Tough Love

No justifications, no explanations, no excuses, though I will offer that some of these things might have been answered if I brought in the amount of material I’d intended to bring in before Life Happened the week before.

For now–possibly from now on–I won’t be posting Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo of what I brought. Every comment I got was either Scene!Win or Scene!Fail. And the Fail list is sooo much longer…

Scene!Win

  • Scene I brought was “believeable, in a weird way.”
  • The “usual” compliments (smooth writing, believable/snappy dialogue, etc.)
  • Bits were “funny.”

Scene!Fail
(From lowest to highest degree)

  • “Soda” vs. “pop” (vs. “coke”)
  • Need to give a little better sense of exactly who the protagonist, by this point.
  • Need to be more explicit about the protagonist’s feelings toward his overall situation.
  • Need to show my protagonist’s reactions to the fantasy element (good, bad, or indifferent).
  • Confusion about how I described a facet of the fantasy element. (Totally unnecessary confusion, on my part.)
  • The fucking scene doesn’t really add anything, leaving some to still ask themselves exactly what the fucking story’s really about!!

*Sigh*

Hindsight is 20/20, but I’m thinking the reason I forced myself to bring and read 830 words of fail was for the symbolic victory of having written despite the week’s obstacles. Obviously, it didn’t even qualify as a Pyrric victory. It might’ve been if I’d have been able to finish more of it–I actually had about 500 more words, but I just couldn’t get them polished in time.

I think it’s time to drag my Inner Drill Sergeant back out…

Tweets for Today

  • 07:55 RT @drmabuse: New Podcast! Bat Segundo #273: T.C. Boyle #
  • 07:56 2nd thoughts about posting yesterday’s crit group evisceration. Damn, that’s a long list of FAIL. Will suck it up anyway. #
  • 08:09 Eh, I’ll post it over lunch. Too much FAIL to look at first thing in the morning :(. #
  • 09:46 Working earlier than usual means leaving earlier than usual! I get to enjoy the sun!! #
  • 09:47 RT @drmabuse The Sci-Fi Channel to be rebranded into Syfy. [Filed under: "WTF?"] #
  • 09:54 RT @mightymur Every time you type "should of," Thor kills a puppy in retribution. #
  • 09:54 Quiet day at work so far. Can you tell? #
  • 11:29 Tempted by chance to have shrimp w/lobster sauce for lunch today, and seeing as I forgot last nite’s leftovers (of shrimp w/lobster sauce). #
  • 13:03 Processing yesterday’s list of critiques outside. Sun is hiding, but the temp is still nice! #
  • 13:18 Feh! Had to move indoors ‘cos I forgot I used the netbook before work; battery was low :(. #
  • 17:43 So much for leaving early *as scheduled*. Work emergency :(. #

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Tweets for Today

  • 08:10 I am *so* screwed for group unless I can haul ass on this damn story! #
  • 10:18 RT @GrantaMag Get your "Vitamins" (that is, the Raymond Carver story), online here for free: tinyurl.com/baavmm #
  • 10:19 Christ, nothing I’ve written for the past few days (except the new WIP that I’m *not* bringing to group) is remotely readable! RRARRGH! #
  • 11:41 Managed to salvage 3/4 of my progress for crit group. (Salvage = make sentences read like coherent English) #
  • 18:02 Will post crit group crucifixion tomorrow. Suffice it to say that the FAIL! list was (justifiably) longer than the WIN! list. 🙁 #
  • 20:43 Gah! Spaced out on chores & forgot all about #KINGS. Just as well–like I need another show to get hooked on. #
  • 20:46 Do I have the stomach for BookTV’s AFTER WORDS with Ann Coulter? Then again, I did just have shrimp w/lobster sauce for dinner. #

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Tweets for Today

  • 09:51 Productive morning of breakfast out and grocery-shopping. What to do next, what to do? (As if I didn’t know.) #
  • 11:11 Instincts pushed me into a used bookstore while doing more errands. Found 2 Joy Williams short-story collections that I’ve wanted for ages. #
  • 15:13 This AM I was scraping frost off the car. Now I’m writing outside in a t-shirt and sunglasses!! #
  • 15:29 Okay, maybe I need to put my sweater back on. Still beautiful out here, watching folks milling about. #
  • 15:52 Netbook low on power so I had to move indoors. Hoping music by Clannad will help me resolve plot points. #
  • 16:34 Isn’t buying 3 used books enough? Don’t I have enough reading backlog? Do I need to take out a library book, too? #
  • 18:10 Gonna keep my eye out for this film tinyurl.com/bwfyvg//www.google.com/reader/view/user%2F02123373233520796283%2Flabel%2Fdailies&#
  • 18:35 "So close / But so far away" best sums up my readiness for crit group tomorrow. ♫ blip.fm/~2zo1l #

