ohhhh thank you Word
Jan. 12th, 2005 05:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7Word: Thank you for having an Auto-Save, so that when I accidentally press the button on the power strip that cuts off power to my computer, I do not lose what little work I have done today.
Apple has just come out with a new word processing program called "Pages". I would be interested to see what that's like. Because Word 2004 for Mac is awesome, but I can't believe that Pages wouldn't be good.
They also have a $500 iMac, which is neat. It is sexy beyond belief. And headless. You need a monitor to go with it. Riddle me this: Why wouldn't Apple cash in by selling a smallish but sexy monitor? The Apple displays start at $1000.
I know, I know, they're aiming for Switchers who already have a keyboard and a monitor and all the peripherals from their old Compaq-that-sucks-and-crashes-all-the-time (don't I know it), but think about it. If you got a little computer as sexy as this, wouldn't you then go on and maybe, as you could afford it or as they wore out, replace your grungy beige keyboard with a shiny white Apple one, and maybe replace your big beige box with a shiny Apple monitor---- if they made them in sizes under Ridiculously Penis-Enhancing, and at prices less than Holy Shit?
Pfeh.
Anyway. It's a sexy little computer but I still love my Luxo Jr. G4 iMac. So there.
I have been reading writing blogs, including a woman who is doing what I meant to-- blogging as she writes a novel-- only doing so way more informatively. I keep thinking that I ought to blog with some interest in mind, make my blog readable by a wider audience, have something worthwhile to say now and then-- but I don't, really, and any time I have tried otherwise it's been a miserable failure. Bleagh. So, moderate guilt, but not much of it.
I have shamelessly wasted the day. I did take a nap, and Dave woke me to be astonished that I was still sleeping. I got out of bed eventually, and went and tried to do some work on my computer, only to discover that Dave himself had gone to take a nap. Pfeh! This is the boy astonished that I'm napping? I'm the one with the massive sleep deficit and the problems with insomnia. Hmph.
Anyhow.
When he woke, we played a game about an asylum for abused stuffed animals. Poorly translated from the German. We were doing quite well: we had cured the zipper-hippo and the hot-water-bottle-crocodile, and we'd started on the sheep that thought she was a wolf, when the incident with the jostling of the coffee table occurred and my computer shut off.
I'll take that as a sign. That and the fact that chapter 4's progress wasn't erased after all. The sign: Get back to work, you goddamn slacker.
I only have two days off a week, and I spent the other one mostly lying around trying to unwind. Which is pointless. So, I should be writing instead of this bullshit "relaxing" crap.
I am having my doubts about the Vikings novel, after reading all of these blogs about professional writing. I have moments where, rereading it, I think it's great, but then there are other moments where I feel like it's full of chaff and if I winnow out all the chaff there's just not that much story. If I compress ch 2 and 3 into one, and then remove half of ch. 4 like I am doing... I have to do so much more writing than I thought, I have to change so much, and I'm going to have to add so much. I know, I know, I know, my first draft is barely more than an outline, and the entire conclusion of the book, from about 2/3 on, needs to be rewritten so much more in-depth.
It's depressing, because writing it feels more like work than writing other things, and while I used to think that was a good thing, I've wondered all along if that will communicate itself to the reader: i.e., it will be boring. Lindorien's helpful comment that she couldn't get past the first two paragraphs only confirms that, to an extent: if I am a little bored by it now and then, some readers are going to be bored to tears by it.
So I'll keep slogging, but how many times will I rewrite it, even restructure it, before I'll know whether the story's even going to work? I know I'm making good changes, but it is very hard to judge whether they're good enough. Simply 'better than it was' is not 'good enough to publish'. But I love it anyway...
