- Writing stuff
- Putting down “writer” as your occupation on forms. It’s practically legal.
- Wearing a tweed jacket with leather elbow patches. Or does this make you a college professor? I can never remember.
- Smoking a pipe (Harlan Ellison only)
- Paying someone else to write stuff under your name. This is actually legal.
- Building an amazing writing robot you can dictate your stories to
- Buying a nice pen set, especially if they’re fountain pens. And using them too, I suppose. For writing, that is, not, say, stabbing people. Unless you later write about it.
- Lists count as writing. Yes, they do.
- [Write something here. Ta-da, you’re a writer! This is different than Step 1 somehow.]
- Changing your legal name to A. Writer. This, as you may have surmised, is legal.
Writing
Writing group, week 10: More organizing and a slight move
Today’s group was a robust group of seven (though no painting was attempted). This was all the more surprising given that it was a rare day, both mild and sunny. Early spring-like, even.
For some reason, the group was especially chatty today (not a problem as I can always don earbuds and type away to my terrible taste in music if I want to avoid distraction). We only had the room for two hours, after which we migrated to the main area of the shop. We shed one person and the remaining six pushed three tables together to reconvene. We actually got much quieter, possibly because the whine of machinery making fancy 750 calorie drinks made regular conversation that much more challenging.
I didn’t do a lot of writing, as expected, but busied myself nipping and tucking bits of Road Closed and finishing up organizing the chapters so I have a better feel for the overall story as it now stands. I’m going to have to make a few big decisions before I continue writing or else resign myself to a massive rewrite instead of a merely big one.
I also spent some time organizing a few of my other unfinished novels (ie. all of them), so while I didn’t bang out a lot of words I still came away feeling I’d made good use of the time.
Writing group, week 8 and 9: Words a-plenty and organization
Somehow I missed writing about last week’s writing group. There were only four of us but it was a good group and I was productive again, finishing off the new chapter I have inserted after Chapter 2, cleverly called Chapter 2b for now.
This week I cleaned up some stuff near the end of the chapter to better align my intention for the chapter with the actual words. Having done that I next worked on some organization of the novel in two ways. The first was in Ulysses, where I moved the story into a manuscript folder underneath the main folder, then added a Notes folder also separate from the story. I find this easier than using Ulysses built-in notes function, at least on the MacBook Pro where screen real estate is more limited and you can’t have a bunch of windows open without reducing everything to “must have the eyesight of a 20-year-old.”
Having done this I next worked on hashing out some ideas on how to fix inconsistencies early in the story because even though I know it’s better to just forge ahead now and fix this stuff later, I’m the kind of person who hates the idea of leaving large-ish sections of the story in a state I think of as “wrong” and if I don’t go back to fix them now, they will serve as constant distraction.
Also, there is the possibility that in fixing these I may come up with other zany ideas that might work.
As for the group itself, there were six in total, though only four had confirmed, including several people I hadn’t seen before. I was early as usual but the previous group had cleared out, so I set up in my usual spot and began clacking away almost immediately.
The men’s washroom was out of order so I had to use the women’s. It’s pretty much the same, except it had a shelf holding a dangerous-looking (because it had the word DANGER on it) yellow plastic box labeled “BD Sharps Container.” It had a line on it that said not to fill it past that point. I could tell by the shapes pressed against the translucent casing that these sharp objects were needles. It looked to be nearly full.
One thought was “ew” over how many people apparently shoot up in these washrooms. The second was more about what a weird place to keep a box full of needles. Shouldn’t they be stored in the back out of reach of customers? Maybe customers are expected to safely dispose of their needles in the box, as civilized junkies would do. I don’t judge, I just ask questions.
Anyway, the writing session was a success once again. I am going to try to get more into a regular writing habit during the week but for some reason, it’s been even more difficult than usual this month, as the number of blog posts attests. Between having a billion things to do at work, health concerns, starting up with running again and other stuff, I have a lot on my mind and it’s been tricky to clear out the head space to just sit down and write.
Excuses, for sure, but there you have it.
Writing group week 8: Postponed due to illness
Strictly speaking, the weekly write-in wasn’t postponed, only my participation was.
Friday: I felt that weird little twinge in my sinuses and throat that said, “You may be catching a cold!”
Saturday: The twinges became manifest. I officially have a cold, but it’s not too bad. Some NeoCitran helps me feel better. I still plan on going to the writing group.
Sunday: Nose is very irritated. Sneezing develops. Generally feel blah and listless. Decide not to inflict my potentially contagious self on the others attending the write-in. On a day when it reaches 9ºC and snow is a literal impossibility, I also do not run.
I eat toast and jam instead. It leaves me unfulfilled because my nose still hurts.
Now I’m having tea, which will temporarily soothe but also lead to me getting up multiple times to use the bathroom because that stuff goes through me like nobody’s business.
