Another area of my worries while writing – to create characters that nobody cares about. I think they become too much like me, interior people who think without acting, and don’t emote. If it’s not one thing, it’s the same damn thing over and over again.
Google Search Image Editing: The Path is a Spiral
I enjoy articles such as this one by Morgan Hazelwood, posted on Ryan Lanz’s site. I’m always striving to improve my understanding of my processes. What Morgan describes here is something that I consider in separate categories of polishing, revising and editing.
When I encounter articles like this, I cut and paste them with the date and the author’s name and other source information into a document of my own, “Michael’s Big Doc of Writing and Editing”.
Of note with respect to the list here. I often ‘know’ when reading when the character doesn’t act or sound true. My bigger concern is that they all sound like they’re not sufficiently unique and fresh.
The other part I’m always addressing is pacing. I’m forever worried about pacing, largely because I enjoy verisimilitude.
by Morgan S. Hazelwood
Writing versus Editing Milestones
I find writing milestones to be more encouraging than editing ones. There’s a finite-ness to it.
It’s easy to know when you’ve achieved your word count targets when you’re writing a draft.
View original post 366 more words
Catsyncrasies
Catsyncrasies are the endearing and annoying personality quirks that endear us to our cats while sometimes annoying us.
Tucker is a sweetheart but loves to fight other cats.
Quinn enjoys cuddling but becomes extremely needy before transforming into Quinn the Zen master, sitting motionless outside, apparently meditating with his eyes open, but not looking happy about it.
Boo will happily sleep with you and purr as you pet him before suddenly announcing, “Enough,” delivering his decision with a sudden hiss and a swipe.
Meep comes running when I run water in the kitchen, jumping up onto the counter and getting in the way, vexing me when I’m trying to clean the kitchen.
Annoying, endearing, exasperating, intriguing, they’re catsyncrasies.
Cold Therapy – Day Five
I hope you know who Christopher Walken is, and how he often delivers a line, with its unusual pauses and inflections. Because that’s the voice in my head as I write this.
“I’m on day five of the cold therapy experiment inspired by Aidan Reed, and the water…feels like it’s become colder…icier…if you will. My nuts, now tired…of ascending…into my body for warmth…are now talking about…separating, to go their own…way.”
Catraindications
A catraindication is a cat changing its mind about what they were going to do, about to do, wanted to do, asking for from you, or thinking about doing. (Believe me, degrees of differences exist in catdom.)
Famous ones include a cat begging to eat. You provide them food. They sniff, and then hurry to the door and ask to be let out. Or, as though insulted, turn and mime burying that food, as though your offering is so appalling, they need to bury it like feces.
Another one for which cats have gained notoriety is the famous indoor/outdoor routine. I want out. No, wait, it’s wet out here. Let me in. No, it’s boring in here. Let me out another door. No, it’s wet outside of this door, too. Let me back in. Let’s try the front door again.
A third famous moment of catraindications well-known among catsters is the cat who begins a jump and then changes their mind…a split second too late.
Inspirational Quote # 583
Ha ha ha – the Dogs of Writing will hound you to your limits! If it’s not a word count hounding you, it’s a simple judgement about your progress, or HOW LONG YOU’VE BEEN WORKING ON THIS THINGS. OMG, WILL IT EVER BE DONE? It’s like a turkey roasting in the oven, waiting to be ‘done’.
Google Search Image Cold Therapy
Aidan Reid had a post about cold therapy the other day. Part of his therapy is cold showers.
I used to do this. We had a sauna in our apartment building in Waldorf, Germany, along with pool. The pool was unheated but indoors. It was our habit to hit the sauna, the pool and then step outside into the wintry cold. It was supposed to be a heart healthy practice. We would do this three or four times in a session. We, being in our early thirties, had no problem with it.
But time and age presses on. With aging comes changes. The last time I attempted cold therapy, my body employed some nasty language to threaten me and convey its displeasure. Aidan’s post inspired me, though.
I will try this, I decided.
“No, you won’t,” my body retorted.
“I will,” I replied.
Today, I did.
I believe I did a fair imitation of Munch’s The Scream.
After that, my testicles climbed up into my body. My pecker shriveled up and disappeared like a turtle pulling in its head.
But, I persisted.
I didn’t last long. I wasn’t counting but it was long enough for fast scrubs of all required body parts. My shower requires about thirty-five seconds for it to become comfortably warm. I’d stepped in and turned it on. The water was beginning to warm when I stepped out, or I was imagining that I was growing warmer in a triumph of mind over cold water. Either way, my guesstimate is that I was in the shower for half a minute.
Afterward, I felt fantastic. It might have been the exhilaration of no longer standing in cold water.
Will I do it again? Absolutely. Aidan suggested a trail for over seven days. Did I mention that he lost weight without trying? He also cited other benefits he’s observed since becoming a cold shower man. One bennie we agreed upon in an exchange of comments is discipline. I also think this is one of those things you can use to build self-confidence and inner strength.
At least I hope so.
Cathead
Cathead (noun): looking gorgeously groomed and clothed, with perfectly styled hair.
Example of use: “Did you see Phylicia today? Her hair is so golden and shiny, right? And her clothes, wow.”
“Yes, she has a real cathead going on.”
“I’m so jealous. I never get cathead.”
The Importance
She was stunning, gorgeous in all the manners desired in the commercialized, western intersections of fashion, sex, television and movies.
The tragedy was that she knew. She’d been told since her curves first emerged and noticed lingering, admiring gazes.
All she wanted was for others to watch her as she walked and moved. She looked around to reassure herself that others were looking. It came to be all that was important to her. Nothing else mattered except to know that others noticed her.
She needed to be noticed, and she thought, all she had was what they saw.
How a Story Becomes a ‘Hopeful Thing’: George Saunders on His Writing Process
Saunders writes with more intelligence and awareness what I also go through as a process. It begins with a swift capturing of basic thoughts and elements I see and hear in a scene. After I’ve done that – writing like crazy, as I call it – I jump back into the process he describes to make it less lame, sharper and more vivid.
At The Guardian, George Saunders reflects on his writing process. The magical, romantic notion where fully formed art leaps from the author’s brain on to the page? It dishonors the writer, the reader, and the work. In reality, it takes “hundreds of drafts” and “thousands of incremental adjustments” to form a story into a “hopeful thing.”
If you love George Saunders, check out the Anton Chekhov-George Saunders Humanity Kit and see what it’s like to take a literature course with Mr. Saunders, for yourself.
We often discuss art this way: the artist had something he “wanted to express”, and then he just, you know … expressed it. We buy into some version of the intentional fallacy: the notion that art is about having a clear-cut intention and then confidently executing same.
The actual process, in my experience, is much more mysterious and more of a pain in the…
View original post 298 more words
