Matthew J. Olson's Blog, page 10
April 12, 2015
hungry
When Jynx is out of food, he goes nuts. He does this mew that can be heard throughout the house. He will also repeat the mew over and over.
I have some odd hours with going to two writing groups, a coin club, and donating plasma twice a week. So it'll often be late when I get home. Jynx will be there at the door to meet me and get attention.
This is where it gets confusing. I can't tell the difference between "I'm excited to see you!" and "I'm hungry. Feed me now!" I always assume that he is excited to see me and wants loving. Its not until after I have given a bunch of attention and he is stilling doing his mewing around that I realize that he is probably hungry.
This past week, I heard from someone that another writer wrote three novels during NaNoWriMo. They are still so burnt out from that effort that they haven't written anything since then. While I haven't written three novels in a single month, I have been trying to write enough material to get critiqued in my two writing groups. That has worn me out.
But I can't stop writing. I have goals that need met. You could say I have a hunger to write. I'm just not like Jynx where I need fed right now. Instead, I'm happy to slow down and finish things at a sane pace.
I have some odd hours with going to two writing groups, a coin club, and donating plasma twice a week. So it'll often be late when I get home. Jynx will be there at the door to meet me and get attention.
This is where it gets confusing. I can't tell the difference between "I'm excited to see you!" and "I'm hungry. Feed me now!" I always assume that he is excited to see me and wants loving. Its not until after I have given a bunch of attention and he is stilling doing his mewing around that I realize that he is probably hungry.
This past week, I heard from someone that another writer wrote three novels during NaNoWriMo. They are still so burnt out from that effort that they haven't written anything since then. While I haven't written three novels in a single month, I have been trying to write enough material to get critiqued in my two writing groups. That has worn me out.
But I can't stop writing. I have goals that need met. You could say I have a hunger to write. I'm just not like Jynx where I need fed right now. Instead, I'm happy to slow down and finish things at a sane pace.
March 28, 2015
popular
Cats are popular on the internet. It seems like every time I turn around, there is another cat video in my Facebook feed.
This is part of the reason why I like to talk about Jynx in my blog. He is a cute, cuddly inspiration for me to talk about his antics and somehow tie it to writing. He is making my blog more popular and fun to write.
Here is where writing is dissimilar from Jynx. If you write something for the sake of popularity, you better have an outlet that is going to accept it right away. For example, if you are going to do a fan fiction piece for that hot movie of the moment, then you need to publish the piece before interest wanes in that movie.
Writing a novel is time consuming. NaNoWrMo (Nation Novel Writing Month) wants you to write 50K words in a month. That is really about a half to three quarters of a novel. So let's say it takes you six weeks to write the first draft of the novel at top speed. It will take much more time than that if you are working full time.
After writing, you then need to rewrite and edit the novel. At minimum, this should be another six weeks, or about the same amount of time you spend writing.
I'm one of those people that write, rewrite, and edit at the same time. Usually, this is a chapter by chapter process. So this slows down my pace a bunch, but it cuts down the time I need to polish it after the whole novel is done.
After all of the writing, rewriting, and editing, you need to find an agent. This could take weeks, or it can take years (more likely the later, and yes, I am speaking from experience). Not to mention the amount of time the agent spends getting a publisher. Then the publisher needs time to print the book. Time has well run out on that popular movie blockbuster being of interest anymore. You've now wasted all of this time chasing the popular idea.
(Note: I am assuming the traditional route to getting published as I assume you are interested in getting well paid for what you are writing. Self published books rarely make the writer much money. Again, I am speaking from experience.)
Better to stick with writing about cats. They are popular and the interest never seems to fade. Or, better yet, write what is interesting to you, not what is popular. If you do it well, then the piece will sell itself and become the next popular thing.
This is part of the reason why I like to talk about Jynx in my blog. He is a cute, cuddly inspiration for me to talk about his antics and somehow tie it to writing. He is making my blog more popular and fun to write.
Here is where writing is dissimilar from Jynx. If you write something for the sake of popularity, you better have an outlet that is going to accept it right away. For example, if you are going to do a fan fiction piece for that hot movie of the moment, then you need to publish the piece before interest wanes in that movie.
