I'm not one of those people who does a lot of rereading; if I read a book once, even if I like it, I don't generally want to read it again. Because you have to put a lot of hours into reading a book the first time and, well, there's a lot of other good books floating around in the ether/library/bookstore that I haven't got to yet. Besides, I already know everything that happens so there won't be any surprises.
Yes, I actually have a list of books I've been meaning to get around to reading. And yes, it keeps getting longer and longer.
Of those I have read more than once, there's a few I consider worthy of being read again (and maybe again and again ... on a yearly basis or something). One of those would be Kalpa Imperial by Angelica Gorodischer because, well, it's a really weird book (meaning you have to read it a lot of times to understand everything), offering multiple narratives and giving the sense that each one means nothing and yet a whole lot at the same time. If I read it once more, maybe I'll figure it out. Also, the author is from Argentina and so the book was translated into English by Ursula K Le Guin. Which on its own is pretty cool.
Second would be Robin Wayne Bailey's take of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser (two of my favorite characters): Swords Against the Shadowland. I love the original stories by Fritz Leiber, too (have read many of them more than once), but for some reason this one sticks with me. Maybe because it's more in line with contemporary book/writing styles? I don't know if it's that or the ever-tacky reader's assertion that "I could visualize everything exactly as he wrote it" (an assertion that proves tacky because of course when the author wrote about a red table the reader visualized a red table ... etc). Or because he channeled the characters as if he'd invented rather than borrowed them.
I don't know what it is, but in both cases even though I know everything that happens, even to the point that I remember some snippets (or close enough) of the writing, I wouldn't mind reading them through again. I think all books should be such a pleasure to read that you want to read them over and over--and of course every author probably thinks so, too--and yet, if that was true, I'd never get around to reading a new book, would I?
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Not Knowing
They (yes, the eponymous they) always say you should write what you know. It's one of those pieces of advice that makes sense and yet, when you think about it, sounds unremittingly dull. I mean, I know things, but what do I know-know? What do I know well enough to write about?
Sometimes I think it's a shame that I don't know very much about my cultural heritage because if I did, I could use it. I can tell people I'm Irish and Czech but aside from a few amusing-yet-useless words, I know nothing about being Czech, or Czech culture (slivovitz, anyone?). Anything I know about Irishness comes from movies or books, not from family history.
I guess this is because the Irish side of my family has been American so long that, yes, we're just American now. The Czech side (or quarter) is only a few generations removed from the motherland so that's why a couple words are still passed down from my mom (from her dad; from his mom). Not that they have any use whatsoever. Also, I'd give you an example but I'd spell it wrong.
So yeah, I wish I knew anything about these cultures but they've been forgotten as generations have become culturally assimilated as American. It happens. And, unfortunately, American culture isn't one with a lot of solid traditions.
So my interest in different cultures comes from the fact that American isn't much of a culture in the traditional sense, and I can't claim to know anything about other cultures except what I've read in books and studied in anthropology. Is it fair to say you know something if you got it out of a book? Is it fair to write about a culture or group of people other than your own?
Well, maybe a better question is, is it fair to me if every story I read is from the same cultural perspective? If I wouldn't want to read it why would I want to write it?
According to them, I'm not qualified to write outside of my own cultural experience--which would make a painfully narrow window if I bought into that. As it is, I feel there are some things you have to write even if you don't know them. Because how do you get to know if you don't?
Sometimes I think it's a shame that I don't know very much about my cultural heritage because if I did, I could use it. I can tell people I'm Irish and Czech but aside from a few amusing-yet-useless words, I know nothing about being Czech, or Czech culture (slivovitz, anyone?). Anything I know about Irishness comes from movies or books, not from family history.
I guess this is because the Irish side of my family has been American so long that, yes, we're just American now. The Czech side (or quarter) is only a few generations removed from the motherland so that's why a couple words are still passed down from my mom (from her dad; from his mom). Not that they have any use whatsoever. Also, I'd give you an example but I'd spell it wrong.
So yeah, I wish I knew anything about these cultures but they've been forgotten as generations have become culturally assimilated as American. It happens. And, unfortunately, American culture isn't one with a lot of solid traditions.
So my interest in different cultures comes from the fact that American isn't much of a culture in the traditional sense, and I can't claim to know anything about other cultures except what I've read in books and studied in anthropology. Is it fair to say you know something if you got it out of a book? Is it fair to write about a culture or group of people other than your own?
Well, maybe a better question is, is it fair to me if every story I read is from the same cultural perspective? If I wouldn't want to read it why would I want to write it?
