Mad Genius Club: Roll Call

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Roll Call

I'm about to run out the door on my way to the local hardware store -- don't ask. It's the weekend. It's nice. It must mean repair-time for something, right?

Any way, it's been more than a week since Sarah issued her challenge to us all so time to report in on how we're doing. We'll cheer one another on, give a judicious kick in the rear where needed.

Also, if you have any questions or comments, let us know.

15 comments:

MataPam said...: I didn't promise to write shorts, just complete the novels almost done. I have already sent one novel out the door. With a hard boot and a lecture about writing home when she's found gainful employment.

Two Novellas are going to follow next week. I writing the cover letter and shining up a series synopsis this weekend.

Another novel I want to send to NR while the submissions are open, so I've already started polishing madly. Nothing like an outside deadline to get you working.

And then in a fit of insanity, I signed up for Nanowrimo. Because this stupid idea about zombies wouldn't leave me alone.; October 30, 2010 at 11:25 AM
C Kelsey said...: I have an actual short story about half done but I've started trying to learn to draw. Emphasis on trying rather than learning so far. The second short I was working on became a script for a comic book. D'oh!; October 30, 2010 at 12:59 PM
Kate Paulk said...: Congrats to those who've gotten somewhere. My achievement is... nothing. Zip. Bugger all.

Blame it one the never-ending high workload plus the never ending family crisis soap opera, plus of course, the usual narcolepsy issues that make my useful waking time severely limited.

My issue - I'll climb out of the pit somehow.

But sincere congrats to those who are getting places.; October 30, 2010 at 1:33 PM
MataPam said...: Kate,

A small suggestion. If your mother is able to read, print out one of your works that needs readers and send it to her. Ask her to help you, and she'll feel less isolated and useless and it'll use up some of her free time, even if it's not much use to you.

Actually, if she's having trouble reading after her stroke, this may be good therapy, as well.

This is how I discovered that my mother was actually good at spotting problems. Just trying to make her feel wanted and useful right after she finally really retired. It helped me, and it gave us something definite to talk about on the phone,too.

And there's nothing quite like "OMG, my MOTHER is going to read it!" to get one over being nervous sending out manuscripts to publishers.; October 30, 2010 at 2:14 PM
Daniel Casey said...: Status? Nothing finished..

two about half done (I got distracted by one over the other... sigh)

Oh and Life got in the way... kids'll do that you a guy.

Next week will be better, really.; October 30, 2010 at 3:13 PM
Kate Paulk said...: Matapam, you are not a scary woman. You are a TERRIFYING woman.

(Off to weeble about my mother reading Impaler - eek!); October 30, 2010 at 8:41 PM
Synova said...: I decided which novel project went first by taking out my D&D dice and rolling "votes". The winner was my smutty category romance with the heroine running from a fatwa. I didn't get much actual writing done on it though.

And I figured out how I wanted to approach my short story, POV and basic plot including the first solution that doesn't work (new idea for me)... in my head. *sigh*.

Oh dear, NaNo is Monday?; October 30, 2010 at 11:13 PM
Anonymous said...: I am 800 completed words into a short that I'm hoping to have finished by Sunday night. My weeks run Mon-Sun. The top limit on this short is 2500 for the specific target market. I've finally got the rest of the story planned in my head as well as the finale. I'll hit probably 1500 words tonight and finish it up tomorrow, just in time to start planning another one. And to get more cards done for NaNoWriMo which I'm rather nervous about.

Linda; October 30, 2010 at 11:29 PM
Synova said...: I need names.

Does anyone have a good idea what to do about this? I have to name at least eight people and perhaps two babies. Someplace I have two of the names if I use the same gnome commandos as before, but it's still six new people. I know what I want them to do in good detail, but who they are. Probably all but a couple of them probably have rank or titles to boot.

Hm... I wonder if bio-page printouts are a good plan. I still would have to think of the name which is still an issue. And I have a terrible time organizing notes and keeping track of them, but I have a desk now with a file drawer and everything. OTOH, taking time to create a character page sort of feels like cat vacuuming - finding busy work that isn't actually writing.; October 30, 2010 at 11:45 PM
Unknown said...: Synova, I find this helps - http://www.behindthename.com/; October 31, 2010 at 12:35 AM
Unknown said...: Hmm. Well, I've kind of kept up at 2K a day - a bit below ideal. I've witten 1 short - 1K and a bit of one novel and a nice piece of another. And I lost a day to keyboard issues... and some to being useless.; October 31, 2010 at 12:38 AM
MataPam said...: Synova,

Gnome names? Are you using regular human type names, or going for a theme of some sort? Make up your mind on any naming logic, and then do Google searches for things of that sort. "Minerals" "Baby animal names" "Mushrooms" "Medieval slang clothing"

Or have fun with normal names, swapping a few letters around and so forth. You can even ask for volunteers to get their names "Gnomed." That's what I did with a lot of my Martian names, when name fatigue set in halfway through.

Actually, these "almost words" in the verification could be useful. "Quithers" sounds like a name.; October 31, 2010 at 4:38 AM
Jim McCoy said...: I'm doing alright I guess. I started a new short that night and I'm about 1500 words in. My problem is time. I work full time, go to grad school and take care of my daughter while my wife is at work. I DO make about 15-30 min a night available to do it, so at least I'm getting SOMETHING done. Of course, none of that counts the 4000ish words I've done for my historiography class this week, or the 1000+ words I've done for my research class either.; October 31, 2010 at 7:39 AM
Jim McCoy said...: Synova,

If you can find the old AD+D Complete Book of Gnomes and Halflings (you said you were a fan) there might be some kind of random name generator that you could get inspiration from.; October 31, 2010 at 7:42 AM
Synova said...: Thanks for the links and advice.

I actually have the Gary Gygax Book of Names which is pretty cool, too.; November 1, 2010 at 12:38 AM