Just some thoughts about the writing bandwagon and what I’ve been up to of late.

I had a pretty good writing day yesterday. Not stellar, but I got pretty close to the 1000 word mark, and generally that’s a pretty good thing. Some people, myself included, occasionally brag about 2k or even 2.5k days, and while those days can feel really good and really cathartic, it’s not sustainable (one of the reason’s I’m not a fan of NaNoWriMo) and therefore not a good, realistic, or otherwise healthy goal. My thought is if you need to write more than 1k words a day (on a single project) for more than like 2 days on end, cut something out: switch your days off, alter your sleep schedule, reorganize your priorities. Something.

While I’m preaching, I’d also say that while you need to touch big projects daily in order to keep them active in your mind, if you’re not writing something like 1000 words a week on a project, it’s probably fallow and you should reconsider your priorities and regroup. Clearly I’m being a little prescriptive, there are kinds of writing where this won’t hold up, or it holds up differently. Poets and some short fiction writers, journalists, academic writing all have different thresholds and what not, but I think the general line of even if you can’t write on a project you should give it consideration and thought every single day, and also be sure to make actual concrete process on that project regularly. Your millage may vary.

Today, I haven’t yet done as well, though I suspect there’s time yet to get writing done, so I’m not yet final. When I’m thinking about this, though, I’ve realized that I tend to keep track of one word count. How much I’ve written in the one big project, not how much I write at all, or how other projects fare. Particularly if you count this blog post, but probably even if you don’t, I’ve gotten way way past the 1k goal: I have a knitting pattern that I’ve been working on for a few days that I finally knocked out. Surely that counts for something. ;)

I made a post a couple days ago about boyfriends and how (mostly as a result of heteronormativity) that sometimes it can be hard to be a “single queer.” The parallel to this is writing and writers. It’s hard to be a writer if you’re not writing. I mean clearly there are a lot of things in the world that prevent people who write from getting writing done, but I’m certainly not one to make the point that writers write and authors talk about what they wrote, you can’t be a writer if you don’t write.

I’m not sure how well these models and the analogy hold up, but, maybe there’s something there. Anyway, I have things that need doing, so I’m going to get, but I just wanted to throw this out there.

Onward and Upward!

I got some pretty encouraging feedback yesterday on station keeping, and that was quite good. I think SK exists in a somewhat fragmented sort of way in the tychoish.com archives, but I have a PDF file that I’ll be posting when I get TealArt relaunched.

In any case, that’s a good thing. I’ve been doing a lot of writing lately that I’ve either known is kind of crappy (eg. academic papers) or that needs to be very sharp and polished (eg. graduate school statements.) While this kind of writing has it’s place, it’s not something that I can do without having people looking over my shoulder and saying: “no really that’s not the word you mean to use.” Which isn’t at all like my fiction process, but the systems feedback into each other.

I don’t think it’s a problem that my fiction is less polished than my statement of purpose. I mean, I want it to be clear and pretty clean, but I don’t feel like I need to be flashy in a structural/syntatic/lexical sort of way. Or at least not any more (and sometimes less), than I am in these entries.

While I was out west, I got another review of the novella which told me that my little running list of changes in my head is pretty much exactly what my reader said I need to do to make it better (stage the ending better; clarify a couple of characters and dynamics). So I’m close. I’d like other reviewers to read (you know who you are!) but I’m also pretty ready to just whack this thing for good.

Also yesterday, I wrote a goodly amount on breakout (the novel), and I’m realizing that I need to do something to pep up the beginning. The novella opens with an action sequence, my hope is that because it’s short, there needs to be something that says “keep reading me,” early on. In the context of the novella, it totally works, but it was something that I went back and added, when I realized that it started on a rather dry note.

I’m thinking that the new one needs a similar trick at the start. I open with a light hearted scene, at the moment, but I don’t know if it’s has the feeling of plot movement that I might otherwise want. We’ll have to see, I guess. I the mean time this weekend will see more breakout writing and some serious time working on the new tealart site. And of course, you’ll hear from me over here.

