The Triumph of Burning Blue and the Toner Catridge Failure Spree

(subject has nothing to do with this post, though it is striking... mm, yes).

I have been wondering for the past few days about how many drafts one should realy write of a short story.

"As many as need to be written!" says the voice from the back of the gallery. Well, to you voice, I say "Thanks for the non-answer, ass," and then I hurl an eraser, because the place I'm imagining myself posing such a question is quickly becoming an old style classroom with chalkboards and everything. And, that eraser finds its target, thank you very much!

Anyway, I'm on draft three of my current little thing, holding the draft in my hands, and considering, still, making more changes. Small ones, this time, narrow changes vs. the wide ones I've made from each other draft up until this point. I'm just wondering, though... are four drafts needed on a 15 page short, or did I just really have to do a serious routing on this one, scoring out the crap that must've been so deep in the first draft.

It is different with short stories, though. Where as I can zip through the entirety of this story in a few minutes, doing this on one of my longer works has to be done on a chapter by chapter basis. The short presents immediate issues, the longer format story may have fundamental, deep seated issues, but they may not become clear until much later in the story. Sometimes, there, you lose a sense of voice from previous chapters when you narrow your focus so much, but it's the only practical way I've found to self edit. Even this thing, as short as it is, is shoehorned into four small sections in my word processor (ah, the scriv).

Ok, it's getting late... I'd better re-read this draft one more time, fix stuff and print one more copy of this thing, then go sleep. I'd like this sucker to be in the mail by monday morning... which I hope isn't an unreasonable goal.

Well, this is fairly interesting...

http://books.google.com/

Hmmmmmmmm. HMMMMMMMMMMMM.

Yes, alright. I suppose that means the eBook era is officially "on".

Personally, I'm currently:

Reading a book by Sharon Kay Penman (which is deceptively long and sweeping)
Bouncing between OCD Edits on a short vs. picking at a novel, starting a new novel, etc.

Here's an excerpt:

"Damnit... there was something I was going to tell you."

These words are sledgehammers

Every time I edit anything, I feel like I'm slapping it around... which is fine, because most of the time I edit my own stuff, and most of the time it needs a good slapping-around.

As I'm looking over this short story, taking stock of the "edits" I've been scrawling all over a quickly formatted print out, I'm noticing there are more notes than actual story. I'm left wondering, while I look at this, if I was actually thinking about what I was writing while crafting this particular piece... ?

That's probably what they tell you to do in creative writing classes (though, I wouldn't know, I've never taken one, though I fully intend to one of these semesters)... get a shell first, and go in and poke around with the fine bits afterward. I suppose that makes sense.

So, recently I finally decided on a brand of mechanical pencils to utilize. This may sound like a bizarre sort of thing to make a decision on, but believe me, it's important. I used to just buy whatever was on sale, inexpensive, or convenient... but the last few batches I've purchased have had various problems. For instance, one set had massively gummy erasers that lasted only a few uses, and were made of such a weak plastic that if you actually erased something with a bit of emotion behind it (as I'm prone to do), the chassis would physically shatter. That will not do! Another brand was a bit more expensive, but had replaceable parts, like the two pencils in the pack came with extra erasers, extra lead, all packaged nicely in a little portable carrier. Unfortunately, these pencils are prone to jamming, and the slightest jarring of the pencils (for instance, carrying them in a backpack, holding them, thinking about them fondly) causes the lead to shatter into no less than 27,000 pieces. When you advance the lead, then, it dribbles out in micro shards which are completely useless for writing.

What did I go with? Papermate Sharpwriter #2, the sort with a twist-action lead advancer. The major malfunction these have is that their clip for attaching tends to snap after two uses, but since a pencil clipped tends to be a pencil lost, I've chosen to ignore this design flaw... in every other aspect, these seem to be superior. A fine product, paper<3<3mate!

Also, my music listening habits continue to lean toward very wussy electronic music... ah the joys of learning to appreciate little intricacies.

Twas brillig and the slivy toves? Nah.

I would love for someone to explain to me my recent fascination with tracing the roots of English words, looking for forceful language and attempting to read Old English, learn its rules and mechanics. It's effective, this language of which I speak... guttural, at times, filled with threatening undertones, hints of earthen power and wholeness. It does not dance like Latin, it is blunt like a Saxon club. It's a comfort language in the way that mac 'n cheese is a comfort food. It's alien to the modern English speaker when written, yet when spoken we hear words we understand, ideas that form, a pattern that emerges. It has been an interesting experiences, learning the basics.

I suppose I've just explained it to myself. Ah musings.

So, Scrivener 1.0, the writing software I've been beta-testing/using the free version of, has been released. I purchased it, and have been loving it. The note-carding and organizational system is still fully exciting and useful, and as I learn of some of the features in this newest version I titter with joy.

I've been plodding through a short story in preparation for some things I've got in the writing cache, ready to roll out. This short is pretty good, I think. I'm not usually very good at making cohesive short stories, usually at just taking snapshots of what could be a larger story and reducing it to one scene... normally, I imagine anyone reading a short I put together would feel like this world was fully formed when they arrived into it, and perhaps they've arrived just in the middle of a conversation. I guess it's not so bad. I could just attribute it to my own "style," but I'm terribly concerned that it might just be attributed to an inability to write shorts.

I've just realized, it's February already... heavens. We've had a busy year already, what with art exhibitions for the misses, school and work for myself, preparing for our journey in a month and a half. I think waiting for this trip has made the first month of this year zip by a little quickly. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited about it. I hate to think of myself as a nerdy culture-hungry vacation worshiper, and I'm not, I don't think... but I have the taste for travel right now (well, sort of, I hate driving distances, and flying is no treat for me, for that matter).