On Twitter for a bit this morning, about 15 minutes.  I just want to get my walking done this morning, so I’m out before sunrise.  The moon’s already waning, dim and fuzzy under clouds.

Back in the saddle again with the Future workshop.  I only have a little left to finish—two videos of one lesson and another lesson.  This one hits very broadly on copyright, a subject most writers don’t pay nearly enough attention to.  I’ve been guilty in the past of mailing my story to myself, and it’s a testament to how little I knew then (the envelope thing is an urban legend).

So I find a recent article on copyright, which is on fictional characters:  This  Protecting Fictional Characters Under U.S. Copyright Law – The Passive Voice (update: link was deleted),

This reminds me of the copyright lawsuit for Harry Potter.  I visited the other writer’s site during the lawsuit.  They had up a comparison on the similarities, which involved things like:

  • Harry Potter – dragon / their book – dragon
  • Harry Potter – wizard / their book – wizard

Which could be in any fantasy because they’re such generic things.

By the time I get off work, a storm blows in, the wind kicking up and banging my blinds.  Thunderstorm in another area but we might have flooding.  I’m not far from the Potomac River, so everything is downhill!

As I start on my novel, I realize I’ve lost track of how many days have passed in the story.  It’s easy to get into the writing and forget the timeline, especially things like the weekend.  When I originally started writing the story, I identified the day and the time at the top of the scenes, at least until it started annoying me.

Now I’m finding a different annoyance.  The last part of this story is messy and chaotic since that’s how my brain works sometimes.  I cycle through this section, shaking out the wrinkles (and lots and lots of typos).  This next is going to be interesting bringing it all together.  I have some decisions to make.