Story Order

by Liana Posted on January 12, 2014
This entry is part 4 of 6 in the series Am Reading

I had wanted to read Octavia Butler's Wild Seed for so long that I picked it up the moment I thought I could spend that much on a book (and that Veronica Roth didn't have anything new for me to inhale). The book fascinated me, I loved it, and when I saw it was part of a series, I bought the whole thing.

:cue dirge here:

Wild Seed was written fourth. You know what that means? Even though chronologically, in story-time it was the first book, it was not meant to be read first and shouldn't have been. The book redeemed Doro and then I read the second book chronologically and Butler killed him.

End of series for me.

But the second book was written almost first and the characters were all good and the ideas were wonderful. If I had read it first, then I would have loved probably the whole series.

Let this be a lesson to the scribbler (me): think about your story order and your publication order, especially when you put together omnibuses. Do not assume chronological is best. It probably isn't.

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Sabbath Usually Means Very Little Scribbling

by Liana Posted on January 11, 2014
This entry is part 43 of 103 in the series Daily Scribble Reports

Did some reading and catch-up with comments and emails and sent off my book cover for the formatter, but that's just about it.

Word Count

  • Fiction: 90 words
  • Poetry: 0 words, 0 lines
  • Blog: 65 words

Splintered Gates

  • Today: 0 words
  • Total: 2175 words

Collaboration

  • Today: 90 words
  • Total: 56,470 words

January Totals

  • Fiction: 5322 words
  • Poetry: 212 words | 45 lines
  • Blog: 6023 words

Completed Pieces

  • Poem: "Before My Eyes," 220 words | 47 lines.
  • Fanfic: "Mistakes," 1397 words.
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Thief of Literature

by Liana Posted on January 11, 2014

I find an interesting thing about the languages I choose to use in my stories. Not unreasonably, I often prefer to use languages I’ve already started, but for some reason, it still surprises me when I do it. I used to create a language at the drop of a hat, and sometimes I still see one starting to sketch itself out, but at the same time, I find myself more and more reaching for old bones and stretching them into new shapes.

In Splintered Gates, I pulled two sigil names straight from ancient (in my personal real time, that is) Senetari Shuril, a very old version of Vas’hehr, the secondary language of Vardin (I think they have four or five main languages they tend to use). Well, almost straight.

Ditraka is pulled straight from Senetari Shuril and means essentially, speaker of truth, caller out of truth, doer of truth, etc. The verb can vary as it’s a partial construction, something common to the language but not to any other language of mine. “Di” is often rendered “out of” in the sense given above, e.g. caller out of truth. “Traka” is literally “truth.”

Cyvahdo is a mixture. “Ahdo” I made up as “rider” on the spot, but “cyv” means “sky” and was one of the first vocabulary words I had.

Why do I find this so particularly interesting? Besides the fact that I’m overly self-analytical, I mean. Because the more I write, the more the bones of my worlds are starting to bleed. I can see why some authors have a hard time not repeating themselves.

I’m not too worried yet, but it is something I have to keep an eye on. Oddly enough, this also only really became an issue when Kingdoms and Thorn cropped up. There was no way to stop the bleed with Vardin because they were born from literally the same bones, the same story, the same premise, the same characters. I just played it out several different ways and picked Vardin to write. Then K&T happened and there was the second major branch. Then Splintered Gates happened and I can keep it separate, more easily than the rest actually, but I hit the third major branch. It’s only safe to write because I split out the other reusable part of the branch into the Alliance storyworld instead. It reduces the room for bleed. A bit.

I find all this very interesting from this perspective: five years ago, I wouldn’t have tolerated it.

When we were kids, I made a fine art of hiding the origins of my characters and stories in bending certain key details, burying others, and mixing and matching far disparate fandoms. I rarely fanfic crossovers, but if you could see inside my mind, you’d see that most of my original fiction is incredibly crossed over. There’s a fine tradition for this in literature.

“To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.”

― Stephen Wright

I steal from many, even myself. My stories and poems reference other literary pieces, sometimes rather obliquely. I homage and recreate and interrogate and adapt and decry and protest in the form of another piece of fiction, and then to top it all off, I do my level best to hide most of it so thoroughly that no one will ever figure out my layered upon layered secrets.

In short, I find this strange but interesting. It’s a habit of childhood, and only now am I beginning to be okay with bleed and small revelations. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad or indifferent, but it’s interesting.

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Self-Discipline and the Scribbler (Plus Reading)

by Liana Posted on January 10, 2014
This entry is part 42 of 103 in the series Daily Scribble Reports

Experiment number one: no internet reading, commenting, etc. until after I type up the morning side of this status report, then write at least a thousand words for the day. If I’m going to get my sleep cycle turned back around, I need to not write or read between eleven p.m. and one o’clock in the morning!

These posts are getting rather long-winded. Anyone want me to split out the reading from the writing? I doubt most people are interested in the writing, and I don’t really know if anyone’s interested in the reading. I just plug this stuff here for my own accountability.

