Chapbook Production

So aside from my dog being sick, preparing for group presentations, writing short stories, dealing with a mouse in my closet and trying to get a Steampunk project underway (for Science Fiction), I have been aiding in the production of our Fiction Writing class' chapbook. I won't lie, I've been having fun making it, no matter how annoying the type is. I finally created a template that I can use for all the pages. So far they are the size of just under a half a page. Last night at Fiction Writing I tested the pages in the cover (which will be a cut record) and they look like they will work. I am still paranoid that something wont line up, or that the binding won't work, or that I'm doing it wrong.

At any rate, I love my chapbook submission. I think personally it's my favourite short story that I have done this year. It was just fun to write. I posted it on my website for people to read. I hope you enjoy.

I would also like to say that WMRR will, probably not meet the deadline. In fact, I know it won't. I have set a new deadline for myself, which will be August 2010. That way, I have the summer to work on it. I won't make it into the contest, but I can always try other ones, or wait until it comes around next year again.

http://drschwa.webs.com/theschwaswriting.htm

Revolutionary Army of TING

So, in relation to the last post, I listened to the recording of me trying to read chapter 1 of WMRR, and it was fairly hilarious. I freaked out in the middle after tripping over the words of a description and I just started laughing. Kind of shook my confidence on it a bit, because I wasn't sure if I'm a poor reader or my writing actually sucks.

I also learned that writing about the production of coins is harder than I first anticipated. Now, I'm not sure if I was the only who didn't know this, but I had no idea that most coins aren't a pure metal...they are steel discs coated with copper, nickel, sliver etc. This fact changed a large portion of my introduction. Not only that, I realized it's difficult telling the story of a penny, especially since I can't easily get into the heads of the people that encounter it...because it has a penny's perspective. So I'm not sure if it's laziness, exhaustion, confusion, worry or a lack of motivation that's stopped me from writing this so long, but I'm having issues. It's due tomorrow. I've put it off for three weeks. I can't believe I got away with it.

In other news, WMRR has ground to a full stop again. Confidence issues, time issues and laziness issues all factor in. I am quite sure now that I won't make the deadline. In fact, I know I'm not. I'm still going to try, but unfortunately I don't think I had the drive to complete it along with the other events in my life. I want so badly to finish this, and I've sworn not to start it over again. I need to push through it, even if it's horrible. I'm just so unfocused, unmotivated, busy and lazy at the same time and stressed beyond all reason to the point where I can't even remember where I was going with a sentence by the time I'm ready to finish it. Even this blog has gotten a little off topic. So while we're at it:

http://trololololololololololo.com/

oh and:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE&playnext_from=TL&videos=erNK6yFFUE8&playnext=1

Finally:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTmyLsSWksM&

Someone please save me from my madness.

Readings

For an hour and a half today no one was home but my dog and I, so I decided to practice my readings. By readings I don't mean the actual act of reading, I mean reading my work out loud. It's a lot harder than I thought it would be. Not only did I have problems properly speaking (I have trouble with the alliteration, and "s" and "th" sounds), but my throat got so sore over time that I couldn't continue my practice. Halls didn't really help either. Reading out loud helps with writing so much, because what works and what doesn't work with flow shows quite well. I particularly had problems with "tapped the touch pad". I also had issues with the word "horror", which is innocent enough on paper, but when I read it out loud it sounds like "whore"...and unfortunately the two are much too interchangeable in a sentence (one doesn't mean the other, I just mean that the sentence doesn't sound...weird with either word). I found that my voice got annoying after awhile as well. I'm sure most people find recordings of their own voice annoying, but I have an almost childish voice and I find that the tones and pitches fluctuate a lot (not as in puberty fluctuate...I mean just parts of words and sentences that start with one tone end with another tone). At any rate, I can certainly see why my Fiction Writing prof said that there can be good writing that is terrible for readings, just because of the sounds put together. One of my readings ended up fairly decent, but I got messed up at the "horror" part and started to laugh.

Also...pro tip. If you're going to do a reading, or record yourself reading, EDIT before you start. I ran into a few typos, and it threw me off so much I had to restart.

Once I get a decent reading out, I will post it here, either through YouTube or upload it directly.

