S.L. Viehl's Blog, page 76
November 14, 2014
Wild Skies
Photographer Nicolaus Wegner spent four months filming severe weather in the skies over Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Colorado -- and put the results together in this awesome, mesmerizing (and sometimes even frightening) video (with background music, for those of you at work):
Stormscapes 2 from Nicolaus Wegner on Vimeo.
November 13, 2014
(Almost) Halfway There
We're two days from the middle of November, aka the halfway point for National Novel Writing Month. which means I'd better be at 25K on my NaNo novel done by now (yes, I'm writing this post in advance.) I've been gently nagging some of you who were foolish enough to let me be your writing buddy (and I'm actively blackmailing Keita), and I've even replied to a couple of posts in the NaNo forums. It's the perfect time for a pep talk -- because everything is going great, yes?
For me, 100% great, eh. I'm at about 64%, maybe. Naturally I'm trying to stay positive, but I had hoped to get more words done every day and finish about a week early (now I don't think I can because I'm divided this year between my writer-for-hire day job and NaNo. I am getting a lot of words done; they're simply not all for me.)
Then there is Publishing -- Lord, yes, I know about the award nomination; I've gotten about a thousand e-mails from my romance writer pals. For those who don't know, I'm up for an award I won't win for a novel that is now out of print in a series that the publisher cancelled. I know, I can hardly contain myself either. But seriously, I think I know the reviewer responsible, and if it was you, T., I am genuinely touched. Thanks for thinking of me.
Then there are the novel-related problems. The more I write my NaNo novel, the more I think about the first chapter, which I don't like anymore. Okay, I hate it. If this were a regular writing project, I'd probably rewrite it or delete it or just take it out in the backyard and roast marshmallows over it. But I don't have time to rewrite that chapter and keep on schedule, so I have to hold onto my lousy first chapter. Until December 1st, when I believe I will quite ready to rip it out of my manuscript and drop-kick it into the backyard firepit.
I'm stil not shaking the pom poms very well, but stick with me, there's a point to all this whining. After writing and publishing 51 novels you'd think I could do this in my sleep, right?
Nope.
Every book is different, but writing them is always and forever work, work, and more work -- and not always successful work. I plan ahead but then for some reason I fall behind. I fail to meet my expectations, often daily. I write scenes and pages and sometimes entire chapters that I think are utter crap. What was bright and shiny and exciting thirteen days ago now often seems more like an annoying, tiresome, plodding, dragging, why-did-I-go-with-dumb-idea millstone tied around my neck. I've already thought about dumping this story entirely and starting over with another idea -- twice since November 1st, in fact.
Here's why I don't: I know to keep going, to keep writing. Yes, I have doubts, the bright and shiny is wearing off, I'm tired, I'm writing two stories simultaneously and I'm disappointing myself. It doesn't matter. This was a great idea, and every problem I have with it can be solved once I finish the book. I'll edit what I doubted and fix it or rewrite it. The bright and shiny never stays but always will come back with the next idea. Then I will rest my brain and recharge my batteries. Maybe I'll even take a little me-vacation and only write one story next month.
I know what you're thinking. What if after all that I discover that it is hopeless, and I can't fix it, and I really should have dumped this story and started over? If that happens, I'll accept what I can't change, stick it in the file cabinet and move on to the next story. Problem solved.
No matter what I do with a story, I know I will always disappoint myself because I'm never satisfied with the work. I think if I ever was, I'd be done and I wouldn't write anymore.
I'm not done. How about you?
For me, 100% great, eh. I'm at about 64%, maybe. Naturally I'm trying to stay positive, but I had hoped to get more words done every day and finish about a week early (now I don't think I can because I'm divided this year between my writer-for-hire day job and NaNo. I am getting a lot of words done; they're simply not all for me.)
Then there is Publishing -- Lord, yes, I know about the award nomination; I've gotten about a thousand e-mails from my romance writer pals. For those who don't know, I'm up for an award I won't win for a novel that is now out of print in a series that the publisher cancelled. I know, I can hardly contain myself either. But seriously, I think I know the reviewer responsible, and if it was you, T., I am genuinely touched. Thanks for thinking of me.
