Writer at Large

For a variety of reason, both personal and literary, I've been doing some thinking about the characters of ship captains, particularly in science fiction.

For the most part, captains are the leaders of their vessel or stations, burdened with all the pressures of command. They are almost universally expected to be paragons. Although human, they are never allowed to be "human". Mistakes, any kinds of perceived weakness, are not permitted.

Who, then, can these people turn to when they need to be "human"? To expresses their fears, doubt—their feelings in general?

In thinking about it, I find it interesting that the majority are the confidantes that these captains have are, in fact, not human. Kirk has Spock, Janeway has Tuvok, Sisko had Dax. In my own stories, Devereux has Hope.

I'm not claiming that this is a universal character situation, but I found the recurring theme interesting. It does make sense in a way, though. Having an alien confidante would allow a captain to express human feelings without being judged by human standards.

Non-human insights also play a strong role in these relationships, providing the captain a point of view that he or she might not have considered.

I wonder if this is why we are often drawn toward people who are also unlike ourselves in some ways. Are we seeking the same insights about the world and about ourselves that only an "outside" opinion can provide?

Perhaps this is not the stuff of which great drama is made, but it does make for something worth watching and reading.

Total words: 20,018
Average words per day: 664

No, I didn't hit 50,000 words. Yes, I did hit 20,000 (20,018 to be exact). And an average of 664 words per day is much greater than the usual 250-word goal I set for myself each day.

I didn't "win", but I did hit my personal goal. I doubt that I'll ever put in a performance like last year, but you never know. And I did get 20,000 words done for a new novel.

There's always 2009 . . . :)

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.