A Winter Cold

I haven't been online much this week. A head cold has interfered with my concentration. The most annoying occurrence this week I blogged about on the SWS blog. That was my inability to escape it all into a good book. Writer-mind got in the way and started analyzing the book I was attempting to enjoy.

I was contacted about a contest over at Amazon... and I might see if the friend who mentioned this could do a post.

I promise the next time i sign on here I'll be more creative!

Textual Context

While reading Facebook comments on my wall, I noticed jokes about grammar. A friend teased my boyfriend about non-standard English used in a comment. A glance at Helium and the like definitely highglight the grammarian's concerns about language being "diluted" with the use of coloquialisms.

I guess that the most shocking bit about the whole thing is my epiphany: "I don't care."

Don't get me wrong, I do believe that it is important to have a good grasp of English. Anyone who writes had better know something. If you don't, well, you better be willing to put in the time to learn it!

That said, I think there are a few behavioral shifts we need to recognize before discussing the relevance of grammar to social networking sites:

1) Spoken language is not the same as written language.
2) Technology is affecting communication.
3) In spoken language, grammar and vocubulary usuage is dependent on context.
4) Texting and social networking are equivalent to conversing, sharing experience (like playing sharades at a party consisting of acquiantances)or even waving at
someone when walking down the street (poking, throwing sheep, etc.)

If social networking sites and texting are analogous to these casual forms of communication, the only part of it that makes standard grammar important is the fact that it is textually based. Writing has traditionally been the most formal of all forms communicating in English. The advent of writing has actually hindered natural language change, stalled it to such a degree that the alterations have been minimal in the past 500 years. (Yes, Shakespeare IS Early-Modern English.) All sources for proper grammar and vocabulary come from written works. We use dictionaries, thesarus, novels, and non-fiction texts to inform us of any topic we need. As we do so, we perpetuate standard English.

Bravo and Brava! Job well done, Reader!

But suddenly, context for written communication is broadening. As writing starting to take on the same contexts as spoken language, it makes sense that written grammar will become as context-dependent as spoken language. The lesson should be when to use it in which way. Standard English, in written form does not convey emotion the way that a voice would. In order to meet this need in casual textual conversing, the language changes. Grammar, which conveys its own loaded meanings, is changed to fit the needs of the society utilizing it.

Will this change formal documents? Of that I'm not certain. I certainly hope the alteration won't be extreme, but there is bound to be some reverberation. But then, language is the verbal (and textual) expression of culture, the communication of ideas and so forth. As those things change, and culture changes, so too does language.

From my standpoint, that is inevitable and nothing to balk at. I'm excited. it will be interesting to see what affects this has on formal writing...

Drawing Board

Ok, not entirely going back to the drawing board. But I started Novel One with a dramatically detailed world. I thought I had everything planned to the enth degree. but there's nothing like work on a revision and fresh eyes to make me say to myself: "Woa! Hold up! What do I need here?"

I think I need more research. I need to figure out a few key things that will bring the background of the world to life, and I need to color the whole bit with magic. My process is going to be: read, read, read. I don't want my world to be a spot-on medieval world, so I think the technology and architecture and such that I wish to study will be a range of periods, pieced together on Don-Yin as needed.

First step will be to compose lists: first references and then of precise things I wish to impliment. Next will come the ways in which the cultural/socio-economic/magical components of the world influence the details. Then I back up and integrate the new and improved detail into the story.

Hopefully the logistics will be improved this way :(

I also have to world build for New Project... though that research will be geared toward mytth and history, more than technology and architecture ...

Well, hey... it's something!

New Year!

I've been very indecisive about the face of this blog. I wobble between creative and professional. This topic came up at the New Year's party I attended. Now I have someone comfortable with templates dabbling with the format, so a brand new design will be unveiled soon. This time i promise to keep it!

The holidays brought other changes, too. SWS has a new website: sylvanopolis.com. And i am *going to* teach myself Dreamweaver. Currently I am using YouTube to refresh my InDesign know-how (Such that it is).

In the world of writing my progress is slow. But I'm working on time management in other areas, so as I progress in those areas I will be able to squeeze writing in as well. That's the goal! :D

New Year and New Goals

2009 has been an interesting year. Stress, frustration, inspiration, victory and failure have each taken their turn this year, leaving me bound in confused knots. The trials, at least have taught me a few things, not merely about the world, but also about myself.


