Katherine Nabity's Blog, page 259

A to Z in April

Because I need more to do in April, I'm going to try the A to Z Blogging Challenge.

The deal is this: one post per day, Monday through Saturday starting April 1st, with each post covering a letter of the alphabet. I'm going to make each post semi-writing related. I have my list of 26 subjects, and we'll see if any deep thoughts occur!

A Morning Without AdBlock

Today, the New York Times officially launched it new subscription scheme. I read a bit of the New York Times, but I'm not going to go out of way to get around the paywall. We'll see if and when I hit it during the regular course of my internet browsing.

But this does again bring up a pet peeve of mine about internet advertising. Many site have ads. Many of the ads are at best annoying and at worst intrusive and resource sucking. Which is why I use AdBlock Plus, and have done so for years. Hope against hope, I occasionally disable ABP to see if the advertising is as bad as I remember it. Because I like website with good content and I'd like to be supportive of that content. Here's how my day has gone:

507 - Darkness and Cherry Pie: David Lynch’s Map of Twin Peaks
Mildly flashy ad in header. Mildly, because it stops flashing.
Neat little article on Twin Peaks, its topography and location. Makes me want to watch the show again, even though I know my memories of it are better than the show actually is.

Borders Seeks to Pay $8.3 Million in Bonuses
Static ads in side bar.
They want to retain the executives that are a part of the business going bankrupt? I feel that I am missing an integral point.

E-mail or Email?
Flashy add at top. A screwy "squish-down" popup. Sidebar: static ad, two more flashy ads. This busy-ness and intrusiveness makes me not want to visit this site. At. All.

How the Sunk Cost Fallacy Feeds FarmVille Addiction and Bad Purchases
Flashy ad taking up a third of the content space.
The Sunk Cost Fallacy
Minor flashy ad.
Good article. I should bookmark this blog.

Cyclists: What To Eat and Drink For Long Rides
Static ads including an ascetically pleasing one.

Defending Vaccination Once Again, With Feeling
Generally appealing static ads.
My first NYT article behind the WALL! Good review, makes me want to read the book.

Yahoo Mail
Ugly animated ads.

Sucker Punch, Part 1: The Story That No One Is Talking About
No ads, because the blog is the ad...for Tor's books.
Interesting "reading" of the movie. This is what makes any kind of art tricky. How I see something as a writer, and intend it in my writing, might be completely different than how a reader sees it. That could be devastating. Or really freaking cool.

The experience hasn't been too bad, but I wish ads weren't so ugly. I'd like to see some research about what internet ads really pull attention and get hits. Is it only me that would rather see and might pay more attention to a well-done static ad? (That research has probably been done, but I need to move on to other things. Including less internet skimming.)

Not an RoW80 Update

Daily-ish, I've been going back through my LiveJournal entries from 2001 and reading what I wrote a decade ago.

I used to journal more about day-to-day things. I don't anymore because I even I am tired of saying the same things over and over. But on the other hand, it's kind of nice to have that record. I use Twitter for much of that daily stuff. And I'm kind of scattered between keeping track of life via other writing blogs, Facebook, Tumblr, and Miso. Twitter and the latter three are less of a record and more of a stream; here and gone. I don't have anything profound to say about any of this, I'm just mulling.

But I probably should make some effort to do a little cross linking and recording.

Where am I on the web these days? Not much of anywhere.We're up to Ch. 40 with Pas de Chat . I need to get the rest of it scheduled to post. And then what? Don't know yet. Should probably talk with Eric about it.Over at Reading Notes, I'm gearing up for the 24-hour read-a-thon on April 9th. I'm also taking part in a Spring Reading Thing and musing on the to-be-read lists I make.Otherwise, I've had a very low-key (non-existent) internet presence in March other than participating in RoW80.

It's been a quiet weekend, marked by little sleep. Sort of took Friday and Saturday off from writing. Today probably too, although I might get some administration stuff done. Been playing lots EQ2 and reading. Eric is building his new computer, finally. I might end up back in my office area soon. Begrudgingly, I will admit I sometimes like working here in the back room with him.

#RoW80 - End of Round 1

My original soft goal for Round 1 was to add 50K words to Luck of Hire. The hard goals were 10K words every fortnight, with minimal rewrites. The overall goal was to have a complete draft of Luck by the end.

