07/09/00 -- An embarrassment of writers and editors

And the little one said ... roll over, I'm crowded.

Well, technically Greg Frost got here yesterday, but that's beside the point.  Today we had just about everyone around.  Chip left this afternoon.  Beth was here.  Greg was here.  Maureen McHugh got in today.  It was kinda cool, even though we didn't all seem to be in the same place at the same time.

Beth did another session this morning and talked about the steps after a book contract is signed until it's on the shelf and in the author's hot little hands.  Some of it I knew, some of it I didn't.  All of it was good to hear.

A handful of us had a t-shirt discussion afterwards then a few of us went off to Chili's for lunch with Chip.

On the way back, Trey (sometimes called Troy this past week!) and I stopped at the mall for a quick pick-up-present stop for Beth.  Found an appropriate thank-you card for her, too.

Back to my room.  I tried to write.  I failed.  Mark came by.  We chatted.  I looked for inspiration in CDs and found nothing.  He suggested pulling two words out of a book from different places and making that the title then writing to that.  He came up with such gems as: Golden Portal, and, er, well, that's the only one that stuck in my head.  Everything else was worse.  I didn't use any of them.

I listened to more CDs.  Still found no inspiration.  Sat down on the bed and pulled a book off the shelf.  Came up with Hypothetical Beach.  Started scribbling.  I think I'm going to use it as the title, but I'm not positive.  I'll see if it actually turns into something.

A little while after I started scribbling, I stopped.  Pretty exciting, eh?  Went downstairs and grabbed Jennifer and Mark.  We hit Ruby Tuesday for dinner, had potatoes, and came back to campus.

I dropped stuff in my room, grabbed stories for critique tomorrow, went down and grabbed Jennifer, then went over to Van Hoosen where it was cooler and less, umm, damp.  The weather has taken another turn for the disgustingly humid.

We read.  Critiqued.  Read.

Greg and Maureen came by and introduced themselves to us.  Maureen was going to go stash her car somewhere.  And suggested that, in attempting to hide her car, she might stop by one of the ice cream places over on Grand River.  It didn't take any arm-twisting at all to get me along.  Jennifer declined (not a big ice cream person).

So Greg folded himself into the back of Maureen's little Toyota, I folded myself into shotgun, and away we went.  Thankfully, unlike many things in East Lansing, the ice cream place was open on a Sunday night.

We had ice cream (very tasty ice cream, by the way), talked about Mafia, and about why Greg and I should be glad we don't have twelve year olds.  Also why being a sea turtle was an advantage over having kids, too.  Sea turtle mothers don't have to deal with awkward questions from their little hatchlings.  Heck, they probably don't even see the darlings even if they do survive.

Anyway... Back to campus.  I got Maureen to the parking ramp and guided her and Greg back to Van Hoosen around the construction and everything then crawled back onto "my" couch in Van Hoosen and finished reading/critiquing.

Went back up to my room.  Typed in the stuff I'd hand-written on Hypothetical Beaches.  Wrote s'more of it.

I'm paranoid.  What if it's stupid?  What if I have 1200 words of crap?  What if it looks worse than crap in the light of day when I get back from critique tomorrow and look at it?  I think I've lost all ability to judge the quality of my writing over the course of this past week.

Feh.  I'll finish it.  I'll probably get Jennifer and/or Mark to look at it.  I'll fix it up.  I'll turn it in.  And hopefully I'll start another one.  I do want to get at least two more stories done while I'm here.  I'm not going to make two a week.  I couldn't catch up to that.  I'd have to write six stories in two weeks.  That's unlikely.

But two more stories total... That I can probably do.

I hope.

 

Okay, so other folks are talking about their productivity here.  I decided I may as well, too. This list (and my productivity) is subject to change without notice. :)
Title	Word Count	Finished	Critiqued?
"Where the Blood Roses Grow" Week one, first story.  Wahoo.  And I was worried that something wouldn't come.	5000	6/13	6/15
"Uprooting the Tree" Will probably change the title at some point.	3400	6/16	6/19
"Mockingbird Girl" I think I'm happiest with this story, so far.	2800	6/19	6/26
"Poor as Paupers, Rich as Royalty" My challenge story from Sean's week.  I hated writing it.  It gave me a toothache.	2000	6/22
That fucking first person narrative (not yet complete) - May never be completed.  Don't I feel like an idiot...	(400)
"Switched to Overload"  (That other fucking first person narrative) Actually, I like this one better than the one above it ...  Even if it did wind up being two first person narratives in one story.  o.O	4900	6/27	7/3
"Sweeter Than Honey, Stronger Than Wine"  (My Tananrive Due challenge story.  Write a story in the style of an author whose work you admire.  Aieee!  It was sort of supposed to be in the style of Tanith Lee.  I'm not sure I hit that.  But it's definitely got a Christina Rossetti influence.)	9200	7/2
"Hypothetical Beach" ( My week five story, I guess. Crossing my fingers that I'll be able to finish it and that it isn't trite/stupid if/when I do.  It started as a free write.)	(1265)