Linda Maye Adams's Blog, page 53
March 29, 2018
The 1 Missing Tip for Finding Time to Write
It’s the eternal question, isn’t it? Joanna Penn has this topic up on her blog this week.
I’m in the long-tail of the ending of my book Cursed Planet (a redraft of 49er Planet), so it’s very close to be done. My deadline for it is March 31, so I’m trying to hit that. Either way, it’ll be a win. I’m trying to cut my time on books down.
Meanwhile, there are two anthology calls I want to submit to. All I can do right now is think about what I might write for them, so I can focus on finishing. I also passed by one that is closing on March 31 because getting Cursed Planet done is the most important thing.
But there’s a skill that everyone misses when they talk about time management, even among the gurus on the topic.
Learning Skill Gaps
I just spent the last few months filling in some long-standing gaps. Craft books certainly didn’t teach them (if you aren’t aware of it, most craft books exist simply to get a new writer through a first book. Most classes are the same way).
Skill gaps can hold us back. I think that sometimes we have to be really ready in our progression to take on a skill gap, as well as ready mentally.
The first was how to get ideas. That had been a sticking point to even writing a new book. I took a class on it, and…wow!
Then there was the part of my progression I wasn’t ready for. I had to be dragged into it kicking and screaming…setting and the five senses. I knew I needed to do it and it took at lot of learning, and a lot of time. Three years, actually. It was also a spaceship sized gap that did need to be fixed before I could progress to what I really needed, because everything connected together.
It was frustrating because the writing took longer than I wanted. This skill wasn’t as intuitive for me, or rather I had to make sure I would do it because if I didn’t, I would skip over it. I got to the point where the creative side flags me pretty fast if I forget rather than me blowing through a couple of chapters before I realize I left the setting out.
So it shortened the writing time a little as I filled in the gap.
Over the last few months I took Research for Fiction Writers; Novel Structure; Teams in Fiction; and Secondary Plots. All of those were a progression of filling in a big skill gap for me: novel structure.
As I hit the end of my story, I can see how all of this learning has played out. Sure, I’ve gotten stuck on the story, but it’s not the debilitating one where I have to stop and regroup. It’s more like a quick stop for a few hours, and then it’s “Ah, so that’s the problem.” Very different experience.
It’s weird because I’ve read a lot of time management books, and they don’t talk about skill gaps as a time management tool. Yet, if you have a report you’re building every week in Excel, learning more about Excel will help with ways to shorten the process and manage the time better.
Target a skill gap today and make your creative side happy!
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I’m attending the Writing Superstars next February. If you would like to attend, you can use this code LADAMS. This is a marketing focused writing seminar with big name writers that you’ve probably read. By April 30 though–after that, the cost goes up.
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March 28, 2018
Why The Orville is my SF Fix
When I was growing up, I hit the TV Guide every week to find out what science fiction shows were airing this week. Then, it was digest-sized and had very short summaries of the shows. I had to look up one word “ensues” because the description for the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea episode “Nightmare” used it. I still don’t have a clue why that particular word was used for that particular episode.
And when the big season premiere issue came up, it was a big event, because I was checking out what new SF shows were premiering. Most of them didn’t last long. But there were shows like:
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. Gil Gerard was in that one as title character
Battlestar Galactica. The original with Lorne Green.
The Bionic Woman. Spy/tennis star Jamie Sommers becomes essentially a superhero through technology.
There’s been other SF shows throughout the years, like Star Trek The Next Generation and Xena, Warrior Princess, but it’s been a while that I’ve found one I wanted to stick with. Most of them have been getting darker and darker. Especially since I was able to shake lose some of that dark I got from Desert Storm, I can’t even watch Xena any more. It’s too dark for me now.
Then The Orville with Seth McFarlane showed up last year. I saw the commercials and was cautious, because the humor was kind of, well, dumb. But from all my time enjoying Hollywood TV shows, I know one thing is always true:
Pilots tend to be horrible.
The writers haven’t settled into the show yet or figured out what they want to do. They’ve written this single episode for the purpose of selling a series to the men with the money.
The actors also haven’t really gotten into the characters yet. If you’ve ever attended a theater performance, it’s best to see it near the end. The actors will have refined their roles.
And then I tuned in. Humor was still awkward. But the show had something I hadn’t seen for a while.
It was bright.
It was hopeful.
Whoa.
I didn’t realize I’d been missing something hopeful until I had it. We’ve had way too much dark, way too many anti-hero characters, and way too many unhappy endings.
The show has its critics. A lot of people seem to want it to be a comedy or a drama, so when it blends the two, they don’t know what it is.
But, even with only 13 episodes, it had some very thought provoking episodes, especially towards the end of the season. Yet, they also stayed on lighter end with the humor, so thoughtful didn’t become dark.
And they treated the women characters as characters, not eye candy. The women are dressed in the same uniforms as the men, fitted both both genders. The women also have had some important roles, and even some story lines. I particularly like the doctor, and at least she had normal kids–not the super-intelligent ones SF shows tend to have (Star Trek The Next Generation, SeaQuest DSV).
But I’m in withdrawal! The show is not going to premiere until 2019. It’s for a good reason–more time for the scripts, and also because of the special effects requirements. Robert Picardo is coming back again (yay!), and they will be adding two new cast members. Check out the news about the show over on TV Guide.
If you saw The Orville, what did you think of it?
March 26, 2018
Uniforms for space travel
One of the things that’s always struck me about science fiction films is how unrealistic the uniforms sometimes are. Star Trek’s was pretty cool for it’s time–color was a new thing on TV so everything had to be shiny and colorful. And. Or they were iconic, if not always practical.
Then there was Buck Rogers in the 25th Century with Gil Gerard. I watched it not to long ago, and it surprisingly still holds up. Or at least the first season does. The characters wore white, one piece bodysuits. How do you even go to the bathroom?
