The Confabulator Cafe

Author: jarnett

  • Death Week

    Wrimos or NoWris? Anyone have an opinion?

    Crap. It’s Week 2. Death Week. The Week of flaccid attempts to go somewhere with the brilliantly (and last-minute) conceived ideas that started the month off so well. The Week where WriMos/NoWris drop like flies.

    Hi, I’m Jason.

    This is my fifth NaNoWriMo, I’m familiar with this week. So are you if you’ve participated more than once. I’ve had trouble with it and I’ve overcome it, too. This year, I’m taking a different approach, though.

    I think I’ve mentioned a couple of places that last year’s novel, after some serious editing and revisions, got a RR notice (Revise and Resubmit). I also believe I’ve mentioned here or somewhere (I’m all over the internet, I can’t remember what I’ve said where – whups!) that this year’s novel is a kind of sequel to last year’s. So as I hit the dreaded Week Two, I wanted to be ahead of the curve and I am. A good five days ahead of the curve. Yay, me.

    I wanted to be ahead so that I could split my time revising the first novel while I’m writing the second one.

    So far it’s working pretty well. I’m topping my personal goals every day for word count and making excellent progress on the revision. In addition, they’re informing each other. I can see where foreshadowing in the first novel informs the second and also I’m able to tie the second book more firmly to the first.

    Another bonus is that this year’s novel is better to start with. I’m not head-hopping like I was last year. Still writing too many passive sentences in the effort for sentence variety but that’s easily fixable. I’m also still avoiding a lot of -ly adverbs and that’s a trap in itself.

    But it’s all good. I’m managing to juggle the day job, writing, and editing all at once.

    So far.

    But you know – jeez, three jobs. And family and chores and even some down time.

    I’ll let you know how it’s going next week. ‘Til then, I’ve got writing to do.

  • The (Off) Day Off

    This DeathBar comes from the NaNo website and pulls its numbers directly from the ones I feed there. It keeps me honest with its DeathBar-iness.

    I’m a little over a week into NaNoWriMo. You can over there by the NaNo Death Bar that I’m doing pretty well. 17,294 words. As I write this I should be at 13,336 eight days in.

    I averaged 2882 words until yesterday, the day after the presidential election. I blame hangover from my political junkiness for not writing the full complement of 1667 words. I only got about 1,000 that day. Essentially a day off.

    Every writer needs a bit of down time. Stepping back a bit and taking to heart what’s already written is a good idea. The first two years I did NaNo I was petrified about being able to get back into the groove so I didn’t take a day off from writing in November. Consequently, the two books were awful. I mean terrible. (Well, not really but there were problems too numerous to fix at the time. Regardless. Moving on.)

    So last year and this year both, I’ve planned for a couple of days when work or life will likely get in the way and I won’t be able to write. Over the first weekend of NaNo I wrote 8,000 words. That’s not as much as some people (one buddy of mine wrote 11,000 in one day) but it’s pretty good for me. I can get that done a couple more times and I’ll make the 50,000 in 30 days in order to be a winner.

    The thing is, I’m writing on the same pace as I did last year and even with the day off this week I feel good. So far I’ve had one major surprise and I’ve written some pretty solid prose.I’m already a winner as far as this book goes.

    So looking at that 17,000 words in the DeathBar I can tell you I’m almost a third of the way to the NaNo goal, but only about 17% of the way to my goal for the novel.

    I’ll probably take another day off before too long. But now I’ve gotta get back to writing. See you next week.

  • Abandon All Hope (of a ‘regular’ life)

    Those of you in the know will get this. There will be shuttles this year, too. Photo from Wikimedia.

    Ah, it’s November. That means that I’m writing. This year it’s another novel, just as ambitious as the last one and in fact a kind of sequel to last year’s.

    Those are the plans.

     

    The best laid schemes of mice and men
    Go often awry,
    And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
    For promised joy!

    -Robert Burns, “To a Mouse, on turning up in her nest with a plough”. 1785

     

    Which means it’s up in the air at the time I’m writing this. (It’s not quite Halloween yet in my timestream.) (more…)

  • The Things Which Must Be Done… (Flash Fiction)

    Disclaimer: I know I was supposed to write a flash fiction but once I got into the story, it took on a life of its own and grew into a true short story. Presented here is the first part of the two part tale. — Jason

    The Ringmaster of the Circus of Crime from Marvel Comics. Owned and maintained by Marvel.

    Sure clowns are scary – I’ve read that Stephen King book – but they’re not the ones trying to the end the world. Uh uh. It’s the twisted, evil ringmasters you’ve gotta worry about. That guy in the Marvel comics with the hypno-hat and all the circus ‘freaks’? He’s bush league compared to some of the ones I’ve taken down.

    The wind was October chilly and whirled the brittle leaves up the block in a swirl of orange, red and yellow as I took my morning walk. I had my hands in the pockets of my jacket, jingling some change and my collar turned up. The rubes were probably still in bed that early, and I could smell the warmth of fires in fireplaces or stoves. It’s one of the things I love most about fall . Anyway.

    It was the police cars halfway up the block that really had my attention. Three of them, none flashing their lights, with a couple of officers standing in the driveway. The neighborhood was pleasant and probably forty or fifty years old. I mean, it’s pretty obvious which houses were built in the ’70s if you pay attention.

