One Thousand And One Parsecs

Goals update…and it’s freaking late…

Man, I’ve been really bad about my writing goals this month. I set a whole bunch of goals right as school started, and I don’t think a single day has gone by where I’ve kept all of them. Blegh, that’s disgusting.

So today I took some time to rethink things and reevaluate. I figured that I’d have to drop those old goals I’d set, settle for something more practical and less wild and crazy. Something disssapointing like that.

The surprising (and encouraging) thing was that, when I calculated how many days I had to accomplish these things, I saw that they were still very much within my reach.

I mean, in order to finish the rewrite of The Phoenix of Nova Terra on schedule, all I’ve got to do is revise six pages a day. Six pages! That’s virtually nothing! Get me on a roll, and I can do ten to twenty pages easy–and thoroughly enjoy it.

As far as Hero in Exile is concerned, if I write 500 words a day, I’ll be at 100,000 words by March. 100,000 is more than I want to write for this novel–I want to try and keep this one relatively short, in the 50,000 to 100,000 word range. And that’s just at 500 words per day! I’m sure there will be days where I write more–where I’ll be driven to write more.

So now, I’m happy to say that even though this month has been way disorganized, I still think I can do this. I will. I’ll be consistent, put forth my best efforts, and have three polished novels by November 2009 in time for the World Fantasy Convention. And I’ll be there! For sure, I’ll be there.

The problem is that I put off writing until the last thing I do before I go to bed. Then, I run around doing all sorts of night owl type things, until finally 2:00 am comes around, and then it’s just too late to do anything but pass out. ugh. UGH.

But tonight, before running out to hang out with some friends (and then waste time upon coming back), I sat down and forced myself to write. And it worked! I made some good progress in Hero in Exile. It’s just 500 words or so, but I’m starting to think in terms of “what do I need to accomplish in this scene?” rather than “how can I get my 500 words in today?” That’s good. Progress, at least of some kind.

There is other stuff that I need to blog about, but I’ll do it in a later post. Gotta review Dune, gotta write about my new job, I’ve got a letter to the Daily Universe that I want to post up here first…all kinds of stuff.

But for now, I think I’m finished. Time to pass out for the next four or five hours. UUGGGGGHH.

I love revising

Today, after I got through with my homework for tomorrow, I figured it was time to do my writing for the day, so I opened up the rough draft of Phoenix and picked up where I left off. I didn’t really feel much in the mood for writing, but forty five minutes later the library was closing and I was getting so into it that I didn’t want to stop.

Revising is one of the aspects of writing that I really enjoy. I hate prewriting–love coming up with the story, hate actually writing it out on paper–and writing the first draft, while it has its good points, is also quite a struggle for me. But give me a rough draft of a story that I can believe in, and I’ll have so much fun making that story work. When I revise, I really feel like I’m making progress–like I’m making something better. Maybe that’s what makes the inner critic in me so less caustic when I’m revising, because I don’t find myself saying “this is crap,” I find myself saying “gotta do this, and this, and this over here…” and when it’s all over, I just feel so productive and satisfied, it’s great.

I’m finding with this novel that cutting things out can actually make the story a lot stronger than putting new stuff in. I think I read something about this by Hemmingway once in high school, how the revising process involves cutting out everything that doesn’t work. I tend to be a discovery writer, so this makes a lot of sense. I prefer to write myself into a story, which means that most of the stuff that I write is more for my own benefit than it is for the reader. It’s like baby fat that naturally comes off as the story matures and grows under my hand.

I’m also finding that revision is an excellent opportunity to practice the “show, don’t tell” mantra. I’ve heard that most beginning writers (and a lot of experienced writers) really struggle with this–they tend to tell everything in an uninteresting, unengaging kind of way, instead of incorporating the information into the story so that it naturally flows with the setting and the action. Revising helps me to see just how much I tell instead of show, which not only gives me a chance to replace it with “showing,” but hopefully will help me as I write the first draft of my other story, Hero in Exile.

Connected with all this, I’m starting to realize the importance of giving specific, concrete, almost anecdotal sensory details about the things that the viewpoint character notices. This is something that I need to work on. When it comes down to Jungian types, I am sensing, not feeling, which means that I tend to miss sensory details because I spend so much time thinking about abstract theories and ideas. However, sensory details are important, both because they enrich the setting and because they effectively develop the viewpoint character.

