Got an online friend with some questions about editing. Go give her some advice, opinion, or just a friendly ‘hey’.
Month: November 2005
bookmark_borderDay 26
…has come and gone and so has my enthusiasm for writing on this WIP. I got 528 words yesterday.
Boredom? Maybe. But I think the ‘oh god i have to edit this’ blues has hit.
Sad I tell you.
bookmark_borderHanging Out with Scribes
Met two other NaNo-ers this morning. We met at Port Java and, after gabbing for quite a while, we actually wrote some. Joy and Lesley were a hoot and seemed to tolerate me well. Not easy to do, trust me. There is an official gathering tomorrow but I don’t know if I can make it. I don’t like Port Java. It is small, crowded, and NOISY. I like Atlanta Bread Co. better. It is just a few blocks away. If we meet later, after NaNo, I may talk them into there vs Port Java (Port City Java? I dunno.)
I paid for the two hours or so we sat there. The chairs were horribly uncomfortable for me and by the time I left, I was in intense pain. We came home and I lay in bed with my wedge pillow. I am trying to not let it take away from the fun of the morning.
I updated the excerpt on the NaNoWriMo site. Let me know what you think of it or if you cannot access it.
bookmark_borderDay 25 – GOAL!
I reached 50K!! Can you believe it??
I did it!!
Go me!
I haven’t said “The End” yet but I will soon.
You’d think I would want to set it aside and go brain dead on games but nope, I write on. I have 4672 words so far today and I may get a few more in.
bookmark_borderExpanding my horizon
Went surfing this afternoon. Specifically, I went writer blog and website surfing.
Wandered over to Georganna’s site, Writer’s Edge. As usual, I found something to steal borrow. Her post, eMail Call, led me to several designations.
One led to Dawn Groves’ website. Not too bad a place, kinda white tho. She does podcasts on a regular basis as well as write books that actually get published. Her podcasts may have good information in them (why not, the rest of her site does!) but I can’t listen to them. I am weird when it comes to listening. I can’t have more than one thing to listen to at once. If I am listening to a voice, I don’t want music. Unless of course that voice happens to be singing. Anyway, other than that, I spent quite a while there, enjoying every bit of it. Her one post,Software Cursing, had me laughing hysterically.
A link on her site led me to Mur Lafferty’s “I Should Be Writing“, another blog/podcast thing. I didn’t listen to any casts, pod or otherwise, but I did enjoy reading and wandering about.
Another link on Ms. Groves’ site took me to Debbi Ridpath Ohi’s “Inkygirl” site. I hadn’t been there in a while so it was fun to revisit. Inkygirl has resources out the not-so-proverbial whazoo. Oh, and she also has a comic strip based on writer’s life and life in general. Funny!
Ms. Grove’s links also led me to Writers.com. How have I missed this???
Perhaps I need to surf more and play games less. Nah, ain’t gonna happen.
bookmark_borderDay 24
…has done gone and went.
Between football games and eating baked chicken and dippin’ veggies in ranch dressing, I managed to get about 500 words. Lorna went to bed after CSI and I piddled around with some games. At about 10:30 or so, I got an idea and started writing. I stopped just after midnight for a pee break. I got a total of 3283 words down.
I got most of that next pivot scene done. Not as graphic as I’d like but it is there. I had some help though from some kids I’d met online as well as Sophia earlier in the day and Jess later in the day. I believe I will reach the 50K mark but I don’t think I will reach the end. It is close and I may just skip a lot just so I can say ‘The End’ and feel good for a brief moment.
Meanwhile, BG1 sits in the notebook, covered in red marks and notes. I will spend December going through it and entering in changes. Perhaps by February I will be able to start sending it out to agents. It bothers me at times that a manuscript I took just over a month to write is taking well over a year to get out. Perhaps if I wrote better the first time, my editing time would be shorter. Nah, ain’t gonna happen.
bookmark_borderWriting History
No, not writing about history, but the history of writing.
