Writing about writing, or, Let's Go Meta-s
Sep. 4th, 2021 05:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogI will be physically incapable of discussing a specific baseball team for at least a few more minutes, so I am faced with a decision: essentially regurgitate a Facebook post before I stick my head in an oven over their conduct (don't worry, it's electric), or write one about the Texas Snitchin' Bill that makes me want to convert to a gas one?
Answer: both. I will save the latter for posting tomorrow, and lazily paste the earlier-written one here and now.
----
So, nine years ago this soon to be November, I wrote a novel. It will come as no shock that the subject was baseball. I got it in to NaNoWriMo about 30 minutes under the 11:59:59 NaNo wire, and 11 words over the 50,000 word minimum.
See? We got a stinkin' badge and everything:)
I pitched it (heh) a bit, but the general consensus was it was too implausible. "You did WHAT on the first page, and THAT on the second?!?"
Granted, this was late 2012, early 2013. Almost all definitions of "plausibilty" went out the window in 2015 when a certain orange numpty came down a Manhattan escalator, and the remainder died last year when a disease turned our world upside down.
Still, I had enough doubts about it to give up the effort of trying to get it published. But over the years, specific implausible things happened in real life that I had made happen in my book. The following year? A scary event at a famous sporting venue actually occurred in one of my novel's cities after I'd created a scary event at a famous sporting venue in the same city. A few years after that, and after I'd "made up" a newspaper magnate buying the Boston Red Sox? The owner of the Boston Red Sox bought the Boston Globe for reals. And while I have not yet realized my bold prediction of MLB returning to Montreal on a fulltime basis? There have been plans, and preseason games, and shitty situations in other current cities that make it as likely as ever that it, too, will happen.
Mind you, I suck at sports predictions.
Despite all that, the story remained in the proverbial "bottom drawer of thedesk disk," rarely generating a thought about it even existing, until I joined a Saturday afternoon (ET) online writers' group. dauntless_heart and several other regulars, were presenting chapters from ongoing works. I decided to dust off the ol' effort and, over the past three months, have been uploading a chapter or two at a time.
And they like it! Hey Mikey!
There have been a ton of great suggestions on how to make it better, which I am now incorporating into the past as well as new chapters. It's also amazing how much of the basic story has held up in terms of real life since late 2012.
And more things from the story came true than even I realized.
----
In the chapter I presented today (the 8th of 48 with an epilogue following it), I found two more specific plot points I'd completely forgotten about. I had made them both up out of thin air, and nobody at the time would have found either of them the least bit plausible.
One: that in my story's not too distant future, the Boston Red Sox would play regular season games against the Toronto Blue Jays in a minor league stadium in downtown Buffalo, " in recognition of its stadium’s own storied history and its recent connection to the Blue Jays organization." Not only did that happen in the COVID era, I was there to see it happening.
Two: That the Red Sox would go and trade their arguably best 2012 player, Mookie Betts.
Right. Anybody want to read this now? Before it goes, I will continue the extensive rewriting. A few things have been rendered impossible by nine years of life, and things like the above foreshadowings will have to be redone to either change them altogether or make them reflective of the things that did happen rather than predictive of things that will. But I will duly note my prestigitationous proclivities in an author's note- along with thanking Joy, and Steve, and Martin, and Rachel, and everyone else from the group who helped make it better. Plus, it'll up the word count;)
ETA. Turn off the gas. The Mets blew a 9-run lead but still came back to win. But a second game is to follow, so keep that thermostat handy.
Answer: both. I will save the latter for posting tomorrow, and lazily paste the earlier-written one here and now.
----
So, nine years ago this soon to be November, I wrote a novel. It will come as no shock that the subject was baseball. I got it in to NaNoWriMo about 30 minutes under the 11:59:59 NaNo wire, and 11 words over the 50,000 word minimum.
See? We got a stinkin' badge and everything:)
I pitched it (heh) a bit, but the general consensus was it was too implausible. "You did WHAT on the first page, and THAT on the second?!?"
Granted, this was late 2012, early 2013. Almost all definitions of "plausibilty" went out the window in 2015 when a certain orange numpty came down a Manhattan escalator, and the remainder died last year when a disease turned our world upside down.
Still, I had enough doubts about it to give up the effort of trying to get it published. But over the years, specific implausible things happened in real life that I had made happen in my book. The following year? A scary event at a famous sporting venue actually occurred in one of my novel's cities after I'd created a scary event at a famous sporting venue in the same city. A few years after that, and after I'd "made up" a newspaper magnate buying the Boston Red Sox? The owner of the Boston Red Sox bought the Boston Globe for reals. And while I have not yet realized my bold prediction of MLB returning to Montreal on a fulltime basis? There have been plans, and preseason games, and shitty situations in other current cities that make it as likely as ever that it, too, will happen.
Mind you, I suck at sports predictions.
Despite all that, the story remained in the proverbial "bottom drawer of the
dauntless_heart and several other regulars, were presenting chapters from ongoing works. I decided to dust off the ol' effort and, over the past three months, have been uploading a chapter or two at a time.And they like it! Hey Mikey!
There have been a ton of great suggestions on how to make it better, which I am now incorporating into the past as well as new chapters. It's also amazing how much of the basic story has held up in terms of real life since late 2012.
And more things from the story came true than even I realized.
----
In the chapter I presented today (the 8th of 48 with an epilogue following it), I found two more specific plot points I'd completely forgotten about. I had made them both up out of thin air, and nobody at the time would have found either of them the least bit plausible.
One: that in my story's not too distant future, the Boston Red Sox would play regular season games against the Toronto Blue Jays in a minor league stadium in downtown Buffalo, " in recognition of its stadium’s own storied history and its recent connection to the Blue Jays organization." Not only did that happen in the COVID era, I was there to see it happening.
Two: That the Red Sox would go and trade their arguably best 2012 player, Mookie Betts.
Right. Anybody want to read this now? Before it goes, I will continue the extensive rewriting. A few things have been rendered impossible by nine years of life, and things like the above foreshadowings will have to be redone to either change them altogether or make them reflective of the things that did happen rather than predictive of things that will. But I will duly note my prestigitationous proclivities in an author's note- along with thanking Joy, and Steve, and Martin, and Rachel, and everyone else from the group who helped make it better. Plus, it'll up the word count;)
ETA. Turn off the gas. The Mets blew a 9-run lead but still came back to win. But a second game is to follow, so keep that thermostat handy.
Hahahaha
Date: 2021-09-05 12:01 pm (UTC)I was part of a couple of writer's groups back in Ohio over the years and they turned out to be real stinkers in various ways...
I was amazed to find so many talented people in one place--and you and Marty fit right in! :D
Re: Hahahaha
Date: 2021-09-06 12:37 am (UTC)