33 entries. 14,313 words.

January, 2013

• What Would a Professional Do. 2013-01-06 12:20 AM.
  • Writing
  • Process
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  So yeah, I’m still stuck on Airworld. The main obstacle I think is my complete lack of confidence in the outline I have sketched out for the rest of the book. It sounds like it will be terrible. Nothing makes sense, nobody is anywhere for a reason, entire plotlines are pointless and stupid. And what’s worse, according to my 3-books-a-year schedule, I should be starting a new book in February. That’s less than a month away, if you’re somehow unable to look at a calendar. 456 words.
• Finished A Memory of Light. 2013-01-15 8:22 PM.
  • Writing
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  The Third Age is finally over. I powered through books 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 all in a row, which has left me exhausted, yet exalted. Say what you want about it, but you can’t deny that The Wheel of Time is EPIC. I quipped on Facebook that they should retire the category of “epic fantasy” after this because nobody else could possibly write anything as epic. I’m trying to think of anything I’ve read that had a similar scope. Lord of the Rings, obviously, but that was only three tiny, tiny books. The only other books I can think of (that I’ve read) that came close in terms of sheer immersion were Stephen R. Donaldson’s _The Chronicles of Thomas _Covenant and possibly The Sword of Shannara, which I remember as incredibly epic in scope, even though it was only one book, and I read it when I was a teenager. 291 words.
• Dissecting What Went Wrong. 2013-01-16 1:35 AM.
  • Writing
  • Process
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  In the continuing saga of what to do with Airworld, I believe I have figured out why I don’t particularly want to continue it. Somewhere along the way, the story stopped being fun to write. It seems pretty obvious in retrospect. If it was fun to write, obviously I’d still be writing it. But what happened? This exact thing was something that Rachel Aaron addressed in her NaNoWriMo question-and-answer thread again and again. She advised not to continue writing something that wasn’t fun. She also advised that you should figure out why it isn’t fun to write, because it probably indicates a problem that needs to be fixed. 296 words.

March, 2013

• Update on the Lack of Writing. 2013-03-02 9:24 PM.
  • Writing
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  Since it’s now March I should probably write an update. I am still struggling with writing, and failing miserably. This is the result of many factors which are incredibly easy to identify, but not very easy to resolve. The first is NaNoWriMo. I’m wondering if I should skip it in the future, because the blitz of writing during that one month has always been followed by a period of severe burn-out which is hard to recover from. As it is now three months later, that’s probably the least of my problems. 402 words.

April, 2013

• A Writing Uniform?. 2013-04-06 3:30 PM.
  • Writing
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  The most recent episode of Writing Excuses introduced me to the concept of a “writer’s uniform.” I think they were referring to the clothing an author wears while conducting writer business, but I am thinking about it in terms of clothing to wear while writing. In general, I don’t particularly like dressing up. But I have to admit that the act of putting on business casual attire does make me “feel” more like a professional in the ol’ day job. So I’m wondering if there is an outfit I could wear that would make me “feel” more like writing. 246 words.

May, 2013

• Game of Thrones Season 3. 2013-05-23 6:42 PM.
  • Television
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  Okay I’m going to say it. Or write it. Whatever. Game of Thrones is getting a bit dull. In the books, it’s fine to have twenty different storylines, because it’s an epic fantasy after all and you get to stay with the characters for at least a chapter before moving on, and they are usually long chapters. In the television series, you get to spend roughly thirty seconds on each story in each episode, so it’s nearly impossible to form any kind of attachment with what’s going on. We see so little of Daenerys that I really don’t care what she’s doing over there in the desert anymore. Every time we see her, all she’s doing is whining about slaves. I almost wish they would devote each episode to one specific character’s story instead of trying to weave them all together. 199 words.

