Okay, so I suppose I shouldn’t complain. I tell myself that a lot these days… a lot of situations involve really bad stuff, but it could always be worse. So I shouldn’t complain.
But man, being broke sucks. Every little thing that breaks or fails or even hiccups is a terror. I can’t afford to replace anything, and I often can’t afford to repair anything. So it just gets used until I can’t use it any more, and then I make do without.
For example, I bought a nice coffee machine two years ago. It was nice! Not super high-end, but it made good coffee and did the grinding itself. A nice machine. It died one month after the warranty ran out (because of course it did) and so now… I mostly don’t drink coffee at home any more. I still have a little French press that I use occasionally, but that’s it… when it dies, I’m out of coffee making devices for who-knows-how-long.
But what luxury to complain about not being able to make coffee, amirite? There are people who would kill for the freedom to complain about not making coffee. So I shouldn’t complain.
I just wish everything wasn’t so expensive. Everything! Editing costs, art, advertising (especially advertising)…
I guess writing is still free. I should go do more of that.
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
Shocking Expenses
You’d think by now I’d be used to it. Every month I have the same approximate bills from being a writer: advertising is the big one, but there are other “Normal” expenses as well. Website, editing, art, all the standard stuff. It adds up quickly!
And sure, part of that is offset by my lovely patrons (thank you!). But only part of it… the rest of it comes out of ye olde bank account, and there are days (like yesterday) were it is kind of breathtaking how fast I hemorrhage money.
As far as I know, there’s nothing to be done about it. It’s part of the job for now. Scalzi says “Money flows to the author,” and I believe in that on a fundamental level, but right now… yeah, money flows from the author.
Ah well. Next novel is almost finished, so I have a few very expensive months on the way… fingers crossed that it sells well and pays for itself before too long!
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
The End is Nigh!
I know I say that a lot. But it’s still true! Just because I haven’t reached it yet doesn’t mean it’s not close.
So today I’m going to focus on writing the last few chapters of the book. The moment I do that I’m going to pour myself a stiff drink (Maple whisky, probably) and then dive right into the edits. Behind schedule, after all.
September has been freakishly warm thus far, and usually I wouldn’t care, but since I’ve been stuck inside writing instead of outside frolicking… it feels kinda personal. Ah well! It’s my own fault for not being done yet!
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
Branching Narratives
Very (very!) early in my career I wrote a couple “Choose Your Own Destiny”-style books for a small digital publishing house. The idea was that writers would earn royalties on people who purchased the app and then specifically downloaded the stories you wrote.
I wrote a kids story about a couple cats looking for treats, and I wrote a big sci-fi epic space opera thing. I’m proud of both, although I secretly kinda hope that nobody ever finds them again. They were early in my career. I had so much to learn! I mean, I still do, but I make fewer mistakes these days… and the publisher wouldn’t pay for editing, so that was also an issue. But whatever, they never earned me a cent… I don’t think the publisher screwed me or anything, I’m just pretty sure the app never sold at all. Who knows, maybe he made a billion dollars off my books and retired to a palace in Mexico. Beside the point.
But I’ve been thinking a lot about branching narratives recently, due to a bunch of games I’ve been playing that use open-ended, branching narratives. Writing for games (board and video) is an art unto itself, of course, but the idea of how to write open-ended enough that you don’t have to have the story being linear, but tightly enough that each section flows well into the next (and, ideally, makes a coherent story at the end!) is a heckuva puzzle. I’m sure there are people that thinking in four dimensions for their writing plots ain’t no big thing, but even the two I wrote (which were less ambitious with the branching narrative stuff) were challenging enough!
Maybe something I’ll tackle someday. For now I’m trying to focus on this novel, and writing just one ending would be wonderful!
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
The Thing About Everything
There’s a scene from “Scott Pilgrim vs the World” (one of my guilty-pleasure films) that has Scott asking his roommate “You know what sucks?”
”What?”
”Everything,” responds Scott.
It’s a stupid little scene during a time when Scott is still fundamentally unlikable. But it resonates, because sometimes… sometimes everything sucks.
Right now not everything sucks, but it feels like it occasionally. My home life is hard, my work life is hard, my attempt to bring balance to the Force is really hard… nothing is going the way it’s supposed to go.
Upside: I’m now at 77K words (THAT took forever) and the novel is this close to being first-draft finished. So that’s something? But everything else?
Yeah. Not so good.
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
Ted Lasso
I respect the modern trend towards shows (and books and movies) that have definite end-points. While I get that the goal is always 7 seasons and a movie, I’m much happier with a story that has a definite start, middle, and end.
Ted Lasso nailed that. The show ended exactly when it should end, with everyone doing what they were supposed to be doing in the place that they should be doing it. It was a joy from start to finish.
Now, the later seasons never hit the highs of the first, in my humble opinion, but that’s not a problem since the later seasons were still really good. The character arcs for almost everyone were fantastic! The conclusion was sad yet satisfying! I can’t compliment the writers, actors, and crew enough. Just a great story.
Now with that done, I have to go and see if I can wrap up my own story as satisfyingly! Wish me luck!
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
Didn't Finish! Argh!
