Patrick Nielsen Hayden

I'm tired of how slowly I write. Now, while I know that everyone has their own process and I need to trust my process and all that, I really feel like I could maybe increase the pace a little.

I know I get distracted and stuck staring at the page and I know that at my best, such as on retreat, when I am focused enough to work faster, I'm also happier with what I write. So imagine my delight when this article by Rachel Aaron on "How I Went From Writing 2,000 Words a Day to 10,000 Words a Day."

Could it work? Well, several people on Twitter said it did and that, in fact, outlining scenes had sped their work up quite a bit. A couple of other people said they'd like to try it.

Now, anyone who's read my "How I Wrote" posts listing all my actual word counts knows that 2K a day is stretching it for me most days. But I am really interested in the idea that maybe I can speed up.  If I could reliably write 2K a day, that would be amazing. If I could reliably write 3K, I would be incandescent with joy. So my goal isn't to get to 10K; it's just to see if I can speed up my process.

A few other writers are committed to giving it a try too in the coming week, so I hope to have a round-up of results for you around the middle of the month (not this weekend, but the weekend of the 16th.) Or if you want to look for posts going up on the 15th, the following writers said they were going to try it and check in: Nova Ren Suma, Beth Revis, Stephanie Kuehnert, Corrine Jackson, and Scott Tracey. (Did I get everybody? I feel like I forgot someone. If I missed you, let me know.)

The thing I am most interested in right now is trying to plan out the scenes for the rest of the chapter I'm writing. Although I've outlined with moderate success (very moderate, in that I change them lots) before, this is different process in the sense that I only have to outline a single scene or two ahead of where I am -- although I have to do so in greater detail than I usually do when I am plotting the overall shape of the book. I am going to spend tonight trying to do that and see how things go tomorrow and Thursday (Wednesday I am going to be in New York, signing at BEA and at Books of Wonder).

The thing is, the idea of sketching out the shape of a scene before writing it makes sense. My husband is a painter and I am constantly hassling him for jumping into paintings without sketching enough. Invariably, when he does that, he realizes in the middle that he wants to change something and winds up having to paint over parts of the original or even starting over. Why I never applied that to writing scenes, I have no idea, but I feel a little bit silly about it. And I am going to feel even sillier if it works, but I'll be really happy too.

grasping

a light-shrunken tongue shunned,
deepness-dark power differentiated--
a forest map commands heliotropes
to attend to seasonal foundations.

a wolf intervention alleviates nightly
surpluses and sets dog stars alight;
the advantage gained from budding, green
leaves is lost in the ensuing solar storm.

cawing laughter ripples across the dusken pool
at the ashen, nuclear center of yggdrasil,
while humanity climbs, slips, climbs branches
of thought, memory, vainly grasping for light.

----

This YouTube video, posted Thursday morning by United Steelworkers economist Erin Weir on his Progressive Economics Forum blog, is making the rounds in Ottawa.

Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are comment(s); comment here or there.

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

Just wanted to say that the past few days have been improved immeasurably by the things my friend Abby said at the cafe the other day; she has a combination of wisdom and directness leavened with humor that is a very fine thing to be in contact with. Much cool stuff and encouragement was there, and insights kept going off like fireworks in my head the rest of the day. The other especially cool thing that happened recently was yesterday, where I got to work with two prospective students of wire-working, and they were both people that I would love* teaching: willing to listen to the promptings of their intuition, willing to watch and ask questions, and with a gentle receptivity combined with passion for the art. I hope some classes happen with them, because we would learn so much together.

Also I am grateful for an unexpected and delightful conversation with D.E. on the bus earlier today, which ranged from Scalzi to Galaxy Quest to Marquez to haiku to all sorts of things I can't remember now. (The conversation, not the bus. Though if there's a bus that goes those places, I'd be interested.)

Got any acknowledgements and gratitude yourself just now?

* I love all sorts of different flavors of student, but it was really nice being around these two just now. Possibly that comes from hanging out with people doing meditation a lot, and practicing it myself; we'll see what comes of it.

"Do nothing" meditation by Shinzen Young.

What follows are a few points which I think are valuable. This isn't a transcript.

I was struck by how accurately Shinzen Young hit on some mistakes I'd be likely to make.

