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Writer things.
Now playing: Telefon Tel Aviv - I Lied
FYI: If you (or someone close to you) happened to maybe, possibly, hopefully want a signed copy of A Life Transparent, you’ve now got until next Friday to order one.
Right. It’s been another long week, even if it was technically only a four-day work week, what with the holiday on Monday. I’ve got to admit that I’m beat this week. As a matter of fact, I intended to post this entry a lot earlier today, but once I got home, had dinner and relaxed for a bit, I honestly couldn’t be bothered. But now it’s almost midnight, almost not Friday anymore, and I figure I can crank this thing out in less than an hour, so here goes.
There are a couple of things I discovered this week that I want to share, two of them being writing-related blogs and the other being a nifty piece of writing software.
The first is GalleyCat, which appears to be (as it claims on the front page) “the first word on the book publishing industry.” At first I thought it was new, but perusal of its archives reveal that it is not, in fact, new and also confirmed that I’ve been living under a rock these last 8 years. Okay, that’s not fair – I’ve technically been living under a rock for only 4 of those 8 years, as there was no activity on the blog between 2000 and 2004. So there. As with other writing- and publishing-related sites and blogs I stumble upon from time to time, the discovery of this one was the equivalent of one of those annoying flash ads one might see on the side of a corporate media website, advertising “lower mortgage rates” and features an anim
ated person dancing with reckless abandon. Yeah, that’s what it felt like. In my head, of course. I’m not a dancer. Not really. In other words, I was rather excited and look forward to absorbing all the publishing world news it has to offer. Also, it was during my perusal of the site that I discovered there’s going to be a LOLcats book. The article, as you will see if you click the link, was accompanied by an adorable photo. Despite being hilarious and cute and fluffy, if you look at it in a very writer-esque way (that is to say, metaphorical and abstract and emo), you might see the plight of the fledgling author summed up in the photograph, but I’ll leave it to you to see whatever you want to see.
The second blog is called WriteToDone, a new site about writing. Simple enough. It was started by Leo Babauta, who also maintains the popular Zen Habits, a productivity blog. It’s still in its fledgling stages, but it already has a good article on good editing habits. It also looks like Mr. Babauta just inked a deal with Hyperion and that’s just swell.
Finally there’s Q10, a piece of writing software for Windows in the same spirit as WriteRoom for Mac and its bastard stepchild, DarkRoom (also for Windows). The premise is simple: a full-screen writing environment that gets rid of all distractions. It’s simply you, a black screen and your text. I’ll admit that I haven’t used it very much, but from the few minutes I spent with it, I can already tell it’s far better than DarkRoom, which insisted on crashing every five minutes when it tried to autosave. I’m going to give Q10 a try when I start rewriting imagiNATION’s frame story in the coming weeks, and my thoughts on the program will follow.
Speaking of imagiNATION, the editing still continues. I’m up to chapter five and I’ve discovered that the more I go along, the more each chapter is going to have to change drastically in order to accommodate the changes I made in all the previous chapters. This led me to wonder if I should start the rewriting process as I go along (and I even went so far as to make note of it in my editing journal), but ultimately decided against it. It took me two years to finally muster the ability to tackle this beast; the last thing I want to do is bog myself down in the middle of things. One thing at a time. First the red-lining; then the frame story and rewrites. 
And as promised, here’s the proverbial “proof” that I’m doing what I claim. My apologies if the photo is a bit fuzzy—I’ve indulged in a combination of soda and coffee all day, so my hands were a bit shaky. Where I am right now in the story is where one of the main characters, a little boy named Jonah, wanders off to the bathroom and is subsequently attacked by a gang of Nightmares. Out of the safety of the novel’s context, that previous sentence just looks weird, doesn’t it? Oh well – I thought it might be fun to tease you folks with details of something you may not get to read for a very long time – if at all. I fully accept that this may not be a mainstream novel, that it’s not meant for the same crowd that buys the crap of Dan Brown and whatever Oprah decides to put her name on (even though I did buy The Road, but it was recommended to me long before Oprah got her hands on it), and I’m okay with that. It’s the most “involved” thing I’ve ever written, to quote my dad, and I’m having fun rediscovering its many quirks and oddities. Editing has put me in “that place” again, and now that I’m in touch with its world, I’m finding out new things about its characters. New details, new histories, new conversations – and I’m going to do my best to fit it all in (within reason, of course).
So that’s the scoop for now. I will add, albeit quickly because I don’t want to linger on the topic as it seems to be everywhere, that it was a major shock to hear about Heath Ledger. I always thought he was a great actor who, unlike most of his professional peers, seemed to have some class about him. He’ll be missed.
Right. I’m off for now. Enjoy your weekend, folks.
TK
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Just lookin’ at the red text in the margin there made me wonder, is there a reason why Mona has a woman’s name?
Oh and another thing that nags at me (and this might just be me talkin’, but…) is the one-letter-name of D. I dunno, it just grates on me to read. I can only assume her full name will be revealed eventually, but up til that point you should refer to her as “Miss D” as much as possible, or even “Dee”. Just an idea there.
I’m really liking the story so far, but I was wondering about the intended audience. It seems like it’s gonna be too ‘fantasy’ for most people, yet too mature to be geared at teenagers. So I think it will be quite a niche audience… but then again, ALT sorta was, too, and it kicked ass. Keep chuggin’ along with the editing machine!
I’m enjoying Q10 quite a bit. I get distracted too easily when I am quick writing on my laptop, so it’s a nice little program to use.