THE thing with the Twitter hashtags is that they can often be a bit misleading. At this moment I’m working on the Untitled Sci Fi Novel project, but at the moment I’m not actually writing anything.
This project is four stories back to back, with the same central character, set in the same universe. Each story is self-contained, but there’s a separate story arc that runs across all four. I’m using my own process (as described in Finish Your Book) and in a particular way; I’m developing all four stories in parallel, rather than doing the first down to scene level before I move on to the second, and so on. Right now I have the top-level structure for the first three stories pretty much done, and I’m getting the fourth one down; it’s coming along well, and I should have that finished in a couple more days.
In other words, I’m world-building, and I’m developing the story, and I’m developing the characters. But I’m not writing anything other than my notes.
And that leads to something that is probably extremely trivial but bugs me nonetheless. You see, Twitter has hashtags like #AmWriting, and #AmEditing. But I don’t see #AmWorldBuilding, or #AmDevelopingCharacters, or #AmThinkingAboutAStoryIdea.
So I gave up on those hashtags. I don’t use anything but #AmWriting. If I’m in the car, thinking about a story idea while doing 75 down I-25, then I’m writing. I’m writing if I’m making notes about a character, or working on scenes, or building the timeline. Basically, if I’m doing anything at all that’s moving a story from the first seed of an idea to actual ink (or e-ink) that someone can read, then I’m writing.
And on that note, I have to run out to the store. But you can bet I’ll be “writing” at the same time.
Until next time . . .
p.s. A few words about the events at UVA:
- They’re not “alt-right”. The term alt-right was invented by a nazi to describe nazis without calling them nazis. These c*nts are giving nazi salutes and carrying swastika flags. They’re nazis. Call them nazis.
- So far about 99% of the tweets I’ve seen are condemning what’s been going on. That’s an encouraging sign that most people are against these bigoted, spoiled, white trash. I take some comfort in that.
- Meanwhile, as of about sixty seconds ago, Comrade Trump hasn’t tweeted a damn thing about it. Fifteen hours without a tweet has to be some kind of record for him. I’m wondering what mealy-mouthed bullshit he’s going to spout when he does bother to say something.
Pete Ford 