My house is clean, the laundry done, I'm blogging. This raises one question: what exactly is it that I should be doing but don't? Yep, I'm procrastinating. Big time. Before you get all holier than thou on me.... One word: taxes. Plus, I'm positive I've got to pay. My rather obvious way of preventing myself from doing the nasty task is to do all the other tasks I don't like but still prefer over digging out receipts and crunching numbers. As you know from a previous post, though, housework always gets the creative juices flowing. Hey, I'm on a juice-fast, so? Okay, back to serious:
Moviequill asked in his post for tips re: overcoming procrastination. And no, I'm not responsible for that potty-mouthed headline. Seriously. Not responsible. Okay, so he gave some tips and I remembered an article by Dr. Bill Knaus over at Albert Ellis Foundation, aptly titled Beat Procrastination Now! It's rather long, err, comprehensive. First, you might want to scroll to Mental Diversions chapter. So true and hilarious at the same time. If you're in a hurry, you then want to scroll down to Adopt a Philosophy of Self-Acceptance, that's where the lists start, the step-by-step plan. Yepp, not just one list, several lists.
On the other hand, if you're procrastinating screenwriting, you may just have a problem with your sp. Like me. I'm scared of all three of them at the moment. They're in different mega-evil departments of Rewriting-Hell. But they don't let me be, chars showing up at my bedside. Nice. Or you may stuff your pie-hole with actual pie and afterwards need all that precious energy to digest the pie. Just a thought. Oh, and spectator sports? Don't count. You don't actually exercise while you watch other people playing ball. I know, wouldn't that be cool? We could hire professional exercisers and would all be in the best shape ever - all of the time!
CUT TO:
Several hours and far too many computer-crashes later.....
Numbers are crunched for last year and this year --- not too frightening. There are still some deductions around, I'm sure. Got 3 more days to dig them out. Boy, am I feeling relieved!
And I wrote a couple of scenes for my thriller and a new opening for my rom-com. Longhand, how I hate that. Some very funny stuff, though, love that.
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Paging Dr. House
Christ. I feel like this whole damned year they've been sticking needles in me, ultrasounded me, x-rayed different body parts and I'm not exactly feeling oh-so-much better. Let me clarifiy: the meds have given me a different set of symptoms. Like, ah, pain. Don't worry, that's just from the water I'm retaining now, says my doc, and I should just cut the dosage of one of the meds in half, no biggie. Nice. At least you didn't kill me, jerk.
Let's look at the bright side:
I'm not anemic anymore, so I won't collapse for lack of iron again. Nice, right? It's something. I'm Iron Woman now, watch out!
Of course I might collapse while being on that juice fast that I'm doing trying to get rid (pronto!) of those useless six pounds I gained on account of the meds, but hey. Plus, they can keep their expensive not-covered-by-any-health-insurance-plan tests, I'm Ms. Heal Thyself Now. Oh, anger is a powerful thing. A source of power.
Where's Dr. House when you need him, anyway? Many of his less fictitious peers got the sucky bedside manner down but none seem to have the knowledge/skills. Or give me Cristina and Meredith Grey. They might be able to come up with something. Urgh, reality sucks so bad sometimes.
Good thing my TV quit. Again. Third time this year. At least its repair is still covered under warranty. Yepp, it's that kind of a TV. The lemon kind a.k.a. JVC. Repairs usually mean I'll be TV-free for at least a week.
As a general rule, TVs only go black-screen on weekends when the manufacturer hotline is not staffed. Trust me, it works like this all the frigging time. The 2-year warranty ends next month. I seriously would like a replacement TV because I don't think this one puppy will ever just work and not break down again in a few weeks.
So I think while I'm trying not to think of solid food, chewing food, the texture of food, et cetera and so forth, you get my driftwood - hey, Dr. Brown would be good, too. What, he's a brain-doc? Shoot.
I think I might as well trade carpal-tunnel pain for the pain in my fingers that is, supposedly, caused by the edemas caused by the meds. (I said edema, you goof, not enema. By the by, enemas are good, according to Prince Charles. I know, Prince of a country where men still proudly display their chest hair, even über-cool (yeah, right) ex-junkie pop-stars, who am I kidding. There's the train, the train of thought, let's jump back on:) Cause and effect, one scene building on the other, I can hardly remember the frigging inciting incident.
Which, I guess, means that I should run out and get some Gingko Biloba or something since my memory clearly isn't working well, either.
And then I'll read the transcript of next weeks House, M.D. episode (they're airing season 2 here). Huh! JVC will not succeed in keeping me from indulging in my fave addictions. Sure, I've read all the posted Grey's Anatomy transcripts I could find. If someone knows where ALL of them are posted, drop me a comment.
