Oathbringer

Okay, I posted a spoilery tweet yesterday. It said, "Jasnah was wrong #Oathbringer" I did delete the tweet after a couple of my friends complained about the spoileryness, but since I want to talk about my whole thought process, spoilers included.

Note, I don't say what she's wrong about, though I'm going to guess that's a moot point. People don't like spoilers, don't like other people to tell them what's going on so I've gotten some pushback from my friends who haven't read the book yet about the tweet.

I'd also like to note that I posted that tweet after reading 230 pages of the 1200 page book, so it's also possible I'm wrong. It's at this point an opinion and a prediction. Regardless, if my post offended you for being a spoiler, I apologize.

Below the jump break is the spoilery explanation of the tweet (keeping in mind I've still only read about 550 pages of the book, so I'm still less than half-way through the book).

For characters

I find understanding personality hard. This one helped clarify. And yeah, I definitely was an INTP in high school. (Boyfriend #2 was definitely an INTJ).

http://typefacts.info/heres-who-you-were-in-high-school-based-on-your-myers-briggs-personality-type/

Head cold

Blech. I hate colds. I feel like someone took a rasp to the back of my throat, and then, unsatisfied with that piece of mischief, pulled my brains out through my nose and then replaced them with cotton wool. The rest of my body feels fine, if about twice its normal mass, but oh, oh my head.

Which is, by the way, not so conducive to writing.

So, I tried to open a program called plottr that a friend of a friend is developing. I thought I might give it a try and see how it is since I'm too stupid at the moment to do real writing. Unfortunately, I'm also too stupid to figure out how to open the thing, so never mind. I also have a dog who is competing with my computer for lap space, and she's a lot more committed to the question.

Instead, I'm going to post a link to awesome Nigerian hairstyles I happened across while looking at African fractals. Search inspired by listening to Ron Eglash on African fractals, which, OMG, why do those of us European extraction not use more fractals in our designs/architecture? So much more visually pleasing. And with that, off to bed!

Rejection

Being rejected is a good thing. It means you are trying.

But it still hurts.

I will pat myself on the back for trying. Finishing is its own success, and my story is a good one, it simply did not fit quite right or have quite the right ending or tone to tickle the fancy of that editor.

And that's okay.

I will read this, perhaps even write it out again, next time I face a rejection, because it will still be true.

Back to work.

Sometimes

I just don't feel like writing. I'd rather do facebook (though I've unfollowed most people because that makes fb that much less time-sucking) and twitter and pinterest and TV and really anything but write. It's a sad, sad day when detailing the bathroom is more appealing than setting myself down in front of a keyboard and plunking out a few hundred words.

So instead of simply procrastinating unproductively away for another evening I'm procrastinating on my blog, which is at least a few words on a screen I can point to and say, hey, at least I'm writing something.

The world around me is depressing. There was yet another shooting in the US, this time of three police officers. Logically I know the US is still about as safe as it was while I was living there for, oh, most of my life, but watching it on the news it seems like a foreign and rather scary country. The social unrest is heart-wrenching, especially as we learn about the lives of the people who have been killed.

As much as I love writing (or rather, having written, let's be honest here) it seems frivolous in the face of such terrible goings on. Here I am, little sheltered, privileged white girl, and I'm writing about social unrest and prejudice and trying to link that to climate and environmental change in my story. Sometimes I look what I'm doing (or trying to do) and think what a colossal waste of time.

And yet, I am human, and part of being a human is telling stories. We make sense of the world through an emotional, narrative lens, and because of that the stories we tell ourselves and tell each other are important. Maybe what I'm doing isn't critical, or won't ever do anything serious to shape world or even local events; maybe all I will ever do is entertain someone for a few moments. With as well as I send things out it's possible the only person I'll ever entertain is myself. But then, I suppose that it's just as important for me to try and figure out the world around me, and if the process of writing is how I do it then it's a valuable thing. I don't ever have to publish a thing, I only have to open myself up to the process and to the empathy that writing challenges me to have and I've changed my little world, I hope in a good way. That alone has to be worth it.

Falling out of love with Goodreads

I used to love Goodreads. For a while I just LOVED finishing a book and putting it up and writing a few paragraphs on what I'd thought about it on Goodreads. I'd sometimes spend a couple of hours composing my little reviews, crafting the zingy sentences that I thought would pull people into reading the books that I loved.

And then I ran out of time.

I don't read much lately. For a while I was reading between two and four books a month, which was wonderful. Now, I probably check that many out of the library every month, but return most of them unread.

