Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Catching Up
It's been nuts. I was gone over the weekend for the 24th annual Central Coast Writers' Conference, which takes place in San Luis Obispo, about three and a half hours south of the SF Bay Area. It was cool. I've never taught classes before, although I've done a bunch of book events and I figured the two things were rather similar. You want to be entertaining and knowledgeable, probably in that order for a book signing but in the reverse for a class, right? I was well-prepared with hardcore single-spaced ultra-dense double-sided handouts, which also functioned as speaking notes for myself, and none of my three classes had less than 30 attendees. In fact, the Friday night class was held in a big auditorium with 50+. Wow. Fortunately, I caffeinate well, and blabber on without much encouragement, and I got several good laughs and felt like I imparted what wisdom I have on the subjects of breaking into publishing, writing short fiction, and crafting suspense. Oh, and I got to sleep in both Saturday and Sunday mornings, which was gorgeous, especially because I've been nursing a head cold. Yummy.
I was out of it yesterday. Got some good editing done on Mind Plague, then turned my attention back to furthering the manuscript this morning and had a solid 2000 word day. More tomorrow. I'd like to get back into a groove and stay there until I have a complete first draft. No doubt there will be other interruptions.
Ketchup.
I was out of it yesterday. Got some good editing done on Mind Plague, then turned my attention back to furthering the manuscript this morning and had a solid 2000 word day. More tomorrow. I'd like to get back into a groove and stay there until I have a complete first draft. No doubt there will be other interruptions.
Ketchup.
Labels: Catching up, Central Coast Writers' Conference, Ketchup, Mind Plague, the writing life
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Jeff,
For writing, do you pretty much concentrate soley on Mind Plague, or do you multiplex writing short stories as well and/or working on that next big novel?
Joe
For writing, do you pretty much concentrate soley on Mind Plague, or do you multiplex writing short stories as well and/or working on that next big novel?
Joe
# posted by 
: October 1, 2008 at 9:41 AM
: October 1, 2008 at 9:41 AM
Hi, Joe, excellent question! There are times when I'm juggling several hot potatoes, but that tends to make me nuts. Potatoes? Nuts? I'm mixing root vegetables with my insanity... More nuts that usual, I mean. Ha ha.
Going into 2008, I was blazing through a large chunk of COLONY HIGH while developing a detailed outline for THE BIG SECRET PROJECT while brushing up my notes for MIND PLAGUE. The explanation for that is probably a long blog entry of itself. Oh, plus I was boning up my notes for my panels at WorldCon as well as my classes at the Central Coast Writers' Conference, all of which were very nearly like writing short stories (but don't you hate it when panelists or teachers are unprepared?).
The short answer is that I very much prefer to focus on one project at a time. Some writers are very different in this. Everybody has to find their own way, and that's the great part about being your own boss. You find what works for you and you run with it. But especially now, with my deadline looming, my intent is to be all about Mind Plague Mind Plague Mind Plague until it's done... realizing at the same time that other projects always seem to have a way of cropping up. Ah well. That's an excellent problem to have!!!
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Going into 2008, I was blazing through a large chunk of COLONY HIGH while developing a detailed outline for THE BIG SECRET PROJECT while brushing up my notes for MIND PLAGUE. The explanation for that is probably a long blog entry of itself. Oh, plus I was boning up my notes for my panels at WorldCon as well as my classes at the Central Coast Writers' Conference, all of which were very nearly like writing short stories (but don't you hate it when panelists or teachers are unprepared?).
The short answer is that I very much prefer to focus on one project at a time. Some writers are very different in this. Everybody has to find their own way, and that's the great part about being your own boss. You find what works for you and you run with it. But especially now, with my deadline looming, my intent is to be all about Mind Plague Mind Plague Mind Plague until it's done... realizing at the same time that other projects always seem to have a way of cropping up. Ah well. That's an excellent problem to have!!!
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