clues at the scene

clues at the scene

Saturday, February 27, 2016

Talking Turkey

A few of the turkey in my yard this week. This particular rafter had one tom, one immature jake, and 61 hens.

I'm grinding away on non-fiction. I revised my structure a little this week and expanded a couple sections. Basically, doing exactly the sort of thing that happens in fiction when we try to write closely to our outlines: we blow through them.

Good results though.

Writing non-fiction tightens your command of a subject. In my case, I've a large private library collection of topical volumes on the subject and have read all of them quite thoroughly. There is nothing like teaching material to others to make you increase your own command of a subject.

I'm having fun. Spring is coming (my turkey are playing the mating game) and while I received ten inches of snow this week, spring is around the corner. It'll be near 50 tomorrow.

I better get back to the ink.

Cold ink flows faster, just like blood.

Shoot a character for me. I'm jonesing for a good murder mystery.

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Still Alive

At left, reference materials at my desk.

I'm still working the non-fiction and will be for a couple months. I've got a decent stream-source library which is good because I'm writing about trout. Go figure.

Non-fiction requires a rigorous organization and structure. Think: dissertation.

You decide what the chapters are going to say before you write them in large part because of the cross-referencing necessary with outher parts of your treatise when you write "tight."

For a layman audience, you have to write "tight." They won't fogive rambling when no gunplay is involved.

The exercise is one I've done before and oddly after all these years I no longer dread the seemingly infinite amount of work that goes into saying something succinctly - when that something needs to be supported and documented.

My fiction will improve from this effort because it has been about a dozen years since I've sat down with any real verve and executed one of these beasts from start to finish. Even that most recent effort was only a few chapters for a buddy working on a topical survey as an introductory text.

So, I have things to say. I have the outline and layout of points, their documentation, citations, and sources. I know the manner in which I want to present my text, my quick reference sections, and my annotated bibliography so that I hopefully spur someone else to read what I cite and come up with the errors I might assert.

Now, if a little of this organization from an all-too-long academic interlude rubs off a bit on my plotting through the actions of my characters, yea! The sweat certainly will be worth it.

After all, I want to write about dead bodies in the living-room. Oh, I can do that already.

Now I need to tighten it all up so you want to read about my bodies in the living-room.

Well, off the to cold water and my documented topic.

Spring is coming.

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Non-Fiction, or Not Lies

At left, public source woodcut image of library hosted on wikicommons.

I'm working on a little non-fiction at the moment. I haven't done that since the last time someone blew up a reactor. Okay, you've got me. It was a tsunami. Small difference.

I'm working on a caddis and mayfly primer for a fly fishing group.

I'm going to slip-in a murder on page three just to see if anyone notices.

Hold the fort. I'll be back to "just making things up" shortly. I've got one that has merit and so, trout then murder.

There's a cozy mystery title: Trout, Then Murder.

Maybe not.