The Return of the 'Year of Writing a Damn Lot'?

So, I've been doing some thinking (about 6 pages worth of typewriter-hitting) and I've come up with a bit of a plan.

First of all, I've concluded that I'm stuck in my current project because the Necroverse is always a giant tangle. I still don't know what I want to do about that in particular, but as a general sort of thing I've decided it's time to pursue another 'Siana Blackwood's Year of Writing a Damn Lot' (this was my theme for 2011) and try to really make an impact on the Scary List of Scary. So, I've developed a sort of idea for how to work on chaos drafts (aka incomplete non-linear pantsing). The plan goes like this:

0. (For all projects, not just chaos drafts) Have a brief look at the current state of the project and construct a task list to get it to the end of the next major milestone (e.g. chaos draft → complete first draft, first draft → second draft). Some tasks will be generic, others specific to an individual project.

1. Write a general description of the story - who's in it, what their roles are, what stuff happens, where it happens and such. Basically, what I was talking about the other day as a 'starting package'.

2. Make a list of all the available 'random scenes' that fit (or could fit) into this story.

3. Rewrite the first scene so it properly fits the general description. This is probably several steps in one - find the scene, make notes on what I need to do, do the things. Might also involve expansions to the general description.

4. Repeat Step 3 for the next scene on the list from Step 2.

5. If the two scenes fit together sequentially, all is fine at this point. If not, then at this point I go back and work out a summary of what happens between the two scenes.

Then after that it's basically looping through steps 3, 4 and 5 until I get all the way to the end of the available material.

So, this is going to be the new... I don't know, Financial Year of Writing a Damn Lot? That sounds weird, but it's halfway through June and the financial year ticks over at the end of the month, so something like that might even make sense.


(PS: This could possibly become a new Steve the WriMo Forum challenge, if anyone is interested. )

Blog Necromancy III: A Little Light Abandonment (or, Why I'm Reviving my Blog)

I'm feeling very lonely and isolated at the moment. The reason for this is probably simple and obvious: it's past midnight and I'm sitting alone in my room with a computer and some heavy metal for company. The heavy metal is The Malkuth Grimoire by Alkaloid, by the way. Since getting my current computer at the end of last year, this is my most frequently played album. Loud, musically complex heavy metal is a great way to distract myself from the ultimate futility of existence.

The thing about 'lonely and isolated' as a concept is that there are things I want to say, and mere alleviation of the physical state of loneliness isn't going to cut it. I've spent most of today with my family, working on some improvements to the kitchen. This involved demolishing an entire room, which was pretty cool. At any rate, I've talked to people, spent time interacting with them and so on. Now, though, sitting alone at the computer, I realise that there are things I want to say in a more specific context. I want to talk about writing.

Anyone who knows me from writing-related sites (Arrow of Eloquence, NaNoPlotMo, Steve the WriMo Forum, or in the unlikely event that I've managed to establish my existence on the Absolute Write forum), is likely to have an impression of me as... I don't really know how to describe it, but what I sort of mean is that even in the company of other writers I feel like I'm going off somewhere strange. As a student now, studying literature and creative writing, I'm finding the same thing happening there. We get weekly discussion questions, and I write my answer and post it, then find that everyone else in the thread is coming from a completely different direction. I think this is adding to my sense of isolation, knowing that the deeper I dig the less accepted I feel.

Because of this, I end up keeping things to myself. Why bother writing down a thought when I have nowhere to share it? Then, because I do my best thinking when I'm writing things down as I go, I end up not exercising those philosophical and introspective parts of my mind. Without those moments, I start to lose other things as well, which I think is what's happening to me right now. The lack of people to share weird thinking with means I'm not doing any weird thinking, and that seems to mean I can't do any weird writing.

So, I'm choosing what's probably the least effective method imaginable for trying to get back into the right mindset for creativity: I'm reviving my blog.

Again.

October is Spectober on Steve!

