Got a chunk done on the novel–about 700 words, which is just about what I’ve been averaging. Speaking of which, I also changed the moving average in my spreadsheet so that it tracks my average production for the trailing 7 days, because there are clearly some impacts on my productivity that vary by day of the week. This will smooth that out, at the cost of the average responding more slowly if my productivity changes in some more fundamental way. What I’d really like, I guess, is a logarithmic moving average that weights recent days more highly, but I’m not geeky enough to go to the trouble to do that.
Also wrote a Wise Bread post which hasn’t been scheduled yet, but which will probably go live some time tomorrow.
Jackie spent the morning setting up the yarn room at the Spinners and Weavers Guild Annual Show and Sale, then spent the evening attending to the room, answering people’s questions, and demonstrating spinning.
I’m of the opinion that having a daily routine helps protect space for creativity. If I don’t have a routine I tend to lurch back and forth between neglecting the mundane affairs of daily life and allowing them to consume the time for creative pursuits. I actually wrote a Wise Bread post on the topic: Being Routinely Creative.
Merely knowing this about myself does not automatically provide an effective routine, so I’m always on the lookout for good models. One that I spotted a while back was the daily routine of Charles Darwin. I tried briefly to follow a similar routine, but didn’t manage to turn it into a habit. Now I’m trying again.
There are several things I like about Darwin’s routine. For one thing, it was obviously effective—Darwin managed to sustain a high level of productive creativity over an extended period. Its priorities (work, fitness, family) are general in accordance with mine. As a bonus, the amount of time and the times of day that Darwin spent working roughly matches what I find lets me be my most productive.
So, today I tried to block out my time along the lines of Darwin’s schedule. It didn’t quite work out, partly because of details of the schedule itself and partly because I was still lurching between ignoring the schedule and following it too enthusiastically, but it was a good start. I’ve blocked out a modified version of the schedule for tomorrow.
I’m not doing NaNoWriMo (because I’m not going to try to write this in a month, and also because I started a couple of weeks ago), but I am going to be cranking away producing novelish prose over the next month, so I feel a certain kinship with others doing the same.
I’m doing several things differently this time. In particular, I don’t have an outline. In fact, I have only the barest notion of where things are going. This will no doubt mean that a whole bunch of rewriting of the beginning will be required (so that it ends up being a beginning that heads to the end that I end up writing), but that’s a small price to pay if the result is a novel that I’m pleased with.
The other main thing that I’m doing differently is giving chapters to Jackie to read as I write them. Doing so has prompted me to try to make each bit exciting, which I think is having a positive effect.
US Airways Magazine is running my Wise Bread article Understand Capital Costs in their section “The Gist.” It appears on page 22 of the October 2009 issue. I got my contributors copies in the mail today.
I’m not sure what day they actually change out the magazine onboard the planes, but I assume for the next month or so airline passengers will be reading my article!
This isn’t new news, but I don’t think I’ve mentioned before that my Wise Bread post How to Spot Counterfeit Money was reprinted in the handsome educational magazine The Forensic Teacher. It appeared in the Winter 2008 issue.
“Oh my paws and whiskers! Well, mostly my whiskers.”
So, Toby had a little contest, where he asked for captions for this picture of Pat Rothfuss in cat ears.
I’m not normally a contest sort of guy, but the prize this time was a copy of Sly Mongoose. I’m a fan of Toby’s work and had bought Crystal Rain and Ragamuffin in hardback, but my income has been a bit constrained since I became a full-time writer. I’ve cut back on book purchases, and Sly Mongoose was among the things I’d have liked to buy but hadn’t. So, I entered (with the caption shown), and I won!
When the book came, I set aside Anathem to read it right away. (Seriously. As I said, I like Toby’s work.) Here’s some thoughts.
I’m always a little cautious of books about a hyper-competent hero. It’s a kind of story that’s hard to do well. To provide some dramatic tension you either need hyper-competent villain or else you need to cripple your hero.
There’s nothing wrong with doing those things–you just need to do them in an interesting way. Toby’s efforts to cripple Pepper (both physically and emotionally) serve the purpose in a craftsmanlike way. But his villains are where the story really comes to life.
The floating cities of Chilo are in opposition, because it’s a hard place for humans to live–some are doing pretty well, while others are just getting by. In the greater universe, the Ragamuffins are in opposition to the Human League, because they have different visions for human progress. They’re both opposed to the alien Satraps (because they have a really different vision for human progress), but not every human is, because the aliens have a lot to offer an individual human. I’ll let you read the book to find out just whom the zombies are in opposition to (although I expect you can make a pretty good guess).
Because I’m me, I always notice whether a novel has the economic underpinnings done well, and Toby does a great job with that–the tough life in the floating city of Yatapek, and the better life in some of the more prosperous cities. It’s good stuff–illuminating the story, while staying in the background where it belongs.
If you like space opera, big battles, spiffy weapons, cool aliens (and cool alien places), and stories of tough people doing their best in difficult circumstances, Sly Mongoose is one of the best new books out there. Zombies are just an extra special bonus.
[Updated 2011-03-30: Because a lot of people come to this post on searches about Patrick Rothfuss, I wanted to mention that I talk a bit about him and his writing in my post Characters who learn.]
