The Werewolf Project: 16,710

A ton of writing this week. I’m quite pleased, as I’m sure you can imagine. That’s despite a day or two that was primarily editing what I’d written before. I’m not convinced that these words are necessarily going to stay in the final version, but I’m glad that I’ve at least set them down.

Dinner tonight was pasta and peas in a white wine cream sauce. It was pretty tasty, but mostly an effort to do something with a bottle of wine—a white Bordeaux—that I am not fond of.

The sauce was pretty simple: Melt butter in a pan. Add some flour to make a roux. Add white wine and garlic, and then some milk. Cook until it begins to thicken. Season with salt and pepper.

The sauce came out rather tangy. An interesting surprise, although I have to admit, I generally prefer things not tangy. Still, all in all, not bad.

And now one of my characters is making the same dish, plus prosciutto, in the Werewolf project.

The Werewolf Project: 13,895
The Shipping Project: 15,938

The new words on the Shipping project are actually from a scrap file I found floating on my hard drive. It’s not new writing, I’m afraid.

I’ve made a good bit of progress on the Werewolf project though. Over 2,000 words since last week. I’m really pleased about that.

The Werewolf Project: 11,659

It’s been a terrible week for writing, actually. In addition to a certain level of uncertainty in my personal life, I’ve also had a smidge of writer’s block. Fortunately, thanks to the wonderful and evil Jenn, I think I’ve figured out how to tackle the scene that was giving me trouble.

I’ve taken the Shipping Project off of the update list until I can actually work on it again.

The Werewolf Project: 10,727
The Shipping Project: 15,007

As you can probably guess, the Shipping Project is pretty much on hold. I’m fairly pleased with my progress, though, on the Werewolf Project. I’ve found that I’ve had to rewrite some scenes for the sake of continuity. That seems to particularly happen when I’ve written a scene that comes later in the story and then have to backfill.

Oh, and the Twitter Exquisite Corpse has begun. Follow the link to read the story so far.

I realized two things recently. One, the obvious, is that I haven’t been updating much at all recently. The second is that you probably have no idea why. I’ve been remarkably busy during the last seven months or so, doing the following:

• Work
• Helping to organize my French conversation group
• House hunting
• Going to Paris
• Moving
• Fixing things around the house (and the resulting stress)
• Writing fiction again

Another part of why I haven’t been writing as much is that I’ve been posting more things, mostly links to cool news articles, on twitter and facebook. These two short-form social media do seem ideal for sharing quick “this is cool” links. Still, it sees like it should be possible to maintain both a blog and a presence on short-form social media, if I make the time. There are certainly far busier people out there who manage to.

As part of the effort to blog more, I plan on starting a weekly post on French vocabulary that I’ve encountered through reading, listening to podcasts, and other means. I’ll also continue to post book reviews, and I’ll try to include updates on the writing projects I’m working on.

I’m actually really excited about my writing projects. There are two: one about werewolves, and one that I’ll call the shipping project, although the connection to ships is rather loose. At the moment I have 8,500 words for the first and 15,000 for the second. My primary project is the werewolf one, though, so that’s what you’ll probably hear more about—although most likely in very vague terms. I tend to be a bit secretive about my writing when I’m working on it.

Today marks the start of this year’s National Novel Writing Month. In case you hadn’t noticed, I am already procrastinating.

How many of you are participating this year?

As part of my mission to infiltrate the web, I’ve become a contributer to The Bitter Quill. My first post went up today. The Bitter Quill is a collective blog, where the contributers are writers with varying degrees of success, all seeking publication.

I think about writing a lot, as most writers probably do. Lately, I’ve felt the need to get some of these thoughts out of my head, and so I’ve decided to let them out here. It’s been a while since I’ve read any writing guidebooks, but what I remember will probably form a good reference point.

I used to puzzle over whether writing was an art, a skill, or a craft. Now, I think it’s all of the above. In addition to having natural talent, a painter must also be a master of technique.

I’m still not sure how a writer really learns technique. Some of it seems to be just by osmosis. I’m guessing that’s why so many of those guidebooks tell you to read. One trouble with this otherwise sound advice is that it’s so easy to encounter and inadvertently absorb bad writing.

Right now, I perceive the solution to be a kind of perpetual studenthood. It’s a necessity for almost any professional, I suspect. William Osler emphasized the need to continuously learn and be proficient in one’s work to a class of graduating medical students. I think that writers need to think of themselves as professionals as well as artists.

There really is a lot writers need to know. Beyond the basics of grammar and spelling, there are such further complexities as usage, organization, and rhetoric. There are techniques of narration, exposition, dialogue, characterization… a whole host of skills that can be put to use by both fiction and non-fiction writers. If one is a technical, medical, or science writer, there is also the issue of readability.

Once all of those skills are mastered, there is still the content to worry about. An advertising copywriter needs to know his product, a science writer needs to understand his discipline, and a novelist needs to know human nature.

At some point, writing changes from a hobby to a job. The difference between the two is pretty remarkable. I’ve known for a long time that writing is work. I think I’m only just beginning to get a sense of how much work there really is. It’s a terrifying prospect and a huge challenge.

I always did have trouble saying no to a challenge.