I've changed. Yeah, I know. Big surprise there. It happens to us all. The last time I delved into "me" issues I came up with a definite concept of self. Of course, at that time, I was a teenager. Reading and writing were part of the very essence of my self-made definition. But in the past decade, I have acquired more to "me." I do not need to rebel against society as strongly as I once did. Nor do I need to define myself as "creative" in order to separate from the "masses." Teendom is over.

What I have left is altering my writing. No, there is no stopping-- just changing.

I am a people person, now. I need time with people and by myself. Sounds pretty normal right? But I've determined that I need stability (financially at least) in order to write. Meaning: day job. At least, for now. Until my Guy gets a degree and job. But being without a day job has certainly messed with my head. I thought it'd be a test. The internal dialogue of self discovery kinda goes as follows:

Y'know: "Can I really write full time?"
Answer: "Not right now."
Q: "Why not?"
A: "See those two weeks that you did it?"
Q: "That was bliss! What's wrong with that?"
A: "You shut out the world, ran from other responsibilities. And the goal is balance. Balance. No tipping the seesaw to one extreme or the other."

And that's the kicker. Other responsibilities. Teens don't have to worry about them: Rent, keeping the house clean, keeping up with people important to me, writers' group stuff, relationship stuff, family stuff (which got complicated post teendom), ethnic confusion for awhile (loooonnngg story :( ) jobs, school, now post-college confusion ...

And in the mix, I have a new character haunting me. My research indicates that this story *could* be more marketable, but I drag my heels about it. I spent eight years as an undergrad because I'm stubborn. Now the maturing practrical side is trying to get me to take a break on the story I've been working on for six years and the younger, impetuous stobborn side is rooting heels in the ground (and I wear heels, all the time, so this means my figurative self is literally planted :P) and crying "No! Hell no! You make me change and I won't budge!"

Voila. That's what I call writer's block.

So! New goals: give in to practicality. (So Lara can stop glaring at me from the back of my mind) ... but! still make time for Silver Mask. Being slow, patient, and practical is A OK. Really. Gotta accept that.

Writing part-time is just fine. Trading off to make certain my life is how I want it in five to ten years... I waited eight/ten years to get to the point I'm at now ...and in the process I've learned the years are far shorter than I once assumed. With patience, I'll get there. There's nothing wrong with the small steps.

So that's my goal. Time management. Small steps. Accepting that the new me is not the person I thought I was, but to like this person anyway...accept that my needs have changed...and find the best way to meet them all.

I'm stubborn, so I will succeed. 2010 will be better.

Creating Community

Creating a writing community does not seem like it should be a difficult thing. But here in Sacramento where coffee shops, law firms and medical offices dominate our down town, politics defines the mud through which we must wade. But rising from it, we define ourselves. Talking to artists and musicians I hear some of the same complaints I, as a writer, voice.

Musicians face issues of permitting. Where do you put on a show when half of the venues can no longer afford the permits required?

For critique groups, it's a matter of finding a place to meet that is quiet enough for concentration and discussion. I have met in groups at cafes all over the city. To no avail. In time, each group must move, due to expansion or noise or even the change of seasons, members moving, etc.

So SWS is trying to generate a network of critique groups in order to combat these issues. We hope to be centered around a Writers' Reference Library which will provide a physical focal point for meetings, and place people can go to learn about us.

Currently we have four successful groups going, and are looking to start more. The more people, the more knowledge, the better the whole.

Kindle on the PC?

Ok. I think this is big news. Yes,tons of information on e-readers and the like has been floating about the various blogs and articles and such, but this beats all.

Going to work/school, my significant other packs: iPod touch, cell-phone, PSP, netbook, portable hard drive, and four key chain flash drives. Sometimes he takes his camera or camcorder, depending on plans (likely plans for after work/school day). That's a lot of electronics. The next phase we are waiting for is the consolidation of these various electronics into one system. There is a reason girls' fashion has come to amount to a bottom and a top (roughly), much unlike the to the Victorian era. Simplicity. We like simplicity. Our electronics need to become more like our clothes.

As much as I am fascinated by the e-book phenomenon, I would love not to buy yet-another-device that relies on wifi and whatnot when I already have my computer. If I have a laptop and desktop, why do I need specialty devices? Give me a tablet netbook of approximately the size of a hardback book that will run e-books, let me read my blogs, take notes with a stylus and by typing, play flash-based content- in short, condense all my needs into one device so I'm not reliant on twenty when the technology is there for one.

Amazon seems to have taken a step in the right direction. Now if there is e-book software I can install on the computer to imitate the ink-paper ratio I am accustomed to ... well, then you have me.