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Friday, October 31, 2008
Posted by
SFWriter13
What I'm Listening to Now: Valentine Pontifex by Robert Silverberg
The third in the Majipoor series, this book covers the period about ten years after the events in Lord Valentine's Castle. The book is performed by several readers, which adds to its variety and effectiveness.HeroCon 2008
Yeah, I know this report is a little tardy, but still . . .
On October 18th, I spent some of the day at the inaugural HeroCon 2008, a fun-filled day of all things City of Heroes/City of Villains. I went to two panel sessions and one workshop:
- Walking the Cat-Walk: Fashion in City of Heroes
- Getting Your Foot in the Door: How to get a job in the industry
- Making Movies with City of Heroes
I only took 10 photos, none of which are all that spectacular. But I post them here anyway for your amusement and bemusement.
It was interesting to see the wide breadth of ages (and cities of origin) of people who came to HeroCon. I was by no means the oldest person there. That was reassuring. :) There were a lot of couples there, both of whom were involved in the game. (I wonder if there's ever been a study . . .)
NaNoWriMo 2008In five hours and thirty minutes Pacific Standard Time, NaNoWriMo 2008 officially begins. Expect only weekly updates here as time permits. As always, you can follow my progress here.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Posted by
SFWriter13
I have several articles of clothing and other paraphernalia that read, "So Many Books, So Little Time." I actually like, for me, the dual nature of the message. Not only are there so many books to read, there are also so many to write.Many authors believe that their work is more effective when read aloud. Certainly most children's books are designed in exactly this fashion. When reading a story, our minds add our own dramatic pauses, place emphasis on specific words and phrases, and attempt to capture the accent and tone behind the dialog. What our minds do to the words might not at all resemble what the author intended, as the mind can be a slippery and stubborn thing, determined to have its own way. This is, in no way, necessarily the fault of the writer (although it can be).Like many denizens of Silicon Valley, CA, I have a fairly long, mind-numbing, knuckle-clenching commute. Most of the time is spent in so-called rush hour, doing the opposite of just that. Although music is always welcome, I've come to accept the vice of audiobooks—oral readings of books and stories. Some are dramatic, full-cast presentations of the work; most are not. Some of read by the author; most are not.It's always interesting and enlightening to hear a story read by it's author. The author, having originally written the words, knows exactly where he intended the reader to take note of a phrase, pause for breath, or take a moment for introspection. Nearly all of the authors I've heard perform their own work do it very, very well: Harlan Ellison, Peter S. Beagle, and Spider Robinson come immediately to mind. (The last was a complete surprise to me. I've never had the pleasure of seeing Spider in person, so was surprised to discover that he had read "Stardance" himself. I never would have imagined that he had that voice.) For some authors, the effect is much less effective. As much as I enjoyed reading Neuromancer (during a cross-country trip to Toronto), William Gibson's oral presentation of his own work is, to put it kindly, more than mildly distracting.Like many readers, there are probably as many books that I would like to return to as there are new ones that I would like to read. I've found that audiobooks during my commute is a very pleasant solution. Not only does it serve to pass the time and allow me to re-visit those books, but it also gives me the opportunity to hear someone else's interpretation of the words and characters. In a way, it also returns to the oral storytelling traditions of the past. There is something comforting and yet also evocative to have a work read aloud to you.I know of many authors who claim that one of the ways in which they "test" a work in progress is to read it aloud to understand how it "sounds". Reading it aloud provides a clear indication of the rhythm and flow of the words that cannot always be determined by reading it silently to oneself. (I often compose scenes during short walks by working it out aloud. It's a fun exercise and people look at you only slightly more askance than they do someone talking on a cell phone.)I sometimes wonder if the incidents of road rage might diminish if more people listened to literature (of any kind) in their vehicles rather than the inflammatory rhetoric of certain pundits and talk-shows hosts. Just an unspoken thought . . .