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Tweets for Today

  • 08:10 Hardly got any writing done yesterday. Will have to try to get back into the WIP today. Yes, on a skool day. #
  • 09:26 Wrote 400 new words–a 1st draft of a *new* story. WTF? How does that happen?? Still have crit group to prep for, too! Arrrgggh! #
  • 11:52 Gearing up for walk to skool. Hopefully it’s warmed up a bit since this morning. #
  • 13:31 Students heading out for spring break makes for a quieter life. Temporarily ;). #
  • 13:40 Gonna spend the rest of my lunch walking in the sun & not berating myself for writing 400 wds of new WIP instead of current WIP. #
  • 16:02 I fraking *knew* the quiet was too good to be true, even for the Friday before Spring Break! Fail!! #
  • 16:49 So far, potential emergencies have been diffused or redirected, thank Christ! Means I might have the energy to write a bit tonite (b4 #BSG). #
  • 19:10 Struggled to stifle a hategasm at work; glad I left when I did. Will try to sublimate the anger into the WIP. #
  • 19:35 If I was going to get a writer’s planner, it’d definitely be this one. lcrw.net/wordpress/?p=890 #
  • 19:42 PLANET OF THE APES is now! "Assembling ammunition in advance reveals ape’s unsuspected ability to plan for future" tinyurl.com/b7d8ya #

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Tweets for Today

  • 10:20 All right, this DST fight to get out of bed every morning is getting pretty damn old, pretty damn quick! #
  • 11:48 I *so* don’t feel like writing at lunch; almost can’t bear the thought. But can I bear the guilt of not writing? Bleh. #
  • 17:28 Listening to podcast of Diablo Cody interview on KCRW’s THE TREATMENT tinyurl.com/bbnb9h #
  • 19:21 Must…write…something. Anything. #

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Tweets for Today

  • 08:14 Sooo hard to get out of bed when your body still thinks it’s 5:45 am. #
  • 08:18 Just remembered a dream last night in which I was holding a $15 bill…as in cash. #
  • 08:28 Writing playlist: Chris Botti, the Budos Band. An experiment on the effects of smooth jazz followed by afrofunk on my brain. #
  • 09:00 Good news: coming up w/awesome rewrite ideas for current WIP. Bad news: I’m not coming up with any NEW WORDS for Sunday’s crit group. Yet. #
  • 11:33 Something funny’s going on with my neck for no apparent reason, and I don’t like it :(. #
  • 12:13 Skool marching band drumline playing during my walk to class. Fought *hard* not to march in time. Old habits, and all. #
  • 13:40 All of my main email addys are at Inbox Zero again! But for how long? #
  • 17:59 Mother of Pearl, today was suckstastic. #
  • 19:23 After dinner, there will be blood. I mean, writing! Same thing. #
  • 19:25 @strikethru My gut answer is no! 🙂 #
  • 22:02 @strikethru BeTwittered lets me Twitter from my iGoogle page–it’s the ultimate combination of multitasking and time-wasting! #

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Tweets for Today

  • 08:15 At the bagel place, scribbling down WIP notes but distracted by thoughts of the 1/2-finished problem set due tomorrow. #
  • 08:16 Playlist: CHALLENGERS by The New Pornographers. #
  • 08:26 I can’t take it–I’m gonna take another crack at this problem set, otherwise I’ll never write. #
  • 08:32 RT @Colleen_Lindsay Chico Writer’s Group has just uploaded an RTF file of the entire #queryfail tweet stream: tinyurl.com/b835nx #
  • 09:05 Finished the problem set; will review it later. Already drained. Doesn’t bode well for my "Monday" today. #
  • 11:05 Given a hero’s welcome at work–just for showing up today. It’s that bad (or, it was). #
  • 13:04 Going to lunch and I’m gonna frakin’ *write*! No skoolwork, no nothing else. Well, except eating…but after that!! #
  • 14:22 245 words of notes at lunch–enough to get me back into the WIP and that much closer to done! #
  • 16:38 Ol’ Blue Eyes on the work CD player. Feel like drinking Manhattans after work, now. #
  • 19:50 RT @Catrambo Realms of Fantasy resurfaces! tinyurl.com/df97zk #
  • 19:53 Gonna scarf down some Chinese food and look over this morning’s problem set. So wanted to write more…waaaah!! #

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Tweets for Today

  • 23:13 @Colleen_Lindsay An honor to be followed by you…especially since you like BLAKE’S 7. #
  • 23:33 Carefully building up my "Yacht Rock" playlist on Pandora while catching up on 2 days’ worth of missed intarweb…instead of sleeping. #
  • 08:34 Soooo far behind schedule this morning. Trying not to stress out about it and just focus on getting my ass in gear! #
  • 08:42 I didn’t forget the time change, but I *did* forget how much it sucks at first. *Yawn* #
  • 10:19 Updated the portableapps on my USB stick. Yeah, really productive morning so far. #
  • 14:16 Survived skool and now I’m in the writing spot, still deciding on today’s playlist. #
  • 14:18 Just caught wind that things are crazy at work w/me away. Not my problem today but I suspect it’ll very much be my problem tomorrow 🙁 #
  • 14:34 Antibalas is probably the last thing that’ll get me back into a writing groove but it’s what I’m in the mood for. ♫ blip.fm/~2sv59 #
  • 16:18 Feeling very drained, with the long weekend and all. Think I need a nap. #
  • 19:51 Current problem set for skool is killing me! 🙁 #

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Tweets for Today

  • 09:08 Thing I hate about travel: usually simple solutions to life’s little problems are never fraking simple! #
  • 09:12 I either have to deal with crooked glasses or put up with a midwestern suburban shopping mall on a Saturday. Grrrr. #
  • 12:41 Decided to forego the mall trip. Glasses aren’t that crooked ;). #
  • 13:13 Pleased at the realization that I’ve been walking around outside in shorts for the past 2 days, despite the rainy gray. #
  • 23:01 Back on the grid for a lil’ bit! #

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