Feb

26

a foxy project afoot

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The exact details of this project (first mentioned on Neil’s site) have changed a bit since the originally planned collaboration. The idea was for me to write humorous and quirky poems about foxes and the good mister would create pen and ink illustrations to go with each one. That idea was hot in June but shortly after the initial enthusiastic announcement, Neil and I both got busy on other work, leaving the foxes on a back burner. This week, I approached him discuss the future of the book.

There will still be a book of fox-related words and illustrations, but instead of the project involving two Dixons, I shall be the sole creator. This is very exciting and less terrifying that I thought. I’ve always wanted to write a children’s book in the inspired vein of Shel Silverstein— quirky illustrations and words with a broad age range appeal. I’ve been writing that sort of poetry for as long as I can remember. I think it’s about time I do something with it.

I’ll provide updates and previews here.

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Feb

11

the difference between e.g. and i.e. and when to use them

Filed Under Writing, tout le fromage | 6 Comments

When writing, there are often times when the Latin abbreviations of “exempli gratia” or “id est” are needed — and goodness knows that it’s shorter than typing out “for example” or “in other words” — but when to use e.g. and when to use i.e. can be a bit confusing. Here’s my unsophisticated method for remembering when to use e.g. (for example) and when to use i.e. (in other words).

To use e.g., you must need to convey examples of that which has been referenced in the  statement needing clarification.
“I need certain gadgets in my life (e.g., cameras, iPods, and coffee makers).”

To remember e.g., I say in my head egg-samples. Examples = eggsamples = EG. An egg-sample list of what I need to clarify. It’s not very scholarly, but it works for me.

To use i.e., you must need to further explain the initial statement through a bit of rewording.
“I need certain gadgets in my life (i.e., I would surely die without the little mechanical things that make my life easier).”

My trick to remembering when to use i.e. is less creative than the egg-thing above; I simply remember the ‘i’ in i.e. as IN. IN other words.

Egg and IN. Not particularly fancy, but they work for me.
Here’s an additional tip: you should also be able to seamlessly replace the Latin abbreviations with the words “For example” or “In other words”. If you can’t, then re-examine what you are trying to clarify.

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Nov

26

the battle wages on

Filed Under Writing, regular, tout le fromage | 2 Comments

Wow - how gorgeously vague, that title, and applicable to so many things!

Battle scenario A) My war against a low wordcount. Oh, that one is going to go on awhile longer…
Battle scenario B) My war against a draughty flat. Hung some lined curtains today. I am officially one-up on winter.
Battle scenario C) My war against the mutant strain of plague that has been sucking life from me — alternating between subtle and severe tactics — for weeks. Yup, I’m front line on that sonofabitch again.

Ah, illness. My old companion of misery, chum of listlessness, bringer of phlegm. How could I live without you. You gave me a glimmer of wellness and then snatched it away. Ye bastard.

My head hurts and I’ve taken all the pain killers I can without reaching moose tranquillising levels.

Argh. Grrr. Whimper.

The worst part of feeling ill for more than two weeks? I was secretly enrolled in NaNoWriMo. Some of you may have suspected, some of you knew, and many of you wouldn’t have known. I didn’t even tell Neil about it. Unfortunately, this cold has chopped my NaNoWriMo month down from the already difficult 30 days, to less than half that for me. I was going to complete my first novel in one month, but as it stands now I have 10,393 words done and four days of NaNoWriMo left. I work two of those, and with this cold rearing its ugly head again, will collapse into bed at the end of each day just to be able to get up again the next. Up until I woke this morning — with a cough and head pain flaring up again — I was hopeful that I would still pull 40,000 words out of the bag and claim victory. It wouldn’t be the first time I laugh in the face of an impossible deadline! Well, that optimism died this morning.

