theferrett

• I have an unfortunate tendency to overrely on plot, actually stomping down on character moments in order to hit the, and I quote, "essential" elements of the plot I'm aiming for. Not good. Must unshackle myself from the need to get to that final sentence where it's supposed to be.


• As competent prose writers, we tend to be so inside our head that we forget to explain what's happening in there to an outsider. The number one thing I heard was, "I'm not sure I get what's happening here...." Be just a little more explicit about the fiddly bits than you think you should be (but then the danger is overwriting, which I may have overcompensated into).


• I am constitutionally incapable of being in the same room with people when they are critiquing my manuscript. Every pen-stroke upon the page is like a little sword-swipe at my heart. I have to leave the room.


• Being around writers who work in entirely different thought processes as they create is amazing. I plot. Others work purely on instinct, getting to the end of the story without a single scrap of planning. Others lay down the symbolism they're trying to hit before they can continue. Others have to walk around, storing up visual imagery to lay down 'pon the page. It's so neat, getting these little windows into other people's heads.


• Kelly Link is a warm, wonderful human being who I adore. That said, when she couldn't remember precisely how old she was, we had to Wikipedia her to tell her. This amuses me to no end.


• Eighteen very good writers all looking at the same manuscript? It's funny how much disagreement can break out about a lot of things, but the core problems with any story have (at least thus far) generally stayed the same.


• Writing six stories in six weeks, when all of your bad habits are being exposed and you're trying very hard to stretch and write new stories? Very, very hard. Some people only write two stories in their entire Clarion time; before, I would have wondered how that could happen. Now, I totally understand that when you're struggling to form new instincts, writing becomes very, very strange and very, very difficult.


• The Clarion experience is intense, but the folks here know what they're doing. We've had a lot of sit-down talks about the publishing industry, but we've also had several sit-down talks about the psychological experience of Clarion and where the wheels tend to come off the cart for people. This week's assignment? Get at least six hours' worth of sleep a night, and skip at least one of the sit-down talks to concentrate on writing. Yes, we know it's exciting and you hate to hear the summary the next day from all your excited friends, but actually applying fingers to keyboard is what will be most useful in the long run.


• One week in Clarion time == three weeks in regular time. Maybe a little more.

scalzifeed

http://scalzi.com/whatever/?p=977

And it is:

“Hello! John Scalzi has several very important things he needs to do today before he can come and play with you all, so he told me to tell you that he’ll probably be out for most of the day. He sent me because I’m so adorable that you can’t help but be winsomely amused by whatever I do or say. See how I’m cocking my head? Adorable!

“Anyway, Scalzi says to feel free to talk amongst yourselves and he’ll see you probably later this afternoon. Okay, bye now!

“Oh! And I almost forgot: The reason my head is adorably cocked? I’m looking at that thing you got stuck between your teeth. Really, man. You need to, like, brush or something. Just saying.”

sparowe

On July 2, Ctrl+Alt+Del posted this--btw, language, so open at your own risk.  At the time, they said that it "seemed pretty obvious" (more language), and I had to agree.  Well, less than a full week later, here's the proof!  Not that Winter 2008 means anything when you consider we're looking at the Japanese edition.  But still, this is more hope than we had before!  Now I just wonder if they're going to dress it up like Final Fantasy III for the DS....

mizkit

Apparently it’s Monday, and I’m not entirely clear on how that happened. I feel like I’m several days, at least, behind. I woke up at 7:something this morning, thought, “I should get up now,” decided to lie in for a few more minutes, had a rather scattered yet vivid dream involving not so much Dean and Sam as the Impala (which the Good Ol’ Boy in the dream said was a Dodge Impala, wtf, but I was playing the part of a … girl/friend who was trying to replace the Impala (which didn’t actually need replacing, but I was *really* trying to find out some other thing to help solve the mystery that was going on, and so *dumb blonde giggle* well sure Dodge I mean it’s a car what do I know about them except he looooooooooved his car soooooooooo much) and the next time I really looked at the clock it was 9:00. I staggered out of bed a little confused.

Then I nerved myself up for Certain Doom and called Continental Airlines, upon whom I am supposed to be flying to Comic-Con. I’d gotten a notification last week after Dad reserved the ticket saying ‘The ticket hasn’t been issued due to technical problems, you need do nothing’, so I didn’t, and then after a couple of days of nothing I got nervous, and there was a bunch of jumping through hoops, and I emailed to say “um?” and they emailed back eventually and said “call this number”, so this morning I did, basically figuring the fare was going to have quadrupled (or even just doubled, that would’ve been more than problem enough) and that I wasn’t going to get to go.

Instead I talked to a very nice guy who accidentally hung up on me, then to a very nice woman who explained they’d been having technical problems for the last week and she wouldn’t even try transferring me (which was how the first guy hung up on me), she’d just see if she could do all the website stuff herself. And she could, and did, and got me the plane ticket at the original price, and I am now waiting VERY NERVOUSLY for it to arrive in my email box as promised. Within an hour, she said. It’s been about half an hour now. If I don’t have it by noon or one my time I’ll call back and see if I can talk to her again specifically, since she knows what’s up with me.

This is not much like writing a book. Furthermore, my brain is absolutely certain it’s Sunday (possibly Sunday the 29th of June, mind you, but Sunday) and that I really ought to get to have today off. Neither of these things are true.

*stares nervously at email*

ETA: ticket has arrived! I am going to ComicCon! EEEEEEEE!

dictionary_wotd

http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/archive/2008/07/07.html

leaguera

http://www.leagueofreluctantadults.com/2008/07/eat-my-delicious-meat.html

naienko

Originally published at Mirror. You can comment here or there.

So my birthday is in about 6 weeks now — and this is all I want.

$100 to spend at Michael’s Arts & Crafts
$100 to spend at a used bookstore
$100 to spend at the local bead stores
an lcd monitor

After all, I got a job now. :)

scalzifeed

http://scalzi.com/whatever/?p=976

As noted, a longer write-up on InConJunction is coming up later, but for now, dig on this:

A sketch of yours truly from Howard Tayler, of Schlock Mercenary fame, who was also a Guest of Honor at the convention this weekend. I especially love that he drew me with hair.

Everyone who looked upon it said “dude, that would make an excellent LiveJournal icon.” I agree, although for clarity, one needs to fiddle with the word bubble:

Expect this to start showing up on my LiveJournal comments soon.

In any event, very cool of Howard to do the sketch. Give him link love and go visit his site, please, if in fact you do not visit it already.