It's vaguely depressing.

Goodreads, which tracks my stats, is a lot less enticing when what it's telling me is that I'm hardly spending any time at all doing this thing that I love. So, I'm not so in love with it anymore. Conscientious I am not, which is a) obvious from this blog and b) why I'm still at the level of dabbler in oh so many things (though I did submit a story to the Daily SF slush pile, which is the first step toward publication. Waiting impatiently for my first rejection. Wahoo!).

Which leaves me with a quandry: I'm reading again. I picked up a few books that actually pull me in. So, do I go back? Do I spend the time to track my reading, slow and intermittent as it is? Or do I let my goodreads stats keeping die?

More writing resources

I've got a new computer. Right now I'm not entirely sure where said new computer is (I lent it to my husband last night and haven't gotten it back yet) but in any case a new computer means I have to get used to a new keyboard and, in this case, a new operating system, and I'm at high risk for losing important files and information.

I am looking forward to having a keyboard with 100% functional keys. My youngest is right now in the midst of the key-pulling phase of life and the throwing things on the floor that are in his way phase of life. Though my current laptop has survived its exposure to my child, its keys pop off in the middle of words (useful keys, too--like H, W, S, and E) and the screen only has two positions, neither terribly ergonomic.

Lest I lose these links I'm going to post them here:

http://hollylisle.com/one-pass-manuscript-revision-from-first-draft-to-last-in-one-cycle/

http://www.septembercfawkes.com/2016/05/10-cheats-to-tell-well.html?utm_content=buffer69aa0&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

http://mormonomics.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/are-we-really-overtaxed_11.html

Thick skin

I do not normally have a thick skin. Indeed, I'm relatively think skinned, especially when it comes to my writing. Oh, I try to accept people's criticism but really whenever people tell me what parts of my writing they didn't like I hear, "you suck." I don't think I'm terribly alone in that reaction. Sometimes criticisms have put me off of writing for a time, until I remember that I want to tell stories and go back to it.

I've joined a writing group filled with writers who are probably at the cusp of being published. Actually, several have published pieces, though all of them are still working on craft and still struggling to publish a novel. All of them write things that I love and can see are a draft or two away from being ready to face the world.

The funny thing it, I have a thicker skin with them. I don't know if it's that I've matured, or if it's that they're all very good at giving constructive, positive criticism (which they are), or if the fact that I admire all of them at writers makes it easier to take what they say well, but there it is. Criticism from them makes me want to write more--to fix what I've done poorly and do it better the next time, if for no other reason than I want these people, who I like and admire, to like and admire my writing, too.

What I've been thinking about

I'm not writing much. I finished a very short (like 1000 words short) story last month and other than that I haven't finished much. I've poked and prodded and massaged a few things here and there but it's all been in little snippets of time that I can steal from other things or multitask into writing.

But I've been doing lots of thinking.

My last post was a bunch of links to resources on writing people of color (PoC). That's one thing I've been thinking about--how to represent PoC in a realistic, non-exploitative way. I'm white and I've been white all my life and I think the only moments I've had that really give me insight into being a PoC is when I take my kids to certain stores and the ladies there watch me like a hawk to make sure my kids don't touch anything. It's distinctly uncomfortable, but you know, I only experience it when I have my small kids with me. I don't have to deal with it all the time, or deal with police officers finding obscure rules to ruin my day simply because I drive while dark-skinned.

Those moments with my kids color my day, but only my day, not my whole life.

Not too long ago there was a certain bru ha ha over JK Rowling appropriating Navajo culture (specifically skin walkers) for her Harry Potter-verse. After talking to some people it seems her sin was taking a Navajo boogeyman (the skin walker) and 'rehabilitating' them. That's a valid literary thing to do (think of 'Wicked' for a wildly successful example, or 'Maleficent' for another) but it didn't work for Rowling because there's no broader understanding that skin walkers are evil. Instead of accomplishing a fun twist of a trope, she walked all over the feelings of a lot of Navajo Harry Potter fans. I suspect that if she wasn't a big name nobody would have cared, her story simply wouldn't have sold to anyone. She have just been one more white person riffing badly on Navajo culture.

That's not the kind of thing I want to fall afoul of. I don't want to be 'that girl' telling the stories wrong.