Happy Holiday-weekend!
Let's look at the bright side:
I'm not anemic anymore, so I won't collapse for lack of iron again. Nice, right? It's something. I'm Iron Woman now, watch out!
Of course I might collapse while being on that juice fast that I'm doing trying to get rid (pronto!) of those useless six pounds I gained on account of the meds, but hey. Plus, they can keep their expensive not-covered-by-any-health-insurance-plan tests, I'm Ms. Heal Thyself Now. Oh, anger is a powerful thing. A source of power.
Where's Dr. House when you need him, anyway? Many of his less fictitious peers got the sucky bedside manner down but none seem to have the knowledge/skills. Or give me Cristina and Meredith Grey. They might be able to come up with something. Urgh, reality sucks so bad sometimes.
Good thing my TV quit. Again. Third time this year. At least its repair is still covered under warranty. Yepp, it's that kind of a TV. The lemon kind a.k.a. JVC. Repairs usually mean I'll be TV-free for at least a week.
As a general rule, TVs only go black-screen on weekends when the manufacturer hotline is not staffed. Trust me, it works like this all the frigging time. The 2-year warranty ends next month. I seriously would like a replacement TV because I don't think this one puppy will ever just work and not break down again in a few weeks.
So I think while I'm trying not to think of solid food, chewing food, the texture of food, et cetera and so forth, you get my driftwood - hey, Dr. Brown would be good, too. What, he's a brain-doc? Shoot.
I think I might as well trade carpal-tunnel pain for the pain in my fingers that is, supposedly, caused by the edemas caused by the meds. (I said edema, you goof, not enema. By the by, enemas are good, according to Prince Charles. I know, Prince of a country where men still proudly display their chest hair, even über-cool (yeah, right) ex-junkie pop-stars, who am I kidding. There's the train, the train of thought, let's jump back on:) Cause and effect, one scene building on the other, I can hardly remember the frigging inciting incident.
Which, I guess, means that I should run out and get some Gingko Biloba or something since my memory clearly isn't working well, either.
And then I'll read the transcript of next weeks House, M.D. episode (they're airing season 2 here). Huh! JVC will not succeed in keeping me from indulging in my fave addictions. Sure, I've read all the posted Grey's Anatomy transcripts I could find. If someone knows where ALL of them are posted, drop me a comment.
Happy Holiday-weekend!
Friday, September 22, 2006
Writing Season
New dates for those who enjoy to speedwrite in virtual groups:
14 Day Screenplay (screenwriting, duh)
This round will take place Sept. 30 - Oct. 13.
Nanowrimo 2006 (novels)
Novel Writing Month is November! Click on link and sign up for a nice email-reminder.
Several non-fiction translations kept me rather busy this month.
Drugs, drugs everywhere. Argh. I entered the drugstore today and what was the first thing I saw? Yep, DVDs. Of course. I just had to check them out. Mr. & Mrs. Smith was sitting there, darn it. Two of my fave actors in a movie I still haven't seen. A no-brainer. I'm so looking forward to watching it this weekend.
The bonus material is terrific! I'm listening to the director and writer talking about the film right now. Too cool.
14 Day Screenplay (screenwriting, duh)
This round will take place Sept. 30 - Oct. 13.
Nanowrimo 2006 (novels)
Novel Writing Month is November! Click on link and sign up for a nice email-reminder.
Several non-fiction translations kept me rather busy this month.
Drugs, drugs everywhere. Argh. I entered the drugstore today and what was the first thing I saw? Yep, DVDs. Of course. I just had to check them out. Mr. & Mrs. Smith was sitting there, darn it. Two of my fave actors in a movie I still haven't seen. A no-brainer. I'm so looking forward to watching it this weekend.
The bonus material is terrific! I'm listening to the director and writer talking about the film right now. Too cool.
Monday, September 04, 2006
Who Fired the Editors?
Seriously, what the hell happened? I can't even express how ticked off I am....
Is it really too much to ask that someone reads over the galleys, perhaps even someone who speaks the language and - yeah, I know, now we're entering the land of witches and fairies - has the ability to spot a typo or that there's an apostroph that doesn't belong?
I thought publishers used to employ people who did just that. Is it now solely the writer's responsibility to hand in a manuscript that's perfect and fit to print as is or, worst case scenario, the translator's?
