Black Gate

The new WIP feels real this morning, as I have just crossed over the 10 k mark. Not bad for a month’s work, especially since this last month I usually got less than an hour to write on writing days, and usually only managed about four writing days a week. I’m hoping I can improve that over the next three months, as I’m not teaching. Or editing anything but Black Gate.

My goal will be to write between 500-1000 k a day, and to manage 5000 k a week. Will I make it? I don’ t know. I’d like to have a 68 k historical mystery/fantasy piece drafted by the end of August. 10 k down, 58 k to go.

Howard

First, I’m almost through with my once-over of Black Gate 12, which I’ll be sending back to John this weekend.

I’ve been looking forward to Indy IV for a while, but as reviews come in I’m less excited. Don’t get me wrong; I’ll probably go see it. Reviews have been fairly positive; the problem is that the descriptions make it sound like the things that bugged me in Last Crusade are to be found in Crystal Skull. My kids just turned old enough to watch the movies, so I borrowed the trilogy from my friend Brad. Crusade ended up being better than I remembered; Temple much worse. Raiders was nearly as good as I remembered it being when I was, what, 10, 12, and that’s saying something. Some of what I liked when I was 12 seems pretty execrable now.

For me, Raiders inspires a willing suspension of disbelief; Crusade only a grudging suspension of disbelief. Temple of Doom didn’t inspire much of anything at all except groans this time through. It was painful. I had remembered later parts of it being better, and while watching it with my kids I kept thinking, ah, well, after this groaner part is a good bit — but, really, not so much.

Temple and Crusade both seem to have lost their footing. Everything is more cartoonish. Take Marcus Brody. In Raiders, while Indy is packing to go after the Ark, Brody says something like “You know, five years ago I would have gone after it myself” and you believe him. He seems competent and seasoned and is played with gravitas. Come Crusade, he’s a goofy absent-minded professor and is scripted only for laughs. Contrast the ridiculous relationship between Indy and the Austrian beauty in Crusade — which is truly awful to watch — and the dialogue between him and Marion in almost any part of Raiders. It’s almost as though they got Raiders right by accident and never figured out how to do it again. The writing is several degrees sharper in Raiders. There’s no villain in the rest of the series who is scripted to be even half as interesting as Belloq, and even the “infodump” scene in Raiders, when Indy and Marcus are telling the American Agents about the Ark, is good. Rather than sounding like an infodump, it’s revealing of character AND builds interest and suspense. That’s just good writing. And acting. In the next two it’s almost as if they got the script to a certain point and said “ah, it’s good enough, let’s go.”

On the whole, I’d rather watch the first of the Brendan Frazer Mummy movies than either Crusade or Temple. It has a bad infodump scene early on, but after that it fires on all cylinders like Raiders, and unlike Temple and Crusade. To my mind, even a movie that is supposed to be “light” has to take itself seriously rather than going in with a wink and a nod at its own cleverness and the audience. I didn’t make it through the second Mummy movie, which seemed to have lost sight of what worked about the first one, but I saw a preview for the third that actually has my interest up. More fool me, probably, but I do love a pulpy romp done properly, and my hope springs eternal.

Now, though, the wife and I are heading out to see Iron Man this weekend. Almost every one of my friends has called or e-mailed to say that I MUST go see it. So we will.

Howard

Black Gate 12 appeared on my doorstep today. As someone who was a fan of the mag before I joined the staff, it’s still a fanboy thrill to get to see the issue before anyone else. Next issue I’ll start seeing some of the stories I was involved in selecting — these last few, though, have been complete surprises.

12 will be in my hands for just a short while as I perform a proof pass, then the layout zombies will take another crack at it, then off it goes to the printer.

And issue 13 will follow close on its heels.

More news on other things soon. I need to figure out how to set up that “poll taking” feature I see on other people’s blogs so I can finally offer folks a choice on the title of the new Black Gate web column. Maybe I’ll take a crack at that Friday.

Howard

I Get Interviewed Tonight.

I’ll be on Late Night Jenga Jam tonight at 10:30 PM Eastern. I hope you’ll tune in to listen, and that you’ll be sending me good karmic vibrations or what have you. I’ll be talking about Black Gate and, knowing me, some writing thoughts and opinions on sword-and-sorcery — Robert E. Howard and Harold Lamb are likely to come up.

You can call in live to the show to ask questions of me or listen to the discussion by calling Talkshoe at (724) 444-7444 then entering the Talkcast ID of 6478.

http://jengajam.ning.com/

http://www.talkshoe.com/blog/index.php/help/ for information on joining the chat or phone conversation.

I hope a few of you will tune in!

Howard

So today I stole a half hour to write from what I should have used as lunch time. I ended up writing for 45 minutes and getting quite hungry later, but the prose result left me feeling both satisfied and muddled.

Here’s the thing. On the novel WIP I am lucky to get a few hundred words every time I sit down to write, be it for an hour or two hours or three. Every sentence or so I stop to look at e-mail, or check up something pointless on Wikipedia, or what have you. But when I sat down to write today, I did none of that. I was in the zone. It was like taking dictation from my first person narrator. In that 45 minutes I wrote 1421 words, which I have just calculated up to be something like 31.6 words a minute. I was pleased. I can’t keep all of those words; some must be replaced and others must be expanded upon, but I will keep most of them. It’s a solid first draft, seven pages, and I am eager to write more.

This is what writing is supposed to feel like. I remember this. I had forgotten. So my experience begs the question — am I writing the right thing, or should I switch over to this? Working with certain characters, for me, is just like taking dictation. Should I stick with them? See, I’m muddled, but pleased.

I keep not having time to post my final thoughts on Universe R.