Friday, May 9, 2008
Posted by
SFWriter13
I've spent the past week editing my progress to date and starting to fill in some of the blanks. It took me two days to untangle the time sequence mess I had knotted myself in (kind of ironic, considering the subject matter of the story), but I'm pretty sure that is all straightened out now.I ended Script Frenzy on April 30th with 43 "[insert more here]" markers where I knew I needed a few more lines of dialogue or a bit of action to close the scene. I now have 38 of them remaining. That seems like I haven't made a lot of progress, but as I've added new scenes to fill in some of the blank spots, a few more of those markers got added.The script now runs 123 pages. There's still several more scenes to write, so I fully expect that it continue to grow. There's a fairly lengthy scene in there now that will likely get either cut or seriously trimmed. While the concept it discusses is interesting, I think at might be better to leave it an ambiguous loose end to explore in a later episode.The main story is essentially finished except for two key scenes. I'm really struggling with the secondary story for various reasons. I'm sure I'll get past them and wrap this whole thing up soon.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Posted by
SFWriter13
Finished, but not done. I ended the month of April with 115 pages.(For the mathematically-inclined among you, that averages out to 3.8 pages/day. Not a bad average at all when you consider that I lost three days.)The script is not quite finished. There's mostly a handful of transitions and two or three key scenes still to write, but it's close to being done. Before I do any more work on it though, I want to fix some of the sequencing and tighten up a couple of scenes so I don't end up adding transitions or dialogue that won't really be needed.I'm generally pretty pleased with the final results. There were some twists and turns that I didn't expect when I started the project. I know of several sections that would be approached far differently in a novelized version.All that said, I'm most pleased to have just finished and achieved the goal of at least 100 pages by the end of April.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Posted by
SFWriter13
Only a few more days to go . . .I actually hit 100 pages on Sunday night, but intend to keep going to see how far I can get before midnight on April 30. (As of last night, I was at 105 pages.) I think the final version (after editing) will be somewhere around 120 pages. Probably slightly less, but around that.Most of the week has been spent filling in the gaps I had left during the previous three weeks. There are some nice pieces of character development and relationship building that got worked into those sections. In general, I'm fairly pleased with it.On the other hand, there are a few key sequences that I'm not sure how to handle yet. I'm also concerned that I might be trying to introduce too many elements for only a two-hour pilot. I'm hoping the muse will perk up with some ideas, but we'll see how that goes . . .
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Posted by
SFWriter13
I'm pleased to report that I'm pretty much on schedule.
As of last night, I'm at 70 pages—dead-on where I should be at this point. I suspect, however, that this week is going to be very tough going . . .The story has taken some interesting turns, but still remains very true to the original Emerald Flight story and concept. I'm also feeling a little smug that I figured out how to write my way out of a corner that I had accidentally written myself into the first week.Not a whole lot more to report this week, other than relieved that I was able to catch up after losing several days last week. I already know that I'll need to be some restructuring, resequencing of a few events, and a handful of other edits before I'll let anyone's eyes but my own see this.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Posted by
SFWriter13
Holding steady at 47 pages . . .That's slightly behind where I should be, but at this point I'm not overly concerned about catching up. A bad cold had kept me from writing for 3 days . . . and I know better than to write when under the influence of cold medication. Been there, done that . . . cringed for days afterward.One of the most interesting things I'm discovering as I'm structuring this script, as it's intended for to be a two-hour pilot for a television, is what I'm deciding to explore and what I'm leaving out or only leaving as hints. To draw a comparison, it's more Battlestar Galactica than Star Trek. I had not originally intended it that way, but I can see how it might be a more effective way to kick off a potential series than trying to do a completely self-contained episode and then try to expand from there.I guess we'll see how this next week progresses . . .Oh, another item on the "plus" column: I've gotten much further than I did last year! :)
The third in the Majipoor series, this book covers the period about ten years after the events in Lord Valentine's Castle. The book is performed by several readers, which adds to its variety and effectiveness.
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