(Translations are nothing I write about in detail because, quite frankly, I'm worried about my blood pressure. I'd pop a vessel or something, I swear. Nobody seems to check their work. Nobody. That's the only explanation I have for all the horrible incompetent hack jobs I've encountered lately. It's a tough job that requires a broad set of skills and knowledge that far exceeds merely "knowing words". Looking up words in a dictionary won't cut it. Author's tone/voice ought to be preserved and then there's the "little" issue of knowing the culture; knowing both cultures, actually. But I think if someone took the time and read the translation this person would stumble over this or that weird thing just like the reader does in the end. And I would fire any translator who doesn't even know how to translate a simple, everyday word like "business card" into her own language. That must be one huge rock that old lady lives under, holy shit. The paper her degree was printed on must be all yellow by now and she obviously "forgot" to stay current. That is another issue that pops up, believe it or not. Something's missing - classes, perhaps? If you can tell from reading the translation what mistake the translator made before you see the source text then that's bad. That's really bad.)
Seeing typos online, in blog posts or comments, that's a completely different thing. Who edits their blog posts? Who re-reads their comments? I've stumbled over some of my mistakes and couldn't believe it. Hung my head in shame even though there isn't a reason for doing that. Anybody who judges a fellow blogger in that respect lives on another planet, obviously. Or blogs for a purpose other than fun. And most people blog/comment for fun, they take a break from writing or whatever and they don't get paid for it, either. It's not our frigging job. I even cut a newspaper like the NYT or a mag like DER SPIEGEL some slack if there's a typo in an article that I read online. For free.
When I buy a book I have certain expectations. They are all about the story, the author. Until recently, I thought that a text free of typos and grammatical errors would be a given. But now I know better. It's not the odd publisher who quickly under tight deadlines threw a crappy piece on the market but in general it's all good. No. Nu-uh. It's Lübbe Group, it's Limes (Patterson in translation (hardcover, no less)- do not ask; Eschbach), it's Diana Verlag (Melissa Bank (hardcover) in translation - nobody read this before it went to print. I swear. That's the only explanation I have for this mess).
My fave publisher - Diogenes - has Suter, Cuelho and Arjouni on their list of authors. Not only did I realize that hey, I know and recognize a publisher I trust (!!), I now also am aware that they care enough about their authors and their readers not to insult them with sloppy work. I do appreciate that.
It's a collaboration. Should we not be able to expect that each and everyone involved in a project does their job? They want great stories, this that and the other thing from their authors, and they want the readers to shell out the money too, and to keep on buying their products.
In the end, what's a reader to do? The answer is not that simple. If you don't buy a book, the author loses out on royalties. If you do buy it you feel like an idiot for supporting the publisher and telling them via your money that all's swell - when indeed you curse and throw your hands in the air when a typo or grammar mistake threw you out of the story.
I have no answer other than: write to the publisher and let them know how you feel about their product you just purchased. How you feel about their work.
Perhaps they think that either a) we don't notice (dumb customer) or b) we don't care (ignorance is bliss). I don't believe that either one is true. I've seen one customer complain in her review on amazon about typos. But that won't do anything.
Jesus, what a rant. Terrible. I just wish I had no reason to be upset.
I'm extremely curious why this phenomenon is now so common. What has changed in recent years that led to this?
Is it really too much to ask that someone reads over the galleys, perhaps even someone who speaks the language and - yeah, I know, now we're entering the land of witches and fairies - has the ability to spot a typo or that there's an apostroph that doesn't belong?
I thought publishers used to employ people who did just that. Is it now solely the writer's responsibility to hand in a manuscript that's perfect and fit to print as is or, worst case scenario, the translator's?
(Translations are nothing I write about in detail because, quite frankly, I'm worried about my blood pressure. I'd pop a vessel or something, I swear. Nobody seems to check their work. Nobody. That's the only explanation I have for all the horrible incompetent hack jobs I've encountered lately. It's a tough job that requires a broad set of skills and knowledge that far exceeds merely "knowing words". Looking up words in a dictionary won't cut it. Author's tone/voice ought to be preserved and then there's the "little" issue of knowing the culture; knowing both cultures, actually. But I think if someone took the time and read the translation this person would stumble over this or that weird thing just like the reader does in the end. And I would fire any translator who doesn't even know how to translate a simple, everyday word like "business card" into her own language. That must be one huge rock that old lady lives under, holy shit. The paper her degree was printed on must be all yellow by now and she obviously "forgot" to stay current. That is another issue that pops up, believe it or not. Something's missing - classes, perhaps? If you can tell from reading the translation what mistake the translator made before you see the source text then that's bad. That's really bad.)
Seeing typos online, in blog posts or comments, that's a completely different thing. Who edits their blog posts? Who re-reads their comments? I've stumbled over some of my mistakes and couldn't believe it. Hung my head in shame even though there isn't a reason for doing that. Anybody who judges a fellow blogger in that respect lives on another planet, obviously. Or blogs for a purpose other than fun. And most people blog/comment for fun, they take a break from writing or whatever and they don't get paid for it, either. It's not our frigging job. I even cut a newspaper like the NYT or a mag like DER SPIEGEL some slack if there's a typo in an article that I read online. For free.
