Documenting the writing life

At the time this gets published I'm making my way back from Worldcon in Spokane. I'll be tired and cranky and most likely half asleep from the past week's exertions. I'm writing this during the week before Worldcon so I don't know for certain. What I do know right now that I don't have the time or the brain capacity for another thoughtful Mad Max post, though at least one more of those is going to get made sometime soon. So instead I'm going to talk about documenting my writing life.

Query Tracker 

While querying, it's important to know who you've queried and when. Something that's also nice is being able to see the actual query letter. Query Tracker does all this for me as well as providing the option to search for possible agents using various criteria. Query Tracker provides some statistics based on people's reports but from where I'm sitting they don't seem very robust at the moment. None the less Query Tracker even as it is now is an invaluable part of my writing process.

Duotrope

I write short fiction as well as novels. To be perfectly frank, I've written many more short stories than novels. Possibly even more words in short stories than in novels. Duotrope is very similar to Query Tracker, only focused on short stories. Duotrope has wonderful statistics on all the short story markets I've come across so far. It also provides a calendar with upcoming themed and unthemed deadlines of magazine submissions.

Sink or Submit! 

Finally, with regard to submissions, we come to the gamification of submissions. Sink or Submit! is a super simple game created by another Mary Robinette Kowal alumn, Hilary Bisenieks Brenum and it was inspired by yet another MRK alumn, Sunil Patel. Basically, you get a point for every submission and rejection you get. For every acceptance your point count goes to zero. The point of the game is to reward for behavior that should, in the end lead to something positive but where the road to those positive results is sometimes very unpleasant. A sale is a reward all on its own.

The Magic Spreadsheet

The Magic spreadsheet is a way to gamify the amount of words you write every single day. You get more points for every day that you write at least the magic minimum (250 words). You get one point for 250 words (two points for 500 words, 3 for 1000 words and four for 2000 words) plus one point for every day in your chain. I'm currently on my 44th day of my latest chain which means that I'm getting 45 points for today's 300 words. As you accumulate points, you go up a level at intervals that last about a month if you write every day. As you go up a level, your level specific quota goes up by 50 words. Which is to say, on the second level you need to write 300 words every day to maintain your points. You can still maintain your chain even if you don't write to your level quota but that also drops your chain points back to the level highest level quota of those words. So, if today I wrote only 250 words, I would get only 31 points instead of 45. If tomorrow I wrote my 300 words, I would get only 32 points.

The spreadsheet also sports a leaderboard in which you can compete with people around the world on the number of words you've written total, this month and so on.

Trello

At all times I have at least three projects ongoing; one short story, one novel either in plotting or revision and one novel being written. On top of that I run two of my own blogs and regularly contribute to three others. If I didn't have some type of project management tool, my head would explode. Literally. Or maybe not. Mind meltdown doesn't seem like it would produce that much heat or expansion. Anyway, I'm digressing.  I use Trello to plan my time in advance because it allows me to see most of the moving parts in advance as well as giving me deadlines for upcoming things that I need to get done.

How do you document your writing life? Do you

Games, Games, Games

My daughter got an Operation game for Christmas. It made me smile remembering the hours I spent as a kid trying so hard to pick out that funny bone and not touch those metal edges. Growing up, one of the things I was blessed with was a family who loved to play games. I've written before about the epic Scrabble battles we used to have. It seemed like there was always some board game spread out somewhere.

I've been blessed a second time with a husband who has the same love of play. So, with Christmas behind us, and the New Year and many months of winter still ahead, I thought I'd share some of our family's favorite games with you. I hope you'll reciprocate with some of your own in the comments - we're always looking for something new to play.

For the Young Set

Chutes and Ladders and Candyland are always perennial favorites. Here are a few more that might tickle your little one's fancy.

 Zingo!

Okay, I lie. This game isn't only for the young. It's addictive. With a simple pictoral bingo board and plastic picture chips delivered by an ingeneous dispenser, this is a fast paced game the youngest kids can play and the oldest kids can still enjoy. I can't say enough about how fun this game is.

 Sequence for Kids

This board game, filled with colorful animals, challenges kids to use their cards to get four animals in a row. The luck of the draw is important, but so is strategy to block and outmaneuver opponents. We had a lot of fun when the kids were young playing this one. 

