2013: The Year in Review

Wow. It’s hard to believe today is the last day of 2013. Every year time seems to run faster, and I’m constantly reminded not to take a second for granted. There’s so much still to write, to read, to do…

But, before I get maudlin, I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who has come to The Cat’s Cradle to read, like, and comment on my entries. I hope that you’ve enjoyed them and maybe even learned something from them. Thanks to everyone who stuck with me through the transition from Blogspot to WordPress and to all the newcomers who found me once I got here!

While I’m rather glad that 2013 is over (it hasn’t been the best year for personal complications), I am astounded looking back at everything I have managed to accomplish. It’s too easy to get stuck in the trap of thinking of all the things you could have/should have/would have/meant to do but didn’t, and I hate that loop. So I’m going to remind myself of what I accomplished this year, and encourage you to do the same. It might not seem like you’re doing much in the daily grind, but it all mounts up after a while.

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Sending a submission is like fighting the Empire…

…there’s always another Star Destroyer. The battle is never-ending. A victory for the Rebel Alliance, no matter how epic, doesn’t mean the end of the war. That’s a bit how I feel right now after finishing my 10,000-word submission for the Jim Henson Dark Crystal Author Quest. I feel like those cheering Rebels on Hoth right after they hear the announcement: “The first transport is away! The first transport is away!”

Yes, the first one made it through. And that feeling of victory when facing impossible odds is euphoric. But they have to try to get the rest through the blockade as well. And even if they make it off Hoth, the rest of the Empire is still out there, waiting for them.

This might not seem like a victory. After all, I’m just one among many. I have no idea what is going to happen next. Will my entry be considered? Accepted? Ultimately win or be rejected? I have no way of knowing. But I started writing my Dark Crystal entry 5 months ago. July 1, 2013, I used Camp NaNoWriMo to pound out half the novel. I kept writing all the way through September. October was sporadic writing followed by editing, then November was dedicated to my wonderful beta readers. Their feedback helped me chose what portion of the novel to send as my submission. I hit the “Submit Your Entry” button on November 30, exactly five months after starting this project.

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“You Are Not Imposing!” Requesting Feedback

Maybe it’s just me, but I always feel like I’m imposing whenever I ask someone to read my work. Of course, I’ve heard that a lot of writers are hesitant to show their work to someone else, especially when it’s still just a first or second draft. After all, your novel is your baby; you’ve been working on it for months, if not years, and the last thing you want to hear is someone say that it sucks. Working up the courage to allow someone to read what you’ve written is hard enough. But then there’s this added weight of the guilt of imposition.

Whenever I finally make a decision to show someone my work, to ask for their opinion of it, I always feel like I should crawl up to them on my knees, smeared with ash and dressed in sackcloth, manuscript in hand and beg in the most deferential voice I can muster, “Would you please…if it’s not too much trouble, because I know your time is valuable and you probably have a million other things you’d rather be doing but….could you please, please read this and tell me what you think?”

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Doctor Who: Time, Space, and Fandom

Doctor-Who-Banner-doctor-who-15571652-1340-539 — Image via NancyWho on fanpop.com

It’s been a while since I was this obsessed about a show. More than a show; an entire universe spread across many different kinds of media. One of the most appealing aspects of Doctor Who is that it exists in so many forms, allowing for a wide array of stories and expression. And one of the most challenging aspects of Doctor Who is that it exists in so many forms, making it very difficult to track them all down.

I’ll say right up front that I haven’t watched any classic Doctor Who. I really hate watching a series out of order, but since there are 100 episodes missing from classic Who, I was reluctant to dive into the franchise at all. However, my friend Storm Elf assured me that I could start with the 2005 series that introduced the 9th Doctor and I would be fine, since there’s a 16-year gap between classic Who and its reincarnation. We watched the first episode together at Katsucon and later she hosted a Doctor Who viewing for the next few episodes. After that, I went through a lull where I didn’t watch any Doctor Who. But in late September 2013, after listening to several Sapphire and Steel radio plays, I felt in the mood for some more weird time-related stories and decided it was the right time to start up Doctor Who again.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

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Fictional Values

Constructing a new world filled with interesting climates, cultures, and characters is a lot of fun, but it also requires a great deal of work. There are so many details to attend to in order to keep everything fresh and interesting. One of those many details is the societal values of your various cultures.