When I was a potter, we learned about how a major step in the process of glazing occurred when a Chinese kiln master saw that the firing was ruined and he threw himself in to the fire rather than have his head removed later. The sudden amount of organic material into the kiln made some interesting results! The peoples of the time believed it was the kiln master’s spirit that made the firing work. This led to discussions (among us) about various gods of pottery.
So the next time we fired up our kiln (gas, not wood) we formed a little statue out of clay and set it on the kiln roof. We then put a chocolate chip cookie, a little flower, a small amount of silica and a piece of bologna around it. We called it our kiln god. Each firing we presented it with different things as offerings. Yes, we were a weird bunch.
Lorna and I also have traffic light fairies. You know, you go through town and never hit a red light, that means the light fairy is with you. And yes, we are weird.
At any rate, I play a game called Luxor and has an ancient Egyptian theme. Each level (a repeating pattern of 8 I think) is based on either an Egyptian deity or object. One of the levels is called ‘The Scroll of Thoth’. I hadn’t a clue who Thoth was so I looked it up. Wikipedia rocks!
Thoth (tot) is the Greek name for a deity named Djehuty in Egyptian. He has a lot of different varieties to his name: Thot or Thout; Tahuti, Tehuti, Zehuti, Techu, Tetu; Dhwty. He started out as the deity for the moon but wound up being credited with creating time standards and writing; at one point was worshipped by the scribes.
Since the Atlanta/Detroit game was so awful, I looked up ‘writing deity’ in Google. That led me to AncientScripts.com. Cool site! They have a page where they discuss the various gods and creators of writing. Interesting reading. They also have the history of writing, mostly how others have chosen how writing was ‘invented’ and how to categorize it.
There seems to be a lot of connection between the moon and writing. Not sure why.
Mystae.com has a good page on Thoth as well that includes some links.
TourEgypt.net has a page on the history of writing in Egypt and includes some on Thoth. Interestingly, that is what the call him, by his Greek name.
There is a website called the Book of THoTH, a site of paranormal, UFOs, ghosts, etc etc. They say that THoTH is the god of wisdom who wrote all he knew in a single book.
There is a short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle called ‘The Ring of Thoth‘ which later became known as ‘The Mummy’.
And, to complete the circle, most of Egyptian history is preserved in writings on pottery.
bookmark_borderThanksgiving
‘Tis Thanksgiving my friends. Whether you are in the US or not, take the time today to think about what you are/could/should be thankful for.
I am thankful for Lorna, the one thing in my life that I cannot live without. And despite my daily arguments with them, I am thankful for my four-legged companions. Well, all but one.
Across the US there are shelters and food banks that are running short on supplies. So many of our funds and resources went to the Gulf Coast after Katrina. We should remember our local charities and see if we have anything that they need. Coats, blankets, etc.
Remember, they had a bountiful harvest and shared it with their neighbors.
source: Wikipedia
bookmark_borderDay 23
Had a better day than yesterday! Which isn’t much of an effort but it was still a very good day.
I got some writing done, more than I thought I would. I even have enough that I might can take tomorrow off. Not sure if I will but that option is available. I got 4652 decent words done today.
Sarah is now a recruit and coming up on a majorly big pivot point again. I just have to figure out how that is going to happen. Just a little minor detail, right? Maybe she will trip and fall into yet another of my plot holes.
Only 7 more days, boys and girls. Are you on target? Are you gonna make it or will you crash and burn just a few yards from the gate?
source: NaNoWriMo.org
bookmark_borderHeads up
From NC Writers Network:
If you live w/in NC or adjoining states:
NC Writers Featured on WUNC-TV – NC People with Bill Friday on Friday, November 25, 2005 at 9:00 pm and Sunday, November 27, 2005 at 5:30 pm, will feature the six recipients of the 2005 North Carolina Awards, including writers Randall Kenan and Bland Simpson, two of this year’s winners of the North Carolina Award. We hear that the Writers’ Network will be mentioned in the program
Competition:
Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize
Postmark deadline: December 31 (annual)
The Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize honors internationally celebrated North Carolina novelist, Thomas Wolfe. The winner receives $1,000 and possible publication in The Thomas Wolfe Review. The final judge for the 2006 award is the distinguished American novelist, Josephine Humphreys. (submission criteria)