If I could speak to Stephen King right now I would say, “Your books make me want to edit my work, because although I will likely never be, I want to be as good as you.”
Anyone who would like to try it out, feel free to use the “One-Liner Wednesday” title in your post, and if you do, you can ping back here to help your blog get more exposure. To execute a ping back, just copy the URL in the address bar on this post and paste it somewhere in the body of your post. Your link will show up in the comments below. Please ensure that the One-Liner Wednesday you’re pinging back to is this week’s! Otherwise, no one will likely see it but me.
As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS), if you see a ping back from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.
Unlike SoCS, this is not a prompt so there’s no need to stick to the same “theme.”
The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:
Not to diminish the severity of the impact ADD has on the lives of people who truly suffer with it, but is it possible to “catch” it in times of stress? Why do I ask? Let me tell you.
In the amount of time it took me to decide what I was going to write about today, click on my dashboard and get into “Add New Post,” I came up with six more things I want to write about – the last of which is the fact that spellcheck (I guess Firefox’s version) has finally chosen to insert its ass in my subject line. Apparently “Poblano” isn’t a word. Who knew?
So yeah, the other stuff in backwards order of the idea light bulb coming on over my head are:
1. I realized I haven’t answered any of my comments today, so I wanted to apologize for that in advance of my upcoming eye drops. I’ll try to get to some before I leave for the appointment however.
2. My battery works!! It’s ALIVE!!!! And yes, it was free. 😀
3. My occupational therapist appointment went well. I’ve got to do a few exercises, mildly limit my movement for a couple of weeks, and get my laptop into a better position. Oh, and move around once in a while. OH, and check out an aqua fitness program. OH! And get a body pillow. Good call to all of those who came up with the idea when I was considering a sleeping companion.
4. I’m working on writing enough “Scenes from the Second Seat on the Right” so they’ll keep publishing while I’m gone.
5. Beta readers!! I need a few people who are serious about wanting to beta my novel. I’ll be looking to find out if it’s interesting enough to captivate my audience, notes on any inconsistencies, and I’m planning to put a note in it of my own to ask about thoughts on splitting it into two or three books. I’d like to have it read while I’m away, if I can get it ready by the time I leave. Let me know if you want a copy! I’ll take three readers for now. Please email me at bacamjoly at gmail dot com if you’re interested.
6. … And now that I’m finally at my original idea for posting today, I’ve forgotten what it is.
What do you think? Am I ready for an ADD diagnosis yet?
There’s more that one bit of good news in this though. The nine books only cost me $21, and the proceeds went to the Alzheimer’s Society.
But while I was browsing the thousands of books for sale that day, I got to thinking: what if I had my book published and gave away copies at events such as the Alzheimer’s book sale? Wouldn’t that be a neat way not only to get my novel out there, but to give to a worthwhile charity at the same time? Heck, I could even sit there and sign them. But then I got to thinking – does that make the sale suddenly more about me than the cause?
What do you think? Should this even be a tough call?
My manuscript is literally bigger than The Stand! I have proof!
But seriously, wouldn’t you love to be able to say that about your body of work and actually mean it in more than a literal sense? Even if I’m that good, which I suspect that possibly I’m not, (ahem) there’s no chance in hell, or even Castle Rock that I can catch up to the great SK. I didn’t start early enough. In fact, by my calculations I’d have to live to be a hundred and twenty five and seven-eighths years old to write as many books as Stephen King has and will. And honestly, I can’t see myself writing much past my 120th birthday anyway.
Conclusion: I’m destined to spend the rest of my existence wheezing on his literary dust. And enjoying the Castle Rock out of his books.
I’m starting to think writing a novel would have been easier than this NaBloPoMo thing. Writing a post every day, especially when I’m being forced into it, is HARD! Writing a novel when I’m being forced into it, on the other hand, is a piece of cake as long as life doesn’t come along and bite me in the arse like it did during NaNo ’11.
Yep, NaNo ’11 was a doozy. I was going along strong and then suddenly everyone got sick. Alex, my youngest, was in the hospital in Kingston, which was miles away and so I figured I’d sleep there, save the drive home. Only I got woken up at two in the morning to find out my eldest, Fred, was puking up blood. What do you do?
I rushed home as soon as I’d talked to Alex’s doctor the next day–which was almost dinner time–and I don’t even remember what happened after that, ‘coz I got sick. At least I knew Alex was taken care of.
The manuscript that came out of that there NaNo ’11 took me another year to complete, as it turned out. Today I printed out all 627 pages of it–again–so I can give it what I hope is a second-last once-over before it goes out to my beta readers. That should take, oh, a week or so if all goes well.
