Airships and More Airships

Antique postcard showing an airship over a bridge.

Today I’m working on finishing up the slide presentation part of my airship talk that I’ll be giving on Sunday.

I will be presenting  Airships in Literature: Floating into the Future on Sunday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. It’s not going to be an academic discussion, and the slideshow isn’t going to be a bunch of bullet points that you’ll have to memorize. I hope to introduce some of you to the kinds of literature out there that features airships.

My focus for the talk is on writers of the Victorian era and the early 20th century, so I won’t be discussing airships in modern Steampunk literature. There’s plenty of material there for another talk (or several), so maybe that could be a topic for next year’s Steampunk World’s Fair.

 

 

Thursday Writing Prompt No. 80

Stairwell at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.

This time next week I will be in New Jersey for the Steampunk World’s Fair, which starts on Friday and runs through Sunday. I am going to be giving a presentation on airships in literature, which I have barely started putting together. Good thing I have a deadline looming over my head to make me get it done!

In honor of all things Steampunk and deadlines, this week’s Thursday Writing Prompt offers you five Victorian-era objects that you must work into a story. I’ll make it easy by giving you common objects instead of mystery items, and in some cases, Victorian things weren’t really so much different from the stuff we find in our homes or stores today. Except it wasn’t plastic, of course. Or polyester.

And you have a deadline, too: 30 minutes. That’s right, no cheating, set your timer for 1800 seconds and get writing. You must use all five of the Victorian objects in your story, which will be a Steampunk story, right? Okay, you can write whatever you want, but you get bonus points if you set the story in a Steampunk setting. If you don’t know what that is, do a little research before you start writing, not while you’re in the middle of crafting the perfect opening sentence.

Now, here are the five objects: a rug beater, a shilling, a candelabra, a stereoscope viewer, and a pocket watch.

 

Writing and more writing…

This crocheted flower is made from ribbon yarn.

I’ve just finished editing a nonfiction article I’ve been working on for awhile, but instead of feeling like I’ve accomplished something, I just feel overwhelmed. Or underwhelmed, I don’t know which. I’m blaming the weather but I think I’m burning out. It doesn’t help that I keep getting massive doctor and dental bills to deal with. It hasn’t escaped my attention that this year has a 13 in it. Triskadekaphobia,* anyone?

So anyway, I have a whole laundry list of things that I still need to write. I shouldn’t gripe; after all, I do bring this on myself. It’s just that I seem to be pretty much out of ideas right now. Last night I gave up on revising the article and put it off until this morning. Instead, I made a crocheted flower just so I could have a small project that I could finish and feel better. I think it helped me relax a little bit, too.

It’s less than three weeks away from the Steampunk World’s Fair, and I need to work on my airship presentation, a biography for a class, and a book proposal. But the toughest assignment is to revamp my resume and create a curriculum vitae. It’s not just the word count that makes a writing project tough!

*Fear of the number thirteen.

 

Thursday Writing Prompt No. 79

I’ve been invited to submit a book proposal for a history textbook. It doesn’t mean that I’m going to get the contract, but it’s pretty exciting to get the offer and a big ego boost, too. I have a proposal form to follow that includes things such as an overview of the book and why I’m writing it, who the audience is and why the book would be useful to them, and some information about myself. Even though this is for a nonfiction book, it occurred to me that the same process can be applied to fiction writing.

Why not ask the same questions about a novel? Or even a short story? It doesn’t have to take the fun out of writing fiction, but if you’re working on a book or story that you want to publish, then you should have some idea of your audience. This will be really useful if you go looking for an agent, or even if you decide to self publish. How will you know where to market your work if you don’t know what market you’re aiming for?

So this week’s Thursday Writing Prompt is to write a proposal for your story or novel. The usual advice for seeking agents is to write a short letter and follow it up with more information if the agent shows interest. But the proposal could easily be adapted to a letter format once you’ve gotten the basics down on paper. Here’s your challenge: write a proposal letter that includes an overview of your novel or story, the word length, the intended audience, and a short biography.

