word-count – Lena Corazon

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ROW80: Picking Up Steam, and a New Tattoo

Good grief, I can’t believe it’s Sunday already. The last week sort of sped on by, and I feel like I’ve got whiplash. Also, can someone tell me exactly when May happened? Time seems to be hurtling past me.

All in all, it hasn’t been too terrible of a week. Here’s the shakedown:

Day Job: Not much work done by way of research this week, though I took a couple of hours today to take some reading notes and write up a summary of what I’ve learned thus far. I still need to meet with committee members (I’ve been dragging my feet on making appointments), so this is going to be my goal for the week.

Writing: Things are getting a little better here. I’ve logged at least 5 or 6 hours this week on brainstorming, outlining, and world-building. Better yet, I’ve written close to 5k. Not sure how much will survive my next round of edits, but the good news is that Part 1 of PATH TO THE PEACOCK THRONE is finally coming together. Progress is slow, but if I can make sure that it’s steady, I’ll feel a lot better about things.

Exercise: Shockingly enough, I managed to get 6 days of exercise in. Morning walks are becoming second nature, and way too enjoyable to ignore. There’s nothing like listening to a swelling chorus of birdsong and basking in the sunlight to start my day off right.

Social Media: It was another off week for social media. Not much by way to blog hopping, and only 1 post written outside of my ROW80 check-in. I’ve got a few drafts that need to be fixed up and finalized, so hopefully I can get those posted in the week to come.

And once again, here’s what I’m reading and watching this week:

Rufus Sewell as Aurelio Zen

Films: I’m halfway through the BBC Mystery series, Zen, based on the series of novels by Michael Dibdin. The absolutely dishy Rufus Sewell plays the title character, Venetian detective Aurelio Zen, who is one of the few men of integrity, honor, and honesty working in the corrupt Roman police department. Zen reminds me a lot of my detective protag in TELL ME NO LIES, so I’ve been watching Zen with both my writing and “I’m-going-to-veg-out-and-enjoy-this” hats on.

Books: I just finished Jessica Grey‘s novel, AWAKE, which is a modern-day YA retelling of the “Sleeping Beauty” fairy tale. I absolutely adored it, so if you like fairy tale adaptations with romance and magic and lore, I recommend it.

In other news, I got my first tattoo on Friday! It wasn’t nearly as bad as I had feared (I worked myself up into such a tizzy over the potential pain that I lost sleep for about 2 weeks), though there were definitely moments when I wondered exactly what sort of torture I signed up for. However, I am in love with the final product, and that’s all that counts. The tattoo is on my right arm — my writing arm — and will hopefully remind me of my duty to myself as a writer.

The quote, “Words have been all my life,” comes from POSSESSION by A.S. Byatt, one of my favorite books of all time. The original passage, part of a letter that the fictional 19th century poet Christabel LaMotte writes to fellow poet Randolph Henry Ash, is as follows:

…Words have been all my life, all my life — this need is like the Spider’s need who carries before her a huge Burden of Silk which she must spin out — the silk is her life, her home, her safety — her food and drink too — and if it is attacked or pulled down, why, what can she do but make more, spin afresh, design anew…

Like the fictional Christabel, I am, have always been, and always will be, compelled to write, to create, to spin out words and myths and tales. Writing is something that I must do in order to remain whole, in order to survive. That lesson is one that I learned the hard way during my 2 year bout with writer’s block, when I thought that I could walk away from fiction and submerge myself completely in the world of academia.

So yay for tattoos, and for a bit of writing progress! I’m looking forward to finally seeing The Avengers on Sunday afternoon — I feel like I’ve been waiting forever. I actually had an Avengers-themed dream the other night, where I was some sort of hybrid X-Men/Avengers superhero flying around and solving crime… before I turned back into academic me, taking a midterm of Foucault. My grad school friends have termed this the “supertheoro” (super-theory-hero), and I think that is going to be my new alter ego. 😀

Don’t forget to swing by and wish the rest of the merry band of ROWers well! How’s everyone else doing?