Then there are the novel-related problems. The more I write my NaNo novel, the more I think about the first chapter, which I don't like anymore. Okay, I hate it. If this were a regular writing project, I'd probably rewrite it or delete it or just take it out in the backyard and roast marshmallows over it. But I don't have time to rewrite that chapter and keep on schedule, so I have to hold onto my lousy first chapter. Until December 1st, when I believe I will quite ready to rip it out of my manuscript and drop-kick it into the backyard firepit.
I'm stil not shaking the pom poms very well, but stick with me, there's a point to all this whining. After writing and publishing 51 novels you'd think I could do this in my sleep, right?
Nope.
Every book is different, but writing them is always and forever work, work, and more work -- and not always successful work. I plan ahead but then for some reason I fall behind. I fail to meet my expectations, often daily. I write scenes and pages and sometimes entire chapters that I think are utter crap. What was bright and shiny and exciting thirteen days ago now often seems more like an annoying, tiresome, plodding, dragging, why-did-I-go-with-dumb-idea millstone tied around my neck. I've already thought about dumping this story entirely and starting over with another idea -- twice since November 1st, in fact.
Here's why I don't: I know to keep going, to keep writing. Yes, I have doubts, the bright and shiny is wearing off, I'm tired, I'm writing two stories simultaneously and I'm disappointing myself. It doesn't matter. This was a great idea, and every problem I have with it can be solved once I finish the book. I'll edit what I doubted and fix it or rewrite it. The bright and shiny never stays but always will come back with the next idea. Then I will rest my brain and recharge my batteries. Maybe I'll even take a little me-vacation and only write one story next month.
I know what you're thinking. What if after all that I discover that it is hopeless, and I can't fix it, and I really should have dumped this story and started over? If that happens, I'll accept what I can't change, stick it in the file cabinet and move on to the next story. Problem solved.
No matter what I do with a story, I know I will always disappoint myself because I'm never satisfied with the work. I think if I ever was, I'd be done and I wouldn't write anymore.
I'm not done. How about you?
November 12, 2014
Bonsaing Inspiration
The Bonsai Story Generator takes any text fed to it (up to 6K) and randomly rearranges the text to produce new sentences. As you might expect this creates a small mountain of nonsense, but it also produces some interesting word pairings and clusters, a few of which can work as titles, prompts, scene ideas and more.
I took about 4K of my NaNo novel and Bonsai'd it, and then weeded through the results, deleting out the gibberish and whatever else was useless. Here's what I kept, along with some of my thoughts in italics:
Driving through the lionsgate to be ruined
But he should hurt a little as my son-in-law. (Beautiful line for a mean mama-in-law.)
She caught her ladyship's feathered bonnet.
She would have had a traveled veteran.
Tell the wound.
The man looked down into our society, Lady Hardiwick said.
Greville would send Prudence into tarts (I love this as a description of a compulsive eater)
Well, he beheld the mare.
Agitation kindled a gentleman.
The fact that she would do no longer.
She heard a kindly older brother.
As a girl she'd been silly enough to cross their path. (This sparked a new scene for me)
No man had fainted from her.
I haven't a groan.
You are a morning salon, abundantly furnished. (What a nervous man might say while trying to compliment a beautiful, well-endowed woman, maybe)
He is not indulging in the company as yet
the great house at Netherfield Park stood like a spinster (You can't imagine how helpful this was to me. Honestly. Hugely.)
Stand back, she can make himself sick again. (Instant, hilarious imagery)
Julian with no other sound.
He will look at the most generous good enough to be ruined (is there any better description for a penniless rake?)
Lady Maycott released a ridiculous fiction (A lot of us are prone to doing that.)
Miss Maycott, please allow any callers.
I don't care how often he will have us.
It will likely turn the decanter.
It is not the makings of our invitations
Built in pieces, Miss Maycott.
your kindness has no other sound. (I just loved this.)
You have a bloody clue. (as opposed to the cliched haven't)
I feel so dreadful for her, much of her too.
