Feedback, Comments, and Critique: In General and in Specific

In every poetry post, and in other posts here and there, I beg for your comments—critique, suggestions, questions, and so on—on my work. I haven’t talked about what I’m looking for (or why) in a while, so today I’d like to talk about criticism and comments, in general and specific.

A Quarter Century: Marking the milestone

Yesterday was my twenty-fifth birthday. I wrote a poem to mark the occasion, but otherwise indulged in little fanfare. Somewhat-melancholy reflection, yes, as that’s usual these days, but not much celebration. And my workload (as, this winter, I’m employed to clear the snow from my church’s walks—and we had a small storm night before last, and more accumulation last night), the preparations for today’s meeting of our “local” chapter of the Mythopoeic Society (discussing L. E. Modessitt’s The Chaos Balance this month; our next topic will be something by Lewis—I’ll suggest starting the Space Trilogy), and various minor illnesses going around my family didn’t help either.

As I said, my few unscattered moments have largely been spent on reflection. My thoughts at present are too scattered to easily collect, but mostly echo my Thanksgiving meditation two years ago—except more tinged by melancholy temperament now. (If you’re interested in delving further, many relevant posts have been tagged “reflection”.)

The “birthday dinner” (it’s tradition in our family to have a dinner and dessert of the honoree’s choice, within reason) is to be “sweet and sour pork” over rice (my second choice, after a tofu-and-vegetables stir fry, but this year we’re combining it with the Mythopoeic Society meeting, and tofu-vegetables doesn’t serve as many), and the “Quick After-Battle Triple Chocolate Cake.” (Recipe from Patricia Wrede‘s collection Book of Enchantments—author, book, and recipe highly recommended. When we misread the recipe the first time we made it, and doubled nearly all the chocolate, it was only slightly too much for me, but how much death-by-chocolate is too much is a matter of taste.)

Lewis’s words in the Screwtape Letters about “the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts” have long rung chillingly true with me. Yesterday was a milestone, a reminder to (as Lent in general prescribes) consider what I am doing in light of with Whom I have to do. A sobering thought …

2011: A Brief Retrospective

Like I said at this time last year, “What a year!”

2011, I might say, flirted with disaster and with sheer glory. Last year began well, but ended in disarray; this year began inauspiciously, as (with how hard the winter was) my schedule became so exhausting that I couldn’t muster enough spare energy to manage even one post some weeks. Since the middle of spring I’ve kept up far better, only missing a few posts here and there, but I’m ending this year nearly as far behind as I did the last. In this, as in many other areas, I’ve made great progress—but that progress has been marred by falling back nearly as far.

I’ll look at the year in various categories.

“But thanks be to God”: A third reflection

Today is the day designated for public thanksgiving to our Creator for the gracious gifts his divine Providence has lavished on us. Two years ago I wrote at length about many ways he has blessed me over the span of my life so far, and in particular the many people he has brought into my life in important ways for whom (and for which) I am thankful, and last year I continued more briefly, adding blessings which had occurred since the first essay, and those that I had forgotten the first time but remembered in the succeeding year.

As everything I wrote in the lengthy first essay is still true, and would be worth repeating, I urge you to go back and (re)read it. But I won’t repeat those ideas here, since I again have less time to prepare this than I would like.

I begin again with the most important reason to give thanks. I am grateful for the good news of the Gospel, that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst.” That our rightful Lord and Master, against whom we had been in rebellion, came down from heaven to “reconcile us to him by the blood of his cross,” and bound us to him and himself to us by a gracious covenant, sealing it and us with his eternal Spirit.

[It is my only comfort in life and death] that I am not my own, but belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and set me free from the power of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my heavenly Father. In fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.

I am thankful that this faith has been passed down by, and with the additional witness of, innumerable saints, whose words (such as these from the Heidelberg Catechism) readily allow us to praise him, contend for the faith, and otherwise speak truly and precisely when our own words fail.