Also today, I started reading an article linked on Medium that lists 50 ways to make yourself better and gave up after realizing the list is a few common sense items wedged in-between a bunch of unsubstantiated nonsense, like “have faith” or “create an automated source of income.” The author also keeps citing the wealthy as inspiration, overlooking the fact that wealthy people are among the worst people on this planet. He cites Peter Thiel, for the love of…Pete. His advice boils down to “Be white, male, super-rich and you’ll do just fine!”
Writing group week 7: Productivity gains and yet more snow
Where the snow previously saw a huge boost in attendance, today’s writing group saw attendance drop to a mere four amid what Dave described as “ornamental snow” (that same snow eased up for most of the day, only to begin again with renewed fury tonight. Spring officially starts in 15 days).
I was the first one there and early. The group that has the room before us had vacated early so I took advantage and moved in and began writing before 11 o’ clock. By the end of the three hours I’d written just under 4,000 words, all of it on the new Chapter 2b, which is still not complete.
I don’t really have anything to add. I’m pleased with the output and am staying nearly completely away from editing mode. I look forward to hacking the writing to bits later.
Oh, and the snow can bugger right off. After six (or is it seven? Or eight?) major snowfalls I’ve had enough, thanks. I want flowers and t-shirt weather now, not sub-seasonal temperatures and weather you have to be under 10 years old to enjoy.
Writing group week 6: Now with actual writing
I was remiss in reporting the events of my fifth The Other 11 Months Write-In last Sunday but for a brief time, it almost looked like there would be nothing to report. I arrived a few minutes early and no one else was there, which was a first. The people who had the room booked till 11 seemed contact to stay until they were kicked out, but if no one else was showing I didn’t want to be that person.
A few minutes after 11 we got another arrival and she did not hesitate to ask the others to get going. We moved in and two more joined in for a very intimate group. There was some discussion to start and it went on longer than usual, then we got to work and I continued to read and mull on Road Closed.
In the intervening week I came up with some ideas and when I got to Waves I read a few chapters then went over my notes and added Chapter 2b. I haven’t found a nice way to renumber chapters in Ulysses yet. This chapter expands on Christian’s early days at the college and serves as the catalyst for the spooky shenanigans that follow when he has a near-miss driving home drunk from a house party.
I didn’t finish the new chapter but I wrote over 2,700 words, my best production in months. More importantly, I feel I’ve gotten past a hurdle and both my writing in general and Road Closed specifically are on track, if only for the moment–but hopefully for longer.
Oh, and attendance was up to six, which to be frank is ideal as it gives everyone space at the table without it getting crowded and cramped.
Overall, my most productive outing by far and one that gives me strong encouragement to continue. Eight thumbs up.
Writing group week 4: Nice weather and fewer people
Last Sunday there was a raging snowstorm outside and inside the Waves Coffee boardroom on Columbia Street, we were jammed in elbow-to-elbow for The Other 11 Months Write-in.
Today it was sunny and a balmy 10ºC (as it should be in mid-February) and only six showed up and two left early. On the one hand, fewer people is a bit of a bummer. On the other hand, I had plenty of room to stretch out in all directions. And did!
It was also a very quiet group, with church-like silence for nearly the entire three hours, save for a burst of chatter at the start and the tapping of keys throughout. At the end, several agreed it had been quite productive for them, so yay for silence.
I again continued to work through old, unfinished material, focusing today on Weirdsmith, The Mean Mind and Road Closed. Most of the work was done on Road Closed, as I fully converted it over to Ulysses, breaking each scene out into a separate sheet.
At this point, I’m pretty much done prepping my unfinished projects and have one of two choices for the next write-in:
- Pick a project and resume working on it (that is, start producing new material–you know, actual writing)
- Start something entirely new.
- Bonus: Do neither of the above and just tinker for three hours again.
#3 is going to be tempting but I really need to commit to moving forward on something. Maybe I can conduct a self-poll. Or write a story about indecision. Or both. So many decisions.
Writing group week 3: Snow and pitches
Turnout for this week’s writing group was surprisingly high given the snowy conditions (the latest dump started midway through the writing session). As we gathered elbow to elbow around the conference table we settled into a mostly quiet session, punctuated by a few bursts of chatter over pitches for books and random advice.
One person had an iPad mini hooked up to a full-size PC keyboard. That was a little weird. The person to my left had a MacBook. I could tell just by closing my eyes and hearing how the keyboard clicked when she was typing.
For the third week in a row I bounced between projects, spending the bulk of my time converting The Mean Mind from Scrivener to Ulysses format and reading along as I went. To my surprise, it held up fairly well.
Soon I need to commit to finishing an existing project or starting a new one. When I think about trying to choose one thing to focus on I actually feel a certain level of anxiety, almost the beginning of a stress headache. Probably not a good thing.