She sat back on her own feelings
The roads are recovered
I will cut open your hopes (this one gave me shivers, and is definitely going in the story as part of a rant.)
You can also feed poems, song lyrics or any other type of text to the generator to be bonsai'd; I do this sometimes with long, imagery-rich poems to get title ideas.
I took about 4K of my NaNo novel and Bonsai'd it, and then weeded through the results, deleting out the gibberish and whatever else was useless. Here's what I kept, along with some of my thoughts in italics:
Driving through the lionsgate to be ruined
But he should hurt a little as my son-in-law. (Beautiful line for a mean mama-in-law.)
She caught her ladyship's feathered bonnet.
She would have had a traveled veteran.
Tell the wound.
The man looked down into our society, Lady Hardiwick said.
Greville would send Prudence into tarts (I love this as a description of a compulsive eater)
Well, he beheld the mare.
Agitation kindled a gentleman.
The fact that she would do no longer.
She heard a kindly older brother.
As a girl she'd been silly enough to cross their path. (This sparked a new scene for me)
No man had fainted from her.
I haven't a groan.
You are a morning salon, abundantly furnished. (What a nervous man might say while trying to compliment a beautiful, well-endowed woman, maybe)
He is not indulging in the company as yet
the great house at Netherfield Park stood like a spinster (You can't imagine how helpful this was to me. Honestly. Hugely.)
Stand back, she can make himself sick again. (Instant, hilarious imagery)
Julian with no other sound.
He will look at the most generous good enough to be ruined (is there any better description for a penniless rake?)
Lady Maycott released a ridiculous fiction (A lot of us are prone to doing that.)
Miss Maycott, please allow any callers.
I don't care how often he will have us.
It will likely turn the decanter.
It is not the makings of our invitations
Built in pieces, Miss Maycott.
your kindness has no other sound. (I just loved this.)
You have a bloody clue. (as opposed to the cliched haven't)
I feel so dreadful for her, much of her too.
She sat back on her own feelings
The roads are recovered
I will cut open your hopes (this one gave me shivers, and is definitely going in the story as part of a rant.)
You can also feed poems, song lyrics or any other type of text to the generator to be bonsai'd; I do this sometimes with long, imagery-rich poems to get title ideas.
November 11, 2014
Winner
The winner of the Make Happy the Winged Wench giveaway is:
Peggy, who wrote I have on the top of the TBR pile MORTAL HEART, by Robin LaFevers. I really liked the first two books of this trilogy ("His Fair Assassin"), and I'm hoping the third doesn't disappoint.
Peggy, when you have a chance please send the title and author of your BookWish along with your ship-to info so I can get that sent out to you. My thanks to everyone for joining in.
Peggy, who wrote I have on the top of the TBR pile MORTAL HEART, by Robin LaFevers. I really liked the first two books of this trilogy ("His Fair Assassin"), and I'm hoping the third doesn't disappoint.
Peggy, when you have a chance please send the title and author of your BookWish along with your ship-to info so I can get that sent out to you. My thanks to everyone for joining in.
November 10, 2014
Another NaNo Ten
Ten Things You Can Have for Free
(The NaNoWriMo edition)
Freeware caution: always scan free downloads of anything for bugs and other threats before dumping the programs into your hard drive.
Need an online story organizer with storage? Hiveword is all that plus 100% free.
Language is a Virus is an amazing site filled with tons of free writing games, prompts, generators, and everything else a scribe might need to inspire some new ideas (or simply blow off some steam.) My favorite time waster is their electronic poetry hub (like a virtual version of Magnetic Poetry.)
To get first and last names for your characters without slogging through a phone book, try this quickie
If you need to put together a novel notebook for NaNo, try a virtual freeware version like AM-Notebook or Keynote, or a test dive into a printable guide full of templates and examples with my own Novel Notebook .
Plot a scene out before you write it with my Scene On-Call Worksheet (and for more on how it works, here's the post I wrote about it.)