June, 2013

• A Minor Variation. 2013-06-03 6:18 PM.
  • Process
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  With apologies to Billy Joel. I had a minor revelation for my Airworld story last night. It occurred to me that things would work out much better if the location of the Council of Life is known when we start out. For some reason I had set it in stone that Naobi was leaving Motiva to search for the Council of Life. Now she is leaving to visit the Council of Life. With that minor variation, some other things fall into place nicely. Mainly, it removes “finding the Council of Life” as a condition for ending the story. I was having major problems with the ending because it wasn’t symmetrical with the beginning. 113 words.
• Ready Player One – Start!. 2013-06-18 4:26 PM.
  • Books
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  I’m finally listening to the audiobook of the much-talked-about Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, read by Internet super-celebrity Wil Wheaton. Though I’m only a handful of chapters into it, this book is clearly an 80s geek subculture nerdgasm from start to finish. It’s fascinating, hilarious, and depressing - despressing because of how many of the obscure references I understand (like, roughly, all of them). Now I’m going to take the fanboy hat off and put on the author hat. This book has a lot of exposition. I mean a lot of it. There are what I assume are pages and pages and pages of telling, not showing. I think there was one whole chapter telling Halliday’s life story. He’s basically John Carmack on steroids, which is neat if you know anything about computer gaming history, but it really didn’t do much to serve the story right then. 505 words.

July, 2013

• Latest Audibooks I've Listened To. 2013-07-01 3:13 PM.
  • Books
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  I’ve been on an audiobook kick lately. I realize it’s “cheating” to listen to a book instead of read it, but it’s just so darn convenient. You can actually accomplish other things simultaneously while listening to a book (like driving, washing dishes, playing games, paying bills, etc.), whereas if you read a book, it’s pretty much all you can do. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, read by Wil Wheaton. Great nostalgia book, although I could have lived without the cliche “real world is better than the virtual world” moral. 411 words.
• Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld. 2013-07-10 1:12 PM.
  • Books
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  I started listening to steampunk audiobook Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, which I have heard from multiple sources is a great series, and the premise intrigued me as it is an alternate history of World War I. Also, later books in the series won awards and stuff. Unfortunately, nobody told me that this was a young adult series, where the two protagonists are 16-ish. In fact, I would argue that this is not just young adult, but middle grade, because the kids act like middle grade kids and are usually accompanied by adult guides. They aren’t “rebeling” like most of the kids in young adult books. 444 words.
• Ender's Game. 2013-07-22 6:49 PM.
  • Books
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  I just finished the audiobook for Ender’s Game, which I have never read before. I’ve missed quite a few science fiction classics over the years, so I’m trying to make up for it with my Audible credits. The audiobook, by the way, was very well read. I don’t know what I would have thought if I’d read this book when I was younger, but now, I found it to be a tragically depressing story. Basically it’s about the military using a child to commit genocide on an alien race. 420 words.
• Deconstructing The Hunger Games. 2013-07-24 12:45 AM.
  • Writing
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  (This unpublished gem has been sitting in my drafts since April 16, 2012.) Stolen image of The Hunger Games’s book cover from Amazon.com. Okay, I have figured out the magical formula for making a hit Young Adult book. It’s really quite easy. The story elements in The Hunger Games: A smart and tough, but emotionally vulnerable hero. 283 words.
• I Think It's Dead. 2013-07-26 2:34 PM.
  • Writing
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  Iconic image of a funeral pyre.. you know the movie, right? I think it’s dead. Airworld, that is. It’s been almost a year since Naobi strode from her Orderhouse without looking back, determined to move forward. It was an opening sentence that was carefully crafted to show that the character had autonomy right from the very beginning, taking action instead of reacting, physically moving through space. All the things that we aspiring writers are told will make readers more likely to keep reading. 846 words.
• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. 2013-07-31 7:31 PM.
  • Books
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  Someone at work recommended Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, so I got it from Audible with one of my credits. This same person also recommended Hunger Games, so my expectations were not very high. But as it turns out, Gone Girl is a pretty good psychological thriller/mystery. Overall the book makes some pretty strong feminist statements, as well as having some brutal social commentary about the state of the media and judicial system. It had a pretty big twist about halfway through, which I did not see coming at all, so congratulations to the author for completely fooling me. I can’t elaborate without spoiling it, so if you haven’t read it, you might want to skip the rest of this. 280 words.