Okay, hear me out. I’m almost finished.
But I’ve been almost finished for over two weeks now. Getting the final few chapters down on paper has been agonizing. I continue to plan on being done very, very soon… but I’m not yet. And it’s frustrating! I feel like I’m spinning my wheels.
Ah well. It will get done when it gets done. No point in rushing it, although I would very much like to finish it. Maybe this weekend! I have a few hours now, and my plans include:
1. Writing the end to this novel, and
2. See #1
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
Going to Finish Today, Hopefully!
So close, so close… I can see the ending of this novel. I can hear it whispered in the creak of my chair, in the smell of warm coffee and I can taste it with every bite of each meal. It’s so close.
But it’s not here yet. And even after it is here, gosh there is going to be a lot of editing work required. But that’s okay! That’s how the game is played. That’s part of the job.
Not my favourite part of the job, granted, but part of the job nonetheless.
I should get back to it. Nose down, fingers on keys.
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
Busy Weeks!
I had friends visit on Sunday for the first time in a very long time… hence the lack of update. There isn’t a lot to say, really… the novel is coming along well, and I’ve reached the part of the conclusion that makes me want to go back and rewrite everything now instead of waiting to finish said novel and doing the rewrites later.
It also makes me miss my old writers group. I should think about starting that up again… the Facebook page for them is still around, but I haven’t done anything in years. Maybe it’s time to pick that up again, since I won’t be returning to school this semester.
Which isn’t something I’m happy about, insomuch as it is factual. I can’t afford classes for at least a semester, maybe two… once I have saved up enough, I’ll probably head back for the few semesters I have remaining on this silly degree. We’ll see, I suppose.
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
A Desolation Called Peace
Holy hells, this novel is exceptional.
Don’t get me wrong, book one of the series (“A Memory Called Empire”) was very, very good. But this one? Wow.
The ending is bitter-sweet in all the glorious ways that good novels often are. It’s powerful, and soft, and delicate, and strong. Gosh, what a book!
Maybe someday I will write with that level of talent. That amount of directed, focused energy. To think of a place that exists only in my mind as a full place. Not an outline, not a sketch, but a world and a civilization and a people.
Do yourself a favour and read both of these books. If Arkady Martine writes a third, buy it without hesitation or remorse. Gosh these are amazing.
It is humbling to think I write anything similar to this sort of thing… and, for clarity, I don’t think I do. To compare my work with Martine’s is to compare scribbles with the Mona Lisa. But it is still art, and maybe one day…
I hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
Neat Little Packages
It has been said that one of the hardest things about writing fiction is that, unlike reality, everything has to make sense.
There are many things in real life that don’t make sense. Random things that just happen. Like me falling down my stairs Sunday. There was no narrative reason for that to have happened, and yet it did. If I were to write a story where somebody “just happened” to fall down stairs, nobody would buy it. There has to be a justification, a deeper meaning, behind anything you include.
This brings me to my current issue with the novel I’m writing. The ending is rapidly approaching, but I have several loose threads that I can’t leave loose. They need to have a reason for why they were in the story, and that means making sure that everything (or almost everything) is tied up, and the stuff that’s not tied up has a reason to not be tied up.
This is tricky stuff! Lots of backtracking and editing and writing in previous chapters. And then making sure I didn’t already say the things I’m saying in those edits later on (like, describing a room the party walks into to only have described it a paragraph later or whatever). Lots of jumping back and forth through the story.
I think today, however, my goal is to ignore all the backstory-filling I need to do, and just write out the final confrontation as best I can, and then focus on “fixing” it after the thing is done. I don’t mind filling in detail, honestly, but it’s easier if I know why I have to fill in specific details, or not.
That’s the plan for today, then!
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
Ouchie
Today, I slid down the stairs. Not intentionally, and quite painfully.
It was a combination of factors. Exhaustion from a long, sleepless night coupled to a lack of coffee being contributing factors. It wasn’t super dramatic… I missed the top step, fell back, and then slid down the stairs while coffee went everywhere (I had a full cup in my hand, and I am very grateful that it wasn’t steaming hot, because I was wearing at least half of it by the time I reached the bottom).
I have a few scrapes, and I’m going to have a monster bruise on my leg tomorrow, but I think I’m mostly okay. Lost my favourite mug, though… it did not survive the trip.
Not a pleasant experience, and I’m at an age that I’m going to feel that fall for at least a week or two. Just really bad luck.
Ah well. I should get back to writing… nothing is broken, I didn’t land on my head… I should be grateful.
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
Paint Fumes
I love painting… most of the time. Sometimes its a chore, but I think that’s true of anything in life. Nobody aside from the insultingly-rich can have fun all the time, every day. Even the stuff we love doing can be a chore sometimes.
Like writing for me, most of the time. I love it, it’s a joy, and sometimes its legitimately a struggle to get a few hundred words down to progress the story. That’s where I’ve been for a few days, actually, but I’m still getting the words down. That’s kinda the point… I don’t write because it’s easy, I write because it’s difficult. “A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than for other people,” I think Mann said. Anyway, it’s true! Writing is hard work, as much as I love it.
