linkses, precious
Aug. 14th, 2006 04:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7Spent today lounging about and generally being useless. I had plans, nay, ambitions of being productive, but these fell by the wayside of my general decrepitude and lassitude, a combination of forces that proved lethal to my daydreams of usefulness.
I am pretty sure I will not, even by some miracle, get my novel ready for submission by Aug 25/26/28th; that is ok, because I have at least made inroads into deciding what else needs to happen to it. (The best part is the end, but the end is told nearly in summary because the damn thing is so long by then. D'oh! Something midway through needs to get trimmed so the end can be expanded.)
However. I did manage to do a lot of websurfing today, and before you laugh at me, I will mention that much of it was close to useful. And was also germane. However, it was done on Z's computer, so I can't just abandon it in a series of open tabs which I will lose track of and lose entirely when Firefox crashes, as I sort of tend to do.
Lo, the usefulness:
A diarist on Daily Kos (a website I admit I don't read, as I am not apolitical but sort of underpolitical) writes a series on getting published, starting with Why Bad Things Happen To Good Books, and the series (linked to at the bottom of the article) goes on to include topics like finding an agent and understanding publishing lists.
If you are struggling, as I am, with complaints by readers that your story's setting (it doesn't have to be fantasy, btw) is a bit undefined and nebulous, here are the famous Worldbuilder Questions first posted to lists, pre-Internet, by noted author Patricia C. Wrede. Useful.
From the SWFA website, a topic near and dear to my heart: The Theory and Practice of Titles. I'm considering the title Protector for the Barbarians Novel, it being a title of the main character-- but should there be a "the"?
Also from SWFA (their main index of writers for articles is here, by the way, and it is useful to anyone who writes, not only SF writers. In particular the Turkey City Lexicon has been among the first bookmarks added to the default browser of every computer I have ever owned/used heavily): The Complete Nobody's Guide To Query Letters-- so you don't have a huge list of publishing credits, or some arcane specialty, or the great good fortune to already be a celebrity? You can still find something to put in your query letter.
And for critiquers, How To Critique Fiction. It is a bit over-earnest, but it contains a number of excellent observations (and a highly detailed checklist) to use while attempting to craft a review of someone's story. I am planning on revisiting this one next time I attempt to read over B_N again. I think it raises a few points I hadn't considered.
That's all for the moment. I am not a good blogger in that I can't remember where I found these links: I just spent the day wandering through the Internet, and those are the tabs I didn't close, which means I wanted to come back to them. How all you conscientious bloggers can remember who brought a particular page to your attention is beyond me. I am too disorganized and scatterbrained.
Also my wrists still click when I rotate them, so I'm going to lay off the typing for the rest of the evening, most likely.
Does anyone have any suggestions to offer, on a semi-medical level, for sore wrists? It's not the muscles, but rather the tendons-- fingers and forearm-- and it's just generally sore, particularly on my left hand. Should I apply heat or cold to it? It's not warm to the touch, particularly, and the stiffness was eased both days by a hot shower. Maybe I should just wrap it in warm towels or use a heat pad? Would that speed healing, or just ease pain? Again, I don't think anything's seriously damaged, it just really hurts to, for example, lift something smallishly heavy in a closed-hand grip-- i.e., a cocktail tray, or to close my hand around a full beer glass.
Heat or cold? Ice or heatpack? Probably doesn't matter for such minor damage, does it? I've just had a day's rest, more or less. Maybe I'll use an ace bandage tomorrow for work?
Distressing, of course, that my non-interfering-with-writing job should so very thoroughly and concretely interfere with writing, physically, just as I was trying to meet a ridiculous self-imposed deadline. Perhaps it's my body's way of telling me I'm a complete idiot.
I am pretty sure I will not, even by some miracle, get my novel ready for submission by Aug 25/26/28th; that is ok, because I have at least made inroads into deciding what else needs to happen to it. (The best part is the end, but the end is told nearly in summary because the damn thing is so long by then. D'oh! Something midway through needs to get trimmed so the end can be expanded.)
However. I did manage to do a lot of websurfing today, and before you laugh at me, I will mention that much of it was close to useful. And was also germane. However, it was done on Z's computer, so I can't just abandon it in a series of open tabs which I will lose track of and lose entirely when Firefox crashes, as I sort of tend to do.
Lo, the usefulness:
A diarist on Daily Kos (a website I admit I don't read, as I am not apolitical but sort of underpolitical) writes a series on getting published, starting with Why Bad Things Happen To Good Books, and the series (linked to at the bottom of the article) goes on to include topics like finding an agent and understanding publishing lists.
If you are struggling, as I am, with complaints by readers that your story's setting (it doesn't have to be fantasy, btw) is a bit undefined and nebulous, here are the famous Worldbuilder Questions first posted to lists, pre-Internet, by noted author Patricia C. Wrede. Useful.
What things are considered luxuries--chocolate, coffee, cotton, flush toilets, spices?
What is furniture like--big and blocky, delicate, simple, elaborately carved or decorated? What is it mostly made of--cloth, wood, stone, etc.? Are certain things (like chairs with arms) reserved for high-status individuals?
For traveling short distances within a city, what are the alternatives? Can people hire a cab, a litter, a rickshaw, or do they have to walk or rely on their own servants or horses?
From the SWFA website, a topic near and dear to my heart: The Theory and Practice of Titles. I'm considering the title Protector for the Barbarians Novel, it being a title of the main character-- but should there be a "the"?
