Spring dreaming

On Friday I had another opportunity to talk to creative writing class at a local high school. The teacher expressed the writers taking the course having some issues with their worlds being believable, and being unable to tell what changes are needed to create immersive settings. So, I went in and talked to them about suspension of disbelief and immersion and internal logic. I had them do a writing exercise about a character's day in the life in a world just like ours except for one specific change (one group opted for everyone being born with a third arm, and the second group voted for dinosaurs never dying out), after which we discussed things they learned when it came time to start putting words on paper. It was my contention then, and continues to be, that actually putting lessons into use is where the learning lives. I was happy that they had questions after the fact, that they realized some things about the difficulty of what they were attempting (turns out a slightly different but non standard physiological difference changes art, fashion, sports, and labor). In the end, it set up an ability for me to tell them that it's the little things that are important, the tiny details that are so often overlooked that add up to make the difference. I hope it clicked for some of them. A number of them thanked me with the sparkle of possibility in their eyes.  

The previous Friday I had a conversation with another author who was very experienced on the marketing side of things, and was very interested in sharing that information with me. It was pretty gratifying, in a lot of ways, that someone else would seek me out with the kind of perspective I'm kind of blind to. it wasn't completely altruistic, but if someone thinks you can help them, then they're also paying you the compliment that you are helpful. I've historically focused on making my settings believable and rich, the characters round and interesting. But it's probably close to the truth that just about every author would benefit from knowing all the little tips and tricks that are proven to result in higher presence, more sales, etc. It was also pretty interesting to discuss artistic philosophy. I don't get a lot of that. A lot of what he had to say made sense, and I've been absorbing it over the last couple weeks, trying to use every corner of it to my advantage. 

So, taking a step back, I've added a couple items to the year's list. There's the novel, of course, which I'm ashamed to admit has not been increased. I haven't opened any of those files at all. I have been conceiving of more issues of the comic I started a script for. I finally got some feedback for the first installment, and there might be something there. But it's also a bit of an energy sucker, and I'm very regimented so it bugs me a nontrivial amount that I'm kind of all over the place. A different writer friend told me that thinking about the writing counts as writing. I thought about that for a bit, and I'm not sure I agree. At least, thinking about a story for a year doesn't finish a project. It might be exactly what is required, but by itself, it's still less effective than writing something down. But I've been wrong before. The last items recently added are re-edits for four books I've already written. I have no clue about the order of events to get all that done. The year is already a quarter over. 

It's also nowhere near done.