I stuck to the 10K-a-fortnight for the first six week. Rewrites weren't as minimal as I would have liked, but I'm not a fan of leaving too many broken things behind. Then I did a editing pass as Eric worked on outlining more scenes for me to write and doing some rewrites himself. During this part of the process (or thereabouts), we cemented a few relationship between the characters that made the story more interesting. I wrote the new scenes, did the rewrites. Rinse, repeat. My goal for this week was to do a quick four-day editing/note-taking pass before ending RoW80 Round 1 and putting the manuscript aside for a while. Alas*, in the first quarter of the manuscript I had a few questions that blew a couple scenes open. And then the obstinate five-year-old in me said, "No!" Not "no" to the additional scenes and rewriting, but to the pressure and the deadline. And I caved. So, I won't be taking a break; I'll be taking a deep breath and working through the break to get this stuff done.

Now, Kait said to focus on the positives. That's difficult for a personal pessimist, but here are the numbers for RoW80 Round 1:

Words written (including rewrites): 45,782
Words added to the manuscript: 39,528
Current manuscript total: 50,837 words
First draft: Finished. Working on first+n draft.

Not my best three months of work, but not my worst either. I could have done better in the last half.

*Or maybe "Yay!" Writing is like that.



Click to go to Mr. Linky

#RoW80 - Mar. 20th Check In

I am a procrastinator. In college, if I started writing a paper the night before it was due...well, that was because I had more than one paper due on the same day. Oh, I'd do my research in advance. I'd even take a few notes. Any assignments to do pre-outlines or to turn in early bibliographies were ignored or faked. My grades were good. But I am a procrastinator and I always will be. I think I need the extra stress, extra stimulus, to get dysphoric me moving.

I wrote 1100 words on Weds. and 1000 on Thurs. The manuscript is at 49.4K

At the moment, there isn't much more to write on Luck for Hire. It seems that it's time to let it sit for a while. Eric went through the outline on Thursday and didn't come up with anything to add. The reformulated plan was this: I'd finish the two unfinished scenes I have left on Friday and Saturday. Take Sunday off as usual, and then do a read-through/clean-up on Monday-Thursday.

I spent Friday and Saturday playing EverQuest2.

So, today, I finish those two scenes. Shouldn't be more than 1500 words. Then four days of an editing pass. If I'm smart, I pace myself and get a quarter done each day. And I take good notes because for at least part of the next RoW80, I'm going to leave Luck behind. Eric's going to do a read-through during that time, mull it a bit, and maybe rewrite a bit. Then we'll come back to it and see what's what.



Click to go to Mr. Linky

#RoW80 - Words are not my friends.

Monday: 906 words
Tuesday: 1003 words
Wednesday: Nothing yet. I need to get 1000 in.

The manuscript is at 47,275. I have 8042 words left to my goal. Eric and I talked. We're still filling in bits and pieces and the challenge will be finding another 6000-ish words to write. Of course, I said that a few weeks ago and we're still writing.

Yesterday on Facebook I posted, "Words are not my friends." This is not an unusual status update. Once last fall, JT noted that I had posted that status update a mere one month and one day apart. It's something that gets posted when words just...fail...me. Can't come up with the right one, can't string more than to or three together. Some days are like that. Strangely, posting that helps. Because words really aren't my friends. They are things that need to be manipulated. It's lovely when they're put together in a proper manner, but usually words are stubborn and obstinate. Not friendly at all. So, it's better to treat words with the professional respect they deserve and go from there.

Last week of round one! Exciting, no?



Click to go to Mr. Linky

RoW 80 - March 13th Check In

Added 2000 words since Wednesday. I have 9951 words left on my goal. The manuscript is at 45,366. In the homestretch! (Even though work on Luck for Hire is far from over.)

Kicking goals for the next RoW80. Spring semester finals week falls in the second round, which means I'm not going to have much Eric to fall back on. The tentative plan is to skip over to Divine Fire and give that manuscript the 10% cut as well as fill some of the holes. I also need to do a few things with regards to Lucinda at the Window. And maybe do a final clean up of Pas de Chat? Then back to work on Luck after Eric's done with classes? I always have more goals than time.

Because matociquala  suggested it earlier in the week and every once in a while it's a good way of taking stock, the first line meme: Post the first line (er, first few lines?) of works-in-progress. (presented here in order of seriousness)

Luck for Hire
Before Aleister Luck found himself at the offices of Devine, Chance & Merit, he stopped at a Circle K. He had a yen for a cup of coffee.

