Time spent writing

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I've had varied success at "googling for inspiration." Sometimes it leads to abject despair. Other times it springs from abject despair, and it's those times when it seems to work fairly well.

. . . or, erm, it works at least okay . . . ish.

Copyediting

It's been about a year since I was asked to do serious copyediting. 

Oh sure, people have asked me to proofread this or that -- but mostly they just want to know if they sound like an idiot or not, and occasionally they want me to tell them if they need semicolons. (You know who you are and no, no matter how much you may want to add in some more semicolons, you don't need them.)

But this weekend I sat down to professionally copyedit a piece. This is a process that involves OCD-like attention to continuity of formatting, style, spacing, hypenation . . . So I spent some quality time with my copy of the Chicago Manual of Style. It's two inches thick and a thousand pages long and somehow I find the whole damn thing fascinating. 

Read it cover to cover? Never. But there's all these little sparkling jewels of duties of the editor in manuscript preparation and codified punctuation formatting and -- 

I should really stop before I bore everyone to tears.

Back to copyediting.

Ad of the Week

From the SuperBowl, Chrysler continues their "Imported from Detroit" ad campaign and makes one damn fine commercial.

JK Rowling to write for adults

My twitter feed today was all mentions of the recent JK Rowling related press release: she's coming out with a book for "grown ups" with Little Brown. Everybody wants to talk about whether she'll be able to have success writing for a new target market ... but what I really want to know is what the hell the book is about, and no one is talking about that!

The pundits and the reporters and the trend watchers can speculate all they want about potential and market and viability. I'm not a trend watcher; I'm a reader. I want to know if I think I'd like to read the book. 


They're not even saying if it's fantasy or realism or something else, for crying out loud!

Let me know in the comments if someone finds actual information about the novel not just the news of the novel. Thanks!

Memories

I've had a series of health problems lately which have deprioritized blogging. Nothing too serious -- don't be alarmed -- the most recent of which is a hellacious head cold. (Did you know that with enough drugs you can sleep for twelve hours even with your sinuses completely stuffed up?)

But whenever I get sick like this, it gets me thinking about being a kid. When I'd get really sick when I was in high school, my dad would trudge out to the store and get a fresh batch of cold meds, boxes of Kleenex, and cans of soup. He'd never tell me he was going to the video store before he left, and somehow I was always so miserable that I was surprised in spite of past occurences to see him walk back in the door with VHS cases. And he would always rent me the same two movies -- Robin Hood: Men in Tights and Independence Day.  They became, in my mind, the perfect films to watch and rewatch when you're sick and can't even concentrate well enough to read a book.

I'm heartily considering planting myself in front of the television today with my tea and my soup and my Kleenex. But I haven't yet decided what to watch. Sadly, the video stores around me have all closed up shop so I'll have to make do with what's on the shelf at home.

Why some women stay single

A fabulous short mockumentary about why some women stay single. Quite funny.

Ad of the Week

Teaching

These little ditties have been all over Facebook of recent, and frankly, I can't help but repost when I think something scratches the veneer off to get anywhere near the truth. Here it is. Scratched and truthy looking.

The truth about romance

Romance as a fiction genre continues to boom, romance as a real life institution is on the decline. Match.com recently funded university researchers to gauge of single Americans' attitude toward romance in general and matrimony specifically. The result? Only 34% of single Americans said they knew they wanted to get married. another third were "uncertain."

But it's not actually the statistics on marriage which I found all that surprising; it was the statistics on those who are looking for a relationship, or more precisely, aren't looking:

80.8% of single Americans aren't actively seeking a relationship right now (this includes those who "don't have time," "want to stay unattached" and who just aren't putting in any effort).  Of that 80.8%, only 48% said that while they weren't actively looking, they'd consider a relationship if the right person should drop into their lap ... metaphorically speaking.

But don't try to tell yourself that the reason you fall into one group or the other has to do with your geography, notably the lack of suitable (wo)men in your region, not until you let the Icelandic people put that one into perspective for you.  In Iceland -- an isolated island country with roughly the population of Pittsburg -- there is an online incest database where you can check out just how related you are before things get too serious. It takes the notion of Googling your date to a whole new level.

Meanwhile, sales of romantic fiction stay steady (even grow) while other genres decline. Romance novels used to be seen as the fantasy which married women or wistful teens engaged in, but give the data it's not surprising that the romance novel remains popular, particularly the paranormal romance: singles don't expect to experience it themselves; they approach it as purely a fantasy whether or not it contains a vampire.

Image by l.giordani on flickr

Ad of the Week

In honor of Valentine's Day ... some romance and whimsy.

Bits and pieces

It's Friday and I'm scatterbrained. This semester (most semesters) Fridays mark the end of the regular work week and the beginning of my writerly work week. Or, erm, work weekend. Trying to get my brain around the shift and my body -- namely my fingers -- into gear, always poses a bit of a struggle. So I compensate by hanging out on social media for a while. Twitter, I've discovered, is either a pit of human mind barf, or a trove of sparkling little jewels. Today, thankfully, it's a bit more on the sparkly side, though not all of these gems were garnered from Twitter.

The Sci Your Fi Team starts off by amusing me with this notion:

Ever seen an intelligent troll? Ever seen a lumbering fairy? They’re all out there somewhere.

They have to be, right? Now I've got a half-baked idea about a fat fairy rolling around in my head. Hmm. (SYF Team Twitter and Blog)

DigiReader has up two new books as part of their Free Friday Romance eBooks promotion. I don't know much about either book, but you can check them out for yourself here.

