Are you actually ‘writing’ ?
I guess it’s time to mention that wasting time is a matter of discipline: “Is this research, or pud-pullng?” *
You know, writers aren’t forced to waste time, but we must be aware of the difference between actual research and plain old entertainment. We must also be alert for a terrifying realization that goes something like this: “Jeebus, this arcane essay about Hamilton’s hat size is so much more interesting than my own story!” At which point that writer might want to reassess his commitment to the craft.
So Yes, reading up on hemp-growing by the Founding Fathers (a hot topic these days on the history sites) might be research. But, well, you know what I mean.
* Excess-italic alert!
Writing machine fail
I’d like to report that my lovely three-month-old computer is only diseased, but it is in fact deceased. I believe it’s the logic board rather than the HD, but I have all my writing redundantly backed up in any case.
This morning I’m off to the service wizards, where I do more pencil-on-paper drafts as I wait for my appointment with destiny.
Twitter user runs amok
I now I have a writer following me who has…
- issued 16,868 Tweets
- has 13,395 followers
- is following 14,332
In what way is this a Good Thing?
Loud room, quiet room
I’ve been rethinking something that Haley Whitehall tweeted to me a couple of weeks ago. I had told her that I couldn’t have music going while I was writing. “I can’t bear to have a quiet room”, she replied.
I didn’t give it much thought. But her next words–”I just tune it out most of the time”–reminded me that that is exactly what I do when I’m ‘out’ writing in a coffee house, or (yes) doing that #pubwrite thing: I tune it out.
The tuning out allows me–forces me?–to concentrate on writing in a way that doesn’t work in a quiet home. Here, I have laundry, dishes, prepping dinner. To say nothing of the cats.
So I’m going to give it a try. I’ll start with some Gotan Project, or maybe the Modern Mandolin Quartet, and see what happens. Bonus: It will keep the cats at bay.
Flagpole, 1801
In 1801, the Pasha of Tripoli had the American consulate’s flagpole chopped down, effectively declaring war.
But where was the consulate? Where was the flagpole?
It’s yet another opportunity for me to set aside actual writing in order to undertake more research.
Miscellaneous Lenin
1907 – A stagecoach robbery organized by Vladimir Lenin and Joseph
Stalin killed an estimated 40 people and netted approximately 250,000
rubles. Ten years later …
1917 – Vladimir Lenin issued a decree establishing the Cheka, the
first Soviet secret police.
Source: Wikipedia
WordPress for iPad
I’m doing my best to give it a chance. After all, it allows me to seem to be adding a post, and once it actually did add a post.
But no longer. I now see a box telling me that there has been a “Communication Error” as a result of a “Bad username or password.”
I should be writing instead. Current project: A lightweight “ghost” story.
Add this to my vast array of skills:
Refrigerator Repairman! Our freezer-bottom contraption experienced the death of its defrost thermostat.
After a great deal of disassembly, I finally reached the piece and did a bunch of diagnoses.
$20 later, it’s up and running, and has been so for the past month.
And don’t nag me about brands, OK? It’s an “Amana.”
That radio script …
Ages ago I began working on a three-novel series set in seafaring America between 1777 and 1814. Progress was a bit slow until I decided to transform an early part of it into a radio script for the audio group I work with.
I’d hoped that I could clarify the unfinished novel by working out some story difficulties in the radio format, but I’ve had to make a vast number of changes to accommodate the medium, hardly any of which suit the novel itself. And it’s more of a picaresque thing now, as the hero doesn’t have much opportunity to chart his own course.
As to the script version, I’ve divided it into five half-hour segments. At first I fretted about the break points, but by a stroke of good luck all but one of them concludes at a natural cliff-hanger.
