Category Archives: writing

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Another map

Argrenedrin

Here is the second map of my world. It’s fairly poor quality because it’s still in pencil and my scanner isn’t great. There is one more, but that one will probably never see the light of day because it’s more of a sketch. This map is of a place I’m calling the Argrene Archipelago, also known as the country of Argrenedrin. It is the main setting for the sub-plot of War of Shadows. It’s not final, and I’ve only got a few places listed on here, but I haven’t got the sub-plot all that well mapped out. What I can say is that this part of the story will deal heavily with dragons. The inspiration here comes from the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. Once I have an opportunity to revise it and make it darker, I will probably share again.

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This weekend wasn’t a total loss after all – Progress Report

sail-73790_1280

Saturday was an early day, no doubt. I got into Anchorage about 7:15, collected a colleague, and headed for downtown. In spite of the time of year, it was pouring rain, and about 45F and blowing 30mph. The weather was much more like that of late spring or mid-fall than late winter. We crossed 4th Avenue on foot, sloshing through the slushy mess of a track the race volunteers had set for the mushers. The conference broke for lunch early as well, so we were able to bop the next block up and watch a few of the mushers go past. One of them was wearing shorts. It feels like I’ve seen that before, but this time it actually felt like it was appropriate attire.

Anyhow, I went to a friends house after and had a grand old time eating too much and playing the dirtiest game in the whole universe. It was good fun. Of course, this morning it was time to pay the piper. Much of the week’s housework was awaiting. No time to do it the day before. I cracked away on that until about 1, before finally getting a chance to sit down at my computer.

Turns out with the sun-room in a cleaner state, it was easier to concentrate. The whole point of this story is that in spite of an action-packed weekend, I managed to knock out the chapter I’ve been struggling with. It’s not great at the moment, but it is a draft, and that’s something. The most interesting thing about it is that it’s shorter than expected and is begging to be followed by another chapter. I had thought this would be it, but when I started getting into the dialogue, it took an unexpected twist. A completely logical and necessary twist, but also completely outside of the plan. Anyhow, I’m sitting at just about 75,000 words, and the anticipated end-length for the draft is now sitting between 85K and 90K words.

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Distractions

Pencil

I finally gave up on rehearsing my presentation. Provided I can see my slides, I’ll be able to talk about them for 15 minutes, easy. The trouble will be trying to stay under 20! Anyhow, this week has been full of distractions. For lunch today, my wife and I popped down to the coffee shop in Palmer. I brought my notebook, and got to work. She commented that she couldn’t concentrate in a place like that – Too many distractions. It’s the best place for me though. Yeah, it’s full of distractions, but they’re all minor and not particularly engaging anyhow. A barista flitting by to wipe down a table, an elderly couple talking with their pastor about what’s going on in church this Sunday, the woman with too tight pants sauntering by to get her double tall quad-shot skinny late. It goes on like this for hours. This past fall I was stuck. For whatever reason, I couldn’t conjure the words to describe my way past the first few paragraphs on the second chapter of my sub-plot. My solution? Go to the coffee shop and break the jam. It worked, within a few hours, I had the entire chapter knocked out. It may have been rough, but it was there and something I could work with, and it felt good.

For me, the real distractions are work, home-life and TV. We don’t have cable, nor do we live in a place where broadcast is a realistic option, but we do have Netflix. It’s my wife’s one weakness. I don’t complain though, she needs it to wind down. We both do. The problem is that even when I really don’t care much for the show, I find myself distracted by the story-line unfolding in living color on the other side of the room. It would be easy enough to wander off to the sun room and quietly click-clack away, I do that sometimes, but I just can’t do it all the time. My wife and I work off-schedules so those two or three hours in the evening are all we get, well that and the exasperated glances over the children’s glacial routine each morning. If I don’t spend those few moments, we wouldn’t have any moments.

The past few weeks I’ve been in a bit of a rut with my current chapter, which happens to be the last chapter in the sub-plot. What I’d like to do is go to the coffee shop and spend the day with a cup and type a way, oblivious to the random happenings all around, but it’s just not possible at the moment. I suppose until I can make that a reality I’m going to continue to scratch out a sentence here and there in the cracks between responsibilities and family – and TV.

photo credit: Tapping a Pencil via photopin (license)