Now there’s interest in the real thing–the military’s space force uniforms.
Soldiers have a love-hate relationship with their uniforms. They have to wear them at least 5 days a week, more if deployed. Then the senior leader of the service wants to make his mark, and uniforms are easy changes.
Of course, that was how the Air Force ended up with uniforms that made them look like airline pilots–hugely unpopular. It was also how the Army ended up with the beret. I got the tail end of that one. The hats were expensive and had to be dry cleaned. For a uniform where you might be working out in the rain all day? Really?
I think the military ought to have one like the battle dress uniform we wore. It’s practical across the board. We had buttons for everything, so no expensive zipper repairs. Big cargo pockets for holding gloves, or paperback novels (sneaky person that I was).
And …
Technology to make the camouflage changes colors and patterns. It’s really the next step on a uniform to have some kind of tech like that. Be pretty cool, too. Wander around the post and stand next to things and watch it change patterns.
Could that be done by embedding chips in the cloth itself? Maybe threads that are very tiny chips? But then what would happen to it if it was washed? And, of course, the military wants everything pressed to a sharp crease.
Can you imagine a squad going to a planet and Private John Smith’s camo on one part of his uniform is stuttering and misfiring because he ironed it. Oh dear.
What do you think the Space Force uniform should look like?
March 24, 2018
Between Black and White
Returning home from Desert Storm, Mary doesn’t recognize the place she grew up. Or her father. But it’s her that’s changed, too much. Can she find herself in the past, or is who she was gone forever?
A military flash fiction story available from your favorite booksellers.
March 23, 2018
Devil Winds
Abandoned by war, abandoned by death. Neyan is a soldier hanging on with only the goal of completing her mission: kill the enemy.
Now the enemy are mounting an attack on the kingdom, and she is the only one who stands between them and her people. Then she meets the enemy and she isn’t so sure of her mission any more.
A dark fantasy short story available from your favorite booksellers.
March 22, 2018
World Building Pantser-Style
A few years ago, I went to a panel on world-building at a con I was kind of cautious because my experience with any kind of world-building always started with this recommendation:
Buy a 3-right binder and a pack of tabs. Take this list of questions and answer every single one about your world. Only then can you write your story.
Pretty much a huge turn off to a pantser like me. It was one of the reasons I didn’t do speculative fiction for a long time. By the time I did all that recommended world building, I’d have lost interest not only in the story but even the world.
But this panel did something different, and I was reminded of while I was working on a scene. They said, first just start writing the story, then world build…because otherwise it’s possible to never get around to writing the story.
They also said to think about why cities or towns were built in a particular location, and this got really interesting because I hadn’t thought of cities like that before.
With a lot of the modern cities, it’s not always that obvious. If you walked out to Alexandria, VA today and looked around, you would never know that it was site of bustling tobacco trade in the 1700s. Now pleasure boats are hooked up to the docks and people feed the ducks.
There are also ruins in Egypt for places that no longer exist because the Nile changed course and that part of the world dried up. Clive Cussler did a novel called Sahara with something similar where there was a river in the 1800s and a Confederate ironclad got into the river. Shipwreck in the desert!
Still one of my favorite books. But I digress.
I wandered in this direction today because in my scene I have a town that’s kind of in the middle of nowhere. And it really is about connecting the dots and making sure all those connections get into the story. I was surprised at how many pieces were already there…creative brain was just sitting back and laughing at me until I figured it out.
For your reading pleasure, some interesting reading on why cities are built where they are.
March 21, 2018
Interview over at Sherry Ramsey’s Site
My short story Watcher Ghost is in a bundle called Short Flights (of the Imagination). You can find more details at this link about the bundle. Story bundles like this are pretty cool because you can buy one book and get a bunch of different writers. I bought one last year and found a series that I had to buy all the books for because it was so good. So it’s a great way to find new books to read.
Sherry’s got up an interview with me on her site. It was fun to do, so drop by and take a look.
Distractions of Space, Gravity, and Chia Seeds
The other day I was making breakfast and managed to spill chia seeds all over the floor. If you’ve never seen them, they’re very small seeds, about the size of a pinhead.
And they got everywhere! I’m still hunting down errant seeds.
So, while I was checking out zero-gravity on YouTube, I decided I’d probably be a disaster in space. Check out these guys eating pizza.
Can you imagine chia seeds all floating around in zero gravity? Oh, dear…
March 19, 2018
Spotlight on 5 Selected Links About Books
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Reading isn’t just the books, but sometimes the history of them, the libraries, or even how the world used them. And sometimes it’s just wandering through the aisles looking at all of them and not knowing where to start.
7 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets of Bookstores This is a mostly fun list about bookstores. I had no idea that books from different publishers had different smells! (16).
25 Interesting Facts About Libraries Did you know that there are libraries where you can check out a storyteller? Might have to steal that for a story.
Coalesce . . . A Bookstore & More. This is a shout-out to a bookstore in Morro Bay, CA. When my family visited my grandparents, I always ended up in this little bookstore, just a few blocks from the harbor. Despite all the changes in the industry, the bookstore is still there.
Book Castle/Movie World: This bookstore in Burbank does not appear to have a website. It’s a place I would check out frequently because I could find books and scripts and photos. Just an awesome place to explore.
20 Interesting Facts About Science Fiction. This has a lot of predictions that science fiction writers made in their stories that came true…like the internet.
March 18, 2018
First Night
Fear is something Private Carolyn Mendez can’t admit to. Yet, as she arrives in Saudi Arabia, for Desert Storm, deploying to war, it’s all she can think about. All she has is herself, and even that is scary.
A flash fiction military story available from your favorite booksellers