And the observation that a lot of crap way worse has been published isn't very helpful. In fact, it's harmful, as we all learned on HASA. The simple fact that it really depends on your market cannot be escaped: a smutty Eomer/Lothiriel story that is poorly written and in fact borders unintentionally on parody will get in because that coupling's fans are underfed and undiscerning, whereas a Young Aragorn story that may be better-written will not get in because the Young Aragorn lovers are extremely picky and also have a lot to choose from. And in the meantime a brilliantly-written but melodramatic Mary-Sue torturefic is going to get aggressively rejected because nobody likes squick or Mary-Sues, particularly not melodramatic ones. [May or may not be true; I made up the examples off the top of my head.]
So...
Muh! I have no choice but to persevere, because I am determined, absolutely determined, to finish a novel. At the very least because I never finish anything.
Apple has just come out with a new word processing program called "Pages". I would be interested to see what that's like. Because Word 2004 for Mac is awesome, but I can't believe that Pages wouldn't be good.
They also have a $500 iMac, which is neat. It is sexy beyond belief. And headless. You need a monitor to go with it. Riddle me this: Why wouldn't Apple cash in by selling a smallish but sexy monitor? The Apple displays start at $1000.
I know, I know, they're aiming for Switchers who already have a keyboard and a monitor and all the peripherals from their old Compaq-that-sucks-and-crashes-all-the-time (don't I know it), but think about it. If you got a little computer as sexy as this, wouldn't you then go on and maybe, as you could afford it or as they wore out, replace your grungy beige keyboard with a shiny white Apple one, and maybe replace your big beige box with a shiny Apple monitor---- if they made them in sizes under Ridiculously Penis-Enhancing, and at prices less than Holy Shit?
Pfeh.
Anyway. It's a sexy little computer but I still love my Luxo Jr. G4 iMac. So there.
I have been reading writing blogs, including a woman who is doing what I meant to-- blogging as she writes a novel-- only doing so way more informatively. I keep thinking that I ought to blog with some interest in mind, make my blog readable by a wider audience, have something worthwhile to say now and then-- but I don't, really, and any time I have tried otherwise it's been a miserable failure. Bleagh. So, moderate guilt, but not much of it.
I have shamelessly wasted the day. I did take a nap, and Dave woke me to be astonished that I was still sleeping. I got out of bed eventually, and went and tried to do some work on my computer, only to discover that Dave himself had gone to take a nap. Pfeh! This is the boy astonished that I'm napping? I'm the one with the massive sleep deficit and the problems with insomnia. Hmph.
Anyhow.
When he woke, we played a game about an asylum for abused stuffed animals. Poorly translated from the German. We were doing quite well: we had cured the zipper-hippo and the hot-water-bottle-crocodile, and we'd started on the sheep that thought she was a wolf, when the incident with the jostling of the coffee table occurred and my computer shut off.
I'll take that as a sign. That and the fact that chapter 4's progress wasn't erased after all. The sign: Get back to work, you goddamn slacker.
I only have two days off a week, and I spent the other one mostly lying around trying to unwind. Which is pointless. So, I should be writing instead of this bullshit "relaxing" crap.
I am having my doubts about the Vikings novel, after reading all of these blogs about professional writing. I have moments where, rereading it, I think it's great, but then there are other moments where I feel like it's full of chaff and if I winnow out all the chaff there's just not that much story. If I compress ch 2 and 3 into one, and then remove half of ch. 4 like I am doing... I have to do so much more writing than I thought, I have to change so much, and I'm going to have to add so much. I know, I know, I know, my first draft is barely more than an outline, and the entire conclusion of the book, from about 2/3 on, needs to be rewritten so much more in-depth.
It's depressing, because writing it feels more like work than writing other things, and while I used to think that was a good thing, I've wondered all along if that will communicate itself to the reader: i.e., it will be boring. Lindorien's helpful comment that she couldn't get past the first two paragraphs only confirms that, to an extent: if I am a little bored by it now and then, some readers are going to be bored to tears by it.
So I'll keep slogging, but how many times will I rewrite it, even restructure it, before I'll know whether the story's even going to work? I know I'm making good changes, but it is very hard to judge whether they're good enough. Simply 'better than it was' is not 'good enough to publish'. But I love it anyway...
