Huh. Going through my archives of old stuff. Just glanced at the first scene of a story that dropped into my head as a dream 5 years ago. Not too bad...
Besides thinking about stories a great deal of the time (daydreaming whenever I'm in traffic, waiting for a TV show, jogging, hitting a punching bag, etc), I do get a lot of stories that just pop up in my dreams. Mincemeat was one of them, but it's hardly the first one.
Huh. I actually could do this as a novel.
Friday, July 27, 2012
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Necro Post
I wanted to re-share this because it's such a great story, and also an important lesson for any writer.
You need to be able to move on to the next project and keep writing, no matter how much you've put into a manuscript. Marie Lu's success with Legend is the way bigger example of this, but it also applied to me. Mincemeat is my 5th completed manuscript. The 4th one was rejected by Kristin almost exactly the year before I queried her with Mincemeat.
I would have never gotten to this point if I kept on trying to fix up and polish and resubmit the first novel.
You need to be able to move on to the next project and keep writing, no matter how much you've put into a manuscript. Marie Lu's success with Legend is the way bigger example of this, but it also applied to me. Mincemeat is my 5th completed manuscript. The 4th one was rejected by Kristin almost exactly the year before I queried her with Mincemeat.
I would have never gotten to this point if I kept on trying to fix up and polish and resubmit the first novel.
Writing Confession
The most unpleasant task that's directly part of writing for me is writing summaries. I don't mind revising/reworking, and writing itself is fun. But synopses and summaries, for some reason, are just annoying to do. I wonder why? I'm sure this is a common thing.
Work and Play
Work-wise, I'm fixing up the author questionnaire for Peter Wolverton. I'm also waiting on a more formal acknowledgement from the portrait studio that it's okay for the publisher to use the photos I had taken (I already have verbal assurance).
I have a couple of sci-fi projects ready to start after I have some feedback on which one Peter would like to see next. I've also started working on a young adult fantasy story which I'm planning to expand into a series (starts small, gets epic).
For play: I'm buying a 15th c. ring hilted long sword from a friend of mine. It's pre-sharpened so he wasn't comfortable having it in the house because of his son. I'll be mostly swinging it around in the backyard for exercise--not cutting anything with it, as I don't want to damage the blade. Don't feel sorry for my friend, he still has a lovely Oakeshott type XIV--I'd actually be more comfortable with it as the one he's selling is significantly larger, but I've wanted a sword for years, so I'll take it if he doesn't want it =)
I have a couple of sci-fi projects ready to start after I have some feedback on which one Peter would like to see next. I've also started working on a young adult fantasy story which I'm planning to expand into a series (starts small, gets epic).
For play: I'm buying a 15th c. ring hilted long sword from a friend of mine. It's pre-sharpened so he wasn't comfortable having it in the house because of his son. I'll be mostly swinging it around in the backyard for exercise--not cutting anything with it, as I don't want to damage the blade. Don't feel sorry for my friend, he still has a lovely Oakeshott type XIV--I'd actually be more comfortable with it as the one he's selling is significantly larger, but I've wanted a sword for years, so I'll take it if he doesn't want it =)
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Geek cred
I was one of the last geeks to have not read Game of Thrones. Until this week when I finished it =)
It is indeed well done. Though, the people were not as objectionable as some reviewers made them out to be (maybe reading Empress a couple years ago increased my threshold for amoral characters... well, no, there's the Elric books, Tanith Lee's anti-heroes, quite a few more).
As of the first book, I like Tyrion and Arya the most. I dislike Sansa the most.
It is indeed well done. Though, the people were not as objectionable as some reviewers made them out to be (maybe reading Empress a couple years ago increased my threshold for amoral characters... well, no, there's the Elric books, Tanith Lee's anti-heroes, quite a few more).
As of the first book, I like Tyrion and Arya the most. I dislike Sansa the most.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Contract!
Peter Wolverton is going to be my editor for Mincemeat, a science fiction story about psychics, conspiracies and survival.
Which means it's official, and I'm cleaning up this blog and changing it around. My name is David Ramirez and I'm a writer =)
My agent is Kristin Nelson at the Nelson Literary Agency.
The new background picture is me kicking a wall at my high school. The picture is from years after high school, when my wife and I attended a reunion. My kicking the wall in frustration is one of her most striking memories of me when I was young =) And I figure, it's also a great visual metaphor for the writing process.
Which means it's official, and I'm cleaning up this blog and changing it around. My name is David Ramirez and I'm a writer =)
My agent is Kristin Nelson at the Nelson Literary Agency.
The new background picture is me kicking a wall at my high school. The picture is from years after high school, when my wife and I attended a reunion. My kicking the wall in frustration is one of her most striking memories of me when I was young =) And I figure, it's also a great visual metaphor for the writing process.
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