Reading

Last night I finished out Debt Collector, Season 1, by Susan Kaye Quinn. I had mixed feelings by the end. The story was very good, just like in Open Minds, and I loved the main character, but.

Lirium is twenty years old and that is well established. When dealing with men or enemies, he acts like it. Unfortunately with women and in several other situations, he is consistently portrayed with the emotional and cognitive maturity of a teenager between the ages of sixteen and eighteen. There is a cognitive shift in the brain between that age and Lirium’s stated age that makes this unbelievable for me; thus, my annoyance with the series. Also, there was some rather problematic objectifying of women and using them as rewards for the main character, something I would rather not have encountered.

In short, this read very much like a tv series, and in that respect, structurally, it was amazingly well done. It’s one I would like but not watch next year until I could buy the whole season and I wouldn’t cry my eyes out if I didn’t get to watch it for some reason. Further note to self: the first episode’s title was too iconic for the series. I keep calling the entire series Delirium instead of Debt Collector. Next season is supposed to be about a different collector. I might not buy it. The fifth season will have all the collectors that were introduced, meaning to me that there will be Lirium. I’ve got other books to read and will probably skip out on Season 2 for the time being.

A long time ago, I read an SFF writing book by Orson Scott Card that included tantalizing snippets from Octavia Butler's book, Wild Seed. I've wanted to read it since. I just did. Wow. Still processing this book. It's grappling with tough questions and ideas. I did love it.

Next on my reading docket: The Drought by thecatisacritic.

Publishing

So the formatter needs my cover file. :groans: I might not be able to get to that until Saturday night, but he did say I should get my Dowse and Bleed Kindle file around Tuesday of next week. I’m really excited about all of this, as its my first major professionally done book launch. Usually I treat it a lot like fanfic: post it and get back to writing. This time, I did categorization and metadata and careful typesetting and hired a formatter and really tweaked the cover until I was satisfied, etc. It’s a good feeling. I’m going to try and make a system of this.

Publishing Plans

I do want to publish twelve pieces this year as you might remember, but that means finishing eleven more pieces. I’m going to start trying to choose between my options for the eleven stories I want to flesh out and complete. The collaboration, fanfic, and short stories don’t count. As much as I like shorts, I was surprised by reading Debt Collector to realize how dense I pack my work. I don’t think shorts are enough to do what I want them to—I want more fiction like Rachelle’s—and I don’t think I’m going to magically start writing looser fiction either, so I suspect I’m about to get very happy in the novelette/novella word count range.

Writing Goals for the Day

Today, I want to get the antagonist side of things hammered out on the collaboration, enter my notes on Splintered Gates into my working file, then sketch or flesh out another good-sized chunk of words on it.

I’m thinking I’m going to take a break from the Laurie fic, simply because I still don’t feel equal to canon. I know the piece I want to write, and I don’t feel like I can do it justice yet.

Writing

First I wrote 755 words of brainstorming on the collaboration. It’s not fic, but it’s a start. Back to no internet until we get more written. I think we’ll do the notes on Splintered Gates before we try to write any more new stuff.

Procrastination

So that didn’t work. At all. But I stuck to The Passive Voice, Dean Wesley Smith, and one post of Hugh Howey’s, so not bad, right? Then, I screwed up and peeked on LJ for a reply from my collaborator. None, of course. I had to make myself close the browser window. Self-discipline is vital, but it’s harder than it looks.

Writing Again

Forget typing. I need to distract myself from distraction with new words, not compilation. Got 174 words on Splintered. At fifteen sentences, I’m thinking I’m technically good for the day. I can technically spend the rest of the day plotting out what I want to do for the year and how I want to do it and whether I want to go ahead and do a series or not—that is until my collaborator tells me whether I’m on the right track or barking up a tree.

Brainstormed with collaborator. We both like the same ideas for the most part, so time to get some words on page.

I sketched and tossed and will need to rewrite. Not counting them.

The Fangirl

The Giver by Lois Lowry is being made into a movie? :nearly faints: :makes grabby hands:

Word Count

  • Fiction: 174 words
  • Poetry: 0 words, 0 lines
  • Blog: 1700 words

Splintered Gates

  • Today: 174 words
  • Total: 2175 words

Collaboration

  • Today: 0 words
  • Total: 56,380 words

January Totals

  • Fiction: 5232 words
  • Poetry: 212 words | 45 lines
  • Blog: 5958 words

Completed Pieces

  • Poem: "Before My Eyes," 220 words | 47 lines.
  • Fanfic: "Mistakes," 1397 words.
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How Do You Make a Suggestion to Amazon?

by Liana Posted on January 10, 2014

As a reader, I’m seriously looking for series fiction. Why isn’t there a series landing page/showcase? I’ve just discovered how widespread the episodes/season format is becoming for books and I want more.