Some people were not just upset about Rowling twisting skin walkers, they seemed to be upset she was using the stories at all, exploiting an underprivileged, downtrodden group's mythology and profiting from it. As a writer I find that idea problematic because I constantly steal from other cultures, other writers, other media makers of all sorts. Most of my ideas are derived from the white American culture that we're all stewing in but that totally ignores most minority subcultures. If I can only steal ideas and myths from my own, dominant white culture that makes it very hard to address the very real dearth of non-white characters in literature, including in genre fiction.

Needless to say, I'm a bit conflicted on race. I'm bored with stories about white boys. So, so bored. I want to read stories about PoC and to put PoC in my stories. But it seems like as a white person you have to do it exactly right or you end up in hot water because, hey, PoC are sick of being misrepresented, and rightfully so. I wonder if PoC are okay with white people including them in our stories, or if want us white folks to just stay out, to let them write the stories that borrow from non-white traditions and feature non-white protagonists.


And I wonder how long all of this will last. In a decade will this no longer be such an issue? Is this a problem now because so many non-white cultures have been ignored for so long and they're now finding a voice? I hope that the next decade will see a bunch of minority authors telling all of us their stories, giving their communities the voice and the standing and the confidence that white people have enjoyed as a part of our privilege. I hope in a decade it won't matter so much that I'm a white person writing people of color, that there will be enough cultural understanding of minority cultures that they have their own tropes--true, representational mythologies--that anybody in the broader culture can call on when writing their stories.

Diversity resources I've discovered lately

Putting these here so I can find them later.

Crash course in the history of black science fiction

People of Colo(u)r destroy Science Fiction Essays

Wikipedia entry on Fred Hampton (Black Panther)

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/21/death-by-gentrification-the-killing-that-shamed-san-francisco

Lasagna

I am a good cook. There aren't many things in this world that I will say I am just good at but you know, cooking is one of those things I will fess up and say, I am good at this. I've spent years learning to cook and learning how to cook better and better.

And yet sometimes I still fail. This weekend was one of those times. I've been planning a crock pot lasagna for weeks and I finally put it together and served it to my family, fully expecting them to take a few bites and, again, tell me how wonderful the dinner was.

Sadly, I'd forgotten to spice my sauce.

Cheap-o supermarket lasagna would have been better. Salt is really quite a necessary ingredient to all food, especially when tomatoes are involved, and lasagna without just a little bit of oregano and black pepper, and a copious addition of fennel seed is lackluster at best. The sausage I'd cooked in the tomato sauce, and expected to flavor it, came out bland and with a texture reminiscent of sawdust.

D asked, "What kind of sausage is this?"

To which I replied, "Something you don't like."

Nobody ate more than one helping, and I didn't complain at all about my children throwing theirs in the midden heap.

Tempted to throw the rest of it out as well, instead I allowed DH to toss it in the fridge, where I vowed to ignore it until it started growing.

Of course, food around here is expensive and I'm not actually one to quit on things. A nibbling of a plan came while I was going about my daily life. I reasoned that if I mixed in some new sauce, something extra flavorful and with some more pleasant, better seasoned meat.

I bought some ground beef, seasoned it enough for twice as much, and cooked it with diced tomatoes. I spooned cold lumps of the lasagna into a pan and then poured the hot, well-seasoned sauce around it, then threw it in the oven to re-heat.

The result was wonderful. I had two helpings, as did D, and we fought over the scraps the kids left on their plates.

What does this have to do with writing, you may be asking? Well, most of what I write is bland, flavorless dreck the first time around. I am a good writer, eventually, but what I write is never good when it first comes out. I'm also an impatient person. I forget that the revision process is where all the good gets added, where I take my cold, flavorless lumps and turn them into a hot, gooey, unctuous mess that people will fight over. So next time I look at what I've written and am tempted to throw it out like garbage, or leave it until time has leached all the wonder I'd once felt for the idea, I need to remember my lasagna and what a little extra effort and a little extra heat can make.

Drains

So it turns out this creativity thing is hard, and there's only so much of it that I'm capable of at a time. I had grand plans that while I had visitors and while I was on vacation from work I was going to spend some good quality time with my writing. I was going to GET THINGS DONE.

Unfortunately, it seems, there are other things that suck away my creative energies. Photography, for one. Conversing with other people for another. Or, say, designing a new bathroom. And since we're in the middle of a bathroom remodel, guess who isn't writing.

That's right, me.

There are just times in life where writing creatively isn't a possibility for lack of time or mental space and energy, or whatnot. More than a little frustrating, but hey, that's life. There are always things that seek to suck away creative energies for their own purposes and enjoyment (e.g.: children and spouses) and you can't always blow them off, especially if there's nobody around to pick up the slack.