Instructions for "Do nothing" meditation. The purpose of this meditation is for your mind to learn how to temporarily turn off the intention to change itself. This type of meditation builds on momentum established from other types of meditation.

******

Let whatever happens, happen. As soon as you're aware of an intention to control your attention, drop that intention.

******

You don't have to monitor yourself for intentions to control your mind-- just notice them when you notice them. You aren't being told to try to do this all the time. You might only notice those intentions occasionally.

If you can't drop the intention, you aren't being instructed to do something you can't do. Only drop the intentions you can drop.

You aren't obligated to have a restful experience.

If you're having an awful time with it, you don't need to continue.

Meditation leads to concentration, clarity, and equanimity. You don't need to try to force these results to happen.

This entry was posted at http://nancylebov.dreamwidth.org/542994.html. Comments are welcome here or there. comments so far on that entry.

Really.

So I am going to take this chance to survey you on your relationship to audiobooks, and to remind you that I have a couple available and a couple more in the works.

Tomorrow (Tues.) night at this time, I will be at the Audies 2012, dressed in my formal finery and nervously chewing my rubber chicken waiting for them to announce the winners of "the Oscars of audiobooks."  Our drama The Witches of Lublin is up for 3 Audies:

  • Best Package Design (for the CD, which you can order here)
  • Best Original Work (which would be a real tribute to all three of us authors - Elizabeth Schwartz, Yale Strom & I spent years developing this project!), and
  • Distinguished Achievement in Production (which would be a real tribute to the incredible work our producing partners, Sue Zizza & David Shinn of SueMedia, put into this)

Wish us luck! Lots of info (including cast list, clips, background info, reviews, etc.) is here.  Download (or review) the audiobook here.  And read my previous posts about it here.  

Hard to imagine that, a year ago, I'd never even listened to an audiobook myself.  Ever. I didn't know the difference between "Full Cast Audio" and single narrator . . . And just a few months later, I was in the studio recording my novel Swordspoint for Neil Gaiman Presents/ACX (produced, again, by SueMedia), and casting what I now realize was a band of really prominent audiobook narrators as actors in the "illuminated" production that Sue & David envisioned. That puppy's available here (along with pages of amusing reviews ranging from the ecstatic to the furious).  Because it was released at the end of November 2011, it was not eligible for this year's Audies, which is a damned good thing as I would hate to be up against myself!  Next year, fingers crossed.

My next audiobook, The Privilege of the Sword, again narrated by me (and produced by SueMedia) - joined this time by the great Barbara Rosenblat (as 3rd person narrator) - will be available from NGP on July 10th.  My rantings and ravings about the process are collected here on this LJ blog.... There is, of course, plenty more to say - and I will endeavor, this month, to say more of it - June being, as we now know, Audiobok Month!  

But now it's your turn.

So here's my first Audiobook Question for you:

Do you listen to Audiobooks?  Why/not?  How many each month, roughly?

Don't go too deep: in subsequent posts this month (because it is, after all, Audiobook Month!) I'll be asking for details like When & Where you listen, Whether you prefer to have read the book first, and Whether you select by author or by reader . . . . But for now, all I want to know is whether you have a personal relationship with audiobooks. Or not. 

Last Saturday a brilliant student of mine at Yale was killed in a car crash on Cape Cod.  She had graduated the previous week.  She was perhaps the most promising and among the most talented students I have ever had, a beautiful, likeable, modest person who however knew pretty well how good she was and how much better she could get.  

This was a terrible shock.  Students die -- one a year at Yale at least, sometimes in dreadful circumstances, and I know the possibility exists.  Still the death of such a well-defended and careful and modest young person -- defended against disease, violence, disaster of every kind -- seems so unlikely that it almost seems impossible, though of course that's wrong.  I was like the poet in Wordsworth's poem -- "A slumber did my spirit seal/I had no human fears/ She seemed a thing that could not feel/The touch of earthly years."  

No motion hath she now, no force
She neither hears nor sees
Rolled round on earth;s diurnal course
With rocks and stones and trees.

She had written a piece for commencement, a competition among students for whose would be read at the ceremony.  Hers wasn't chosen, but has gone viral as they say, and has been seen and read by some millions now around the world.  Here's s link to the original publication: 

http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2012/may/27/keegan-opposite-loneliness/ 

The pathos of it is nearly unbearable.