Weekend Report
Friday, I posted my goals for the weekend. Today I am posting a report on how well those goals were accomplished. Unfortunately, it would be better to say this is a report on how well they were avoided. It was a miserable failure and I have no choice but to own up to it, however much I would like to think up an excuse. So what did I accomplish? No writing for one. That’s right, not a single word. I feel the worst about that. I allowed other things to get in the way, but really I just didn’t feel like writing. That is a fatal error. I allowed that type of thinking for far too long, to the point that it took me four years to write my first novel. Tonight, I am going to write. I am looking for around a thousand words. I did do my plan. I have…
Jim Butcher On Sword and Laser
I have recently gotten into Geek and Sundry‘s Sword and Laser webshow. I haven’t found any show that interview authors, particularly fantasy and science fictions authors, like they do. And they get some pretty big damn names too. George R. R. Martin, Salidin Ahmed, Cherie Priest, and several others. I’ve found a few books I had never encountered and I love hearing fantasy authors talk about their work. And in catching up, I came upon this interview with Jim Butcher. Jim friggin Butcher! My head nearly EXPLODED! If you haven’t read Mr. Butcher’s work, really, stop reading this and go buy Storm Front. It’s not he best of the series, so push on because The Dresden Files is, in my personal opinion, the best fantasy series I have ever read. Furies of Calderon is also pretty damn good, but has more obvious weaknesses. His work (probably coupled with The Name…
Goals For The Weekend
My goals for the weekend are as follows: Ten thousand words. A lot of writers would say this is a lofty goal. Others would say this is a low goal. Either way, I’m trying to push my boundaries. A plan. I want goals set up for the summer. I know I want the following, but am unsure how each will fall. First book published Second book first draft completed Third book started Certain amount of short stories I really want to rent The Last of Us as well but I’m going to resist that to make sure I get things done. I didn’t write much last weekend or this week at all. Sometimes you just need to buckle down.
Profanity in Writing
Keith Cronin wrote a great post on Writer Unboxed (that I just now caught up to on Feedly) about profanity in writing. It covers most of the bases, but I had some thoughts to add as well. My writing has some language in it, the f-bomb or damn most often. It’s a part of my character. He is a man of the world and has a temper that often times gets the best of him. That’s part of this character. But he is also from the South, and he’s well educated. There is a time and a place for language, and that plays into the when he says what. He doesn’t cuss around women, most of the time, because that’s how he was raised. He doesn’t use the Lord’s name in vain (Because my mother and mother in law are reading this) because he grew up Catholic and that influenced…
Mythology
Below is one of my favorite posts from the old Story Arcs. Enjoy! I was looking for something to blog about today and couldn’t think of anything. Than got me thinking about this weekend when I was trying to work through a story component and couldn’t move any further. In the end, I solved it because I started thinking on certain things and that led to some story ideas that I had been pursuing and before long I was ping ponging between plot points, ideas, and myths until I had the whole scene figured out. Now, what was I thinking about? Mythology. What kind? I’ll get to that in a minute. The first point I want to make is the value of those stories that came before us. Way before us. Everything from Beowulf to to fairy tales to Olympus. A lot of these are tales we’ve been telling for…