Finishing stories - can be harder than it sounds

As of now, I have about a dozen short stories in various stages of being written. A couple of them are just started, most are toward the middle of the tale in question.

Short stories need to have a good tale, well told, with just enough detail to allow the reader to see what you see. But given that you are asked for 3000 to 8000 words, if you want to submit it for publication, you have to keep verbosity to a minimum.

So, I tend to go off on a tangent, then start a new story rather than finish and fix the one I'm working on. This is a bad habit.

At least with novels, I do have a better habit of attempting to finish one before starting the next. Of the various novels I am working on, only one still doesn't have any sort of end. The others, generally need more work on both the first chapters and the final one, but they do reach some reasonable end point.

Reflections

It's worth always double checking urls and online submissions before you submit. (I tend to start an email and work on it for days checking and double checking things before it's sent.)

So far in 2017, one of the book publishers I listed in my google spreadsheet has decided to close their doors. Today, I found that Australian Literary Management - has a base wordpress site instead of content. I had noted that ALM wasn't keen on representing Spec Fic - they had three fantasy/horror titles and the most recent was from 2006. The wordpress thing may be temporary or they may have just changed hosts but it could be that they've abandoned the site.

So, since my manuscript has been to the one agency in Australia currently accepting fantasy, it's time to send it overseas.

The novel is going well

Right now, it could easily be mistaken for a historical novel based on ancient Rome. There are gladiators, temples and a pantheon of gods/goddesses.

Soon it should switch to being fantasy. Namely, a goddess is about to make an appearance in the novel and after that, nothing else will quite be the same.

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In other news, this blog is suffering from severe referral spam that makes it look like it's getting a lot of hits. Annoying (and never ever hit referral spam urls in your blogger reports. It could get ugly.)

And the US is officially insane after the election results. I just don't know how that was allowed to happen.

On acting and drawing

We went to the Doctor Who festival held in Sydney last year. It was a lot of fun and I'd certainly do it again if it comes back.

One of the sessions we attended had audience Q&A time. An audience member asked Peter Capaldi if he thought acting was an innate talent or something that you could learn.

He compared acting to drawing. A lot of people think they can't draw so they don't try.

But if you want to learn it, you can do so by drawing every day. You may not end up as a great artist but you will be able to draw. His conclusion, acting is also something that you can do by practicing.

I don't know about acting, but the drawing thing is dead on. I find that many people insist they can't draw and so they don't draw. I actually didn't think I could draw either. But after doing a round of 30 days of sketching, I went from pathetic to all right. More practice and I've gotten better. Much better in fact.

Right now, I'm filling in a sketch a day journal. Each day is a small sketch. I spend maybe 5-10 minutes on them. By the end of a year, I expect that I'll be that much better. And even more so when I take my time drawing on a larger surface than those small sketches.

Learning the best writing sprint length

I am an excellent procrastinator - truly first class. Add this to the fact that there is always a fascinating array of things that suck up your time on the internet and it makes trying to complete the NaNoWriMo challenge hard.

So I've been trying out a few things this year.
A friend was doing rewards after getting so many words out. I so totally cheated this system that it was worthless.

Next I tried the timed writing sprints. My first few were 15 minutes and I found that I could write a lot in 15 minutes if I knew that I had a break coming after.

The next day I tried 25 minutes. This was a little too long. I felt like my brain was going to try to leap out of my skull and flee.

So now I'm on 20. This is the right length for my writing. I'm just starting to flag a little but not badly.

NaNoWriMo is still tracking on schedule. If I push out a few extra 20 minutes sprints, I should finish a day or two ahead of the due date - 30 November.

Random Story

There were two weeks left to go. How could there only be two weeks? Was I ready? 

I opened the door leading to my domain. The first thing I heard was the scurrying feet of the rats.

Thank the gods, the rats were obviously breeding well. It’s one of the first things that the judges would look for. 

That was always one of the problems, starting a new dungeon. It wasn’t too hard to get it to the proper degree of mould and mildew. As long as the dungeon was below ground level, as long as there were cracks in the floors and walls, you’d get the mildew.

Vermin counts were always important for a dungeon. Not only rats, but roaches and spiders had to be plentiful if you wanted to win. I had no problem with getting a good roach population. Like the rats, as long as the guards threw scraps in the corners, the roaches would come.