Robyn at Seven Sassy Sisters discusses how bribery is the key to success and even provides a recipe. Saddest part of this blog post: she suggests inflicting the chocolate bribery on your family, not yourself.

Allison of Allison Writes discusses Annie Dillard's craft book The Writing Life. Which reminds me that I have a copy of Ursula Le Guin's Steering the Craft that I got as a Christmas gift sitting here on my coffee table that I really want to read but for some reason haven't gotten past the introduction. Perhaps because Le Guin is very strident about you taking her lessons seriously and spacing them out.

Book Ends (a blog and a literary agency) has posted an updated publishing dictionary -- frankly, knowing these terms is a must if you intend to write and publish whether with a traditional publisher, non-traditional publisher, or self-publish.

Linda at Visiting Reality takes the cake, literally. Oh those sprinkles are something else!

And lastly, agent Kristin Nelson who has been blogging for years at Pub Rants (which is a fab resource if you've not seen it), has started a new feature of Friday vlogs where she discusses questions she commonly receives at conferences. Below is her second episode which is about the difference between young adult and middle grade literature. I really liked this vlog because I honestly had no idea how to go about making that distinction but her theory works for me. The first episode was about how one might become a literary agent and (if she sticks to the schedule) there should be another video out today, but at the time of this posting, it hasn't yet hit the web.

Mini-campaign for writers

Rachel Harrie's fourth writer's platform-building campaign is open now. It's a "mini" campaign, only running until March 17, but the mini-ness makes me happy. I'm less likely to get worn out by the whole process of being a blog-socialite when the party doesn't last as long.

The platform-building campaigns are very much like little parties. You show up, get to meet people with like interests, chat, get to know each other, maybe make some friends.

Take a look at it here if you're interested.

Impetus to write

"Writing a novel is a marathon, not a sprint" -- blah, blah, blah. I've heard it before. Doubtless you have as well.

I'm on marathon mile ten ... no, that's far too optimistic: it's more like mile six ... and I'm walking. I've been walking since mile four. Jog? Run? Run a marathon -- who needs that? Pfft.

I am, perhaps, feeling a little jaded.

Getting to mile marker four was exhilarating. The impetus to get started was strong. But now I have to start wondering what's going to be the impetus to keep going. Because frankly this walking-the-marathon thing is getting old and the Dunkin Donuts along the marathon route is singing its siren song of frosted, fatty goodness.

So my question today is not what gets you writing, but what keeps you writing?

Recently one of my friends said she needed to think of some big, dreaded punishment for not achieving her February writing goals. I instantly thought of a tip I'd read about in No Plot? No Problem! for people who don't do their best work when working to "improve themselves" but when they're working to avoid a negative consequence like unemployment.

The tip says, set a firm goal and then write out a check to an organization or charity that you firmly disagree with. Forward date the check for the end of the month, and give it to a friend you trust to not let you off the hook. Tell your friend that if, at the end of the month, you've not hit your goal, your friend is to mail that check. If you do make your goal, your friend gives you back the check and you get to rip it up into tiny confetti flakes of joy to shower over both of you for your awesomeness.

The idea isn't to write out such a big check that it bankrupts you or causes you to get behind on the rent -- this isn't supposed to be a financial burden -- but that you make it a large enough amount that you'd really regret sending it to (for example) the NRA if you're a peacenick, or Planned Parenthood if you're a prolifer.

I didn't actually think my friend would embrace the idea; it's always seemed a little drastic to me. And frankly, I don't have enough cash on hand to give to charities I like let alone send punishment cash to ones I don't like. So when she wandered away from her computer where we were chatting and I thought nothing of it. She came back twenty minutes later and told me it was done.

She'd written out a check to the presidential candidate she absolutely won't vote for and had handed it over to her roommate.

She was locked in. Ready to do or die. Or at least ready to do or donate.

I was impressed.

So far I'm just using "check ins" with my writing friends to try and keep myself going. Every two weeks we chat primarily to discuss what we've accomplished and where we're going. We set goals and then feel guilty if we don't achieve them. However the guilt works best when one of us achieves the goal, because if neither of us achieves the goal then it's a bit more like a slacker's club.

Photo by koalazymonkeyon flickr.

The Old Spice Cat

I'm not sure how I missed this Old Spice + Puss In Boots mash up last fall, but I'm loving it now!

The year of Snow White

We may have just had the Chinese New Year, and various news articles might still be extolling what to do, buy and eat in the Year of the Dragon. But from where I'm sitting, this is the year of Snow White.

In 2012 not one but two full length, live action Snow White tales will make their way into theaters. Mirror Mirror staring Julia Roberts and Snow White and the Huntsman staring Charlize Theoron -- perhaps that phrase in and of itself is proof that neither of these tales is actually about the girl Snow White, but the evil queen.

Roberts and Theoron play undoubtedly different queens. Roberts fills the role with her signature laugh and the premise tends toward slapstick.  Beauty in Mirror Mirror is portrayed through bold colors, and dazzling ornateness. Theoron's character is much more of a Morgan le Fay. In Snow White and the Huntsman, beauty is a dark, sensual thing -- both erotic and cannibalistic.

In short, Mirror Mirror is the type of child's whimsy we think of today when we think "fairy tale."  And Snow White and the Huntsman is a throwback what "fairy tale" meant a few hundred years ago -- actually, what it's meant for most of its existence.