State of the Blog, Thoughts On Fiction

Words About Words, Blogging About Blogging

Interesting bits from the outside world. Wordle – A daily word game, created by Josh Wardle. Origins thereof, Boston.com: He made Wordle for his partner. Now it’s an online hit. Daniel Victor, New York Times Service, January 4, 2022.

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“Perfect is the enemy of good.” Voltaire, among others

I’ve make it clear that I want to write novels and short stories. I’ve also made it clear that this is not happening swiftly. Here’s the latest plan.

Writing advice says to write every day. Bzzzzt. I’d make a note to write fiction every day. It would sit there decorating my To Do list and making me feel inadequate. Not working. Which leads to …

Step one. Weekly fiction.

Fiction posts on Saturday. I’ve been doing this for a while. Now I’m telling myself that getting something done once a week is enough. It’s not even every week. The first Saturday, as today, is State of the Blog. So we’re talking three posts a month. That’s enough.

(Gaaaa. It’s even hard to say. It’s NOT enough. Do it all. Do it now. Anything less is failure. But I digress.)

If I can get three fiction posts done, mission success.

On to content.

Art & saddle seat. I enjoy both art and saddle seat. I hope to continue both. OTOH, if I never did either one again, that’s cool. It was fun while it lasted.

Art & saddle seat. I have a few opinions. I like this. I don’t like that. Nuance? Pffft. A deep understanding of the techniques involved? It is to laugh.

Fiction & hunter/jumper/eventing. I want to do these. It tears me up that I am not doing these.

Fiction & hunter/jumper/eventing. I have opinions. Oh boy, do I have opinions. You take a horse over jump in front of me, I’m going to have thoughts. Probably not flattering ones. There is a ghastly tradition growing in American riding of crouching on the horse’s neck and reeling in the horse’s snoot on landing. BEND the knee. STRAIGHT line from hand to bit. Why is your horse’s nose BEHIND THE VERTICAL over a fence!?!?

Pulls self back from rant.

Ditto fiction.

However, art & saddle seat/fiction & jumping is a misleading dichotomy. It is true. It is not complete. Fiction is also like saddle seat.

Just because I can ride horses doesn’t mean I can ride saddle seat. There are differences between the disciplines. I accept this.

Just because I can do words doesn’t mean I can do fiction. There are differences between the disciplines. I have a harder time accepting this.

Which leads to …

Step two. Treat fiction as I treat art.

Stop trying to write the Great America short story every Saturday. Or any short story. A fully-realized gem of fiction will not suddenly appear on my screen any more than than great art is going to suddenly drip from my pen.

I have been trying to tell myself that any fiction – no matter how little – is acceptable. I have no trouble doing this for Sunday art posts. Trying to expand that tolerance to Saturday fiction posts.

Recent fiction posts have been glorified plot outlines. However, I did at least put them into fictional frames.

A conversation [Notes For A Holiday Movie]

An metaphysical conversation [Creating A New Classic]

A meeting speech [A Marketing Proposal for New Holiday Movies]

So that’s what I’m going with. Weekly posts that are in some small way fiction. And then being happy about that.

Plus.

Step three. Echoing what I said yesterday about exercise. In the future, no more talking about how I’m not getting anywhere. [Generating Stories By The Luck Of The Throw]

Do or not do. There is no yapping.

Step three, part two. Will limit the talking about instead of the writing of, unless something brilliant occurs to me. [Forms of Fiction]

Outro

Aim low. I hate it. But you have to jump crossrails before you can jump Grand Prix.

Archives [State of the Blog]
Archives [Fiction]

Onwards!
Katherine