But I will decide. Soon™.
Writing group week 2: Now with different tea and less battery
I went to my second The Oher 11 Months write-in today and was better prepared for the weather, which was very wet (I say yes to this as I hope it can eradicate the last of the damn snow).
Once inside I asked for the same Chai tea I had last time. Every time I go to a coffee place and order a tea I always get asked if I want a tea latte and have to say no, just tea, with a teabag, in hot water, like people have enjoyed for thousands of years. If I wanted a tea latte I would order a tea latte, not a tea. But still they ask.
They asked again today. I confirmed I wanted tea, not a tea latte, but the girl at the counter was confused by my request for Chai, acting as if it never existed. Rather than go on about how I got it with no fuss last week, I just ordered English Breakfast and pretended I was in London.
When I went into the meeting room, a discussion took place over the various size cups we had, with the conclusion being that although only two sizes are listed on the menu (Regular and ‘Waves’–how twee) there are in fact more sizes and their purpose is to sow confusion, because we couldn’t come up with anything better.
When I settled in and opened the lid of my MacBook Pro I discovered the battery was at 68%. This was odd as I had left it plugged in and charging and I’m pretty sure the ten minutes to get to Waves would not drain 32% of the battery. I then remembered I had applied a hefty update and in moving the Mac to its usual spot I may have jiggled the USB-C cable just loose enough to have it stop feeding power. Even so, having it lose 32% of its battery over three days is not very reassuring. I easily got through the writing session, though, as the three hours only consumes about 25% battery.
I’m still not sold on the new low-travel keyboard, either. I’m close to saying Apple made a flat-out mistake with it. It’s simply not that comfortable to type on. It feels like banging your fingers on a table because there’s so little give. And it’s noisy for a laptop keyboard. Apple’s obsession with thin is starting to bump up against keeping things comfortable and practical.
As for my actual writing, I did a repeat of last week, bouncing between projects, re-reading and tweaking and moving a few more into Ulysses. I then wanted to look at the corkboard I made for Rainy Day. This is a feature of Scrivener, so I downloaded the program and was pleasantly surprised that it automatically registered and activated itself (kind of spooky, really). The pleasant surprise was replaced by an unpleasant one when the program kept repeatedly crashing, making it utterly useless. I didn’t want to waste my time troubleshooting at the write-in so I just left it.
This is far from the first time I’ve had issues with Scrivener and it’s not been platform-specific, either, as problems have happened in Windows and macOS, even when keeping the projects relegated to one platform to reduce the chance of error. I’m pretty close to being done with it. It’s a nice tool but seems in need of a complete rewrite (which sounds like it may be coming, more or less, though when is another question).
In the end I probably read more than I wrote and it’s been a bit frustrating to not fully commit to one thing to work on–a three-hour block is a huge amount of time to get a lot done–but I will keep going and hopefully something will stick. My goal in the next week is to resume doing prompts to help grease the writing wheels.
And maybe start looking for another laptop…
Writing at a crowded table in a small room with tea
Yesterday I did something I would have done during National Novel Writing Month if my novel hadn’t stalled out after 10,000 words. I took part in a write-in, specifically one set up as an offshoot of the local NaNoWriMo group where people are invited during the NaNo off-months to write at Waves Coffee in New Westminster every Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
There’s a reserved from at the back that conveniently has a door that can be closed, allowing writerly types to scribe with little interference from outside. Eight had officially signed up on the Facebook page but a total of 11 made it, which resulted in a rather crowded table. I almost felt like I was co-authoring the projects of those to my left and right through osmosis.
Still, it was useful to have that three-hour block of (mostly) quiet concentration and focus. While I didn’t work on a single project, I successfully bounced around several, including:
- new material on my 2014 NaNo novel, Road Closed
- going over 2016’s stalled project and fixing most of the tense problems (specifically I started writing in the present tense then switched to the past tense without consciously meaning to. I have managed to fix all but the final section of writing to align everything to the present tense).
I was hoping to do some work on the short story “The Box on the Bench” but am still mulling over how best to approach it. I’ll write more on the revival of this ten-year-old (!) project soon.
Apart from a slight crick in my neck, I found the experience useful and refreshing. I’ll definitely be returning. If I actually write straight through next time I should be able to get quite a bit done, a novel (ho ho) change from my progress of late.
Guaranteed #1 best way to improve your writing!
Stop spending all your time reading “How to improve your writing” articles and just write instead.
More seriously, there is a certain seductiveness in constantly seeking advice, a kind of pleasure that comes from immersing yourself in writing without doing any actual writing. It also helps one neatly avoid failure, too, since zero production = zero chance of failure.