When I buy a book I have certain expectations. They are all about the story, the author. Until recently, I thought that a text free of typos and grammatical errors would be a given. But now I know better. It's not the odd publisher who quickly under tight deadlines threw a crappy piece on the market but in general it's all good. No. Nu-uh. It's Lübbe Group, it's Limes (Patterson in translation (hardcover, no less)- do not ask; Eschbach), it's Diana Verlag (Melissa Bank (hardcover) in translation - nobody read this before it went to print. I swear. That's the only explanation I have for this mess).
My fave publisher - Diogenes - has Suter, Cuelho and Arjouni on their list of authors. Not only did I realize that hey, I know and recognize a publisher I trust (!!), I now also am aware that they care enough about their authors and their readers not to insult them with sloppy work. I do appreciate that.
It's a collaboration. Should we not be able to expect that each and everyone involved in a project does their job? They want great stories, this that and the other thing from their authors, and they want the readers to shell out the money too, and to keep on buying their products.
In the end, what's a reader to do? The answer is not that simple. If you don't buy a book, the author loses out on royalties. If you do buy it you feel like an idiot for supporting the publisher and telling them via your money that all's swell - when indeed you curse and throw your hands in the air when a typo or grammar mistake threw you out of the story.
I have no answer other than: write to the publisher and let them know how you feel about their product you just purchased. How you feel about their work.
Perhaps they think that either a) we don't notice (dumb customer) or b) we don't care (ignorance is bliss). I don't believe that either one is true. I've seen one customer complain in her review on amazon about typos. But that won't do anything.
Jesus, what a rant. Terrible. I just wish I had no reason to be upset.
I'm extremely curious why this phenomenon is now so common. What has changed in recent years that led to this?
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Tight Plot to the Rescue
I've read some mediocre - okay, one was godawful - best! selling! books. Cover to cover. What, you say? Has she lost her edge? Marbles gone fishing or what?
The lesson: P-L-O-T
It's king, it's queen, it's everything.
If you had only those two choices: would you rather read a boring, non-moving book (or watch..... film) where nothing much happens, say, other than on 5 or 6 plot points but it has sort of interesting characters or would you choose the book (film) where something's up every 5 or six pages, even though the chars are not to your liking b/c they're underdeveloped (but perhaps you got 20 of them, or perhaps it's a crime mystery with clues popping up left and right) ?
My answer: I've read a novel that sucked. Twentysome chars, idiotic, but stuff happened all the time and I had to know where it went. Best selling romcom.
On the thriller front: I read Patterson's 1st To Die. Idiotic stereotypical female protag, idiotic Women's Murder Club, stoopidola romance. BUT the other half, the serial killer plot, reeled me in just when I was about to return that thing to the library. At around 100+ pages or so.
(Following volumes in that WMC series were co-written with different authors, the collaborator on the latest two is female, I guess.)
And yep, let me point that out since the question came up elsewhere recently:
We only wonder if the writer is male if your female protag sucks. Got that?
We don't have a general prejudice. Some male writers know they can't write convincing females so they write from the male's POV and focus on him and his friends or whatever. Their female main chars (in romcoms, for ince) might not get much screen time/ many pages. That's perfectly fine, it works.
And some just know how to "write women". Love you guys.
Nuff said.
The lesson: P-L-O-T
It's king, it's queen, it's everything.
If you had only those two choices: would you rather read a boring, non-moving book (or watch..... film) where nothing much happens, say, other than on 5 or 6 plot points but it has sort of interesting characters or would you choose the book (film) where something's up every 5 or six pages, even though the chars are not to your liking b/c they're underdeveloped (but perhaps you got 20 of them, or perhaps it's a crime mystery with clues popping up left and right) ?
My answer: I've read a novel that sucked. Twentysome chars, idiotic, but stuff happened all the time and I had to know where it went. Best selling romcom.
On the thriller front: I read Patterson's 1st To Die. Idiotic stereotypical female protag, idiotic Women's Murder Club, stoopidola romance. BUT the other half, the serial killer plot, reeled me in just when I was about to return that thing to the library. At around 100+ pages or so.
(Following volumes in that WMC series were co-written with different authors, the collaborator on the latest two is female, I guess.)
And yep, let me point that out since the question came up elsewhere recently:
We only wonder if the writer is male if your female protag sucks. Got that?
We don't have a general prejudice. Some male writers know they can't write convincing females so they write from the male's POV and focus on him and his friends or whatever. Their female main chars (in romcoms, for ince) might not get much screen time/ many pages. That's perfectly fine, it works.
And some just know how to "write women". Love you guys.
Nuff said.
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