Tag: writing

Sometimes I run across an older book that’s usually out-of-print, but has exceptional wisdom locked up in its pages. I found this one at my local Half Priced Books.1

See all of my WSF&F chapter reviews.

An old photo editor of mine always said you’re only as good as your last shot. She stole the quote but that didn’t make it any less true. McPhee is distilling that that down. That last shot (or story) is done. Finished with a capital ‘F.’ There’s no going back. The work is out there in the world. You can’t reshoot yesterday’s front page.

Now it’s time to start over.

Kill the perfect. Slay the angels. Fuck the gods.

You’re human. You’ll get it wrong. Everybody gets it wrong.

But getting it wrong is the only way you get close to getting it right. §

Chuck Wendig nails it. This goes hand-in-hand with Anne Lamont’s ideas about shitty first drafts. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of your good.

Sometimes the writing isn’t the most time-consuming part of “writing.” There’s quite a bit of housekeeping involved.

The one question that’s came up repeatedly, is where to submit fiction? Being a gal with a speculative/futurist outlook, I tend towards science fiction. So a good place to start is the list of SFWA Qualifying Markets.

This is an important list to be on. The magazines1 must meet the current SFWA “minimum wage” to qualify. Currently this is six United States pennies per word. While not a lot, it means the writing is valued. It also means the markets have a certain level of prestige.

It’s time for my weekly word count check-in. At the end of every week, I post a screen shot from my writing results spreadsheet. This shows the current week and the three before. My week starts on Monday. The numbers are current through Sunday night. I also only average over six days. This allows me one day of no writing that doesn’t impact the weekly totals.

This week the number look about average, but I feel I didn’t do much. I had a serious lull in the middle of the week. A couple of big bursts early and late in the week rounded out the numbers. Hitting 50K would’ve been nice. But I just finished a 2K techincal post. Verifying the code while writing really drags things out. No more tonight.

One thing that’s taken a few days to sink is how Apple managed to improve the keyboard on the new MacBook model. During the announcement Tim Cook mentioned that the key tops were 17% larger than the current MacBook keyboards. I noted it in my live blog on Monday, but didn’t think too much about it.

This evening I thought about going to an Apple Store to see it in person, but decided to do a virtual comparison first. Using screenshots I put together a quick comparison of the new and old keyboards. The new MacBook is about 1.3” narrower than the MacBook Pro that I currently use. I adjusted the size of pictures so the comparison would be accurate. (It’s not perfect, but it’s damn close.)

It’s time for my weekly word count check-in. At the end of every week, I post a screen shot from my writing results spreadsheet. This shows the current week and the three before. My week starts on Monday. The numbers are current through Sunday night. I also only average over six days. This allows me one day of no writing that doesn’t impact the weekly totals.

I was shooting for more, but a bug in the Pogo software left me spending my time troubleshooting instead of writing. The average turned upwards again. I’m happy with that.

It’s time for my weekly word count check-in. At the end of every week, I post a screen shot from my writing results spreadsheet. This shows the current week and the three before. My week starts on Monday. The numbers are current through Sunday night. I also only average over six days. This allows me one day of no writing that doesn’t impact the weekly totals.

The goal for this week was to push out 1000 words per day. Only blog posts, fiction, project writing counts. Keeping track of emails and fourm posting would make me crazy.

Ally tugged at the stethoscope around her neck and smoothed the stolen lab coat. The gray industrial carpet was hard under her feet. The tile floor of the crossing hallway was a few yards ahead. She looked at James. “Which way?”

In the hallway a few people walked by with morning coffee. The lingering caffeine in the air taunted them. James glanced at the emergency exit sign on the wall. The blue scrubs hung loosely on his shoulders as he pulled on a surgical cap. He pointed at the hallway. “There. Then left.”

It’s time for my weekly word count check-in. At the end of every week, I post a screen shot from my writing results spreadsheet. This shows the current week and the three before. My week starts on Monday. The numbers are current through Sunday night. I also only average over six days. This allows me one day of no writing that doesn’t impact the weekly totals.

I spent the first part of the week learning about how to make eBooks. But for writing, this was a week of poor concentration. I wasn’t able to focus on much of anything. It wasn’t writer’s block. It was more of a feeling that I just didn’t have anything worth writing inside me. Instead I spent time on Twitter. Overall, a poor showing.