… and my 3,000 word short fantasy story is out the door! I’m a big fan of the market I submitted it to, so I’d be thrilled if they take it. Pride is useful, since at 5 cents a word I’m looking at like $150 for the story. Considering that I’ve sworn not to buy […]
I’ve gotten plenty of fantastic feedback from my friends, VP classmates, and crit partner. I think this bird is ready to fly. I’m a little nervous about the last change — I’d been thinking long and hard about the feedback I got on Wednesday, that the Moby Dick references were just getting over the top. […]
