Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Late May Journal

It's officially pollen season.  Let the sneezing and odd sleep patterns begin!

Writing: Got a critique Tuesday night for a science fiction story. I'd workshopped it elsewhere, and on one hand I addressed some of the issues in an earlier critique about providing enough back story;  but on the other hand, garnered the critique to cut  the first half with the back story.  I'm pleased because I didn't get the "wading through dense prose" critique, and despite my love of setting description, the story was perceived to be a character story.

Handed in the science fiction fairy tale to the Wordos.  We'll see how it goes.  I wanted the fairy tale voice, which may be perceived as too purple-prosy.

Wednesday, I was going through an old manuscript that had been critiqued a few weeks ago and saw that cutting the first scene made the whole manuscript stronger.  Now I have to fix the remaining bits to  make things clearer.  

Working-Out:  Thursday night, I managed to get a session in at the gym.  I managed the elliptical (20 minutes, about 100 cal), the rowing machine (about 100 cal in about 12 minutes), and the dipping machine (set at 16 because I got out of the routine).  Then I did lat pull-downs (70 lbs), the pec-fly machine (30 lbs), barbell curls (35 lbs), the power-station curl (3 reps of 13), and some dumbbell shrugs (10 lbs).   My elbows are feeling better, although the tendon at my right elbow still feels sore sometimes.  

Writing:  The other day, as we were driving somewhere, The Child told me the general plot to a story, and I asked him if I could use it.  He said "yes" and the proceeded to embellish the story with far too many goblins and ghosts and violence.  What was embarrassing in a cute way was that he told the first stranger we bumped into in the parking lot was "my dad's a writer and he's going to write a story idea I gave him."  Friday, I managed to get up earlyish and started to outline it and managed to churn out a 400 word scene in about an hour.  His basic idea is interesting, and I'm not sure if the story that's coming out will be something I'd be comfortable reading to him (pause to ponder "Gregor the Overlander," "The One and Only Ivan," and "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane" and decide that maybe he's already reading some pretty serious stuff).

We've reached that time of year when the days are starting early and ending late.  For  the next eight weeks so, it will be easier to arise in the morning and write.  The temperature is warm enough so that going outside isn't distractingly cold.  

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