I have actually become worse with this in the last few months, spending far more time reading about writing than writing. On the plus side, I have gotten a lot better at determining quality tips from puff pieces (most articles are puff pieces).
Conveniently one of my resolutions–just three days away from being implemented–includes a concrete writing goal. I am further working on fleshing out specifics. For a change, I am going to plan everything out as much as possible and leave the spontaneity to whatever writing I produce. I expect this to yield fruitful results, especially if I write about fruit.
The future of AI and blog topics
This is how the internet works.
- I subscribe to a newsletter from Medium, choosing a number of areas of interest
- I get a Medium Daily Digest email with links to articles reflecting my chosen interests
- One of these interests is writing
- One of the links is to an article titled 15 of the Best Free Web Applications for Writers
- This article highlights a number of interesting and useful tools–I approve!
- One of these is HubSpot’s Blog Topic Generator. I love generators because the results can sometimes work as intended, providing inspiration when you struggle to write anything, but more often they provide unintended amusement because they will happily interpret things literally or combine items in silly ways that are not meant to be silly
This leads to the results I got. As requested, I entered three nouns:
- cat
- future
- writing
I was not advised to write about cats in the future…or was I? Here are my week’s worth of suggested topics:
- 10 Quick Tips About Cat
- What Will Writing Be Like in 100 Years?
- 10 Things Your Competitors Can Teach You About Future
- 14 Common Misconceptions About Cat
- 10 Signs You Should Invest in Writing
First, I must admit I love the idea of this monolithic entity known as Cat. Cat is good. Cat is all. You will respect Cat. I am less convinced that I could come up with ten quick tips about Cat or 10 signs I should invest in writing. But I’m going to try, right now!
10 Quick Tips About Cat
- Cat is furry
- Cat has four legs
- Cat has tail
- Cat likes cat food
- Cat will chase laser pointer light
- Cat will sleep on your keyboard
- Cat does not like Dog
- Cat loves Mouse
- Cat is smarter than you
- Cat will come back the very next day
What Will Writing Be Like in 100 Years?
We’ll have fully switched over from fountain pens and foolscap to holo-typing machines that imprint the letters into a space slightly in front of and above our faces. Writing will be a holistic experience, one you share just by running up to someone and saying, “Watch this!” while you spew out words into the air between you and them. Then they will leave because you’re a bit of a freak. Writing will still be a very lonely thing.
10 Things Your Competitors Can Teach You About Future
- The future is always just ahead
- There’s no future in the past
- Prices will be higher
- That dude who is taller than you? In the future he’ll still be taller than you
- Wait, who are my competitors, exactly?
- If you don’t correctly anticipate future trends, you’ll never stop wearing those acid wash jeans
- The future is so bright you will need to wear shades
- Invest in sunglass manufacturing
- What goes up must come down, so invest in elevator technology
- Still not sure who my competitors are but they should watch out because I have read many books that predict the future using advanced math or something
14 Common Misconceptions About Cat
- Cat is really Dog in disguise
- Cat will never miss when jumping onto Couch
- Cat likes cheese; it is Mouse that likes cheese, though Cat likes Mouse the way Mouse likes Cheese
- Cat uses tail to communicate complex thoughts
- Cat is alien species silently watching and judging us
- Cat is spelled Kat in some countries; this is only done in cartoons for humorous effect, not in real life
- Kit Kat contains real Cat (see above)
- There are no cats with nine tails
- Cat on a hot tin roof does not mean Cat likes being on a hot tin roof–do not put Cat on hot tin roof
- Cat only speaks when it has something important to say (note: this may actually be true, Science has yet to prove one way or the other)
- Cat likes taking many baths
- Cat will never sleep on your keyboard
- Cat will never come back the very next day
- Cat enjoys long lists about misconceptions
10 Signs You Should Invest in Writing
- You see a big sign that says “You Should Invest in Writing”
- Your crazy but rich uncle says, “I’ll give you $100,000 if you write some stupid novel about anything.”
- You have a vision of the future and it’s filled with blank pages–and only you have a working pen!
- It’s better than investing in 8-track tape technology
- Time magazine will one day make “Words” the Person of the Year, making writing hot and in demand
- It’s like the lottery, someone’s going to strike it rich, so why not you? (Not applicable if you’re a hopeless hack.)
- A typewriter can be used for writing, self-defense and as a door stop; to not invest in something so practical would be foolish
- For #7 you may also want to invest in a time machine in order to acquire a typewriter
- Darth Vader shows up at your place and says, “Invest in writing or I’ll force choke you where you stand.” It’s probably just another one of your kooky dreams but better to not take any chances
- Because you saw it in a list
There, all done! Wait, that was supposed to be stretched over a week. I’ve done it all horribly wrong? Now what will I write about tomorrow?
Not to worry–there are plenty more great prompts just waiting to be used!