Coinz

Since I haven't had time to work more on WMRR, I decided to talk about the next short story that's due for Fiction Writing. I'm...still not sure if it's due this week or next week because of a reading we're all attending next week, but I haven't started it so I'm hoping for the latter option. I'm essentially writing it from the perspective of a penny, A CANADIAN PENNY. Take that Abraham Lincoln, you were pwned by an English Queen and a couple of leaves. I also got to take a look into the process of coin making, which is actually quite interesting. I encountered both an angry series of posts by a person who was sick of all the misconceptions around coin collecting and a Discovery channel video I found on Youtube. I highly suggest taking a look (though I definitely recommend the video over the posts because the posts can get a little complicated at times). I'm still unsure how I'm going to end the story, whether I want to add a little science fiction element to it or not, but at least I know the beginning and the progression of it. I'm really looking forward to writing it, but I have an essay and a massive group project and a research paper topic to come up with as well. All the while poor WMRR is suffering. I miss writing about the people in my head.


http://www.coincommunity.com/forum/topic.asp?ARCHIVE=true&TOPIC_ID=26237

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrtCcXXNcGA

Gah Dialogue

I just finished Dedrad's Prologue literally a minute ago. I like how it started and finished, though I might need to tweak the middle a bit. I got discouraged half-way in between, so I think the writing is a little off. That's besides the point though...I'm over 25% done now and I am pleased. I still need to go back and finish Chapter 5, but I think I will be prepared to write that after the weekend (I'm going on another ski trip; pray I don't break my neck). I finally have a clear picture of the Eastern base in my head (I may have to change the name considering the size of the territory I'm using). I broke North America. *GIANT EVIL SMILE FACE*

Ignore that last bit. What I'm afraid of now in my writing is an excessive use of dialogue in the chapters. I think I might need more narrative, but I'm still developing my description and vocabulary skills. I'm a fairly casual writer, and though my writing and word usage has improved in the last few months, I doubt it's where I want it to be. My plan is just to get all I want to say out and worry about how horrible it is later. As I learned in class this week, dialogue can be extremely useful, but it can only go so far. Action is needed, because what a character DOES is more powerful than what they SAY...unless you're looking to spark some pretentious Facebook statuses.

Current rough draft completion: 26% (ish)
Overall completion: 19.5%
Word Count: 23,015

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSS5dEeMX64

BE A MAN.

Distraction

I felt like posting because I went on an epic multi-page writing spree and now I am at 25% rough copy completion! I know I said I would do that last week, but Oblivion, Star Craft, replays, Call of Duty, school and Avatar Sozin's Comet got in the way. On an unrelated, yet completely related note, I have not done my critiques for tomorrow, nor do I have my third short story finished. Go me.

My Face is on FIRE

I'm sick again, which is no surprise. It's spring and according to a friend of mine it's because us Canadians are so excited they don't dress warm enough. The winter term is also five times more stressful than the fall. That's partially my fault though. I was an idiot and took five courses instead of four. A person I know thought four courses was a slacker's work load, and while I'll admit that I am a huge slacker, four of my courses have a HUGE amount of research, writing and assignments. So excuse me for not taking six courses with labs, tutorials and 500 extracurricular activities. Now that's out of the way...writing.

I have almost finished writing my story for our Chapbook that will be published (by us) in April. I signed on to do the printing, but my mother is not pleased about me offering up our laser printer. I may have to work on alternative means of printing. In any case, I may post the story either here or on Deviant Art once it has been published. Another way to get my work out and about.

Also: I'm the only person I know or have heard of that paces in the shower. Then again, I don't usually ask people what they do when they clean themselves...that's a little awkward. Could make for an interesting story though ;)

Also Also: Every time I'm out with our fiction writing group we come up with crazy, strange and often disturbing tales, traits and characters, then we systematically say we should put it in a story. Some examples are cauliflower ears and "sitting up" during the cremation process. We are an odd group of people.

Also Also Also: For the record I did not come up with either one of those examples. And as an advisory I wouldn't recommend looking up the cremation one on the internet. Some person has a very...detailed account of what happens during cremation. Pictures and everything.

Serious Business Time

I honestly considered writing this post Arby and the Chief style. Only one person I know would probably appreciate that. So I'm done my traveling and my skiing (not without aches and pains, but it was hella worth it) and now I think it's time I get down to some serious business. I was supposed to be done up to chapter 15 by the end of this month. I was giggling to myself about that last night after I stopped freaking out about other issues. School is getting busier, and I have less time to write let alone maintain my sanity. I started to write some of WMRR last Wednesday, which actually went quite well. I got about 3 pages done, which is good considering how distracted I was. I now have a chapbook story(well it was technically due today...), a bunch of critiques and my third short story due within the next week. That and I want to finish chapter 5 and Dedrad's Prologue this week. I want to finish more of course, but I have other issues to contend with.

So I'm off to be anti-social and wonder how badly I failed my Science Fiction class quiz (I really did fail...I put Chuck Norris as one of the answers). It's what I get for not reading either one of the books, Wikipediaing it 10 mins before class. Oddly enough I don't really care. I'll do better on the next one.

By March 5 - Chapbook submission
March 6 - 25% completion for WMRR
March 9 - Short Story 3
March 31 - Chapter 18 (at least) of WMMR