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knights and corruption
Mar. 6th, 2007 | 11:29 pm
This is technically my writing blog, so I suppose I'll actually do a post about writing for once:
-Finished writing "Knight of Sorrows".
-I started writing "Knight of Sworn Shadows" again, and ran into a wall. After some contemplation, I think I know what was wrong. The protagonist walked into somebody else's problem, and attempted to solve it, even though he had no actual personal stake in the problem. It's best if the protagonist has a HUGE personal stake in the problem; loved ones in danger, people trying to kill him, financial ruin, worldwide pizza shortage, and so forth. Otherwise the story seems flat. So now I'm starting from the beginning again, this time with a desperate protagonist in dire danger. He's also in love, which no doubt contributes to his sense of desperation.
-Got my check for "Screed". Mmm, sweet story money.
-I was going to do my February Rejection Roundup, but I had a slight technical problem. I keep a SLog (Submissions Log; the portmanteau of "slog" seems appropriate) in an RTF file, which I usually back up regularly. Foolishly, I'd failed to do so since the first week in February. So when my computer crashed and corrupted the RTF file, I didn't have a recent backup.
Stupid, stupid, stupid. Stupid!
I tried the file repair feature in Word 2003, and nothing happened. I tried Word XP, Word 2000, and even Mac Word 2004, and all reported the file irretrievably lost.
Then I tried OpenOffice.org Writer 2.1, and that opened the file without the slightest hesitation. All data recovered! Alas for Microsoft Office.
Watch for the February Rejection Roundup coming soon.
-JM
-Finished writing "Knight of Sorrows".
-I started writing "Knight of Sworn Shadows" again, and ran into a wall. After some contemplation, I think I know what was wrong. The protagonist walked into somebody else's problem, and attempted to solve it, even though he had no actual personal stake in the problem. It's best if the protagonist has a HUGE personal stake in the problem; loved ones in danger, people trying to kill him, financial ruin, worldwide pizza shortage, and so forth. Otherwise the story seems flat. So now I'm starting from the beginning again, this time with a desperate protagonist in dire danger. He's also in love, which no doubt contributes to his sense of desperation.
-Got my check for "Screed". Mmm, sweet story money.
-I was going to do my February Rejection Roundup, but I had a slight technical problem. I keep a SLog (Submissions Log; the portmanteau of "slog" seems appropriate) in an RTF file, which I usually back up regularly. Foolishly, I'd failed to do so since the first week in February. So when my computer crashed and corrupted the RTF file, I didn't have a recent backup.
Stupid, stupid, stupid. Stupid!
I tried the file repair feature in Word 2003, and nothing happened. I tried Word XP, Word 2000, and even Mac Word 2004, and all reported the file irretrievably lost.
Then I tried OpenOffice.org Writer 2.1, and that opened the file without the slightest hesitation. All data recovered! Alas for Microsoft Office.
Watch for the February Rejection Roundup coming soon.
-JM