The Wild Blog in the West

Okay, so it's not quite 50,000 yet, just about 48,000.   My neo-Victorian novel stood at 174,000 words at its longest.  Now it's just under 126,000 and falling.  The goal is to get it as close to 120,000 as possible, or even lower, without killing it. So far, with just under 6,000 to go, the novel still lives.  So how did I do it?  It's easy! 1.  Read through your entire book, snipping extraneous "even"s, "that"s, "only"s and other filler words that don't alter the meaning of the sentence if removed.  That's good for 1,500 or so. 2.  Read through your entire book again.  This time, on top of snipping extraneous words, snip certain extraneous sentences as well.  Now you've cut almost 6,000 words from your novel.  Wow! 3.  Cut a short chapter that, though it provides character moments, disrupts the flow and doesn't really add anything to the story overall.  So out it goes, all 2,000 words of it.  Goodbye fun little cha

Two unpopular opinions in a row?  Can the universe hold? Eh, I was having a bit of a dry spell for a while, unable to think of anything I truly liked or disliked that most other people felt the opposite way about.  Then I remembered one of the most personal aspects of life, the one thing most likely to spur strong opinions. No, not motherhood. I'm talking about diets.  "But it's not unpopular to hate fad diets," you say.  Unless they're the ones you swear by. I should back up and explain.  Now and then, I have digestive ailments, and I am sensitive to a variety of foods.  Tired of dealing with the issue, I went to a nutritionist at my glorified McDonalds of a hospital network, who determined that I was gluten sensitive.  (As to why I was not simply referred to a gastroenterologist?  My hospital network demands that you jump through hoops first, including attending a special class and then seeing a nutritionist.  Because going to a GI doc right away woul

"Well sure, lots of people dislike driving," you think. No, I hate driving. "Sure, lots of people hate traffic jams and speedsters and --" No, I hate driving .  Not just hate it, but fear it. Let me back up a little.  I don't hate all driving.  I actually enjoy driving to some extent, like on curving country back roads.  Driving across town?  No problem. It's when I need to drive long distances on the freeway that the hate and fear come in waves.  By long distances, I mean more than 20 miles. I can't fully explain where the hate/fear came from.  It arose not long after I first started driving, when I realized that 65 mph on the freeway was kind of fast!  It is probably mainly centered around issues of control: driving is one of the more dangerous activities in this country, and I really prefer keeping my risk of death or bodily injury low, thanks. Then there is the claustrophobia element: stuck in one car, one position, for possibly hour

For the previous installment, go here . "Why even bother?" you might wonder.  When you think of media portrayal of introverts, could a less likely example come to mind? Sometimes you find introversion, and treatment of introverts, in unexpected places.  And sometimes the examination of lack of introversion can be just as revealing. First, here's the story.  Six kids, two parents, and a housekeeper, blended together through marriage in 1969, on a sitcom that would last five years.  While Mike and Carol Brady occupied a more central role in the earlier seasons, in later seasons, they would frequently be supporting players to the kids: Greg, Marcia, Peter, Jan, Bobby, and Cindy.  Most episodes were surprisingly grounded in real life situations, such as school elections, fundraisers, football games, romantic rivals, school plays, and learning to drive.  That is, when they weren't about cursed Tiki statues, unlikely celebrity cameos, or being a professional pop

Normally I provide one unpopular opinion and expound at length.  However, the unpopular opinions I have lately are on subjects that are not especially weighty.  That is not to say I couldn't find more to say about them at a future date.  But for now, I give you not one, but five randomly chosen unpopular opinions. 1.  Get off my lawn!   Usually when that expression is used, it is meant to paint the speaker as a crotchety, out-of-touch, inflexible nincompoop who hates the free-flowing awesomeness of young people.  Omigod, how dare this geezer resent young people romping on his lawn?  It's like he cares about respect for other people's possessions or something.  If you worked hard to maintain your property, or something equivalent, why shouldn't you resent the people who make light of, and ruin, your efforts?         2.  I can't stand Pixar's UP.   People treat this movie like it's the high watermark of cinema.  The first 10 minutes were poignant, but

By which I mean: should I keep blogging about episodes of this series? At this point, it doesn't matter: for us luckless Americans, Series Five of Downton Abbey  begins in January 2015.  But Downton  will begin airing in the UK and other parts of the world soon, and already promises that earth-shattering changes are on the way. The year is 1924.  Socialism is on the rise, and the Labour Party runs the country for the first time.  There will be change like never before, and Downton Abbey may not survive! Pause and consider what you just read.  Does it sound different from what was promised in previous series? Unprecedented change in the social order?  Check.  Downton may come apart at the seams?  Check.  Downstairs characters reveal a desire for social advancement?  Check.  Lord Grantham sputters with outrage?  Check.  The Dowager Countess has the perfect witticism to capture it all?  Double check. Each year promises remarkable change, but the greatest upheavals -- Matth

Still very busy and dealing with some big life changes, blah, blah, blah... That said, I've been meaning to write a blog post on how I do my research for my Victorian novel, if only because it's a vital part of my writing process, and I'm always interested to see how historical writers approach it. Many writers declare that research is their favorite part of the process and that writing comes second.  I feel the opposite.  I enjoy research and get excited when I discover new details, but for me, the story is the thing.  I want to harvest enough details to provide a realistic setting.  I don't want to wallow in research books for months on end; rather, research is like an itch that I need to scratch until it disappears. That said, providing a wholly believable setting for a historical story, especially if the story is broad in scope, can take quite a bit of research.  Reference texts, contemporary novels, newspapers, pamphlets, maps, you name it.  As for where I