Writer at Large

Total words to date: 18,492
Average words per day: 605 (lowest of the month)

The lower average is chiefly because I missed one day entirely. if it weren't for that, my daily average would have been a much more respectable 705 words per day.

Reaching my goal of 20,000 words this year seems within reasonable reach. It's kind of disappointing after last year's 56,000 words, but 20,000 words is better than 10,000 or 5,000 or none.

Two more days and then it's done for this year . . .

Total words to date: 14,260
Average words per day: 674 (down from last week, but higher than Week 1)

Getting assigned to sit on a jury this week seriously ate into the available writing time this week as evenings were needed to get caught up work missed during the day. That said, I'm pleased that the daily average stayed as high as it did.

The muse has also chosen this week to be particularly stubborn, but I suspect that she's been distracted by other matters. With luck and perseverance, next week should be better.

Total words to date: 9,550
Average words per day: 707 (slightly higher than last week :) )

The muse has been mostly cooperating; it's more been a matter of finding the time to write it down. She's usually been keeping two scenes in reserve, so I haven't had any days this week when I had no idea what to write.

I do need to better develop most of the main characters. Their personal flaws are too internal and too personal, so it's probably difficult for readers to relate to them and equally difficult to have them carry some scenes. I'm not yet sure how to fix it, but the writing will go on.

As of last night, my word count is 4,595 words. For those who are counting, that's a little over 650 words a day. It's a far cry from the needed 1,667 words each days to stay on track, but slightly above the more realistic goal of 500 words per day I had expected.

50,000 words in 2008? Unlikely. 20,000 words? You betcha.

I figure any word count total greater than zero is a good thing.

My goal for the weekend is to write at least 2,000 words. We'll see!

What I'm Listening to Now: Heretics of Dune by Frank Herbert

They're finally getting around to recording unabridged versions of the later books in the Dune series. So far, I have found the reading to be very well done (although I do wonder why it was decided to give the Honored Matres a kind of pseudo-Russian accent).

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 2008

In 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.

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 . . .

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 30^th 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.