Resolution-ish

New Year's resolutions, for the most part, don't work. The stereotype holds relatively true: there's the fanfare and confetti and statements on January 1st, and then there's some serious effort, followed by less serious half-assery and then come March the treadmill/kendo sword/'X' For Dummies books are gathering dust in the garage. New Year's resolutions are pie crust promises.

I like resolutions. How bold, how daring, to try and reveal one's own flaws and attempt to set them aside! Just imagine all the Facebook posts and tweets you'll be able to post as you swear that you'll devote more time to learning Klingon or practicing sorcery. O, the passion and pageantry! O, the excuses to buy things related to said resolutions!

But they don't work. But I want them to work. I even made some of my own! Here are my resolutions for 2012 (behold!):

1) Finish first novel (including several revisions).
2) Become published.
3) Increase production of short stories.
4) Read more.

You can see what's wrong already, right? These goals are too big, too broad with no way to actually obtain them. They're ladders with a single rung waaaaaay at the top. So as all good little authors must, I've revised:

1) Achieve minimum word count of 850 towards novel each Writing Day.
2) Continue submission process, and maintain tracking spreadsheet for records. If a story is rejected, submit to new publication within 48 hours until publication sources are exhausted.
3) Achieve minimum word count of 500 towards short stories each Writing Day.
4) Get in habit of going to the library, selecting 1-2 books (no min/max) each time and reading them by the return date. Each return date, get a new book to read.
and I'll add:
5)Write minimum one podcast review every two weeks. Podcast reviews are to be written on Wednesday.

That puts my Writing Day word count goal at 1,350 total. Not as demanding as NaNoWriMo (1,667 words) and it is certainly more than I'm writing now. I think that divided between two separate projects the word count will be obtainable without becoming daunting. If I'm stuck on one story, I can switch to another.

The other resolutions involve practices I already do and want to maintain (submissions), and habits I need to get back into (reading and podcast reviews).

And the list is malleable. If I finish the first draft of the novel, then there will be a new set of mid-year resolutions involving letting my writing group hit me over the head for several revisions and keeping to editing deadlines. Maybe I'll have to change my word count goals due to circumstances that pop up, or the podcast review blog will take off (HAR! I can dream.) and will demand more attention or hell, Tiamat could bring down judgement and I'll have to bugger off with a great sword to fight against the Apocalypse.

Oh! I forgot one:

6) Practice ukulele.

Because I got a ukulele for Christmas. Priorities, yo.

So what do you think? Obtainable goals? A list that I'll set aside by February? Do you have any resolutions?

How to Get Ideas

(via Incidental Comics)

Scrivener for Windows Beta!

Scrivener has long been touted as an incredibly useful tool for all manner of writers. It is apparently a font of organization and clarity within first drafts, and people make it sound like milk and honey pour out of your damn computer each time you use it.

And it is only for Macs.

UNTIL NOW.

Scrivener for Windows beta is up! There is also a special 2011 NaNoWriMo version, in which if you manage to complete your 50k words you get a 50% discount on the official version of Scrivener for Windows. Which is pretty sweet.

I've just started the tutorial for the NaNoWriMo version (it lasts longer than the basic beta and includes a 20% discount even if you fail the 50K goal). Outlining stories has always been a weak point for me, and I don't trust myself to leave the second half of a story entirely to exploration, so hopefully this will be of some aid! I'll give my thoughts on the program in a week or two.

Neil's advice to young writers

(via Neil's Tumblr)

Submission!

This past week, I submitted my new short story, "Planetfall", to the Writers of the Future contest. It's the best thing I've ever written, and also serves as the prologue to the novel I'm drafting right now.

A friend of the blog, Tarly Crowbridge, won the Artists of the Future contest in one of the earlier quarters this year. I got my story in before the end of September, so if I win, my story will appear in the same anthology as her art.

Furthermore, if "Planetfall" wins, Kalisa has the right to be bitter towards me until the stars fall from the sky.

Wish me luck.

"Advice to Writers" by Billy Collins

Even if it keeps you up all night,
wash down the walls and scrub the floor
of your study before composing a syllable.

Clean the place as if the Pope were on his way.
Spotlessness is the niece of inspiration.

The more you clean, the more brilliant
your writing will be, so do not hesitate to take
to the open fields to scour the undersides
of rocks or swab in the dark forest
upper branches, nests full of eggs.

When you fiind your way back home
and stow the sponges and brushes under the sink,
you will behold in the light of dawn
the immaculate altar of your desk,
a clean surface in the middle of a clean world.

From a small vase, sparkling blue, lift
a yellow pencil, the sharpest of the bouquet,
and cover pages with tiny sentences
like long rows of devoted ants
that followed you in from the woods.