This is something that has always been prevalent in sci-fi and fantasy, but it really didn’t hit me until I started playing Mass Effect. Each of the alien races have a certain defining characteristic, a societal value that defines them as a culture and/or species. For the turians, honor and responsibility. For the asari, it’s diplomacy and psychic awareness. For the salarians, it’s scientific achievement and espionage. For the krogan, battle and conquest. Granted, part of this distinctness comes from being nonhuman; many such races have an overarching characteristic that gives people a starting point in order to relate to them. But even human cultures and societies can have a defining value or values.

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Getting Real About Writer’s Burn Out and Social Media Demands

KAT’S THOUGHTS: I very rarely reblog anything, but I thought this one was extremely important for writers and other creative folk to remember. I’ve felt this burn-out coming on myself with way too many things going on in my life, and the ubiquitous social media only adds to that strain. Cate Russell-Cole hits the nail on the head with her post, so please be sure to Like or favorite her post as well! And now for some relaxation…

Why Love At First Sight Doesn’t Work In A Story

I recently watched Steven Spielberg’s Titanic for the first time in over a decade. My first experience was less than stellar; I remember liking the visuals, the cinematography, the effects, the music. But I loathed all of the characters. This time around, the visuals remain stunning, breath-taking, well-worthy of all the Academy Awards this movie received. The sinking of the ship itself remains powerful, heartbreaking, and utterly chilling.

Yet I still don’t like the main characters, Jack and Rose. I understood them better, understood their choices, their positions, and empathized more than I did when I was ten. But I still didn’t really like them. Or maybe it isn’t a matter of “liking.” They would be fine as acquaintances. But I didn’t…connect with them, not on any meaningful level that persisted past the end credits.

Why?

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How to Track Your Editing Progress

Last time, I shared David Greenshell’s invention of LeNoWriCha (the Legendary Novel Writing Challenge) as an alternative to or supplement for NaNoWriMo, to give more motivation to write via a more customized reward system and positive feedback loop. So far, it’s been working really well. I tend to stay more in the Easy and Normal range with a few more Incomplete days than I would like…but I also get a few Heroic and Legendary days in there, so that makes me happy. I’m still plugging away on my Dark Crystal Project, and am reaching the end of my first draft.

Which means very soon I’ll begin editing and revising. Which opens a whole new kettle of fish.

I now have LeNoWriCha to track my daily writing progress and give me rewards. But what about editing? How do you track that?

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What Minds Accept

The other day I was going through a stack of books being sent back to the main library. We rotate our collection periodically and books that have been on the shelf for too long get sent back to be replaced with newer books. I always flip through ones that catch my eye, even though most of them are romance, mystery, or realistic fiction, and I usually don’t read those genres.

One of the books that caught my attention was Blind Submission by Debra Ginsberg. Since it’s about reading, writing, and publishing, I looked at the book description. The heroine is a reader named Angel Robinson who lands a dream job working for a publishing agent. However, the job is harder than it looks because she’s constantly trying to balance her dragon-like boss’s ego with finding and polishing good book submissions. The struggle keeps her on her toes. But things get creepy when Angel receives an anonymous (“blind”) submission and the contents of the manuscript mirror her own life. As subsequent chapters of the book appear in her inbox, along with intimate revelations of her lie and thinly veiled threats, Angel must play a game of cat-and-mouse that might quickly become deadly.

After I finished reading the front leaf, I wrinkled my nose and said, “Really? This idea is too flimsy and relies way too much on coincidence to be believable.”

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The Legendary Novel Writing Challenge!

Whew! I somehow managed to survive Camp NaNoWriMo for July 2013. It took a lot of burning the midnight oil and frantic cramp-inducing typing on my part these last few days, but I made it! (Day 28 I spent all day, from 8:00am until 11:30pm writing. I got 8,876 words done in a single day! 20 pages! Heilige scheisse!) Just goes to show that the habits of college haven’t worn off yet; I still put everything off until the last minute.

This Camp NaNo was really stressful and I was way behind my word count for about 2 weeks. Trying to catch up once I feel behind was probably the biggest stressor, and even though NaNoWriMo always stresses that you get major kudos for trying, I still don’t like falling short of a goal I set for myself. My writing group can attest to my depression and complaining throughout the month.

However, a good thing did come from all the stress. Well, two good things, actually.

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