David B. Ramirez's Blog: David Ramirez SFFWriter, page 3

Literary as a Category

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainm...

tl;dr

Writing is a tough gig.

Must No Has A Dumb!

So I met Jun and Harvey from the:

http://www.filamstar.net/

I did not know how they looked and they didn't know how I looked (though I did pass on my mobile number). Arrived at Starbucks in Berkeley, did a walkthrough: "Okay, I see lots of college kids + grad students + profs; nobody looks like a newspaper guy."

Then I took my grande hazelnut frappucino and sat outside, started messing around on my laptop and reading Murakami's After Dark

And someone walks up and asks if I would happen to David.... =) I look like a writer! Well, it helped that I'm much older than the Cal students and younger than the prof types, I'm sure.

Interview! Hopefully I didn't say anything stupid/offensive.

I talked about writers, books, a brief summary of my life (hopefully no oversharing), The Forever Watch, and plugged Outpouring Yolanda Relief Anthology

When great news involves more work

Aha. Just got good news of the most stressful sort. The kind that's good, but requires me to do stuff! May need to extend my stay, may need to make a small side-trip to meet people, will probably have to write something I am very much unaccustomed to writing.

And that's while I still have to be working on Black Disc.

This feels like it's going to be a very odd trip. I am now kind of wishing I could take a crash course under certain people for guidance in doing a specific kind of writing. Hah! If I write the names, it probably becomes obvious where I might be going and what I need to work on very soon.

I think I'll muddle along on my own, and study on my own. The other party is probably going to end up co-writing this thing anyway--they've got more power over it than me, and certainly way more experience.

Dreaming big dreams here. In the best case, it will still take a long time, but it seems less unlikely and far out than it used to....

How I Met Your Writers

Apparently, people are mad about a certain show's finale.

I have only watched a few episodes so I'm not very invested.

But I do find the rage interesting.

Writing for a show is not like writing a book. Lots of people affect the writing, and often, the writers have to scramble to get a script to fit around events that are fixed by other people (like a producer, or the pregnancy of an actress, etc).

I don't know about the creative pipeline for How I Met Your Mother, but I do wonder if the ending was chosen by the writing team, or someone else. It's a tough gig, writing for a tv show.

I've only co-written one story with a friend, and it only worked because we were goofing off and on the same page. Working with a whole team of creatives would probably be too much for me, unless I had total control over the plot.

Lazy rainy Monday

It's raining and I am supposed to be working.

Staying at a friend's place, sitting at a table with the work machine, listening to Tom's Diner, I space out while my friend's dog waits patiently for his owner's return from getting the car's oil changed.

Writing is a job too. It needs to happen regardless of weather or mood. Siiiiiigh.

Why?

"I Write Because I Love, And My Love Is Writing"

I have some envy for writers who are able to say such positive things about the why of their writing.

For myself, I do not write because of the good feelings I get from writing. I write because of the opposite, because not writing hurts. I write from all the dark places my thoughts turn to.

Someday, perhaps, I dream of writing a light-hearted story, something that I imagine Miyazaki would gladly turn into a film.

In the meantime, the subconscious chews over the conflicts in the world, the ordinary drudgeries of life, digests them, and incorporates them into a mind-flesh that considers shadows more than light.

Wow, that sounds pretentious! Bleah! Lol. And now, "Don't Stop Believin" by Journey.

Fear is the Mindkiller

Surely one of the most famous quotes in all of SF.

It's particularly apt, I feel, for writers.

Writer's block is all about fear. At least in my experience. The fear that what one is writing isn't good enough, so there is the desire to think it over and stall until the fear is diminished.

I have never actually had writer's block where I had no idea what would happen next and could not proceed for that reason. It was always about being afraid. If I made myself sit down and type, something always came out even if I was not sure what it was going to be.

Today's post isn't really about writer's block. Today's post is about writer's fear, which is a little more general.

Ah, I have so many things making me anxious! Will Forever Watch sell through its US and UK advances? How will the audiobooks do? What about when people start buying it--how many of those readers will get pissed off at me for not spending enough time dealing with this issue or that issue? How many people will think I'm making light of PTSD? How many people will think the main character, Hana, is not convincing as a woman?

And that's just for "The Forever Watch"!

As it is, the good reviews I have read make me both happy and also terribly nervous. Nervous because my next project is not the same kind of story.

It is still science fiction, but world-building has less of an impact on the story. The story itself is simpler. Etc.

There is the fear that even if people like my first book, they'll dislike the second one. Cripes! And of course, the fear about meeting the deadline in my contract with Hodder & Stoughton!

In the end, the only solution is the same one there is for writer's block: there is only going forward and writing.

The best that can be done is to ignore the fear. To act despite it.

If it's as good or better or worse: these concerns have no place external to the current project. The only valid comparison to think of is making sure the next draft is better than the one before it.

Currently, I'm doing a rewrite on the next project. The first draft was not quite complete, but it was mostly done, and I see enough that I have to change in the rewrite that I might as well add the completing material to the next draft.

And on and on it goes.

The actual link to the PW * review

And here it is! The link to the Publishers Weekly review:

http://www.publishersweekly.com:8080/...

Audible audiobook

The Audible audiobook is in production and will probably be out the same day as the book's US launch day: April 22, 2014.

Cool =)

The narrator is Dina Perlman, who's done a lot of previous work for Audible.

http://www.audible.com/search/ref=a_m...

There's also an audiobook on the way in the UK, but I haven't gotten as many details on it yet.

Nostalgia

"Everyday the future looks a little bit darker. But the past, even the grimy parts of it, well, it just keeps on getting brighter all the time."

-The former Silk Spectre, Watchmen



I already started to feel this way in high school, when I'd think of how much more relaxed elementary was. Then in college, when I would miss how intense high school was. Then later, I'd often relive in my thoughts the curious, lonely freedom of college, in which my class schedule was uniquely my own, and there would be all these nights walking to and from completely by myself....

In my 30s now, and they slide from one to the other, those brighter memories that stick, and the music and the moments. A handful of times trying to fly a kite. Long trips to the mountains. A random encounter in a tourist bus in Greece.

The technology I most desire in Forever Watch is the part of the implant that gives perfect memories.

It won't be quite the same, but I do wonder about when Google Glass type products will become cheap and commoditized and cloud storage will become so cheap that that one could keep the glasses on continuously uploading live feed to storage. That extended memory would be an interesting step on the path of transhumanism....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noS1v...