Onward and Upward!

I write a lot on this site about what I’m doing in the world, and less about who I am, in some sort of larger sense. Or something.

So much so that despite writing about “queer things” with some regularity on the blog, I don’t much talk about queer stuff in a concrete sort of way. For instance, I don’t talk about being gay at all in my “about page.” Weird. At one point it was incredibly important to write those things.

I’ve thought from time to time that I make a better “professional queer” than I do a “real queer,” even if thats a fraught distinction, It’s kind of true. At some point I’m going to have to figure out how to figure this out. For the moment, I’m going to postpone that transcendental realization.

Anyway. About “boyfriends” and I suppose girlfriends as well, though I don’t want to universalize or project. I have a friend and blog reader (hi!) who is very interested and invested in having a boyfriend, and all that accompanies that, while I can totally understand the way that, particularly for queers, being attached confirms identity experience, this isn’t a project that I’ve ever been very interested in. “These things happen, particularly when you’re not looking for them,” I’ve often said. And I’ve generally found that to be true, though not absolute.

In real life, I generally refer to TheBoy by his name or in an ironic nod to the 70s and 80s culture as my “friend” (given that I don’t talk about friends in my cohort very often, it’s not incredibly odd). I’ve often wondered how this kind of positioning affects the closet/not-closeted dynamic, and often conclude that I really don’t care. I enjoy the freedom and possibility that being vague allows (the boy has a potentially gender-neutral name in the diminutive/common form, indeed as do I,) though there are clear problems with this.

I’m not sure how to build this transition, so I’m not going to try. The other piece of this puzzle in my mind is that I don’t “crush” particularly well, which has lead me to declare (somewhat falsely) that I don’t really have a “type.” I can’t remember having a crush for more than a few days without them finding out (usually by virtue of me telling them about it.) TheBoy is an exception to this, but I was in high school for g-d sakes. It’s actually kind of funny, because I don’t think of myself as being particularly forthright about such things, but there’s data to challenge that. Weird.

Anyway, there are going to be socks in a few days. And neurosis aside, warm feet are always a good thing.

One of the other things that spending time with the family over the holidays has shown me--indeed what this year between schools in the city that I grew up in has shown me--is that my audience is pretty darn close.

I’ve had blog entries quoted back to me a lot in real life. Though my situation, or my worries, are not quite like ernie’s, I understand where he’s coming from.

When I was using livejournal more consistently apart from tychoish.com, it often felt more like a sort of public message system. Kind of like the whiteboard on your dorm room door, except that people would actually read it without trudging through the snow.

My entire online existence has been in some ways a struggle with and against my readership, because a rather size-able portion of the people that I know IRL read my site. In the end that’s probably a good thing: I don’t have to repeat myself in emails constantly and I almost always think several times about where something is going to end up before I post it. The down side is that I’m probably more gaurded and stilted than I would be if I didn’t know my readership personally.

Interestingly I think this makes my use of the pen name, particularly interesting. Rather than protect the people I do know from discovering who I am online, as I suspect many--particularly academic--bloggers do, I’m trying to protect people I don’t know in real life, from finding out who I am. Though I suspect that I’m going to start shifting that.

Some other time I’ll talk about the development of a readership, I guess. For now, there are better things that I should be doing. I suspect for you as well.

Onward and Upward!

I don’t really have much to say tonight, though I’ve had crap running through my head all day. We spent much of the day in the car driving back from points westward. It was a good visit, of course, but as always it’s good to be back home again. I have things to do tomorrow, which include chores, errands, and of course re-establishing the routine. Which will involve work on this site. Of course. In the interim. Here are some thoughts:

1. I’m knitting a boyfriend sock. This isn’t a pattern, so much as an intent. I’m obsessing about this rather than other projects that I feel more loyal to right now. This also provoked some thought about boyfriends in general, which I might write up at some point. Also, I’ve realized that even though I’m, well, pretty damn reflexive on tychoish.com, I’m also pretty walled off, about non-abstract queer stuff. I’ll have to write about that as well. I recognize that this puts a lot of baggage into one woolen object, but then, I’ve realized that I’m a strong believer in the idea that baggage should be consolidated.