Older, But Not Necessarily Wiser

(Or More Mature) 

 

 Munchkin

Ah, where would our family be without Munchkin? This hilarious tongue-in-cheek card game is based on D&D  with a choice of cleric, thief, mage or warrior. But with monsters to fight such as the Ether Bunny and the Bi-Polar Bear, curses to face (including Chicken on Your Head) and rewards (Bribe the GM - Go Up A Level!), this game will have you chuckling, snorting and guffawing the whole time. There are tons of add on packs, too, to keep the fun going.

 The Farming Game

Yay! The Whole Valley Is Green!
This game was literally created on the seat of a tractor. A farmer from the valleys of Eastern Washington (where my own grandpa was a farmer!) came up with the idea for the Farming Game when he wanted to show us city-slickers what it was like to really work. This is probably the most board-gamey of my suggestions. Players roll dice and move around the board planting and harvesting hay, wheat, cows and fruit (Fruitage! - sorry, we used to have all night tournies in college and they got a little - uh, yeah). Just when you think you're in the clear, Wham! the fruit borer beetle decimates your harvest, or the IRS swoops in and garnishes your wages for the year. But when things go right just that once and you get that $80k payout - wow, what a feeling. Ha ha. Great memories with this game.

 Curses

This is an all time favorite. On a player's turn they draw a challenge card, which is an action they must perform ('You are a grade school bully. Try to take another player's lunch money.' 'You are in a TV soap opera. Tell another player why you can never marry them.') That's funny enough, but things really get wild when the player then draws a curse card which they can hand out to any other player ('You are a Vulcan. Whenever you laugh, say, "That is not funny." with a straight face.' 'Whenever you speak, use your arms to do some dance moves.'). The curse is in force for the duration of the game and must be performed at all times. Curses can also be compounded with other curses, so people often end up with a combination like this: 'Speak only in a high-pitched falsetto voice,' AND 'You are Mr. T. Whenever you speak, say "I pity the fool," AND 'Whenever you speak, a swarm of invisible mosquitoes surrounds your head. Swat them away.' AND 'Whenever someone makes an animal noise, shout the name of a lunch meat (in a high falsetto voice, first saying, 'I pity the fool,' and swatting yourself).'
Try this one. Seriously.

 Ugg - Tect

My husband just gave this one to us this Christmas, and I think it's shaping up to be another winner. You are part of a team of cavemen. Your task is to listen to your team's Ugg-Tect to create a structure using colorful building blocks before your rivals finish theirs (Only the Ugg-Tect can see the structure plan card). Communication is only allowed with a few gestures, guteral grunts, and a blow-up 'wooden' club (complete with spikes!) Yep, that's our kind of game, all right!

So, now that you've gotten to know my family's tastes probably a little too much, what games do you and yours enjoy?

~Susan

I'd die without...

Okay, it's mid- summer. By this point, we're all probably feeling some degree of lazy, sweaty or frazzled (depending on our level of activities, air conditioning and family on hand). So, maybe it's time to kick back, grab a strawberry lemonade and play a game of:

I'd Die Without...

(metaphorically speaking, of course)

Since oxygen, food and water are fairly obvious answers, let's put on our writing hats and answer these like authors would. Maybe we can learn a bit about each other and pick up some new tools and tricks to help us improve our prose. Give your answers in the comments and I'll update them into the blog proper for ease of reference.

1. The Old-School Writing Tool I'd Die Without...

My trusty 1962 Roget's International Thesaurus Third Edition. It was my mom's and she passed it on to me when I was in high school. Oh, I've tried other thesauri, but I always come back to this one. I love thumbing through the numbers in the back - it's like a treasure hunt for words.

Spiral notebooks--I have a thing about not throwing them away because on a page somewhere inside there is probably a brilliant idea that I wrote down and promptly forgot about.

 I could not do without the backs of receipts to scrawl random ideas on here, there and everywhere. I have a drawer full of them.

Paper and my favorite rollerball pen.

 Reading. That's as old school as it gets.

2. The New-Cool Writing Tool I'd Die Without...

Scrivener has won a very firm place in my writer's heart. I am an outliner and a re-re-re-writer and so the set up is perfect for me (left column: outline, right column: deleted stuff, middle: my current work). The trial is free, and the program very reasonable (I got it 1/2 price when they were doing a promo for people who completed NaNoWriMo a couple years ago).