I was browsing through Robert Charles Wilson’s book Spin the other day, and I was surprised to notice how often he did this. Every paragraph is full of the oddest sensory details, small things that the viewpoint character notices that really enrich the story. He doesn’t spend a lot of time on any given one–maybe just a passing sentence or a phrase–but they build up in such a way that really draws you into the world, and into the character’s life. You start to care about him in ways that you wouldn’t have before. It’s very interesting.

I feel like I made some very good progress today. Edited chapter three, which was about fifteen or twenty pages. There was definitely a lot that needed changing, but that’s not bad because now it’s so much better! And not only that, I think I can see that I’m gradually becoming a better writer. Revising is definitely my favorite part of writing.

AI birth…through spam?

What if the first truly autonomous, self-aware, sentient AI emerges from spam detection software? What kind of an outlook on life and the world will this newly birthed AI have? What kind of mythology would a society of these budding AIs create? What would be their thoughts and opinions on mankind?

The idea for this character is kind of like Jane from Speaker for the Dead. The game program in the battle school was supposed to be interactive and adapt to each player individually. When Ender played it, he got to the very last part of the game that was human programmed and beat it. The game itself was forced to program new challenges and quests, and did so based on what it knew about Ender. In time, this led the game to become more and more autonomous, until it developed a degree of self-awareness and awakened as the AI character Jane.

Spam is one of the hallmarks of our time, the beginning phase of the information age that is revolutionizing our society. I get spam all the time on this blog and in my email, and it is $@#%! annoying. The extent to which people and their programs go to generate all this stupid spam just astonishes me. Fortunately, I have some really good spam-blocking stuff that does its job 99.9% of the time–but to be that good these anti-spam programs have got to be really complicated. As technology advances, they’re only going to get more and more complicated, which may (in a sci fi kind of way) lead to the possibility of a Jane-like character emerging from one of these complicated spam blocking programs.

So what would it be like if this is how the first true Artificial Intelligence emerges? What kind of an attitude would this AI have for mankind? Would it be hostile or (mostly) benevolent? What would it mean for us as mankind that our superiors come into being from out of the darkest, most disgusting dregs of our garbage?

I think it’s a cool idea for a story. What do you think?

Awesome weekend!

This was a really good weekend for writing. We had a REALLY fun writing meeting with Quark and I got some very helpful feedback for the first chapter of The Phoenix of Nova Terra (aka The Lost Colony), and now after another rewrite I feel really happy with it.

On Friday, as I was walking between the FLSR and campus, I thought about the fact that I haven’t really been getting into my new novel, and wondering what was holding me back. I realized that it’s this game that I just recently started to play through for the second time, Final Fantasy Tactics. Excellent game–one of the best in the series, IMO–but as I reflected on it, I realized that it’s been distracting me, both in terms of how I use my time and how much I think about my stories. It’s hard to immerse yourself in an imaginary world when your mind is fixated on something else. So, I decided to drop FFT and erased all my saved games. Now, I’ll have a lot more time to think about and write in the worlds of my stories.

The writing meeting on Saturday was great! We had about eight people there, which was cool, and joked around quite a bit. The best thing I think is that the new people aren’t afraid of criticism, so we tore into their stories and everything was still fine. We went a little over time, but I think it was ok because we spent a lot of time bantering and getting to know each other. That’s important too, I think–to get a sense of community and friendship going.

I rewrote the first chapter of The Phoenix of Nova Terra for this meeting, but something was wrong with it and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Well, the meeting helped me to see what it was–the action didn’t start soon enough and the protocol between the officers on the ship wasn’t all that interesting. So I took another look at my story and realized that I was trying to give too much of the big picture, the grand overarching “this is how the main character’s mission is going to help mankind,” and not enough of the concrete details as seen through the eyes of Ian himself. Man, even after writing for so long, I still make mistakes like this! But once I saw the problem clearly, it wasn’t that hard to fix it.

Now, I’m really excited about this story, and I’m ready to move on and edit everything else. Really, about 70% of the work is going to be cutting out all of my “discovery writing,” the stuff that was really just me figuring out the story by explaining it to myself. There is a ton of that on every page, and it all has to go. But once it’s gone, I really do think that I’ll have a sweet story underneath it all.

I just want to have it done so that I can say, once and for all, that I have a novel under my belt–a novel that I can be proud of. It’s not enough to say “I’ve written a rough draft”–I want to be able to say “I have written and finished a novel.”

Three novels by fall 2009…it’s going to take work, but I’m going to do it. The momentum is building, and I’m getting back into writing.

Progress!

Last night I hung out with my friends Steve Dethloff and Lindsay Rowe over at Steve’s new apartment at King Henry. Had a really good time, which unfortunately involved staying up until 2:30 am. The next day I was zombified–even more than usual. I can’t keep this up much longer…need sleep…

So the day pretty much sucked. I can handle tiredness, but not too much of it. By the end of the day, I was just miserable, so I skipped my last class.

