Saturday

Mission: Sleep Ridiculous Hours was a success. Really, it was only the thunderstorms that woke me up. And I feel much more human. Now it is the time to make pflinson (Russian pancakes--really more like crepes) for brunch, and then to get critiques done for the writer's meeting tomorrow while simultaneously following along in the CoyoteCon.com panels online. And later there is friend's birthday grilling, which I even bought a present for lo these many months ago.

...There's also a scary mound of dishes to be done in there somewhere.

I am so happy I'm not working the day job today.

CoyoteCon: Transformative Sex

Why transformative sex?
[teresawymore] 12:10 pm: yep Joely...and erotica has been limited in it
because it's viewed as a means to an end--a genre defined by its effect
rather than its storytelling. This focus on its effect makes authors
afraid to risk personal revelation, leading to procedural writing that
plays into myths and stereotypes about sex. Doesn't allow transform
ation of character or reader. Erotica has great potential to reveal
character through interplay of public and private information that no
other genre dares to embrace.
[joelysueburkhart] 12:10 pm: If a reader can skip your sex scene and not
miss something crucial, then it's not a transformative scene.

How to make it transformative
[joelysueburkhart] 12:16 pm: I like what Anna does with her sex scenes --
she treats each one like an individual hero's journey.
[Deena] 12:16 pm: Joely, and Anna, can either of you expand on that?
[joelysueburkhart] 12:16 pm: There are dark moments in each scene, inner
caves that must be explored, before you can return with the elixir.
[Deena] 12:17 pm: heh. I'm 12.
    [AnnaB] 12:17 pm: I try to treat my sex scenes like any other scene.
There should be something both or one of the characters wants, obstacles to
that goal and some sort of resolution.
[joelysueburkhart] 12:18 pm: Something is at stake. At any point they might
have to abandon the quest. That raises the emotion to a new high.
    [AnnaB] 12:18 pm: When I plot my stories (and I'm definitely a plotter) I
try to keep the Hero's Journey in mind for not only the external and internal
journey of the characters, but also their emotional journeys, which, since I
write erotic romance involves sex.

Remember the characters
[joelysueburkhart] 12:30 pm: For me, the spanking (or other sexual element)
has to be integral to the character. Why does he/she need it? What does it
show? It's not just the act.

CoyoteCon: Child Maltreatment

( On the topic of child abuse. Cut for triggeriness. )

Synopses

I have to write the synopses for Vicesteed now, and it's terrifying me. I mean, I can get it down to three paragraphs, but anything less than that feels impossible. And I'll definitely need a one-paragraph version and (ack!) a one-sentence pitch.

This is my best attempt at a sentence pitch (logline), and it's clunky, and doesn't address everything:
Vicesteed is a steampunk locked-room murder mystery set in a
far future where a woman whose only memories are of the vices of
others must fight through an unfamiliar neo-Victorian world to find
out who she was, who took away her memories, and what she really did
in her role as a vicesteed.

And for the paragraph, I've got this, but again, leaves maybe too much out, and the last sentence I fear is cliche:
In a Victorian steampunk future, QUINCY is a private investigator ordered to find the cause of the comatose Prince Consort's affliction. Two very different women are the key to solving this locked-room mystery: VALINDA, a former vicesteed searching for her identity--and her revenge--after escaping a theme park of depravity where her experiences were broadcast to a discerning audience; and ROSEMARY, a gently bred young lady with dangerous ties to a rebel underground and an unfeminine inclination to build clockwork automata. They unravel the conspiracy, but not before they find passion, betrayal, unwanted truth, and murder.

My problem:
How do you condense it all down to a pitch when you've got three separate plotlines equally balanced with three main characters, all of which interrelate but are more than just different views of the same thing? Just pitch the opening plotline and allude to the others? I can figure out how to get it down to three paragraphs, but a one-paragraph or heaven forbid one sentence pitch is beyond me. If I focus on the thing that they start out with in common, it requires way too much explanation of how they fit together. How did you do it? Any good resources to read for key things to include or exclude or look for?

( CoyoteCon general summary advice )

Writing Logs: Working too much for the day job

05/21/10, Friday, worked full-time
* Read WritersMarket newsletter.
* Wrote 1 1/2 pgs. on "Leaving Remediation Town," the next longhand project.

05/20/10, Thursday, worked full-time
* Read 2 FundsforWriters and WritersDigest newsletters.
* The Importance of Specificity: http://blog.writersdigest.com/mfaconfidential/The+Importance+Of+Specific+Details.aspx

05/18/10, Tuesday, worked full time
* Read WritersWeekly newsletter.

05/17/10, Monday, worked full time
* Wrote Aswiebe's Market List newsletter, posted around.
* Worked on making editing changes to Vicesteed ch. 30.

05/16/10, Sunday
Did stuff? What stuff, I do not remember. But there was definitely stuff done. Hmm. I know I attended Coyote Con again--beyond that it's a blur.

05/15/10, Saturday, worked on day job stuff
* The power of nicknames: http://www.plottopunctuation.com/blog/show/78
* Updated market list from Duotrope and cleared out old contest listings.
* Attended Coyote Con stuff.

05/13/10, Thursday
* Posted writing logs.
* Made lawyer-suggested edits to copyright piece.
* Processed Strange Horizons' form rejection of "The Haunts of Hill Crossing." Finally. Apparently I got that email in April and just filed it in my "do something with this" folder and never actually processed it until now. Oops. Go go gadget rolling my to-do list!
* Submitted the first 197 words of Vicesteed to the Dear Lucky Agent contest.
* Worked on making editing changes to Vicesteed ch. 30.