Had a computer malfunction the other day. Thought that I'd lost a novel, a short story collection, and assorted other bits of fiction. Recovered everything, but I was Not Happy for a while there.
Was working on a different novel a day or two before that. Remember how I mentioned earlier that I wanted to revive and edit a discarded novel? I opened the original file, copied and pasted everything into a new file, and started working on that. Came back the next day and started where I'd left off. Then I realized that things weren't matching up. Apparently, on the first day of edits, I'd been reworking the original copy; on the second day, I reworked the second file. I tried to sort it out, but now I have half-a-dozen versions of the novel floating around my computer with various notes about which file is which.
Currently working out a new system for backing up my work.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Friday, December 16, 2011
Grump
For some reason, I can't upload to my site right now. Not sure what the problem is. I'm sorry for the glitch, and I'll have ITL updated as soon as I can. Thanks for your patience.
Edited to add: Never mind! Updated ITL anyway. Problem-solving skills for the win!
Edited to add: Never mind! Updated ITL anyway. Problem-solving skills for the win!
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Revisions
Back in 2007, I wrote a story. A novel? Let's just call it a novel.
I had a lot of fun with it. As I prepared it for publishing, Diamond and I found a few rough edges. So I made some changes and tried to edit the novel to polish it up a little.
It turned into of those situations where the more you try to fix it, the worse it gets. The revised version wasn't an improvement at all. So then I had two versions of the novel, and I wasn't happy with either one of them. I ended up just leaving them to rot on my hard drive while I tackled other projects.
From time to time, I read that novel and sigh. The parts that aren't complete crap are so much fun to read! It's full of sex and romance and mystery and passion and one of my favorite characters.
In 2008, I resigned myself to abandoning that novel entirely. Then I decided to rescue one of my favorite aspects of that story and use it to build another story altogether. Now I'm thinking about tackling it again. Maybe I can salvage the good stuff and create something better, now that some time has passed and I can view it from a fresh perspective.
I have about 80 million unfinished or tragically flawed stories littering my writing history. There are only a small few of them that I keep wanting to go back to. Some are slash stories I don't have time to finish, and a couple are wannabe novels that would be great if it weren't for some odd design hiccup. When real life and ITL give me some breathing room, it'd be nice to revisit those novels and hammer them into shape and see what I can do with them.
I had a lot of fun with it. As I prepared it for publishing, Diamond and I found a few rough edges. So I made some changes and tried to edit the novel to polish it up a little.
It turned into of those situations where the more you try to fix it, the worse it gets. The revised version wasn't an improvement at all. So then I had two versions of the novel, and I wasn't happy with either one of them. I ended up just leaving them to rot on my hard drive while I tackled other projects.
From time to time, I read that novel and sigh. The parts that aren't complete crap are so much fun to read! It's full of sex and romance and mystery and passion and one of my favorite characters.
In 2008, I resigned myself to abandoning that novel entirely. Then I decided to rescue one of my favorite aspects of that story and use it to build another story altogether. Now I'm thinking about tackling it again. Maybe I can salvage the good stuff and create something better, now that some time has passed and I can view it from a fresh perspective.
I have about 80 million unfinished or tragically flawed stories littering my writing history. There are only a small few of them that I keep wanting to go back to. Some are slash stories I don't have time to finish, and a couple are wannabe novels that would be great if it weren't for some odd design hiccup. When real life and ITL give me some breathing room, it'd be nice to revisit those novels and hammer them into shape and see what I can do with them.
Friday, December 9, 2011
POC in ITL
Nikki asked, "I'm curious, are there any people of color in In This Land?"
Yes. T'rin, for example, is not white. I do not have the citations on me, but this conversation came up a while ago, and there are descriptions in ITL of T'rin having darker skin than Rini.
Overall, I would like to write more often about people of color. And people with disabilities. Just more kinds of people in general. Kim and I talk about it a lot.
(Side note: "Kim" is the name I use when I'm talking about someone but, for whatever reason, don't want to disclose that person's identity.)
I want my writing to be more inclusive, and I keep talking to Kim about it to bounce ideas off of her. I've written about people of color on both of my websites, and I want to do it more often in the future.
ITL specifically is set in a fantasy world. In my mind, that makes it an entirely new place, like a fresh start. However, I've spoken with readers who don't view it that way, who carry over assumptions from this world. They view ITL through their real-world perspective, and bring in bits of real-life thinking on sex, gender, politics, etc. If Xio Voe had chocolate-brown skin instead of white-pink skin, if he had curly black hair instead of straight, white-blond hair, they'd read and interpret the story differently.
That doesn't mean that I shouldn't do it. It just makes me wary of how I represent people. I would like to include more people of color in ITL. I just want to do it well.
Yes. T'rin, for example, is not white. I do not have the citations on me, but this conversation came up a while ago, and there are descriptions in ITL of T'rin having darker skin than Rini.
Overall, I would like to write more often about people of color. And people with disabilities. Just more kinds of people in general. Kim and I talk about it a lot.
(Side note: "Kim" is the name I use when I'm talking about someone but, for whatever reason, don't want to disclose that person's identity.)
I want my writing to be more inclusive, and I keep talking to Kim about it to bounce ideas off of her. I've written about people of color on both of my websites, and I want to do it more often in the future.
ITL specifically is set in a fantasy world. In my mind, that makes it an entirely new place, like a fresh start. However, I've spoken with readers who don't view it that way, who carry over assumptions from this world. They view ITL through their real-world perspective, and bring in bits of real-life thinking on sex, gender, politics, etc. If Xio Voe had chocolate-brown skin instead of white-pink skin, if he had curly black hair instead of straight, white-blond hair, they'd read and interpret the story differently.
That doesn't mean that I shouldn't do it. It just makes me wary of how I represent people. I would like to include more people of color in ITL. I just want to do it well.
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