It has recently come to my attention that I have been unemployed for almost exactly three months now, and during that time I have not been nearly as productive as I should have been.

I remember a conversation I had with a few other authors about a year ago, where we all sat around and wished that we could write fulltime. We did some rough math and calculated how quickly we could finish projects, how much more we could promote and blog and attend conferences. We all concluded that, should the chance arise, we’d revolutionize our lives and change the face of publishing. All we needed was more time.

And yet I’ve been spending most every day “writing” (it’s in quotes on purpose) and I don’t have nearly as much to show for it as I should. Granted, there’s the stress of being unemployed, and the distraction of having to look for work, but that’s still no excuse for my dismal progress.

So, I recently decided that I want the first draft of Variant’s sequel, tentatively titled Feedback, to be done in six weeks. To have a little bit of accountability in this system, I’ve decided that I’m going to blog every day, at the end of the work day, and let you know my progress. My blogs will probably be shorter than normal, but it should be fun to track my progress. And, if I ever have a day where I post “I played Battlefield 2: Bad Company for six hours today”, then you can verbally assault me in the comments.

See you tomorrow, about five o’clock.

If you didn’t see my Twitter message yesterday, I’ve started a new writing podcast with fellow authors Sarah Eden and Marion Jensen (aka Matthew Buckley). Each episode (posted weekly) will contain three segments: a writing topic (with writing advice), a water cooler discussion (where we’ll talk about larger industry issues, like social media, ebooks, self-publishing, etc), and some writing-related games.

The first episode was posted yesterday. Go listen and tell me what you think.

This blog is a rant disguised as writing advice. Therefore, when I say “When you’re writing something, be sure to do your research”, what I really mean is “Man, don’t you hate TV shows that assume we’re all idiots?”

I realize that there is a necessary balancing act between too much research and flying by the seat of your pants. A story too concerned with 100% accuracy can often appear infodumpy, and if the writer includes too many details it can really bog down the pacing of a story. I also understand that you’re never going to make every reader/viewer happy. (If you’re ever looking for people who care too much about minutae, read the “Goofs” sections on IMDb. My favorite is this gem from Bourne Ultimatum: “In the opening minutes of the film, Bourne has his nightmare in Goa and goes to the bathroom. We hear the fluorescent lamp ballast (choke) buzzing at 60Hz, however if Bourne is in Goa, India like the film says then it should be buzzing at 50Hz.” Obviously, you’re never going to please these types of people.)

But, despite that caveat I want to firmly declare: there are times when you simply have to have your facts straight.

The most egregious genre (or, at least, the genre I’m thinking about at the moment) is cop shows. We Americans are raised from little kids to know what’s in the Constitution, and when we’re in the fifth grade we study the Bill of Rights, and we all know what an illegal search is. I’m not complaining about the little-known trivialities of police procedure–I’m complaining about when a cop breaks into someone’s house to search it. That’s illegal. They may find evidence that catches the bad guy, the TV show ends happily, and everyone in the audience is thinking “ALL THAT EVIDENCE IS GOING TO BE THROWN OUT OF COURT, YOU MORONS.”

This is likewise a problem when a cop beats a confession out of someone, which is done all the time in stupid cop shows, generally when something is time sensitive, like a bomb is going to go off, or a kidnappee is locked in a box somewhere. If a real cop did this, the criminal would sue, the cop would get demoted or fired, and the bad guy might not go to jail after all.

This drives me crazy.

Lots of cop shows get around this by making a private detective do the dirty work: they’re not cops, so they can do whatever they want! True, a private detective cannot perform an illegal search and seizure (because he can’t even perform legal search and siezure), but that private detective can definitely go to jail for breaking and entering. Of course, that would never happen, because the ultimate message of cop shows is: as long as the bad guy goes to jail, the ends justify the means. Beat up a criminal, break into a house, coerce a confession, entrap a suspect–that’s all okey dokey.

Which leads me to my real point: yes, we all know these laws, and yet we ignore them (with few notable exceptions) when it comes to our entertainment. Is this a sign of deep philosophical rumblings, where we Americans view our society with a kind of Old West justice–shoot first, ask questions later? Or is it, perhaps, that we catatonically gobble up any lazy piece of writing slapped on the screen?

(I know there’s a third option, which is “Sheesh, Rob! It’s escapism! Calm it down, fatboy!”  This, I suppose, is a valid point. It’s still apathetic–it assumes that escapism can only be found in lazy, crappy writing, when that is most definitely not the case. But I will concede that there are worse things in the world, like genocide, maybe.)

So, after all that, I guess my point is this: man, I hate Castle.

I’m going to be attending and/or presenting at several conferences this year, and I thought I’d post them here so that I wouldn’t forget to go to them. (Like this would actually help.)

Life, The Universe, and Everything

The Marion K. “Doc” Smith Symposium on Science Fiction and Fantasy

February 17-19

Brigham Young University

This con has been around for a long time, though it’s really only become big and popular in the last few years. I’ll be on two panels: “Dystopia/Utopia” (along with James Dashner, Lee Allred, Julie Wright, and Lesli Muir Lytle), and “What You Can and Can’t Do In a YA Novel” (along with Mette Ivy Harrison, Elana Johnson, Bree Despain, and Kiersten White). The schedule is subject to change, and the LTUE website is terrible, but I’ll post here again when times/dates/places are solidified.

Cottonwood Heights Literacy Fair

March 12, 10:00am to 5:00pm

Whitmore Library, Cottonwood Heights, UT

I don’t yet know what I’ll be speaking about, but you can bet it will be semi-literate. Other speakers that day include Bree Despain, Mike Knudson, and Amy Wadsworth.

LDStorymakers

May 6-7

The Sheraton Hotel, Salt Lake City, UT

This con started out as a small group of 20 or 30 eight years ago and has quickly grown to more than 500 attendees. I’ve gone to the last five (six?), and it’s always fun. I’ll be teaching two classes, “Marketing: For Real This Time” and “Writing Dystopia”. Also, my awesome agent, Sara Crowe, will be there too! She’s going to teach a class about writing a good synopsis, and she will also hold pitch sessions.

WorldCon

August 17-21

Reno, NV

This will be my first time going to WorldCon, and I’m not teaching anything. But WorldCon is supposed to be awesome, and if you’re in the Intermountain west (I know many of you are) this year is going to be ideal: It’s in Reno so it’s cheap, you can drive their easily, and we’re going to have a ton of Utah writers there. Oh, and…uh…there’s a weird girl with feathers on their website. So, high fives?