ROW80: Down the Rabbit Hole of Academe

April 22, 2012 / Lena Corazon / 17 Comments

As the title of this ROW80 check-in attests, this last week has been all about the day job and not much else. I spent my weekend doing lots of reading, lots of thinking, lots of note-taking, and in my downtime, lots of videogaming (I am simultaneously replaying Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3, which really deserves a blog post all its own). Here’s how things played out:

Day Job: I’m all caught up with the work that piled up while I was sick, which is great. Better yet, I’ve embarked on all of the reading and thinking work associated with the dissertation. There’s now a lot of information in my head; I’ve spent the weekend reading a ridiculous array of books and articles. I can now tell you about the early modern period and the construction of the English “Christian gentleman,” the ways in which modern-day upper class white men in France and the United States conceptualize social status and morality, and the importance of French phenomenology in current feminist thought.

I am not only shocked that my brain hasn’t yet exploded, but that it seems to be hungry for more. We’ll see how long this productive mood lasts, but cross your fingers that it continues indefinitely, because I have so friggin’ much to do in the next 6 weeks. In the meantime, there will be lots of tea-drinking (as tea is essential for the production of scholarly knowledge, lol) and lots of thinking.

Writing: I wrote roughly 800 words this week, not nearly what I wanted to get done. My class schedule this quarter conflicts with the #ROW80 writing sprints 3 out of 5 days in the week, which means I am going to have to figure out where I can fit writing into my (semi-) daily routine. I am coming to the conclusion, however, that the day job is going to have to be my priority during this round. Not sure how/if that translates into changing my writing goals, but we’ll see.

Exercise: I worked out 5 days in the past week, which is absolutely fantastic. The daily walk/at-home Pilates session is starting to become a habit that I look forward to. My clothes are fitting slightly better, which is also a good thing.

Social Media: This is another fail, along with the writing this week. This is actually my first time touching my laptop in 3 or 4 days, which is crazy for me. So, yet again, I’ve got something to work on in the week to come.

-oOo-

So that’s my life right now: lots of books, and lots of unwinding through escapist fantasy of Mass Effect-land. Hopefully there will be more writing in the week to come, but in the meantime, I am retreating back into my wee rabbit hole. 😛

How’s everyone else doing?

ROW80: Steady As She Goes

January 28, 2012 / Lena Corazon / 32 Comments

A completely gratuitous picture, because I can. Hugh Jackman (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)

It’s been a steady, solid week of productivity here at Flights of Fancy, though far less intense than last week. I write this week’s ROW80 update while in the midst of an impromptu Hugh Jackman mini-marathon. I am refreshing my memory of his filmography circa 2001: Someone Like You, Kate and Leopold, and if I can stay awake, X-Men. It is “research” for the Hugh-themed posts I have planned for my birthday month of February… or so I keep telling myself. 😀

I’ve hit just about all of my goals for the week, though I didn’t attack them with the same fervor from last week. That was partly due to the weather — Monday was super rainy and dark, and I stayed inside and had a “manflesh”-themed movie marathon (The Two Towers, 300, and Gladiator), and the last few days have been like summer in January, with absolutely perfect beach weather. Thursday was my work-at-the-beach day, yesterday was a grading-at-Starbucks day, and today was all about cleaning my apartment. Still, I managed to get things done.

Here’s my week in review:

Writing: I made it to all of this week’s ROW80 writing sprints, and while I had a few slow days, I wrote a handful of new scenes for my steampunk WIP. There’s still lots of work to be done with outlining and plotting and the like, so in the week to come, my goal is to make planning a priority. However, I can’t be too disappointed with my output for the week: 5705 words. Not too shabby!

Day Job: My thesis advisor gave me the green light on my draft, and I’ve sent it off to the other members of my committee. The early word is that I should be able to defend by the end of the quarter (early March). In addition, my advisor sent along her initial feedback. Overall, it’s positive, with observations of my “stunningly beautiful prose” and my intellectual contributions. However, she has a number of critiques for me to keep in mind for the future of the project, including any articles I may write.

I’ve been a little angsty about the critiques, if only because they remind me of all the work that still needs to be done in order for me to create scholarly work that is worthy of publication. I’ve also been more than a little stressed because I’m going to have to take over my advisor’s class for a couple of weeks, since she will be out of town on a family emergency. I’ve guest-lectured before, but this… this will require lots of planning and lecture-writing and whatnot. I have a few days to pull together the first class (on WWII-era cinema and women’s roles in the military), but I’m definitely a little nervous. Cross your fingers that I survive!

Social Time: I saw Underworld: Awakening with my friend Melissa last Sunday, and I was supposed to go to a birthday party last night, but it got canceled… until the cancellation was retracted a couple of hours later, when I was already in pjs with a stack of rented movies to watch. But I’m off to see Haywire tomorrow, which should be exciting, as I’m hearing lots of great things about it.