This month on Steve the WriMo Forum we're trying something a little different - a month that combines preparing for NaNoWriMo with a celebration of speculative fiction. Here's the announcement:

Hear ye, hear ye, it's almost October here at Steve! This month, we've got a whole bunch of awesome activities and exercises lined up to help whip your story into shape and prep for NaNoWriMo!

It's time for...ta daaaa...Spectober!

Q: What is this Spectober thing?
A: It's NaNoWriMo preparation. It's a WriMo. It's an organizational boot camp. It's mandatory fun.

Q: AHA, but what if I'm not DOING NaNoWriMo?
A: Welcome, rebels. Welcome to the dark side. We've reserved a special lightless hole in the Sinister Symphony of Sad Trombones just for you.
...Just kidding. You can do Spectober with any WIP, from an existing draft to the merest wisp of an idea. If you're a writer, then Spectober is for you!

Q: But wait! I don't have a story!
A: Aaaaaaaand Steve's got you covered! During the first part of the month, we'll work on idea generation.

Q: But no! I don't want to plan anything out just yet! I prefer to leave the details pretty vague.
A: That's fine. We've got plenty for you as well! We'll be doing a bunch of NaNo-related prep activities that don't involve stories. It's time to get organized and get pumped!

### Scheduled Events

1st-14th: Daily Plot Bunnies - come up with 14 brand-new story ideas in 14 days.
4th-10th: 7-in-7 Character or Bunny Drawings - draw 7 characters or 7 plot bunnies (or just 7 rabbits) in 7 days.
11th-17th: 7-in-7 Playlists - each day, pick a character (or if you're juggling multiple bunnies, you can do bunnies), and assemble and post a playlist of at least 7 songs for that character/bunny. Include links if you like.
18th-24th: 7-in-7 Pictures - each day, pick a character or plot bunny and then assemble at least 7 pictures that represent it. You can use Pinterest. If you already have a collection, add 7 more pictures to the collection.
24th-31st: 7-in-7 Inspirgency Exercises! What is an inspirgency? To borrow the NaNo term, it's when inspiration fails during NaNo. To pick ourselves up during those times, we'll each be making ourselves a series of exercises. We can repeat these as necessary during NaNo.

### Stuff That's Happening All Month

SpecNoWriMo - Write a work of speculative fiction in October! What is speculative fiction? It is science fiction, fantasy, supernatural, or anything in between. Use SpecNoWriMo to get a head start on your NaNo novel, or use it as a warm up for a different story. Any length fiction is allowed: you can write short stories, poetry, novellas, etc, but only speculative fiction words count.
The 90-Day Reading Challenge (or at least the last 31 days of it) - Writers are readers, so choose a novel-reading goal for the month and hunt down some great new books! Those of you who are already reading -- time to kick it in high gear and read those last few books!
NaNoPrepMo - Get all your NaNoWriMo plotting, planning, and organization done by October 31st!

### Weekly Stuff

#### Mondays of Mucking About
Discussion time! On Tuesdays Mondays we'll be talking about the craft of writing - everything from coming up with an initial idea to tackling the dreaded Editing Monster.

#### Tips Tuesdays
Tuesdays are all about getting (and staying!) organised. Schedules, software, managing RSI, finding motivation and getting ready for NaNoWriMo are just some of the things we might be talking about.

#### Worldbuilding Wednesdays
Each Wednesday, we'll be posting brainstorming exercises to help everyone flesh out their worlds. Everyone will post their work on Steve for discussion, feedback and general advice.

#### I Never Could Get The Hang Of Thursdays
Thursday is the day for general discussion and cries for help. We'll also have random challenges like decorating your writing space, showing off your stationery, coming up with ways to keep warm/cool, stealthy fort-building, photography, image manipulation, drawing characters/places/other cool stuff, cover creation and Stevian art creation.

