Some comments by JZ on her parish have inspired a bit of flash fiction.
The Cats and the Birdhouse.
There was once a mighty birdhouse built by One who greatly cared for his sparrows. And that birdhouse contained an endless source of sustenance that never ran out. And the sparrows visited it daily and were thereby nourished. But, cats soon noted the great sparrow gathering and made their homes there and preyed upon the sparrows and declared themselves Princes of the birdhouse.
And most of the sparrows soon took it for granted that a birdhouse should be surrounded by cats. After all it was a special birdhouse built by one who greatly cared for them. So they continued to feed there generation after generation. Both the sparrows and the cats ate their fill.
Occasionally a sparrow would say that it was not right that Princes of the birdhouse should prey upon those the birdhouse was built to nourish. But even those sparrows continued to flock there; for they were brave sparrows would not be driven away from a place built for them. Then one day an especially wise sparrow gathered the other sparrows unto her and said: "Let us seek nourishment somewhere else. For, lo, these many generations, the birdhouse has ceased to be a bird feeder and served as a cat feeder."
I'm getting back into writing Cog after life got me a bit derailed. I just finished chapter 23 and I'm at 57,000 words. I wanted to end up around 75,000 words. Looking at the amount of plot left, it seems like I should be in the ballpark. I think I'd be happy anywhere in the range of 70,000 - 80,000 words.
I pretty much know everything that's going to happen from here to the end, I just have to have time to write it.
Yeah, it's harder to carve out time with the job search, and with it being summer.
You'll find time, though.
Has anyone heard of or used the "Dramatica" system? I'm having a hard time getting past the sales-pitchy website [link]
but it seems like an alternative theory to Aristotle/Campbell/Writer's Journey?
Not that I'm sure that's what I want.
Has anyone heard of or used the "Dramatica" system? I'm having a hard time getting past the sales-pitchy website [link]
but it seems like an alternative theory to Aristotle/Campbell/Writer's Journey?
Not that I'm sure that's what I want.
I'm working on chapter 26 of Cog and I'm at 65,000 words. Not much longer to go in the amount of plot left and my wordcount target.
Way to go, Gud!
I'm working in total fits and starts with this book, which sucks because it's late. Words! Come faster!
Google adds an algorithm to screen out content farms, which may push them towards needing better writing and therefore out of the business of paying writers between $0 and $5 an article [link]
Wouldn't it be pretty to think so?
So it looks like I'm going here in October - [link] - which is very cool, and I'm excited, but now my brain is doing the OMGNooo!NewPeople dance. I'm sure I'll calm down before then right? Also, I'm starting to doubt that that story I sold is ever going to come out (been a few months, haven't heard about edits), and I'm thinking it was all a cruel joke plotted by monkeys, or the trees. It is possible that I am still jittery from all the allergy steroids and could just chill. A lot.
