ieva melgalve » The Final Turn

submitted something again

ieva — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 17:08:00 +0000

So. The Final Turn is once again bravely headed to markets unknown. I love that story and I am not ready to give up on it (even though for a long while, I thought I might). Also, I’ve been catching up on critiquing, wondering where could (or should) I send Demonhunter that needs only a light editing and all in all, I’m somewhat back on track.
And all it took was a 30-second brief exercise of imagination, one that said, “OK, baby, tomorrow you will play a role of a happy, non-afraid, non-psycho writer, all right? Don’t worry whether it’s true. It’s just for a day.”

full gear

ieva — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:35:56 +0000

After the slacking weekend, I am currently working on:
- rewising a story,
- a non-fiction article,
- another short story I’m really excited about.
I’m a bit confused about NaNoWriMo plotting because the software just doesn’t feel like the perfect solution for outlining, but I don’t have a better solution. I’m strongly considering index cards (a solution that has failed for two previous projects), this time cutting them to business card size and ordering in those A4 multi-card filing pockets. My main trouble with physical index cards is that I’m so messy/working on the move/have curious kids at home that I always lose them. Filing them and binding in my NaNo binder could be a solution.

I’m flued

ieva — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 06:23:32 +0000

Sooo.
It’s all because of the flu, I swear, that I haven’t written a thing for Vega and am generally a yelling freak (who can’t really yell because of the sore throat but the attempts are brave).
Yesterday, I translated The Final Turn to Latvian and realized why I have a run-on sentence problem: Latvians simply tend to have longer sentences without losing coherency. On the other hand, some stylistic feats raised their ugly heads asking why the hell did that writer do *that*.

All in all, translating seems to be a cool exercise for figuring out the weak spots, at least on sentence/word level.

battle actions

ieva — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 05:30:00 +0000

Vega got 697 words with a lead for today, so it’s fine. I’m trying not to dwell on how far behind on my weekly goal I was: today, a new week starts, and I hope it’ll be a productive one. Even with the things I must do to keep my RL moving forward… I need to find a way to steel myself against those snide remarks that have been pushing me over the edge recently; I don’t remember being this frustrated, this vulnerable since forever. I don’t deserve this kind of treatment, nobody would. And my husband certainly doesn’t have to suffer the consequences of somebody else hurting me.
So, screw it. Until some point, I can justify this, I can see my own faults, I can try to do my best, I can try to avoid making these little mistakes that somehow all end up being targets of future attacks, I can use it all to be a better person. That point has long been passed, and I’m currently in a place where every little step I take to live up to his expectations is making me a worse person, a stressed-out overachieving bitch with no sense of perspective.
Well, not any more.

Also, I submitted The Final Turn yesterday and I licked Siren up to a point where it’s ready for beta-reading. That’s the good stuff, that’s what I should be proud of and that’s where I should seek and find my self-assurance, not in the eyes of somebody who doesn’t know me, doesn’t respect me and doesn’t give a damn about my feelings (except the obvious “haha, here’s how I can piss her off” attention).

Is she gonna die?

ieva — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:22:59 +0000

Today I finally called one of my old friends. Here’s a snippet:
- Listen, you’d know… can somebody die of epilepsy, and can her doctor be sure she’ll die in given amount of time?
- Ummm, I don’t think so. You don’t die from epileptic fits unless it’s an accident.
- No? But I found these “prolonged seizures” in wikipedia…
- It’s extremely rare and I don’t think it can be predicted.
- Come on. But there has to be a reason why people avoid seizures then.
- Well, if one has enough seizures, dementia kicks in. With every seizure, a part of brain dies…
- So basically, if the seizures can’t be helped, you *can* turn in a vegetable in a year or two.
- It is possible.
- Wow GOOD! Thank you bunches, this is *exactly* what I needed!
[dumbfounded pause] – May I know why you’re asking?

But I ended up with my protagonist having a brain tumor instead as I figured later that she needed to have her life at stake, not only her brain. However, the idea to have dementia looming over a protagonist is delicious; I know that I’d be more scared of eternal drooling and crapping in my bed than I am scared of death.

As far as progress is concerned, I barely did 200+ words today and I don’t know when I’ll be able to do more (I’ll try to sneak out tonight).
On the other hand, I can spend the time I’m fighting the kids by figuring out why did I get stuck (well I know why; I don’t know what happens in this scene and where the real conflict is) and eating ice-cream.

Also, I polished The Final Turn and submitted it. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Final Turn, Final Edit

ieva — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:50:28 +0000

Today, I edited The Final Turn, I hope I haven’t ruined the story. By now I have gained that eerie detachment from it; the story is not really “mine” any more, it’s “a story”, and as such edit-able and publish-able. I’m waiting for some feedback from my trusted reader (yea, I’m looking at *you*, Russ), and off it shall go.
I remember the same sad feeling about The Roommates, the cord-cutting one, mixed with the “OK it’s finally done” sentiment that also belongs to the cord-cutting procedure.
I no longer live in that world, the folks in there no longer talk to me, and by the final strokes I was merely an observer, and a cold-hearted one. God must feel like this in modern times, when there’s so little margin for what he can do for us.

The rest was goofing around, no words done. But well, now I’m fooling around with yWriter 5, filing the Vega info in there. It will have to be done someday anyway, so why not today when I can’t seem to push myself to write.

rock on

ieva — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 05:32:55 +0000

Yesterday, I started by doing sloooow 307 words… added some 200 after work just to do my drop-dead wordcount (500+ words) and finished by scoring a total of 1100+ words, well over my goal, just sitting on the floor in the kitchen, waiting for the lil one to come thomping in, demanding that she wants to sleep.

So this was a success, and something that sorta insures I can work on We Crunch this week if I do 300+ words today. (It’s a beginning of the chapter though, and by now I know better than jumping in headfirst without doing a proper outline first. So outline it is.)

I also made my dream calendar/to-do-list, I hope this will help me keep track of my progress instead of stalling me.

Ahh, and an idea for a novel occured at some point between sleep and, well, more sleep, loosely based on “The Final Turn” concept.

To do list

ieva — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:00:58 +0000

Since this has been a day of mostly slacking. 300 words done and they’re not good enough… I’m approaching the point where the mystery starts unfolding, and it’s talk talk talk, and while I’m good with dialogue, it still takes time to do it properly… time and inspiration, and clear understanding of what has passed.
Anyhow, just to heighten my interest in the novel, here’s the list of what else should I do:
- lick up and resubmit Mermaid’s song,
- re-plot and re-write some scenes of The Final Turn (I already know where it goes so it’s fine),
- plot and write another Critter story (haha, that’ll go down well),
+ re-cap and put in a single notebook all pending ideas.

critique vs. writing

ieva — Sat, 16 May 2009 22:43:40 +0000

I just got enough incoming critiques for my short story, “The Final Turn”, to realize one simple, baffling thing.
While I myself am fairly good critiquer (able to point the flaws, ask the right questions etc.), I so often fail to ask these same simple questions to myself or point out these same flaws in my writing. If only I was able to read my story as if I hadn’t written it and didn’t care for its well-being that much, if I didn’t adore some things about it “just because I adore them” (not that the reason actually shows in the story)… oh well.
Then again, I probably am not the only one like this, after all, this is what crit groups are created for.