As usual, I’m marvelling at how the seemingly unconnected areas of my life intersect yet again. I’ve written about business planning through writing a query letter, and today I’m looking at scriptwriting as another possible method of business planning. This is perfect timing, actually, since I’m studying for my project management certification as well!
Oddly enough, trying to write a script and developing a project management plan aren’t too entirely dissimilar. You have to determine the events and their proper sequence (scope), the characters (team members), and you’re constantly revisiting your plans to re-evaluate them.
I’m going to have to do some experimenting to see if I prefer the query letter method or the scriptwriting method for business planning, but I suspect they’re both going to end up as tools I pull out depending on the situation.
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 7:38 AM EDT
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Reviews of Jath over at YouWriteOn have been going pretty well. Everyone seems to enjoy the idea, and has been wonderful about offering some very valuable advice for my next editing phase. I’m pretty excited.
The more I work with Jath, the more I read about getting published and finding an agent, the more I read already published books, the more I think I’m really going to take the self-publishing route. For starters, I’m not certain my writing has enough potential for an agent or editor to be willing to pull it from what i can do for it to something actually publishable.
My other reason is a bit more serious. A friend loaned me a book a few months ago, thinking I would enjoy it. Looking at the book’s cover, I assumed it was a chick lit novella. Not exactly my style, but the friend in question usually has pretty discriminating tastes, so I figured I’d give it a try. Fourteen pages in, I was ready to hand the book back to her.
It was autobiographical. Non-fiction. Poorly written. Poorly edited. Not engaging. I can only assume my friend was trying to bolster my faith in myself as a writer, because I have never seen anything so poorly written in my life. When you consider that I spend two to five hours a week editing or providing feedback on fan fiction for barely literate teenagers, this is actually saying something. To make matters worse, this author has published a few of these autobiographies, and they’re supposedly well-liked. To matters just a bit worse, she isn’t self-publishing. She’s publishing under a smaller division of Random House.
I’m scared. I’m truly scared.
Of course, I’m not expecting to be a published writer. Not really. I write because if I don’t, the voices in my head will drive me insane. I share my stories because people ask. The only reason I’d actually consider publishing one of my novels is because I think a wider circle of people would enjoy it (and Jath is certainly proving that).
I just think I’d be better off self-publishing instead.
Posted by Ceara as Uncategorized at 7:26 AM EDT
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I’ve been meaning to rant on this for a couple of weeks now, but someone reminded me of it over the weekend. I’m wrestling with the concept of using narrative where necessary, and dialogue where necessary, and keeping my beats from shattering tight conversations. I’m also trying to impart this knowledge to my students and my editing clients.
One wonders why it’s even necessary to give serious thought to the placement of all three, that they should all come into play naturally. Sometimes, though, they really fight for position, to the detriment of the piece.
Consider, if you will, the first couple of minutes of this season’s opening episode from Yu-Gi-Oh GX:
JADEN (offscreen)
Here we are, year two at Duel Academy. Somehow, I passed all my finals and I’m chilling in the Slifer Red dorm again.
SYRUS (offscreen)
Jaden, uh, who you talking to?
JADEN (offscreen)
Well…my fans, I guess. But maybe they should just watch for themselves.
Fifty-four episode in, this is the first time any character has narrated GX, and you can tell from Syrus’ interruption that it was done intentionally. But Jaden says he’s going to let us watch for ourselves, dropping us into the action.
CROWLER
Keep up, you Swedish meatball! They’re almost here!
BONAPARTE
I’m French, you imbecile! Pardone moi for not having longer legs! Besides, what’s the rush about?
CROWLER
I told you. The freshmen! Their boat is arriving as we speak.
BONAPARTE
So, big whoop! Just cause you’ve been promoted to school chancellor, all of a suden you care?
My roommate and I, both longtime Yu-Gi-Oh fans who followed it into this spin-off, both groaned. We understood exactly why this was a problem. Apparently, someone (no idea whether it was a traslator, adaptor, or Takahashi-sensei himself) decided that your average ten year old who watched last season couldn’t figure this one out for himself/herself, because…
JADEN (offscreen)
Yep, you heard right. Crowler’s head of the school now, and that short stocky balding guy is his new sidekick, Vice Chancellor Bonaparte. Now, these two-
SYRUS (offscreen)
Uh, Jaden, you’re narrating again.
JADEN (offscreen)
Uh…right. Sorry
It’s the last time Jaden interrupts with his narration, but at this point you realize you’ll feel no sympathy when another character manages to shove Jaden (the main character) out of the picture for a few episodes down the road. His interruption to attempt to tell us something that Crowler and Bonaparte will be telling us soon has completely distracted us from Crowler’s quest to greet new freshman Aster Phoenix (the whole point of the scene).
