Gillian Polack's Blog, page 286
November 10, 2010
gillpolack @ 2010-11-10T18:34:00
Evil Gillian came out to play in class today. Why else would I spent half an hour of Creative Writing teaching the Anarchy? My students have many choices for homework: they can write about the White Ship, about Stephen's son and his elegant demise, or about Henry's first attempted invasion of England (the one where he was sent home with a pat on the head by Stephen). Or they can write about Matilda's daring escape of Matilda. What was funny is that I had an extra audience for this half hour: all the staff members were listening closely. it was too much information, though, and I left everyone with a list of seach terms so that they could investigate for themselves.
I've told my class that if they want, I can explain Henry II's ingrown toenail and his troubles with Thomas next week. When I told them who Henry's sons were, one person wanted me to skip a generation.
Word of the day was 'judgemental' and I snuck in 'sod' as an example in an exercise we did. We talked about why so many legal terms have French links (everything is Medieval in my life, always). Since I chose apostrophes and their correct usage two weeks ago, my students got to ask for the technical aspect of English that they felt they most needed to udnerstand this week. They chose the Great Vowel Shift. No prompting or hints from me. One of them had read about it and they wanted to understand it.
Simple.
I've told my class that if they want, I can explain Henry II's ingrown toenail and his troubles with Thomas next week. When I told them who Henry's sons were, one person wanted me to skip a generation.
Word of the day was 'judgemental' and I snuck in 'sod' as an example in an exercise we did. We talked about why so many legal terms have French links (everything is Medieval in my life, always). Since I chose apostrophes and their correct usage two weeks ago, my students got to ask for the technical aspect of English that they felt they most needed to udnerstand this week. They chose the Great Vowel Shift. No prompting or hints from me. One of them had read about it and they wanted to understand it.
Simple.
November 9, 2010
gillpolack @ 2010-11-10T08:43:00
It might have been easier to stay up all night. I still can't find my list (or it still says that it's a list of vegetarian options for Conflux - it depends on how one reads my handwriting) and I am being bombarded with emails from people who wanted me to do their element of the list last night.
I was going to say that this means I'll have nothing to do when I get back from teaching, but I have today's work, too. Unless I use last Thursday's list, which has just magically appeared.
All of this chaos will resolve itself after Freecon. I have to get enough stuff done so I can take time out for Freecon, see friends, be prepared for a solid library visit in Sydney and have useful stuff to talk to my supervisor about. Because I'm just not the kind of person who overworks without provocation.
I wonder if I tell my students this morning that I'm a lazy sod if we can make 'sod' word of the day? (This idea has been coming for a whole week.) I also wonder if I can fit in another cuppa before I leave, so that I can shake off my headache. I really did do a lot of work yesterday: I know this because I forgot to so much as fill the kettle between 4 pm and now.
PS I have Chanukah presents. To receive Chanukah presents you possibly need to ask me if you can come to my party. ALl fiends welcome. Or I guess I could do something silly and emailable for those who can't make it. Only on request, though. Should I do the eight e-presents of Chanukah again this year?
I was going to say that this means I'll have nothing to do when I get back from teaching, but I have today's work, too. Unless I use last Thursday's list, which has just magically appeared.
All of this chaos will resolve itself after Freecon. I have to get enough stuff done so I can take time out for Freecon, see friends, be prepared for a solid library visit in Sydney and have useful stuff to talk to my supervisor about. Because I'm just not the kind of person who overworks without provocation.
I wonder if I tell my students this morning that I'm a lazy sod if we can make 'sod' word of the day? (This idea has been coming for a whole week.) I also wonder if I can fit in another cuppa before I leave, so that I can shake off my headache. I really did do a lot of work yesterday: I know this because I forgot to so much as fill the kettle between 4 pm and now.
PS I have Chanukah presents. To receive Chanukah presents you possibly need to ask me if you can come to my party. ALl fiends welcome. Or I guess I could do something silly and emailable for those who can't make it. Only on request, though. Should I do the eight e-presents of Chanukah again this year?
gillpolack @ 2010-11-10T00:54:00
I know I should have been asleep an hour ago when I reach for my little list of stuff I had to do today, to cross one last thing off, find the draft vegetarian menu for next Conflux, and try to cross something off anyway. I guess if I don't have my list I can't do any more work and so the only option is bed.
gillpolack @ 2010-11-10T00:21:00
I'm in an in-between place. Part of my mind is suddenly stuck in the middle of my novel, but I'm also working on articles and cookbook and the Conflux banquet. This explains why everything distracts me. My latest distraction is why I don't know much about my friends' Must Always read lists. Maybe it's because I only just realised I have one myself. My Must Read List comprises authors whose books I always want to read, preferably instead of whatever I'm supposed to be doing. It's long, but the quality is amazing.