August, 2013

• The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold. 2013-08-02 2:17 PM.
  • Books
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  I started reading The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold … and this time, I actually *mean* reading, not listening to the audiobook. (There are people who insist that listening to an audiobook is the same as reading, but IMO they are very different media consumption experiences.) I picked it up because I saw that it was the next book in The Sword and Laser book club, so on impulse I got it. Not because I wanted to participate in The Sword and Laser, but because I’d wanted to read a Bujold book anyway because her name appears somewhat frequently on the Hugo award winner list. 276 words.
• He Had His Liberty. 2013-08-03 4:16 PM.
  • Writing
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  What does “he had his liberty” mean? Say, in the early 17th century? I came across it reading Edward Wingfield’s account of his removal from the first Council in Jamestown in 1607, in the book The Jamestown Adventure. (Edward Wingfield could be considered the first elected governor of Virginia. Or the first elected president of North America. Or something along those lines.) 266 words.
• Jamestown is a Fertile Source of Story. 2013-08-05 4:53 PM.
  • Writing
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  For the last few days I’ve been researching the beginning of the Jamestown colony, because I’ve been tossing around the idea of basing a story around similar events. (I know, everyone else has done it — Disney, James Cameron — so why not me? It’s a freakin’ timeless story after all, even if you totally leave out the whole John Smith/Pocahontas angle.) Actually “researching” is probably not the right word. “Voraciously obsessed with reading about” is probably more accurate. I can understand why it’s been a popular story for all these years. It’s the perfect storm of human drama, all rolled into a 5-10 year period. 372 words.
• Page of Scribbling Technique. 2013-08-05 11:57 PM.
  • Writing
  • Process
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  Just for posterity, here is a page of scribbling I did trying to block out what I thought would be the final 10,000 words or so of Airworld. What ended up happening is that I raised more questions than I answered, and all the answers started branching off into all these other fairly massive sub-plots. You may also notice there is a whole new, vitally important character in there that was introduced very late in the story. (Just in case I ever do finish the story, I blurred out some spoilers.) 106 words.
• The Curse of Chalion, Part 2. 2013-08-19 6:33 PM.
  • Books
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  This book really grew on me. I almost stopped reading it at about 20%, but pressed onward, and I’m glad I did, because I feel like I learned something important about writing from this book. When I got to about 35% I was hooked, and when I got to about 40% I was riveted. I won’t spoil it but if you’ve read the book you probably know the events that caused the riveting. The book has a lot of religious themes after the 40% mark which are really interesting. 529 words.