I am grateful for another year of life and health, for the small income God has provided me, and for continued ellowship in person with my family and church here, and with my friends virtually.

I am very grateful for the chance to meet with many very dear friends at our reunion early this summer, and for the hospitality of our hosts, who provided a bed and a roof for me on very short notice. I am also thankful for the chance I and my dad got to go to Evart again, for the first time in a few years, and to see dear friends (and dear acquaintances whom I would like to know better, some of whose names I could not remember even ten minutes) again.

I am thankful for the glory that God again opened my eyes to see in his creation and in the faces of the people I encounter. I’m grateful for the chance to go to several dances this year.

I am again thankful that God has given me words this year, in large quantities with effort in the background work I’m doing for the Shine Cycle, and (with scarcely more than delight) more poetry than I’d hoped for. (As I’ve said before, I consider how often I have poetry come to me, and with how much effort it comes, to be a symptom of my spiritual and emotional health.) I am thankful for the critique and general feedback I have finally begun to receive.

I am thankful for continued correspondence with dear friends. (Though I have months-old emails that I keep meaning to reply to Really Soon Now …) As I mentioned already, I’m grateful for fellowship with absent friends; this correspondence has been a large portion of that, and so a generous contributor to my continued (more or less) happiness.

I am grateful for the communities of Christian fantasy writers and enthusiasts into which I have been drawn, through which my fiction has already begun to improve, in which I have found kindred spirits and excellent writers whose work I have greatly enjoyed reading, by which my faith has been strengthened and my mind sharpened, and from which (I suspect) have come most of my more recent, more talkative (and helpful) readers.

I am thankful for music, and the modern technology that lets us with little talent receive music of exceptional quality (and infinite variety, following our whim) at the touch of a button for no more (incremental) cost than perhaps a slight increase in our electric bill.

I am grateful … but may I be mindful, and as grateful, always, not just on this day a competing ruler designates for the purpose.

“Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who gives us bread from the earth, and who gives us the fruit of the vine. Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who has kept us in life, sustained us, and brought us to this moment.”

And, readers: What are you thankful for?

Correspondents?

A couple of times in the last year and a half or so, I’ve asked for correspondents, originally expressing my regret at not having developed the habit of corresponding—keeping in touch—with friends. (From those posts I now have some intermittent correspondence, and there are a few other friends I am keeping somewhat in touch with too, but still …) Then, about three months ago, soon after Facebook released their “Questions” product, I asked “If I missed you and wanted to catch up with you, would you prefer a(n) …” (letter, email, IM, etc.) using this new application, and several of you marked an answer.

But I’d still like (which is probably not a strong enough word) more correspondence, of whatever kind. If you write me an email or a letter, send me an instant message (IM) or Facebook message, write on my Wall on Facebook, or write a comment on this blog, I’ll do my best to reply. (Spam not included, of course. And in any case my habit of taking my time thinking about things means that a reply to anything except an IM might take a while. But I will write back.) Or if you don’t want to start the correspondence … would anyone like a letter?

Reintroducing Myself

This week, I’ve been reintroducing myself and my work, since I never did properly when I began this blog in the last days of 2008. On Monday, I (re)introduced you to my planned fantasy series, the Shine Cycle. Wednesday, I reintroduced my strategy game, Strategic Primer. Today, I’ll (re)introduce myself and the rest of my work—in particular the miscellaneous jumble that sometimes appears here on Saturdays.

My name is Jonathan Lovelace. I graduated from Calvin College in 2009 with a degree in Computer Science. From childhood, I’ve had a story in my head that I feel called to tell—or, rather, to write. (I wrote more about that on Monday.) And since high school I’ve had poetry come to me. While I think that writing the Shine Cycle is my vocation—my calling—I consider each poem a gift.

