I is for *

Innovative
Impressive
Insightful
Ink

Indubitably.


Inspiration?

Illusory
Intransigent
Invisible


Icicles inside.


Insolent
Imagination

Ignominious
Intellect

Ill-begotten
Inscribings


...
...
TrIchotIllomanIa!
...
...

Iaargh!


Indubitably.

* the writing process according to iSusan

Procrastination = bad

So! Nothing like staring at a page ten minutes before I’m supposed to be in bed, and an hour before midnight, with no idea of what to post. I tried to write something about how I come up with ideas, but it ended up falling really flat, and I wanted to do a better job with it.

What do I call this? Blogger’s block? Posting block?  I spent all day dealing with slush or reading boring science reports block? I’ve been on the computer for way too long block?

None of those really roll off the tongue.

I feel bad doing yet another post about nothing, since all I did last week was rant about my computer (which is still broken, but not nearly as badly. This week’s post is brought to you by the generosity of Lawyer Friend, who is letting me borrow her old laptop.  This bumps Lawyer Friend up to the #2 thing I would save in a fire, after my cat*.)

I really apologize… but I got nuthin right now.  So, here are some writing links:

 http://www.sfwa.org/2009/08/fantasy-worldbuilding-questions/

One of SFWA's many fantastic articles.  This is a good source of inspiration when you're trying to develop a new world, and need a kickstart of what to figure out.

http://www.strangehorizons.com/guidelines/fiction-common.shtml

One of my favorite pages: Strange Horizon's list of stories they see to often.  I see these a lot in the slush pile too.  Especially the one about heaven as a bureaucracy. A very good thing to read if you're publishing short  stories.

http://www.simegen.com/school/beginners/WORKCharacterDrivenPlot.html

A short but very helpful post with a very simple rule for telling if you story is plot or character-driven (at least from the outset).

And some funny pictures:

Pun of the week:

For my fellow scientists:

And specially for Sarah:

And a promise to do better next week.

*I’m at best the #3 thing Lawyer Friend would save in a fire, because she has two cats.

Echo Echo

Wow, my brain is seriously empty today of anything pithy, writerly, or even mildly amusing to say.

I could blame it on anniversaries, or birthdays, or sick kids (the kind where they barf all over the school nurse and then confess that their breakfast consisted of leftover flat orange soda – that will earn me points with the school for sure), or winter dance performances (which went fabulously for my little munchkin, I must say).

But truth be told, it’s completely my fault. Night before last I stayed up till after 2am reading my first ever Jim Butcher Harry Dresden novel – I know, what rock have I been hiding under to miss that series? It’s great stuff. Loved the voice. It reminded me of Steven Brust’s Vlad Taltos books, so of course I had to go pick up Jhereg again, too. Another late night/early morning. My alarm clock has been most unsympathetic and continues to ring at 5:30am no matter how much I beg it to stop. And the day begins again.

So, to recap - brain dead, defunct, kaput, gone.

I think to make this bleary rant worthwhile to you, I’ll post some links I’ve found of interest recently:

I know I haven't been too happy seeing ebooks cost more than hard cover, and now it looks like a few other people, like the Justice Department are wondering about pricing issues as well.

As someone who has struggled to get even a sentence of my WIP down this week, I found Shannon Whitney Messenger's post on 20 ways NOT to write your first novel very honest and hopeful.

I watched this lecture by Dan Wells (author of I am not a Serial Killer) on story structure a while back and had a few eye opening ah-ha moments (this is the first of a five part youtube series).

Almost finally, Verla Kay has a very good message board for all things kid lit related. There are a number of published authors and, in general, everyone is very friendly and helpful.

And truly finally, here is, I think, the best Christmas card ever (hat tip to Brian Cuban).

~ Susan