'The Russian House', a supernatural involving a 'dark gentleman', a gay young man who wants justice (or maybe revenge) for his murdered lover and a police sergeant who wants exactly the same. Not stalled just at the moment. Motivation? To drown out the voices in my head with the rattle of keys. And I would tell the world the words of Kurt Vonnegut. You just gotta be kind.'

1) making soft face washers for a friend who's due in about 4 weeks, an illuminated alphabet for Lucius Malfoy, and the very-stuck "Hearts of Oak"

2) Being slack, no energy and need to get my act together.

3) Reward basis. "Do X and you can have Y"

4) Hard as it is, you can't shake the whole "Are you being a writer like your grandmother/father/whatever" until you show them you're doing something totally different. Which means actually doing it. And that English teacher who mocked your wish to start off writing formula for Mills and Boon? Was a bitch and you shouldn't have listened to her. Oh. Sorry. The second one was just for me.

(1) I'm trying to develop a monograph on the development of the relationship of democracy and national identity (the national ideology, if you will) in Jamaica during the second decade after independence. That is, the 1970s. I've already written a draught of one chapter, and will have to come back to it. I'm in the middle of part of another and don't know yet whether I can complete it or should abandon it (the chapter, that is) or move on.

(2) What's holding me back ? the daie jobbe thinge.

(3) What motive force doth drive me on? I want to know what's around the corner. Plus, I want to go back and see what happened and analyse it with fresh eyes and a more open mind. I have a hypothesis half-formed (or half-warmed) and I need to look at the reality before I warm up the ideas. Plus there's tenure at the end of it.

(4) Does the world need to hear from me? I want to say something about how Jamaica managed to keep its democracy going, redefine what it was about, define itself as a country, and do so in spite of screwing up its economy. This is more political theory than anything else, and so I want to say something about the ideas that made this possible and why those ideas are worth attending to today.


None of this is clever, but it draws as much on my creativity as it does on my analytic skill.

Edited at 2011-10-18 01:25 pm (UTC)

I so want to read your monograph when you're done!

1) Currently working designs for a Minecraft temple I want to fill with chests, and a weird little short story that takes an alternate ending to a book I enjoyed.

2) Need to find more graph paper for my Minecraft designs, so I can figure out just how many blocks I need. Also need to spend time away from the computer and internet to get some writing done.

3) Motivation comes from desire. I want to know the end, more than anything. Also I promise myself a delicious drink.

4) Stop texting and driving, for the love of all that's good in the world. Especially when you're tooling through the grocery store parking lot where there are lots of people walking! How is this so hard to understand? This is dangerous and dumb.

1) Sarah Tolerance #4 and two short stories--one, my first collaboration.

2) I wouldn't call it stalled, exactly; as they say on Traffic Radio, there's a slowdown. Combination of suddenly realizing I may need to take the stitches out of the whole damned garment and do some fundamental re-patterning. Oh, and I just started my first full-time employed gig after a dozen years of freelancing.

3) Reminding myself that I like doing this. Reminding myself that at some point in every book I reach this molasses-like state, and it does resolve. Insisting that I write something every day--which often turns out to be Book, or plot-resolving musings about the book. Longhand. On the train. Also: I force myself to stop doing research.

4) Stop being stupid. Be kind to the people around you--by which I mean those in other states, other countries, etc. Sharing the wealth and making sure your fellow humans have certain basic amenities does not mean there will be less for you. Unclench.

1.) Sadly, nothing new. Well, maybe a flash short, but that's it. Plans in the works, probably a couple more short pieces, hoping to get to a new novel by January. Does writing lesson plans count?
2.) Day Jobbe. Further deponent sayeth not. And I'm also trying to launch my own e-book line by Christmas. Plus edits on sold works or works that if I edit, I might sell.
3.) Aggressive time-study and planning to carve out writing time. Plus skiing. And horse. And getting out in the backwoods. Hunting is an excellent brain cleaner. And did I mention skiing?
4.) Greed is NOT good.

1) The application essays for a pre-med program.

2) Because I really want to give a one-word answer to: "Is there other information about yourself that you consider important that has not been covered in the previous questions?"

3) I've always wanted to follow this path and now I am. Don't screw it up, self.

4) "I know who you are and I saw what you did."

1. I have three current (non-work) projects, on three different timescales:
(a) A quick and fun costume project for a party this weekend
(b) Designing and building a drink-making robot for BarBot 2012
(c) organizing Westercon66, which bovil and I acquired unexpectedly when one of our traditional bid hoaxes went viral last July, defeating the only filed bid.

2.
(a) was delayed briefly while searching my stock for misfiled materials and vainly attempting to clean the studio (I opted to camp in the living room and garage for the small amount of machine sewing required)
(b) Still in the conceptual stage; waiting for an assessment from a friend in the appropriate field on whether certain parts are up to the task
(c) We're waiting for financials from our parent organization's last convention to close before we can bid a hotel

3.
(a) The party is in 4 DAYS! (and, for a change, I'm almost done sewing already. Just need to design the makeup)
(b) This will be SO COOL when it's done, and should work as well or better than the robots we say this year. It's a chance to apply my day-job skills to something just for fun.
(c) Our reputation is at stake, and we don't want to lose the enthusiasm the hoax fired up. Lots of folk are counting on us

4. Applies to all of them (and my day job): take some joy in and from your work!

PS As soon as (a) is completed, we have a new set of historical costumes to build for our roles in a friend's elevation as a Laurel in the SCA next January.