Writing a novel is time consuming. NaNoWrMo (Nation Novel Writing Month) wants you to write 50K words in a month. That is really about a half to three quarters of a novel. So let's say it takes you six weeks to write the first draft of the novel at top speed. It will take much more time than that if you are working full time.
After writing, you then need to rewrite and edit the novel. At minimum, this should be another six weeks, or about the same amount of time you spend writing.
I'm one of those people that write, rewrite, and edit at the same time. Usually, this is a chapter by chapter process. So this slows down my pace a bunch, but it cuts down the time I need to polish it after the whole novel is done.
After all of the writing, rewriting, and editing, you need to find an agent. This could take weeks, or it can take years (more likely the later, and yes, I am speaking from experience). Not to mention the amount of time the agent spends getting a publisher. Then the publisher needs time to print the book. Time has well run out on that popular movie blockbuster being of interest anymore. You've now wasted all of this time chasing the popular idea.
(Note: I am assuming the traditional route to getting published as I assume you are interested in getting well paid for what you are writing. Self published books rarely make the writer much money. Again, I am speaking from experience.)
Better to stick with writing about cats. They are popular and the interest never seems to fade. Or, better yet, write what is interesting to you, not what is popular. If you do it well, then the piece will sell itself and become the next popular thing.
March 21, 2015
night attention
Jynx loves to wake me up in the middle of the night. He wants attention at the oddest hours.
He wakes me by jumping up on me. Sometimes, he is just fine laying on me as I go back to sleep. Usually, he is wanting more than that. So I have to pet him for a while until he gets bored and walks away.
The other night, my wife says that I carried on a conversation with her. She claims that she had woken me up to ask me to do something for her the next day. I have no recollection of this conversation ever taking place and was beyond surprised when she was upset that I didn't do what was asked of me. (Sorry, hon!)
Story ideas will hit me in the middle of the night. I will wake up from a really good, vivid dream (usually a nightmare) and realize that it will make a good short story, chapter, or novel. I am so excited by this idea that I tell myself that it is too good not to remember the next morning.
Besides being an author, I am a software developer. I also get development ideas in the middle of the night. I've been known to code solutions to problems in my dream and then I just have to wake up and actually do it. I absolutely hate that I am working off the clock in this way.
Nights just aren't a good time for me. My wife will tell me from time to time that she had a conversation with me in the middle of the night. Since I never remember these conversations, she calls them "lying times". I'm lying while laying at an odd time of the night. (Though, I would like to point out that I am not lying. I just don't remember these conversations nor the promises that I made!)
Now back to the problem with me telling myself that I will remember a story idea in the morning is that I am truly lying to myself. I get up in the morning and remember waking in the middle of the night. I remember telling myself how good it was and that there was no way I wouldn't remember. I just don't remember the idea at this point.
The moral is that if Jynx, my wife, or a story idea wakes me up in the middle of the night, I need to pay attention. If it is Jynx, I need to pet him. If it is my wife, I need to make a reminder note in my phone of the task she asks me to do. If it is a story idea, I need to write it down! But work ideas can just wait until I am at work.
He wakes me by jumping up on me. Sometimes, he is just fine laying on me as I go back to sleep. Usually, he is wanting more than that. So I have to pet him for a while until he gets bored and walks away.
The other night, my wife says that I carried on a conversation with her. She claims that she had woken me up to ask me to do something for her the next day. I have no recollection of this conversation ever taking place and was beyond surprised when she was upset that I didn't do what was asked of me. (Sorry, hon!)
Story ideas will hit me in the middle of the night. I will wake up from a really good, vivid dream (usually a nightmare) and realize that it will make a good short story, chapter, or novel. I am so excited by this idea that I tell myself that it is too good not to remember the next morning.
Besides being an author, I am a software developer. I also get development ideas in the middle of the night. I've been known to code solutions to problems in my dream and then I just have to wake up and actually do it. I absolutely hate that I am working off the clock in this way.
Nights just aren't a good time for me. My wife will tell me from time to time that she had a conversation with me in the middle of the night. Since I never remember these conversations, she calls them "lying times". I'm lying while laying at an odd time of the night. (Though, I would like to point out that I am not lying. I just don't remember these conversations nor the promises that I made!)