Of course, I might not need this right away. I just made the dubious decision to swipe several Honor Harrington books for free, among others I’m anxious to try, and spent ten bucks getting Octavia Butler’s Patternist series.

The TBR never ends.

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Writing Up Loose Ends

by Liana Posted on January 9, 2014
This entry is part 40 of 103 in the series Daily Scribble Reports

Publishing

Today,  I ordered my proof of Dowse and Bleed. I cannot tell you how excited I am. Also, read Kristine Rusch’s post about branding and am thinking of reassessing Vardin’s covers—again. I really do like “Portrait of a Butterfly,” but the rest… :shrugs: It wouldn’t bother me to change them. The covers for Breath are good, I’m pretty sure, even though I don’t keep author placement the same on every single book. I move them about for genre and keep them identical for series. I’ll probably stick to that because I love the Kingdoms and Thorn covers and the Breath covers and don’t really want to change them.

Ideas for Fiction in 2014

I am seriously considering going through When the Clock Chimes and just seeing how many of those stories I can flesh out, but I also want to start finishing what I start and that means the projects on the MyWriteClub screenshot I posted earlier. I’ve also thought about series fiction vs. storyworld fiction for a long time, and I keep side-eyeing following up Dowse and Bleed from the next morning. Not sure any of those are actually good ideas, but ah, well. Uncertainty is fairly typical for me.

Writing

Yeah, that thing I’m supposed to do today. Self-discipline is something I need a lot more of, so let’s see what we can do. Be disciplined. Open the document, apply words! I finished the first gift-fic at 1397 words. :throws confetti: She liked it! :throws more confetti:

Ahem. Right. That collaboration. A writer’s work is never done. :shakes head ruefully: And I am woefully behind on it. This is largely because I have it all broken up in Scrivener, which is proving a lot easier for me to deal with something so big and uneven. (Uneven because my collaborator tends to flesh out her work when she writes, and I tend to flesh it out a lot later.)

Reading

So I paused when I got home (due to feeling pretty sick) and read, in this case, Delirium and Agony by Susan Kaye Quinn. This is research. I've wanted to write a season-style fiction series for a while and this is one I want to read.

Writing Again

So two scenes popped into my head while I was in the kitchen because I kept thinking I didn't want Splintered Gates to be just a romance to me, and then I was thinking give me plot and I got a denouement snippet and a major climactic event type snippet and wrote both when I got back to my tablet. 244 words. I seem to sketch more on the tablet and do full fleshed-out writing on the desktop. Need to work on that.

And unfortunately, a return of sickish feeling reminds me of the need to finish catching up on sleep, so I'm going to stop. I stopped making progress ten minutes ago anyway.

Word Count

  • Fiction: 1065 words
  • Poetry: 0 words, 0 lines
  • Blog: 528 words

Gift-Fic

  • Today: 821 words
  • Total: 1397 words

Splintered Gates

  • Today: 244 words
  • Total: 2001 words

Collaboration

  • Today: 0 words
  • Total: 56,380 words

January Totals

  • Fiction: 5058 words
  • Poetry: 212 words | 45 lines
  • Blog: 4258 words

Completed Pieces

  • Poem: "Before My Eyes," 220 words | 47 lines.
  • Fanfic: "Mistakes," 1397 words.
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Open Document, Apply Words

by Liana Posted on January 8, 2014
This entry is part 38 of 103 in the series Daily Scribble Reports

Publishing

So Dowse and Bleed is officially in review and I’ll get to proof it soon. I’m actually going to order a proof this time and will probably redo the typesetting on Gone Hunting soon and order that too. This round has been something of a revelation for me. And sent the Word file off to the formatter. :braces self for the invoice:

Writing

When in doubt, just write it out. I dove into my gift-fic and let’s just see what happens, shall we? Note to self: I haven’t the foggiest idea what I’m doing. I made it 167 words into the gift-fic before stalling out.

Upon switching to Splintered Gates, I got 728 words. That wasn’t actually the plan, but I’ll go with it. I’m starting to get scenes, and that’s a good thing. They’ll need later fleshing, but I’m not starting from sketch only either.

And back to the gift-fic. It’s going well, even if I can tell I’m not wholly comfortable in this character’s head. Either of theirs. I have no idea how I’m going to merge these scenes either.

In line with the idea of catching up on sleep, I'm going to stop here. I chose to write less today in favor of publishing. I regret nothing.

Word Count

  • Fiction: 1304 words
  • Poetry: 0 words, 0 lines
  • Blog: 253 words

Gift-Fic

  • Today: 576 words
  • Total: 576 words

Splintered Gates

  • Today: 728 words
  • Total: 1757 words

Collaboration

  • Today: 0 words
  • Total: 56,380 words

January Totals

  • Fiction: 3993 words
  • Poetry: 212 words | 45 lines
  • Blog: 3730 words

Completed Pieces

  • Poem: "Before My Eyes," 220 words | 47 lines.
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