Author: Sharon

So, I’m still down among the commas, going through what I’m optimistically calling the Final Draft of Carousel Seas.  I’m actually pretty pleased with it, in meta.  There are of course, fiddly bits to be fiddled, a couple of scenes to be expanded and/or sharpened, but it was ever thus.

In point of fact, I spent this morning with a scene that I hadn’t red-lined as needing expansion; it was a pretty good scene and it did what it needed to do, which (so I thought when I was writing it) was to set up the next scene and the arrival on-screen of a character.

Now, we all know that it’s good if a scene carries its weight and also does at least one thing to move the greater story along.  Right?

But, it’s even better, if a scene can carry it’s own weight, and move the big story along, and illuminate something new about the characters, and foreshadow an upcoming piece of business, and set up the next scene, with (now) an added twist of tension.  That’s like — Super Scene.

So, anyway, tinking with this middling important bit, the work of which  had been dealing with a necessary point of plot, and setting up The Arrival.  And –I’m watching myself start to dig into the sentences, sharpening this viewpoint, upping the stakes, adding a bit of by-play to show the relationship between the two characters confronting this situation — and I’m not even thinking about what I’m doing, really, I’m just sort of doing some internal nodding, like I’m following along with whoever is actually doing the work, here:  “Yeah, that’s good.  Oh-ho!  Why didn’t I see that?  Nice, nice…” &c

I added maybe a hundred words to the scene, but it was enough to take it from a middling important scene that did its job, no muss, no fuss; to a scene that really rings some changes, and carries all that work I listed above.

And?  I can’t tell you why I made the alterations that I did.  Often when I’m going in to rework/strengthen/expand a scene, I’m going in with a game plan; an idea of what needs to be punched up (or down).  This scene wasn’t even tagged as a problem; I had no game plan.  I read the scene, my fingers rolled the screen back to the beginning and I started in, without any idea that anything was wrong, but a feeling that something could be better.

Which is why writing is an art, not a science.

Oh, and about Thomas Dolby?

The first time I heard “She Blinded Me With Science,” my ear wouldn’t make sense  of it — there were too many “unnecessary” and “distracting” bits of business going on that had nothing to do — in my opinion as a non-musician — with the music.

And, yet — try to take out the seeming side-bits, and you get something that’s. . .flat, less diverse, and very much less joyously loony.

So now you know what it’s like, down here among the commas, at least some of  the time.

I’m going to go get some lunch, and get back to it.

#SFWApro

Frequent readers of this space will recall that Steve and I, among many others,  contributed an essay to Dragonwriter: A Tribute to Anne McCaffrey and Pern.  The table of contents, with links to samples from each essay are now available for you — yes, you! — to read.

Here’s your link.

And it’s back to the living room office and the final day of red-pen-editing of Carousel Seas.  Tomorrow, I’ll be at the keyboard, inputting corrections, expanding zipped scenes, and straightening out one tiny little plot-kink.

No, the glamor never does stop. . .

#SWFApro

1.  Today is the Official (Paper) Book Release of A Liaden Universe® Constellation, Volume One, which includes 17 short stories and an Authors’ Foreword. The stories are:  “To Cut an Edge,” “A Day at the Races,” “Where the Goddess Sends,” “A Spell for Lost,” “Moonphase,” “Pilot of Korval,” “Breath’s Duty,” “The Wine of Memory,” “Certain Symmetry,” “Balance of Trade,” “A Choice of Weapons,”  “Changeling,” “A Matter of Dreams,” “Phoenix,”  “Naratha’s Shadow,” “Heirloom,” and “Sweet Waters.”  OR the stories from the original Adventures in the Liaden Universe® chapbook series, numbers 1 through 8, PLUS “Sweet Waters,” from the chapbook Calamity’s Child.

2.  I am this year participating in the Clarion West Write-a-Thon fund raiser.  It’s sort of like a walkathon, only writers solicit sponsors for words written/goals accomplished instead of miles walked.  The whole thing is explained here.  If you’d like to sponsor me as I complete Carousel Seas, you may do so here.  If you’re a writer, please consider signing up to participate.

3.  I have received confirmation that Carousel Sun, the sequel to Carousel Tides, continuing the story of Kate Archer, the Guardian of Archers Beach, on the Maine Coast, will be published on February 4, 2014.  Mark your calendars.

4.  The new segment of the on-going Liaden Universe® World Tour is coming together nicely, with stops in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey confirmed.  The tour will kick off on Halloween at Pandemonium Books, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and finish at PhilCon, November 8-10.  The entire tour will be posted once the last couple loose ends are nailed down.

5.  Here, have a baby ferret

#SFWApro