Done Well, Things I Could Learn: A Memory Called Empire

A Memory Called Empire was very different than what I expected.

Perhaps I had read the wrong tweets? Or made assumptions? Whatever I thought I was getting into, it wasn't a political suspense thriller with a protag with memory issues in a space-faring culture with echoes of Mayan/Incan influence. And a lot of angst, which both annoyed me and resonated. I think I would have vibrated with love had I found this book when I was 16-34.

Done well:
Well-written, interesting and intriguing world-building, good plotting (with one caveat that made me set the book down early, but it was essential so I'm gonna go with 'wasn't set up well.').  Did almost too good a job of evoking that longing a reader might have to belong, and not just belong, but to be part of the beautiful people, the powerful, intelligent, poetry-writing, creative elite.

Come to think of it, this book would have *destroyed* me at 16.

Things I could learn:
The plotting does an excellent job of "because A, B, because B, C," where a situation requires the protag make a choice -- and that choice, for good or ill, shifts how people react and requires her to continue to act.

Not everything results from her actions -- in fact many things do not, because this is an Empire and there are many free-wheeling players -- but she is required to act on the basis of the actions of many people, most of whom do not want her to succeed at what they assume she's trying to do.

Also, not all the bad things that happen to her are explained; I'm sure the author knows who is responsible but I didn't catch them all.

 And not knowing who your opponents are when you step onto a game board is a very disconcerting place for a protag to begin, and that was very effectively used here.

All in all, that made for a very effective "protag is definitely protagging" plot, which I have trouble with. Even though the protag was *reacting,* in some cases, she was definitely moving forward despite her fear, and slowly gained prowess at what she was doing. Not sure how to translate that into my own fiction, but thinking, "try taking Mahit-like-action" while I'm rethinking plot might help.

Done well, Things I Could Learn: This Is How You Lose the Time War

Hmmm. Just finished it this morning.

(MASSIVE spoiler alerts, do not read if you're going to read the book)

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If you're still with me, I assume you're not going to read it or you've finished it already. This is not a review, this is reading-as-a-writer for things I felt were handled well and techniques or skills I could use this book to learn.

Things done well AND things I could learn: Swift evocation of setting and scene and import -- felt like it only took a few paragraphs in each of the narrative sections to know what era, level of technology and slip-stream of time (or hint of it) that we were in. I wanted more, but the story didn't require more -- just a few intense details here and there, about things that mattered to the storyline.

Actually, the novella was a craft lesson in choosing telling, story-specific details. The china cup and its colors, the spiders (thematic; they were both trapped in a web). The lumber scene from axe to letter to wood slivers. The horrific seal puns.

Things done well than I don't necessarily want to learn: the casual violence and unending death, writ from two perspectives that oft viewed them carelessly as character traits. Necessary when crafting assassins, but difficult to put out there as a writer, for me. I get it was for a larger message of opting out of the struggle entirely, but still. The lesson, then, is making repugnant character actions real while still creating something of a sympathetic character.

Other things done well: Obsessive love, dear god, the unhealthy obsessive dynamic that yet evokes new and unexpected love for the reader. And that obsession blossoms (ha ha) and creates something hopeful? The unexpected Sleeping Beauty twist at the end. Roses. Thorns. The blood-tainted kiss. Ha. Thematics woven throughout, so tightly braided. Felt like it moved too fast and yet not a single word misplaced. So concise. DEFINITELY could use some conciseness in my own work.

Time travel: I've had trouble with time travel books before, but the time travel in this -- as a WAR concept -- felt so epic and the pace so lively that I didn't have time to object about the mechanics.

I was certain from the second reference that "the seeker" was one of the two of them, and my only annoyance in the book was that Red didn't consider that. I was unclear about which one it was. So Red's quest made total sense to me AND I was so snookered by the time travel premise that I didn't see it as a quest until she saw the "princess" on the hill and I went D'OH. Nicely snookered, hats off to the authors.

2019 Working Goals Review

Pretty pleased with myself in my writerly life (not discussing the other, considerably less pleased partitions of existence). I met nearly all my writerly goals this year. Not going to diss myself for not reading two novels a month given the number of novellas I read, but I am going to try to increase my reading in 2020.

Read 100 short stories, 16 novels, 11 novellas and change (various other works).

I *am* concerned that I utterly failed at my focused skill-building; not only did I NOT identify and practice a skill from each novel read, I only logged 24 skill-building sessions for the entire year!  I did do a lot of untracked revision skill-building in November during my spontaneous  personal "revision and submission" NaNo this year so I might try a tracked skill-building month early in 2020 to get the habit started. Maybe follow it with a revision-and-submission month so I keep those skills alive; that push was startlingly useful. I tripled my submission speed. A month on and I'm already slowing down as I revise.

The goals I met were:

• -X- A Deep but Modest Apiquai revisions honed by April 15 (finished June 30)
• -X- Track short stories read (aim for 13/mo)
• -X- Budget for and plan classes/experiences based on weaknesses
• -X- A Deep but Modest Apiquai on submission to 25 agents by Summer Solstice (took me until Sept 27)
• -X!- (work up to) 13 ss on submission by the 13th/ea month by W. Solstice
• -X- Writing Retreat this summer