Exercise: I worked out 4 times this week, and I’ve been on track with my healthy meals and snacks. I treated myself to In-n-Out on Thursday, and grabbed an Its-It yesterday since it was hot, but the good news is that the taste of fast food hasn’t left me with crazy cravings for more. I’m still eating at least one salad a day, and my need for snacking has decreased big time. Better yet, the at-home Pilates is getting easier, and I can once again touch my toes without feeling too sore. Progress!

50/50 Challenge: I read Angela Wallace’s ELEMENTAL MAGIC this week, a lovely urban fantasy/paranormal romance that I really enjoyed. I also discovered Redbox and rented a whole bunch of movies, including Crazy, Stupid, Love (I think I FINALLY understand the Ryan Gosling obsession now), the 2011 Conan the Barbarian (Jason Momoa’s bare bottom is probably the only good thing about the film), and Real Steel (ohhhhh, so good, and Hugh has STILL got it. So.Damn.Hot.). I’m 10 books ahead of schedule, and a few movies ahead too, so that’s nice.

-oOo-

In case you missed it, our beloved #teamsprinty, the ROWers who sprint together on weekdays (11 am PST!), were featured in my “Wicked Wednesday” post, which was a battle between two of Orlando Bloom’s beloved characters, Legolas Greenleaf from The Lord of the Rings and Will Turner from Pirates of the Caribbean. At the moment, Team Elf is winning with 10 votes, followed by those of you unable to choose between (7 votes). Team Pirate is trailing with only 6 votes. If you’re inclined, head over and cast your vote today, or just pop over and check out the comments. They are probably the most entertaining and hilarious I’ve ever received on the blog.

Don’t forget to swing by and visit the rest of our wonderful ROW80 participants!

ROW80: Burn, Baby, Burn

January 21, 2012 / Lena Corazon / 21 Comments

Yes, folks, that’s right. I’m on fire this week, as far as my ROW80 goals are concerned. Overall, I’ve been doing a decent job with structuring my day so that I have enough routine to get things done. My day is now built around early morning exercise and the ROW80 writing sprints (11 am PST!), with something research and/or dissertation-related in the afternoon.

I’ve been keeping my apartment clean, cooking myself meals most evenings, and feeling like a sane, healthy individual. I’m not 100% sure how long this is going to last, but in the meantime, I’m trying to enjoy myself.

Here’s how the week played out:

Writing: I managed to take part in the daily ROW80 writing sprints Monday-Thursday (Friday I was foiled by my dying laptop charger, sadly), and wrote between 1000 and 1500 words each day towards TELL ME NO LIES. I had a minor breakthrough on Wednesday, when it occurred to me to start focusing on individual elements of the novel, rather than try to edit and write linearly. At the moment, I have laid out the major plot points, and I’ve started to fit the milestones for individual character arcs and romance subplots on top of those.

Pulling apart each strand of the novel is proving to be incredibly helpful, as it allows me to do a better job of pinpointing how characters evolve and change, as well as understanding how their problems relate with the larger social context (yeah, that’s the sociologist in me talking). There are all sorts of “factions” in my steampunk Barbary Coast circa 1895: politicians, crime lords, industrialists, moralists, law enforcement… My brash, loud-mouthed saloon singer is caught up in the midst of them, and while it’s her story I’m telling, I can’t ignore the other tensions at work.

In the week to come, I hope to work my way through both romance subplots (as much as I tried to resist, there’s a love triangle in this story), as well as give some thought to the actual murder mystery itself. How do my hero and heroine go about hunting for a killer? I’m actually not all that sure, so figuring it out is top priority.

Day Job: I started brainstorming dissertation ideas on Tuesday, but haven’t had a chance to do more than read through half an article, and thumb my way through a book (actually, it’s the book that I wish I had written, and am kind of bitter that I didn’t) for research purposes. However, I did get a lot accomplished for my research assistantship, which my advisor is quite pleased about. I’ve tracked down a few locations for pertinent archives, and taken notes on a couple of journal articles and books. The gauntlet of grading begins next Thursday, so I will try to get more dissertation stuff beforehand.

Social Time: I’m still going strong here. I went to a concert Sunday night and met up with some grad school friends for drinks Friday night. Even better, I had a chance to visit with my friend, fellow writer, and former high school biology teacher, Eva Gordon, on Friday afternoon.