According to them, I'm not qualified to write outside of my own cultural experience--which would make a painfully narrow window if I bought into that. As it is, I feel there are some things you have to write even if you don't know them. Because how do you get to know if you don't?
Monday, February 4, 2013
Less Time, More Writing!
One of the problems with being so busy I don't have time to write is ... well ... I don't have time to write!
Let me amend that: I have enough time to write whatever papers are due in class. And then, just when I think I've got a free minute, a new assignment pops up.
In the past couple weeks I've managed to get about 1-2000 words of fiction out. But here's the part where that's not so bad: I've only had about 3 hours in which to sit down and do this writing. Ideally I'd spend more time at it but, compared to my previous ratio of output to time spent, I've actually increased productivity! Whoa!
Why, you may ask? (Just as I did when I realized what I'd accomplished) I'll tell you why--because the story I'm working on right now has a deadline coming up in less than two weeks. And, if I'm going to get it done in time to be sent off (Oh I hope so!), then there's no time to goof around and check Facebook in between sentences and go back and read what I just wrote and look up word definitions and browse fun and interesting facts that may be useful ... In short, I have to cut to the chase and just get working!
I'd have a lot harder time doing it without the urgency. I never realized it was so hard to keep focus until putting aside all the time-wasting and just getting to work.
Which reminds me, I have to get back to homework!
Let me amend that: I have enough time to write whatever papers are due in class. And then, just when I think I've got a free minute, a new assignment pops up.
In the past couple weeks I've managed to get about 1-2000 words of fiction out. But here's the part where that's not so bad: I've only had about 3 hours in which to sit down and do this writing. Ideally I'd spend more time at it but, compared to my previous ratio of output to time spent, I've actually increased productivity! Whoa!
Why, you may ask? (Just as I did when I realized what I'd accomplished) I'll tell you why--because the story I'm working on right now has a deadline coming up in less than two weeks. And, if I'm going to get it done in time to be sent off (Oh I hope so!), then there's no time to goof around and check Facebook in between sentences and go back and read what I just wrote and look up word definitions and browse fun and interesting facts that may be useful ... In short, I have to cut to the chase and just get working!
I'd have a lot harder time doing it without the urgency. I never realized it was so hard to keep focus until putting aside all the time-wasting and just getting to work.
Which reminds me, I have to get back to homework!
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Writing is Writing Unless it's Bibliography--Then it's Math
It's too late! I missed Monday! There's too much to do!
Ah, well. I knew that would happen when I decided to go full time at school this term. Of course there's no time for writing or editing or blogging--I'm too busy studying and reading, listening to lectures and staring at pictures and just plain homeworking.
Also, I'm spending inordinate amounts of time making up lists of things I need to do when I find the time to do them in. A long list, that; and one that doesn't promise to ease up for, oh, six or seven more weeks.
I'm used to taking multiple classes in a term that's twelve weeks long--being cut down to nine, though it's not much difference, suddenly seems improbable. At least my major is one that involves writing (LOTS of it!) so I'm comfortable not only with my subject, but with proving my competency. I just have to write good papers, which I can do. I think.
My stumbling block is bibliography formatting. Someone please tell me why bibliography form is different from in-text citation form? With one it's all commas and with the other it's all periods and don't get your italics mixed up with your underlines--
If you haven't had to worry about intensive bibliographic formatting this might not sound too stressful but, to me, it's like math. There's a set formula and no matter how you explain it to me, I'm not going to do it right. Something will inevitably miscompute.
Oh well! Those papers aren't due for another five weeks or so!
All of them.
Ah, well. I knew that would happen when I decided to go full time at school this term. Of course there's no time for writing or editing or blogging--I'm too busy studying and reading, listening to lectures and staring at pictures and just plain homeworking.
Also, I'm spending inordinate amounts of time making up lists of things I need to do when I find the time to do them in. A long list, that; and one that doesn't promise to ease up for, oh, six or seven more weeks.
I'm used to taking multiple classes in a term that's twelve weeks long--being cut down to nine, though it's not much difference, suddenly seems improbable. At least my major is one that involves writing (LOTS of it!) so I'm comfortable not only with my subject, but with proving my competency. I just have to write good papers, which I can do. I think.
My stumbling block is bibliography formatting. Someone please tell me why bibliography form is different from in-text citation form? With one it's all commas and with the other it's all periods and don't get your italics mixed up with your underlines--
If you haven't had to worry about intensive bibliographic formatting this might not sound too stressful but, to me, it's like math. There's a set formula and no matter how you explain it to me, I'm not going to do it right. Something will inevitably miscompute.