Since what I'm supposed to be doing includes mention of my own Must Read List - but won't emerge until December *insert evil chuckle here* - I'm throwing the question about Must Read Lists to the universe and getting back to work. Wednesday morning is teaching, after all, and I don't teach nearly as well if I work all night and I can't sleep until I've finished my current task.
Since what I'm supposed to be doing includes mention of my own Must Read List - but won't emerge until December *insert evil chuckle here* - I'm throwing the question about Must Read Lists to the universe and getting back to work. Wednesday morning is teaching, after all, and I don't teach nearly as well if I work all night and I can't sleep until I've finished my current task.
November 8, 2010
gillpolack @ 2010-11-08T21:02:00
I have done no new research all day. Nothing. Not a jot.
I have done no new writing all day. Nothing. Not a jot. Not fiction. Not review. Not article. Not dissertation. Nothing. Not a jot.
I have done no editing all day. Nothing. Not a jot.
What have I done? Managed to inform three people that I'm a lazy sod. Found more recipes to test for the Conflux banquet. Sequenced lots of notes (in fact, within the hour I'll know what I'm doing with them and will be able to computerise all 250, instantly, at which stage I shall discover many errors - this is my own fault for creating 250 b* notes, maybe seven of which are undoubtedly sublime and all the rest of which are undoubtedly at the opposite end of the research spectrum). Written heaps of emails (mostly polite) and a few notes to friends. Eaten chocolate icecream (of which I have no more). Made chicken soup (halfway done). Thunderstorm (endured, rather than created). Tried to find a particular 19th century carnival machine (don't ask, just don't ask).
Also, Evil Gillian got out. If I knew where she'd been hiding, I would put her back there, but she's still out and threatening perfectly nice writers with Cold Comfort Farm treatment of their novels. Fortunately, it's Evil Gillian who's the lazy sod (the rest of me is dutiful and hard working and boringly perfect), and dispatching Robert Post's daughter to re-arrange the lives of undisciplined characters remains a figment of her imagination.
I have done no new writing all day. Nothing. Not a jot. Not fiction. Not review. Not article. Not dissertation. Nothing. Not a jot.
I have done no editing all day. Nothing. Not a jot.
What have I done? Managed to inform three people that I'm a lazy sod. Found more recipes to test for the Conflux banquet. Sequenced lots of notes (in fact, within the hour I'll know what I'm doing with them and will be able to computerise all 250, instantly, at which stage I shall discover many errors - this is my own fault for creating 250 b* notes, maybe seven of which are undoubtedly sublime and all the rest of which are undoubtedly at the opposite end of the research spectrum). Written heaps of emails (mostly polite) and a few notes to friends. Eaten chocolate icecream (of which I have no more). Made chicken soup (halfway done). Thunderstorm (endured, rather than created). Tried to find a particular 19th century carnival machine (don't ask, just don't ask).
Also, Evil Gillian got out. If I knew where she'd been hiding, I would put her back there, but she's still out and threatening perfectly nice writers with Cold Comfort Farm treatment of their novels. Fortunately, it's Evil Gillian who's the lazy sod (the rest of me is dutiful and hard working and boringly perfect), and dispatching Robert Post's daughter to re-arrange the lives of undisciplined characters remains a figment of her imagination.
Author interview: Shepherd, Enge and Kenyon
Today's big accomplishment is hardly of my doing at all. Three SFF writers have allowed themselves to be interviewed by me: James Enge, Kay Kenyon and Joel Shepherd. My editors love it very, very much and I might do more interviews down the track. Watch this space. Or watch that space.
PS If you're wondering about the order of names, I change them each time I type them so that all get equal attention.
PS If you're wondering about the order of names, I change them each time I type them so that all get equal attention.
November 7, 2010
Where Gillian thinks aloud
Yesterday I spent the afternoon watching various Star Trek episodes with just one aim in mind: to work out how they convinced the audience that time travel of various kinds was not only possible but essential to the story. Why Star Trek? partly because it was in the library when I was looking for something, but mostly because Star Trek has the reputation of just occasionally using non-existent science covered by hand waving and cool terms. This means they have to make their plots work using other techniques.
