My VP wrap up plus my perfect jacket
Oct. 21st, 2006 02:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prusikI finally finished the first draft of my Viable Paradise Reunion story. Yes, the VP Reunion was a week ago. The story also drifted off topic into something else entirely. I don't think it's appropriate for the Flamethrowers and Fairy Dust anthology any more. If the VP scholarship fund comes to pass, and I manage to sell this story, I will donate the proceeds to the fund. I wouldn't have written this story if it weren't for Flamethrowers and Fairy Dust. Since all the proceeds from it will go to the fund, so will whatever I make, if anything, on this story.
Keep in mind that this is getting way ahead of things. The story is still in the "crappy first draft" stage. There are a few changes I know I need to make. So I will make those then give it a rest so I can look at it with a fresher eye later and make it not crappy. (Also, given I have zero, count 'em, zero sells to my name. The fund shouldn't hold its breath on this one.)
The next thing is to give the story I was working on right before VP one final looking over. I was going to send it off to critters.org for critique several weeks ago. Then I decided that the last thing I wanted was to get critiques from Critters for this story while Viable Parasites were critiquing "Looking Out for the Resistance". Given that I accidentally sent out an old, uncorrected draft the last time I sent anything to Critters, I'm going to make sure that everything is as right as I can make it before sending anything to Critters this time. (And then send out the correct draft.)
I'm still puzzling over whether or not I want to stick with Critters. It's actually really good practice. By critiquing everyone else's stories, I find that I am getting better at critiquing my own. On the other hand, the critiques I get from Critters, like the stories I see on Critters, are highly variable. A few of them are terrific and then the rest are really not. (See Sturgeon's Law.) One of the pleasures of VP is that everything I read was already in pretty good shape and all of the critiques I received were useful.
I still have to collate all the useful reaction and advice everyone at VP gave me on "Looking Out for the Resistance." I remember what everyone said in general, and I think I know where to go with the story. But I need to get all the specifics and decide what I'm going to do with what everyone suggested. This may turn into a complete rewrite by the time I'm done. Given even those who liked the story had issues with overly ambitious sentences, a rewrite is probably the right thing to do.
At some point during its writing, my Hats of War homework assignment turned into a promising short story. So now I have to rewrite that too. I think I know where I'm going there too. However, this I'm going to let percolate for a while, if nothing else because I'm busy copyediting the story I was working on before VP.
Finally, there is the story that got rejected from the John Scalzi edited special issue of Subterranean, the Big Honkin' SF Cliches anthology. I'm not sure what to do with it. The first 500-1000 words are as good as anything I've written. Then it all goes horribly wrong. I think the beginning is salvagable. I just have to mate it to a new middle and end. I have some ideas. We'll see.
One of the great thing about VP is that I've come out of it thinking that there's some hope for my writing. It's always been a given that I would write and I would submit my stories to paying markets until even Hell wouldn't have them. However, the quality of writing at VP X was really high. So high that since they saw fit to include me as part of the group, I think I may actually make a sale someday. (Of course, this requires me to actually submit stories. I'm working on that...)
VP was one very concentrated writing boot camp. I'm still working through everything I've learned, but I'm already seeing improvements my writing. Also, I'm thrilled that in at most 5-10 years, I will be able to name drop shamelessly. I've already started talking up my fellow VPers work to some of my SF reading co-workers. I can't wait for those novels to be finished and published.
I described VP as a numinous experience on Making Light. I think I will stick to that description. Anyone considering getting serious about writing SF/F should consider VP. It is too much fun for words. You learn so much about writing. And, at least in my case, it's an entry into a very friendly and tight-knit community that I had been afraid to introduce myself to. (It's also an extremely forgiving community, BTW. Cory Doctorow dealt with me complaining about how frustrated I was that no one cares when I try to explain to them that DRM is evil and hard it is to get the message through with much more grace than I could have in his place.)
As for other stuff, I think I've finally found my perfect jacket.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ts52 just bought one and it was all I could do to say "Wow!" for several minutes straight when I saw it. It really is quite an impressive bit of fashion engineering.
It solves all of the problems I run into whenever I go to NYC. I used to be able to carry a backpack around with me whenever I went to NYC. Due to our national reaction to threats of terrorism, that's gotten very difficult. For example, it's hard to go to the theater with a backpack. The theaters cite terrorism concerns but what they're probably really afraid of is bootleggers. Either way, it means I don't have a way of actually carrying stuff.
This is problematic because I invariably have an iPod, a cell phone and something to pass the time while I wait. My trips to NYC tend to involve a lot of waiting, usually for friends or the bus. This is not counting any Playbills I may get, if I go to the theater or if I should actually buy something while I'm in NYC. I usually buy a bottle of water while I'm waiting for the bus home from NYC, then find I have no place to keep it. I've been saying that I needed a jacket with lots of pockets for a while now. Well, here it is. Given that I haven't gotten a new jacket in about a decade, I think I can even justify the cost.
I'm so tempted to buy the optional solar panels while I'm at it. But while I can think of lots of situations where they may be handy, none of those situations typically involve me. (The exception is the "I forgot to recharge my iPod and now I'm stuck waiting for the bus without anything to listen to.") Also, this pushes a merely expensive jacket into an incredibly expensive one. I can get the solar panels separately. (I looked at the rest of the web site. I also like the pants, but I don't live the kind of life where one can spend $100 on a pair of pants.)