Oh well! Those papers aren't due for another five weeks or so!
All of them.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
A Cat's Not a That
I'm convinced everyone in the world--everyone who writes, at least--has a special writing hang-up. You know, something other writers do that absolutely drives you nuts when you read it. Like arbitrarily using the second person, for example.
It doesn't have to include breaking or even bending a grammatical rule. Just something you read which, as a writer, makes you want to shout at your cat, "Don't they know better? Why???"
To which your cat will probably roll over and ignore you, but this doesn't make the hang-up any easier to gloss over next time you come across it.
For me there's a few such pet peeves. I have a certain favorite writer who uses phrases like 'he climbed upwards towards the summit,' or, 'she inched forward towards the light.' Really? Couldn't you just use upward/forward OR toward? The word 'towards' with an S, for that matter, makes my eye twitch. It's not like it's plural, so what does the S accomplish?
The word alright. Because it's not a word. Use it when you want me not to pay attention to you anymore.
People who spell out abbreviations into words. I once read a book where KO'd became kayoed. Ugh.
But perhaps the worst for me--and keep in mind, there's no grammatical precedent for this to bother me (at a time I thought there was, but so MANY people do it and I've never found the rule anywhere, meaning I must've imagined its existence) is the use of that for who.
Bob was a person that liked cheese.
Really? Because you just said Bob was a person; as in, a living, sentient, animate being. Shouldn't that mean Bob is a who, not a that? Or, more precisely, a what?
Now that I've mentioned it here I'm sure you'll see it everywhere--I sure do. In books and advertisements and newspapers. In the writing of people who get paid nicely to do it. In song lyrics. In commercials.
I think it's rational to make this a rule, even though it's not. Do you think of people as that's instead of who's? Maybe this usage is so popular because people get queasy worrying about the difference between who and whom, I don't know. I just know when I read a story in the realm of fantasy and SF this becomes an issue insomuch as who is a sentient word while that isn't, necessarily. So when you write something like:
He was afraid of the monster that lived in his sock drawer.
Do you see how that's different from:
He was afraid of the monster who lived in his sock drawer.
In the second instance, the monster is an individual. And in fantasy and SF, this distinction often needs to be made.
So anyway, like I said, this is only my own pet peeve. I'm sure you're not the kind of person who'd ever write something like that.
"A cat is a who, not a that. And stop calling me your pet peeve."
It doesn't have to include breaking or even bending a grammatical rule. Just something you read which, as a writer, makes you want to shout at your cat, "Don't they know better? Why???"
To which your cat will probably roll over and ignore you, but this doesn't make the hang-up any easier to gloss over next time you come across it.
For me there's a few such pet peeves. I have a certain favorite writer who uses phrases like 'he climbed upwards towards the summit,' or, 'she inched forward towards the light.' Really? Couldn't you just use upward/forward OR toward? The word 'towards' with an S, for that matter, makes my eye twitch. It's not like it's plural, so what does the S accomplish?
The word alright. Because it's not a word. Use it when you want me not to pay attention to you anymore.
People who spell out abbreviations into words. I once read a book where KO'd became kayoed. Ugh.
But perhaps the worst for me--and keep in mind, there's no grammatical precedent for this to bother me (at a time I thought there was, but so MANY people do it and I've never found the rule anywhere, meaning I must've imagined its existence) is the use of that for who.
Bob was a person that liked cheese.
Really? Because you just said Bob was a person; as in, a living, sentient, animate being. Shouldn't that mean Bob is a who, not a that? Or, more precisely, a what?
Now that I've mentioned it here I'm sure you'll see it everywhere--I sure do. In books and advertisements and newspapers. In the writing of people who get paid nicely to do it. In song lyrics. In commercials.
I think it's rational to make this a rule, even though it's not. Do you think of people as that's instead of who's? Maybe this usage is so popular because people get queasy worrying about the difference between who and whom, I don't know. I just know when I read a story in the realm of fantasy and SF this becomes an issue insomuch as who is a sentient word while that isn't, necessarily. So when you write something like:
He was afraid of the monster that lived in his sock drawer.
Do you see how that's different from:
He was afraid of the monster who lived in his sock drawer.
In the second instance, the monster is an individual. And in fantasy and SF, this distinction often needs to be made.
So anyway, like I said, this is only my own pet peeve. I'm sure you're not the kind of person who'd ever write something like that.
"A cat is a who, not a that. And stop calling me your pet peeve."
Sunday, January 6, 2013
New Focus!
