Weight continues to drop, though as is typical, not as fast as I want it to. 23 pounds down, in total. My morning walks are longer and faster, but I have acquired a sore toe that demanded I skip two days or else. Was back out with the circuit that includes something around or slightly Read More…
Category: the writing life
Checking Boxes
Scene revisions completes in past week: three. Scene revisions still to be done…???? All so far have been more complicated than just weed-whacking away excess. I read it, re-read it, re-read it again, finally realize that it’s a multiple-layer problem, and devise ways to fix it. What kinds of things are complex problems? Characters not Read More…
The Plot Thickens and the Writer Thins
Somewhere, somewhen, a philosopher or other authoritative person said that if you’ve learned something (was it something new? Anything?) you’re obliged to pass on that knowledge to someone else. The process is of course unequal and therefore stressful to the recipient of the knowledge/skill being passed on, so the good news is that reciprocal exchange Read More…
The Joys of Post-Midnight Character Intrusions
Sometime last night between 3:30 and 4 am, or maybe it was three….I woke up. There’s the usual “Do I have to get to the bathroom right now or can I have another bit of sleep first” but that issue didn’t seem urgent…what did was being wide awake. WIDE awake. I tried my usual “drift Read More…
Infrastructure
Infrastructure in fiction–in the books we read–is usually deep background. Characters drive vehicles…on roads, streets, trails, whatever. If the writer sees the roads in his/her invented world as like the streets we have, then no reason to describe them…everybody knows what a street looks like; what matters is the person n a vehicle or on Read More…
NewBook Progress
Today–tonight, actually–I cleared up a major problem found late last week. In moving things from file to file, chunks of a secondary “transfer” file got mangled and I hadn’t noticed. Luckily, since I knew I wasn’t thinking as well as I used to, I kept multiple earlier drafts under different titles, and was able to Read More…
Sockin’ It
First pair of socks knitted start to finish (9:30-something tonight, begun in the mists of mid-concussion recovery) since the 2018 concussion are DONE. And on my very, very grateful feet. They’re a rich, deep, but vibrant blue. No pics, because they’re *on my feet!!* and it’s late and I’m really tired but celebrating with hot Read More…
Some Thoughts on WriterBrain, Second Rock
Dorothy L. Sayers, who wrote some of my favorite books, also wrote essays I’ve found very useful, especially her writing on the doctrine of the Trinity and its relation to creative writing and the kinds of problems that result from what she called “Scalene Trinities.” For the non-Christians (which I wasn’t when I first read Read More…
Some Thoughts on WriterBrain, First Rock (with a few decorations)
On another site, on which I’d written a long comment about the statement “ignorance is bliss” someone complimented my writing (always pleasant to hear) and thought my “story-writing brain” was completely back in service. Which–though much improved–it’s not. That’s not a venue in which to explain how many different components and levels a fiction writing Read More…
Knitting a Book…One Stitch at a Time
At various appearances, book clubs, conventions, I’ve talked a little about how knitting socks connects to writing a story…and it does, although I didn’t start out writing stories as a kid with any such awareness. But what I’ve said before has new and deeper relevance in my struggles with both writing and knitting after the Read More…