Also from SWFA (their main index of writers for articles is here, by the way, and it is useful to anyone who writes, not only SF writers. In particular the Turkey City Lexicon has been among the first bookmarks added to the default browser of every computer I have ever owned/used heavily): The Complete Nobody's Guide To Query Letters-- so you don't have a huge list of publishing credits, or some arcane specialty, or the great good fortune to already be a celebrity? You can still find something to put in your query letter.
And for critiquers, How To Critique Fiction. It is a bit over-earnest, but it contains a number of excellent observations (and a highly detailed checklist) to use while attempting to craft a review of someone's story. I am planning on revisiting this one next time I attempt to read over B_N again. I think it raises a few points I hadn't considered.
That's all for the moment. I am not a good blogger in that I can't remember where I found these links: I just spent the day wandering through the Internet, and those are the tabs I didn't close, which means I wanted to come back to them. How all you conscientious bloggers can remember who brought a particular page to your attention is beyond me. I am too disorganized and scatterbrained.
Also my wrists still click when I rotate them, so I'm going to lay off the typing for the rest of the evening, most likely.
Does anyone have any suggestions to offer, on a semi-medical level, for sore wrists? It's not the muscles, but rather the tendons-- fingers and forearm-- and it's just generally sore, particularly on my left hand. Should I apply heat or cold to it? It's not warm to the touch, particularly, and the stiffness was eased both days by a hot shower. Maybe I should just wrap it in warm towels or use a heat pad? Would that speed healing, or just ease pain? Again, I don't think anything's seriously damaged, it just really hurts to, for example, lift something smallishly heavy in a closed-hand grip-- i.e., a cocktail tray, or to close my hand around a full beer glass.
Heat or cold? Ice or heatpack? Probably doesn't matter for such minor damage, does it? I've just had a day's rest, more or less. Maybe I'll use an ace bandage tomorrow for work?
Distressing, of course, that my non-interfering-with-writing job should so very thoroughly and concretely interfere with writing, physically, just as I was trying to meet a ridiculous self-imposed deadline. Perhaps it's my body's way of telling me I'm a complete idiot.
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no subject
Date: 2006-08-14 09:14 pm (UTC)I suggest that you bandage both wrists fairly tightly to give them some support. Deep heat gel might also help. And can you get yourself a dictaphone? You could dictate parts of your book until you're able to write again.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-15 01:41 pm (UTC)Dictation probably won't help-- I don't dictate well. I can't even hand-write anymore: I have to type, if I'm going to get anywhere. Which is pretty sad, but that's how I am.
I still am not finished with any of my damn books, but I will be one day. So I hope those links are helpful to me too!
What was the book that didn't make it? *quakes in boots* I am not really letting myself think about what will happen if I can't actually get a book published-- I have all my ambitions hung up on finishing it first. But at least I have two or three half-done, so I can focus on the next one if the first one doesn't generate any interest...
no subject
Date: 2006-08-22 07:53 pm (UTC)http://www.elfringham.dsl.pipex.com/witchsboy.html
Finishing *is* really hard. It's a triumph in itself. And having 3 on the go at once is great :)
no subject
Date: 2006-08-24 02:00 pm (UTC)I don't think it's too dark for the current market, not at all. You should try it again.
I am tormented with not knowing what happens in the end. I especially love the relationship between Hrafn and Sulien, in particular the vision they have of one another, although it puzzles me that the young Sulien seems to be dead. (Is that just Hrafn's imagining?)
I would beg you to let me read the rest but perhaps begging is unseemly. But, well, you know, if it's around... you know... I really want to know what happens...
Having 3 on the go at once is great in terms of never lacking for something to do, but it's terrible in terms of trying to concentrate enough to finish something. The first two have beginnings, middles, and ends, but are so rough as to be worthless, and the other scattered ideas have more idea than structure. Structure is my weakest point, I think, and is the point upon which I waste most of my time-- writing whole scenes, whole novels even, that have to be discarded because the plot won't support them. I think I could write a book on how not to write a book, and Barbarians_Novel (the one I'm closest to finish-finishing) would be the textbook's example.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-29 12:12 pm (UTC)I'm so glad you liked the Hrafn+Sulien relationship, as that's the emotional heart of the thing. But no, Hrafn just assumed that Tancred had come back and killed Sulien, because when the boy disappeared he automatically thought he had been talking to a ghost. But in fact Hrafn had just been seeing into the past at the same time that Sulien was seeing into the future :)
I have two other ones half finished, but I completely lost interest in those. I'm hoping that when I stop writing fanfic and start writing the new novel when the girls go back to school in September, I will regain a bit of interest in those plots too. Fanfic has too much of a tendancy to monopolize my enthusiasm :) However, what it did teach me was the usefulness of writing a plot-plan first, which means that this next novel I'm starting out with the plot already pretty much nailed down, so I shouldn't end up writing scenes which don't end up going in. (Fingers crossed!)
no subject
Date: 2006-08-15 02:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-15 01:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-15 02:37 pm (UTC)And this proves I read your posts even when they're about publishing a book, which I will never do.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-17 01:52 pm (UTC)I'm definitely wearing an Ace bandage today. Rollerskating wouldn't have been a bad idea last night except that my protective gear hasnt' arrived yet, so of course I fell on my wrist. Go me!