Sunday, June 11, 2006

Meeting Moby

After all of my cleaning for the last two days, Eugene and I took the day off to visit our friend Jen. (If you're reading this, Jen, say hi!) We had a grillout with turkey burgers (especially good with fresh basil and garlic), lots of veggies, potatoes, and fruit. Jen had asked to see our wedding album and video, so we brought them along. But the main entertainment was her Great Dane, Moby. As you can see from these photos, he's well-named:


I'm over here!













In Moby's mind, he's a lapdog. Doesn't he realize he weighs more than I do?














A nice profile shot.














Writing: I reviewed Sue's latest chapter and am currently editing Chapter Two of Lennon's Line. It's tedious work, and it's hard to make myself work on it. Maybe it would help if I set goals for myself, such as editing three-five pages a day. I am doing some of my usual "throw it out and write something different," but I'm trying to keep that to a minium. The main reason I'm doing it in some spots is to make the scene more immediate and in line with a 3rd person point of view. Jo could get away with summarizing some things when she was telling the story, but I don't think that works as well in 3rd person. One of these days I need to write a "Passing the Pen" essay about the POV conversion.

I'm thinking about also working on a short story I started a couple of years ago; I put it aside because I could tell I wasn't nailing the voice. Perhaps that's another piece that would work better in 3rd person than 1st. The main character of that story is a sentient computer, and it's challenging to use his perspective.

6 comments:

Russ said...

Years ago, my uncle kept his three Great Danes in his trailer home. You just imagine THAT...

Russ said...

So, why are you doing the comment moderation now?

Sandra Ulbrich Almazan said...

Trying to fight spam comments; I had a bunch of them the other day. I've tried word verification before, and a couple of people had problems with it. Maybe back then I had both word verification and moderation on at the same time.

Anonymous said...

Hmm, has makoiyi got a rival? Let's see, Mak is 36inches to his withers and 160lb. Oh, and he's got more hair :)

As for Lennon's Line. First person obviously brings a closer intimacy to a story, so when you change it, it isn't so bad as doing it the other way around. At least, it isn't so much work. I haven't found a lack reading through.

Sandra Ulbrich Almazan said...

I don't know how tall Moby is, but Jen said he's 180 lb.

Sue, I think you're right about the intimacy of first person also working in third person. To me, it seems that summary doesn't carry over so well; it makes more sense for Jo to summarize parts of her story than a 3rd person narrator. Right now, I'm changing a summary to a scene. But I'm glad to hear the summary works for you. And thanks for sending me the next few chapters; I'll look at them tonight.

Anonymous said...

Hi Sandra, Moby is beautiful. We had a Great Dane named Darngella when we lived in Green Bay. These pics brought a smile to my face, for more reason than one ;)

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