Monday, July 30, 2012

Technology, To Do Lists, and Time

Technology
So I thought I was ready to start merging some of the completed pages of the first segment of Project Alpha. Unlike ParaEducate, I had to manage multiple files in multiple programs. It turns out that my belief in managing multiple file types is false. Some of these programs don't appear to play nicely. Which is very infuriating. I just tried yesterday to merge two files through linking and I just watched one program basically violently projectile vomiting. I love computers. Just not these two programs right now. There is a Plan B. Which means things will take a little longer.
On the bright side, I got smart and started going through and making a list of images I needed to pull off the illustrations. While doing so, I discovered that I hadn't finished a few of the chapters. And then I hadn't started chapters I thought were completed. So guess what I'll be doing for the next two days?

To Do Lists
Which  leads right into the problem at hand. To Do.

So much to do and so little time. I now have to convert all the data I have in one system into a second system. And still illustrate. And then finish the remaining chapters. I do have a chapter list which I'm tinkering with for volume 2.

I just realized I hadn't started the work on the United States History for my own use to pilot the work for Project Alpha Volume 3. But I do have a good idea how I want to lay this material out.

And yes, while my focus has been Volume 2, I have to pretend to actually start Volume 1 because that's how big this project really is.

But that's just related to Project Alpha. I'm staring at the To Do List that gathered mass this morning like nuclear fission. How do lists do this? I have five projects in the fire and only one me. I don't like this part of my creativity. I really don't. But so far, I managed to take out three of the most important ones since I came back from the post office two hours ago.

Time
Oh, mortal enemy. You cannot possibly mean to keep sliding away from me. I'm two weeks away from returning to my 10 month/year job. I'm designing a set with one hand as we speak and flipping through a history book to find things for Project Alpha and trying to figure out if I took enough information for the bibliography. And all that eating and sleeping that is necessary before my brain implodes.

I'm sending up the white flag. Project Alpha is going to need another year before release.


Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Self-Published? Why did you bother writing?

There is a segment of the public that hears "self-published" and they get a little uneasy. They scratch their heads and shift trying to think of something polite to say. But let me talk about this for a little while.

Self-publishing means I'm 100% responsible. Nobody is between me and my goal of sharing with the general public the information or ideas. It also means I'm liable for the information I present. But I also like to look at the honest fact that it is my best work. I had to do all the extra leg work to make the book possible. Or in the last case: all of my co-authors and I had to do a lot of work to get us to our final place.

There is the risk that no one will want to buy my book. I have to do all the marketing and get people to really get into my work. But people have come. And they are picking up copies of my books.

I get to focus on what I like to do best: tell a story about the things that are already in my head. I don't have to wait for an agent or a publisher to tell me they like my work and have opened a spot for me. I never have to worry about an agent or publisher leaning back in their chair and asking me "I wonder what would happen if you took your story this way?" or "What would the market look like if we changed this focus group to this group?" Those are questions I have seen that would have diminished the focus of the issues at hand, especially when it came to ParaEducate.

Self-publishing has changed the landscape of the written word. I may not know how much longer printed books may be around, but I want my work to be one of those millions of little pebbles out there in the world. It was only a few hundred years ago that written records were lofted as important keepsakes. But it was the written record that forced evidence that change needed to happen for many civilizations. I don't claim that anything I've written is that riveting, however, I am giving my written work a chance to be valued for someone else to consider. And when that does happen: I've done my job as an author.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Writers and Trains

It sounds so terribly romantic, a writer sitting on a train, heading across, sitting back with a pad of paper or a laptop, looking out on a landscape changing by the minute as the writer ponders a variety of topics, possibly scribbling one or two really great concrete ideas.

However, that isn't why I prefer to travel by train. It turns out, with few exceptions and a little extra time: train travel for me has been cheaper than flying. It has also allowed me to see parts of the country I might never have seen. In the Central California Valley where most of my travel happens, I get a barometer of what crops are being grown that year, I know which orchards are changing their practices, and which farms have new colts.

I get views of the California aqueduct. Life on the train is different. There is a serenity that gives the writer that time to contemplate, even on a deadline. For the first time in 3 years, I will be heading into LA on the train with some work, but no major deadline. It will be nice for a change. And maybe, just maybe, my short stories will get the recharge they need.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Methods and Madness

One of the things that I had to do with ParaEducate, I had to step out of my comfort zone. I was telling an audience what I believed directly instead of leading them through the eyes of someone else. But that reminds me as I return to fiction this summer, what I needed to focus on.

Characters and dialogue are the backbone of my writing techniques. Most of my stories at least start out in rough draft with a piece of conversation. And I can have the two or three characters banter around for hours before I really look at the characters.

It is probably then I reflect on who the character really is. I have a list of character traits I've used since high school. I look into every piece of the character's life trying to find a way to bring the character from just someone sitting across from someone. A few years ago, I used a song playlist to describe sections of the story I was writing as if I was trying to score a movie to great success.

One would imagine that after 20 years of writing fiction, that characters would just come naturally. The ideas of the life I have in mind for a character would bubble to the surface. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.It is very easy, amazingly, to write characters that break the mold. Characters that want to defy the status quo always stand out and their decisions to situations are simple in my world. Characters who need to stay within the laws of society, whether good ideas or bad ideas are the ones that have most recently attracted me. The character who finds that a bad decision is going to have the best outcome brings an acrid taste to their mouth but they make that decision anyway because life is about making that choice and knowing that in the end, everything else is irrelevant. Making choices moves life. It makes the character human, real, stronger.

It's always the growth of the writer that surprises me. I hope my characters help to make me a better person.