Time for some Brick City snobbery! Apologies to the many people on my friends list who participate in NaNoWriMo. I read your journals because you seem like good people, but I just gotta get this off my chest.

I detest NaNoWriMo. The principle seems noble enough: a month where you encourage people to take that leap and see what they can accomplish if they throw inhibition to the wind. The problem is that so many people throw any genuine effort to the wind as well. I'm sickened by the majority of the fiction I see posted, nonsensical crap that flows from one independent thought to another as if the author was writing a 50,000 stream of consciousness poem. I'm sickened by the people that don't write at the end of October so they can "get ready." Not even to beat the dead horse of a novel being longer than 50,000 words or that anyone who has the right to call him or herself a writer does not need a month set aside to write.

Writers write. Period. Get to work, Potsie.

(Incidentally, I wrote 1500 words yesterday evening and another 400 this morning and they kicked ass. And I would have done so regardless of what month it is.)

So it seems my previous post about wanting to publish in multiple locations was premature as it didn't perform as well as I expected. Conversing with Joni after the last quarter, the Writers of the Future were restructuring their placement to avoid confusion. Rather than having finalists, semifinalists, quarterfinalists, and honorable mentions for each quarter (so you'd have quarter finalists and quarter quarterfinalists which is what was confusing). They'd just do finalists, semifinalists and honorable mentions.

...and I'm an honorable mention. I seem perpetually stuck at moderately above average, which doesn't do much when you want to perform better than that. This particular time was very striking in the speed at which I received a response. Last time it took the full 10 weeks for a response, but this time it only too 4. It's hard to compare the two placements based on the generalization of the levels, if we simply compare the amount of time the two were held before rendering a verdict, the other seemed to perform better, even though mechanically speaking I thought it was the poorer of the two pieces.

Le sigh!

I'll be sending "Galileo Rocks the Baby" to magazines now, but I don't like not winning. It makes me sad.

While I have some short stories in the queue, I'm working on my novel right now, so I don't know when the next time I'll enter the competition will be.

Dear Joseph,

Congratulations, your story was in the top 15% of all entries received. This makes you a quarter finalist. We look forward to your next entry. Best, Joni

So I'm a bit confused by the assembly of these sentences. The first one sounds like I've moved on to a second round of judging. third one sounds like I've moved on to the second round of judging and lost.

Anyone have any other interpretations they might share?

When I made the decision to submit to Writers of the Future this quarter, I knew there wasn't much point in waiting until the last minute. I don't do well in situations like that. It's a bit OCD of me, but that's the way I am. I got back up at 10:30 last night and rewrote a few sections based on Jen's comments because I knew what she had to say was valid and that I could make it better. So I tweaked a little here and there. Added some things that I had planned on adding later and never did (such as an explanation of the Luoss and why they mention oubliettes). While writing, I felt that I had overdone it with the Stupid Plan running gag, but didn't have an adequate substitute. Last night, I dropped "Stupid Plan: Take Three" for "Fuck it. Let's wing it." I like this better, as there are plenty of Stupid Plan references already, so it's not a loss if one goes away. What I didn't think of at the time or today until immediately after mailing the manuscript, is whether I reference the stupid plan after that change. Which I do, four paragraphs after that change (and one of those paragraphs is quick dialog).

It's always something.

...oh, and I submitted my short story. I think next quarter, I may take my favorite chapter from A Circle of Crimson Stone and submit that. It doesn't have a strong ending in terms of short story total climax/resolution, but it's the best chapter I've written for the book, in my opinion. The best by far. Since I'm not immediately starting a new short story, it can cover another quarter of competition.

First, there is a Romanian woman that works at my office (she used to be a translator for the UN, what the hell is she doing here), and she has the classic Romanian gypsy style of dress. Color me happy, I love it when beautiful women dress that way! It does make sitting in meetings more difficult, as you want to act professionally and give her the respect she deserves, but good lord! So hot! Well, she saw my short story sitting on my desk and asked if I write. It turns out she's a poet. She asked to read some of my work, so I sent her the prologue to my novel. I feel kind of bad because I did not ask to see a sample of her work in exchange. I know I felt very good that she asked to see some of my stuff, why wouldn't she feel the same if I had asked to see some of hers? It comes from an inability to be nice on a fake level. If her work isn't good, I would say that I don't like it, and while objective and/or professional people might accept my criticisms of why it didn't resonate with me, most people would just be hurt. Everyone wants to write something other people like, and it's hard to accept when you've failed at that (even professionals have to work hard to be professional in that regard). Over the years of working for Greyhawk and Kalamar and all the small side projects, I've been sent so much crappy writing that I just fear anyone showing me his or her work because I automatically expect it to suck. Because of this, I do not pursue reading new writers because then they'll want to know my opinion, and it won't be what they want, most likely. Still, I feel bad that I didn't ask to see some of her poetry.

Second, I sent her the prologue because the prologue kicks SO much ass. I joined a writer's group in Nashua that meets every other Saturday. I had tried to go when I first moved to town, and then they weren't appearing on the Borders schedule for awhile and I thought thy had disbanded. Well, I finally went this weekend. There a good bunch of folks, ranging in quality from poor to has potential, but they're good people that give and take criticism fairly and good-naturedly. I appreciated that. Still, not realizing that I was going to have to read something my first time there, I busted out the prologue which had gotten a couple layers of polish (it's version 1.3 rather than version 1.0) and proceeded to rock their socks. Now, I didn't join the group to show how awesome I am, but to receive honest and helpful criticism, which I didn't really get this weekend (although they did confirm that they didn't think M'buwe was gay, which I appreciated) so much as I got stunned faces and slack jaws. It felt good. With all the comparisons to Sammy Sosa's book as on par with the Lord of the Rings, it felt good to know that I've got the chops to drop the jaws. I'm looking forward to taking less polished stuff and receiving input on it.

Thirdly, I discovered the Future Writers of America (something that L Ron Hubbard set up and that Pat won, ironically, and led to his being signed) contest, which I'll be entering with my short story. This is awesome because the word limit is 17,000 words. I can finish the story in 17,000 words. This story that was languishing in the back of my mind is now reborn and being forged anew. If I were more cliche, I'd call it Narsil. :) Either way, I'm excited to be working on it again, and I look forward to finishing it. I'm not sure if it's the type of story to win this kind of contest, but it's a start. I think "Protocol J-25" is something that would work better. That thing needs to be fan-fucking-tastic, though, which is why I haven't worked on it. I know the potential is there for a real diamond. I just want to make sure I realize that potential rather than offering up a lump of coal.

Oh, things to do, things to do. The writing train is leaving the station. :)