Today’s post-day job project is to start editing the final proof of my Writers of the Future story. Because words are magic, even when they have typos.
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Posts Tagged ‘editing’
Work’s Progress
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, editing, Thoughts, Writers, Writers of the Future, writing on January 16, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Dang It
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, editing, Writers, writing on December 10, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Today, even more editing! Apparently, my characters swear too much;)
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Editing Can Take Forever
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, editing, Thoughts, Writers, writing on December 4, 2022| Leave a Comment »
I’m in my final (?) round of edits for this story and it’s taking longer than expected.
Of course.
The creation of the world did not take place once and for all time, but takes place every day.
— Samuel Beckett
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The Tranquil Sea
Posted in Science!, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, editing, inspiration, moon, NASA, science fiction, Thoughts, writing on November 26, 2022| 1 Comment »
I am working on story edits today and found myself needing to look up a lunar technicality. Next thing I know, I was reading a detailed account of the first lunar spacewalk at Tranquillity Base. I thought you might enjoy it too.
Wide Awake on the Sea of Tranquillity | NASA
July 20, 1969: The day began on the farside of the Moon. Armstrong, Aldrin and crewmate Mike Collins flew their spaceship 60 miles above the cratered wasteland. No one on Earth can see the Moon’s farside. Even today it remains a land of considerable mystery, but the astronauts had no time for sight-seeing. Collins pressed a button, activating a set of springs, and the spaceship split in two. The half named Columbia, with Collins on board, would remain in orbit. The other half, the Eagle, spiraled over the horizon toward the Sea of Tranquillity.
“You are Go for powered descent,” Houston radioed…
This also got me thinking about the farside of the moon. We’ve learned a lot about it since these images in 1959:
First Photo of the Lunar Farside – Moon: NASA Science
Check out the image comparison a few paragraphs in. Or heck, here’s my version:
And since we’re talking about the moon, let’s wrap with an update from Artemis:
NASA to Share Artemis I Update with Orion at Farthest Point from Earth | NASA
Orion entered a distant lunar orbit on at 4:52 p.m. EST Friday, Nov. 25, where the spacecraft will remain for about a week to test systems in a deep space environment about 40,000 miles above the lunar surface before beginning the journey back to Earth.
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Today’s Reads
Posted in Other, Writing, tagged Alaska, Canada, creativity, David Mack, diversity, editing, Elmore Leonard, Fiction, fiction editors, food, genre fiction, hooptedoodle, Iceland, literature, Mount Everest, NPR, science, science fiction, sff, speculative fiction, William Gibson, Writers, writing on August 21, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Pieces I want to read, have just read, or am reading again:
Writing Stuff:
- William Gibson: the man who saw tomorrow
- David Mack on Why we must strive for diversity in SF/F
- Sci-Fi & Fantasy Fiction Editors Speak :: With Neil Clarke (editor of Clarkesworld magazine), Rose Fox and Daniel José Older (editors of the Long Hidden anthology), Alex Shvartsman (editor of the Unidentified Funny Objects anthology series), Brian White (editor of Fireside magazine) and Margot Atwell (moderator and publishing community manager at Kickstarter).
- Easy on the Hooptedoodle :: Classic Recipe for Authorial Invisibility, from the late, lamented Elmore Leonard.
Random Stuff:
- Iceland volcano: area north of Bardarbunga evacuated :: a.k.a. Volcano in Iceland No Longer Content to just Sit There and Look Pretty
- Mount Everest in 3D :: Because I don’t know about you but I’m never going up there in person. This visualization was built after the deaths of 16 Nepalese sherpas in April of this year.
- Watch Americans Try Famous Canadian Snack Foods :: Because hee hee hee hee! Also, sweet potato poutine is the bomb. Just saying.
- Why Vegetables Get Freakish In The Land Of The Midnight Sun :: Dang, a 138-pound cabbage. Everything really is bigger up there.
- Cities causing genetic changes in plants, animals :: Next stop, Sewer Godzilla. You heard it here first!
The Gains of Brevity
Posted in Writing, tagged brevity, creativity, Danny Heitman, editing, Fiction, finishing, how to, John Kenneth Galbraith, literature, New York Times, Thoughts, Writers, writing, writing advice on March 26, 2014| Leave a Comment »
In writing, brevity works not only as a function of space on a page, but the time that an audience is willing to spend with you.
A friend sent me an excellent article this morning, with some of the most useful advice I can think of for writers. It can also be one of the least welcome suggestions:
Keep It Short.
Danny Heitman’s essay uses this pithy guidance to sum up a lot of bits writers hear when trying to improve their craft: be concise, be concrete, be on point, write for your audience, etc. This does not mean blindly banging away on the Delete button, mind you:
I frequently hear champions of brevity advising writers to cut their word counts by scratching all the adjectives or adverbs… The point of brevity isn’t to chop a certain kind of word, but to make sure that each word is essential.
Short version, keep it short. (Although I can’t help myself, here’s one more quote from the article, this time citing John Kenneth Galbraith):
The gains from brevity are obvious; in most efforts to achieve it, the worst and the dullest go. And it is the worst and the dullest that spoil the rest.
Draft your short story, essay, poem, novel or recipe, then if you have a little time, put it aside. When you come back to it fresh, make friends with that Delete button.
J.R. Johnson 
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