So it's a new year and new resolutions are, it seems, the thing to do. Right? Right.
I'd like to resolve to get professionally published but that's not something I'm in charge of (oh, don't I wish!). Instead, I'll be a little more reasonable.
I have two part-time jobs and will be a full-time student most of this year, which spells that ultimate of four-letter words for aspiring writers: BUSY. Meaning it'll be even more important that I find time for my writing.
I can't control whether or not my stories get accepted but there are resolutions I can make to increase the odds. And they are:
Line-edit to obsessive perfection
--Because getting every word and phrase and sentence perfect can't be a bad thing; the word that doesn't fit, or phrase so overused it's cliche, always bothers me when reading, so why should I inflict this on others?
Work on openings
--Since this is the part people read first, it figures that openings should be awesome. The purpose is to hook readers in while laying out all the pertinent details. According to responses I've got, I have to work on this a little.
Keep on task with submissions and deadlines
--No matter how much editing and hard work goes into it, a story never gets anywhere unless it's submitted. And so I have a long list of submission deadlines and open magazines so I have no excuse to let stuff just lay around.
And that's it! Sounds so easy, right? Well, maybe when I subtract the fact that I have a bunch of OTHER obligations. Squished into the middle of life, I think it'll be just enough.
I'd like to resolve to get professionally published but that's not something I'm in charge of (oh, don't I wish!). Instead, I'll be a little more reasonable.
I have two part-time jobs and will be a full-time student most of this year, which spells that ultimate of four-letter words for aspiring writers: BUSY. Meaning it'll be even more important that I find time for my writing.
I can't control whether or not my stories get accepted but there are resolutions I can make to increase the odds. And they are:
Line-edit to obsessive perfection
--Because getting every word and phrase and sentence perfect can't be a bad thing; the word that doesn't fit, or phrase so overused it's cliche, always bothers me when reading, so why should I inflict this on others?
Work on openings
--Since this is the part people read first, it figures that openings should be awesome. The purpose is to hook readers in while laying out all the pertinent details. According to responses I've got, I have to work on this a little.
Keep on task with submissions and deadlines
--No matter how much editing and hard work goes into it, a story never gets anywhere unless it's submitted. And so I have a long list of submission deadlines and open magazines so I have no excuse to let stuff just lay around.
And that's it! Sounds so easy, right? Well, maybe when I subtract the fact that I have a bunch of OTHER obligations. Squished into the middle of life, I think it'll be just enough.
Monday, December 17, 2012
The Author of the Self-Writing Story
So I did a thing the other day that I never have before--something that made me feel silly and yet amazingly clever at the same time.
Going through my files (in order to ensure I had the most recent copies both on my hard drive and jump drive), I found a document I didn't recognize by name. Sure, I have a couple dozen so sometimes I have to open up a story and read the first line to remember which one it is--but in this case, I opened it up and discovered a story I'd written four or five months ago and then ABSOLUTELY FORGOTTEN ABOUT.
This was only possible because it was flash--that is, roughly three double-spaced pages long. What I think happened is that I sat down, typed it all out in a burst of inspiration, then saved it and went to work on something bigger. And, seeing as this one was so short and finished so quickly, it never made the move from my short term memory to long term.
I liked the story, reading it over the other day. So much so that I fixed up a thing or two (really, how many fixes can there be in so few pages?) then sent it out.
And then I went into my Master Story Document, which is where I (supposedly) keep track of all my stories, and added this one like I should've four/five months ago.
I don't want to ever lose a story like this again, but in a way it was a nice discovery--almost made me feel like the story wrote itself!
Going through my files (in order to ensure I had the most recent copies both on my hard drive and jump drive), I found a document I didn't recognize by name. Sure, I have a couple dozen so sometimes I have to open up a story and read the first line to remember which one it is--but in this case, I opened it up and discovered a story I'd written four or five months ago and then ABSOLUTELY FORGOTTEN ABOUT.
This was only possible because it was flash--that is, roughly three double-spaced pages long. What I think happened is that I sat down, typed it all out in a burst of inspiration, then saved it and went to work on something bigger. And, seeing as this one was so short and finished so quickly, it never made the move from my short term memory to long term.
I liked the story, reading it over the other day. So much so that I fixed up a thing or two (really, how many fixes can there be in so few pages?) then sent it out.
And then I went into my Master Story Document, which is where I (supposedly) keep track of all my stories, and added this one like I should've four/five months ago.
I don't want to ever lose a story like this again, but in a way it was a nice discovery--almost made me feel like the story wrote itself!
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