Now that I'm back at work, now that I have some separation from my family and the mental chaos that comes of trying to figure out those interactions (which one might think would fuel writing but for me seem instead to inhibit it) maybe I'll be able to get back to writing just a little bit every week. Maybe I'll have reasonable expectations for what's possible with the time and energy available to me. Maybe I'll even find that extra well of will power, that extra bit of discipline that will let me get up earlier or write instead of watching TV at night.

Nah.

Maybe I'll just be grateful for the little bits that I can do and let that be enough.

Leveling up

Last week I had the privilege of attending the Writing Excuses retreat in the Western Caribbean. Lovely, lovely time--wonderful people, fantastic instruction. I loved all of it.

Now I'm trying to write again. It's hard. I've been surrounded by other writers, many of whom are better than I am in one way or another. Some of them are better at characterization or plotting; many are better at finishing things.

We were warned that after an experience like this we'd find it hard to write because our tastes have improved but our skills haven't yet. We were encouraged to keep writing through that with the expectation that our skills will catch up eventually. So, even though I'm not writing fiction I'm writing this to remind myself that I need to keep writing, even if it's going to sound like crap to my own ears for a while.

I often feel like what I write doesn't sound good when I first write it, but like many people I've talked to if I put it away and come back to it later I find that there's something electric about it, even if I can see how I want to change things. I love that experience of digging through my writing looking for the lines that just light up on the page for me, or the scenes that make me shiver because I feel them.

Of course, all of this will be easier when I'm caught up on sleep! Staying up until two or three in the morning playing games and then getting up before 8 for breakfast left me just a tad sleep deprived (though might also jump start my returning to Adelaide time).

Because I know so much

One of the reasons I don't write on this blog very often is because I feel like there's not much for me to say. I'm not a very good writer--I don't write consistently, and much of what I produce is just okay.

(Alright, I self-reject a lot. I've only actually entered two real contests ever and I did win one of them.)

Still, I think to have a blog you have to feel like you have something to say, something to teach others, and I'm not in a position yet to feel like I do have something to say.

Except, you know I do have things to say. I'm part of a critique group and you know, one of the things I see my fellow writers not doing is putting enough of their character onto the page. I read a lot of physical responses but so little of the thoughts, and especially the thought processes of characters. I want to see how a character is considering a problem or a conflict, how their world-view shapes what they think is appropriate or allowable.

I think as a beginning writer I should be better about including that myself. It's much easier to cut it out if it's too much than put it in later. And, if I'm doing it right it'll help me avoid the dreaded fate of indistinguishable characters. So, here's a goal for my next chapter: really drill down into what my character is thinking. Let her mull about her problems for a few hundred words, then go back and condense it down to something that's actually readable!

Writers are crazy people

Yes, indeed. Joining a writing group, especially an open one, is an invitation to sit with the crazy and marinate for a bit.

As much as I like writing, as much as I want to become a writer myself and better my craft, and as much as I need other people to help me get there I'm thinking writing groups that meet in real life may not be worth it.

I know, I should show, not tell.

Imagine, if you will, me showing up at the library for a meeting that's supposed to start at 11. I'm a bit early because, hey, kids and either early or late and I'd rather be early. A few other people, all men, trickle in. At about quarter past the guy who has organized the meeting hasn't shown, so a couple of us get things started. I'm about the only one who's been to a meeting before and I have a short presentation to give so I kinda take over, at least as much as I ever do. We start introductions, then the leader-guy shows up, but since he's a pretty laid back guy anyway, he lets me continue to be 'in charge.' Because I'm not a really take charge person either it takes like 40 minutes to get through intros for nine people, two of whom might as well be mute. There's one guy in particular who likes to hear his own voice and has a lot to say about the power of language and how it's used to hypnotize and control. Oh goodie.

So, to recap, two hour meeting, the first hour of which is waiting to get started and introducing ourselves. I take five minutes to go through my hand-out on the business end of writing, then we go to reading our stuff.

The first guy reads a couple of pages of his published novel. Published. The next guy (one of the near mutes) passes, then his friend reads a piece of My Little Pony/Dr Who fanfic. It's cute. The next guy--a working writer--passes, but offers to bring in a script next time for us to do a table read. Among his other credits he does rom-coms, which pretty much everyone in the room pans, but he takes it well. I read a couple of pages of my first chapter, which gets one comment before everyone else starts talking about books they love.

