Allison Thurman

how done is “done”?

The third draft. I make much ado about this third draft. It’s the one I want to have finished by next summer in time for HNS 2019. But what do I mean by “finished”?

Picture of Sam Gamgee, volcano blowing up behind him: yes, Mr. Frodo. It's over now. — And I’m sure when I’m done I’ll be just as relieved and exhausted as Sam. Via.

I’ve been trying to sort this out and fortunately Outwrite DC last weekend had a Sunday workshop on “Prep to Practice” about this very subject. I initially attended for ideas about how to keep butt in seat but the advice for getting to done—and knowing when I’m done—was far more useful.

“Third draft” is something of a misnomer; when I say it I mean “the third time I’ve gone over the whole thing” but there are multiple passes involved in that. Roughly, from broadest overview to tiniest detail (and I’m probably getting some wrong):

Plot: make sure the stakes are high enough for readers to care and that stuff is happening (for me, remove all bits of research showing-off and character navelgazing)
Pacing: make sure nothing drags or feels rushed
Continuity/loose ends: make sure it all makes sense
Description: where are these people? What do they look like? Make sure they’re not just moving around in a plain white room
- Sense: make sure I included all five in aforementioned descriptions, where relevant
Fact check: make sure all that nitpicky alchemical stuff is correct (and how I’m going to do that is a whole separate concern)
Grammar/usage: the final and nit-pickiest, to save until last because it’s assumed in all previous stages you’ll be adding/rewriting.

I also got some good ideas for organizing all my beta reader feedback: alternately add it all to the most marked-up copy and refer back to it, OR read it all to get the gist of what multiple readers ping as a problem and proceed.

Lack of description/cold chapter openings and failure to make it clear who’s speaking are my main problems throughout, so I’m addressing these first. I think I caught most of the continuity problems on the out-loud read through, and I’m guessing (? hoping? This is more art than science!) that fixing plot and pacing is going to involve more deletion than rewriting.

biweekly links 8-1-2018

Satan’s Honor Roll: can Satanism be ethical? Oh yes! I’m finding very little here to argue with, and surprisingly (or not) very little of it has to do with actually worshipping a devil. Thoughts?

“Head Over Heels,” Reviewed: A Trans-Positive Spin on a Sixteenth-Century Romance, with Help From the Go-Gos: it’s Philip Sidney’s “The Arcadia” with early 80s pop! I’ve actually been hearing about this for a long time but this is one of the first reviews I’ve found with photos. Personally I’m tickled by all the Elizabethan clothing in day-glo lamé, but then, I love a good mashup.

Mary, Queen of Scots film ‘problematic’ says historian: how much fiction do you want in your historical fiction? The author’s argument is accurate (Mary Queen of Scots likely had a French accent, and Mary and Elizabeth I never met) but I also understand the director when he claims that letters back and forth don’t translate to a visual medium. Not sure where I stand on this. I love Cate Blanchett’s “Elizabeth” and “Elizabeth the Golden Age” but both are veer so far from true that they’re historical fantasy at best. But the acting is so good! I may see this because Saoirse Ronan has been fantastic in everything I’ve ever seen her in.

Nineteenth century engraving of Mary Queen of Scots, complete with hourglass figure and rosy cheeks — But is this picture any more accurate? In their enthusiasm for medieval revivalism, the Victorians got a lot wrong and their erroneous scholarship colors our impressions of the Middle Ages today. Is this worth a post of its own? Via.

Project Blue Book trailer goes all-in on UFOs for History: sure to piss off anyone who laments that the History Channel hasn’t had much to do with history for a long time! This new series about the 1950s Air Force UFO research project dramatizes J. Allen Hynek‘s investigations for Project Blue Book. While I expect they’re going to get a lot wrong I’m still eagerly anticipating “X-files 1950” (no, this isn’t a spinoff or continuation of the X-files franchise but the overall mood is similar).

why write?

As I sit here tinkering with my third draft, it occurs to me that I could be doing almost anything else. It’s summertime, time for loafing with a G&T and beach reading.

Not that I’m not doing these things, but even so this writing gig eats a lot of time for uncertain ends (and I hate uncertainty). So why do I do it?