Soon after I started posting regularly on this blog, as opposed to only intermittently when it occurred to me and I felt like it, I added prose to the poetry that I had been posting: I ran my “show” piece, my novelette “A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage”, as a serial, posting two chapters every Saturday for over two months. After that, I posted the one other finished story of any length I’ve produced, “A Backwater Rebellion”, in similar fashion.

Even though I feel called to write, I feel most comfortable working with computers. Thus my college major. And, for much the same reason, I tend to think of—or try to think of—technical solutions to not-necessarily-technical problems. On this blog, sometimes I write about programs that (apparently) don’t exist but that (I think) I need to do my work efficiently or well, as well as other essays about technology.

But despite my occasionally love-hate relationship with technology, I have a decided interest in good books. And some strong opinions on the question of what books everyone ought to read. In fact, when a quasi-viral “100 Best Books” list went round a couple of years ago—a list of books one was supposed to mark with which of them he or she had read before reposting—I decided to create my own list of books that everyone should read, for edification and enjoyment, and posted it on this blog. Once I couldn’t really think of any more that met that standard, I started going through the list and writing more detailed exhortations, in which I try to explain why a book belongs on the list, or in other words why you ought to read it.

I don’t watch many movies, but there are a few that excited me enough that I wrote about them. So far, this has just been the two Narnia films that came out since I started blogging (which was at first just on Facebook), though I digress into critiques of the first film and of the Lord of the Rings movies as well.

I’ve also written several essays about the implications of the Christian faith; a couple of these have been prompted by Christmastime annoyances from people who should know better, and a few others have been Thanksgiving and other reflections, but most have been more analytical.

Most of these, and other essays I’ve posted on this blog, are linked from my essays page.

I encourage you to get in touch with me (contact information at the top right on any page of this blog), or follow this blog in your blog reader. And, most of all, to give me your thoughts—comments, questions, suggestions, or critique—on anything you see here.

Help wanted

Most of you know by now that I have several major long-term projects that I’m working on. I call them my “magna opera“, “great works” in the sense of “really big works.” And while I have accepted them as my tasks, there are a few points on which I could use, and would like, your help. (For future reference, I try to keep this page up to date with my currently-relevant requests-for-comment, pleas for assistance, and other help-wanted type posts.)

Most generally, I would like your thoughts—comments, questions, criticism, suggestions, or just about anything else—on any or every part of my work (posted here or elsewhere). Nothing is so polished that it cannnot be improved. (Quite the contrary!) But these are some more specific items.

The first project that comes to hand is my poetry. After posting a poem a week for the last year and a half, I’ve accumulated a rather substantial archive, so I’d like to create a collection of my best work. But I need your help deciding which poems are my best.

My second major project is the Shine Cycle, my planned fantasy series, which is mostly still in the preparation stages. There are several ways you can help me here:

• You can think of, and tell me, how would you like to be portrayed if I were to write you into the Shine Cycle?
• You can help me come up with ideas for my conception of Earth’s future history or the few utterly blank spots in my series outline.
• You can critique my writing as I revise my novelette “A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage” or, as my “first reader” or “beta”, as I write utterly new material.

And the last major project is Strategic Primer, a strategy game that I’m designing. The current campaign still needs players, or, if jumping into the middle of an existing campaign doesn’t interest you, if enough players show interest I can start another campaign. If you don’t feel like playing, I can use a consultant for balance and design issues. And there are a few specific questions I’ve asked for your help on. For example, I’ve asked for ideas for a list of possible orders and for help brainstorming what features a suite of “assistive programs” should have.

Do any of these look like something you’d like to do? And how can I help you?

Should I split my blog?

I started this blog over two years ago; I began with an introductory post, then copied each of my Facebook Notes to a new blog post.

At the time, I intended the blog to serve the same purpose as my Notes had: a place to record various miscellaneous thoughts as they came to me, just outside the walled garden of Facebook.

Later, however, I developed a posting schedule that I have stuck to (albeit intermittently) ever since. That has made the blog even more muddled than I’d originally intended.