I've sorted out most of the time travel possibilities for my novel and I've made most of my choices. One thing that got me with my early reading of time travel novels, though, was that the science could be perfect and the book abominable. The novel might be lauded for its science, but if the science was taken away, it didn't work.
Lots of people criticise Star Trek, but the truth is that it has a consistent audience and it holds that audience. There have to be narrative devices that make various part of it work. For instance, Tasha Yar indicates alternate universes or travel to the past in TNG, so does Guinan. A character as a device to indicate that the reality is not the one we expect. It's one of several devices that remind us of the time or place the current element is set, at regular intervals. Tasha Yar is what makes this stick for me. Several times she only spoke to show that Picard was in his own past.
The obvious techniques are used: more or less hair, a voice that's ruffled by age, a different set. There is a lot of explanation - not of science, but of lifestory, so that we can see that these people have had long lives since we last met them.
Another technique that's used is illness. Tuvok and Picard in particular, have illness that help pinpoint where they are in time.
Also, there's tech glitz. The assumption behind tech glitz is that knowledge grows over time and that a future someone is going to have a better chance of solving a technical problem than a past someone. This makes me unhappy, because it reminds me of the Whig view of history. Time is not a constant in the incremental growth of understanding. it works for technical components of a solution if they depend on knowledge expressed earlier (if the technical insight has a clear plot arc, basically) but otherwise it posits acquisition of knowledge above human behaviour. "We are better because we live in the future. We have cleverer solutions because we live in the future." When this breaks down (in a TNG episode) and three different periods have to work together, suddenly things are much more alive. I guess the lesson from this is that it's the complexities of knowledge development that make the plot come to life and that the simple linear acquisition of knowledge and technical skills may be easier to write, but it's not very convincing. This reminds me of the Whig view of history again.
Speaking about Whig history (which likes Big Events) Star Trek uses nods to big events in US history to indicate that the episode has an historical theme and that the characters are creating history: Roswell, the Great Depression.
The big thing - and some of these are tools towards it - is that the episodes each have a sense of movement when time is shifted. The viewer sees the shift. It's like the visual tricks that show that someone is coming through on the transporter - we have our moment to adjust to the different time and place. It can be walking through a device (the city on the edge of forever) or through waking up with a start - the time travel that works has a moment for the viewer to adjust.
Am I missing anything? Which ones of these are essential to a novel and which are really only suitable for TV? Which of these consistently fail? Which of these are entirely magic for viewers?
I've sorted out most of the time travel possibilities for my novel and I've made most of my choices. One thing that got me with my early reading of time travel novels, though, was that the science could be perfect and the book abominable. The novel might be lauded for its science, but if the science was taken away, it didn't work.
Lots of people criticise Star Trek, but the truth is that it has a consistent audience and it holds that audience. There have to be narrative devices that make various part of it work. For instance, Tasha Yar indicates alternate universes or travel to the past in TNG, so does Guinan. A character as a device to indicate that the reality is not the one we expect. It's one of several devices that remind us of the time or place the current element is set, at regular intervals. Tasha Yar is what makes this stick for me. Several times she only spoke to show that Picard was in his own past.
The obvious techniques are used: more or less hair, a voice that's ruffled by age, a different set. There is a lot of explanation - not of science, but of lifestory, so that we can see that these people have had long lives since we last met them.
Another technique that's used is illness. Tuvok and Picard in particular, have illness that help pinpoint where they are in time.
Also, there's tech glitz. The assumption behind tech glitz is that knowledge grows over time and that a future someone is going to have a better chance of solving a technical problem than a past someone. This makes me unhappy, because it reminds me of the Whig view of history. Time is not a constant in the incremental growth of understanding. it works for technical components of a solution if they depend on knowledge expressed earlier (if the technical insight has a clear plot arc, basically) but otherwise it posits acquisition of knowledge above human behaviour. "We are better because we live in the future. We have cleverer solutions because we live in the future." When this breaks down (in a TNG episode) and three different periods have to work together, suddenly things are much more alive. I guess the lesson from this is that it's the complexities of knowledge development that make the plot come to life and that the simple linear acquisition of knowledge and technical skills may be easier to write, but it's not very convincing. This reminds me of the Whig view of history again.
Speaking about Whig history (which likes Big Events) Star Trek uses nods to big events in US history to indicate that the episode has an historical theme and that the characters are creating history: Roswell, the Great Depression.