Eva is writes paranormal romance and science fiction (I’m lucky enough to be one of her beta readers), and we had a great talk about books and writing, as well as all those things she taught in her biology class that still stick with me today: werewolves, forensic investigation, viruses and plagues, and countless other things. It was definitely one of the highlights of my week.

Exercise: I am shockingly on target here. I worked out 5 days this week, and mixed up my routine with a 4 mile walk (Monday), my 50-minute at-home Pilates routine (Tuesday), and thirty minutes on the glider for the remaining three days.

I’ve also been tackling nutrition as well. I took some of the advice that you all gave me last round when I asked for healthy snack ideas. Instead of buying chips, pretzels, or cookies on my last grocery shopping trip, I picked up baby carrots, apples, almonds, and crystallized ginger. Better yet, I’m upping my water intake, having at least one super-tasty salad a day (spinach, strawberries, avocado, and goat cheese is my current fav), and trying to limit portion sizes.

50/50 Challenge: I devoted most of my efforts to research and writing this week, so my reading rates have declined quite a bit. However, I read THE STORY OF THE SISTERS OF MERCY IN MISSISSIPPI, a 1933 history of the order of Catholic nuns and their experiences as pioneers in 19th century Mississippi, along with AGAIN by fellow WANA-ite, Diana Murdock. I definitely recommend AGAIN for anyone who enjoys romance, time travel, and reincarnation, as it was beautifully written and incredibly enjoyable.

No new movies to report on, though I did start watching the 2006 BBC miniseries, The State Within, about terrorism and conspiracies, starring Jason Isaacs in a rare non-villainous role. Better yet, I am off to see the latest Underworld film tomorrow. Nothing like vampires and lycans and action to complete my weekend. 😀

ROW80: A Rose by Any Other Name…

August 28, 2011 / Lena Corazon / 33 Comments

It’s been a jam-packed few days, dominated by helping my sister move in to her new apartment in time for the school year to begin. I spent most of Thursday and Friday either packing, driving, or unpacking, but in the midst of everything, I snagged a few spare moments to work on my NaNo tale.

I’m happy to report that I have less than 6.5K to write before CampNaNo ends on the 31st. While the story is in no means complete, I have an amazing foundation in place. I’m looking forward to crafting a world around my characters, beefing up my use of steampunk technology, tightening the mystery/thriller elements of the plot, and weaving in bits of backstory and alternative history. Editing, I think, might end up being more fun than writing the first draft.

The other thing that has been on my mind is the question of choosing a pseudonym. I’ve been pretty lax about keeping my writing and non-writing lives separate. With the school year looming before me, however, the urge to protect my writing activities from Google-obsessed colleagues and students has become much stronger.

Adopting a penname is a difficult decision to make because I like my name. Granted, it’s a name that is often butchered and mispronounced, so I’ve learned to respond to countless variations (“Jamz” is the most recent, bestowed upon me by my grad school colleagues), but all the same, it represents who I am.

Most importantly, my name feels like an almost-tangible link to a rich tapestry of family history, one that is made all the more complex by my multiracial heritage. Jamison, my mother’s maiden name, connects me with a family tree that has been traced back to the Civil War, when the Emancipation Proclamation freed my many-times removed great-grandmother from slavery. Sinlao, my father’s last name, connects me to the Philippines, where my dad lived until he was 15. I feel strongly about being both black and Filipina, and the thought of discarding name and identity is troubling.

Still, a pseudonym is necessary. I want to write, I want to publish, and I want to build a presence on social media that won’t infringe upon my professional career. The only way I can do this without stressing out is to just pick a darn penname and move on.

To stem the inevitable existential crisis, I’ve crafted a name that hearkens back to my roots. I’m adopting “Lena Corazon” as my writing name, “Lena” after my maternal great-great grandmother, and “Corazon” as my private homage to Corazon Aquino, the first female president of the Philippines.

I’ve spent the past couple of days trying it out. Slowly but surely, I’m making it my own, scribbling it in my writing notebook, setting up Gmail and G+ accounts, and, er, dropping it in conversation whenever I can (I think my mom is getting sick of hearing about it. :p). Once I can set up WordPress’ site redirection service, I’ll switch over my blog address and Twitter account name as well. The thought is a little scary and rather bizarre, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it. 😀

So that’s me for the week! I will be traveling most of Sunday, heading back to SF, which means that comments and whatnot may be sparse from me over the next day or two. In the meantime, I wave my pom-poms of encouragement for all of my ROW80 compatriots as we near the end of Round 3. Keep up all the wonderful work, friends!