(via Kris Reisz's blog)

The Tyranny of Words

Whenever I read anything by Joe Abercrombie, I always stand in awe of his descriptions. Everything is so vivid and rich and colorful. That's something I struggle with, even though I'm a very visual writer. Crombie makes it look so effortless.

...and that's why this post on his blog is so comforting. Allow me to quote him.

Often it’s the descriptive bits that I find take the most intensive effort.

 Whew. Man. I feel better, don't you?

(Oh, and there's also some excellent thoughts on word counts and their importance. Make sure you give it a read.)

Potential

I wrote 3 paragraphs the other night. It's not a story yet, but it was pretty exciting. I have no idea where it's going to go, but I'm happy that I finally started something new.

I'm starting to gather quite a collection of little scenes that don't really fit anywhere and/or haven't been finished. One day I plan to fit them all together somehow!

The first line of my newest addition to the unfinished collection is...

They're called freckles.

Feel free to chime in with any suggestions of how you come up with or develop story ideas!

25,000

I've just hit 25,000 words on my latest story! This will be my second since we've started this venture. I'm hoping to hit the length of a short novel, and I'm just about on track. The mid-book climax is approaching swiftly, now.

I have a tentative title, but in case it changes, let's just call this The Story of the Girl Who Had Her Own Planet. It's a science fiction story, a kind of old-fashioned planetary adventure, about a teenage girl whose family crashed on a new colony world. All is not as it seems, and the girl sets out to figure out what is really going on.

I'm trying to keep TSotGWHHOP light and accessible for folks who wouldn't normally read heavy sf. I have a very specific target audience in mind, actually -- my cousin Emily. I think it might make a great YA book. We'll see how it goes.

I'll leave you with the first line...

The roar of the colonization ship cracking in half collapsed to silence as her drop pod hit space.

"World Burners"?

What is World Burners? I know, I know, it sounds like a group of paramilitary anarchists. In truth, it's something much worse: a writing group.

There are four of us - Archie, Erik, Kalisa, and Rachel. We each write (or edit) stories in our spare time. We all love science fiction and fantasy (I have hereby defined this term, from here on out, it's "sff"). This blog is... well, I'm not sure yet. Our public interface? A chat forum for our convenience? A link so that when one of us gets a story published, there's something we can direct people to for more information?

Let's begin with "World Burners". Ever played a role-playing game called Burning Wheel? Okay, well actually, neither have we. But I have read the books, and I really like their unconventional use of the word "burning" to denote creation. Character Burning? Creating a new character. We write both sf and f, and one of the biggest commonalities that set those two genres apart from other writing is the creation of new worlds. World Burning.

Plus, it was the name of an NPC from Archie's Shadowrun campaign. A really cool one.

So! We've come this far. "Where is the writing? What are you working on? When will it be published?" I hear you ask from the future, your voice echoing down the inter-tubes to my ears.

Stay tuned.

Play Along at Home

I thought of a game! All by myself!

Take a story you've written or an idea you have for a plot, then describe it in the wrong genre. If it's hard sci-fi, make it romance. If you've got an epic fantasy, make it post modern (I dare you). Explain the genre transplant only if you feel like it.

Here's some of mine:

A psychic orphan and a street-wise drug dealer attempt to escape a cycle of violence and exploitation to find that the only way to win is to play the game. (Fantasy to Urban Fantasy)

An untested page is called to serve as a squire to a knight that exists only in memory. (Urban Fantasy to Fantasy)

Amanda Blanche thought she knew dark-haired, soft-spoken Rex DuMont like a favorite book, but after a one-night stand at his apartment she'll realize she doesn't know half the story! (Horror to Romance)

Your turn.

The destruction of Gallifrey

There is a lot to do with this blog, and lots to come, but let's begin with a writing advice quote. I always like finding nuggets of writing wisdom, and this one is particularly appropriate for this writing group, as it touches on the destruction of a world.

You should never mark out a character so formally that their reactions are fully defined, because none of us is like that; we're slightly different every day, with different people, with each different mood. You have to keep turning characters in the light. One of my favourite Doctor moments ever is the opening of Gridlock, where he lies about Gallifrey having been destroyed. It's a tiny lie. He omits the fact that his home world is gone. But, for the Doctor, that's seismic. I had nothing interesting in that scene until I discovered that. I found a completely new way of understanding the Doctor, a new way of revealing his history, and better still a tiny piece of narrative that sustains the Doctor/Martha relationship throughout that episode. If characters keep turning, moving, thinking, shifting, if they aren't fixed, then they can do anything. Just like real people.

-Russell T Davies, Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale: The Final Chapter

 So this is the first thing you, the blog reader, learn about me, Erik, the not-actually-published-yet writer. I like Doctor Who.

I like it a lot.