    “Excuse me, sir,” one of the officers said as he crossed the street toward me. I pulled out my earbuds and gave him a look that said I wasn’t expecting him to stop me. “Do you live in the neighborhood?” Leonard, his nametag said.

    “No. I’m at the Barrow Square Hotel a couple blocks over.” I showed concern. “Something happen?” (more…)

  • What Makes It Great

    There are a lot of times when I’m writing that I feel like this guy but without the spectre of death looming over me. Image borrowed from this site.

    When I read something I really like, that makes me think, that just stuns me with its elegance or simplicity or beauty, I want to emulate it. I want to know why it works so well, why it hit me so hard. I want to dissect it and hold its beating heart in my hands in order to understand. When I get frustrated, I watch this clip from A League Of Their Own.

    However, since I have very little schooling, or formal training, as a writer I don’t have any way to really dig in and get to the core of something I want to learn. The tools just aren’t there. So what I have to do is sit down and study. And study hard.

    The thing is that when I do that, it’s kind of frustrating. Actually not just kind of frustrating, really frustrating. (more…)

  • Jimmy Cavanaugh

    The following is a translated transcript of The Overnight Show originating from the Buntoohn Room on level 343 of Kunwaq Station.  Content is approved for dissemination by Conclave Order BX/J5873.

     

    GIXO: Welcome back, gentlebeings. Our first guest tonight is a Peregrinator, one of those who can move easily between the ‘branes as well as across them. He’s older than everyone on our crew here — combined — and he’s been a lot of places and seen a lot of things. If you’ve heard of him, and not many have, you may have been at a very exclusive party where his food was featured. A magnificent chef, a tastemaker, and popular with ladies of every species, please welcome Jimmy Cavanaugh!

    (Applause. Cavanaugh comes onstage, is greeted by Gixo and both sit facing one another.)

    GIXO: Glad you could come by, Jimmy.

    CAVANAUGH: Thank you for inviting me. It’s nice to be here.

    GIXO: You have a book coming out, don’t you? We should get that out of the way.

    CAVANAUGH: Well — no, actually — I don’t. I’m not sure where you got that from. (more…)

  • The Entry Where I Thinly Disguise Myself to Make a Point

    This is what the sound that makes you cringe looks like. Image attribution.

    Feedback is important because no writer works in a vacuum. Not really. We have day jobs, families, significant others, pets, friends, and obligations. A writer won’t necessarily worry that much about feedback, or shouldn’t any way, but will keep on going until it becomes obvious it’s time to stop.

    That time is usually when no one is talking about your work.

    (more…)

  • What Is Best In Life (Flash Fiction)

    “Anything else, Boss?”

    He looked up from the screen and shook his head. It was past midnight, and his very attractive secretary had plans with her boyfriend of the moment. “That’s all, Carly,” he said. “Have a good time with Jordan.”

    “Jordan said he had to find himself in some cave in Africa or something,” Carly said with a devil-may-care tone. “Whatever.” She came over to him, leaned in so he could admire her cleavage and kissed him on the cheek. “Tonight’s Bart. We’re going to that new discotheque on forty-seventh.”

    “Well, have fun,” he said. He smiled at her.

    Carly stood up and put her hand on his shoulder. “You’re thinking about it again, aren’t you?”

    He nodded.

    “I can stay if you like. Bart’s pretty flexible, and he’s got plenty of offers.”

    “No. You’re sweet to make an old man feel wanted, but no.”

    She frowned and ran her hand through his hair. Carly was way too young, and she was an employee. A bad mix, especially for a dinosaur like him. “Erik,” she said with disapproving tone. “Stop dwelling on ancient history.” (more…)

  • The Idea Dump

    That’s me swooping in to pick up an idea for a story. Image source.

    I have a folder. This folder is sitting on the hard drive of my new computer and it’s origin lies somewhere in the depths of either the early days of my first laptop or the last days of my desktop.

    It’s the Idea Dump.

    It has a couple of companion spiral notebooks and far too many offspring comprised of bits of paper that float around my office, in my briefcase, in the car, my office, on the mantle above the fireplace or the shelve on either side of it. 90% of these notes are of the “what if” variety or they’re a snatch of conversation or a phrase that caught my ear on the radio or at a restaurant or on TV.

    (more…)

  • Shaking the Tree

    If you know all the visual cues you’ll understand this. If not, sorry. Image attribution.

    Can you name the original X-Men? Do you know who the first members of the Uncanny X-Men (the second team) were and how many are still in the group? All right, how about the Reavers? Or the New Mutants? What about Generation X?

    My point being that as a reader, anyone who followed the far-ranging cast of characters created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in the 1960s taken by Chris Claremont in the late 70s and expanded beyond any scope or definition of Reason into the 90s had to have an inclination toward keeping literally hundreds of mutants straight. Fortunately there were visual cues. Unfortunately, not every artist interpreted those visual cues the same way.

    But there was a lesson there for young Jason as he aspired to his own dreams of writing. (Sorry, the Claremont pretentiousness sometimes slips over the levee. <cringe>) The lesson was that for a reader to enjoy a story with an enormous cast, the author had to have a kind of shorthand that immediately cued the reader. Sometimes it’s the way a character talks, or a catchword or phrase. Or maybe it’s patois that’s stylistically disguised as “accent” ala having an English character say “Eh, wot?” That’s all in the writing.

    (more…)