Edited at 2011-10-18 02:11 pm (UTC)

1) What creative project are you working on right now? -- "The House of Faegrim" A fantasy novel. Ailessen Faegrim lives a lie and when his world blows up in his face in Afghanistan all he wants is to get back to his wife, but he can't. He is trapped in Faerie by his enemies' lies and the machinations of his family.

2) If you’re stalled, why? {Because I lost my 25 year old son and some days this seems merely frivilous.}

3) How do you motivate yourself? {He loved reading my 'stuff' no matter how bad it was.}

4) What would you tell the world if you could, today? {No matter how cliche this sounds, to live every single moment because you never know if it will be your last.}

Hi, Jay,

#1: I'm working on a short story for an Eric Reynolds anthology for next year. It's been fun to write!

#2: I'm stalled in the weirdest place, submitting the first book of the series I'm working on. Not writing it. the book has been done for two years. Submitting it. I even have an editor who has asked to see it. It's a puzzle to me.

#3: Motivation is easy and two-fold for me. First, I really like to compose, so I'm eager to get to my computer. Second, I'm on a twelve-year long, unbroken streak of writing days. I haven't missed a day since September of 1999. I wrote on the day I had kidney stones removed. I wrote on travel days, on wedding days, on funeral days, and on days when I was so busy that writing was the last thing I did before I collapsed into bed. I respect the streak.

#4: What would I tell the world? Hmmm. Don't vote Republican? No, that would be too easy. How about look at the facts before you vote.

1) "Neptune's Brood" -- a mundane SF space opera featuring robot space mermaids, atomic-powered interplanetary churches, and an entirely new economic justification for interstellar trade that gives rise to innovative and fascinating types of financial scam.

2) AFK today due to birthday.

3) Being paid helps.

4) I haz new varifocals!

@ 1) Bloody showoff!!!

@ 4) I think I need those.

1) Mid-way through crochet-ing a scarf each of my 12 family members, and writing a online mini-lecture about gene expression

2)I'm taking three classes and teaching one. I may want to do my creative things, but there's always a fire to put out.

3) Utter panic is a great motivator.

4) Be generous, no matter how much you have. If you won't at all miss what you gave, you were not generous. Give more.

I'm working on a novel about Robin Hood. I'm not exactly stalled, but I'm stepping slowly through, because the first draft of the opening really didn't capture the character as I saw him. Motivation is easy enough, though not frequent enough. Stories always keep trying to push themselves out of my head, and if I don't let them come out I'm sure my head with explode, and that would be bad.

No wisdom for the world, except possibly, "Pay attention. Respect each other." At least that's what I'm working on.

1) Ditchrider, sf short story set on another world. It's in rewrite. I wrote the original mess in NaNoWriMo 3 years ago. It's been tricky bringing an old story up to today's level of writing.

2) I stalled on a scene. Then day job hit. Then kid health issues hit. Then day job hit again. Months pass with no progress. Last week on a plane, I began noodling it again and realized what was wrong with the world. I also made notes for the fix.

3) Motivation can be frustrating. I've tried some outside deadlines, which can help. But what frustrates me is that I'm able to manage my self-employed day job just fine after all these years. But trying to transfer some of those habits to writing has proven difficult. I'm a fully functioning expert at the one career and a floundering yeoman at the other. Most of my motivation comes from within, which is a good thing, the way things are right now. But it drives me nuts to have two levels of motivation. Maybe Stross is right. Maybe the money in the day job, not to mention the statutory governmental deadlines, is the real motivation. Or the people relying on me to do my thing for them.

4) It's a gorgeous fall day in Virginia.

1. I always have several things going. I crochet and I make jewelry, fabricating as well as beading I'm working on a pendant for my sister with a stone she picked up in SanFran last summer and a ring for a friend's husband and several other pieces. Yarn-wise, I'm only working on one thing [a scarf with a lovely rayon chenille] actively right now as earlier in the year I took 5 months to single crochet a king-size blanket with a wonderful bamboo tape [it weighs 20 pounds....]

2. I'm stalled on a number of pieces of jewelry as I need more sterling sheet and fine silver bezel and that costs $$ I don't currently have.

3. Motivation. oi. I tend to let the materials I work with shape the pieces they end up in. I've done lapidary work and there are so many amazing stones/minerals out there... rock shops are a joy and a not-insignificant danger:)

4. be more compassionate and tolerant. also, mind your own business.

1) What creative project are you working on right now?

* The Nellus Academy Incident - a Battletech web serial.
* Copper and Blood - a weird west short story.
* YA Novel - outline process.

2) If you’re stalled, why?

I was stalled on the Nellus Academy because my Battletch fact checker had to quit due to life. I'm on my way again because I have a new fact checker.

Copper and Blood is stalled because it is more complex than I thought it would be. A murder mystery in the weird west needs more brain thought than previously expected.

3) How do you motivate yourself?

Exercise - because then I realize how much I'd rather be writing.

4) What would you tell the world if you could, today?

Share the love. Really. By helping others succeed, you succeed too.