2. I bought yarn and fiber and things. I never procure new things in this way. Including several (!) thousand yards of lace-weight. Oh dear.

3. I’m reading/starting a story at the moment called “Who’s afraid of Wolf 359?” by Ken MacLeod. I’m so incredibly in love with this title. This will be short story number 4. Of the previous three, I really liked 2 and really wasn’t feeling the third. That’s pretty good numbers, but it doesn’t make me much of a short story person.

4. My new “turkish tile” sweater is about 14 inches long. 1.5 repeats away from the underarm decision point. Which means, I’m really in pretty good shape on this one.

5. The sleeve isolation has been stymied by a broken needle, though a replacement will be procured tomorrow. I’m building up something of a queue.

6. I now have two sweaters in progress and yarn for a third. Other than these, I have plans for a few more. That’s good news.

7. I think I’m pretty close to beginning to sketch out the revisions to the final draft of the Mars novella. If you still have a copy that you haven’t read or given me feedback on, at least touch base with me. And once I have some steam in the fiction department moving back to the novel will be a blast.

8. If I owe you an email, and you haven’t gotten it by the end of work on Friday. Be concerned and email me again.

9. Sleep now! Bye!

Onward and Upward!

I hope you all have been having a happy holiday. I’d apologize for not posting yesterday or the day before, but I suspect that you all had more interesting things to do, and at any rate you’re probably pretty busy with other things, and even if you don’t there’s a lot of Internet out there, and I’m sure you weren’t too bored.

I’ve spent my time doing a fair bit of knitting, a fairer bit of television writing, and some general puttering about. First up, the knitting news:

• The needle that I was using to knit the sleeve on broke, which is a fairly common experience with Knit Picks needles. I generally don’t mind, because up until the point where the needles fail, they work great. ands KP is absolutely fabulous about replacing broken needles. End result, I’ve placed that sleeve on a holder and I’ll wait until I can drop by the shop and pick up a real needle.
• In the mean time I have turned my main knitting focus to the turkish sweater I’m currently working on. I’m still pre-armhole, but it grows reliably.
• I’ve also started a gray sock. Because I’m a boy, and I have the yarn for a pair (and probably then some) so I figure, it’s worthwhile. And socks great to have around as long term projects for the times when you need a little bit of time.

Next up, writing. On Sunday or Monday, I tried to write a short story. I had the idea that it might be cool to write a story where the first aliens to make to earth were, by some fluke, not that much more advanced than us.

And I failed. As I often do when I attempt to write short pieces. I even outlined the entire story and how I thought it would all play out.

This is ok, in the end. Fiction shorter than 10k isn’t really my scene to read anyway, even though I’ve gotten less violently opposed recently. When I get back home and can reestablish a routine (and a desk) I’m feeling pretty good for the writing thing.

I had a little bit of a conference with my grandmother (whose read the novella) and she pointed out a few things that I need to work on for the novella. The good thing is that she pointed out the elements that I’ve been working and tweaking since I finished the book. So I think I’m on the right track. And there’s time to fix it.

On the plan for today: knitting and a trip to the yarn barn--a nationally renown yarn store that’s only about 40 minutes away from where we are. Part of my holiday gifts was handed to me with the stern instruction to be frivolous. So I’m going to. And knitting of course, and television watching on my computer.

Onward and Upward!

Well, I posted something to twitter last night when I got in, but I realized that I omitted to post something here. The drive went well, mostly uneventful save the last 20 minutes, or so where it was a little snow/sleety. I remember an eight plus hour trip with R. across Wisconsin with worse weather in the dark, so particularly in comparison it wasn’t an issue.

I hear that there’s a digital camera on this trip, so I’ll try and take pictures of my works in progress at some point this week.

I’ve started knitting the sleeve of the Morocco jacket, and I have 8 or so rounds done. It’s top down (the sleeve) so it’ll get much faster as it progresses.