Scribe is "a free cross-platform note-taking program designed especially with historians in mind. Think of it as the next step in the evolution of traditional 3x5 note cards. Scribe allows you to manage your research notes, quotes, thoughts, contacts, published and archival sources, digital images, outlines, timelines, and glossary entries. You can create, organize, index, search, link, and cross-reference your note and source cards. You can assemble, print, and export bibliographies, copy formatted references to clipboard, and import sources from online catalogs. You can store entire articles, add extended comments on each card in a separate field, and find and highlight a particular word within a note or article. Scribe's uses range from an undergraduate history research seminar to a major archival research project." (OS: Windows, Mac OS X)
If you want a novel plot worksheet that is fast, simple, and only takes 1 page, try my Ten Point Plot Template (and following the template is one I filled out so you can see how it works.)
The End -- Now What? is a free 105 page writing/publishing advice e-book for NaNoWriMo participants from Book Baby, one of the sponsors of NaNoWriMo; download your copy here.
A trick to finding great titles for free: Feed a keyword from your story into the Verse search engine at Bartleby.com, then look through the results to see how poets used your keyword in their work. Often you'll find amazing ideas in the lines of e.e. cummings, Emily Dickinson, John Keats and other passionate versesmiths.
Way of the Cheetah , my how-to writing book, is free for anyone to read, download, print out and share until December 1st.
(The NaNoWriMo edition)
Freeware caution: always scan free downloads of anything for bugs and other threats before dumping the programs into your hard drive.
Need an online story organizer with storage? Hiveword is all that plus 100% free.
Language is a Virus is an amazing site filled with tons of free writing games, prompts, generators, and everything else a scribe might need to inspire some new ideas (or simply blow off some steam.) My favorite time waster is their electronic poetry hub (like a virtual version of Magnetic Poetry.)
To get first and last names for your characters without slogging through a phone book, try this quickie
If you need to put together a novel notebook for NaNo, try a virtual freeware version like AM-Notebook or Keynote, or a test dive into a printable guide full of templates and examples with my own Novel Notebook .
Plot a scene out before you write it with my Scene On-Call Worksheet (and for more on how it works, here's the post I wrote about it.)
Scribe is "a free cross-platform note-taking program designed especially with historians in mind. Think of it as the next step in the evolution of traditional 3x5 note cards. Scribe allows you to manage your research notes, quotes, thoughts, contacts, published and archival sources, digital images, outlines, timelines, and glossary entries. You can create, organize, index, search, link, and cross-reference your note and source cards. You can assemble, print, and export bibliographies, copy formatted references to clipboard, and import sources from online catalogs. You can store entire articles, add extended comments on each card in a separate field, and find and highlight a particular word within a note or article. Scribe's uses range from an undergraduate history research seminar to a major archival research project." (OS: Windows, Mac OS X)
If you want a novel plot worksheet that is fast, simple, and only takes 1 page, try my Ten Point Plot Template (and following the template is one I filled out so you can see how it works.)
The End -- Now What? is a free 105 page writing/publishing advice e-book for NaNoWriMo participants from Book Baby, one of the sponsors of NaNoWriMo; download your copy here.
A trick to finding great titles for free: Feed a keyword from your story into the Verse search engine at Bartleby.com, then look through the results to see how poets used your keyword in their work. Often you'll find amazing ideas in the lines of e.e. cummings, Emily Dickinson, John Keats and other passionate versesmiths.
Way of the Cheetah , my how-to writing book, is free for anyone to read, download, print out and share until December 1st.
November 9, 2014
Make Happy the Winged Wench
Last night the Publishing Fairy dropped by to give me grief about how I've been too busy writing to pay any attention to her. I explained that this month I'm ghost-writing and NaNo'ing at the same time, but she thought those were lousy excuses. One day I'd like to see her try. Anyway, to appease her (and prevent her from cursing my WIPs) I'm giving her today's post and the chance to grant a BookWish* for one of my readers.If you'd like to be the one for whom the wand waves, in comments to this post name a book you've just read that you really enjoyed (or if you haven't read anything enjoyable recently, just toss your name in the hat) by midnight EST Monday, November 10th, 2014. I'll choose one name at random from everyone who participates and grant the winner a BookWish. This giveaway is open to everyone on the planet EXCEPT Keita (involves NaNoWriMo blackmail, ha), even if you've won something here at PBW in the past.
