Thoughts and Reflections – Page 46 – One Thousand And One Parsecs

Researching publishers and a new novel from an old story

I didn’t do a whole lot of writing today, just a little bit in my story for English 318. I did, however, research some markets and give out Decision LZ150207 to some beta readers. I’m also starting to figure out some new plans for my story The Clearest Vision…

editing editing editing

I took a break from The Lost Colony tonight to edit two of my short stories, The Clearest Vision and Decision LZ150207. I want to send both of those out to contests in the near future, so I want to polish them up and send them out. I’m really optimistic about it.

Yay! And, simultaneously, uh oh!

So, I wrote 1,181 words in the novel today, just by focusing on it and getting it done, and I was really satisfied with the result! The more days I have like this, the more confident I am that this novel is working out well and that it might not completely suck by the time I finish it. However, I heard a piece of advice from Sanderson today in English 318 that made me think that I might be digging myself into a mess…

I HAVE THE POWER!!!!!!!!!!!

Just some stuff that I’ve been up to…

1,500 words and some struggles

So now I’m caught up to the point in my story where I wanted to be by the end of break. I sat down in the library and it just flowed out. Good stuff.

However, I’m starting to have some doubts about this story…I don’t know…

English 318 has begun!

Yesterday was the first day of English 318 with Brandon Sanderson! I’m really excited for it! I can tell already that this is going to be a very interesting class–especially because it’s taught by someone who actually writes good fantasy, not just someone who can criticize it. Brandon is a real cool guy and I feel that there’s a lot that I can learn from him writing and publishing wise. Even just the first day has given me a lot to think about…

1,282 words and something I’ve noticed

Well, I put away Alpha Centauri long enough to make some real progress in this story of mine. I put in 1,282 words today, and now I’m right at the part where I wanted to be about a month ago. But you know, I’ve noticed something interesting…

I know why Disney fights so hard to extend copyright protection

…it’s because they can’t come up with anything as good as the old stuff. Case in point, the new movie Enchanted. I watched it today with my family, and I couldn’t stand it. Looking back, I probably shouldn’t have put on my headphones and turned on my mp3 player in the middle of the show (my sister was pretty offended by it), but I know that if I didn’t do that, I would have walked out of the theater, if only to spend five minutes vomiting in the restroom and the next twenty minutes recovering. I tend to annoy people a LOT with this habit, but I like to comment on movies as I watch them. Here are some of the things I wanted to say but held myself back from while I was in the theater:

1,584 words and I still don’t like 24

1,584 words tonight! Yay! Progress! In about 12,000 words, this will be the longest that I’ve ever made it in any novel attempt. And it only took 4 months (well, and about a year to come up with a fully matured concept for it)!

All this time I’ve been writing at my friend Steve’s house. For some crazy reason, he decided to watch four seasons of 24 in a week in order to be able to tell his film professors why he likes it. I’ve been watching the first few episodes of season 1 with him these past couple of days.

The Writing Philosophy of Madeleine L’Engle.

I just recently finished reading a book of quotes from Madeleine L’Engle. Her children’s book A Wrinkle In Time had a huge impact on me as a kid, and was influential in the development of my love of writing and of Science Fiction. I found this quote book at a BYU Bookstore sale a couple of years ago, and never really got around to reading it until now. However, now was the right time to read it, as I’m thinking more and more seriously about developing myself as a fiction writer.