What Is This?
Every Friday Monday, I document the happenings of the past seven days. The original (and still primary) intent is to track my progress in meeting my writing goals. Increasingly, I’ve been discussing more than just writing. For example, I’m a sports nut, so occasionally I’ll throw in a sports tidbit. I may talk about World of Warcraft, do-it-yourself projects, travel, food, or beer and wine. I think potpourri fits very well. *grins*
Writing
Weekly Word Count
My weekly goal is 2,000 words.I use an Excel spreadsheet to track all my work by category (blog post, copyediting work, creative writing) and item. So all I need to do is add up the “words” column and I’m good to go. Blog posts and creative writing count full credit. Copyediting for other writers is counted at ten percent of the starting word count for the document; style sheets for that copyediting will count twenty-five percent. Editing my own work, if and when I get to that point, will count fifty percent of the starting word count.
This week’s word count: 2,574.
- Blog Post: “Weekly Wrap-Up: April 23” – 1,040 words
- The Obsidian Throne, story development – 403 words
- Blog Post: “How to Redirect Blogger to WordPress” – 1,131 words
NaNoWriMo Preparation
Last week I started rereading Tami’s articles on getting ready for NaNoWriMo and actually doing the exercises. That prompted me to write a character-development scene (it won’t be included in the story as-is, of course), just to flesh out some of the personalities.
Tami’s exercises are simple (usually) and easy to do (generally), but more significantly, they’re fun. They also are really helpful in getting me to really think about the characters, the world, and that little ol’ thing we like to call “plot.”
I’m definitely looking forward to doing more of that this week, including “prophecy development.” The nagging in the back of my mind keeps telling me everything I think of for this project is so cliché, though. Ah, well…my thinking is, since I recognize that, I can combat it. Right? Right?
Bad News and Good
First, the Not-So-Good…
Last week, I shared that youngest son Bryan had made an offer on a 600-sq-ft condo in Brooklyn. The offer was accepted, but before a contract could be signed, the sellers got cold feet, thinking they needed more money, and went back up to their original asking price. Unfortunately, the price agreed upon was the absolute maximum Bryan could afford, so he’s back in the market. Hopefully as spring moves into summer, the market will open up, and loosen up. The concern is, though, that the buyers’ market of the past eighteen to twenty-four months is turning into a sellers’ market. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.
…And the Better
On the positive side, daughter-in-law Diane phoned us Thursday evening with the news that their home in Illinois was sold! They’ll be moving back to Tampa once Alie finishes kindergarten and has her ballet recital in the second half of June. I’m looking forward to seeing a Tampa Bay Rays baseball game before the end of the season. 
(I should look to see if there’s any chance I can get to a game to root against the Yankees….)
Christmas in Florida sounds good, no?
Cliche is as cliche as you write it. The only way to notice and combat cliche writing is to READ a lot in your intended genre.
I wrote a Pokemon fanfic (very briefly) which began with the main character dreaming of being a famous pokemon master, then waking up late on her birthday. Some of my readers groaned and I didn’t understand why it was a big deal until I started reading a lot of pokemon fanfic. Then I was just embarrassed. Three quarters of BAD pokemon fanfic begins the exact same way. It doesn’t matter why I did it or even that the writing and details were not precisely cliche – the situation was very, very overdone. My ignorance was no excuse – instead, it was MORE damning because I hadn’t taken the time to properly research the writing environment I was trying to enter.
That being said, some cliches are more cliche than other cliches (ha! That was fun to type) and some things become cliche because they WORK and are entertaining. Prophecies and magical swords are among things that are cliche but that I will DEVOUR if I find them done well. =]
Being aware of the cliche is definitely the biggest, first step. The second step is to never say “but it gets better” if your readers point out cliches in your writing. It shouldn’t GET better, it should BE better.
All that said, Christmas in Florida sounds fantastic and I shall be terribly jealous if you meet Bre before I do. ^_^
.-= Tami´s latest blog post is Sketchthings =-.
You know, you should expand that comment into a full-fledged blog article.
I mentioned to Iris a few days ago that I have had “The Dragonbone Chair” for many, many years, but never read it (the author is a grade school classmate of my wife). However, the similarity in titles between it and “The Obsidian Throne” has convinced me that I should read it before I delve too deeply into the story—if for no other reason than to confirm whether it’s of the same genre.
That said, you make excellent points (hence my suggestion to expand the comment *grin*). I was thinking last night, I need to write out the prophecy, or some kind of poem/song (reading Dragonriders of Pern, so those sorts of things are in my head lately) about the dragons. (I also resolved to introduce bards into the story somehow; they’ve always been a favorite of mine.)
However, you’ve given me the idea that I should list those things that appear to be cliche, then make sure if they’re included, they’re written well enough to stand on their own.
On Twitter: @_steve_hall
I wish I knew what was up with me not getting followup comments the first time I comment on your blog. I triple checked to make sure the checkbox was checked this time, and got no notification, though every time we’ve tested it, it’s been fine. Bah.
*grin* I’ll add a blog post stub in my drafts folder, that’s not a bad idea!
I like the plan to specifically flag things that might be considered cliche so you pay extra attention to them.
From trying to write my own prophecy, I can tell you flat out that it’s a lot harder than it seems for someone who isn’t a poet. I need to find someone who writes music for mine – it devolved into a lullabye by the time the story begins (this is Taven, not Stained. Different world) and I’m just as terrible at writing music as I am poetry. *laughs*
Good luck!
.-= Tami´s latest blog post is Sketchthings =-.