*A BookWish is any book of the winner's choice available for order online and that costs up to a maximum of $30.00 U.S. dollars (I'll cover any additional shipping costs involved.)
November 8, 2014
Sub Op
SF/F e-zine Diabolical Plots is looking for fiction submissions: "Genres: science fiction, fantasy, horror (everything must have speculative element, even horror) . . . Speculative fiction. Everything should have a speculative element–that includes horror. Feel free to mix in other genres at will–a fantasy mystery or a science fiction romance. Things that we tend to really like: Weird ideas or combinations of ideas we haven’t seen before; Sense of wonder; Strong character and plot arcs; Relatable protagonists (not necessarily likeable, not necessarily reliable); Strong worldbuilding, hinting at more to see around the edges of the story; Philosophical food-for-thought; Straightforward, easily readable style." Also: "We want to see stories from any and all demographics of people and about any and all demographics of people. Women or men or transgender or genderqueer, people of color or Caucasian, straight or gay or bisexual or asexual, disabled or abled or superabled, aliens or robots or fey or talking animals (maybe even humans!). We’re sure there are some we’ve neglected to mention, but that was not meant as a slight if it’s the case. The world is made of all kinds of people, and we want to hear from all of them." Length: "2000 words or less"; Payment: "6 cents per word". No reprints, electronic submissions only -- and an important note here: "We read submissions blind, with no author name. Be sure to remove all mentions of your name from the manuscript before submitting." Reading period for fiction submissions: December 1-December 31st, 2014
November 7, 2014
Save 33,000ish seconds
Whether you're a fan of LEGOs or The Hobbit, you will probably love this (contains narration and sound effects, for those of you at work):
(Video link nicked from Gerard at The Presurfer)
(Video link nicked from Gerard at The Presurfer)
November 6, 2014
NaNo the First Week
Thoughts from the trenches:
Night Before: Why did I pick this idea? I'm not ready to write this. I should lie to everyone and say my eye infection came back and I can't see my computer monitor. No one will expect me to write half-blind. Only then I'll burn in Hell. Okay, using this idea for NaNoWriMo, or burning in Hell, which is worse . . . .
Day One: So silly to be scared of this. Crashed rig, first thing this morning! Wonderful scene to write. Feel so much better about the idea. Oh, and must remember this is a straight historical romance, and somehow resist the urge to turn 18th-century England into alternate universe populated by six-foot-tall sentient bunnies.
Day Two: Enter the Colonel. A bit tight-lipped but very dashing and manly; I love him already. I think his steward could work in a secondary romance with the vicar's wife. Might have to kill off the vicar and see. Obviously love the steward too much. Rabbits still trying to get in the story.
Day Three: My family forgot I'm a writer. I guess it was all those months I spent recovering from the eye surgery. But still, really, popping in to ask a dumb question Every. Five. Minutes? Okay, so now I have to get serious. The next person who interrupts me while I'm writing is going to be abducted by six-foot-tall sentient bunnies who have inexplicably acquired a taste for human flesh and are presently starving. Kidding. Hmmmm. Wouldn't a story with rampaging giant zombie bunnies be cool, though?
Day Four: I don't have to kill off the vicar, hooray! I'm writing in a visiting, bitterly unhappy widowed sister who makes everyone miserable, especially the vicar's sweetheart of a wife. She'll be a great foil for my female protag, plus I can redeem her. Maybe. Not sure, as she's seriously miserable. Then there's the village doctor, who I might keep in London for a few more chapters. Doctors are always waaaay too interesting as characters for me. Also rabbits persisted in showing up all over the main house at Netherfield, so I surrendered and wrote them into the setting. Should keep them from turning into zombies.
Day Five: Why do these people keep asking me to cook for them? Don't they know that NaNoWriMo is the real reason God created takeout?