Keep in mind that this is getting way ahead of things. The story is still in the "crappy first draft" stage. There are a few changes I know I need to make. So I will make those then give it a rest so I can look at it with a fresher eye later and make it not crappy. (Also, given I have zero, count 'em, zero sells to my name. The fund shouldn't hold its breath on this one.)
The next thing is to give the story I was working on right before VP one final looking over. I was going to send it off to critters.org for critique several weeks ago. Then I decided that the last thing I wanted was to get critiques from Critters for this story while Viable Parasites were critiquing "Looking Out for the Resistance". Given that I accidentally sent out an old, uncorrected draft the last time I sent anything to Critters, I'm going to make sure that everything is as right as I can make it before sending anything to Critters this time. (And then send out the correct draft.)
I'm still puzzling over whether or not I want to stick with Critters. It's actually really good practice. By critiquing everyone else's stories, I find that I am getting better at critiquing my own. On the other hand, the critiques I get from Critters, like the stories I see on Critters, are highly variable. A few of them are terrific and then the rest are really not. (See Sturgeon's Law.) One of the pleasures of VP is that everything I read was already in pretty good shape and all of the critiques I received were useful.
I still have to collate all the useful reaction and advice everyone at VP gave me on "Looking Out for the Resistance." I remember what everyone said in general, and I think I know where to go with the story. But I need to get all the specifics and decide what I'm going to do with what everyone suggested. This may turn into a complete rewrite by the time I'm done. Given even those who liked the story had issues with overly ambitious sentences, a rewrite is probably the right thing to do.
At some point during its writing, my Hats of War homework assignment turned into a promising short story. So now I have to rewrite that too. I think I know where I'm going there too. However, this I'm going to let percolate for a while, if nothing else because I'm busy copyediting the story I was working on before VP.
Finally, there is the story that got rejected from the John Scalzi edited special issue of Subterranean, the Big Honkin' SF Cliches anthology. I'm not sure what to do with it. The first 500-1000 words are as good as anything I've written. Then it all goes horribly wrong. I think the beginning is salvagable. I just have to mate it to a new middle and end. I have some ideas. We'll see.
One of the great thing about VP is that I've come out of it thinking that there's some hope for my writing. It's always been a given that I would write and I would submit my stories to paying markets until even Hell wouldn't have them. However, the quality of writing at VP X was really high. So high that since they saw fit to include me as part of the group, I think I may actually make a sale someday. (Of course, this requires me to actually submit stories. I'm working on that...)
VP was one very concentrated writing boot camp. I'm still working through everything I've learned, but I'm already seeing improvements my writing. Also, I'm thrilled that in at most 5-10 years, I will be able to name drop shamelessly. I've already started talking up my fellow VPers work to some of my SF reading co-workers. I can't wait for those novels to be finished and published.
I described VP as a numinous experience on Making Light. I think I will stick to that description. Anyone considering getting serious about writing SF/F should consider VP. It is too much fun for words. You learn so much about writing. And, at least in my case, it's an entry into a very friendly and tight-knit community that I had been afraid to introduce myself to. (It's also an extremely forgiving community, BTW. Cory Doctorow dealt with me complaining about how frustrated I was that no one cares when I try to explain to them that DRM is evil and hard it is to get the message through with much more grace than I could have in his place.)
As for other stuff, I think I've finally found my perfect jacket.
ts52 just bought one and it was all I could do to say "Wow!" for several minutes straight when I saw it. It really is quite an impressive bit of fashion engineering.It solves all of the problems I run into whenever I go to NYC. I used to be able to carry a backpack around with me whenever I went to NYC. Due to our national reaction to threats of terrorism, that's gotten very difficult. For example, it's hard to go to the theater with a backpack. The theaters cite terrorism concerns but what they're probably really afraid of is bootleggers. Either way, it means I don't have a way of actually carrying stuff.
This is problematic because I invariably have an iPod, a cell phone and something to pass the time while I wait. My trips to NYC tend to involve a lot of waiting, usually for friends or the bus. This is not counting any Playbills I may get, if I go to the theater or if I should actually buy something while I'm in NYC. I usually buy a bottle of water while I'm waiting for the bus home from NYC, then find I have no place to keep it. I've been saying that I needed a jacket with lots of pockets for a while now. Well, here it is. Given that I haven't gotten a new jacket in about a decade, I think I can even justify the cost.
I'm so tempted to buy the optional solar panels while I'm at it. But while I can think of lots of situations where they may be handy, none of those situations typically involve me. (The exception is the "I forgot to recharge my iPod and now I'm stuck waiting for the bus without anything to listen to.") Also, this pushes a merely expensive jacket into an incredibly expensive one. I can get the solar panels separately. (I looked at the rest of the web site. I also like the pants, but I don't live the kind of life where one can spend $100 on a pair of pants.)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-10-21 07:40 pm (UTC)Also -- that jacket has 52 pockets? Wow. It doesn't look like it.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-21 08:47 pm (UTC)Mac did suggest back at VP that we could use the AW forum to upload stuff for critique - if you post any of your stuff there, I for one will give some feedback (as long as I'm not away for a week or something when you post it).
And let me know whenever you're in NYC and have a bit of spare time!