Dare I say it? My eyesight seems to be back. On Saturday it was horrible, then Sunday it was better and I thought to myself, ‘Oh great! I’m on the mend!’ but yesterday I could barely see again. I got some Lutein from the local pharmacy and have had two doses so far – it seems to have helped but I don’t want to push it too hard and strain my eyes before they’re ready.
All this to say, I haven’t forgotten about all the great bloggers who participated on SoCS on the weekend. Usually I’d have read everyone’s posts long before now, but it’s hard to read when I can’t see, unfortunately.
I did manage to get through all the answers to my questions on “10 Random Whats.” If you want a really good laugh, go read some of the witty responses I received! Great fun! Thanks to all who were kind enough to join in the silliness!
My other good news is, I’m finished the 4th edit on my novel, The Great Dagmaru! I just have to print it off and read it one more time and, as long as I don’t find any major problems, it should be going out to beta readers within the next month! I’m so excited!!
I hope to be able to get around to everyone’s blogs soon. Feel free to fill me in in the comments if I’ve missed anything important in the last couple of weeks. It’s been so hard not reading you all!!
My trip to Ottawa to go backstage at the National Arts Centre was amazing! I managed to talk to a few of the staff members, including stage managers, prop builders, and lighting staff, I ate lunch in the green room, and took loads of photos.
Photo from one of the box seats
There are four stages there; the seating for the largest is above.
View from the back of the stage
I found out some handy tidbits of info. It is indeed possible to get horses on stage (in my novel, my character uses horses in his magic act). I was told they’ve had an elephant on this stage.
The stage will also hold a thirty foot ladder
My novel also has a ladder as a prop. I discovered yesterday how tall it can be – and also how they would set it up so it won’t fall.
The backstage corridors are like a maze. I got lost.
The ladies chorus dressing room
Getting ready to go onstage
(No, that’s not me.)
I had to find out what this was!
Apparently, a vomitory in a theatre isn’t somewhere you go to upchuck your lunch. It’s a quick exit from the stage. I learned something new!
I actually learned a lot of things–details–I will use in my novel. Even if the whole ten hour trip results in the fact that I know how to get a large animal on stage, that I know how many rungs my magician’s assistant will have to climb and whether they enter and exit stage left or right–and all this results in a couple of sentences or a paragraph–I will have accurate details! An essential part of any novel worth its weight, in my estimation.
I had to face it eventually – the dreaded Facebook page. Not that I have anything against Facebook. It just goes a little against the grain of my personality to have anything dedicated specifically to draw attention to myself. Yes, I know you’re probably saying, why do you have a blog then? and you’re probably saying it in italics to boot.
My blog is a place to talk. When I write here I feel like I’m sitting at a table with a group of like-minded individuals, sharing a laugh, the occasional tear, and a big-assed pot of coffee, tea, wine, beer … You get the picture. But The Facebook Page is, well, it’s advertising. And at the moment I don’t have anything TO advertise, so it’s just me. Little ol’ me standing at the head of the class, waiting for a crowd of people who know more than I do to arrive. At least that’s how it feels.
So what’s the point of this then? I need some friends over there to keep me company, and to hold my hand when the crowd shows up.
Do you ever live vicariously through your characters? I’m thinking about my upcoming trip to Ottawa where I will go backstage at the National Arts Centre to see the dressing rooms and the back hallways where the stars meet. I’ll go on stage and look out at all the seats and maybe I’ll do a little dance. But it’s not just the fact that my main character happens to be a performer. There’s so much more going on in his life than that; it’s only a facet of who he is.
My fictional characters go through their own lives with the dramas and fears and loves that I only wish I could experience. Sure, sometimes they are tortured by those very same things. But their stories are interesting – worth telling. Is my own life worth a tale? Sometimes, I suppose. But not like the lives of my characters. They live out loud, doing things I can only dream of having the opportunity to do.
I suppose all writers of fiction live, at times, in the imaginary world where their characters exist. A fantasy world, if you will, where not even the sky is the limit, and where unexpected things happen.
Once in a very rare while, I feel like I’m really there. And in a way my research will take me there. I’ll have my notepad and pen and my camera on hand to record the moment, but for the most part I’ll be living it.
I’m back home from my weekend in Ottawa where I had a chance to do some writing. With the work I accomplished, I’ve arrived home with a question for all my followers who are fiction lovers. But first a little information.
I have a new villain in the sequel to my novel and I’m finding I like her. She’s as sharp and witty as she is rotten to the core. So far, 40,000 words into the novel, she has yet to show how bad she can be. My question to you is, have you ever loved a villain despite the fact that they’re cruel and horrible people? Is what I’m doing a no-no?
In the comments, please let me know if you’ve ever read (or seen in a movie) a villain you’ve liked – who you’ve been excited to see when they turned up in a scene.
P.S. I’ll be answering all the comments from the weekend and reading as many of the SoCS entries as I can after I put Alex to bed. Thanks to everyone for your contributions to both!
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