Ann Marie Gamble

Coming Up . . .

Wednesday, October 24th, 2012

The next reason for not blogging: NaNoWriMo. Sitting on the sidelines last year was a drag, so even though I’ve got things in line to revise, I’m going for the fast draft.

I’m in a totally different place with this story than I’ve been other years I’ve NaNo’ed, which so far has been . . . uncomfortable. But already the time spent deciding to do it has resulted in questions answered. Some issues that came up when I was poking at this project last spring now seem obvious. As usual, yes, it’s hard; as usual, it gets easier if you stick with it rather than leaving it.

And as usual, November is being its hectic arrhythmic self. We’ve got days off school, an election that I’m working (not just voting in), teacher conferences, and a major holiday. For the next five weeks, I’ll have to be ruthless about sending the Inner Critic out of the room (the Inner Editor has to stay on task with a book about health policy and genome mapping).

The three principles I (re)engage:

1. I’ll figure out what I need to know to go forward by thinking about the story and going forward.
2. Any and all progress is success.
3. Don’t think (freak) about the total; think about what’s next.

It’s a timely mood to go into Halloween with: the thrill (setting up a new world! new files! new characters!) and the terror (how the hell is this going to play out?) of starting something new.

Posted in NaNoWriMo, Process, Writing | No Comments »

Sucktaceous Suck-O-Rama of Suckulent Suckery

Sunday, April 22nd, 2012

aka The Middle

The wham zing, here’s our world, hooktastic beginning has been laid out, baby, whiz bang–magic fingers, do your work!–and now . . .

well . . .

Now we see that we don’t in fact know this character that well, we’re not really that clear on what would drive them from point A to point B and we certainly haven’t gotten to their deepest fear yet. Lord, there are a lot of players in this little drama. Why does this world need this particular feature? And moreover, how does this feature work and why does this other character keep fiddling with it? If I keep naming this stuff after things in Star Wars, is that gonna be a problem? (more…)

Posted in Process, Script Frenzy | No Comments »

April Already

Tuesday, April 17th, 2012

So this is happening:

I’m going the rebel route this time: rather than one 100-page project, I’ve had a few shorter things in the hopper for a while that will come in around 150 pages when finished, so I’m taking advantage of the party over at Script Frenzy to get back in the habit of getting new words on the page. (more…)

Posted in Process, Script Frenzy | No Comments »

Lucky 7

Sunday, April 8th, 2012

The meme:
The Lucky Sevens Game:

• Open the document for your current MS/WIP
• Go to page 77
• Go to line 7
• Copy the next 7 lines (sentences or paragraphs) and post them exactly as they are written. No changing or cheating!
• Tag 7 authors and let them know.

Okay, Jenn Spiller–you . . . you tagger, you–I thought I was off the hook because I’d lost the log-in info for my blog and my webmaster is on a week-long silent Zen retreat (damn these helpful support files). My next resisting strategy was legalism: which manuscript is my current WIP? The draft or the current revision? Double-spaced manuscript or raw text?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Seven lines from Rite of Return: (more…)

Posted in Blogging, Process, Rite of Return, Writing | 1 Comment »

Better Characterization through Personal Hygiene

Saturday, November 5th, 2011

Mission: end a bad habit.

I’ve been shredding my nails and it’s time to stop. One thing and another, I decided to glue on fake nails–give me some time to get out of the habit of picking at them and give my fingers a chance to heal.

It’s jarring catching a glimpse of this foreignness at the ends of my hands. I can’t pick at my fingertips any longer–but neither can I smear on lotion (it gets gunked under the long nail tips), open soda cans, or let my hands soak in water (the glue isn’t that great). (more…)

Posted in Characters, Process, Writing | 1 Comment »

Take a Deep Breath . . . Now Hit “Send”

Friday, October 7th, 2011

Posting today at the Pop Culture Divas.

You know when you’re ready.

Posted in Editing, Process, Writing | No Comments »

Harvest

Tuesday, September 27th, 2011

Lately when we pick up our CSA veggies, my thoughts turn to soups and preserves and things we can freeze. We’ll still be able to get local vegetables into November, but there’s a chill in the air and the Tupperware drawer is full; I dump out the week’s haul and think, “What here do I want to be eating in three months?”

This week I drafted my kids as sous-chefs. They chopped most of the ingredients for big batches of potato soup and gumbo. They won’t eat the gumbo, probably, so I pour that into cup-and-a-half-sized containers so I can thaw out single servings for my lunch. Most of the potato soup we ate in one sitting—soccer practice takes it out of you, and they didn’t know I’d subbed cauliflower for some of the potatoes.

Last week the farm had a glut of cucumbers, so we made refrigerator pickles. Like the soups, I’m long past using a recipe. I put the ingredients into the pot in patches so I can see the ratios and what I’ve already added. I’ve learned to pour spices into my hand first just in case the lid is loose, and that way get the desired amount into the pot. (more…)

Posted in Cooking, Creativity, NaNoWriMo, Process | 2 Comments »

Script Frenzy Mood Map

Monday, May 2nd, 2011

I like keeping track of word count to help me learn about my work habits—what works, what stressors take their toll, what’s really happening versus what I think is happening. NaNoWriMo and Script Frenzy have a widget that graphs your daily word count or page count, and I added some notes about what was going on away from the keyboard.

(click the image to make it bigger)

Now that I’ve done more than one of these power-through, get-the-draft-down challenges, I think I can say this about my writing process: (more…)

Posted in Creativity, Process, Script Frenzy | No Comments »

Reading Aloud versus Acting It Out

Monday, April 4th, 2011

Some complaining a few weeks ago on Twitter has turned into more thought about books, audiobooks, and screenplays over at the Pop Culture Divas. Check it out! You can comment about your favorite format, and cheer me on in my Script Frenzy project.

Posted in Reading, Script Frenzy | No Comments »