Way of the Writer
Friday, October 29, 2004
Thursday, October 28, 2004
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Image found on the Internet and all rights belong to its owner.
Finally started the book.
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
***Line, write scene, delete line***
Goal*
Sounds exactly how I write my zero and first drafts.
*All contents and their rights belong to the author.
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
***100/60***
Going to try a little experiment based on the presumption one can complete NaNoWriMo by writing approximately 98 words an hour for 17 hours per day (presuming 7 hours of sleep.) I'm going to find a day sometime between now and November 1st and write an average of 100 words per hour and see the results. I call it the "100/60" Experiment.
Monday, October 25, 2004
***Weekend of writing***
Following on the heels of the Friday Word War over at Forward Motion, I spent Saturday afternoon and evening just writing. Specifically, I practiced timed writing exercises. Very interesting time, especially when both The Editor and The Muse suddenly made their presence known. I think I wrote four pages (over a thousand words) of dialogue between the three of us. NOTE: It's bad enough when you piss off one or the other, but never both at the same time. Neither one sulks quietly....
On Sunday, I attended the Stephen R. Donalson signing down in San Diego. I'll be honest, he's not the most scintillating speaker. A thin, white-haired, older gentleman, I noted he gestured a lot while speaking in an articulate, yet, rapid-fire manner. He was tired from the tour and I agreed.
But I wasn't there for the author per se, but more about his thoughts and his background. What I learned was:
- The reason it took him 20 years before writing The Runes of the Earth was that he didn't feel he had the necessary skills to write it (and the rest of the quartet) until only recently.
- He does not like deadlines and has a very generous three year gap between each book. (Exception: Runes of Earth. Apparently one of the upper-upper accelerated the process to release the book from 12-18 months to 6. Ack!)
- Raised by missionary parents in India, the condition of Hansen's disease was, to him, perfectly normal. Apparently the missionaries had leper house servants. Since his parents didn't fear the disease, he didn't either.
- He started to write Runes on September 10th, 2001. And couldn't continue for months after the 11th.
- While he originally wrote his novels from outlines, now he concentrates mostly on character. Specifically, he knows the ending of the quartet and the major events. How he'll get there, though, will be based on the characters actions.
Overall, I'm glad I attend the signing and can't wait to read Runes. But first, I'll have to reread the first two chronicles.
Sunday, October 24, 2004
***Writing, writing, writing, so much writing....***
Spent much of the afternoon and evening just...writing. Specifically, did lots of timed writing exercies. Gave me the nice average figure of a page (250 words) every 15 minutes.
