WritingSucks

It's Called "Save As" For A Reason

This is a Public Service Announcement. It's about saving your documents, and it is brought to you by the I'm A Dumb-ass Research Council.

I keep my book saved in my email account. Then when creativity strikes, about once a month for three minutes, I open the document, type away, and then re-save the document and email it back to myself. This means it is always there, even if I don't have my laptop I can access it on a different computer.

Yesterday, I opened the document and began working. When you open a Word document from an email it opens in Compatibility Mode. Here is the PSA: At this point you should do a "SAVE AS" and save it to your desktop or into a folder on the computer you are using.

Don't get distracted and then forget to do this. You might forget that you are working in Compatibility Satan Mode and keep hitting the little save icon at the top of your document. You think you're being responsible and saving every few sentences. You are, but it is into some kind of ether, a ghost soup. Every time a save dings a ghost gets indigestion.

Long PSA short, I lost about two hours of work. The best two hours of work I have ever done I am sure. Now I have lost all motivation to recreate what I was working on. Save As, Save As. Happy Thanksgiving.

A Q&A with Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum

Here is a link to a Q&A with author Kristen Sundberg Lunstrum: Chronicle Books Blog. I read Kristen first book of short stories, and she is now releasing her second book entitled "Swimming With Strangers." I enjoyed her comments on her writing process--it is nice to see that not every successful writer writes every day:

"I wish I could say that I keep regular writing hours and meet a particular page count each day (doesn’t every writer want to be one of those writers?). As it is, I’m a fitful and tediously slow writer, and there are often long spans of time between projects for me. I used to feel guilty about these fallow periods, but have come to see them as a necessary and useful part of the process—time to read and think and read some more, so that I can return to the page later with a better sense of craft and, hopefully, a slew of new ideas, too."

Sometimes life gets in the way of writing. And sometimes you just need to step back for a minute, or a month, and get a new perspective. Or that could just be my latest procrastination excuse.

Writing Weekend #2

A few weeks ago I did another writer's weekend at a local hotel. A hotel I've decided caterers to swingers. I got a great rate on the hotel, and the fee included a happy hour, complete with two complimentary drink tickets, and free breakfast. Both nights I attended the "happy" hour and it consisted of an assortment of couples sitting around with stale popcorn, their drinks, not talking, but scooping each other out. All while Fox News played in the background. It was a really weird vibe.

The "happy" hour ended at 7:00pm. The second night I had my notebook and was leisurely finishing my popcorn when promptly at 7:00pm the "bartender" marched over and told me I had to leave. I looked around and realized all the  swingers had slinked back to their bedrooms. I felt as if I had been cut off like Nicholas Cage in "Leaving Las Vegas". Yet it was still light outside. Now remember, this was the lobby of the hotel, not a separate bar within the hotel. I slinked back to my room with just my notebook.

I spent most of the weekend watching television, hanging out my window, and eating an entire box of Cheez-Its. There was little to no writing completed, and I felt miserable that I had wasted time and money without accomplishing anything. Monday evening, after I had been back at work for a day, I was able to sit down and come up with the beginning of the book. I realized that sometimes with writing it only happens when it happens. You can't force it just because you got yourself a weekend at the local Hedonism resort. 

A Writer's Life + Cat

Authonomy.com

Harper Collins has a good idea to beat the slush pile. Instead of submitting your manuscript to overworked assistants you can upload it on Authonomy.com, the community will read it and vote on it. And then if you rank as one of the top five writer's for that month you'll make it to the editor's desk. They are seeking to "flush out the brightest, freshest new writing talent around.

I think it is a great idea, but it still freaks me out. I'm not ready to put all, or even half of my story out there for free eyeballs. But if I don't find luck the traditional way you can bet that I will be uploading my beast onto their server in no time flat. Good luck to all the writer's who are brave enough to share their stories!

The Algebra of Writing

I waited until my last semester of college to take Algebra, and then I flunked it. And then I got a tutor, and then I flunked again. Someone finally took pity on me, so that I could get my degree, and allowed me to enroll in some kind of remedial math class. Needless to say, da maths makes me sweat. This statement about conflict in a novel makes me want to try and locate my old tutor:

"The degree of believable contact contained in a a story or scene (x) is directly proportional to the level of reader interest in that same story or scene (y) and the span of the reader's attention (z)."

Ideas Lost In the Ether

When will I ever learn? Some of my best ideas come to me late at night, when I am already tucked in bed. And inevitably I am too lazy to get out of bed and write the idea down. I've keep a notebook and pen in my nightstand, but usually I am too lazy to even roll over and dig this out. Every time, without fail, I decide that I am going to remember this brilliant idea. That it is so good that I will definitely remember it in the morning. Wrong. I never remember them.

I try to make up little hints to jog my memory. "Well the idea about the fat mailman is really good, so I will surely remember it when I see the mail-lady tomorrow at work, even though she is not fat, but maybe she will have some really phat items for me in her bundle of mail." This doesn't work. So I am making a pledge. A pledge to throw back the covers and walk to a paper and pen, or to turn my body over and open the nightstand and find a paper and pen. To write the idea down.  To be content that the next morning my idea will be safely tucked away for review--where upon I will realize that it makes absolutely no sense.

Librarian Fired For Writing Book

So what do you do if you've been a librarian for 15 years and you've spent your days dealing with crazy folks in possession of a libarary card? You write a book about it! And then apparently you get fired...Read More>

The $300,000 Watch Book Deal

After a two day auction for book rights, journalist John Biggs will receive more than $300,000 to write a book about a watch. Just one watch in particular, called "the iPhone of its day", which was commissioned by one of Marie Antoinette's lovers, and took 44 years to make. Marie was dead long before the watch was completed! Okay, I'm intrigued...read more>

How To Get Unstuck

I came across a blog post by Poe's Deadly Daughter about how to get "unstuck" when writing. Getting started is more than half the battle for me, so I plan to keep these tips in mind when the only word coming out of my brain cavity is "Doh." Take a look at the list here.