Hey, looks like I’m going to be interviewed Thursday night on a radio show! I’ll post on that Wednesday. Just finished some paper grading, now I must kitchen clean.

What are your thoughts on this whole writing quandary I find myself in? Might it be that I’m just weary of a long process (novel 2 in a sequence) or that I really am writing the wrong thing? How many of you find yourselves in the same or similar place? Life is short, no one’s jumping up and down to buy these mist novels, perhaps I should simply write about Dabir and Asim in novel form. They’re the only thing I write that sells to multiple markets…

Howard

It is much easier for me to do this thing called NOT writing than it is to actually write. I imagine it’s easier for all writers to NOT write, except that when we’re NOT writing the NOT part eats away at us. Me, when I’m NOT, I feel more and more like a failure, or simply a wuss. Yet if I sit down and write 500 words I’m not satisfied. I say to myself, well, if I’d actually had two or three hours to write, I could have written a few thousand words, why didn’t I get it together? Wuss. On those extremely rare days when I actually have time to crank out a couple of thousand words I do feel a small sense of satisfaction, then plan to magically find time to make it happen the next day, and the next, so that whatever I’m writing will get done much faster than it ever really can. For me at least, writing is a continual act of self deception. The funny thing is that I’m not at all that unforgiving or unreasonable with other writers. Just with me.

For the last six months I have been concentrating solely on novel writing. One novel is making the rounds and I am trying to have a second, related novel finished should someone come calling. I’m enjoying the process, but it comes with different challenges. Maybe they’re all obvious, but I’ll go ahead and talk about them. Since a novel is a lot longer than a short story and I have limited time, it takes a long time to finish. I don’t like sharing my rough roughs, so I don’t show the work in progess to anyone for feedback until I’ve had a chance to finish and go over it at least once. I don’t need adulation, but I do like a pat on the back, even if it comes with someone pointing out the flaws (too, there is always a sense of satisfaction when you reach a conclusion). When I write short stories, I can finish one, then talk about it with the group of writers I exchange stories with. When I publish a short story, I can go talk about short stories with other writers and we can congratulate each other and trade notes. I miss that sense of community.

I’m not writing short stories right now, though. I love writing short stories and I have scads of ideas. But let’s face it. There are few markets out there that accept what I like to write, and cracking the short story markets doesn’t really establish you as a novelist. It is extremely difficult to make a living as a writer these days, but if you’re going to do it, you’d best be writing novels, not short stories. I tell myself that if the novels sell, maybe I’ll have time again for the short works. Maybe I’m deceiving myself about writing. It wouldn’t be the first time.

Whatever I do, I have resolved to write what makes me happy, because who knows what, if anything, will come of it. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Robert E. Howard, who made a living writing in the 30s by writing for a variety of markets, and I have made attempts to try that myself. In retrospect, me trying multiple markets was probably silly. In Howard’s day there were many, many more markets. And THAT Howard was writing full-time. I barely squeeze in a few hours for writing every week. Rather than trying a scattershot approach with market and style, I decided that I would use that small amount of time to hone my craft and get as good as I could writing the kind of stories I liked to write. When not typing, my fingers are still crossed that something will come of it. I mostly enjoy writing, except when I’m NOT, or when I feel like I should be writing MORE, which is, honestly, most of the time. I think writers are a little crazy. I know I am…

Howard

My thanks to everyone who wrote in with suggestions. Monday’s a pretty busy day, or I’d try to set up a reader poll and have folks vote on their favorites. Well, I’d select five or so and then see which ones garnered the most votes.

The first column is up here, but it is without title for now. Next month, it will have a title, likely chosen from some of the excellent ones suggested here.

Howard

I’m starting a new monthly column over at the Black Gate web site, dedicated to pencil and dice role-playing games. The point will be to highlight overlooked games or supplements. In other words, I won’t be reviewing any and all things, but only affordable items I think are worth a look, especially items that might be missed. The items have to be obtainable, i.e., in print.

I’ve got months and months worth of ideas already; what I don’t have is a column title. Does anyone have a suggestion? Preferably a serious suggestion?

Howard

I’ve heard from a few regular blog visitors wondering where I’ve been. I wish I could say that I was off digging through Black Gate stuff, or that I was in the throes of a creative muse, but the truth is I just haven’t been very good company lately and I haven’t felt like subjecting myself on anyone, much less recording any compaints or whines for posterity. Fortunately, friends seem to have radar about such things. One of my very best called yesterday and lifted my spirits without even knowing I needed it.

On to some good stuff. I am excited about the cover of issue 12. Here it is, from the masterful Bruce Pennington.

John is just about done cramming in the stories, and I’m pretty excited about those as well. We’ll have 7000 more words than we had even last issue. Here’s what you can expect:

• More Morlock from James Enge.
• More Giliead and Elias from Martha Wells.
• More adventures from Ed Carmien.
• We dragged Todd McCaulty out of his cave and got him to finish another story, and you’ll find it within as well.
• And hey, there I am, with another story John bought from me before I joined the staff.
• John Fultz and Constance Cooper haven’t appeared in Black Gate before, and we’re excited to be introducing you to their work.
• We have a classic reprint, as well, the final Tumithak story from Charles R. Tanner, which completes Tumithak’s entire run. “Reprint” is a bit of a stretch here, because this one never actually appeared in a magazine before.

As usual, we’ll have articles, book reviews, and game reviews. I hope you’ll pick up a copy (and read it!) and that when you do so you can spread the word!

Lastly, I’ve been meaning to point visitors here to James Van Pelt’s latest series of posts on writing, if you haven’t yet seen them. Really good stuff. My link starts you on the first one. There’s three or four, interspersed with other entries that, while NOT about writing, are still worth reading.

I’ll get back here in a few days.

Warm Regards,
Howard