starfishstar (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
starfishstar) wrote2015-07-01 01:15 am
starfishstar) wrote2015-07-01 01:15 am
Entry tags:
Bookwormish, first half of 2015
Well! I read 45 books in the first half of this year.
I certainly don't expect to repeat that feat in the second half of the year – it had to do with being temporarily unemployed at the beginning of the year, which I very much no longer am – but right in this moment, I'm feeling pleased with myself. Read the last pages of book number 45 right around midnight on the last day of June, so that all seemed very fitting.
Also, looking back I see I've posted 17 fics so far this year (of much-varying lengths and across a range of fandoms), and that's not even counting the 4 more currently in progress on my desktop (one enormous, two quite mini, one collaboratively written and multi-chapter), so I've not exactly been idle, have I?
The original fiction, not happening so much, but instead I've put my time into learning how to properly write songs for the first time, which is incredibly exciting. And I do some beta reading, and I do think I get a better and better eye for what works and doesn't work in writing, the more I look at it from an editor's perspective. So that's a writerly activity, too.
Sheesh. Why do I spend so much of my time berating myself for not accomplishing enough?
I certainly don't expect to repeat that feat in the second half of the year – it had to do with being temporarily unemployed at the beginning of the year, which I very much no longer am – but right in this moment, I'm feeling pleased with myself. Read the last pages of book number 45 right around midnight on the last day of June, so that all seemed very fitting.
Also, looking back I see I've posted 17 fics so far this year (of much-varying lengths and across a range of fandoms), and that's not even counting the 4 more currently in progress on my desktop (one enormous, two quite mini, one collaboratively written and multi-chapter), so I've not exactly been idle, have I?
The original fiction, not happening so much, but instead I've put my time into learning how to properly write songs for the first time, which is incredibly exciting. And I do some beta reading, and I do think I get a better and better eye for what works and doesn't work in writing, the more I look at it from an editor's perspective. So that's a writerly activity, too.
Sheesh. Why do I spend so much of my time berating myself for not accomplishing enough?
no subject
Why indeed? ;D <3 You are incredibly productive, that's what you are :)
Ooh, how exciting to learn more about song writing! How theoretical is it - do you learn things like this will often work in that genre and that won't? Do you need to play an instrument?
I remember I used to fool around on my guitar (which I can't play very well), trying to create a song, and they would all come out very melancholy and rather a bit like some not-very-good Emmylou Harris-ish sound-alike, haha :)
And I do some beta reading, and I do think I get a better and better eye for what works and doesn't work in writing, the more I look at it from an editor's perspective. So that's a writerly activity, too.
It really is. I can often find that part difficult - I see that something isn't quite right, but it's a lot harder to pinpoint exactly what it is and what can be done to fix it.
So many books! Do you have any favourites of the ones you've read recently?
no subject
And anything even vaguely Emmylou Harris is good in my book. :-)
Books! You know, probably my favorite from this quarter of the year was "Rags & Bones: New Twists on Timeless Tales," a story collection edited by Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt. All the stories, by all different authors, are basically...fanfiction. Twists and reimaginings of classic stories. All of them were interesting, all were thought-provoking, and most were very, very good!
Others I particularly liked:
• "Because of Winn-Dixie" by Kate DiCamillo for a pretty much perfect example of how to write a good children's book.
• "Shadow Scale" by Rachel Hartman – fell short in many ways and was not as brilliantly and tightly written as the preceding book, "Seraphina," but I still enjoyed it and I still think Rachel Hartman is pretty much The Awesomest Ever for her commitment to diversity and inclusiveness in her writing.
• "The Illicit Happiness of Other People" by Manu Joseph, which I read for my book group. Very philosophical – I think you'd like it!
• "Composing a Life" by Mary Catherine Bateson – a nonfiction book reflecting about how creative people, especially women, "compose" a life out of disparate parts.
• "This Is How You Lose Her" by Junot Díaz – not always *fun* to read, because his characters' lives are so tough, but very well written. And I just think Junot Díaz is the best, as a writer, person and thinker.
• "Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang" by Mordecai Richler – just adorable.
• "A Morbid Taste for Bones" by Ellis Peters – first of the Brother Cadfael books, a series of mysteries...featuring a 12th century monk. I don't plan to read the whole series, but I was curious to read one. He's definitely a great character, this smart, capable, middle-aged Medieval Welsh monk, and the book's romanticization of Wales kinda made me want to write Cadfael/Torchwood crossover fic. Uh-oh!
no subject
The songwriting sounds like a lot of fun -- and challenging. If you write something you're happy with, maybe you could post an .mp3 or a video? :)
Eavesdropping on your comment above -- I'll bookmark this post for the book recs. And I'll pass on a rec of my own: Ellis Peters has another mystery series that she wrote before she wrote Cadfael, set real-time in the 1950/60s/70s but still in the Midlands. The first one I read, thanks to
And, I know what you mean about writing and editing sort of building on one another! Good luck with the fics -- looking forward to see what you've been working on.
no subject
Songwriting, yeah, I could post something! Don't think I have any recordings at the moment, but eventually.
Book recs! Neat, thank you, I'll note down that Ellis Peters book. And these were only even my recs from this quarter of the year; last quarter were
here. (I see I accidentally ended up with "Because of Winn-Dixie" in both – ah well!)