September, 2013

• Revolution. 2013-09-01 12:09 AM.
  • Television
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  Being super drained after moving, I wanted something that I could sit and stare at for hours on end without thinking, so I started binge-watching this TV show that Netflix put into their Top 10 Shows We Know You Will Like. It’s called Revolution. After five minutes, I thought, “Oh God, seriously? Another post-apocalyptic, civilization-has-collapsed show? Like Jericho? Falling Skies? Under the Dome (kind of)? Um… all those other shows I can’t think of at this moment? And J.J. Abrams is involved? Hasn’t he done enough damage with Lost and Fringe?” I was thoroughly prepared to turn it off after five minutes and move on to something else, because I knew without a doubt it was going to suck, and it would be filled with stupid science and clichés put in by clueless TV executives. 368 words.
• Science Problems with Revolution. 2013-09-02 2:27 PM.
  • Television
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  Don’t get me wrong, I like the show. I’m a sucker for post-apocalyptic fiction I guess. And it has a lot of “heart.” But sometimes television writers are just really lazy about basic science. It’s why this country is like last place in math and science, I guess. 1. Pilot When electricity goes off, screens don’t blink and distort. They instantly go black. I’ve been through power outages. I know these things. Cars wouldn’t stop dead if the electrical system died … at worst I think they’d drift to a stop. But I feel like the engines wouldn’t just shut off, right? I mean they would keep running until they ran out of gas, then you wouldn’t be able to start them again. Anyway they certainly wouldn’t stop in perfect columns on a highway. Planes definitely wouldn’t fall from the sky. They can glide. You know, aerodynamics? Come on. It’s not Y2K for God’s sake. So all of civilization collapsed and rebuilt itself in the 15 years since The Blackout. Seems like a short time. The voiceover said, “Not even car engines or jet turbines. Hell even batteries.” Okay that kind of implies that internal combustion doesn’t work any more? Is that what they’re trying to say? Does that mean all chemical reactions don’t work? Would a match not strike? Lighters not light? How are they building fires? Or are they saying the current just doesn’t flow out of the battery any more? “Physics went insane.” This is the exact moment when the show jumped the shark. I thought to myself, “This show totally sucks and should not be watched.” But I was way too tired to stop it. While the kid eats the last melting ice cream: “I want you to really remember what it tastes like.” People made ice cream before electricity, ya know. Gus, from Breaking Bad! The show started looking up. What is up with these crazy-looking swords/machettes with hilts that look like brass knuckles? They look terribly uncomfortable and impractical. Ugh, crossbow bolts don’t throw people backwards like that. I’ve never seen anyone shot by a crossbow bolt, but I’m very sure of that. Even if physics did go insane. Here’s the inciting incident of the Hero’s Journey, where our hero is thrown from her normal world and forced to go on a quest. Gus has amazing facial expressions. He has another name in this show but I can’t remember it at the moment. Ow, getting hit in the face with a pipe probably hurts. What the hell kind of poison makes people spit up blood within seconds? Shards of glass? You’d think they would notice that. I can’t help wondering how people survived asthma attacks before there was medicine for it. Uncle Miles reminds me of a badass version of MacGyver. This woman with the shotgun looks like Diana Ross to me. Muskets?? Well at least some kind of chemical reactions still work. It sort of implies that they can still make musket balls easily but manufacturing jacketed bullets is beyond them. I assumed that car engines didn’t work because spark plugs didn’t work. (But then, spark plugs are only used to start an engine.) Oh my. A shocking revalation. Very unusual for a J.J. Abrams production. Oh my. Another shocking revalation! 2. Chained Heat “Oh there’s a sale on heroin.” Ha. Why does everyone have freshly-washed hair except the ex-Google millionaire?? And why is he wearing those gigantic black-rimmed glasses?? Total geek discrimination!! I thought that accent was Australian. It never occurred to me that it was supposed to be British. Why would they sleep next to a swamp? They probably would have gotten malaria. And why did they wake up at what looked like noon? Why would they use human prisoners to pull a helicopter when they could use horses or mules or a hundred other draft animals which would be far more effective? I think this exact same sniper guy with dark aviator shades has manned every prison tower in every movie ever. When she typed “Randall is here” I immediately thought of Stephen King’s The Stand. Another shocking revelation! 3. No Quarter The opening sequence of this show is pretty lame. “We’re hoping someone will come and light the way.” Really? Stu Redman! Frannie! Another reference to Stephen King’s The Stand. It’s easier to “scavenge antiques” (muskets) than to find “smokeless powder, copper jacket” bullets. We have more muskets than moden firearms laying around? Sniper rifles are more rare than muskets? Okay, sure. That makes perfect sense. Okay. Let’s talk. Nobody working for Google is going to know what an 8-bit register looks like. An 8-bit register would be a total antique to anyone working at Google today. Only somebody that’s like 50 years old or more (today, not counting the 15 years after the blackout) would have even a chance to be able to pick up an 8-bit register chip and recognize it. And we all know that Google doesn’t hire people more than like 22 years old. And also, an 8-bit register is going to look like a huge microchip, not a little circuit board. AND! Why build a whole cabinet-sized computer from spare 8-bit registers when you could just pick up a freakin’ Rasberry Pi which is a whole freakin’ computer in a package the size of a pack of gum? I am not a trained sniper, but I have a feeling that shooting people in the sternum is not the best way to kill someone in a single shot. Danny’s disgruntled guard is the best actor in this episode. Why don’t people in television know how to tie people up? I mean, loose-hanging rope around the chest and upper arms is probably not going to work very well. 4. The Plague Dogs These people seem to be able to walk a long way in a short time. So these dogs are running away from fresh food to chase after people? If electricity doesn’t work, why is there still lightning?? This kid is apparently the only tornado-sniffing expert in the post-apocalptic world. These people sure do recover from injuries fast. The sailor with the big funny ears said: There are “no more steam boats.” But wait … in the very next episode we’re going to see a steam train. He also said all the ships were “destroyed in the wars.” What wars?? What a minute. These two groups are only a day apart on foot. But one of them is in the middle of a tornado, and the other one is in bright sunshine? Come on Danny. Did you even watch Breaking Bad? Gus cannot be trusted! Couldn’t she have just, like, tilted her head to the side? Instead of trying to rock the chair back and forth? I’m not a contortionist, but I can move my head at least a foot sideways. Aw dammit. Stupid emotional scenes. I’m trying to make fun of this show! There can’t be touching moments in it. 5. Soul Train Gus holds his fists funny when he fights. Awwww, sad puppy dog eyes. Okay, so apparently steam engines still work. Because there’s a steam engine train. So why haven’t we seen a lot of steam engine technology before now? Why didn’t the major governments immediately revert to steam engine technology? What the hell kind of name is “Bass”? Not like the guitar, but like the fish? Where did Monroe get that “M” pin that he wears on his collar? So they can make “M” pins but not bullets? “Fuses are unreliable.” Again, implying that chemical reactions are messed up? And yet, somehow throwing logs into a fire is a sure-fire way to set off a bomb. Not even a fifth-grade science teacher for a consultant on this show, is there? And how/why did they put “M” signs all over the buildings? Finally, sad puppy dog eyes girl grows a spine. Oh snap! Another shocking revelation! Ah ha! Twelve of them! Just like the Apostles. And the lost colonies of Battlestar Galactica. 