Archive for December, 2009
Microsoft’s Broken CSS
Saturday, December 26th, 2009
I uninstalled Internet Explorer 8, and I’ve just noticed that the journal pages don’t look right in IE 7. I’m too busy writing to feel like fixing it now.
In fact, I may be too tired of Microsoft’s weird inability to write browsers that handle normal CSS to fix it, period. The page looks fine in Firefox, Opera, Safari, and Chrome, and it was OK in IE8 when I had IE8 installed.
But I’ll have a look at it, sooner or later, just to make sure I didn’t do anything stupid with the journal CSS.
Writing vs. Writing About Writing
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
In spite of having emergency dental work that included two root canals, and in spite of a persistent case of influenza and the perpetual headaches it seems to have left me with, I’ve made a highly productive time out of the last couple of months.
I’ve done a lot of work on The Winds of Winter:
- I finished three scenes near the end of the poem. That leaves me with the last scene (or perhaps two more scenes) to write. I now know how the whole plot develops, and it’s only a matter of execution.
- I’ve rewritten two scenes at the beginning of the poem, to improve the story setup.
- I wrote another scene that belongs in the revised beginning — either the whole thing, or the guts of it. Maybe I’ll decide it needs a few lines of fleshing out, but I’ve got most of it.
All of this means that I’m well on track to finishing the first draft of The Winds of Winter this year — probably early this year — after ten years! (I started writing it in 1999.)
And that’s why I’ve been quiet. I write about writing when my story is stalled — when I’m too tired to keep writing metered verse, or when I’ve hung up on the plot, or don’t know how to approach a scene. When my story-writing is going well, I don’t want to interrupt it for complicated essays about writing.
So I’ve been story-writing.
Merry Christmas, all.
Sigurd: the Turning Point
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
I’ve uploaded a new section of the unabridged version of William Morris’ Sigurd the Volsung:
Book III, part 6. Of the Cup of evil drink that Grimhild the Wise-wife gave to Sigurd.
‘Tis the story’s dreadful turning-point.
Downtime because of hack
Saturday, December 19th, 2009
I got on today to find out that the page was down because of a hacking attempt. Quick action by my hosting service, Inmotion Hosting (whom I recommend), prevented any serious damage. I’ve now restored my files from local backup and updated Wordpress, as well as receiving an update from Adobe. With any luck, this will take care of the problem.
It’s just started to snow. We’re going to have a blizzard, it seems. I hope everyone is having good holidays.
Another New Sigurd Section
Friday, December 18th, 2009
Another new section of William Morris’ Sigurd the Volsung.
The flu doesn’t want to let go. I’ll be posting more when I’m not so exhausted.
New Section of Sigurd
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
I’ve uploaded a new section of William Morris’ The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Nibelungs. This is the unabridged verse version.
Still Working on The Winds of Winter
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009
Sooner or later, fatigue is going to catch up to me, and I’ll have to take a break. But right now I’m still working on The Winds of Winter.I’ve one more scene left to go in the first draft — the end. (OK, probably one more scene. I won’t swear there aren’t two, but I think one will wrap it up.)
I haven’t started it yet, though. I’ve begun revisions on an early scene, with an eye to improving the story setup. I’m working this way partly because I happen to have the ideas for the revisions now and don’t see any point in waiting, and partly because restructuring the beginning might inform my treatment of the end.
I’ve been planning a First Draft Cake — after so many years, writing the last word of the last scene deserves a celebration. (I started writing this story in 1999.) And I’m beginning to contemplate what it will be like not to be writing Winter.
There are more stories to be told about some of Winter’s characters, but I don’t know what form they’ll take yet. And my next fictional project will probably be something unrelated.
The Winds of Winter
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
I’ve sent three new scenes of The Winds of Winter to my first readers. That, probably, means I have only the last scene left to go in the first draft.
I thought I was going to take a break, but I’m going to second draft right away, because I think I’ve seen how the I can improve the structure of the beginning. If that works, then I’ll take a break between the second draft and the polish draft.
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