My laptop.

 Laptops count as new school, right?

 My laptop (except that my laptop died, and I didn't.) Maybe my iPhone. The Internet, in general, and Wikipedia, specifically.

Computers. I know there are those who swear by writing by hand, but if it weren't for computers, I think I'd stick to oral storytelling.

3. My Writing Would Have Died W/O This Writing Book...

Love, love Stephen King's, On Writing. I've never read one of his novels (me and scary do not not not mix), but I found so many gems and so much encouragement in his book. Truly excellent.

Orsons Scott Card's How To Write Science Fiction and Fantasy
Chris Baty's No Plot? No Problem

 I've actually only read writing books in the most scattered of ways. But my writing most definitely would have died without Hatrack.

Any and all the books in the Elements of Fiction Writing series.

OSC Writing Sci fi and Fantasy, and King's On Writing.

4. My Writing Never Would Have Started W/O This Book...

At 12, Anne McCaffery's DragonSinger made my fantasy heart soar, but it wasn't until The Riddle Master of Hed Trilogy by Patricia McKillip that I just had to write.

Twilight. Yup. It's true.

I don't have a particular book that I started writing for, but I adore Patricia McKillip. I first read the Riddlemaster trilogy at 12, and it stuck with me where many other books from that time faded away.

 I would never have begun writing if it hadn't been for Graham Dunstin Martin's books Giftwish and Catchfire.

 Tamora Pierce's Alanna Series.

5. Besides The Prosers, The Writing Website I Have To Visit Every Day...

Hatrack was the cradle for my fledgling writing self. It's populated by incredibly kind and supportive people. Love it.

+1

 goodreads.com

 Duotrope.

 Pub Rants. Kristin Nelson is my hero.

6. A Non-Writing Site I Have To Visit Every Single Day...

Oh, this is a bad one to have to decide (and I'm the one making up the questions!). I make the rounds of news sites and frequent some fabulous home sites like this and this, but I can't think of a particular favorite. Why don't you give me something new to look at by telling me your favorites?

Regretsy (not the nicest of sites, but it makes me laugh like nothing else. NOT for anyone under 18 for the occasional image of nekkid people)

Cakewrecks.com is a hilarious site to waste a few minutes (or hours.)

I check out utahrealestate.com more than is healthy for a human person.

7. The Muse-Satiating Food I'd Die Without...

Chocolate.
You don't actually expect me to narrow that down, do you? Good, because I can't. (I often pity the poor pre-Columbian European women. How did they ever survive!)

+1

 Carrots. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Nachos, made at home, chips and cheese and onions broiled with fresh tomatoes on top (and occasionally chicken, avocados, and black beans). 

 Macaroni and cheese. But not the box kind, I'm talking about the read deal.

 Cereal. Especially Cocoa Roos, or any kind of cereal that makes Chocolate Milk.

8. The Writing Tip That's Kept My Writing Alive...

Okay, I'll give you a two-fer on this one, since it's a toss up. First, Stop Inging. Stringing sentences out using ing, thinking it will keep your sentences flowing isn't working. Stop Inging, Sue, just stop it! Second, BIC TOI WNW (Behind in Chair, Turn Off Internet, Write New Words). Okay, still desperately failing at that one, and frequently getting depressed about it. Think I need to refer back to #7 now. Sniff.

Get the story on the paper before you worry about making it shiny.

That writing is just as much perspiration as inspiration, and that you'll get better with practice. I held on dearly to that during the early years of constant rejections. And guess what? I have gotten better.

"It can be fixed." I've written this inside the cover of every journal and notebook I own.

Use your own voice, and write your own stories.

9. My Writing Would Die If I Didn't Rejuvenate By...

Talking and spending time with real live people. Most often my hubby, then the kids, friends and neighbors (family if they visit). Keeps me out of writer's tunnel vision, and, especially with the kids, gives me lots of inspiration.

 Running, and my family support (oh and the prosers and ex-proser support too).

Visiting nature.

 Walks: my best method for getting through convoluted plot points.

 Getting in the car, cranking up the radio, and just going for a drive.

Taking showers. My best writing comes from zoning out with the water pouring on my head.


What would you die without? 
Thanks for playing!