My Dream Of Learning A Little Of Everything Gets A Lot Easier When They're All Related :D

This week on: Do I Want to Be Diane Duane or Read Every Word She's Ever Written

Diane Duane really is the where's waldo of authors. Like oh, I just finished, Star Trek (TOS), those Star Trek books look pretty cool. Huh that cover with Spock on it looks neat. Proceed to read one of my favorite novels in the entire world. Ok ok it's by Diane Duane. Gotta remember that. Starting TNG like yo it's Diane Duane again! She wrote this episode :). Oh well, I guess no more Diane Duane Star Trek as I have found all of them for my collection. Damn, well my friend really likes Spiderman/Venom. Her birthday's soon. Guess I should get her comic books? And with steel chair it's Diane Duane again! And oh wait, what other comics did she write? She wrote a comic book for Star Trek! Better read that! An X-men novel!! Hmmm, y'know I've been reading a lot of sci fi and comic books recently. I would really like to get back to my roots and read some fantasy, preferably with some wizards. Diane Duane once again snipes me from the google recommend books page. Doing some research on Barbie to get ready for the Barbie Movie. Barbie: FairyTopia is cowritten by Diane Duane and Elise Allen. A bomb is dropped on my house. Watching a video essay on Batman because it's 2AM and youtube thinks I might like that. I've never watched Batman the animated series, but I guess I'll give it a try. Diane Duane strikes once again. Talking with my friends about their favorite authors and where they live during a vacation in Ireland. Huh I actually don't know where Diane Duane lives. Look it up and get punched into next week. Get tumblr. Ha that was a funny! Waldo once again has been sighted.

TL;DR: Diane Duane has got range and I haven't looked up all the things she's done and keep getting pleasantly surprised.

Hello! I just wanted to write to thank you.

One of my favorite lines I've ever read is “Jim was already familiar with the incessant activity of that cool, curious mind as it tirelessly hunted answers. But now he saw where the activity came from - Spock’s utter certainty that there was no higher purpose for his life than to burn it away in search of truth, and to give that truth away when he found it. More, Jim saw what fueled and underlay that certainty: a profound vulnerability paired with a great, unreasonable joy”. That, combined with the YW series (which I recently reread), is very good for my soul.

You and your work are truly an inspiration to me! That Wounded Sky quote resonated with me for the theme that joy and curiosity really can underpin an entire, happy, successful life. Young Wizards has so much of the same - books and libraries are magic, but so is nature, and space, and manmade machines, and whales and sharks. Your stories strike a balance I can't always put into words - that curiosity and joy can be self-sustaining. They are not dependent on a single field, a single datum, a single discovery. They can be a lens and a philosophy and they can fit in your pocket for everyday. Curiosity as a mindset, and an exercise in loving and engaging with the world; joy as a result of realizing how many exciting things there are to love and be curious about.

On a parallel note, I am fascinated by how you seem to blend fantasy and sci fi - your Star Trek feels loving and magical, and your fantasy feels grounded and tangible. I am in awe of how many things you've been a part of creating, because it gives me hope that I, too, might avoid having to pick a narrow niche. But in the meantime, I am so grateful to be able to escape into your books, because I fall in love with them again every time, and then I come back and fall back in love with life.

I’m glad to hear it! Thanks for letting me know. ☺️

Also: generally, I think niches are best left to statues. Create what works for you and makes you happy. Life’s too short to waste doing otherwise.

fireflies lighting up a rural Pennsylvania field at dusk

Just realized I’m driving home through part of Arizona that’s considered an unofficial dark sky reserve and decided to pull onto an off-road.

It’s no wonder our ancestors believed gods lived in the sky. There are so many stars I can’t find the constellations. I’m not used to seeing them like this. Saying it looks like diamonds is damning it with faint praise. I CAN SEE THE EDGE OF THE MILKY WAY.

It really does look like a bowl or a dome over the earth when you see it like this. The stars look closer. I think this is what “sublime” was actually coined to mean.

It’s probably a good thing I’m out here at a time of year it’s too cold to stay long. I’d be bent back over my hood staring straight up for way, WAY too long and then not get home until midnight, assuming I could get back into an upright position.

But oh! If you ever have a chance to see it…stop and do. Take a few minutes. You’ve never seen anything so lovely.

favourite things about first drafts:

square brackets with notes to self mid-line like [does this make sense with worldbuilding?]

ah yes, Main Character and their closest friends, Unnamed Character A and Unnamed Character B.

bullshitting your way through something that you probably definitely need to research later

also square brackets to link up scenes. [scene transition idk] my beloved

the total freedom of word vomits

"I'll fix that later"

the moment when the world and characters start to gain a life of their own

pieces falling into place as you write that you were uncertain about before you started

the accomplishment of Made A Thing

Writing about a child rapist did not make Vladimir Nabokov a child rapist.

Writing about an authoritarian theocracy did not make Margaret Atwood an authoritarian theocrat.

Writing about adultery did not make Leo Tolstoy an adulterer.

Writing about a ghost did not make Toni Morrison a ghost.

Writing about a murderer did not make Fyodor Dostoevsky a murderer.

Writing about a teenage addict did not make Isabel Allende a teenage addict.

Writing about dragons and ice zombies did not make George R.R. Martin either of those things.

Writing about rich heiresses, socially awkward bachelors, and cougar widows did not make Jane Austen any of those things.

Writing about people who can control earthquakes did not make N.K. Jemisin able to control earthquakes.

Writing about your favorite characters and/or ships in situations that you choose does not make you a bad person.

It’s a shame that in this day and age these things need to be said.

been stewing on an analytical approach to fiction which I call "is this book afraid of me?" and in order to answer this question you determine how hard the book is trying to make sure you don't come after the writer on twitter

Things I’ve noticed are essential in plotting and would probably have saved me a lot of time if I had considered it earlier

The START of your story - how fucked up flawed is your premise/character at the start? what do they have to change? why are they HERE?

The END of your story - How do you want your main character/theme/universe to change after your story? Does it get better or worse? THIS SETS UP THE TONE DRASTICALLY.

What you want to happen IN BETWEEN - the MEAT of it. What made you start writing this WIP in the first place. Don't be ashamed to indulge, it's where the BRAIN JUICE comes from. You want a deep dive into worldbuilding and complex systems? Then your start and end should be rooted in some fundamental, unique rule of your universe (what made you obsess over it?). Want to write unabashed ship content? Make sure your start and end are so compelling you'll never run out of smut scenarios to shove in between scenes (what relationship dynamics made you ship it in the first place?).

The ANTE - the GRAVITY of your story. How high are the stakes? Writing a blurb or interaction? start with a small day-in-the-life so you can focus on shorter timelines and hourly minutiae that can easily get overlooked in more complicated epics. Or you can go ham on it and plot out your whole universe's timeline from conception to demise. Remember: the larger the scale, the less attached your story may get. How quickly time flies in your story typically correlates with the ante (not a hard rule, ofc, but most epics span years of time within a few pages, while a romance novel usually charts out the events of a few months over a whole manuscript.)

Everything else follows….?

James Baldwin.

believe the Doctor’s words