Divine Fire
Against the violet-black night sky, the buildings swayed and reeled. Decazzi willed them to stop, but it was no use. The stars wouldn't stay still either.

Fuel Eaters
Noosk's ass hurt.  He swore that the Bay beneath him walked with an uneven gait on purpose just to bounce his tailbone against the ridge of the poor-quality saddle.

"Copy Exact"
(short story I might get around to writing)
They hadn't done their homework.  That's the only explanation because if they had, they would have never asked me to the fab's opening.

Zeta Iota
(We'll come back to this project, but when we do it will be different.)
Gordon "Monty" Zyul traveled silently in the desert twilight.  The mu-bots of his armor allowed him to skim lightly over the dusty ground and created a mottled pattern that blurred the edges of his silhouette.

Fallen Star
(kind of a prequel to Divine Fire that may or may not ever be written)
It was the perfect night for charting.  Not a cloud passed between Celia's eyes and the heavens above.

Phoenicia Harbor Project
(Eric doesn't plan on coming back to this project, but I have a soft spot for it.)
From the gloom of the shop, Felicia peeked through the door.  She squinted against the late afternoon light that glared off of the whitewashed building across the street.  Aside from the stream of idle shoppers, the coast was clear.




Click to go to Mr. Linky

RoW80 - March 9th Check In

Didn't I just leave this party? This is why updates are on Sunday and Wednesday and not Monday and Wednesday.

I really liked Dawn Montgomery's RoW80 post this week. I'm a fan of sports analogies and to some degree football fits well when talking of goals. In football, the strategy of plays changes with the success or failure of each down. In goal setting, the same needs to be the case.

I added 2,500 between Monday and Tuesday. I have right around 12,000 left on my goal. My short-term goals were structured in a manner that gave me a lot of cushion. I've used most of my cushion. I have a manageable amount of words left. It's kind of like the game is tied, it's first and goal on the seven yard line, and Alex Henery is on my team. Unless I throw an interception, I'll at least win by three. (Yeah, generally, I should be kept away from the analogies. Both mine and other people's.)

Eric can be my whip-cracking slave-driver. The bad guy. Or the bad influence. Today, we're shucking work for a little fun. My revised goal for this week is to get another 2000 and have 10K left going into the home stretch. (Or that equivalent in rewriting work.)




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Sunday Check In on Monday

Jeeze. Looking at my progress spreadsheet, I see that it's been three weeks since I got anything of note done. At least word count wise. Yes, there has been a revision pass, but I've been really lazy. I deserve bologna sandwiches.

Yet, all hope is not lost.

With RoW80 ending on the 24th, I have 18 days to write roughly 15K words. That's doable, but I'm going to have to get off my lazy ass and actually, you know, do it. (Also, I'm inclined to round to the 25th, which is a Friday, but we'll see if I need to.) I'm behind schedule during this fortnight. I have ~7500 to write by Saturday/Sunday-ish. Again, doable. My carrot is the 24 hour read-a-thon on April 9th. It's a juicy carrot.

My hormones can be pretty vicious in positive-emotion-zapping kind of way. Last week was rough. No passion and wanderlust do not make for many words of the page. In addition to not getting much done on Luck, I generally spaced a flash fiction contest I was intending to participate in. Bad timing. I feel like a flake for signing up and then bailing, but these things happen.

Eric and I babysat our two nieces over the weekend. My internet connection was intermittent, so I didn't bother trying to post this yesterday. And being around a seven year-old and a ten year-old is exhausting. I'm not sure I could do motherhood. I crashed at 9pm last night after 24hrs with them. I'm also a little afraid that I've been invaded by little girl germs. We'll see how long it takes my immune system to succumb.   


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RoW80 - March 2nd Check In

Not much progress to report.

Took the weekend off partly because Eric needed to study for a math test but mostly because I needed a break. Unfortunately, I haven't quite come back from break...

On Monday, I did some mild research on journalistic form . Had a decent chat with Eric about scenes that need to be added in to the Las Vegas section of Luck for Hire. Wrote a little. Finished the new scene on Tuesday. Eric has pointed out a major flaw in it and a previous scene, so those are going to need to be fixed. Currently, the book is at 40K. 

I've been lazy with a dash of PMS meh. I moved the "new" computer to my office area. I love my desk.

Body is currently better. It felt so good to go out in the sun and play disc this noon-time. Betsy ran me hard and then we went to lunch. I know that if I get some writing done this evening, I can truly count this day as "good."


Click to go to Mr. Linky