So what now?
I’m not giving up on the book. In fact, I kind of have a deal with myself: add two weeks more onto my own personal NaNoWriMo. Sure, I fail the ‘official’ target and don’t get to claim any NaNoWriMo glory through their site, but I’m going to finish this first draft of my novel in 30 “well” days. The illness has been beyond my control. I can’t beat myself up for that.

Perhaps a realistic goal would be to complete the novel by Christmas. Success– a gift to myself.
Yeah, that sounds pretty good.
And now you all are witnesses to the pledge. ;)

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Nov

24

10000 words and a spreadsheet later

Filed Under Writing, tout le fromage | 3 Comments

The project. When I’m not working at the part-time job, ‘the project’ is my focus. But today, I find there’s trouble in my fiction-building paradise. I’ve made a big mistake– I may not be writing what I want, but rather writing what I think may work as a publishable book. I’m at the point where I’m bored with my own plot, and hell, if I don’t find it interesting, why would I expect anyone else to give it a read?

Where this leads me– I may be scrapping a great portion of the 10000 words of fiction I’ve written and starting again. I like certain elements of what I’ve done, but for the most part I’m not feeling it as a whole. This is a dreadful thing to realise. It’s the kind of thing you wish you’d seen coming at 500 words, rather than 10000 words. I need to make it clear that I’m not retreating because it’s become hard work, but rather intervening before I declare my pile of words stillborn.

I think there’s a really important lesson in this: write what you’d want to read. If that means it’s about normal, everyday sorts of people and problems — fine. But if it should be about mermaid cowboys shopping for sequinned trousers — better to write that and feel it, instead of churning out something you don’t believe in and would certainly pass over in a bookshop.

Coming to that conclusion is the first thing that’s felt right about this project all day.

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Nov

23

Plotting fiction structure using a Numbers spreadsheet

Filed Under Writing, tout le fromage | 4 Comments

[Note: This post was written last night - or rather, this morning - but I was too tired to proof read it then.]

There once was an application called Power Structure.

Power Structure still exists, but hasn’t been updated for three years. That tells me that the developers have no further interest in continuing the product. Fair enough, software comes and goes, but I had a reason for looking at Power Structure: my plot. See, I’m working on a major fiction project and I’ve got a gaggle of characters to keep straight and each has his or her own rises and falls relating to their personal tension levels as reactions to real or perceived conflicts during the story. * exhale *

If that doesn’t make sense, I apologise, for I have been staring at a spreadsheet, a line chart, a smattering of index cards with scene briefs, and my ’story thus far’ synopsis in outline format for the better part of four hours. My analytical side is sharp but my ability to communicate in coherent sentences probably died a couple of hours ago. I am knackered.

So, what I’ve been up to is pretty cool but my needs are far less complicated than what Power Structure would want me to produce.
In brief, here’s what I’ve done:
I’ve got a table listing my characters and the related conflict to track on the left side (ie: Jane - John, Jane - Joe, Jane - World) and a range of scenes listed across the top. In each cell I assign a number representing the tension level of that conflict + scene on a 1 - 10 scale, 10 being most tense. These numbers then get plotted on a separate line chart of coloured zig-zaggy lines, each line representing a particular conflict from that column down the left side. In doing that, I have a visual representation of the personal journey of each character. Seeing this plotted in colour-coded glory is a real eye-opener and I’m finding it indispensable for keeping on top of all the twists, moods, and conflicts of the story.

It’s not a quick thing to create but it shouldn’t be. As I created the spreadsheet and chart I was forced to think things though much more thoroughly than I had before. I found plot holes and illogical character responses. I found that a whole chapter was a creating a column of whitespace in the chart (BIG RED FLAG MOMENT!), indicating that nothing moved forward or had conflict; it was a chapter of exposition that was far better off being chopped up and integrated into other scenes.

After I’m a bit further along, I’ll try to remember to post a screen shot of what this worksheet looks like. I’m using Apple’s Numbers application from the iWork suite, but I’m sure this can be accomplished in any number of other spreadsheet applications.

Damn. This writing career is starting to feel like work. ;)

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