Then it's 'hypnotize and control's' turn. He prefaces his piece with a lecture on how humans should really be hermaphroditic and how wrong it is that we murder hermaphrodites with gender reassignment surgeries. His piece is a poem titled something like 'Hermaphrodite honeymoon' and is about a hermaphrodite having sex with itself (never mind the biological impossibility of such an act).

Once he's done with that he immediately launches into another piece, this one a graphic and expletive-laden depiction of prostitution. I'm uncomfortable with it and unhappy that he's reading two pieces, but it's not my meeting so I don't feel like I can really stop it. After about ten minutes someone else says, "isn't that five minutes? And can we please not use the f-word?"

HnC launches into 5 minutes, so I back up 5 minutes, agreeing that what he's reading is inappropriate. He calls me the 'moral arbiter' for the group and appeals to the leader guy for back up since I've usurped his position. I'm like, the meeting time is over, I have to meed my kids and there are three people who didn't have an opportunity to share anything because HnC monopolized so much time. Then I go.

My writing time is precious. If I'm going to waste it on crap, it'd better be crap I enjoy and with people I like.

Storytelling in Science

By day I'm a scientist. Really, I'm a facilitator/force multiplier for the scientists around me, but I have a scientific background and I do enjoy the field. Most of the time my job is to make sure people know what they're doing, make sure all the necessary materials are available, and to help out where I can, especially on some of the more onerous, time-consuming tasks. Sometimes as part of my job I get to go to lectures/talks where people present their research, which is usually a bit of a treat and usually something that gets me excited about the science I do.

Yesterday I went to a talk that failed to excite me and I've spent a bit of time thinking about what was wrong and how it could have been better. Not that I'm likely to ever give a talk again, but I do think there are some basic storytelling ideas that are applicable to other projects I'm working on. I'll talk about those at the end.

First, only present questions you're going to answer. A talk should consist of the presentation of a problem (big question) followed by how you're going to address that problem (data you're going to collect). Basic, huh? I think it's very important to draw a connection between the question you're asking and the measurements you're making. Otherwise it just feels like you're throwing a bunch of measurements at the problem and seeing what sticks. There should be some mechanism that connects the problem with the proxy.

It's also a good idea to limit the number of questions you present in a given talk. Setting up a problem and setting up an interpretation take a bit of time. If you try to cram too many ideas into the talk your audience isn't going to be able to follow because, more than likely, you won't have time to tell us what we need to know. That doesn't mean you can't have questions come up through your data--realistically you should have some number of unanswered questions at the end that are suggested by the data. But the big question at the beginning should have been addressed in some way and those additional questions should be "tantalizing questions we hope to address in the future."

Second, the data should be presented in an easy to read way. Plots should be legible to the audience--fonts big enough, colors neither garish or so subtle they can't be read, everything labeled so the audience can understand the figure without the presenter guiding us through.

Also, talk about all the data you put up! As a scientist I am well aware that we measure far more stuff than is ever seen by anyone outside the lab. I know how much work goes into some of these measurements that may never actually see the light of publication. Still, if it doesn't help you tell your story it's a distraction. I start wondering why it's there and what it tells me.

Anyway, I know this is supposed to be my fiction blog so I'll try to make a connection to fiction here.

The first connection is, I think, pretty obvious. By the end of a story the major plot line should be resolved. That's one I've had a few issues with myself. It's been much more interesting to me to create new problems than to resolve any of them, and that's lead to some pretty unsatisfying stories. My most successful stories haven't actually been stories as much as they've been character sketches of a moment of decision, which is a resolution of a sort, but it's kind a limiting plot-wise. 

The second connection I'd make is between making nice graphs and making nice prose. The prose needs to be clear and correct enough for people to understand what's going on. There needs to be enough detail that a reader can follow what's happening and can picture it in their mind.

People always talk about the narrative of a talk, or how you tell a story in a talk and, as a reader of fiction, that's never quite made sense to me. I'm glad that only like half-way through my not so illustrious career I've finally figured out what's meant by that!

Start in the right spot

Yesterday when I dropped my daughter off at school one of the office staff was waiting to talk to me. She asked if I'd gotten the note when I picked up my daughter.

" no," I said. "I didn't pick up my daughter yesterday. My husband did."

The woman continued talking about the note and how it was supposed to be delivered, and said something about a lunch order, and then the bell rang.

Impatient, wanting to get out of the way of the beginning of class, I asked what I needed to do. I assumed Sylvia needed money to pay for a lunch.

"No, no. You don't need to do anything. We sent home the money with the note."