Spiders though, I’ve been having problems with the spiders. I was hopeful that today’s shipment would make it much less obvious that there was only one spider actually living in my dungeon. That one was a jumping spider so it didn’t produce webs. Damn the gods.

I decided to inspect the equipment next. The rack had been a problem. It was so difficult to make it look well used and old when it had been installed new a mere six months ago. I had finally started making serious progress on ageing the rack by a combination of chicken blood and water. The vermin chewed at the leather bits, the water began damaging the iron. 

I was about to start my final inspection of the day when a guard entered the dungeon. “Master Flay? Your delivery is here.” The guard barely got out the words and then fled to the main part of the castle.

I went to get my delivery. It was half a dozen crates. They were very light, but they were meant to be so.

“I need you to sign here,” the delivery man handed me his clipboard.

“You must be joking. I won’t sign until I can inspect the goods and I’m not about to do that out here.” I looked around. Where was my useless assistant. “Boy!” I bellowed. “Come!”

It was a few moments later before I heard the footsteps. Damn. “I wanted Bobby,” I snarled as I turned around. 

“Sorry, Master. It’s Betty today.”

I hope Bobby will be there when the dungeon is judged. Betty goes for curls and bows, not at all the look of a dungeon assistant.

Mind you, Betty is far more blood thirsty, if we are doing some business.

“Right, Betty, I want you to help me carry the crates inside. We’ll open them up in the main chamber.”

“I’m not supposed to let this shipment go out of my sight,” protested the delivery man.

I grinned at him. “You are welcome to come with them. Betty and I won’t mind a bit.”

The dude backed off a few paces. “You promise to sign if the shipment is satisfactory?”

“I will.” I had to or the supplier may never fill my orders again. It’s so hard to find dungeon supplies these days.

Betty and I carried the crates inside. We opened one to find that the crate was nearly filled with fine webbing. A few of the spiders escaped, but that’s why I wanted to open the boxes inside, not out.

“You start putting the webs in the corners. I’ll go sign for the shipment and help.”

I went back out and signed for the crates. The webs would make the dungeon as close to perfect as I was going to have it this year.

The only other factor that is considered is the prisoners. We still only had two. The scruffy revolutionary, by now impossible to recognise under the tangled matt of hair. Half starved, scarred and he spent his days chattering to himself. The other was the witch. The rags left to her after five months no longer disguised the fact that she was middle aged. She had been in decent shape when she first arrived but now she just cackled madly.

In other words, my prisoners were everything I could hope for. It’s just that there are so few.

I envy Master Drawn. His dungeon is over 100 years old. Every cell has at least three prisoners and all the equipment has been repaired many many times. It’s so hard to compete against that sort of tradition.

Who knows, he has won every year for 10 years. Maybe the judges will look for something new.

At least now I have my spiders.

Phobias and working through them

I've actually had three phobias - relatively mild but definite phobias.

Once upon a time, I was afraid of thunderstorms. Not hide in a closet afraid but they made my heart race.  Then we moved to south Florida and there was a thunderstorm every afternoon during the summer. Within two weeks, they didn't bother me much any more.

One was a fear of talking in front of groups. I'd get nervous as all hell and talk twice as fast as I should. Then I did a group of subjects where you had to do group presentations. At some point, I stopped getting nervous as all hell.

The last is a fear of heights. This one still bothers me, I've yet the opportunity to work through that fear. I live in a town with few high buildings and the land is relatively flat. Maybe someday.

A Thing that bothers me more than it should

It's how often people and artists think winged human - feathers. If humans had wings, they would be fur/hair coated. There are no animals that I know of that have fur and feathers.

I suppose it stems from the artwork featuring angels with wings of feathers. But it still bothers me that people think this would be how it would work.

If humans could have wings, they might be similar to bat wings.

So, humans with feathers bothers me. Mammals that have 6 limbs instead of 4 doesn't worry me at all. Go figure.

NaNo Snippet 10

Onyx jumped at the voice, letting go entirely of the knife. He looked around to see a boy only a year or two older. The boy was dressed strangely, more fur and feathers, not cloth.

“What do you mean, kill him? I’m trying to help him.” He looked at Master Dervin, now looking extremely pale.