It sure as hell isn’t for money. Kameron Hurley does a yearly breakdown of her earnings to illustrate how difficult it is to make a living as a writer. She’s an established sci-fi author with awards so I’ll count myself lucky if a newbie like me in a niche genre breaks even. No, I will always have a day job.

man lying in pile of money making a snow angel — Nope. Via Giphy.

It’s not for fame. While I’d like recognition for a well-written book, the odds of being a J. K. Rowling or Stephen King are close to nil. Which is good for me. Celebrity appears (from the outside at least) to complicate life so much that managing it would be a whole separate job.

David Bowie singing; caption reads — Nuh-uh. Via Giphy.

Speaking of well-written, more than one writer I’ve interacted with online has said that they write in order to improve their writing. This does make sense to me because I fence, an activity at which you never become expert even after years of practice. There is no graduation, you never arrive—there’s just the next lesson (writing exercise), competition (book), medal (publishing deal) etc., in an endless process of improvement.

Work it, make it, makes us, harder, better, faster, stronger, more than power never ever after work is over, work it harder make it better do it faster makes us stronger, more than ever hour after hour work is never over. — Yes! Via Giphy.

No, I think in the end, for me, writing is about the opportunity to share ideas that intrigue me with interesting people. I love good conversation but for most of my life I didn’t feel like I had anything to contribute or any means of doing so. Writing has proved that perhaps I might and can.

I want to get a book out in the world that’s compelling enough to inspire discussion, if not with me then among readers.

And I can’t find a gif for that.

biweekly links 7-18-2018

Sixteenth-century Tudor shipwreck given protected status after being found beneath beach in Kent: evidently merchant ships don’t survive very often so it’s good the authorities protected this ca. 1531 wreck so quickly. More photos at Historic England.

Books That Kill: 3 Poisonous Renaissance Manuscripts Discovered in School Library: so the macguffin in “Name of the Rose” is totally plausible, though in this case it was probably nineteenth century restorers who applied the poison as a pesticide in an attempt to protect the books [insert tearing of hair/gnashing of teeth re: destructive restoration efforts].

Archaeologists Have Uncovered a Place Where The Ancient Egyptians Mummifed Their Dead: and they went into the lab to see what was on the slab. Clearly marked measuring cups and labeled oil containers, as it turns out. A treasure trove of historical chemistry!

Loch Ness monster hunter concludes: it’s a big catfish: aaaand the spoiler’s in the title. Seriously, this seems like a plausible explanation to me, though not nearly as exciting as a plesiosaur.

origin stories

Sometimes I think I’m the only would-be novelist who didn’t grow up wanting to be one.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson: You know why adults ask kids who they want to be when they grow up? They're looking for ideas. — Via.

Journaling from the time they could pick up a pencil. Every creative writing class they could find in high school and college. Previous careers in editing, journalism, tech writing, etc. Though I’ve met exceptions most writers seem born to this.

I’m one of the apparent few who took a while to get here.

Mind, I always wrote. My parents gave me a diary at around age 11 and I pedantically wrote something every day, even when nothing happened. This probably gave me the idea I had nothing to write about.

Also I was really into animals as a kid. I idolized Jane Goodall and figured any job that let me watch animals all day sounded good. But wildlife tended to live outside, where there weren’t any bathrooms or climate control. So that was out.

In high school I considered graphic arts and kept a sketchbook, but there wasn’t much writing involved. Nonetheless by college I’d somehow landed in the journalism school, mostly because of my love for college radio. I ended up doing the odd record review for the college newspaper, because I wanted to be the next John Peel and tell people about wonderful music they’d never heard of. Maybe that gave me a hint that I did have something to say, after all.

I finally graduated in fashion merchandising-not design, because while I loved clothes and making them I wanted to put food on the table.

And then the internet blew up, and I got into tech through the side door of self-taught HTML. Over time the internet moved from the IT department to communications, but it’s still not really writing, is it?

Sometime in my twenties I started writing fanfic and playing in a text-based role-playing game. Feedback was instant and usually positive, and my fellow RPGers were fantastic at chasing my characters up trees, which forced me to invent ways to get them down. But I didn’t think of it as writing, not really. Just fun with friends. Nothing to interest anyone outside our small circle.

