October 5, 2019
Getting some work done, hanging with the kid and his gang, meet-cutes and the Beta Saga.
WIP Words Written
I put in 1600 words on a scene introducing two characters to each other who will eventually get married. I am rather proud of the meet-cute for this pair. I also managed to rid one character of an annoying coworker as well as delivering a camel to Noah, down the hall. (You will laugh at that one day.)
It was an integral scene to the story and I like how it turned out far better than the previous scene I wrote. It had alot more words but this one is a keeper.
AW Mingling
The Beta Read I have been working on is going pretty well. It turns out that I am a very thorough and critical Beta Reader. Luckily, the author is taking the notes in the spirit in which they are intended. It is too easy to come across as just mean and scathing when doing notes on someone’s art.
I am not very good at the mingling and goofing off of the boards like the word games and such. Those appear to be the most trafficked threads on Absolute Write. That is great if you are into those sorts of boards. I just don’t really get into them myself. The political threads are also fairly trafficked recently, and that makes perfect sense in the current political climate.
What I am really there for is the information on the writer’s experiences with agents and publishers. The interaction of the authors beta reading for each other and the collaborative efforts of authors helping each other work through difficulties with their works.
Lauren Spieller posted a beautiful primer on creating your “elevator pitch” for your book on Twitter. She said:
It’s a little bit of trial and error but I suggest figuring out a) what the heart of your conflict is, and b) what element of your book is the most enticing, and building from there.
That is expert, professional advice straight from a literary agent.
So mine would be… hard anyway. For my WIP, the protagonist and antagonist are groups of people rather than a single person, usually. Lemme give it a shot:
A technological development creates a new division in human society. Three groups emerge. One is empowered by the technology. Another is disenfranchised by it. The third stands between them to bridge the gap. In a rift that challenges the bonds of families and neighbors while bringing down the borders of nations, the course of humanity’s future will be changed.
Whaddya’ think!?
I have seen alot of posts in various places about making up names and words and whole languages. Making original and fitting names can be a challenge. My most successful technique, I think, is based on just naming the things and then playing with the pronunciation until I like it, then changing the spelling to make the preferred pronunciation obvious. For instance, go for a name for a wizard. Let’s name him after his robe colors and his magical staff. Blue ronin staff. Ronin Bluestaff. I like Ronin, but let’s make it Roeng. Bluestaff then would easily transition to Blustav. Great. Now he is Ukrainian too.
If you ever see Roeng Blustav the Ukranian wizard in a book of mine, you can say you saw his conception. 🙂
The Day Job
I got assigned a task for work that is kind of a side task. It takes a long time for most of the editors I work with but I tend to do it as a side task, get my computer working on it and I can still do hard copy edits or the like while the computer is tied up. So I spent several hours keeping the computer on task while I did edits. I actually enjoy this task. It is kind of like a puzzle break in the tedium of editing.
I don’t always work Saturdays. After the sleep-deprivation hours of last deadline, I took Tuesday off to catch up on sleep. So I was catching up on the requisite hours today. I don’t like to use my leave time if I can just work the hours. I keep joking that one day I am going to take those 200 vacation hours and cash them in for an entire month off.
My supervisor has advised me that she is pretty sure I can’t do that. :p
Ɛ|3 Amy
Ubriel Bryne Books 