Recently, I’ve had the idea of perhaps splitting the various topics into their own blogs. My strategy game, my fantasy series-in-preparation, my poetry, and various miscellaneous essays don’t necessarily go together all that well; by giving each topic its own space, each might be able to attract readers interested in it but not the others.

Another possible benefit: Many of the posts on this blog are out of date. (Particularly those relating to the beginning of the current campaign of Strategic Primer, two and a half years ago, but they aren’t the only ones.) If I began new blogs for each topic, I could repost relevant information, revising as appropriate, but leave out obsolete or irrelevant points.

On the other hand, splitting the topics into separate blogs might simply split my readership. And since I don’t plan to write content much faster than I do now, eventually I’d have a few quasi-weekly blogs instead of one supposedly updating three times that often.

In any case, I’m all in a dither; I’d like your opinion. What do you think?

Birthday musings

Three years ago today, as I was turning 21, I mused about becoming an adult in the eyes of the law. I don’t feel much different now, except far more weary, harried, distracted, and lonely.

On the other hand, since then I’ve posted (by my calculations) over 140,000 words on this blog, in 305 posts (not counting this one), among other milestone accomplishments.

Of those 305 posts, about 90 are poetry. That’s a little more than twice as many poems as a typical book of poetry contains. I’d like to get some of them published, and am even considering going the self-published print-on-demand/ebook route. But as I am my own worst critic I’d like your help picking and improving my best poems.

I’ve made significant progress in the last few years on the background work for my fantasy series-in-preparation, the Shine Cycle. As I continue, and as I produce more material intended for public consumption (i.e. drafts rather than outlines), I need “first readers” so I can improve.

I’m slowly losing touch with friends as our lives diverge; in defiance of this trend I’m looking for correspondents (letter, email, IM, etc.).

And I’m still running a slow-moving campaign of Strategic Primer, a strategy game of my own design. This current campaign still desperately needs more players, or if there’s enough interest we can start a new campaign. And if playing doesn’t look interesting, I can always use help designing the game, researching the data behind it, and designing and implementing programs to help me run the campaign.

Here’s hoping to a far more productive twenty-fifth year!

2011: A Look Forward

A little before the beginning of last year I began my current posting schedule: background essays on my series-in-preparation the Shine Cycle on Mondays, posts about my strategy game Strategic Primer on Wednesdays, poetry on Fridays, and miscellaneous essays on Saturdays. At present I’m not intending to change that, but today I’d like to take a look forward over the year to come: what I intend to post about, my “pressing priorities,” etc.

In the “Shine Cycle background” category, I hope to have more character profiles to post, but that will depend on my creation of character histories, which take significant time and effort. Expect more descriptions of places in which parts of the story will take place. And I’m also planning on an intermittent series on my projected future history of Earth as it’ll appear in the Shine Cycle.

Strategic Primer: I’m still hoping that enough players will be interested to start a new campaign. And I’m hoping to make a lot of progress in programming the computer version and assistive programs. But regardless, I also have some background essays I’m already planning to write, including more on the game’s origin (the initial version was adapted from an earlier game I’d designed but never actually played) and perhaps a series on games from which I draw (or plan to draw) inspiration.

Most of the poetry I posted in the past year was from my archive, built up in the decade I’ve been writing poetry. That archive (or at least its subset of presentable poetry) is now nearly exhausted; unless I repost poems I posted earlier, continuing at the present rate of a poem a week is contingent on my writing an average of at least one poem a week, which I have maintained very rarely. On the other hand, the quantity of poems I’ve already posted means that I can think about turning them into a book.

On the “miscellaneous essays” front, I have several essays I plan to write in existing series, and I plan to add a new occasional topic: debate, which may have been my favorite subject in high school.

More personally, the primary priorities I’ve identified for the new year are spiritual development, de-cluttering my life, better keeping in touch with friends, and developing a more extensive correspondence, among other projects (many of which I’d still like like your help on).

What are your plans in the new year?