And then I read about John Dee and Edward Kelley.

Not for the first time, probably – with my lifelong interest in Tudor history I’d likely run across them before. But for the first time I read a biography of Dee and realized the extent and duration of his and Kelley’s “angelic” seances. And I got to wondering how it could have gone on so strange for so long?

I think that was the tipping point: asking “what if?” finding no ironclad answers, making up some of my own, and thinking other people might find my answers interesting and fun.

All of the sudden so many “what if?”s sprung to mind. I keep a file of them, for the next book. And the next…

I don’t know yet if I’ll ever get the Dee/Kelley book or any of my other ideas published but for the first time I think I’ve got something to say. So I’ll keep writing until I don’t.

biweekly links 6-27-2018

UFO crash site to open to public for tours: Roswell NM has long promoted their alleged 1947 UFO crash with a yearly festival but as far as I know this is the first time the actual crash site has been open to the public. These tours won’t start until this year’s festival but Dennis Balthaser’s soon-to-be-competing(?) tour has been going long enough to get excellent reviews on TripAdvisor. And if you can’t make it to Roswell, Exeter NH, McMinnville OR, and Cedar City UT all have their own UFO-themed events (are there more? Tell me in the comments!)

1950s style book cover with title The Flying Saucers Are Real — Oh hey, it looks like Donald Keyhoe’s seminal “The Flying Saucers Are Real” is in the public domain. Screenshot from archive.org

Technology And The Witch: How The Modern World Is Shaping Occultism: nature and in person ritual aren’t going away, but keeping up with coven members via email and with moon phases with an app certainly help things along.

The Pyramids of Giza are near a Pizza Hut, and other sites that may disappoint you: talk about modern life encroaching! I can vouch for the Mona Lisa – you can’t get near it.

a brief political detour

I had a nice post set up for y’all about my long, winding trek towards becoming a writer. I never expected to write professionally and I’ve done (and continue to do) a lot of different things.

This isn’t that post. Nor did I ever see myself writing about this. Others already have with greater cogency and eloquence while I tend to get all stuttery and repetitive. But it’s frivolous and oblivious to let this week past without commenting on current events.

As I type this ICE agents are separating kids from their asylum-seeking parents at the U.S. border. There’s no law mandating this and the UN and a slew of others in power oppose this policy but the Trump administration justifies it, denies it, and blames it on others in turn, per usual. You can Google your news source of choice to double-check me; if it doesn’t bother you I imagine you’ve quit reading by now anyway.

For some reason this latest outrage puts me on alert in a way that previous Trump excesses haven’t. I can’t articulate why. Maybe it’s the corralling of people in prison-like facilities when they’ve done nothing wrong (asylum-seeking is perfectly legal). Maybe it’s that ICE won’t tell them–or us–what they plan to do with these children in the long term. Maybe it’s that ICE agents are blatantly lying to detained parents about where their kids are and when/whether they’ll see them again.

There’s more than a whiff of Japanese internment about this and it makes my skin crawl. It reminds me of other corralling done in the past as well, and that makes my blood run cold (and that sounds so paranoid that I can’t believe I typed it).

I could make righteous noises of “this isn’t America” except it demonstrably is, historically and ongoing. But it’s not what America aspires to be, and a country should aim for its ideals, however lofty.

I’m sure some of y’all are bothered that I “got all political”. To each their own; I hope you come back for the craft and weird next week. But please understand that some of us can’t afford to ignore what’s going on. I could spout clichés about “canaries in the coal mine” and “this is how it starts” but really: this is how it starts.

I’ve called my representatives for all the good it will do: in a blue state it amounts to little more than an “attaboy”, and when my senator’s already working against child detainment and it’s still not enough it’s disheartening as hell.

And before you accuse me of histronics let me say: I hope I’m wrong. Hopefully by the time this post goes live one of the bills reuniting families will have passed. Maybe the Powers That Be will listen to the protesters at the border. Perhaps public outrage will count for something.

But I’m scared none of this will make a difference.

