It’s been a while

How’s everyone doing?

Since April, my sons have started high school band (they integrate the 8th graders in at the end of the year), my daughter has graduated high school, and the house is all in a flurry because she’s getting married next month.

It’s bittersweet to be losing a daughter (yet gaining a son, so to speak), but they seem to love each other, and she’s continuing with her education. So I’m pleased about it.

I’ve been working on the garden (which has really perked up this year), taking care of home and rabbits, driving kids places, and working on the Think Sideways class. I’m a bit behind, but learning A LOT.

Each class builds on the one before it, so it’s a bit difficult to explain, but the homework for this lesson is to split your planned story into scenes then write a one-sentence blurb for each scene. For example, the Council of Elrond in Lord of the Rings could be summed up this way:

The Council of Elrond meets, and after much controversy, appoints Frodo and eight others to go to Mount Doom and destroy the Ring.

As you can imagine, this homework is taking me a while to do. But it’s a great way to get a handle on the book before you write it. I had an idea of where I wanted the story to start then realized that I really needed to start the story a few scenes earlier. Also, doing this has shown me where I need to do research (anyone know how to sail?) and where the logic holes in my plot are. All this before I spend weeks writing this thing.

So I’m very happy about the class.

What have you been up to? Anything good going on the rest of us need to know about?

 

Write what you know? Or not?

There has been a huge discussion over on LiveJournal about race and cultural appropriation, and one thing I’ve noticed is people saying, “Well, if I just wrote about [what they are], then it would be boring!”

Which made me laugh, because none of the things they put in the brackets sounded boring at all … unless they wrote mainstream, which puts me to sleep.

Seems to me that writing about what you know about, with a bit of tweaking to make it not exactly you, might be just what you need.

Take Tobias Buckell, for example. He grew up in the Caribbean. If he had said, “I can’t write about what I know, that would be boring!” then his whole damn freaking awesome series wouldn’t have come about.

Now I know what you’re thinking: the Caribbean is WAY cooler than, say, Hoboken or Seattle or Dallas. But no, it isn’t. Because if you honestly write what those places and people are like, someone from somewhere else is going to find that interesting.

And Tobias didn’t just write about Caribbean people. He wrote about Caribbean people in SPACE, with aliens and immortals and interstellar wars and blowing shit up.

If he had written it mainstream … well you see where I’m going here.

(apologies to mainstream writers … it’s just not my thing)

I say this as I prepare a story set in the Los Angeles basin. Just so happens it’s in the future. Most of the LA basin is underwater due to global warming, gangs run the place, and our heroine is wheedled into working for a guy obsessed with finding his way off Earth.

But it’s LA, I grew up around there, and I’ve driven that damn basin so many times I could practically do it blindfolded. That doesn’t mean someone might not be interested in what it might be like, a hundred or so years from now. Especially if it involves blowing things up.

So the adage to write what you know still seems right on.

 

Think Sideways course update

I just started lesson five on the How to Think Sideways class (lesson six is up but I’ve been slow). This lesson … mind-blowing. If you can imagine tapping into your subconscious for all the things that motivate you, then putting THAT into your writing on a conscious level … it’s incredible.

I have two great ideas for stories from lesson 4, but I’m going with the SF one (any surprise?) because I can do a better job on this without a ton of research — I’ll need some (know someone who curses in Chinese?) but it’s set in Los Angeles and that’s a place I already know.

Click the box at the top of the sidebar on the right there for more information on the course, or you’re welcome to ask about it. I’ve gotten my money’s worth already and I still have the rest of the year to go.

 

Just guess where this is going on …

You got it: Texas police rob black and hispanic motorists

TENAHA — You can drive into this dusty fleck of a town near the Texas-Louisiana border if you’re African-American, but you might not be able to drive out of it — at least not with your car, your cash, your jewelry or other valuables.

That’s because the police here have allegedly found a way to strip motorists, many of them black, of their property without ever charging them with a crime. Instead, they offer out-of-towners a grim choice: voluntarily sign over your belongings to the town or face felony charges of money laundering or other serious crimes.