It’s really a great example of why you have to be careful with your placement and balance of narative, dialogue, and beats. (Granted, beats in this case are handled entirely by the art.)
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 8:23 AM EDT
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November rapidly approaches, and my mind follows its programming by focsuing on preparing for NaNoWriMo. THis year, there area myraid of feelings, thoughts, and life going on around me, coloring this year’s experience for me already.
Last November was very trying for me, so much so that I wanted to take off this year completely. I’ve stepped out of my leadeship position, but I’ve discovered that I still want to do this. I’ve also been wrestling with trying to determine if I’m honestly a feminist or not. It turns out that in the modern sense of the word, I am. As a fan of action cartoons and sci-fi and fantasy novels, I’m also wrestling with childhood feelings surrounding token girls, adult feelings about the lack of female role models, even in shojo manga/anime, and wishing for a more realistic heroine. Add to this an interesting article a feminist friend recently shared with me, and it’s become a very interesting study in the feminine experience through the hero’s journey.
I think it’s going to end up culminating in a NaNovel that will end up piecing together short stories, thoughts on strong women who aren’t like every other strong woman in literature and art.
I can’t decide if I just want this theme of strong women running through my book, or if I want to follow in the footsteps of my favorite author, the late Roger Zelazny, and attempt to weave a series of short stories together to tell a full story that somehow intertwines these women I want to write about.
Both are within the scope of NaNoWriMo, but which would provide the greater challenge? Which would allow me to tell the story slowly coalescing in my head?
What’s going to come out on the paper when I begin writing on November 1?
Posted by Ceara as Uncategorized at 7:41 AM EDT
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I feel like I’m doing a lot of this lately, determining pieces of writing that just need a little ploishing to be good selections, and then figuring out where to repurpose them. Truth be told, I love having such modular writings in my collection!
This environmentally-friendly idea of recycling your writing (and not just the paper it was written on) has come up repeatedly over the last week, and I think that has a lot to do with the fact that writing can be a very customizable experience if you’re willing to open yourself to reworking pieces to share them with a wider variety of audiences.
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 8:13 AM EDT
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Much has been blamed on writer’s block. Probably more than was ever truly its fault, but it’s an easy target for writers everywhere, right?
I’ve been gathering some posts to share with my local NaNoWriMo participants, and this article on getting around writer’s block definitely made the list. Writer’s block is one of the leading causes for NaNovels not getting written (along with work and health issues).
What it basically comes down to is to just write. Even if you’re not writing what you mean to be writing, you’re still writing and working through your blockage. (In the case of us WriMos, it’s just a section that adds to the current word count, but will be removed during the editing process in March).
Posted by Ceara as Resources at 7:52 AM EDT
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It was roughly this time last year when I developed an unexpected level of anger at National Novel Writing Month, an anger that stayed with me clear through to December.
Actually, that’s completely unfair. I wasn’t mad at NaNoWriMo. After four Novembers of varying success, I would still recommend the experience to anyone. It’s a lot of fun, and it’s a great way to challenge yourself. I’m not so sure I’d recommend being a Municipal Liaison, which I have been for the last three falls.
That’s really what I was mad at. Three years ago, I stepped up as the first ML of San Antonio, got the program on its feet. It was fun keeping in touch with those who followed me, watching them build on the foundation I laid down. Two years ago, I had just moved to Seattle where the ML had stepped down and put someone in charge for the sole purpose of being able to take her position back when she felt like it. Then I showed up and volunteered to be the other ML for the area.
As could be expected, he did very little, and with the help of the locals I did everything. In fact, he started telling people the only reason he had been allowed to be ML was to keep me from getting stressed out.
Apparently, he felt his job last year was to stress me completely out as he started making plans against anything that was planned. After a argument (which stopped the moment I removed it from public view), he resigned without telling me, and then told people I drove him out. He came to about half the write-ins and introduced himself as the ex-ML, hoping to get some sort of recognition or create a feeling of guilt for him. It failed miserably.
Then the area, which played beuatifully together when I was trying to get a feel for the area and trying to pull an inactive program back toward activity, started to factionalize. I did what I could to prevent it, but one of the factions had a very loud spokesman who succeeded in making uneducated statements and getting under my skin.
By the time everything was said and done, I wasn’t even sure I wanted to return to NaNoWriMo.
Fortunately, I’ve had several months to calm down. I’m not returning as ML, despite how much I love NaNoWriMo and the Seattle program. I haven’t completely decided how I’m going to handle November, but it will likely be as a solitary Wrimo working on wrapping up a long list of writing projects. This is not within the scope of NaNoWriMo and I won’t be able to win, but my word count will count toward Seattle rising to the top of the regional word counts!
The distance might help me reconnect with NaNoWriMo, and allow me to actually get some work done!
Posted by Ceara as Uncategorized at 7:57 AM EDT
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