- LR Progress: Final Edit - Round 2
(working title: Nar & Dal)

2 / 10 (chapters) (15%)

Checking last year's notes, it seems I was working on LR drafting; it's strange as I'm now finally working on the final edit. It sure is taking some time for this novella (what with rewrites and revisions and cooling-off periods).


Ad-Astra 2010 was interesting, as always. I missed few panels I really wanted to attend, since I could only go on Sunday, but I think I got the most out of it.

For my own record, and for anyone else who might care, here are my workshop and four panel notes.


10AM - Writing the Future
I was half an hour late so I may not have gotten all the parts.

On the panel were Matthew Johnson, Hayden Trenholm, and Karl Schroeder, whom I had the pleasure of meeting before. (notes to follow later)

The key point of the panel was that just because a tech exists, don't assume it will transform the world. Specially not in an eye-blink.

Karl suggested to use an old, existing technology and come up with new business model. Example he gave was an iPod. The MP3/4 player technology existed well before Apple came up with the product. But it was the way they marketed that really changed the game.


On Uniformity
When change happens, for First World countries, it will always be better (not much change)
At ground zero or Third World countries, not so much.

That's because in the First World countries, they can buffer the change and take an advantage out of it--barring a huge meteor-hit-like disasters...then, of course, it's game over. But even then, if the meteor is small enough, a First World country far away from the disaster zone might try to secure the new metal, while the country where the meteor hit, if it's a Third World country, will scramble to survive.


Study the past
If the story happens in Disaster zones, be careful not to be too dramatic. Things should be realistic.

Take decolonization as an example. It's self-evident that it's good. But, lots of wars occur in former-colonies if you look at the past history. So try researching into where it worked.

Example were India and Pakistan.

While India turned to lawyers, Pakistan turned to generals. The rest is history.


On Weak Signals
Sometimes people miss the little stuff, which might actually have more impact on daily-lives and perhaps even stronger connection to the characters.

Many writers up-play the strong signals of change but down-play weak signal.

An example Karl gave was bombing Arctic to make more lands. This was talked but never materialized, because 1) global warming is doing the job for free; 2) it's a big change. But nano-tech...such a little thing is making a huge impact in today's society (or will).


Last Words
Hayden said to apply creative processes. You can't just jam ideas off magazines.

Matthew talked of lazy ways (if really need be):
1 - isolate the scene so it doesn't contradict and you're de-scoping the environment (deserted island?)
2 - focus on couple of shiny aspects (invent 3~4 consumer tech to make it look futuristic)

Karl suggested to mingle several neat concepts...all unique and futuristic. With everything new, you're bound to write a futuristic story.


On References
Matthew added at the end to read New York Times and Economist for neat ideas.



To come...

11AM - Workshop with Robert J. Sawyer
1PM - An Editor's Dream
2PM - Basic Business of Writing
3PM - A.I. in SF


Will type up the rest at a later date

By the way, I also would love to find any notes or comments on other panels I've missed on Friday and Saturday.

- Just the other day, I realized some of my stories are mostly about plots. A plot point linked with another...just chugging along. And the characters, the ones that matter anyway, don't seem to change from the beginning to the end.

That's not a story, as far as I can tell. Specially since I favor character development when I read fictions.

I'm not sure how I ended up writing 'plots'....but I suppose realization is the first step to recovery.

I'll see if I can fix up my current MS (LR).

- It has been a while but I started tackling LR again.

It wasn't as bad as I thought. One beta thought the story was 'meh' but so far, I think there is a potential.

I've also divided the 20k MS into 9 chapters; allowing readers to take a break and let them know there is an immediate end is a good thing, I think.

It's still an awkward length though...but first, I'll finish this revision, send it out to critters--I do need to catch up on that one--and see if I need to write Part 2 in second protagonist's POV.

- OST Progress: Revision 1.6 - Final Edit


OST Progress: Revision 1.1 - Rewrite ( done )
OST Progress: Revision 1.2 - Read over
OST Progress: Revision 1.3 - Line Edit - MR and 5 senses
OST Progress: Revision 1.4 - Merge and Flow (using Nimbus font, large text size)
OST Progress: Revision 1.5 - Read aloud
OST Progress: Revision 1.6 - Final edit

9 / 14 (pages)(64%)

OST Progress: Revision 1.7 - Read aloud

I'm nearly done with the final edit. Despite the short length, it's still taking me some time. I'm trying to read the sentences backward (from the end to the beginning), but I find myself changing not as many words as BW piece.

I did come across a few and made the wording a bit stronger, but I sincerely hope I'm not missing anything.


I'll give it a good read next week once I finish the edit today.

- OST Progress: Revision 1.2 - Read over


OST Progress: Revision 1.1 - Rewrite ( done )
OST Progress: Revision 1.2 - Read over

0 / 3461 (words)(0%)

OST Progress: Revision 1.3 - Line Edit - MR and 5 senses
OST Progress: Revision 1.4 - Merge and Flow (using Nimbus font, large text size)
OST Progress: Revision 1.5 - Read aloud
OST Progress: Revision 1.6 - Final edit
OST Progress: Revision 1.7 - Read aloud

I've just finished my third rewrite. I think the story is much tighter: I got rid of some characters and scaled the tone way down. And I hope it works, considering it's a short story not the original conception of a space opera.

I'll read over and highlight any section I don't understand, then I'll start the line edit.

I still have LR to revise...as well as SS, Cindy, SMS, and possibly GB to rewrite.


It's a good thing that I chose a short piece to revise this time; I do feel I'm moving at a much faster pace.

- It seems I never posted about this sci-fi short. It's 3000 words or so long, and the draft was done last year.

I wanted something far shorter than BW--that means LR will need to wait before I rewrite it--and something other than fantasy.

So far, I found few paragraphs I liked...but I can see how characters feel jerky and unnatural.

We shall see how this one pans out.

Jin out.

- It clocked at 9930 words. It's in a submission pile now.  Yay.

- BW Progress: Revision 4.6 - Final Edit

BW Progress: Revision 4.6 - Final Edit

9915 / 9915 (words)(100%)

Three rewrites and series revisions later, the story now stands at 9915 words. I'll give it a final read aloud tomorrow--need to find a park or a place not too cold and not too quiet--before I submit it sometime later this week.

I think I learned much but I won't know the result until later.


Hope it's better. I should kill my anticipation and prepare myself for another rejection though.