Author: Wil

Author, actor, producer. On a good day, I am charming as fuck.

four things

Posted on 6 November, 2008 By Wil

Four things this morning:

This toaster gives new meaning to Dark Side.
Newsweek is running a series called the Special Election Project. They had reporters inside both campaigns, with incredible access to candidates and staff, with the understanding that the story wouldn’t be written until after the election. It’s fascinating to me, and I thought I’d pass it along.
Zina Saunders is a brilliant artist and her political work these last couple of months has blown me away. Due to reader requests, she collected her campaign work into a book.
President-elect Obama. I have to keep saying it, because I can’t believe it. Landslide. Mandate. Hoping this is a step toward the end of Lee Atwater-style politics. Quoting myself from Twitter: “Yes we can” is a much better motto for my country than “Be afraid.” Hope > Fear. Unity > Division.

I’m working on something awesome. I can’t wait to say what it is.

you’re not gonna get the final boss tamed

Posted on 5 November, 2008 By Wil

I’m a lousy friend, and I haven’t mentioned that MC Frontalot‘s new album Final Boss has been out for over a month. I think it’s his best album yet, and I’m not just saying that because I’m on it, dropping phat rhymes. You can download Wallflowers for free, and then you can purchase and download the whole album once your mind has been sufficiently blown. The whole album is fantastic, but I especially love Shame of the Otaku(teaser MP3) and Diseases of Yore(teaser MP3). I’m also intensely jealous that Front got Scott Campbell to do his cover art. Scott Campbell is awesome.

After you’ve heard the entire album, including my skit about vocations, you’ll have a new appreciation for this album cover, designed by Lore Sjöberg. Did I mention that it was awesome? It looks like I didn’t, so: it’s awesome.

Finally, MC Frontalot is going on tour, and he’s totally coming to your town … as long as you live in one of the towns on the tour schedule.

YES WE DID

Posted on 4 November, 2008 By Wil

I just called Ryan at school and told him to look around, because he’ll want to remember where he was when Barack Obama was elected president.

I’m too giddy and relieved for deep thoughts, and there’s a bottle of champagne that Anne and I have been waiting to open for a long time, so I’ll just say: The nightmare is over. Now, it’s time to get to work.

(image yanked from kos)

one lever, pulled.

Posted on 4 November, 2008 By Wil

Photo 26.jpg

My voting experience was quick and easy. I think I spent more time confirming my ballot was marked correctly than I spent waiting in line. I guess going in the middle of the morning will do that for you. I wasn’t expecting it, but the historical significance of the moment totally overwhelmed me, and I will admit that I got something in both of my eyes when I voted for Barack Obama. I’ve voted in every election since 1990, and this is the first time I’ve ever felt genuinely hopeful when I cast my ballot, instead of resigned.

Have you voted? Feel free to share your experience if you like.

in which wil attempts to collect all his writing resources into one post

Posted on 4 November, 2008 By Wil

I’m not doing NaNoWiMo, but I know a lot of people who read my blog are, so I thought I’d collect some of the writing advice I’ve found over the years and put it all into one easily-bookmarked post.

Before I get to the older stuff, a couple new things I’ve found:

io9 (which I feared would be lame like Gawker, but is awesome like Lifehacker) collected some secrets to creating great characters, according to six science fiction authors.
I wrote about the weird feeling of emptiness that I always experience after I finish a project. Charlie Stross expressed something similar in a post titled On finishing.

Got it? Yay! Let’s move on to some older stuff:

five simple ways to Just Keep Writing
Elizabeth Bear, Cherie Priest, and John Scalzi are three authors who are as generous with their advice as they are awesome and successful.
One more post with lots of links to and wisdom from Elizabeth Bear.
Five writing lessons I wish I’d learned the easy way.
Even Neil Gaiman struggles from time to time. This is very comforting to me. (Interesting note. If you read that linked post, you’ll see a mention of my friend who quit his safety net job to be an actor. He’s on Heroes this season. Go David!)
Neil Gaiman, it turns out, is very reassuring to me.
Sometimes, you just get writer’s clog. This is okay, and it will pass.
I explored some of the differences I’ve encountered between writing short-form and long-form fiction. Related to that, from the common sense file: When working on short short fiction, which I’d say is between 500 and 1000 words, I can keep stuff in my head and write it all on the fly. Since I’ve moved into longer-form stuff this year, I’ve discovered that I absolutely must have an outline to follow, so I write that first (I spend a lot of time on it) and then use it as a memory map (much like I use my own memories when I write my narrative non-fiction stuff) when I write the story. I did this with both Star Trek mangas and with one of the two short stories (~15,000 words each) I’ve been working on since June. Of the two, guess which one has been enjoyable to work on? [::headdesk::]
A collection of resources that I’ve come across, which I found useful as a writer.
John Rogers writes very candidly and frequently about writing for television and movies. He is awesome, and so is his blog.

If you’re doing NaNoWiMo, remember that the whole point of the thing is just to get a whole bunch of words together in a hopefully-coherent story that you will have to edit, rewrite, and polish. It is not supposed to be good, it is not supposed to be perfect, or even ready for anyone but you to read. The idea is to write, and write a lot, so let me close with Wil’s Fundamental Truth of Writing: Don’t be afraid to suck. It is easier to fix a broken scene than it is to fill up a blank page.