Now back to the problem with me telling myself that I will remember a story idea in the morning is that I am truly lying to myself. I get up in the morning and remember waking in the middle of the night. I remember telling myself how good it was and that there was no way I wouldn't remember. I just don't remember the idea at this point.
The moral is that if Jynx, my wife, or a story idea wakes me up in the middle of the night, I need to pay attention. If it is Jynx, I need to pet him. If it is my wife, I need to make a reminder note in my phone of the task she asks me to do. If it is a story idea, I need to write it down! But work ideas can just wait until I am at work.
March 14, 2015
biting more than can be chewed
Jynx will lay in the middle of the floor from time to time. Usually, he lays in a spot right in the middle of where I need to walk. I think he has several motives for doing this.
One is that he can try to trip me. Sometimes he will run past me and then flop down in front of me. Other times he will roll over as I step over him making me misstep in avoiding him. I'm sure he gets a laugh at seeing flail around trying to keep my balance.
The second motive is that he can scratch and claw at me as I pass. Jynx has decided it is play time and my feet are his targets. This is not what I call fun, but he doesn't know that (or maybe he does and that is part of the amusement).
One other thing Jynx may do is bite me. Usually, I have stopped beside him for one reason or another. He always will start licking to get my attention. I enjoy kitty licks, even on my feet. I've figured out that this is his prelude to biting me, though, and I don't enjoy that. I think the bites are his attempts to kill me. He realizes he can't succeed rather quick, so he never draws blood.
I admire his persistence. Here he is, trying to bite off more than he can chew. Every time he fails, he tries again.
To me, this is just like writing. I could write the worst chapter or short story in the world and I try again. Most of the time it is just tweaks and edits. But every once in a while, I've realized that I've bitten more than I can chew and I have to rewrite a large portion. One way or another, I keep trying to find a way forward. "Trying" being the operative word here.
Have you tried something that didn't quite work out and tried again. Comment below a time that this has happened.
One is that he can try to trip me. Sometimes he will run past me and then flop down in front of me. Other times he will roll over as I step over him making me misstep in avoiding him. I'm sure he gets a laugh at seeing flail around trying to keep my balance.
The second motive is that he can scratch and claw at me as I pass. Jynx has decided it is play time and my feet are his targets. This is not what I call fun, but he doesn't know that (or maybe he does and that is part of the amusement).
One other thing Jynx may do is bite me. Usually, I have stopped beside him for one reason or another. He always will start licking to get my attention. I enjoy kitty licks, even on my feet. I've figured out that this is his prelude to biting me, though, and I don't enjoy that. I think the bites are his attempts to kill me. He realizes he can't succeed rather quick, so he never draws blood.
I admire his persistence. Here he is, trying to bite off more than he can chew. Every time he fails, he tries again.
To me, this is just like writing. I could write the worst chapter or short story in the world and I try again. Most of the time it is just tweaks and edits. But every once in a while, I've realized that I've bitten more than I can chew and I have to rewrite a large portion. One way or another, I keep trying to find a way forward. "Trying" being the operative word here.
Have you tried something that didn't quite work out and tried again. Comment below a time that this has happened.
March 6, 2015
Rosco tribute
My wife posted this on Facebook this morning:
Rest in peace my sweet babe, Rosco Peeko Train Olson. He entered into this world on December 31, 2002 in Atwood, KS. He left this world on March 6, 2015, at his home in Junction City, KS. He is survived by his brother, Jynx Thomas, and many friends and family. He was preceded in death by his mother Missy, father Simon and many other siblings. He enjoyed cookies, bones, walks, drinking out of the lake, kisses, rides, and of course licking plates and pans. There will never be a dog like Rosco. I will especially miss his howls when my phone would "ring" by playing his special songs to let me know someone important like his grandpa, gramma, uncle Chad, uncle Rob etc were calling. Until we meet again to spend eternal life together. Play and enjoy yourself at Rainbow Bridge because your Dad and Mama love you oh so much! You were an amazing gift.
My first thought was, "why aren't you a writer, hon?" She has talked about various plot ideas and has the skill to be a writer.
But, today's piece was different than anything I have ever written. My wife was moved by her grief to write this perfect tribute to our dog. It had the perfect set of emotions because it came from the heart.