Because, yanno, there’s no racism anymore

 

Courage to succeed

I stopped by to make sure this blog hadn’t been spammed out, and in the stats it said someone searched for “having the courage to fail” and found their way here.

Interesting, because I’ve come to the conclusion that this isn’t my problem. I’m having trouble with the idea of success. Always have.

Why? Maybe it’s that standing up in front of people makes me want to puke, or having people make assumptions about me due to what I write (as if every novel is an autobiography or a political treatise) makes me cringe. I don’t want to be famous, and that’s what the rest of the writing world seems to be about. I just want to be paid and be left alone.

I need a damn good agent and a publisher who can sell my stories without me having to be around people.

First, I need to finish editing this book.

 

Who, me?

Going back to the beginning of this rendition of this mess, I have to say: just like I would not go to an auto mechanic if my chickens were sneezing, or to the farm store if my car won’t start, it does not make sense to me that I would, were I looking for resources on writing about people of color, go to a white person. The basic premise is fucked, even before you add the baroque levels of fuckedness that have accreted over the last couple of months. I don’t think that’s a lesson that a white woman should be trying to teach the internet.

– LiveJournal user Serrana, about the current race debate over on LJ

Which is an astute comment.

Makes me wonder if I’ve been a little too enthusiastic in “showing how it’s done”. Because I’m pretty white myself.

So if I’ve said anything offensive I hope someone tells me so I don’t do it again.

 

Thoughts on creativity

Daily routines of notable people

I have trouble relating to the whole “gotta write fiction every day” thing. But I do have a routine.

I get up at 6 am on school days, make breakfast, then check email until the kids are ready for school, then after getting home, do whatever I am doing that day, usually at the computer starting around 9 or so, with breaks for housework, yard work, and tending to the animals.

I write (blog, journal, whatever) every day. It’s part of who I am.

But I can’t write fiction every day.

The desire to write fiction seems to come during warm months these days, but I never know when it’s going to happen. But an idea will come that I have to write, and I can’t NOT work on it. I have been known to work for eight or ten hours on a story a day for days straight when it happens, and not feel stressed about it at all. It’s fun.

Then I can go months without a single story happening.

If I don’t have an idea, it seems stupid to waste time sitting at a blank page. I just go read in that case, and sooner or later I’m blogging somewhere.

This lady seems to agree with me (very funny, safe for work):

One thing that struck me about this video is the idea of creativity coming from the divine, taking the pressure off a person to BE a genius rather than CHANNEL the genius.

Now if only I could get this genius thing to edit better …

 

Update on the class

Right now I’m taking Holly Lisle’s How to Think Sideways class (the 12 month edition, which I recommend if you’re coming off a slump, have a lot of outside work going on, or are in general a busy person, as it’s the same lessons, only once every two weeks instead of once a week), and it has been just what I needed.

The first lesson is deceptively simple: what are four barriers (she says THE four barriers) to success?

At first I thought this was one of those first class ‘gimme’ lessons, but when I really took a look and did the work on it, boy, it kicked my butt.

The thing I like best about this class is that you’re assigned to a workgroup. We’re having some very thought-provoking discussions that are changing the way I look at life in general and writing in particular.

And the second class homework is one of those assignments that is so outright FUN that I look forward to working on the project more. (Yeah, it’s a project, already!) I’m getting excited about writing again.

Anyway, if it sounds interesting go by and check it out here. You can start the series at any time, she just assigns the workgroups as a bunch of people join up.

 

Getting back up

It’s been a bad winter for me personally, not the worst but not real good. So when my sister sent me this link today it helped. I needed to see this little video and you might too.

Are you going to finish strong?

 

This looks promising

I’ve talked about Holly Lisle’s “How to Think Sideways” course before, but since she’s closing the Charter Member category (and I’m to the point where I could benefit from some input), I decided to join up. She has 6 month and 12 month courses (the only difference is that you get one lesson a week or one every other week, which is the one I picked), and just looking at the first lesson I made a good choice.

If you want more information about the course or how to sign up, go here.