And the observation that a lot of crap way worse has been published isn't very helpful. In fact, it's harmful, as we all learned on HASA. The simple fact that it really depends on your market cannot be escaped: a smutty Eomer/Lothiriel story that is poorly written and in fact borders unintentionally on parody will get in because that coupling's fans are underfed and undiscerning, whereas a Young Aragorn story that may be better-written will not get in because the Young Aragorn lovers are extremely picky and also have a lot to choose from. And in the meantime a brilliantly-written but melodramatic Mary-Sue torturefic is going to get aggressively rejected because nobody likes squick or Mary-Sues, particularly not melodramatic ones. [May or may not be true; I made up the examples off the top of my head.]
So...
Muh! I have no choice but to persevere, because I am determined, absolutely determined, to finish a novel. At the very least because I never finish anything.
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no subject
Date: 2005-01-13 12:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-13 12:11 am (UTC)I absolutely love Croko. That poor thing. I was so excited when he got his hot water bottle back.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-13 12:12 am (UTC)I KNOW! So was I. :-) Poor little guy.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-13 01:47 am (UTC)I don't know if this will make you feel any better, as I suspect my other posts have not, but I would just like to say that I wouldn't have even bothered to comment on your story in the first place if I felt it wasn't worth reading. I am a voracious reader, and notoriously frugal with feedback, not to mention the biggest anal-retentive word geek you'll ever meet; so the fact that you got a comment at all is testament to the fact that I am truly enjoying your work.
If you doubt it, check with
no subject
Date: 2005-01-13 02:53 am (UTC)I am feeling much better, as is evidenced by the fact that I've moved on to complaining about specific things. I am afraid my capacity for whining is endless.
I am terribly pleased that you find it worth reading. Excited, even. But that doesn't mean it doesn't need a lot of work!! And it's going to take me a very long time to do that work. I think having written the original in 30 (actually it was 23ish) days has sort of spoiled me as far as relatively-instant gratification goes.
Speaking of instant gratification, if you are very interested the alpha is posted here (http://www.livejournal.com/users/treigylgweith/2004/11/01/) (I friended you with that journal so you can read it if you like), and you can read ch 3 (http://www.livejournal.com/users/treigylgweith/27707.html?mode=reply) (i posted the beta there and have made only minor edits between that draft and the draft I'll post next week) and see the rest, and just how much work the rest needs. If you are terribly interested. (And want to see how much work is needed. Yikes. It hangs together, narratively, but a lot goes unsaid that really ought to be said, while other things are stated repeatedly.)
Otherwise, you'll have to be patient. :)
no subject
Date: 2005-01-14 03:03 am (UTC)Sweet, thanks for friending me. I'm going to try to spare an afternoon this weekend and take a look-see.
How are things progressing with your major overhaul? Hope it's going smoothly, and you've passed the worst of the speed bumps! :)
no subject
Date: 2005-01-14 04:17 am (UTC)I am optimistic about the overhaul but, y'know, need to be locked up without Internet or the rest of my stuff, so that I do it.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-13 04:32 am (UTC)1. You have to go through the hard bit, where you massively rewrite and improve your story, to get anything to the point of being published.
2. Any story, no matter how good, will not be liked by everybody. Think of all the books you don't like that I like -- Harry Potter, for example. People buy a few books and read a few more and skip everything else. As an author, if even 10 percent of the people who open your book decide they like it enough to read the whole thing, you're a huge success. So I wouldn't be worried by negative responses.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-14 04:19 am (UTC)But you're right. People's opinions vary, and it's good to get a wide range of opinions. I do feel pretty good about the ones I've gotten, and I don't doubt that I have the capability to write something a reasonable range of people will enjoy.
:) But it's nice to be reminded to do the math.
And on point 1, you're right. The editing is important. And enjoyable. And is something I've never done well. But I am enjoying learning it because it's the important and hard part, and if I can manage to get through it I will feel so good. Even if nobody wants to publish it. Then I can self-publish it, make no money, and still feel good because I did it, I finished it, and it's an accomplishment.
:D