I haven’t really touched the “turkish tile” sweater that I’d been working on for the last week, mostly because I realizedzed that I’m scheduled to give a brief talk about steeking on the third of January, so I want to have this sleeve done or mostly done by that time. It might be a little push. Worst comes to worse, I’ll break this yarn, put what I have of the sleeve on waist yarn and knit the second sleeve and then go back.

In other news, I’ve had a delightful little exchange with the woman who I worked with on my knitting project last spring (a year ago!). I found that she’s read the site from time to time (how cool?) and that she’s developed a (healthy) fixation on the “Knit 1 Crochet 2 Soxx Appeal,” which is a merino yarn with nylon and an elastic binder. For socks, and quite reasonably priced. I find socks out of sock weight yarn to be a pretty unpleasant experience. Sweaters out of sock weight yarn: kinda amazing. This is one of those questions that I’m not sure I really want the answer to. So I’m thinking about getting some of this yarn to make a sweater. I’ve developed a rather curious interest in doing a cable sweater. I’m not sure if it will happen this year, but I have pretty good access to Rowan Wool Cotton (and maybe this K1C2 yarn?), and I don’t have a huge queue of color work sweaters to knit, so we’ll see.

My attempts to write haven’t been quite as successful as I might have liked this morning, but I think I got a little bit of planning work done. I think the best plan is to not expect to get too much done (because it is a vacation after all). On the upside I finished another short story (my second) in the The New Space Opera book. It’s good stuff. This means I’ve read the Nancy Kress and the James Patrick Kelly stories, I’m thinking about the Peter F. Hamilton next for no particular reason--other than the fact that I want to get a little more background in the british space opera resurgence, but this particular story is about angels (eh) and I’m thinking about trying something else. Because you know they’re short stories and I can do whatever I want.

So there. More later.

Onward and Upward!

So about this social networking thing….

Actually I have no idea of how to lead into this conversation. I’ve had accounts with all the the social networking sites, if not from each of their very beginnings, then from pretty early on in their respective developments. Each site--friendster, orkut, myspace, facebook, virb--has a different crowd, and in it’s own way that’s kind of interesting, and I’ve never felt that using one site necessarily precludes using another one. But over the last little while, I’ve been thinking about this whole social network thing, particularly in light of ravlery Here are some thoughts:

• People join and use the social networking sites that their friends use. College students use facebook. Hipsters, musicians, and high school students (at least in the US) are more likely to use myspace, for example. This is why features don’t matter, it’s all about the crowd, and the truth is that most of these sites look and behave more or less like the others, and the features converge.
• I think there are a couple kinds of social networking sites: the ones that center around a profile (facebook, myspace friendster) and those that center around an activity (twitter, ravlry, livejournal, vox, viddlr[sic?], etc.) The latter ends up being much more successfull in the long term, because these sites and communities work their way into peoples lives. It’s sort of interesting that people and companies have managed to capitalize on the social aspect of the Internet that always used to exist on Usenet and IRC, and also create a niche for the profile-based sites. Though interestingly, I think these profile based sites sort of fill the role that the “personal homepage,” used to fill. That is before people realized that personal home-pages were kind of lame.
• Social networking sites that are about collecting friends are doomed to fail, because collecting friends is boring, and because at some point, everyone realizes that their threshold for “adding” new people to their “friends” is so low that it turns out it’s kind of creepy and then we walk away and try and forget it.
• The less control a company/website gives over someone, the better people will feel about that site. Truth I think if you could access livejournal over gopher or a command-line/terminal it would be pretty awesome. But seriously think about it. Many people have started saying that facebook has jumped the shark when they gave users control over how their profiles looked.

So that’s what’s on my mind. It’s interesting I’m pretty religious about checking ravelry (and LJ) these days, and while I still keep an eye on facebook, I’m not as into it as I used to be. I think it’s interesting to see how these things develop mostly because I’ve pretty much given up trying to figure out what’s going to happen next.

Onward and Upward!