No matter what the circumstances are that cause a person to start writing, if the talent and motivation is there, they should not stop. I'll keep encouraging my wife to write beautiful things like today's Facebook post. Comment below if you agree.
Rest in peace my sweet babe, Rosco Peeko Train Olson. He entered into this world on December 31, 2002 in Atwood, KS. He left this world on March 6, 2015, at his home in Junction City, KS. He is survived by his brother, Jynx Thomas, and many friends and family. He was preceded in death by his mother Missy, father Simon and many other siblings. He enjoyed cookies, bones, walks, drinking out of the lake, kisses, rides, and of course licking plates and pans. There will never be a dog like Rosco. I will especially miss his howls when my phone would "ring" by playing his special songs to let me know someone important like his grandpa, gramma, uncle Chad, uncle Rob etc were calling. Until we meet again to spend eternal life together. Play and enjoy yourself at Rainbow Bridge because your Dad and Mama love you oh so much! You were an amazing gift.
My first thought was, "why aren't you a writer, hon?" She has talked about various plot ideas and has the skill to be a writer.
But, today's piece was different than anything I have ever written. My wife was moved by her grief to write this perfect tribute to our dog. It had the perfect set of emotions because it came from the heart.
No matter what the circumstances are that cause a person to start writing, if the talent and motivation is there, they should not stop. I'll keep encouraging my wife to write beautiful things like today's Facebook post. Comment below if you agree.
February 28, 2015
b!*%# slaps
I'm sitting on the couch the other day and watching TV when Jynx comes over wanting attention. He walks by meowing which his signal for me to pet him. By the way, he is a temperamental Siamese. I pick him up off the ground to hold him while I pet him. Since I am not reclined enough for him to sit on my chest without his claws digging in, I held him in place with my left hand and petted him with my right.
Now earlier in the day, Jynx had tried to run into the garage. The garage is dirty and has some dangers to the kitty. So we keep Jynx out of there. When he tried to run into the garage, I grabbed him by the tail since it was sticking up and easy to grab.
So now I am holding him by the butt so that he can comfortably rest on my chest and get my affection. I didn't realize his tail was still sore from me grabbing him earlier in the day. Jynx let me know by b!*%# slapping me. He gave me about a half a second warning by crying before b!*%# slapping me.
I was stunned and thought that the cat b!*%# slapping me was hilarious. So I started to laugh. What I should have done was let Jynx go.
Next came a double b!*%# slap. First the right paw and then the left. I let the cat go immediately. I'm just glad I had trimmed his toes recently so that he couldn't slice me during the b!*%# slaps.
My writing is sometimes like Jynx; I don't know when to let go. I may write something that when I read it later, comes right off the page and b!*%# slaps me. Usually I try to tinker with the section and get it to not b!*%# slap any future readers. Instead the passage double b!*%# slaps me. I've got to cut the section.
Letting go of any writing is hard. I think writers have a superiority complex and they think everything they write is gold. While confidence in your work is good, knowing when a section is bad and needs cut from the piece is even better.
This is where a critique group helps me the most. I usually love my pieces of writing too much to even notice when a passage b!*%# slaps the reader. It takes another pair of eyes to tell me that something needs changed or cut. Luckily, I don't take this criticism as a b!*%# slap. I try to learn from the advice given and I try not to make the same mistake in my future writing.
Hopefully, there aren't any passages in Shorts: A Collection of Stories that b!*%# slaps readers (especially considering all of the editing that has gone into those stories). If there are, let me know in the comments below.
Now earlier in the day, Jynx had tried to run into the garage. The garage is dirty and has some dangers to the kitty. So we keep Jynx out of there. When he tried to run into the garage, I grabbed him by the tail since it was sticking up and easy to grab.
So now I am holding him by the butt so that he can comfortably rest on my chest and get my affection. I didn't realize his tail was still sore from me grabbing him earlier in the day. Jynx let me know by b!*%# slapping me. He gave me about a half a second warning by crying before b!*%# slapping me.
I was stunned and thought that the cat b!*%# slapping me was hilarious. So I started to laugh. What I should have done was let Jynx go.
Next came a double b!*%# slap. First the right paw and then the left. I let the cat go immediately. I'm just glad I had trimmed his toes recently so that he couldn't slice me during the b!*%# slaps.
