So in order to explore my thought process, and to provide myself more things to talk about here, I’m going to occasionally give a glimpse at the real technology that is moving towards the technology of Capsule.

In part, this was motivate by something that Microsoft unveiled, as reported by Engadget and Gizmodo, the ability to create computer input through tapping different parts of your arm.  In Capsule, I’ve got The Wrap, a piece of technology that was originally based on a Nokia phone concept design called Morph, though more of a full fledged computer like we would imagine available in a laptop, rather than just a phone and personal organizer.  As of today the Morph is still a CGI concept, but the Skinput idea is actually a physical product, requiring just a sophisticated wristband to project images and detect where someone has tapped their arm.  It’s not really a useful thing in it’s current form, but it’s an interesting step towards the ability to integrate computation more thoroughly with the human body.

So hopefully I’ll be back on pace soon, I’ve been turning over some ideas for getting Capsule restarted (including even a shift in POV for part two of the novel), but it’s likely still going to be a week or three before I really feel up to writing.

So here’s the plan going forward:

December I’m going to do all the writing I can, but between moving the last week of the month and a big photo scanning project with a Christmas deadline, that might not be much.  I’ll be thrilled if I can add 10,000 words to the manuscript by the end of the month.

January I’m going to pick back up.  With my current estimate, that should leave me needing 30,000-60,000 words to finish the draft.  I’d love to get that done in one month, but I’m going to give myself a reasonable deadline of February 15th.

Then I’m going to sit down and do an honest assessment between Capsule and Conqueror Worm, and decide which needs less work to get into a position where I can shop it around.  Once I’ve decided, I’m going to start a chapter-a-week program to get it ready to go.  That will take several months, but once I’m about 2/3 through, I might start actually (gasp) sending query letters off to find a literary agent.

I know.

So there’s the plan.  It’s nearly New Years, a good time for resolutions, and for realizing that I said similar things about last year.  I don’t know how I’m going to do better this year, other than really hoping and trying.  And hopefully engaging some ass kickers to help me out.

Then, I figured out why she died, who killed her, who suggested she be killed (gasp!), his motivation behind suggesting it, and where she was killed.  Because just bouncing questions of my wife is the single greatest writing exercise I know.

I’m starting to think I might be able to write this thing.

Reminder:  Less than a month til Capclave.

Capclave:  Seriously, a great place to be a writer and just to hang out.  This will be an early trial for CVS 2.0, but will not yet be the official coming out party.  Still, several of us are talking about being there, and at just $55 head, it’s a rather good value.  Last year I went to both World Fantasy and Capclave, and would you believe it’s Capclave I got more out of?  Well believe it.

Nanowrimo: This is when I’ll be doing a lot of work on actually writing Capsule.  There’s something about Nanowrimo that just gets me writing in a way that is hard to duplicate at other times in the year.  I’ve been victorious four out of the last 5 years.

Balticon:  When you see us talking 2.0, this is what it’s about.  This is where several CVS members have some name and face recognition, and this is going to be the big coming out party.  But the time Balticon rolls around, I really am hoping to have a first draft of Capsule, and at least a good chunk of the second draft of Conqueror Worm.

Renee puts the mantra of 2.0 perfectly in her post:  “I’m tired of being a fan. I’m tired of being a wannabe writer. And I’m ready to do something about it.”

9 months until Balticon 2010.  Perfect amount of time to allow our ideas to gestate.

Okay, I apologize for that joke.

I need to know where I’m going.  I need a map.  So, thus, I need to start by making one.

I’m going to attempt a process called the Snowflake Method, as it feels very organic to the way I approach things, and lets me be as fiddly as detailed as I want to be before I get started.  It’ll be a modified approach, I know, but it’s at least some way to get my brain to start thinking in terms of breaking the story down into workable chunks, and then writing them.

The novel, I’ve mentioned it here, and at CVS (2.0 in the house) is called Capsule.  Step one of the snowflake is a sentence of no more than 15 words meant to provide the highest level most abstract view of the novel.  Think of it as opening Google Earth and seeing the globe just sitting there, waiting to be zoomed in on.  It’s earth, there’s no question, but there is so much more hiding that needs to be explored.

A greusome murder forces a detective to explore the horrific underbelly of a utopic future.

Fifteen words exactly.  Let’s do this thing.

I might be trying to hard.  CVS 2.0 has got me excited, but perhaps it’s gotten me a little too excited, and has me pushing myself beyond comfort limits.  That’s why I’m hoping the vacation will help, just get completely out of my head.  The laptop will go along, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to get anything written.  At the same time, I don’t want to leave it behind just to have inspiration hit one evening after dinner while just lounging in a hotel room.

I’ve been listening to the Drabblecast lately, enjoying its slight (or sometimes extreme) quirkiness, and it’s got me itching to try some drabbles, which might be good for me.  Get me writing and working on something with such a short distance between starting and payoff.  I’ve always been dismissive of drabbles in the past, perhaps because my only previous association with them was at various fan fiction sites a decade ago when I would actually visit fan fiction sites, usually trolling for the worst of the worst.  I suppose if I shouldn’t judge short stories by fan fic, I shouldn’t judge drabbles by fan fic drabbles.  I’ve actually been rather impressed at how people can set a tone, mood, characters, and get a resolution, all in fewer words than are likely to end up in this paragraph.  Several of my thing-a-week concepts I never really liked cause they ended up all broody and naval-gazing probably because I was trying to take a 100-word concept and turn it into a 3000-word story.

I’m also strongly considering sending Sleep to them.  I don’t know if it’ll work in audio format, but I do feel it’s a stylistic fit, and it’s not my job to reject stories for them.

If I like them, I’ll post some here.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.