I want to go back to my cheery posts about weird history and editing, and will most likely next week. But I can’t afford not to pay attention or pretend everything’s ok. It’s not.

biweekly links 6-13-2018

How did it get to be June already?

How Tudor slander courts left us with some fabulous insults: nobody throws shade like an angry Tudor (see also here and here) but the offended gave as good as they got.

A story of survival: New York’s last remaining independent bookshops: having recently spent a pleasant hour in a new-to-me local(ish) used book store I’m reminded again why I love independent bookstores. Sanctuary and support of community are all well and good but there’s also the factor of serendipity – finding something you never knew existed, or never thought you’d find. Please feel free to share your own favorite indie bookstores in the comments!

H.R. Giger’s Tarot Cards: The Swiss Artist, Famous for His Design Work on Alien, Takes a Journey into the Occult: OMG Geiger made a Tarot deck!! Having recently found my old decks (Tarot of the Witches, the old trusty Rider Waite [fun facts about Pamela Colman Smith, who did the art for the RT deck]) and received another (Tarot of Atlantis) as a gift, I’m reminded that while I can’t read them (no weird chip, remember?) I do love the art. What are your favorites?

woman in beehive hairdo holding tarot card with a fool on it — Yes, that’s Jane Seymour in the Bond film “Live and Let Die” but no, that’s not one of Geiger’s designs (it’s from tarot of the Witches). More’s the pity as a Giger-designed Bond film could be hilarious. Courtesy the 007 Wikia

time crunch

The clock is ticking. But then, isn’t it always?

wheels within wheels form Prague's astronomical clock, running since the fifteenth century. — Prague’s astronomical clock, because it seemed appropriate. Author’s own.

This summer marks two years since I completed my first draft, and 6 months since I finished the second. As of the end of this week I should be done with the out-loud read through of that second draft and starting rewrites for the third, technology permitting*. I want the third as perfect as possible to pitch to agents at the next HNS conference, which takes place almost exactly a year from now.

If you’re doing the math, you can see why I’m getting nervous.

And I know, I know, art takes the time it takes, take your time on your first novel because you’ll never have that luxury again, everyone works at their own pace etc. but I’m struggling to see how I can make even a part-time career for myself when I can only produce one book every six years!**

A few weeks ago I talked to a pair of writers who managed to research and write a pitch-able historical fiction novel in only two years and their turn-around time staggers me. Mind, one of them writes full-time. True, they’re experienced writers. And it’s foolish to compare oneself to others. But even so…

I don’t know how long the editing process takes on third drafts. I mean, most of it’s there so it’s not about word count anymore. I’ve even cut most of what needed cutting. I’m looking at serious rethinking of either my schedule or my goals.

Informal questions for the writers reading: how long does it take you to write something you’d feel confident submitting to an agent (or publishing, if you’re indie)? And how long have you been writing?

*Laptop problems suggest I might have problems running Word and/or Scrivener, and no replacement laptop is forthcoming at the moment

**That’s not including whatever further edits an agent might request.

biweekly links 5-30-2018

The 1618 Defenestration of Prague explained: May 23rd was the 400th anniversary of this famous incident in which Protestants threw Catholic nobles out a window of Prague Castle, and this article from BBC’s History Extra blog explains the precipitating factors, mechanics (how did they survive the fall) and fallout. Comes about just as I’m editing a scene in which the papal representative to Bohemia expressed a desire to do the same thing to Edward Kelley* – evidently defenestration was a thing in Prague as recently as 1948.

The ‘lawe of nations’: how diplomatic immunity protected an Elizabethan assassin: especially timely after the recent attempted murder of Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal.

Rot, drills and inequity: the tangled tale of teeth: just the images from this current Wellcome Collection exhibition are enough to feed any nascent dentistry phobias for all time. An example of while I love history, I wouldn’t have chosen to live in any time period prior to the invention of modern medicine.

What Magic Got Trump Elected?: less about magic and more about New Thought/modern self-help mentalities and how they inform modern business goals. Introduced me to my new vocabulary word: egregore, a kind of occult product of the group mind (see also: tulpa).

* Though the nuncio wanted to he didn’t, settling for kicking Dee and Kelley out of Bohemian lands. Much tidier, but didn’t last.