Onion rings

There is a story, possibly apocryphal, that the movie Star Wars was originally the first act of a longer screenplay. That means that Lucas had written a second and a third act intended to round out the story. Yet this movie stands nicely alone with it’s own three acts. And it also forms the first part of a trilogy that also hangs together as a story.

What is going on?

Rain and Mountains

I seem to have a certain literary fascination with mountains. Given a choice, I will almost without fail set my writing in a mountainous region.

What attractions do mountains have for writing?

There’s a competition!

So I was one of the first five entrants. So I put the voting link up on my blog as soon as I got it. And then one of the other WordPress blogs I follow put up an article specifically about voting in the 2012 Australian Best Blogs Competition!

This is for the People’s Choice award. I was hoping to be shortlisted in the Judge categories, but being shortlisted in the People’s Choice would be good, too. I should warn you, though: there are over 900 blog entries. You can vote for as many as you like, but you can only vote once.

This blog is on the second page.

Update! I’m a finalist! I’m a finalist in the Word and Writing category! I really did not expect this!

 

Writing is like Programming

I’m coming to the realization that writing is like computer programming. A lot like programming, in fact.

Like writing fiction, writing a program requires you start somewhere. Some programmers start by designing their program. This means laying out what the screen will look like, how it will store its data, the structure of the internal objects, etc etc. Others cobble together enough to make it go and display something even vaguely like what is wanted. Then bits are added until it starts resembling the original vision. Strictly following the former approach and you don’t have anything that will work until quite late in the process. But it should work quite closely to what was intended, if the design works. On the other hand, strictly following the latter approach and you get a program that has an organically grown feel. Experiments are easier with the latter approach, but a lot of code will probably be re-written before the end.

Just Write, Damnit!

Warning: Rant ahead.

I haven’t done any writing much on anything fiction-like for almost two weeks. I think I’ve reached a point in my current work-in-progress where I’m not interested in this story anymore. 😦 Which is a %&*# shame because I outlined it so I wouldn’t have this problem! Grr.

Maybe I’m just sick of the limitations of my software. I use My Writing Spot on my Android tablet to write, which is good but not good enough. There are things it doesn’t do (such as indents and formatting) and things it does I wish it doesn’t (defaults the cursor to the end of an item). I need to get off my tush and write my own. I’m certainly capable of doing that.

Maybe I’m just sad at the four hundred word scene just before where I’m up to that is, frankly, quite shit. It needs to go. The interaction isn’t needed. It’s filler for something that doesn’t happen. Grr. Again.

Exhortions to “just do it” are useless. It’s what I tell myself, anyway, and they don’t work. Probably doesn’t help I have been busy this week at work. (Heck, I’m watching a script run on my work PC, albeit from my home PC. And it’s Sunday morning.) Also doesn’t help I’ve just gotten a new car. Well, I say “new”, but’s actually 30 years old. And I say “just gotten” and I really mean I’ve gotten it registered. Which was a trial. And it still needs things done to it.

Hmph. Maybe I need a nice drive to somewhere pretty. And take my tablet. At least my new car doesn’t have a stereo yet. Perhaps I can think story. Maybe I need to write a new short story in a different world to help break up the block.