Writing update
I haven't posted a writing update in quite a while. This is mostly because I've hardly done any writing. The start of the semester has been crazy as usual, and I'm feeling like I should be editing my novel rather than write new material, but I'm procrastinating because I know what a huge job it's going to be and how it will take over my life once I dive in. I also need to edit my novelette, For the Love of Trees, based on the feedback I got from TNEO and from my local writers' group. Most responses seem to think it is close to publishable but I have some things to fix and to think about.
I have a couple of stories I think are close to ready to actually submit somewhere, but when I go back to edit I start second guessing myself and wondering whether they're any good after all. So I think what I need to do is set myself a goal: send out two stories by the end of this month. Period. Regardless of what I think about them. Give someone else a chance to reject them instead of doing it myself.
I have done a bit of writing, though not in a traditional sense. I'm putting together a cabaret for my voice students which will be performed in November. I wanted to give them a chance to do some performing that involves more acting and staging than a typical recital, give them a taste of performing in something like an opera or musical theater piece, with a few duets and ensemble pieces mixed in among the solos. So I've got them working on pieces that would be conducive to this, and am connecting them with small bits of dialog that I'm writing. I'm excited about this because it is something I've wanted to do for a long time.
My local writers' group, the Off-track Bookies, didn't meet over the summer because we were all busy and one member was doing a residency for an MFA program. But we had a great meeting on Tuesday and decided to meet twice a month instead of once, making the second meeting a workshop where we take turns sharing technique ideas and leading writing exercises.
In other news, I finally read a book by Charles Williams. I've been ashamed for years that I've never read Williams, since I'm on the award committee for fantasy literature of the Mythopoeic Society. We are charged to consider whether the nominees are "in the spirit of the Inklings," and Williams is one Inkling I know virtually nothing about.
I am happy to say that I enjoyed The Greater Trumps. His style is not always the easiest to read, because he spends a lot of time in his characters' heads and the story sometimes feels like it stops dead to make way for philosophy. But that in itself doesn't deter me. This aspect reminds me a little bit of The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson, one of my favorite books of all time. I can't see Williams' work being on my all-time favorites list, but I admire his blending of occult and religious ideas and telling a story that plotwise, does an excellent job of finding the "third way" between the two obvious solutions. I'm planning to read more Williams.
I have a couple of stories I think are close to ready to actually submit somewhere, but when I go back to edit I start second guessing myself and wondering whether they're any good after all. So I think what I need to do is set myself a goal: send out two stories by the end of this month. Period. Regardless of what I think about them. Give someone else a chance to reject them instead of doing it myself.
I have done a bit of writing, though not in a traditional sense. I'm putting together a cabaret for my voice students which will be performed in November. I wanted to give them a chance to do some performing that involves more acting and staging than a typical recital, give them a taste of performing in something like an opera or musical theater piece, with a few duets and ensemble pieces mixed in among the solos. So I've got them working on pieces that would be conducive to this, and am connecting them with small bits of dialog that I'm writing. I'm excited about this because it is something I've wanted to do for a long time.
My local writers' group, the Off-track Bookies, didn't meet over the summer because we were all busy and one member was doing a residency for an MFA program. But we had a great meeting on Tuesday and decided to meet twice a month instead of once, making the second meeting a workshop where we take turns sharing technique ideas and leading writing exercises.
In other news, I finally read a book by Charles Williams. I've been ashamed for years that I've never read Williams, since I'm on the award committee for fantasy literature of the Mythopoeic Society. We are charged to consider whether the nominees are "in the spirit of the Inklings," and Williams is one Inkling I know virtually nothing about.
I am happy to say that I enjoyed The Greater Trumps. His style is not always the easiest to read, because he spends a lot of time in his characters' heads and the story sometimes feels like it stops dead to make way for philosophy. But that in itself doesn't deter me. This aspect reminds me a little bit of The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson, one of my favorite books of all time. I can't see Williams' work being on my all-time favorites list, but I admire his blending of occult and religious ideas and telling a story that plotwise, does an excellent job of finding the "third way" between the two obvious solutions. I'm planning to read more Williams.