{"id":297,"date":"2017-08-21T20:43:26","date_gmt":"2017-08-22T00:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/dremadeoraich\/?p=297"},"modified":"2017-08-21T20:43:26","modified_gmt":"2017-08-22T00:43:26","slug":"whats-in-a-number","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/21\/whats-in-a-number\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s In a Number?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last night I finished the book I was reading (The Moon and the Other<\/em>, see Reviews page), and started N.K. Jemisin\u2019s Fifth Season <\/em>for the second time, so I can review it here. I loved it the first time, got so lost in it that I forgot to watch for style and plot points and whether or not she was breaking \u201cthe rules.\u201d (I\u2019m pretty sure she is.) This time, though, I hope to maintain a bit of distance (yeah, right) from the story so I can observe her technique. Before I was even a full chapter into it, I could see Jemisin\u2019s genius on every page. She fully deserves the Hugo it won. Now the third book in the series is out, of course\u2014The Stone Sky\u2014<\/em>which occasioned my decision to re-read and review the Broken Earth series here, for all of you, but once I\u2019m done with that, I think I\u2019ll go back and read her earlier works, to see if I can track her evolution. Maybe I can reverse engineer some of her methods and adapt them for my own use.<\/p>\n

Every published author touts their own process. Many emphasize that a daily word-count goal is a requirement, but that doesn\u2019t work for me. Frankly, I\u2019m not sure how it works for anyone who has a day job and no personal secretary. Even with Bobby shouldering most of our household day-to-day chores (kitchen duty, most laundry, grocery shopping, etc.), I find only a couple of hours most week nights to put toward writing, marketing or reading, not to mention website upkeep, or any number of everyday errands that I can\u2019t foist off on my loving husband.<\/p>\n

But we\u2019ve talked about this before.<\/p>\n

Still, I have to admit to having written nothing to speak of in over a month. (sigh) No real excuses, just riding the currents. Not sure where they\u2019re taking me, but I\u2019ve decided to go along, for the moment. We\u2019ll see what happens.\u00a0I haven\u2019t been idle, though. Most evenings of late, the time I would normally sit down to write has been spent researching targets for my short stories. A few may not be publishable\u2014I like them, I think they\u2019re good, but I can\u2019t seem to find the right e-zine or print magazine where they\u2019d be a good fit. Research like can\u2019t be rushed.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, I\u2019ve gone back to work on book two in my novel series. To my annoyance, I found there was a gap between notes I\u2019d made when I first started planning this thing and the draft outline I\u2019d pulled together, so I had no idea what I\u2019d been thinking when I wrote the outline. Sheesh. Me, married to the Back-Up King, and I\u2019d lost my notes somehow. I managed to put it back together, with one or two holes that can be filled as I go, and it might even turn out better than I originally intended, so it isn\u2019t a total loss, but it took my entire Sunday to get that far.<\/p>\n

I suppose I had na\u00efve hopes of getting \u201cdiscovered\u201d and being able to quit my job and write full-time \u2026 sort of like when I was a kid and dreamed of finding Mr. Right, and living happily ever after. But Life is not a fairy tale. There are nitty gritties involved\u2014every city, no matter how beautiful or sublime it looks on the surface, has sewers and traffic grids and urine or dog poop on the sidewalks and trash in the gutters. And all of that is part of the city\u2019s character, part of its personality. It\u2019s part of the Whole Experience. Learning a trade or a craft or an art is just the same.<\/p>\n

So writing isn\u2019t this romantic thing I\u2019d envisioned. It\u2019s messy. It\u2019s hard. It takes over a lion\u2019s share of your life. It\u2019s both joyous and discouraging by turns. It\u2019s maddening, but I love it so! It makes my heart sing\u2026.and right now, I can\u2019t imagine anything else taking its place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night I finished the book I was reading (The Moon and the Other, see Reviews page), and started N.K. Jemisin\u2019s Fifth Season for the second time, so I can review it here. I loved it the first time, got so lost in it that I forgot to watch for style and plot points and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-posts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8n0kX-4N","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":342,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2017\/09\/18\/the-stone-sky\/","url_meta":{"origin":297,"position":0},"title":"The Stone Sky","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"September 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"By N. 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I\u2019m familiar with that one, too. Unfortunately, it doesn\u2019t work that way, at least not for most of us. Even published writers have said to break-out sessions at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/category\/blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":794,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2018\/05\/14\/here-be-monsters\/","url_meta":{"origin":297,"position":2},"title":"Here Be Monsters","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"May 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I seem to be talking and thinking about monsters a lot these days. In part, that\u2019s because I joined Twitter. Rather, I should say I began using Twitter, since I created an account long ago, but never used it for anything other than following Duotrope posts. Now I\u2019m following N.K.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/category\/blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2803,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2022\/07\/10\/the-chronicles-of-self-publishing-6th-part-of-my-journey\/","url_meta":{"origin":297,"position":3},"title":"The Chronicles of Self-Publishing: 6th Part of My Journey","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"July 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"(or How I Did It, a \".doc\"-umentary) Part 6\/? Latest update: I got word from Duncan, my cover designer, that his wife was home and on the mend. Thank goodness for that! I know he is relieved, as is she. In addition to my joy at that good news, I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/category\/blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/downloading-ge77eeae26_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/downloading-ge77eeae26_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/downloading-ge77eeae26_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/downloading-ge77eeae26_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/downloading-ge77eeae26_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2851,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/21\/the-chronicles-of-self-publishing-7th-part-of-my-journey\/","url_meta":{"origin":297,"position":4},"title":"The Chronicles of Self-Publishing: 7th Part of My Journey","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"August 21, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"(or How I Did It, a \".doc\"-umentary) Part 7\/? 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