Writing Projects
I promised that one reason for taking a short vacation from LHMP blogging was to get traction on some other writing projects. To start with something bite-sized (because it's always nice to get that boost from completing something) I went back to a short story about a harpy who's moonlighting as a muse. Following my plan to try writing long-hand to avoid distractions, I got three pages written. And then when I went to transcribe them, I discovered that I had a lot more already written than I remembered. (This is not an uncommon experience for me.) I'm approaching it with a different tone and voice this time, but it meant I could pull a bunch of existing text and plot-points. However that also meant that I needed to work on it in Scrivener rather than on paper. Hey, whatever works. Ironic that I started with a story all about writer's block and inspiration?
My other non-LHMP project at the moment is a deeply geeky history and analysis of the Best Related Work Hugo category. In part, because I wanted to try to answer the question "what exactly do fans think is a related work?" and in part because I like having something analytical to sharpen my brain on. The first stage of the project involved tracking down all the available nomination data (the long-lists, when available) and coding items for format, genre, subject, etc., as well as confirming correct (full) titles, author/creator names, and publishers. Currently I'm confirming author/creator gender for statistical purposes (which in a few cases means "gender at time of authorship or current gender?"). I wish I could do the same for cultural/ethnic background but that's less likely to be referenced in biographical material.
The other initial part of the Best Related project is tracking down the administrative history of the creation and revisions to the category, including discussions of intent. Plus doing the same for other Hugo categories that have overlapped in some way (e.g., where a new category was created that subsumed material previously falling under Best Related). At each step, I'm making notes of new rabbit holes that need exploring. The most annoying gap is that for the earliest stage of the category (1980-1997 when it was named "Best Non-Fiction Book") expanded long-list nomination data is only available (at the official Hugo website) for 4 years, and the number of long-list nominees is variable for that data. I have a suggested lead on a possible archive that might have Hugo-related ephemera, but I'll have to decide how deep I want to dig. Currently the available data corresponds nicely with the changes in category name (for the "Best Related Book" and "Best Related Work" eras, full long-list data is available) so I have sufficient detail to do some valid comparisons between eras.
The eventual result of this project will be published here as well as potentially in some location with more traffic, but it will take a while.
Major category: Writing ProcessTags: writing