6. Sex and Drugs Horse and carriage with rubber tires! Not a flaw in the show, I just thought it was funny-looking. Actually one of the first things that actually makes logical sense. Of course they’d put rubber tires on a carriage. What, are they going to build wooden wheels? Oh, I see they are doing the Lost strategy of giving each character a backstory in each successive episode. Okay, I see, so only regular cars stopped dead at the time of the blackout. But giant tractor trailers that need to serve a plot purpose keep rolling along like a ton of bricks. Oh, he pulled a Lando! “Is she Latin?” Um, shouldn’t that have been “Latina?” Hrm, well, sad puppy dog eyes girl is going a little too far into sociopathic territory. I think I can see where this is going… Come on dude. Someone smart enough to work at Google can learn to hunt. Aw dude. You’re better than this! Nooooooo! Not sure what to make of that. Was it a brilliant plan or just dumb luck? I’m thinking the latter, which is unfortunate. 7. The Children’s Crusade The Lord of the Flies episode, apparently. They’re like the A-Team. I think that’s the kid from Under The Dome. Well, at least The Militia supports gender equality! I’m not sure why they went to the trouble to make themselves uniforms. They must have a pretty good tailoring industry going on at least. I know this is totally stupid but I really wish it was fashionable to wear a sword. :) I guess it would be impractical to get into a car, though. Oh wow that’s inconvenient. But it’s a very convenient distraction. Wow, go Google dude! See, I told you smart people can become violent sociopathic killers! A weapon that inhibits electricity would be more dangerous than any kind of bomb. Just sayin'. That’s Randall! And he was in Stephen King’s Storm of the Century! It all comes back to Stephen King with this show. 8. Ties That Bind Hey wait, a few episodes ago they said fuses were unreliable… Ohhhh, she’s coming back. Don’t be so sad. Oh snap! A shocking revelation! Damn people walk fast in this show. Ugh dude take that rifle with you! On second thought, probably a good idea to leave the rifle if you’re going to jump into a raging river. I swear I’ve seen Charlie in another show but according to IMDB I haven’t. Aw man. Uber bad guys! 9. Kashmir The one with that cool Led Zepplin song, right? Hrm, they’re playing the wrong Led Zepplin song. “This pendant powers up anything within its range.” “It’s like a wireless battery.” No, it’s nothing like a wireless battery! It’s like a wireless MAGICAL AMULET THAT DEFIES THE LAWS OF NATURE AND COMMON SENSE. “It has very limited range; only 9 or 10 feet.” Okay so she moves away from the CD player and it stops. Then she moves it back in range, and the CD player starts again … at the same place in the song. I realize CD players are rare now and maybe kids aren’t as familiar with them, but surely everyone knows that when you cut the power to a CD player, it doesn’t just resume where you left off! Even if it had been an iPhone playing an MP3, it wouldn’t have resumed at the same place. If it had been a record player it might have worked, with the appropriate spin-up warbling. Or a cassette tape player. Or an 8-track tape player. I’m not even going to comment on the whole “pendant” concept. I mean. It’s just. I can’t even. Her explanation of the pendant “powering up anything within its range” is obviously wrong anyway. Obviously, something is actively inhibiting electricity over the whole world, because electricity is a natural phenomenon. I can only assume that the uber bad guys from the previous episode are inhibiting the world’s electricity with orbiting satellites of some kind. So these little pendants must be inhibiting the inhibitors somehow. Which means … oh man, I don’t even want to go down that rabbit hole of what that means. Okay I will. I guess they’re trying to say that radio waves or microwaves or something is inhibiting electricity, and the pendants put out waves which cancel the other waves. That makes perfect sense, right? TO A SCIENTIFICLY ILLITERATE PERSON. And/or the average American school graduate. Oh snap, I just burned the American school system. Not enough oxygen in the tunnels. Um. I’m not sure about that. I am not very well-versed on oxygen depravation, but I feel like if they were so low on oxygen that the torches weren’t burning and they were hallucinating, that they would not be physically able to walk around. Also, I mean, they might want to consider putting out some of the torches if they’re burning up the oxygen. Also, the tunnel like just collapsed, and it’s a pretty big space, so I feel like the oxygen wouldn’t run out that fast. Explosions in that enclosed space would probably make them all deaf. :) Oh wow, they finally played the cool Led Zepplin song! 10. Nobody’s Fault But Mine Another Led Zepplin reference in the episode title. I just realized that Episode 3 “No Quarter” was also a Led Zepplin song. Again using the fuses that are supposed to be unreliable… So the Google guy can’t get matches to work, but somehow flint works? That seems pretty random. Dual-wielding swords looks badass and all, but it’s not very practical. Also, everyone knows that real sword fights only last like 2 seconds, right? Erol Flynn-like duels never actually happened. Even fencing duels are rather fast. Have you seen the pros? 11. The Stand Stephen King reference in the episode title. I can’t help but wonder why everyone’s pendant works all the time except the one that Aaron carried around which only turned itself on sporadically at the most inopportune times. “Audio cannon.” I’ve heard of audio weapons before but I seriously doubt you could put one in a handheld weapon the size of a pistol that would do anything more than annoy people. Aw dammit. Another touching moment. Feels like this episode is the end of a story arc. Like they only expected to make 11 episodes. Randall Flynn … obviously meant to be a variation of Randall Flagg! (A Stephen King reference.) Dubya tee eff is that?!? 2,420 words.
• Star Trek: Into Darkness. 2013-09-14 8:41 PM.
  • Movies
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  Now and then I listen to a podcast called The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe, which is basically about debunking popular myths like UFOs and ghosts and homeopathy with scientific skepticism. Sometimes they also review the science in science fiction movies, and a while back they looked at Star Trek: Into Darkness. I skipped it because I hadn’t seen it yet, and I’ve been waiting for Amazon Prime to let me rent it ever since. This week I finally got around to watching it. 742 words.
• Breaking Bad Is Over. 2013-09-30 5:17 PM.
  • Television
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  Breaking Bad is over now. One of the best shows of all time ended after five years. And I think it was time. It’s extremely rare to see a really good show stay good after five seasons. After that, you just play along because you have fond memories of the first few years, on the off chance that a good episode comes along and brings back the magic. Honestly, most shows peak in two or three years. 447 words.