#### Friday Flash Fiction
Each Friday, we'll post a prompt (or selection of prompts). Everyone writes a ~1k flash piece, which is then posted on Steve for discussion and feedback. There will be a total of 5 'FFF' challenges in the month.

#### Wonderful Weekends of Wordplay
Crazy free-for-all time! Well... sort of. Weekends are the time to focus entirely on ongoing projects or the things you really, really want to get done before November 1st.

Metal Madness: Album Review - 'Venereal Dawn' by Dark Fortress

How the heck can it be September already?

*sigh*

That would be a gloomy sigh, but right now I'm listening to the new Dark Fortress album Venereal Dawn and I just can't quite be gloomy because metal awesomeness is pouring into my ears and as much as I want to feel gloomy about how the year is passing so fast and there's a disappointing lack of awesome writing sitting on my computer, I also want to headbang and generally act all crazy and hyperactive over the music.

Um... yeah. Readers of this blog already know the Blackwood is not quite sane so the above is probably neither news not out of character.

Anyway, Dark Fortress. When I decided to attempt an album review my initial thought was that it was probably going to start with something about how I want to mash the keyboard, headbang, jump around, scream and generally act crazy, but at the same time I feel like I'm probably supposed to be intelligent and sensible about it. Then I was just going to add some links and do a bit more flailing.

So...

DARK FORTESS HAS A NEW ALBUM GUYS AND ITS TOTALLY AWESOME AND EVERYONE SHOULD LISTEN TO IT!!!

Listen on Spotify, read more about it on Encyclopaedia Metallum, or there's 'buy' links on Last.fm and through Century Media.

Sound good?

Okay, done.

*starts combing knots out of post-headbang hair*

Now it's probably time to sound intelligent and sensible or whatever.
The music is black metal... sort of. Looking around the internet, you find a lot of trailing off and adding 'sort of' to genre classifications for bands that have Morean in them. The lyrics are like some kind of bizzaro/sci-fi poetry and well worth a read all on their own.

Every time I listen to the album (and I've pretty much just had it on endless repeat since the release) I pick up new bits and pieces in the music. It's huge and complex, overwhelming in the combination of head-exploding metal and layered subtlety. I still don't quite know how to process it all, which is probably why I started my post the way I did.

Okay, that's about all I've got. Go and listen to the album already.

Links again:

Listen on Spotify, read more about it on Encyclopaedia Metallum, or there's 'buy' links on Last.fm and through Century Media.

'Daily Goats' #1: B1 and B2

First kids of the 2014 season!

I'm finally doing a thing I've been planning for the past at least three years, so goat pics!

These two are 'B1' and 'B2', still-unnamed daughters of my doe Bellatrix. They were born on the 24th of August and they're two days old in this picture.

Blog Necromancy II: The Return of 'The Return of Siana in Black'

For reasons, I've moved from my former location at sb.siasan.com to a brand-new Blogger blog. This may possibly mean that 'blog necromancy' is going to be a successful thing. There's a list of things that could be involved in the revival of Siana in Black in my previous post.

Anyway, over the next... some time... I'll be tidying up and reviving all my old posts, making sure the images still work and updating a few things that would otherwise be hideously out of date. Also probably a lot of talking about heavy metal, which is totally an ideal subject for a writer's blog.

Anything else I need to say?

Oh, right - shameless plug required. Visit Steve the WriMo Forum to hang out with my writers' group. I'll probably have to talk a lot more about Steve if I'm going to get back into this blogging thing.

Blog necromancy - the return of 'Siana in Black'

I don't know about this 'blog post' business. I thought about the writer's block option, but I'm really not sure how to explain it. Then I thought about doing a metal album and I didn't really know which one I'd pick or what I'd say about it. Then I had an idea about talking about songs related to my Camp NaNo project and basically I think I've come to the conclusion that I'm a lousy blogger. I suppose I should put my writer's block comments together and post them, but... yeah, don't know.