The big thing - and some of these are tools towards it - is that the episodes each have a sense of movement when time is shifted. The viewer sees the shift. It's like the visual tricks that show that someone is coming through on the transporter - we have our moment to adjust to the different time and place. It can be walking through a device (the city on the edge of forever) or through waking up with a start - the time travel that works has a moment for the viewer to adjust.
Am I missing anything? Which ones of these are essential to a novel and which are really only suitable for TV? Which of these consistently fail? Which of these are entirely magic for viewers?
November 5, 2010
gillpolack @ 2010-11-05T11:44:00
I'm in the middle of doing the very first recipe test for Conflux next year.
While there's not as much testing as last time (as any other time, to be honest - Zeppelin meals in 1929 are way straightforward), if anyone wants to help, they're welcome. No choices as to which recipes, this time, alas - it's easy to allow for personal likes and dislikes and allergies and cultural restrictions and religious laws when I'm testing 500 recipes, but when I'm testing 50 then I just have to get the recipes out and back with comments. This means that there are two choices and two choices only: meat and vegetarian. There's no space for "I couldn't get this ingredient so I substituted" (the single biggest cause for recipe rejection in prior years) or for salt or fat limitations (and it's a solid cuisine, so if you're watching your weight, this testing is not for you).
If you still want to test recipes, email me please, and I'll send you recipes by return email.
And now I must get back to my stove, since my first dish is also my lunch and I'm just over a whackingly sore morning and in need of lunch*.
* The whackingly sore morning was quite my own fault. I thought that if my heart is improving I could also improve my allergies by diminishing the mould in the bathroom. I reacted. When I get some money, I shall pay for someone to scrub it with soap and water. It's not dangerous mould or even very big mould and it doesn't need harsh detergents to shift it - it just needs someone who's not going to end up sick from doing it.
While there's not as much testing as last time (as any other time, to be honest - Zeppelin meals in 1929 are way straightforward), if anyone wants to help, they're welcome. No choices as to which recipes, this time, alas - it's easy to allow for personal likes and dislikes and allergies and cultural restrictions and religious laws when I'm testing 500 recipes, but when I'm testing 50 then I just have to get the recipes out and back with comments. This means that there are two choices and two choices only: meat and vegetarian. There's no space for "I couldn't get this ingredient so I substituted" (the single biggest cause for recipe rejection in prior years) or for salt or fat limitations (and it's a solid cuisine, so if you're watching your weight, this testing is not for you).
If you still want to test recipes, email me please, and I'll send you recipes by return email.
And now I must get back to my stove, since my first dish is also my lunch and I'm just over a whackingly sore morning and in need of lunch*.
* The whackingly sore morning was quite my own fault. I thought that if my heart is improving I could also improve my allergies by diminishing the mould in the bathroom. I reacted. When I get some money, I shall pay for someone to scrub it with soap and water. It's not dangerous mould or even very big mould and it doesn't need harsh detergents to shift it - it just needs someone who's not going to end up sick from doing it.
November 4, 2010
gillpolack @ 2010-11-04T22:22:00
Good news. It's not just my eyes that are stable. I've still got batteries of tests and things that must be discovered, but it looks as if I'm over the worst of the stuff remaining from January.
gillpolack @ 2010-11-04T13:43:00
I've sorted 200 scribbled notes. This means I know how my main characters interweave and where my biggest deficiencies are in this particular narrative.
It's an odd way of doing things for me. It's how I handle non-fiction, usually. I don't know what it will mean for the style of the narrative. It's important, though, because there is so much information that I need to communicate and I don't want the readers to work at reading information: I want them to be enjoying a novel. I've fitted information in with character arcs and seasons and landscape and slotted them in together and hopefully made it all work.
The proof will be in the writing. If it all comes alive, then my NF writing approach works for my fiction. Which tangles me, I'm afraid. I like keeping the parts of my brain further apart than this.
Anyhow, I have to give it up for the afternoon. The cardiologist beckons and I've run out of excuses to delay going.
It's an odd way of doing things for me. It's how I handle non-fiction, usually. I don't know what it will mean for the style of the narrative. It's important, though, because there is so much information that I need to communicate and I don't want the readers to work at reading information: I want them to be enjoying a novel. I've fitted information in with character arcs and seasons and landscape and slotted them in together and hopefully made it all work.
The proof will be in the writing. If it all comes alive, then my NF writing approach works for my fiction. Which tangles me, I'm afraid. I like keeping the parts of my brain further apart than this.
Anyhow, I have to give it up for the afternoon. The cardiologist beckons and I've run out of excuses to delay going.