ROW80: A Ray of Sunshine

August 24, 2011 / Lena Corazon / 23 Comments

I write this after having a day of unplanned relaxation. It wasn’t my intention; Sunday and Monday were epic workdays where I made major headway on framing the arguments for my current thesis chapter, as well as outlining tell me no lies. However, I woke up to sunshine streaming through my windows. Given that the past few weeks have looked like this…

That is rain on the window. Yes, in AUGUST.

and this…

Mid-day, and already dark and dreary. Ugh.

…it’s little surprise that I abandoned working for laying out in the backyard with a book.

As a result, I’m slightly behind on my writing goals, which means I need to write roughly 3200 words today to catch up. I’m a little worried about how things are going to go this weekend, as I’ve been tapped to drive to Los Angeles so I can help my mom move my sister into her new apartment before school starts. We’ll be staying at my apartment in Santa Barbara to help break up the trip a little bit, which is definitely exciting — I miss my deck garden, and I left a few things behind that I’d like to pick up. Still, I’m not sure exactly how much I’m going to get done, so I am resigning myself to the fact that I might not make 50K by the end of the month.

However, not all was fun and games today! I wrote a silly blog post about my first story, and more importantly, I finally battled the mess of my Google reader.

ROW80: Trying to Shake the Panic

August 21, 2011 / Lena Corazon / 19 Comments

I’m trying to reconcile myself to the fact that August is rapidly coming to a close. The thought fills me with a bit of melancholy. My younger sister will be headed back to LA for her sophomore year of college at the end of the week, and I’ll be leaving for Santa Barbara in about a month. In the meantime, I have a lot of work to do on the thesis, and I’m feeling that familiar wave of panic over getting this first draft completed.

I’m also starting to stress out about the workload that I’ll have to tackle in the upcoming quarter: finishing and defending the thesis, taking two seminars, and teaching two discussion sections is a lot more than I’ve had to deal with in a while. I haven’t taught a discussion section in over a year, and while I love being in front of a classroom, I’m definitely a little rusty. Add this to the fact that I’m actually just tired of taking classes (only 4 left till I’m free of them!), and it makes for a fair amount of trepidation.

Anyway, onto some positive things. The highlights for the week included:

Catching up on my CampNaNo word count. tell me no lies is now 32.5k long, and I am slowly imposing structure upon the mad tangle of scenes that I’ve written. Only 17,438 words to go!
Diagnosing the plot problem that has plagued Path to the Peacock Throne for the better part of two months. The solution, however, means that the story is going to be a two-parter, but for the saga and adventure that I have in mind, I’ll need two books to tell Liandre’s tale. It’s a lofty goal, but one that I can’t wait to tackle. This might just be one of my Round 4 goals. 😀
Overhauling the “Novels In-Progress” page on the blog and adding new synopses for the three stories that I’m juggling. This has been a goal for a while now.
Following the #ASA2011 twitter feed for the annual American Sociological Association meeting, currently happening in Las Vegas. The venue of course means that there are many pithy observations about consumption and commodities, along with highlights from the sessions. Someone has also gone and made twitter accounts for social theorists Emile Durkheim (@emiledurkheim) and Talcott Parsons (@talcottparsons), which are hilarious, and filled with lots of nerdy soc jokes. For example:

Finally, I read a book! This has been on my to-do list for a few weeks now. I devoured Elizabeth Redfern’s Music of the Spheres, which is a murder mystery that takes place in 18th century London. It actually reminds me a fair bit of what I’m trying to do with tell me no lies, so it was both entertaining and useful.

Today is a hard-core work day, so I’m off to make some headway on the thesis, and hopefully add another 1600 words or so to my WIP. Have a wonderful week, all!

ROW80: Still on Track!

August 10, 2011 / Lena Corazon / 24 Comments

Not too much to report for this mid-week ROW80 check-in. Blogwise, I’ve been keeping up with my theme days — I wrote a steampunk fashion post on Monday and a fun music post yesterday — and I’ve got drafts of the remaining two posts for the week queued up.

