By Wednesday. It’s a short story, entitled “The Watcher.”

Yes, I’m still “blocked.” But I’m finishing it anyway, even if it’s terrible in the end. Because really, it’s time to move on.

One thing about the current protagonist is that he reminds me of the protagonist of a story I wrote previously. Not the characterization, since they are drawn very differently, but the two characters are alike in their circumstances. Both this character and the earlier one are the respected advisors for their respective commiunities, both are experiencing alienation from the thing that is the source of their power, and out of fear, both are harboring a secret.

I wonder if it’s a common thing for a writer to come back to the same themes. And I wonder whether it’s best to just go ahead and write the stories that seem compelling, even if they are familiar in a way… or if it’s better to look for things to write about that are completely fresh.

Today I have a post up at Adventures in Writing about having a room of one’s own to write in.

Live and learn, they say.

A couple of days ago I was organizing the files on my computer, deleting duplicates and anything else I thought was just taking up space. Yeah, well. A folder called Recent Changes (or something like that) was full of duplicates of files that I’d recently changed. All the files that are important to me are documents and pictures, and they are are stored in Documents or Pictures. Makes sense, see?

So who needs a folder full of duplicate files? I deleted them all, the entire folder, sent them all to the recycle bin, which I then emptied.

Did I say they were duplicates? You know what’s coming, right?

So. I opened my Pictures folder. Surprise! Empty except for some picture files and clip art that I used months ago for work and one profile pic. But it wasn’t the disaster it could have been, as my pictures are still on my camera, so nothing was really lost there.

So. I opened the Documents folder. Incomplete short stories I’d been working on, gone. Novel revisions, thankfully, still there.

I’ll fast-forward through the part where I panic.

In the end, I downloaded some free trial file-recovery software, and with it I was able to peep back through time and memory into the dark heart of my computer’s dead and lost files. Lots of stuff is still in there, but with weird file names (oh, like $GRTYP099). It took a long time to figure this out.

Live and learn.

As it turns out, only one story is truly, irretrievably lost, and that’s because I attempted to recreate the beginning of the story on my own and I saved my pathetic progress under the same file name as the deleted file, which was then overwritten. At least, I think that’s what happened. I may rewrite this story, but if I do, it will be different from the original. Then again, I may not.

Now the mystery that I still haven’t solved is this: Why were my files not saved where I put them - in Documents and Pictures? Why did deleting them from Recent Changes (or whatever) make them disappear from the other folders?

Andrew Rosenberg over at The WriteRunner has a thought-provoking post about the quality that most distinguishes heroes from villains in fiction. He decides it’s something simpler than good vs. evil, and he uses examples from real life to show what he means.

It’s made me think about my own heroes and villains from a new perspective, and even more so since I’m writing a truly villainous (by this definition) protagonist and wondering if this automatically drains the appeal from the story.

Last Saturday I wrote a post about dreams over at Adventures in Writing. I was wondering whether dreams are ever a valuable source of inspiration or ideas for writers of fiction. This post was prompted by a dream I’d had the day before, which I thought (and still think) might be the seed of a short story.

Well, I haven’t written this story. Not yet.

But I was using the character in a free-writing exercise last night, to see if I could generate a story with more “sense” to it than the typical dream-story. The answer is, Yes.

I’ll be outlining it today, and starting to actually write it tonight or tomorrow. It’s a fantasy, by the way, and the protagonist is not particularly likable. Risky, I know.

I’ll let you know what I think of the final result, hopefully by the weekend.

Anyone else ever rework a dream into fiction? What was the result?

My revisions end up being longer than the original, though I know many writers say that a draft always need to be cut significantly. I do cut, but I add more than I cut, apparently.

I’d like to hear from other writers. Is your revised material on average longer or shorter than your original draft?

I just withdrew a short story from a market that had been holding it for 14 months. Fourteen months! Now, while I do understand that editors are busy, and I certainly know that they are in no way begging writers for stories, I still think that response times of months are too long, response times of six to twelve months are inconsiderate, and anything over a year is just plain crazy.

In my view it is unfair is for a market with a typically long response time to insist that writers not send in simultaneous submissions. In the time it takes one slow publication to respond to a submission, the story could be out making its rounds at five different publications. However, I have not sent in a story silmultaneously to more than one publication when the guidelines clearly state not to. 

I haven’t done it (yet), though I have been tempted more than once.

Short story writers, what are your views on long response times and simultaneous submissions?

A while back I mentioned in a post that the majority of my POV characters tend to be male. And so it is with my two most recent stories. I don’t know why this is, other than to say that the character whose point of view I use is simply the one that seems right for the story.

Anyway, a new question arises. Are there gender differences in writing? I realize that that men and women often choose to read different types of books (not all the time, I know).  Do they write differently as well? The stereotypical answer would that, with respect to sf and fantasy, in general, males like to write about technology, tough characters and lots of action, while women prefer to write about personal and relational experiences.

I don’t know, though, whether this holds true, even as a gross generalization. Are there differences, do you think? Can you describe them?

I’m wondering about the value of writing a story which I find personally compelling, but which (based on my experience trying to sell such stoires in the past) I suspect is not marketable.

I do think that for someone who is focused on publication, writing time (scarce to begin with, and filled with interruptions) needs to be carefully used writing stories that are most likely going to sell. Anything else, for a truly  focused person, is a waste of time.

Most times I think I can determine which stories fit which category before even writing them, so that – yes – I can choose to write only stories that I think will be of interest to editors. But I am so weak! I continue to spend valuable time writing stories that I like, that are personally meaningful, but that are ultimately a waste of time. I must focus more on goals, and less on frivolous self-amusement, as I’ve come to see it.

In the summer, I have more time for writing, and I’m far more productive. So. My goal for the summer is to write: (a) only stories that are fit for publication, in my view; (b) the novel, whether publishable or not, because I need the experience.

“In a single fluid motion”

This is a phrase which I’ve encountered in several novels by different authors. I think it’s a good phrase, and in each case where I’ve seen it, it is an apt description of the action taking place. But I wonder how it is that so many different writers come to use it.

Are some writers deliberately stealing phrases from others? Is it even stealing, since it’s only five words? Are writers unconsciously influenced by what they read, so that they do not even realize when they are doing this? Do I do this, as well? Or is there a guide to approved phrases that I don’t know about?

A variation on this is “in one fluid motion.”