If you have a work in progress, use this writing prompt to focus yourself on what needs to be done. If you haven’t started a novel or story, or want to start a new one, use this proposal as a guide for developing a project. Since the proposal letter should probably be a one-page letter, keep your word count to roughly 250 words. This is long enough to give an agent some idea of the project but short enough that the agent can read it in a reasonable amount of time. No one wants to read a letter that resembles an epic saga for a short story.

 

 

Thursday Writing Prompt No. 78

Stairwell at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.

Happy Thursday, everyone! It’s time for the next installment of the Thursday Writing Prompt. Today’s prompt is going to include some items to include in your story as well as a timed element. Nothing drives the ability to write like a judiciously used deadline!

I’m battling several deadlines myself for the encyclopedia articles I’m writing as well as graduate school writing assignments. I’ve also given myself a deadline to finish editing/rewriting my NaNo 2011 novel. And I’ve picked up a new project: I’m going to be giving a presentation at this year’s Steampunk World’s Fair on airships in literature, so I’m researching and writing that as well as looking for interesting images for an accompanying slide show. (I refrain from calling it a Powerpoint presentation because there will be no bullet points!)

So, set aside fifteen minutes for this week’s writing prompt. That’s your deadline: fifteen minutes from whenever you start. If you have a stopwatch or stopwatch app, use it — and don’t look at it while you’re writing! Keep your eyes on your page, whether you’re writing by hand or typing. This is not going to be about word count, although you should try to get at least 100 words written. If you’re just going to sit for fifteen minutes and write a sentence there’s little point in challenging yourself!

Here are the items to use in your story: a backpack, a rolled-up newspaper, a white feather, and a four-leafed clover.

 

Writing Tasks for April

A beautiful autumn day in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, with golden aspen trees.

I’ve been buried under writing assignments and other work, so I haven’t been keeping up with the Thursday Writing Prompts. But a new one will debut this week, so stay tuned! In the meantime, I’ve set myself a goal to finish editing my 2011 NaNo novel by the beginning of June.

I’m going to try for a traditional publishing route instead of self-publishing, so at some point I’m going to start looking for an agent, too. There are different opinions on whether to search out an agent while the writing and editing is still in progress or to wait until the book is completely finished and then start looking. The basic story is done, but as I’m editing and fixing continuity problems I realize that it would be easy to keep rewriting the book forever, so it is ever really done? I guess knowing when to step away from the keyboard is a big problem.

I’ve gotten some excellent feedback from a writing group I belong to on the first 11 chapters, most of which is along the lines “you overwrite and explain too much.” Well, it’s a lot easier to cut out stuff than to go back and fill in holes. But since I put the novel aside for a while I’m finding that it’s a lot easier to see what the reviewers were talking about. The characters are also feeling more like distinct personalities and it’s easier to see where dialogue or actions don’t work properly.

I have my work cut out for me this month. This week I have a literature review to do for my graduate class on World War II, and I have five more encyclopedia articles to write by the end of the month. In the meantime there’s a ton of reading for class, too, and that’s on top of a full-time job. Somehow I will fit in editing my novel and getting on the treadmill at least three times a week. There are enough hours in the day, I just have to get better organized. See you on Thursday!

 

Thursday Writing Prompt No. 77

Happy Pi Day!

In honor of Pi Day, this week’s Thursday Writing Prompt celebrates by getting poetic.

Search out a recipe for a pie of your choice, whether it’s apple or cherry or pumpkin and write down the list of ingredients used in making the pie. It doesn’t matter what the measurements are for the ingredients unless you want to get specific. Apple, flour, water — those words will suffice for your vocabulary list.

Now, compose a rhymed poem to take the place of the recipe instructions on how to make the pie. For inspiration, get yourself a helping of pie to munch on while you create!