In the realm of writing, tell me no lies is coming along. I’ve been tweaking the plot, and taking time to work out the kinks and details for the latter half of the story. My MC now has a fleshed-out backstory that is much more, and I have a better idea of what the climax will look like. Better yet, my antagonist, a sociopathic serial killer, is sending very creepy letters to my MC (creepy to the point where I am getting the heebie-jeebies). The story has reached 16k, which means that I have another 34k to write in order to ‘win’ CampNaNo. Shockingly, this doesn’t seem too far out of reach, so maybe, just maybe, I’ll have a working draft of this novel by the end of the month. *crosses fingers and looks hopeful*

If I can maintain the pace of writing roughly 1500 words per day, I might consider giving my other two WIPs the NaNo treatment, focusing solely on one for a month or so, hammering out as many words as possible, and then setting it aside to move on to the next tale. I am almost certain that I am going to attempt NaNo in November, and if I indeed do so, I am going to take the month to edit and finish Path to the Peacock Throne. I’ve had glimmers of ideas for the latter two-thirds of the book, and I think by the time November rolls around, I’ll be more than ready to get back to my world of magic and legend and lore.

The other thing I’ve been doing this week is playing around with flash fiction. Up till this point, I’ve avoided it like the plague, mostly because I tend to be quite a wordy sort of writer. I like detail and backstory and description, and the thought of having to cram all that into a teeny tale was more than I could bear. But I figured I’d try out a challenge involving the seven heavenly virtues, and surprisingly, I’m having a blast. I’ve covered the first four — Chastity, Temperance, Charity, and Diligence — and I have some ideas simmering in my head for the final three. At 100 words each they are a bit of a challenge to write, but oh my, I’m having fun doing it.

-oOo-

And now for a cool historical tidbit! For this check-in, I offer a collection of pretty pictures, courtesy of the Library of Congress’ Photocrom Print Collection. This collection showcases travel photographs taken around the world between 1890s and 1910s, and are all in color. I highly recommend checking it out, as the photos are all incredibly gorgeous.

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ROW 80: “A Huckleberry Above a Persimmon”

August 7, 2011 / Lena Corazon / 34 Comments

After my wee rough patch earlier this week, things have gone much, much more smoothly. A huge thanks to everyone who offered advice and suggestions for how to unstick myself at the last check-in. It was a lovely reminder of why community is important; without all of you, I would’ve ended up sitting alone and feeling very sorry for myself, convinced that my rough patch was a sign of complete and utter failure. Instead, I managed to pick up the pieces and move on. Thanks, all!

A brief update on my goals:

Writing: tell me no lies is coming along quite well, and I’ve been keeping up with my Camp NaNoWriMo daily goals (roughly 1500 words/day). The MS is a little over 13.5K long (!). In the week to come, my major goal is to sketch a skeleton outline of the plot, just so I can have a roadmap of what’s to come.

Thesis: Work on the final section of my results and analysis begins on Monday, and I’m actually excited to get started. I’ve got good feelings about finishing up this project, and I can’t wait to dig in.

Blogging: One of my goals for this round of ROW80 has been to consider ways to give my blog a bit of structure. I’ve decided on attempting theme days that allow me to talk about a range of topics, from my WIPs and the research I’m doing for my thesis, to book reviews and other fun things. Here’s the tentative line-up:

Monday Inspirations: A peek at the various elements that I’m drawing upon as I explore my WIPs.
Things I Love Tuesday: Fun posts about my current obsessions and things that make my smile.
Thesis Thursday: Little blurbs about my MA thesis (a textual analysis of 1920s wedding etiquette), including a look at primary sources, short bios on the authors in my study, and other fun historical tidbits from the period.
Friday Free-for-All: Anything goes here — flash fiction, book reviews, cocktail recipes, random youtube videos…. I gave the Free-for-All a try the other day with a silly post about my favorite actor ever, Hugh Jackman, which was way too much fun to write.

-oOo-

One of the things that I love about working on tell me no lies is the ability to utilize 19th century American slang. Colloquialisms from the period involved incredibly vivid imagery and metaphors, like the one that I’ve used for the title of this post: “A huckleberry above a persimmon,” which is the rough approximate of “a cut above the rest.” While steampunk worlds don’t require strict historical adherence, I think my tale (and my MC’s voice) will gain a bit of life and vivacity.

Some of my favorite phrases:

“biggest toad in the puddle”: most important person in a group
“cap the climax”: to beat all; to surpass everything
“to see the elephant”: to see it all; to experience everything
“to fix one’s flint”: to settle a matter
“little end of the horn”: the short end of the stick
“savage as a meat axe”: extremely savage
“one’s weight in wild cats”: to defeat a powerful opponent

For anyone interested, there are some great resources that I’ve found online, including Craig Hadley’s Dictionary of 19th Century Slang (I love this one because it includes dates and examples from literature) and John Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanisms (originally published in 1848).