The evening was much better, though. Much better. I went out to the Smith Fieldhouse and worked out from 9pm to 10pm, riding the exercise bike while reading Dune. Fantastic book: I’m reading it for the quark book club. Working out in general is also really good because it wakes up your mind and gets your creativity flowing better. At least it does for me.

So then, I decided that enough procrastinating is enough, and if I’m going to ever write any of these novels, it’s butt-in-chair hands-on-keyboard time. Washed up, went to the library, and just sat down and wrote.

It was good! I think I’m gradually starting to get into this new story, Hero in Exile. I only got about 530 words today, but I can feel the momentum picking up. Once I’ve got momentum, things will be much easier.

So that’s what I was up to today as far as writing. Gradually getting back into it. Now, it’s 1:20 am, I’ve got a test in the Humanities testing lab at 9:00, and I really need to sleep.

Cool New Title!

Hey guess what! I finally figured out a new title for the story previously known as The Lost Colony! From here on out, that story will be known as The Phoenix of Nova Terra.

That title fits in so many different ways. Humanity is crawling out of the ashes of a near xenocidal war and Nova Terra is their greatest hope; Ian has struggled all his life to cope with the nuclear holocaust of his home world and he finds rebirth at Nova Terra; the aliens who come in WAY later in the story find the fulfilment of their prophecies and the beginning of their return to glory because of Ian’s actions, etc etc.

Many thanks go out to Natascha Faux for helping me to come up with that new title! That definitely deserves a major place in the acknowledgments page. What’s more, it makes me really, really happy.

🙂

What a freaking awesome title!

Disorganization…

Yuck. My life is so disorganized right now. Behind in homework, behind in my writing, behind in my blogging, zombified with sleeplessness…ugh.

First step, I guess, is to get a good night’s sleep. So that’s what I’m going to do.

But first, I have been writing a little…500 words yesterday, 200 words today, rewrote the first chapter of The Lost Colony (I SWEAR I am going to change that title! It needs to go–next time I sit down with it, that’s the first thing I’m going to revise!).

Also, I started exercising again, which means that I have a lot more time to read. I’m currently rereading Dune for the next Quark book club meeting–it’s going to be a lot of fun! Dune is a classic. Besides that, there are so many other things I want to read–books on writing and art, 1001 Arabian Nights (which I will not only be reading for fun, but also for a class; two birds with one stone), The Faded Sun Trilogy, and just so much other freaking stuff that I want to read. I’m ravenous for books, for some weird reason.

Oh and good news! I got the FHSS writing lab job!! Yay! So tomorrow they officially hire me, I find out what my hours are going to be, what my duties are, and…yeah. It’s going to be great. More on that later.

And now, sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep…

On My Way to Paradise by Dave Wolverton

Senior Angelo Osic is a doctor in one of the refugee flooded neighborhoods of Panama. The United Socialist States of South America has launched a new war in its efforts to reshape the human race into something purer, but all of that is far away from the life Angelo lives–until an emaciated woman with a bloody stump at the end of her arm shows up and demands him to grow her a new one.

Events rapidly spin out of his control, and Angelo flees on the first spaceship leaving earth–a mercenary transport taking hundreds of superhuman warriors to fight in a bloody planet-wide war among Japanese colonists. As he tries desperately to evade socialist assassins, he makes friends among the mercenaries on the spaceship–as well as deadly enemies. In the eerily realistic virtual reality world of the training simulators, Angelo dies a hundred times and slowly becomes desensitized to killing.

As the ship reaches its final destination–a world awash in a genocidal bloodbath–and Angelo’s enemies finally start to catch up with him, how will he maintain his humanity? Will he ever be able to feel love and compassion again–or will he become the monster he fears the world is making him?

This book is violent. It is violent and gritty. Rape, murder, assassination, brutal disfiguration and torture, graphic battle scenes and massive acts of genocide–it’s all in there. That said, the book is not about the violence–it’s about moral dilemmas, how we respond to injustice, and how we can maintain our humanity in the face of the most horrific evil this world can see.

Unlike a lot of cyberpunk, Angelo wants to be good–he desperately wants to be an upright, moral person–but time and again he finds himself in situations where he cannot avoid getting his hands bloody, sometimes up to his elbows. How he responds to this evil, and how he endures it without becoming evil himself, is where the story has its meat.