October, 2013

• One Month Until NaNoWriMo. 2013-10-01 10:21 PM.
  • Writing
  • Tel
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  With NaNoWriMo coming up in a month, I’m not sure what to work on. There’s a distinct possibility that I might free-write 50k words. That would probably be good for me. It will be an exercise in keeping-the-writing-fun and not-worrying-if-it-doesn’t-make-sense. First I need to come up with a character that I like, because I feel like that’s the main thing that keeps me writing. I’ve been having a lot of trouble getting started on any other writing projects, so I’ve been spending most of my writing time revising last year’s Sovereign of Tel. I figure working on revisions has got to be better than doing nothing at all, right? 175 words.
• The Walking Dead Season 4 Has Begun. 2013-10-17 3:26 PM.
  • Television
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  Since Breaking Bad is gone, I guess The Walking Dead moves up to become the best drama on television, now starting its fourth season. This is traditionally the point in a show’s lifecycle when it starts to die out. Maybe not in TWD’s case, though, because the show didn’t really get going (imo) until its third season. The first episode of Season 4 didn’t do much but set the stage for what’s to come in the rest of the season. Apparently, we are going to see a lot of: Muddy ground, bleak skies, bleak conditions, bleak people, and zombies. 508 words.
• Story Locked In for NaNoWriMo 2013. 2013-10-18 12:26 PM.
  • NaNoWriMo
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  I have my story idea for NaNoWriMo this year. I’m kind of excited about it. At least I was when I thought of it. It’s a bit of a meta-story, a pure fantasy that could not in any way happen in real life, or even alternate world life, and I would be lying if I said it did not in some way resemble John Scalzi’s inexplicably-Hugo-award-winning Redshirts­. I would say it has some elements of Redshirts and Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One mixed up together. Possibly with a dash of Disney’s Tron. 178 words.
• Silencing Your Inner Editor. 2013-10-25 1:40 PM.
  • Process
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  Writing Excuses recently challenged the standard newbie writing advice that you should “silence your inner editor” while writing. Instead, Mary advised that you need only silence your “inner heckler,” while harnessing your “inner editor” to tell you when you need to improve your writing. Personally I think Mary completely missed the mark on this one. (And I got the sense that Brandon wasn’t on board either.) The “inner editor” as I’ve understood it is not so much a heckler as it is someone who is obsessed with good grammar and who is terrified of making a mistake. Such a person will constantly revise and re-revise and re-re-revise every sentence before moving on to the next one. Listening to this editor will result in never finishing a book or never thinking it’s good enough to release. This is not the kind of thing you want to think about, particularly when you’re writing a first draft. 243 words.
• NaNoWriMo Starts Tomorrow. 2013-10-31 2:13 PM.
  • Writing
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow, and I couldn’t be more apathetic about it. A few weeks ago I was very excited about a story idea, but now I’m in that classic writer’s mood that goes something like this: “So what if I write a cool story, nobody is ever going to read it anyway.” At least I think it’s a classic writer’s mood. Maybe it’s just me. Maybe it means I’m writing for the wrong reasons. Shouldn’t I be writing because the writing itself is fun? But if nobody ever reads my writing, there is exactly zero chance of supporting myself as a weirdo reclusive author who lives in a cave. 109 words.

