In the face of darkness, high stakes, and horrible odds, you can save yourself and the world
Well, I’m getting ready for my fake family reunion, with my family of choice, so today has been about buying a massive amount of meat, and cleaning my house. Because of that, I have no sage words of wisdom, so I’m cheating, and sharing some of Renee Sweet’s sage words.
Coaxing the Story from Renee Sweet’s journal.
See you in a couple of days.
Catherine
ETA: Really, this is all tongue-in-cheek. I have no secret agenda that I wish to inflict upon other writers, or some secret superiority that I’m suggesting with any of these speculations.
***
It’s the last day of Bryon’s chem guy workshop, and his last workshop for the summer. Getting away to the curriculum bunker clearly worked for me, and after completing my real world tasks, I’ve turned out to have a mini-vacation. During this one, I’ve been reading, writing, AND exercising. For the first vacation in quite some time, I bought exercise gear with me and used the hotel’s work out room. Not skinny (did I tell you I went to my favorite college pizza place for lunch yesterday? Mmm, whole wheat crust and super cheese poundage!)
Today I’m sitting in the Caribou Coffee in the middle of campus, plugged into a wall, writing. Scrivener is open, and I’m warming up by writing to all of you. I *look* like a writer, but the actuality is that, until I stop dinking around on the Internet, I’m a poser.
***
Which makes me think about this: do you have to work with your text every day to be a writer? Well, no. There are days when your subconscious needs to do some work. It does seem to be a question of balance, however. And so, here are some questions I think about sometimes.
Do you write more than you dink on the internet? Do you revise more than you think about writing? Do you have confidence enough to actually put crap on paper (and I mean crap not in the sense of things, but crap in the sense of stinky prose.) , or are you afraid of the blank screen?
Do you not only talk to other people about your writing, but also let others see it, give you their opinions, and not take them personally? Are you okay with revising your writing if the observations are reasonable? Are you capable of taking or leaving information, because in the end it’s your story and your call?
Would you rather Wii than write? And do you write, in spite of the fact that you’d rather Wii? Are you afraid to cut words, or are you capable of looking at the story holistically? Could you start over if someone told you it was crap, and it was?
Do you send your work out? Do you pick yourself up after rejection? In the end, do you find personal satisfaction in your work, regardless of those rejections?
How do you feel about butt in chair? How do you feel about ramen as a life style? Or, if you choose to work, how do you feel about kissing your free time good bye? Will giving these things up to write something make you satisfied, or do you just like thinking about sunglasses and autographs?
Would you rather critique, work on your web page, play Wii, or dink around on the Internet rather than get back to the manuscript? Is being thought of as a writer cooler, than, you know, writing?
Can you live without writing? Does writing make you feel better at the end of the day? About being alive? Would you rather avoid the bad vibes of sending work out? Or do you want to get battle scars to cherish?
Do you day dream about your break? Do you hope it will come with your first manuscript?
Do you know that you are a writing genius, better than all other writers in the world? Do you know that your writing sucks, and you wonder why you do it? Do you have both of these ideas in your head at the same time? Are you neurotic enough to write?
***
I have no answers to these. You could be a writer or a poser, based on any answer, because there are no right answers. My insecurity is as tiny as a mustard seed and as vast as a Midwestern landscape.
Which might, in the end, make me a writer. But if I were a poser, I would never tell you. 🙂
Catherine
ETA: Today, not a poser. Chapter 4 is done for this go round.
Back in the saddle with today’s two scenes of the troll story. Here’s today’s clip:
Tom flung the card on the table. “Far be it for me to suggest that the business card isn’t legit, but doesn’t everyone know the devil uses Nick Scratch as an alias. I mean, if this really were the Prince of Darkness, couldn’t he have come up with a better pseudonym?”
Quartz picked up the card. There it was, the infernal magic she couldn’t pin down early. “It’s not a question of pseudonyms, Tom. Your choices are often made for you when you are a character in a story.”
“Huh?”
“Nick Scratch is what the locals call him. Or Old Nick. I don’t imagine the devil could walk into a Norwegian town and do anything else.”
That scene actually wrote itself pretty easy, which felt good. Later, I finish the chapter up with Sigfried and Sigurda talking to Janetta. Looking forward to writing that one.
Here’s the scene count. Notice we’re one scene less, as I combined a couple of Manuel’s scenes.
20 / 52 words. 38% done!
This owly-eyed post brought to you by the completion of ELA Curriculum time lines and reading lists.
Now, we just gotta get the rest of the L1 and grammar materials in, neither of which are my responsibility. The copy shop is gonna get hit hard next week too.
So, the rest of work should manage to stay at work now. Matters like cleaning and organizing my office, assembling curriculum packets, norming tests, rewriting the coordinator’s manual, and getting ready for fall should take care of the rest of the summer.
This journal is going back to Trollsville, with a slight detour into short story land.
Catherine
Here’s me not posting! What’d I tell you?
But really, there are some things to tell you.
