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Revision

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Twitter user @UOJim asked me to write a post about revision, and I realized I have never done a systemic evaluation of the way I revise. Writing this will be a way to organize my thoughts on the subject, all of which I will probably forget once it’s time to go back over EPIC SEQUEL WITH NO DULL PARTS next spring when the first draft is finished.

(See how hopeful I am? Finished draft in the spring. It’s like a magic spell: I write it to make it happen.)

The way I figure it, there are two basic kinds of revisions: story-level and text-level. Continue reading

Plot Without Conflict, a non-Western view

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Via Kelly Sue DeConnick, a discussion of non-Western plot structures that do not involve conflict.

I don’t have a lot to say about it, because I’d need to read much more in-depth to feel knowledgeable for that, but it is interesting.

Randomness for 1/15

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1) “The Hatchet Job of the Year Award is for the writer of the angriest, funniest, most trenchant book review of the past twelve months.” Read the nominated reviews here.

2) I’d say that the question of whether President Obama would rather fight a single horse-sized duck or a hundred duck-sized horses has been answered pretty authoritatively.

3) Movie plots done as pictograms. I’m embarrassed to admit that I didn’t get all of these.

4) Minor characters get their own movies. I didn’t get all of these, either

5) Emotions for which the English language has no words. “Viitsima” is my new pen name.

6) A comprehensive list of things that made David Banner “Hulk out” in the TV show THE HULK.

7) Segway inventor patents portable bulimia machine, demonstrates that he’s one fucked up human being.

Randomness for 1/1

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1) The 50 Worst Columns of 2012. So many trainwrecks.

2) What would cities look like without light pollution? h/t Richard Kadrey

3) Outtakes for ST:TNG Season 2. Video.

4) Politics in 2012, in graphs and gifs.

5) WW2: Full of ridiculous plot holes. h/t James Nicoll

6) The lowest-grossing theatrical release of 2012 goes to Christian Slater’s latest. It was a one-week release, though, and averaged more than “The Oogieloves in the BIG Balloon Adventure.”

7) Oldest and Fatherless: The Terrible Secret of Tom Bombadil. An oldie but a goodie.

Randomness for 12/18

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1) The largest iceberg break-up ever filmed. Video. Pretty amazing.

2)

13 Little-Known Punctuation Marks We Should Be Using.

3)

10 episodes that show how Buffy The Vampire Slayer blew up genre TV.

4) The Best/Worst Media Errors and Corrections in 2012. Mostly English language, of course.

5) The Five Most Disruptive Technologies of 2012.

6) Stephen King takes writing questions from writing students. Video.

7) Winning photos from this year’s Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition

Randomness for 12/11

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1) A motorcycle with a track instead of wheels, from 1939.

2) Do people gain weight during the holidays? Science says no, not usually.

3) A six-year-old tries to guess the plots of classic novels by their covers.

4) How much we care about Star Wars, graphed over time.

5) Look at this Instagram (Nickelback parody) Video. Not only have I never knowingly heard Nickelback once, but I have never been to Instagram. I still laughed at this.

6) Why is ‘w’ pronounced ‘double u’ rather than ‘double v’?

7) Author Christopher Priest shares his opinion of Robert McCrum, an associate editor of the Observer.

Latest scandal engulfs Pat Rothfuss

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And the scandal is this: He’s a decent guy giving readers a chance to win great books and other swag while helping charity.

Check out how on his blog.

I have nothing to donate this year, so you won’t have a chance to win anything of mine, but there’s a massive pile of books over there you could win.

I hate you, unexpected plot twist

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One of the characters in EPIC SEQUEL WITH NO DULL PARTS has insisted on an unexpected turn of events, and I’m about to write that scene, and I’m stuck. And I hate it. And I’ve wasted most of the day working on it.

And that sucks.

Basically, I need to work out an entirely new magic system for some new characters. It needs to follow the basic rules of what I’ve already done and violate those rules, too.

Which I hate.

More thinking and list-making to come.

Amazon flexes

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Last night while I was playing Dominion with my family, Amazon yanked the Kindle editions for a great many books from their website. At the time no one was sure why, but according to the NYTimes, they’re demanding new contract terms from a distributor and the erasure of all Kindle editions was muscle flexing. (Update: as pointed out on LJ, that article is from last February. Damn I feel dumb for not noticing that. This PW article reports that Amazon claims a “glitch” caused the removal of all those Kindle editions. The supposed glitch appeared to affect Big Six companies only, though, and there has been no explanation for that.)

An awful lot of authors lost impulse sales but, you know, boo hoo, right? Amazon is a private company who can do what they like with their website. If they want to take my books down, that’s they’re right.

What I can’t wait for is the reader backlash. How long are consumers going to put up with this bullshit? Yeah, Amazon wants lower prices, but what good is a low price if the book isn’t available to buy?

Kindles break. Kindles become obsolete. When it’s time for consumers to replace their old ereaders (or when the time comes to do some Christmas shopping), how many of them are going to stick with Amazon?

Randomness for 11/2

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1) Why was that cave troll in the Mines of Moria so angry? A new perspective. Video

2) Unfortunate product placement.

3) Twelve year old uses D&D to help his dad advance science.

4) A mousetrap, circa 1870.

5) If Yoda was white.

6) Jane Austen’s manuscripts, digitized.

7) Causes of Death You Won’t Want on Your Death Certificate