blather blather blather

[squeequeg]

All right. Since the usual breakneck pace at work has dwindled to a lull (not unusual on Tuesday nights), I think I can start to put up a more comprehensive Viable Paradise report. I'll be doing a lot of necessary skimming, so forgive me for leaving out important bits. I'll catch those some other time around.


I took the ferry over Sunday afternoon, and while on it watched an old man feed a seagull. He would hold pieces of bread out over the railing, and because of the wind, the gull had to swoop in over the ferry -- about two feet from my head -- to snatch the bread from his fingers. It was beautiful, and the image stayed with me for some reason. As did the mournful ringing of the buoys, though that's partly because I was wearing cute_fuzzy_evil's sheep bell around my neck and so chimed in sympathy with it.

I meet Val, one of my roommates, and we talk books for a while before dinner. I like her -- she's a postal worker who reads Terry Pratchett, and the occasional giggling from her locker disturbs her coworkers. At dinner, Kate (on staff) greets me by name, which startles me for a moment. We eat and then play Mafia and Thing, which I hope to teach to people sometime soon…I know some have played a Mafia variant at New Year's, but Thing seems to be appropriate given our state of minds as well. (Besides, I want to do the Dance of Death.) Yoon, my other roommate, shows up partway through the games, and happily joins in the destruction.

I head up to bed and try not to think about my novel.

Monday morning I dream that I'm playing Go with one of the instructors (Patrick Nielsen Hayden, actually). Bizarre. I also seem to have a better grasp of it in the dream than in real life.

The basic structure of VP is this: one-on-one sessions, in which I get to talk about my submission with one of the instructors; five-way critiques, in which three students and one instructor critique another student's work; lectures; and colloquiums, which usually are like lectures but with more arguing. Free time is spent writing critiques, assignments, or staggering out into the sunshine and dazedly wondering why I didn't make it outside much today.

My five-way is Tuesday, so I'm okay for today, and the crit goes well, I think. There aren't any comments that are solely to be mean or to show off how clever the critiquer is. Lecture is Jim MacDonald on plot -- using chess pieces. Maybe wavyarms and I need to have a chess talk sometime. It's good, and I start to see where I may have screwed up with my novel. I skip lunch at the nearby restaurant and feel kind of silly and antisocial for doing so, but it does give me time to work on my next critique.

Next is my one-on-one with Jim, who enthusiastically demolishes my novel. This, I think, may be good. It's in some ways a very talky book, and I don't have enough action to balance it out. I don't think I agree with all his comments yet, but I'm also not touching the MS for a month, so I'll have time to work out what I think would fix the novel. Jim offers to teach me what decent whisky tastes like.

After a colloquium that veers all over the place and an assignment to add Evil Overlord elements to a story that isn't working, we have dinner. No Thing tonight, but we do go out to see the luminous jellyfish in the bay.

So many, many stars.

Stay up late talking with April, and then with Yoon and Val. Val and I trade a few lines from Goats, especially the scientology bit. Fall into bed.

Tuesday I make pancakes. Booyah.

I scrawl up a crit, talk some with Val, and head off to my five-way. It's not as bad as I expected; after Jim's crit, it's very encouraging. They seem to like it, and they catch the flaws that I hadn't noticed but should have (including one Damn You, Robert Jordan! moment). Laura Mixon (instructor) also seems to like it. That's a relief. Teresa Nielsen Hayden's lecture is next, on exposition, and damn, is it good. Yoon, April, and I go down to the beach at lunch. April swims (brave April!) and Yoon and I beachcomb. I come back and work on my Evil Overlord story, which has mutated into English Ballad+Space Opera+Evil Overlord Story. Wheee! It's all first-draft-ish, which isn't so good. Oh well, that's what rewrites are for.

Colloquium is on sex and violence and how to write them. Example: if your male character's face is pressed up against female character's attributes, chances are it's going to be too dark for him to see anything and thus describe it in lurid detail. We also get a look at a very disturbing paramedic textbook. Iiiiick.

Dinner is pizza and Beer with Billy, which is essentially reading a Shakespeare play out loud. Henry V, not one I'm familiar with and not one I entirely get -- I can't quite get a handle on Henry's motives. But the accents and readings are great, lending motives that were probably not the Bard's intention but are damn funny. Off to see the jellyfish again, this time after Jim haves me try really good whisky. I wobble all the way there and back. We attempt to adjust the earth's rotation by jumping up and down. End up talking late into the night with TNH, PNH, Jim, Steve (instructor who hasn't been mentioned by name yet…sorry, Steve), Yoon, April, uh…Lisa? Others? Brain went fuzzy due to second try of whisky at that point.

Hmm…I may have to cut this entry off here and leave the rest for tomorrow.

Comments

[minyan.livejournal.com]

Yes, thank you! This sounds wonderful and I'm glad to know places like this exist:-j Best of luck with the novel (is this a later one than the one I've seen?) You're incredibly, incredibly impressive!

[stealthmuffin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's a new one -- and less dull than the one you saw. But still talky.

and thanks!