A couple days ago, I finished writing through the material I’d written for Worlds Away From Home back in 2008 before I dropped the project. For the first time since March, I find myself drafting entirely new material. It’s a little bit unnerving; I’m a much better reviser, I feel, than straight up writer. Revising… Continue reading Forward to new ground
Category: Gaia Nova
الثريا والرواية
So today I was working on my novel, Worlds Away from Home, and I decided to change the name of a minor character from “Soroya” to something that sounds cooler. I’d given the rest of her family Arabic-sounding names, because they’re basically far-future Arabs living on another planet (their tribal name is Najmi (نجمي), which… Continue reading الثريا والرواية
Thoughts on the convolutions of discovery writing
It’s been forever since I posted, so I figured I’d put something up and let you guys know what I’ve been up to. I’m happy to say that Worlds Away From Home is going well; I wrote just under 20k this week, which is more than I’ve written in a long time. I hope to… Continue reading Thoughts on the convolutions of discovery writing
Falling back into the groove
Today I surprised myself and wrote nearly 4k words, some of which might actually be good enough to keep. Huzzah! The novel is coming along very nicely, and I’m starting to get really excited with where it’s going. That’s huge, because up to this point, the nagging “this is crap, what are you doing with… Continue reading Falling back into the groove
Second Quarter 2010 report
As you may or may not know, I keep a spreadsheet of my daily word counts. Nerdy, I know, but you’d be surprised how helpful it can be with keeping goals and staying motivated. As part of that, I’ve decided to do a quarterly report here on my blog. Here’s my report for April 2010… Continue reading Second Quarter 2010 report
Writer’s block? Tallyho!
Just a quick post before I go to bed. Health problems suck when all you’ve got is catastrophic insurance. I started breaking out in this weird rash last week, and I went into the clinic today. It was seventy five dollars well spent, but…man, seventy five dollars? So between taking the bus all over the… Continue reading Writer’s block? Tallyho!
Take me to Arabia
Recently, I’ve found myself nearly overwhelmed by the sudden urge to run away to the Middle East and go totally and irrevocably native. It may pass, but I still want to go back there–really bad. So I looked up BYU’s TESOL certification program, and figured I could apply in January, start fall of ’11, and… Continue reading Take me to Arabia
The need to change
I picked up this sign at institute last Wednesday. The lesson was on our desires; specifically, how the thing that we truly desire deep down is often the thing that we get. The main reason I posted this sign on the door was to motivate me to get a better job than my current one. … Continue reading The need to change
Quick update
Just a quick update on things, since it’s been forever since I’ve blogged. The Utah Valley Democrats offered me a position, but it wasn’t the internship they’d advertised, so I turned it down. They wanted me to do all their phone surveys, for 20 hours per week at $8.50 an hour, working evenings and Saturdays… Continue reading Quick update
An interesting concept
Last night, I was hanging out with a friend of mine and a couple of girls in the apartment complex where I currently live. We got to talking about books, and one of the girls said something really interesting: Every book needs to have one thing that the main character knows that the reader doesn’t… Continue reading An interesting concept