Saturday, July 13, 2013

Waist'n time on this story!


Alright! I’ve been out there. I’ve been writing. I’ve been having a great time.

All at once I’ve been doing more author work than I have been in a while. It seems wrong to say this, because I’m always working on one story or another. But I’ve just started working on another YA (Young Adult) idea. It popped into my head a few months ago. After weeks months of writing backstory I’ve come to the part where I actually start putting story to paper (Paper, ha. That reminds me I want an old cool typewriter. With spell check plz). I’m all super focused right now (lies, proven later). It’s refreshing.
I’m also super proud of my growing stack of manuscripts.
 
I always have topics that I want to talk about when next I blog… “That” is the mistake I always make though. I never learn. Because, if I’m not yet ready to write my next blog I don’t write the idea down and by the time I get to the keyboard I’ve forgotten what the hell was so interesting! Apparently it wasn’t that enthralling and I shouldn’t have blogged about it after all.  Perhaps?
I live within a foot of a computer at almost all times, you’d think it wouldn’t be that hard for me to simply rollover (half of my ideas come to me just as I’m trying to settle in for bed) and type up a quick outline of what I want to say. NOPE, I’ll remember… really, this time for sure.
Maybe one day I’ll remember that I don’t.
 
Wester-Con! It was in Sacramento and yes I went! I had a good time, met some great people, I bought some more art…
Here there be dragons!
Really it’s becoming a sickness. The need cover my walls in frames has become addicting. These two are by Sarah Clemens http://www.clemensart.com
People ask me how the con went and I don’t know what to say. I mean you really want hear about the panels I went to on how to make a realistic fight scene? We did lose power the first night, that was kind of funny. You’re in a room with a ton of authors drinking and then DARKNESS. The birth of the cellphone flashlight army. There is story in that.
Also I had a critique group with other authors. This went…badly. There are faults on both sides of the coin here.

1.       I’m starting to come to the realization that I don’t write true Sci-Fi. Well that’s not true. I knew I didn’t write mainstream Sci-Fi genre, what I do is write stories that dabble with Sci-Fi and technology aspects. I’m more about the human condition: interactions, relationships.
To give you an idea. Let’s say I fill one of my poor charters full of nanobots. Sci-Fi focus says: What do the nanobots do to him?  My thought is: How does a man trying to deal with becoming a nanobots host change compared to those around him? Of course both questions need to be answered in your story. But you can see were my focus would be.
So going to a Sci-Fi writers group and asking for feedback for my stuff may not be the best audience for it.

2.       I was given the super scary impression that most of the people at the critique group didn’t read my summited work and/or didn’t read my synopsis that answered most of their questions/problems. On the other hand, I had A LOT more story/plot than the 7500 word limit could cover for.  A good or true synopsis would have eaten my 7500 word count alone.

As you can see, two sides of a coin on many things here. But I AM saying “I don’t like it, and that’s all I have to say.” isn’t professional and after looking over YOUR work you need to prove to me you are really interested in this craft (not competed, and when I can  find problems in your grammar and spelling you got REAL work left to do. I didn’t pick the website illiteratemind.com for giggles. Okay, yes I did.).
Ahem, sorry.
It’s not to say I didn’t get some great stuff that I could work with. Already I’ve made some new scenes and changed removed some others. With the changes I made I’m going to come back it in a few months and see if I like it better.
 
Kraig Ferguson… You son of a bitch!
I’d just put the kid to bed and I was looking forward to a few hours of writing before I turned in myself. One online video later I couldn’t do anything but watch more, and more, and OH MY GOD it’s 4am and I didn’t write a single word. If you haven’t seen one of the many (there are tons, trust me) Kraig/Kristen Bell segments. Educate yourself!
It’s stuff like this that makes me want to become a talk show host. Man how much fun would that job be? I’m sure it’s craptasic parts when the camera isn’t rolling. After all, no one sees my neurotic side while I’m trying to write a story. 
 
A longer of a blog than you might be used to, but anything as a thin excuse to keep me from working on my book that I rather be writing. No really I rather be writing but I just think of all the things I ALSO haven’t done that I should. 
Till next time,
Robert