November, 2013

• NaNaWriMo First Weekend. 2013-11-04 2:55 PM.
  • Writing
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  NaNoWriMo is off to a mediocre start this year, as I am running about 900 words behind after the first weekend. Not too bad, really, considering what a collosal chore it has been to get writing. I feel like there’s a compelling story in this mess of text somewhere but I’m having a hard time getting to it. I am writing this year with zero preparation, by the way, other than some ideas jotted down so I wouldn’t forget them. Also, I’m not doing very well with my main goal of making myself laugh, because what I’m writing is not very funny so far. 104 words.
• NaNoWriMo Mid-Month Update. 2013-11-15 5:58 PM.
  • Writing
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  I am all over the place with this year’s NaNoWriMo. Some days I write enough, some days I don’t. Overall I am behind, but not so far behind that it’s impossible to make it up. My heart is definitely not in it, though. This story is bad. I mean, really, really bad. There is a kernel of a seed of an idea that I don’t think is too bad, but everything else around it is as bad as it can possibly get. And also the writing is bad. 387 words.
• A Typical Day In The Life Of NaNoWriMo 2013. 2013-11-19 6:57 PM.
  • Writing
  • Process
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  Last night I once again approached my NaNoWriMo writing at about 9:00, which is the absolute latest I can possibly start writing with any expectation of getting anything done. Once again I stared at a blank document, not even looking at the previous day’s writing, wondering how on earth I could possibly come up with 1,667 words to write of a story that has no outline. Not just 1,667 words either. I actually need slightly more than 2,000 words a day to catch up again. 553 words.

December, 2013

• NaNoWriMo 2013 Post-Mortem. 2013-12-06 3:46 PM.
  • Writing
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  This is an example of how to make nanowrimo harder. I won NaNoWriMo, barely. Scrivener said I had 50,140 words, but NaNoWriMo only gave me credit for 50,005 words, which I turned in on the night of the 30th. You might be surprised to know that I actually did “end” the story as well. I didn’t just stop writing. 997 words.
• The Time of the Doctor. 2013-12-27 5:23 PM.
  • Television
  • everettrenshaw.com
  
  I didn’t understand much of anything that happened in the Christmas Special The Time of the Doctor, Matt Smith’s final episode as Dr. Who. I didn’t understand the story, I didn’t understand why he was carrying around a Cyberman head, I didn’t understand why the crack was back, I didn’t understand why there was a town called Christmas or why The Doctor was stuck there, I didn’t understand where the Church of the Holy Whatever with the soldiers came from, nothing, zip, zilch. It seemed like a completely random jumble of people, places, and concepts. Was any of that in the last half-season anywhere? I sure don’t remember it. I guess I wasn’t paying nearly enough attention. 341 words.