Day Six: (technically, it's 12:09 am) Cooked for my family anyway. Was good for me; I've been getting so sucked into both projects I needed to come up for air. Editor happy. Writing buddies are inspiring me. NaNo is great. All I have to do is something with all these blasted rabbits . . . .
So how has your first week gone so far, my fellow NaNoers? Let us know in comments.
Image Credit: pavila1 ~ DepositPhotos.com
Night Before: Why did I pick this idea? I'm not ready to write this. I should lie to everyone and say my eye infection came back and I can't see my computer monitor. No one will expect me to write half-blind. Only then I'll burn in Hell. Okay, using this idea for NaNoWriMo, or burning in Hell, which is worse . . . .Day One: So silly to be scared of this. Crashed rig, first thing this morning! Wonderful scene to write. Feel so much better about the idea. Oh, and must remember this is a straight historical romance, and somehow resist the urge to turn 18th-century England into alternate universe populated by six-foot-tall sentient bunnies.
Day Two: Enter the Colonel. A bit tight-lipped but very dashing and manly; I love him already. I think his steward could work in a secondary romance with the vicar's wife. Might have to kill off the vicar and see. Obviously love the steward too much. Rabbits still trying to get in the story.
Day Three: My family forgot I'm a writer. I guess it was all those months I spent recovering from the eye surgery. But still, really, popping in to ask a dumb question Every. Five. Minutes? Okay, so now I have to get serious. The next person who interrupts me while I'm writing is going to be abducted by six-foot-tall sentient bunnies who have inexplicably acquired a taste for human flesh and are presently starving. Kidding. Hmmmm. Wouldn't a story with rampaging giant zombie bunnies be cool, though?
Day Four: I don't have to kill off the vicar, hooray! I'm writing in a visiting, bitterly unhappy widowed sister who makes everyone miserable, especially the vicar's sweetheart of a wife. She'll be a great foil for my female protag, plus I can redeem her. Maybe. Not sure, as she's seriously miserable. Then there's the village doctor, who I might keep in London for a few more chapters. Doctors are always waaaay too interesting as characters for me. Also rabbits persisted in showing up all over the main house at Netherfield, so I surrendered and wrote them into the setting. Should keep them from turning into zombies.
Day Five: Why do these people keep asking me to cook for them? Don't they know that NaNoWriMo is the real reason God created takeout?
Day Six: (technically, it's 12:09 am) Cooked for my family anyway. Was good for me; I've been getting so sucked into both projects I needed to come up for air. Editor happy. Writing buddies are inspiring me. NaNo is great. All I have to do is something with all these blasted rabbits . . . .
So how has your first week gone so far, my fellow NaNoers? Let us know in comments.
Image Credit: pavila1 ~ DepositPhotos.com
November 5, 2014
Fake Covers, Real Inspiration
If you want to make up a cover for your NaNoWriMo novel (or any other story) but aren't feeling particularly inspired by anything, trying playing with this Fake French novel cover art generator.
Three of my results:
I really love the broken window and the open-book pages designs, and armed with my own camera I know I can come up with something very similar (or even better.) I'm not a huge fan of using museum art for book covers, but #3 might work for a more literary writer.
If you don't have a camera or aren't interested in photography, you can always look for similar images on stock photo sites like Dreamstime.com, BigStockPhoto.com or DepositPhotos.com (I found the cover image for my NaNo novel Lord of Midnight there.) Prices vary, but it's possible to find something (like mine) that works for around $1.00. Dreamstime.com offers free images, too, so if you're cash-strapped you might check there.
Three of my results:
I really love the broken window and the open-book pages designs, and armed with my own camera I know I can come up with something very similar (or even better.) I'm not a huge fan of using museum art for book covers, but #3 might work for a more literary writer.
If you don't have a camera or aren't interested in photography, you can always look for similar images on stock photo sites like Dreamstime.com, BigStockPhoto.com or DepositPhotos.com (I found the cover image for my NaNo novel Lord of Midnight there.) Prices vary, but it's possible to find something (like mine) that works for around $1.00. Dreamstime.com offers free images, too, so if you're cash-strapped you might check there.
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