On My Way to Paradise is a book that makes you think, and after you put it down, you can’t put it out of your mind. It’s a book that has the power to change your life and how you see the world.

I found it by listening to it as a free audiobook on a podcast that podfaded shortly after, so I only caught the first seven chapters. For the next year and a half, the story haunted me–I could not forget about it, or about the dilemmas and issues it raised. I hunted all the bookstores for it, but sadly it’s been out of print for over a decade. When I finally did find out that Pioneer Book had a copy in their warehouse, I ordered it and finished it a week or two later. If I regret anything, it’s that I didn’t order it sooner.

This is honestly one of the best books I’ve read. It is a masterpiece. I’ve rarely read anything so real and down to earth, anything that resonates as truth so deeply. It’s definitely not for everybody, but this book is incredible. I’ve rarely read anythings so powerful–or so meaningful.

Ggggggggroggy

Yes I am. No routine and lots of destractions equals late, late nights. I don’t think I’ve gone to bed before 2 am at any time this week, and now I’m suffering for it. Fortunately, though, this is the weekend, so I can recuperate a little.

The only writing goal I’ve marginally been keeping up with is the 500 words/day one. However, I’ve been off to a rocky start with Hero in Exile, and I’ve rewritten the first chapter about three times now. Fortunately, I got a lot of extremely helpful feedback from the quark meeting today, so I think that this latest rewrite is going to be the final one…for this draft at least.

Which reminds me, we had our first Quark writing meeting of the semester today! Yay! I think it went really well: Gamila, Jakeson, Cholisose, Hillary, Marissa, and John all came today, plus a new guy whose name is Steve. Also, I met a couple of people at the social who are interested in coming this year, including FYsenshi and some new guys. We’ll see if membership explodes like it did last year, but if it doesn’t, I’m sure we’ll still have fun.

So, yeah, it’s getting late, and I really, really need to get some sleep this weekend. I’ll probably be writing all day tomorrow when I’m not in church, since I want to finish the short story I mentioned earlier before I ask this girl out on a second date and get an earthshaking rejection. That would definitely freeze my creative juices on this endeavor and I think that it might actually end up somewhat decent–that is, if I can edit out all the superlatives and the melodramatic cheesiness on the rewrite. We’ll see how it goes.

One final thing: just now I saw this really cool site where you can create a word cloud for a website and/or a bunch of text. I copy and pasted the rough draft of The Lost Colony and this is what I got. Check it out!

Three day weekends!

Ok, this is going to be a quick post because it’s late and I CRAVE sleep.

I tried this semester to schedule all my classes on Tuesday and Thursday, and because of that I wasn’t rehired at the BYU bookstore because I didn’t have mornings open TTh. Suck. What’s more, I ended up having to schedule a couple of classes on Monday and Wednesday, so I wasn’t even able to have the awesome MWF free schedule that I wanted in the first place. Double suck. HOWEVER, I DO have Fridays free, and it is heaven! Three day weekends all semester! Woot!

Also, you know what? Every time I get fired and/or lose my job, it ends up being a great blessing–exactly what I needed at the time, even. I lost my job in the MTC cafeteria right before the start of a really killer semester, and I know I would have been horribly overwhelmed if I’d had to work as well as study. And the next semester, when things cooled down, I got the bookstore job, and it was awesome. While it lasted, that is.

But even though I wish I could still be working for the bookstore, I think in the long run it’s going to be a blessing. Today as I was looking on the job boards in the wilk, I saw three openings in the FHSS writing lab. They pay fairly good–about $8.95/hr–and I was surprised to find that I met and/or exceeded all of their qualifications for the job. So I dropped by the lab, picked up an application, and tomorrow I’m going to drop it by and hopefully get interviewed. Inshallah, everything will go well and I’ll soon be getting paid to help students in my college write their papers.

Man, I’m just blessed. Life is beautiful and I love it.

As far as writing goes, I painfully rewrote the first chapter of Hero in Exile and sent it off with the rest of the Quark submissions. Yes, the Quark writing group is starting up again. I hope that this year it will be better than ever! We only got three submissions for our first meeting, but once we get on a roll I think things will really take off. Inshallah, we’ll get plenty of new members this year to keep the club going strong.

The short story I mentioned in my previous post is off to a rocky start, but it’s going fairly well. I’m going to try to finish it in the next week or so–before life shifts again and I lose the perspective that impelled me to write the story in the first place.

And now, SLEEEEEEEP! Why? Because tomorrow is the last day of the BYU Bookstore’s progressive booksale, where everything is 90% off, and I want first dibs! And after that…THREE DAY WEEKEND!!!