Another great source is Walt Whitman’s essay, “Slang in America.” It’s a wonderful discussion of how languages evolve and change through the emergence of colloquialisms. As he writes, slang is “the wholesome fermentation or eructation of those processes eternally active in language, by which froth and specks are thrown up, mostly to pass away; though occasionally to settle and permanently chrystallize.”

That’s all from me for the moment. Hop on over to the other wonderful writers sharing their ROW80 progress and cheer them on!

ROW80: Searching for Harmony

August 3, 2011 / Lena Corazon / 19 Comments

One of my favorite sounds in the world is that of an orchestra tuning.

It doesn’t always begin so pleasantly — sometimes instruments screech and wail, hitting a sharp note or a clunky flat one. But after a few minutes of searching, each section comes together, and the result is a single, suspended moment of harmony. The orchestra sings, and it never fails to send chills down my spine.

When my writing is surpasses the point of mediocrity and inches its way towards brilliance, I feel it in my bones, that perfect harmony of nouns and verbs and adjectives, that magical interplay of character and setting and theme.

Sadly, my WIP is far, far from that.

I’m at the point where each word feels like a dead note, sloppy and carelessly placed. Certain sentences are a droning monotone, others are just painful, and the whole endeavor feels forced. Unpleasant. Sticky and slow and yucky. To make matters worse, my inner editor has emerged from her lair to point out all of my flaws and mistakes, and I’m having a time locking her away again.

So that’s where I’ve been for the past few days — battling it out with words and trying to bend them to my will. The frustrating thing is that I actually have an outline and a summary of this chapter… but for the moment, it refuses to be written. Perhaps the pantser in me is rebelling?

In order to force myself to at sally forth (because words written, no matter how bad they may be, are words that didn’t exist before), I decided to pull a crazy and join Camp NaNoWriMo for August. I might fail miserably, but at least it will encourage me to try and hammer out tell me no lies. And who knows? Maybe somewhere along the way, my muse will return from cocktail hour and decide to help me out a little.

Still, not all is doom and gloom. I have managed to be somewhat successful on other fronts:

– Exercise: Jumpstarted the workout regime by going for a 4 mile walk on Monday on my favorite trail. It felt so good to get moving again. I’m pledging to jump on my glider at least 3 more times this week so I can keep up the routine.

– Writing: Even though the words might be less-than-stellar, I did add about 1700 words to tell me lies. Not all is lost!

– Networking: I’m making plans to attend the Central Coast Writers Conference. I’m so excited — it’s taking place the same weekend I planned to drive back down to Santa Barbara, and as it’s being held in San Luis Obispo, it’s on my way. What I’d really like to do is to make a mini-trip of it, and stay overnight somewhere like the Madonna Inn. My mom will be with me, and it’ll be a couple of days after her birthday, so I can turn it into a networking-for-me/celebration-for-her sort of thing.

– Grading: 1/3 of the way through with final exams, and I think I can have the rest cleared out by Thursday. Once I do that, summer officially begins!

– Fun Stuff: I have a Pottermore account! I still have no idea what Pottermore is supposed to be, but I’ve got an account and a user name (FelicisMahogany64), which means I will get to play around with the beta. I’m really squealing like a five year old over all of this.

And that is all for me. The day promises to be sunny, which will be a welcome change from the whole “foggy, highs in the upper 60s” weather that we’ve been having. Mark Twain was dead-on when he said that the coldest winter he ever spent was a summer in San Francisco — the fog can chill to the bone here when it’s blazing hot everywhere else.

For those of you who are living in those blazing hot places (these seem unreal and mythical to me), stay cool! And don’t forget to do a little bloghopping — comments and love are the best way to celebrate hump-day.

Lena Corazon

Flights of Fancy

Tag: word-count (page 1 of 3)

ROW80: Picking Up Steam, and a New Tattoo

ROW80: Steady As She Goes

ROW80: Burn, Baby, Burn

ROW80: A Rose by Any Other Name…

ROW80: A Ray of Sunshine

ROW80: Trying to Shake the Panic

ROW80: Still on Track!

ROW 80: “A Huckleberry Above a Persimmon”

ROW80: Searching for Harmony

Lena Corazon

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