“If you pull that knife out of him now, he’ll bleed to death. You’ve naught prepared to staunch the flow of blood that I can see.”

“Could you help me keep him alive? It sounds like you know something about this. I don’t know anything about healing,” he looked pleadingly at the stranger. “I’m Onyx, and that’s Master Dervin.”

“My name is Sam.” Sam knelt down by Master Dervin examining the wound and the knife. “Removing that knife will be tricky. We’ll have to work together, if you want any chance of Master Dervin surviving. Are you sure you don’t want to just finish him off instead? That will be easier.”

Onyx shook his head. “I need Master Dervin. He’s teaching me…stuff.” Onyx found himself reluctant to say the word magic after Frillion. “What should I do?”

NaNo Snippet 3

“Not a problem lad. It’s good to have some company for the trip. I’m Jim. You are the one bound for Skilopse?”

“Yes sir. It’s been a long trip.”

Jim smiled at the boy. “You only think that’s a long trip. I’ve heard of people traveling so far north, it’s always cold or so far east that there is a body of water so huge you can’t see the other side. Can you imagine?”

Onyx shook his head. A body of water too far to see across? That had to be some sort of folk tale. “I may be from a small place, but that’s just too much to believe. There can’t be enough water in the world that you can’t see to the other side.”

“Ah Onyx, the world is a bigger place then you might think. There are many strange things to see. We’ve carried some passengers from very different places. I’ve seen blue-skinned people from the sea, a deep dark brown from much sunnier climates and a man who was fire-red. Those I have seen myself.”
Man and boy waited for the other passengers to settle in the coach and the mail parcels and bags to be secured. Onyx found himself wondering if any of his fellow travellers today were also bound for Skilopse.

“A rather motley looking bunch of passengers, I’d say,” commented one of the people loading bags onto the coach. “Be careful Jim. It’s said that some robbers are active just outside of Skilopse over the past month.”

“It’s a mail coach, who’d want to steal a bunch of letters and trinkets? We’ll be fine.”

“Just sayin’, cause it’s better to be careful when it’s not needed then careless when care was needed.”

To Onyx, loading the coach took forever but they were on their way not long after dawn. Progress in Thirngo was slow, there were many farm wagons moving in the streets which were moving quite slowly. Onyx found the town to be so different then anything he was accustomed to.

Just realised

NaNoWriMo is going to be my second novel. My first novel was written some time ago - never published and I have yet to finish retyping in chapter 3 more or less the rest of it.

And they would both be classified as children fantasy. Hmm, what does that say about me.

Then again, I love Garth Nix books and he mostly does children's fantasy. Dianne Wynn Jones.

And the NaNo novel has hit 11,000 words so far. That puts me rather below par for getting to the goal on time, they recon that you need 15,000 words to be on track. Still, it's day 9 so there is plenty of time to make it up. And the words are no longer fighting with me, it's slowly getting easier.

NaNo progress - eh

I still haven't hit a good writing groove yet. I don't know if the story has a flaw that my brain hates or

The interwebs and Plants vs Zombies (iPad version) are just keeping me too entertained.

I am still making progress - the nano site thinks I should finish mid-December at my current writing pace. And one or two really good days will make a huge difference.

When will I get in good days though? I hope soon.

More Nano snippets???

I can't decide. Due to the underwhelming reaction from the first snippet, I am tempted to say no more.

But I'm a serial posting offender and the idea of NOT posting snippets - hmm.

How to create a news slant

I noticed this one last night on the SBS brief reports

1. Announce a story about reactions to using recycled sewage as drinking water
2. Announce a story about recycled water for drinking water

Same story, massively different impact.

BTW guys, all water is recycled. Just some of the recycling is done on a much longer time scale.

Resolutions for 2007

Attempt to do better with last years resolution about losing weight. Lost some but it all came back after a holiday.

Either take this blog more seriously and post a bit more frequently or abandon it all together.

Interesting game question of the week

I have recently discovered Gamastutra.com and in particular, the question of the week. The two questions I've read through were Does size matter? where they asked a number of game professionals about length of game play. Another question of the week was "Are game professionals buying PS3 or Wii?". Both are long articles but the content is quite interesting.