And one of the ways I try to relax from my writing is by painting, but there are times that that, too, is a chore. Something I “have to do” rather than something I’m excited about doing. But that’s okay! Because those periods of time pass, and then things are enjoyable again.
Okay, going to get back to the novel… argh, so close to finishing, I just want it done…
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
So Close!
I’ve reached the part of the novel (ie: almost the end!) where I have to make sure that the ending actually makes sense. We’re on the precipice of the final Big Bad battle, but for the “sudden but inevitable” to work, I have to go back and seed the necessary information in earlier chapters.
I’m never really sure if I should do that now as I’m writing the finale, or after I finish the finale… and so I do a bit of both. Because why do anything the easy way?
Either way, I very much expect that this draft will be done by the weekend. Which is nice. As much fun as this story has been, I’m ready to move on to the next one!
I’m always ready to move on to the next one! That’s one of the true joys of being a writer… there’s always another story to tell!
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
Deleted Chapters
Well, I’m now slightly further behind than I was on Tuesday… the first thing I did after writing the update posts and all that was to delete an entire chapter! Put me back a few thousand words.
Not a problem: these sorts of things happen during the writing process. And I wrote enough to get very close to where I was before the delete. The trouble is that I think this is going to ripple back into the story a few chapters earlier, meaning I’ll have to rewrite those, which might mean rewriting others…
I want to hold off on the major edits until the story is actually finished (at least the first draft). But the conclusion kinda hinges on those last few chapters, so I have to make sure those mostly hang together on their own before I take ye olde scalpel to them.
All part of the fun, folks!
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
Hello August!
For those of you who are Patreon subscribers (hello! Thank you!), you already know this, but the novel is officially over 70K words and heading towards the finish line. The conclusion is so close I can almost taste it. Just got a few threads to wrap up, and then a lot of work to get this draft into a viable 2nd draft that I can submit to the editor.
And that feels good. I love getting a novel to this stage (significantly more than I love all the hoops I have to jump through to actually publish it). Just gotta keep my eyes on the prize, as they say, and focus on getting this actually finished (instead of almost finished!).
I’m pretty happy with how the story has shaped up. This isn’t the way I thought it would go, to be completely frank… the characters have taken me for a few very unexpected twists along the way, and the final confrontation is going to be very different from what I originally thought it would be. But that’s great! That’s part of the reason I love writing! I hope everyone who reads this enjoys it as much as I have enjoyed writing it (so far… the editing process, and then the programming needed to actually publish the novel… yeah, those parts I’m not as crazy about).
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
Almost August!
Good gravy, where does the time go?
Almost finished the first draft of the novel. I think there’s probably another 10K words to go before it’s done? Maybe a little more, maybe a little less, but that’s basically a week of writing.
The end is in sight! Woo!
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
My weird little corner of the Internet
I wonder if somebody I will care that I have this website.
I mean, don’t get me wrong. I don’t mind that I have it… I write here three times a week after all, and I get how that’s important. Both to me, and to anybody interested in following my work (hello people!). It’s nice to put up periodic updates (I am now officially over 70K words for the novel!) and to discuss my inner thoughts (I wonder if I can justify getting the new Lego Pirate set because I think I might want to do a pirate-themed short animation?) and all that… but by the same token I have never gone back and read any of the stuff I did previously. I’ve been maintaining this website for years now, and there is definitely at least a handful of posts that I would find terribly embarrassing by my modern standards, I’m sure.
Ah well. I need someplace to keep track of everything I write, and honestly it’s nice to come here a few times a week and update myself (and anyone who reads this… hello!) on how things are going. Maybe someday I will grit my teeth and go through all my old posts, see what kind of thing I used to write about 7 years ago…
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
Consecutive Days Off
One of the few downsides to being a writer is the rarity of having multiple days off in a row. Usually, if I have a day where I’m not supposed to do anything else, I write.
It is extremely rare for me to have any day that I’m not writing. To have two days in a row where I could be writing and consciously choose not to… yeah, that basically never happens. It could, theoretically, but it doesn’t.
So yesterday (Saturday) I didn’t have a laundry list of things that needed doing, which is unusual for a Saturday. So did I relax? Watch some shows? Perhaps play one of my favourite video games?
No. I wrote. And that’s okay! I broke 70K words, and today I hope to sail past 73K. I’m getting near to the almost-end of the novel (I think another 20K words for the first draft), and then a mountain of editing to remove sections that I don’t think make sense anymore or to add in sections that I should’ve included originally. A lot of work, but work I love.
So with another day that I can do stuff I want… what I really want to do is write. So I’m going to do that!
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!
Some Heavy Lifting
Today, I have to pick up a bunch of stones and some small crushed stones and put those under a rain tank.
This isn’t exactly how I want to spend one of my writing days. In fact, it’s approximately the exact opposite from how I want to spend my day. But it has to get done, so… I’m doing it. What other choice is there?
With some luck, I’ll get a few thousand words written between stupid manual labour tasks (to be clear, people who enjoy or do manual labour aren’t stupid: the task that I have to do is itself stupid). I’m on track to be finished this first draft before the end of the month, and I’d really like to stick with that.
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!