writer at play
Posted in season of rains on Sep 30th, 2008
Writing requires muscles that have not been exercised in a while.
Long gone are the days where I got 2K-plus words (*cough*NaNoWriMo 2003*cough*) in a session. Now I’ll feel lucky if I got this chapter written this week.
Why is it that every fantasy novel I’ve picked up recently has a strong nautical component? The Fox did, Red Seas Under Red Skies does and so does Hawkspar, next in the lineup.
Somebody toss me overboard into Davey Jones’ locker if I so much as even pen a boat ride in my next story. [...]
Posted in kids at play on Sep 25th, 2008
Posted in creativity, kids at play, writing process on Sep 23rd, 2008
This zebra was made by me:
:
Note how I tried to be strictly representational. Note the obligatory stripes, the four legs, the stiff mane. A zebra, yes, just suspended mid-page, trying very hard to be zebra-like.
Now, this zebra was created by my son:
He calls it Zebra Falling into Water. And you know what? It does look [...]
Posted in challenges on Sep 22nd, 2008
I missed the deadline for the one-month challenge.
The title says it all.
I still have my various pictures all cut out. I’ll give myself another, oh, two weeks?
Posted in reading, writing process on Sep 20th, 2008
I finished reading The Fox last night.
Just in time, too. I have to generate three story ideas for the How to Think Sideways course I’m taking, and start revisions on Season of Rains. Not to mention writing one of the many short stories are that trying to beat their way out of my skull (“hey, [...]
So, the Firstborn has a thing for creating intricate… um… structures out of Tinkertoys. He also has a penchant for making up new words. Today he combined these two quirks and created such devices as the “wopoohoom” which goes “zzz” and fixes houses, churches, buildings, hospitals, and, oddly enough, doctors. Then there was the “zooming-ma” [...]
Reading Sherwood Smith’s The Fox, sequel to Inda, that’s what.
Here’s another reason why I’m reading so much more non-fiction these days: non-fiction is a lot easier to put down than a really good novel is. Non-fiction does not have me staying up past midnight, or have me pick reading over ensuring that everyone has clean [...]
Posted in creativity, random on Sep 15th, 2008
“Come with me,” said the stranger. His voice was deep brown, coffee and corduroy, with a rasp at the very edge of it.
I’ve been thinking about voices and how we describe them. Voices are shrill and strident, high and low, they rumble like cars and drone like insects. We can talk about them in [...]
Posted in creativity on Sep 11th, 2008
I love freewriting. I love opening up a blank document or journal page and writing down whatever unwary thoughts flit through my head. Through freewriting, I have uncluttered my mind, quieted my anxious soul, and rediscovered things that were lying buried and forgotten.
I do two different types of freewriting. The one I do daily is [...]