A strange polling
A few weeks ago a co worker complimented me on the poetry I had up on my website. Suave and debonair as always, my reply was something mystifying like "Er... uh... yeah." Nothing like praise you don't anticipate, I guess. It made me want to put more stuff up on the site, or at least update it more regularly. Currently, I make changes a couple times a season, if that. Guess I'll have to get better at that, too, presenting myself I mean.
The writing progresses, if still sluggishly. I feel like the edits to the fantasy book are doable, but will also be extensive. Something I didn't much anticipate was how the editor's comments affect the writing I'm doing now. Part of me thinks, "Oh, well, if I just write differently now then I'll have to do less editing on the back end" or worse, "Oh wait, you're about to use passive voice, tsk tsk." The words at those points don't come as easily. I find myself actually thinking about the words instead of... well, instead of them just coming. As you might can tell, I'm slightly worried, but cannot exactly articulate about what.
Someone asked me about NaNoWriMo, and I blinked in realization that it was nearing that time of year again (this after finally figuring out what was up with horror movie after horror movie after horror movie after horror movie showing on tv and cheap candy being advertised in the paper). I was happy to say that while I had never participated in it, I had written a novel in a month. This year I doubt I'll be participating again, but the communal initiative is something I'll likely try to tap into. Maybe that month will prompt the quickening of the pace that I keep failing to adopt.
I also finally finished the judging on the last round of the eBook competition. The director was nice enough to send that reminder email (which was funny, because when she sent it in the first round my reaction was "Psh, like I'd forget," and this time I was like "Oh wait, crap") and I got it done. It was interesting how the judge's form changed for the final round. Instead of "does this book deserve to move forward" the question was "is this the best book in category" which I found pretty interesting because really, I had no way of answering that. The round robin manner of judging (I did one category for the prelims, a different category for the first round, and yet another category for this final round) sort of made answering that particular question impossible. I thought about butting heads with people I'd never meet about what sort of qualities made an award-winning book. I figured what they meant was "is this the best book out of the ones we've showed you" and just went with that.
On accident, I happened upon a political debate, and was a bit aghast at some grown people's inability to have a conversation. I wasn't on the debate team in college, and it's a good thing too, because I'd suck at politics. Apparently, talking over another person, and attacking them rather than their argument are both winning strategies. It turns out that this morning I was reprimanding two of my students for acting like nominee competitors. I think I'm sadder now than I was then. But now, I will digress off of my soap box. Until next time.
The writing progresses, if still sluggishly. I feel like the edits to the fantasy book are doable, but will also be extensive. Something I didn't much anticipate was how the editor's comments affect the writing I'm doing now. Part of me thinks, "Oh, well, if I just write differently now then I'll have to do less editing on the back end" or worse, "Oh wait, you're about to use passive voice, tsk tsk." The words at those points don't come as easily. I find myself actually thinking about the words instead of... well, instead of them just coming. As you might can tell, I'm slightly worried, but cannot exactly articulate about what.
Someone asked me about NaNoWriMo, and I blinked in realization that it was nearing that time of year again (this after finally figuring out what was up with horror movie after horror movie after horror movie after horror movie showing on tv and cheap candy being advertised in the paper). I was happy to say that while I had never participated in it, I had written a novel in a month. This year I doubt I'll be participating again, but the communal initiative is something I'll likely try to tap into. Maybe that month will prompt the quickening of the pace that I keep failing to adopt.
I also finally finished the judging on the last round of the eBook competition. The director was nice enough to send that reminder email (which was funny, because when she sent it in the first round my reaction was "Psh, like I'd forget," and this time I was like "Oh wait, crap") and I got it done. It was interesting how the judge's form changed for the final round. Instead of "does this book deserve to move forward" the question was "is this the best book in category" which I found pretty interesting because really, I had no way of answering that. The round robin manner of judging (I did one category for the prelims, a different category for the first round, and yet another category for this final round) sort of made answering that particular question impossible. I thought about butting heads with people I'd never meet about what sort of qualities made an award-winning book. I figured what they meant was "is this the best book out of the ones we've showed you" and just went with that.
On accident, I happened upon a political debate, and was a bit aghast at some grown people's inability to have a conversation. I wasn't on the debate team in college, and it's a good thing too, because I'd suck at politics. Apparently, talking over another person, and attacking them rather than their argument are both winning strategies. It turns out that this morning I was reprimanding two of my students for acting like nominee competitors. I think I'm sadder now than I was then. But now, I will digress off of my soap box. Until next time.
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