My writing is sometimes like Jynx; I don't know when to let go. I may write something that when I read it later, comes right off the page and b!*%# slaps me. Usually I try to tinker with the section and get it to not b!*%# slap any future readers. Instead the passage double b!*%# slaps me. I've got to cut the section.
Letting go of any writing is hard. I think writers have a superiority complex and they think everything they write is gold. While confidence in your work is good, knowing when a section is bad and needs cut from the piece is even better.
This is where a critique group helps me the most. I usually love my pieces of writing too much to even notice when a passage b!*%# slaps the reader. It takes another pair of eyes to tell me that something needs changed or cut. Luckily, I don't take this criticism as a b!*%# slap. I try to learn from the advice given and I try not to make the same mistake in my future writing.
Hopefully, there aren't any passages in Shorts: A Collection of Stories that b!*%# slaps readers (especially considering all of the editing that has gone into those stories). If there are, let me know in the comments below.
February 21, 2015
To blog, or not to blog?
I have been struggling lately on the matter of starting my own blog. Should I do it? Is it worth my time?
In the end, I asked my wife her opinion. Without missing a beat, she said, "Yeah. Write a blog about Jynx."
Well, I was more thinking about writing a blog about my hardships in writing and publishing, not about our cat. Comment below if you think I should listen to my wife or if you want to hear about my writing.
Last night, I had to refill the water for our beta, Nemesis, because there was not enough water for the fish to even swim in. He was just hanging out a little sideways in a corner of the bowl.
Jynx loves drinking from the fishbowl. We used to keep our beta in a glass bowl, but the cat kept tilting the bowl so he could get his head in and drink the water. He ended up knocking the glass bowl off the counter. That bowl broke and Nemesis somehow survived without water for who knows how long before my wife came home from work. So now Nemesis hangs out in a Tupperware bowl.
Nemesis is a survivor. Why Jynx does not eat it, I don't know. Why Nemesis survived the fall of his bowl, I don't know. Why Nemesis can survive out of water for as long as he did that day, I don't know.
Gee, I don't know a lot. Maybe there is some life lesson here.
Speaking of I don't know, the other day in one of my critique groups, someone pointed out that I used a form of "shrug" four times in my chapter. I did a search of my whole novel that is now fourteen chapters complete and found a form of "shrug" twelve times. So eight in the previous thirteen chapters and then all of a sudden I was shrug happy in this one.
Since I hate repetition in reading other works, I figured out alternate ways to say that the character didn't know why to a question posed to it for two of my shrugs in this chapter. So two are still left, but they are buffered by a couple of pages of other text. Hopefully, this change has enriched the chapter.
In the end, I asked my wife her opinion. Without missing a beat, she said, "Yeah. Write a blog about Jynx."
Well, I was more thinking about writing a blog about my hardships in writing and publishing, not about our cat. Comment below if you think I should listen to my wife or if you want to hear about my writing.
Last night, I had to refill the water for our beta, Nemesis, because there was not enough water for the fish to even swim in. He was just hanging out a little sideways in a corner of the bowl.
Jynx loves drinking from the fishbowl. We used to keep our beta in a glass bowl, but the cat kept tilting the bowl so he could get his head in and drink the water. He ended up knocking the glass bowl off the counter. That bowl broke and Nemesis somehow survived without water for who knows how long before my wife came home from work. So now Nemesis hangs out in a Tupperware bowl.
Nemesis is a survivor. Why Jynx does not eat it, I don't know. Why Nemesis survived the fall of his bowl, I don't know. Why Nemesis can survive out of water for as long as he did that day, I don't know.
Gee, I don't know a lot. Maybe there is some life lesson here.
Speaking of I don't know, the other day in one of my critique groups, someone pointed out that I used a form of "shrug" four times in my chapter. I did a search of my whole novel that is now fourteen chapters complete and found a form of "shrug" twelve times. So eight in the previous thirteen chapters and then all of a sudden I was shrug happy in this one.
Since I hate repetition in reading other works, I figured out alternate ways to say that the character didn't know why to a question posed to it for two of my shrugs in this chapter. So two are still left, but they are buffered by a couple of pages of other text. Hopefully, this change has enriched the chapter.
