the-black-deep

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Freeze-Frame Revolution is a "Hard SF" novella that I didn't enjoy that much. It starts out with some interesting premises and promises but gradually fizzles out. #scifi #hardscifi #book #review

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I enjoyed reading this book for the language and ideas. It is very likely not for everyone. #book #review #scifi #hardscifi

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A long way to a small angry planet - Chambers (2014)

I picked this up because I saw it highly recommended. I gave it the standard 20% read and looked up the synopsis online and it was a DNF after that. The primary reason was that it was – to be blunt – incredibly boring and none of the ideas were innovative enough to overcome that dullness. The general pattern of writing was some dialog then a pretty long info dump. As we went on the dialog became…

[the-black-deep]

I enjoyed this much more than the previous movies but the enjoyable part came perhaps on the final third of the movie. #movie #review #dialofdestiny #indianajones

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Mechanics: Organizing novel files (2)

It's the first quarter of the 21st century and it's really still just the ancient #vim #editor that can open a 140000 word manuscript for responsive viewing, and editing. #writing

(This is an iteration on my previous workflow. This post will make no sense and have no interest for most people. This is just me figuring out a better workflow for myself after several years of working.) tl;dr: New workflow The whole manuscript is one markdown file I use the neovim editor with the outline plugin to navigate from chapter to chapter Rationale My old workflow consisted of one…

[the-black-deep]

Robot mop (Qrevo S) review

I am in pursuit of the future we were promised, where the robots do the housework and we write the poetry. Astute observers of the human condition will note that the LLM revolution has turned this future on its head, so that it is the robots who are writing the poetry and we’re cleaning the robots. Nevertheless, one sphere in which the robot revolution has gone in the right direction is house…

[the-black-deep]

Borne - VanderMeer (2017)

Borne left me better for having read it, though for the longest time I could not figure out what it was. It isn't really science fiction but a story of relationships. #writing #bookreview #sff

Borne left me better for having read it, and that is all I ask of the journey. For most of the time I was reading it, though, I did not know what to do with it. It wasn’t really science fiction and it was pretty surreal and a bit tongue in cheek (I thought). For the longest time I kept looking over my shoulder in case this turned out to be an allegory or an elaborate metaphor or lesson of some…

[the-black-deep]

Way Station - Simak (1964)

Waystation is a well written story with great ideas and deep thoughts. It is well worth a read and I will be coming back to it often to study good writing. #scifi #book #review

I really enjoyed this book. Let’s dive into some writing lessons (Many spoilers) Simak starts with an info dump / prologue. Theoretically, this is awful, right? But Simak disguises this as a gripping dialog between two characters. One is a scientist, and is a stand in for us the reader. The other is a spy(ish) (Lewis) from some mysterious agency. The spy has been spying on a mysterious person…

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Snow Crash - Stephenson (1992)

Snow Crash is like sunglasses indoors. It looks cool at first but then gets old quickly. #writinglessons #bookreview #sff #scifi

Snow Crash starts with a sassy, sly tone that promises a book both fun and fast. Sadly for me, the book grew from an entertaining cutesy precocious preteen into an annoying teenager that chews gum, pops bubbles, and says “whatever” to everything you say. The sassiness got old, the slyness lost its innocence and the weird similes became tiresome, and because the book wasn’t really my child that I…

[the-black-deep]

Kobo Libra Colour: Field Notes from a scribbler

The Libra Colour is fabulous for scribblers. Yes it has flaws, but it is nevertheless and exciting and useful device for reading, annotating and brainstorming. #kobo #libra #colour #ereader #review

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Kobo Libra Colour: My opinions

The Kobo Libra Colour is a great fit for readers (and authors) who want to mainly read and make margin notes and journal a bit here and there. #kobo #libra #colour #ereader #review

The Kobo Libra Colour is a great fit for readers (and authors) who want to mainly read and make margin notes and journal a bit here and there. Yes, the screen is a bit dark but, in contrast to the online histrionics, it’s not an issue for me. The margin notes have a palm rejection issue, but it’s workable. My first and only ereader has been the 6″ Kindle 4. The only things I’ve been missing are…

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Foundation - Asimov (1951)

A collection of related stories rather than one novel, rather mediocre and certainly not Asimov at his best, I am surprised that they are so famous. #scifi #book #review

This is a collection of related stories rather than one novel. The stories themselves are not distinguished in any department. I think Asimov has much better work. Perhaps because I went in expecting a novel I came away disappointed, because there was no advancing structure I could discern or look forward to, and no character I could hang on to through the length of the novel. The stories…

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Mechanics: Organizing novel files

A most uninteresting post about organizing novel chapters on my computer #sff #novel #writing #procrastination

(This post will make no sense for most people. This is just me figuring out a better workflow for myself after several years of working.) New workflow Each chapter gets a memorable nick-name, like fluffy-lama.md I’ll make no attempt to make a descriptive chapter name, because the focus of chapters changes quite often. A master file organizes the chapters into the book (lists all the included…

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Story openings and "You Can Call Me Al."

Paul Simon's ideas about opening songs is relevant to how we open books. #writing #novel #opening

I had already listened over a hundred times to Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al”, before I got the itch to figure out what all those disjointed lyrics meant. Paul himself has a famous explanation for the words which I find a bit forced. I think it should be OK for creative people, especially poets, to embrace their inner mystic and say “Shucks if I know.” to something they came up with. But we’re…

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Room to maneuver: Book series planning (II)

The best plan might be to just move forward and not over think things ... #writing #novel #series #planning

In a burst of uncharacteristic industry I produced a set of outlines for a series of books I planned as a follow up to my current one. My experience with outlines and Book I was that the outline I started with was completely different from the story I ended up with: I went back and forth, time-traveling freely, changing details at all scales. This kind of revisionism is possible with a single…

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The murky definition of "First draft"

It is a first draft because it's rough, too long and I changed the plot several times, but the story is complete. I've been here before. I've changed my mind before. This has been a wonderful experience. #novel #writing

I’ve completed yet another first draft. This is a first draft mostly because I think the story is complete and most of the scenes have been written. It is a first draft because none of the chapters (except perhaps the first few) have been worked over repeatedly. It’s a first draft because it’s still a little overweight. It’s a first draft because I changed the plot several times, each time I…

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Experimenting with a new writing strategy

#book #writing

Seeing how I used outlines and how I actually write, I have an experiment I want to try for my next book. I like to extemporize and not stick to an outline. I will start off with an outline and then, instead of going chapter by chapter, I will attempt to grow the whole outline as a whole in stages (up to a reasonable level of detail). These sequences of writes will be the “telling myself” stage…