Now totally confused I waited as she finally explained the whole story. My daughter took some money from our car (the keeping of money in the car scandalized them, but that's a different matter) and wanted to put in a lunch order. I had to explain to her she can't just take money and buy lunch, it has to be placed in a paper bag and I have to write on it.

The experience made me think about hooks in story telling. When telling a story it's essential the story starts with the right information to get me to pay attention--tell me what the conflict is. Then I'll pay attention to the boring but necessary backstory so I can figure out how to address the conflict. Amazing how understanding storytelling shows up everywhere.

Idea book

So, Writing Excuses, which I listen to semi regularly, is structured as a 'master class' this year. I'm going to follow along and do (and post!) at least some of my exercises. As I said, I'm only a semi-regular listener. I listen to them all, but sometimes I'll go a few weeks without listening and then binge on three or four episodes at once. This being January, and summer, I'm just getting started.

The first episode focuses on coming up with ideas. I have lots of ideas, most of which I think of and promptly forget. Not so useful. I'll try to be better here. These were the prompts we were supplied for the exercise:

From an interview or conversation you've had:
*Pigs, baby cows, chickens, and other farm animals destined for slaughter are kept in deplorable conditions that cause them to go crazy. What would happen if they were released suddenly? What would happen if their craziness was somehow transmitted to whoever ate the meat?
*Pests evolve ways around pesticides and herbicides. Overuse of pesticides and herbicides brings about the demise of said chemical.

From research you've done (reading science news, military history, etc): *Hackable pacemaker.
*Man who lies (stealing identities, going into debt and walking away from it) in order to get an education because he's otherwise too poor to get education he wants. Succeeds in getting an education but is later pulled down by revelation of his past.

From observation (go for a walk!):
*Man in a pink helmet, climbing off the side of a bridge toward something I can't see. What is he going toward? What if he falls?

From a piece of media (watch a movie):
*Morality of the TV show Grimm--it's okay to steal a baby from a woman to keep that baby away from a group in leadership. Also okay to kill a bunch of people who are enforcing a racist rule. Why are rules so flexible and what will the consequences of that moral flexibility be?

From a piece of music (with or without lyrics):
*Sylvia is a girl being pestered by an ex boyfriend. She's leaving on a train with her new boyfriend and the old one just wants to say goodbye, but her mother won't let him. How does Sylvia feel? Is she grateful to her mother, or annoyed, disappointed to not have some closure with the guy?

Other random ideas:
*A woman who relishes swearing because she's been in a situation where she can't swear for a long time. Enjoys the feel of the swear words in her mouth.
*Polygamist wives who are steampunk engineers

Revolution

Like many stories, my current WIP involves a revolution (two, actually). While I love many fictional stories that include revolutions, most of the time they fall flat for me for a variety of reasons. In most of the stories I can think of off the top of my head (Hunger Games, the Madd Addam trilogy) the thing that bugs me is the attitude people have toward human life. There never seems to be enough 'othering' of the subjugated or lower classes to justify the abuse that's allowed.

By othering I mean ascribing negative qualities to a group in order to differentiate the ruling or upper class and justify why the lower class deserves its lower status. You know, like poor people deserving to be poor because they're lazy.

In our society, where we don't literally cart off poor black or Hispanic kids into fights to the death, we still have so much more othering than exists in most of those worlds. I understand possessing negative attitudes toward others isn't socially acceptable, but I think it speaks to the privilege most white writers have that we don't recognize its absence. Recognizing, of course, that as a white woman I don't actually include such othering in my WIP at the moment (though in large part I'm going to claim that's a failure of world building and will fix it in revision. Yeah, revision...)

Anyway, that's not what I wanted to write this post about. This is more of an, I want to keep this link handy 'cause someday I'm going to want to think about these issues more. iO9 posted a fun article on what fictional dystopias ignore about revolution that I found just a teensy bit interesting. My favorite: the head honcho isn't always the problem. It's a lot harder to have a neat plot when you're fighting against an entire class rather than a single bad guy, but let's be honest, how often is the ruler the only source of the problem? Right, never.

I don't want to go to bed

I've done my writing (300 words! Wahoo!) and I'm so tired my eyes are sagging, but I don't want to go to bed yet. I don't want the evening to end and the morning to be that much closer. I've read everything on facebook, I've responded to important and not so important emails, I've read responses on my writing group's website. I can no longer write a useful response. Honestly, I haven't been able to write a useful response for the last hour or so. I should go to bed now, but I just want to read one more thing...