Healthy Living Update: The era of running is over in a mere three weeks. College knee returns with a vengeance. Well, that just means that we stick with the elliptical, and we do a lot of Shimmy, which is more fun anyway. I have a date with my fellow dancers tonight!
Blood is Thicker than Water Update : Forte earns his pay check.
Review of Needles and Bones: It seems to be a good one. Way to go, NB writers!
And…I was accepted to Viable Paradise 13. Discuss.
😛
To celebrate, nothing better than a night of curriculum writing. Can I party or what?
Did I mention 😀 ?
Catherine
ETA: Ilona Andrews adds Paragraphs 29 and 30 to the Paragraph Project.
***
Hello! Long time, no post.
It was a good CONvergence in Minneapolis. I think I’ve finally had that vacation I needed this summer, as I feel relaxed and not toasty. It seems that just getting away from the job stress has worked wonders.
So. Shout outs to Caroline Stevermer for sharing Thursday morning with me. We had a lovely breakfast and coffee, and enjoyed talking writer stuff. Also to my reading buddies from the Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading: Catherine Lundhoff, Lyda Morehouse, and Kathryn Sullivan.
Thank you to Aric and Kim for being such good hosts this weekend. It was nice to hang out with both of you and relax. And thanks to Mark and Michelle for special cat maintenance.
Patrick Rothfuss and Kelly McCullough were fine guests. I saw Rothfuss on more panels and found him very entertaining. Mark, we had him sign your book special-like.
***
Right. In theory, I’ll be scarce this week. I say this often, and end up posting during my scarce period, but the plan is for me to abandon my novel this week, hole up in a secret curriculum bunker in Ames, Iowa, and write the rest of my summer curriculum. Yup, I can do it. I’m ready for the big push.
With Monday’s usual installment of Blood aside, of course.
Then the rest of the week will be preparing for my big family reunion. Next week I should return to writing as normal, and maybe some satisfying of my sewing muse as well.
Now to read a few days worth of online life.
Catherine
Let’s do the announcements first!
Look! It’s the YA issue of Drops of Crimson! Unfortunately, given the life that I’ve been having lately, I haven’t had time to slip into the stories and go ah! yet. Here’s hoping things will simmer down soon.
Next! I’ll be at Convergence in Minneapolis this weekend. On Saturday at 3:30 pm in the Literary Lounge, there will be a patriotic flag waving reading Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading. I’ll be reading with Catherine Lundhoff, Lyda Morehouse, and Kathy Sullivan.
The spooky reading from The Winter the Troll Danced with Old Nickwon.
I’ll also spend some time standing in line to get Patrick Rothfuss’ autograph for Mark, and listening to various witty repartee on panels. Mostly, I’ll be hanging out with friends, and gofering for Bryon.
***
And now…foot update. Bryon didn’t get his stitches out, and he has to continue to wear his boot and carry his crutches. He does have smaller bandages now, and the addition of socks and a Dr. Scholl’s pad on his medical geta are proving to make him more comfortable. The doc even says he can give driving a try. So, we’ll see how he does at the convention. He thinks he’ll use his crutches when he enters crowds, because that will keep people away from his feet.
***
I have done really well on the writing front for the last few days, which is good, because after all the driving to various medical locations today, I got nothing for tonight.
Scene Count:
18 / 53 words. 34% done!
Excerpts? Okay. Here’s a nisse excerpt that I like.
When last we left our Indian dynasty, the children of Santanu and Satyavti both had died, and Bhisma had vowed celibacy. Looks like we’re heading for a dead-end.
But no. Bhisma is a clever guy. You might remember that Satyvati had a child with Parasara? That child was Vyasa. Bhisma says to Vyasa that if he lies with the widows of the second son, those children will continue the dynasty.
Who are those widows? Well, Bhisma arranged for the prince who was alive at the time of marriage to get married to three princesses: Amba, Ambika, and Ambalika.
Amba actually bows out of the bargain. She tells Bhisma that she loves another man, Salva, so Bhisma lets her go to him. Unfortunately for Amba, Salva feels her honor has been compromised. Amba returns to Bhisma, and Bhisma will not help her, so she vows to be the cause of his ruin. Remember this for later.
Meanwhile Ambika and Ambalika marry, but they are left widows. Vyasa sleeps with each of them. Ambika thinks that Vyasa is ugly and closes her eyes. As a result, she and Vyasa have a blind son Dhrtarastra. Ambalika paled in fear for Vyasa, so she gave birth to a pale son Pandu. Ambika was supposed to go to Vyasa again, but she sends a serving girl in her place, and that girl pleases Vyasa so much that she is blessed, and gives birth to the wiseman Vidura.
Next up: What happens because blind men can’t be king.
Bible study was inadvertently canceled tonight, so I had a chance to come home and work on a couple of chapter 4 scenes. These were fun scenes: one was Nick coming to tell the Widow…something.
The other was two of our nisse characters talking about the invading troll cat. You might remember the troll cat from the Norwegian folklore of milk. It was too good to pass up.
Anyway, some progress, scene by scene.
16 / 53 words. 30% done!