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dr_phil_physicsSo I hunkered down to get an entry in the 2014 Jim Baen Memorial Writing Contest. I always mean to enter that, but most years I either forget or don't have the time. Since the theme in near-term near-space, I don't have a lot of NASA-era or post-NASA in my Invenstory.
So Thursday in the office, actually in the new third floor Physics Help Room, I came up with an idea at 12:10pm, started a file on the Kindle Fire HD at 12:32 and had 142 words, even as I helped several students. Plus more sketched out in my head. Last night we had Sandra Bullock in the 1995 hacker movie The Net on WGN and I wrote for an hour in the Kindle, then Gmailed the file over to SUMMER, where even though it was saved in Word 97-2003 format by OfficeSuite 7 Pro, Word 95 was able to open it.
By 11:30 I had my story. As is typical of Version 1.01 stories, I am sure it's not long enough. Probably needs to be 10,000 words, but given that's over the contest limit, just as well. And when it gets rejected, I have all the skeleton structure for a big rewrite. And if I should place, well that's just gravy.
Anyway, I got my story converted to the anonymous RTF file and sent by 11:56pm. Go me. Between Clarion and the WOTF workshop, I know I can write a story in a short time. And having a deadline is a great motivator.
And then, of course, in the light of day, I see the deadline is February 1st. Saturday 1 February 2014 23:59:59.
Ah well, I didn't want to spend my Saturday rushing to finish a story -- have other tasks to perform today. (grin)
The good news is that if you are reading it just as I post, you have nine hours. (double-grin)
It's February 1st. Maybe the new Locus magazine is in the mailbox by the road.
Dr. Phil
So Thursday in the office, actually in the new third floor Physics Help Room, I came up with an idea at 12:10pm, started a file on the Kindle Fire HD at 12:32 and had 142 words, even as I helped several students. Plus more sketched out in my head. Last night we had Sandra Bullock in the 1995 hacker movie The Net on WGN and I wrote for an hour in the Kindle, then Gmailed the file over to SUMMER, where even though it was saved in Word 97-2003 format by OfficeSuite 7 Pro, Word 95 was able to open it.
By 11:30 I had my story. As is typical of Version 1.01 stories, I am sure it's not long enough. Probably needs to be 10,000 words, but given that's over the contest limit, just as well. And when it gets rejected, I have all the skeleton structure for a big rewrite. And if I should place, well that's just gravy.
Anyway, I got my story converted to the anonymous RTF file and sent by 11:56pm. Go me. Between Clarion and the WOTF workshop, I know I can write a story in a short time. And having a deadline is a great motivator.
And then, of course, in the light of day, I see the deadline is February 1st. Saturday 1 February 2014 23:59:59.
Ah well, I didn't want to spend my Saturday rushing to finish a story -- have other tasks to perform today. (grin)
The good news is that if you are reading it just as I post, you have nine hours. (double-grin)
It's February 1st. Maybe the new Locus magazine is in the mailbox by the road.
Dr. Phil
