So starting Wednesday my vacation ended and I was back writing once more. I’m moderately pleased with the results.
I submitted No-One Can Slay Her to a noir anthology, which is a good way to start the week. I got Famine Where Abundance Lies back from another market with lots of specific compliments, which is cool — but they still didn’t take it. I’m guessing that like a lot of markets these days they don’t stockpile — if it’s not right for the upcoming issue, they’re not going to take it.
I got in a few thousands words to Oh, the Places You’ll Go and around 9,000 on Impossible Takes a Little Longer. Of course, with the book I was mostly reworking the early chapters in response to writer-group feedback and ideas I’ve developed over the past year. Unsurprisingly, when I reached the point of adding completely new material in the short story my brain slowed down massively. That won’t work as my goal for this month is a NaNoWriMo like rush — get the words down, then revise later. That’s how I’ve always done it but the past couple of years my revising process just seems to freeze up. Thinking about it now, I realize part of that is that I’m trying to plot it out more between revisions and thereby have fewer drafts. Perhaps that’s counter-productive for the way my mind works. We’ll see.
I definitely need to structure my day with more breaks in. Even without the pressure to complete Alien Visitors I find it very easy to just write non-stop, without getting up and stretching or clearing my head. I know that’s not good for my writing but it’s a hard habit to break. But I will break it.
Oh, and I went and got the alphabetical index to Undead Sexist Cliches even though I don’t have page numbers to assign it too yet. It may take some tinkering as I figure out the categories, which isn’t a huge problem with film-reference books though. Here I have to decide if “brain theories of gender differences” is, say, it’s own entry or goes in “gender differences (brain-based theories).”
I thought I’d plan out my goals for next year this week too, but no. Outside of my writing, I usually set goals that are challenging, but not too specific — somehow that’s not working. Whether I need more challenges, more specificity or some kind of incentives I’m not sure. I definitely need to get out of the house more. But I’ll work on all that through this month.
For illustration, here’s Wisp in her new downstairs turf, under the dining room table.
#SFWApro
Fraser Sherman's Blog 