Embracing the Madness

*tosses a jaunty wave to the assembled* Hiya. So, I like my general premise, but for whatever reason my brain just will not get any traction on it atm. This happened before, last year's NaNo was a second attempt on a story that crashed & burned a couple NaNos previous (yes, I started from scratch carrying nothing into the new year save the concept :-P ). So maybe this just isn't the time *shrug* if that makes any sense. I think sometimes, like meeting people or trying a lot of new things really, there's a lot to be said for timing.

So, where's that leave things? Well, I've got a Day 4 level count three days from the end on a story that's totally mired on me, that's where. So...I think I may try something...a little weird. There was a second contender for this year's novel &, tho' it's late in the game & I've got just a general premise, it's gonna have several subplots & I've no CLUE how it ends, lol, I may start a new book tonight.

If my hands forgive me, lol, I'll write & tell ya how it turns out.

Long time, no type.

Ok...yeah....I kinda vanished. Between having out of state relatives in town & my second week complete stand still...*rolls eyes*. I dunno what it is, i hit week two & my brain just freezes completely. After week two this year it didn't lift, it just lingered. My count is in the basement, it's just pathetic. I am still working tho' & if I can get about 20 more sessions in like i had tonight, I might actually finish, lol. Anybody want to do sprints??

I'm not sure what the problem is. I've been thinking of this story since...well, since last year, actually. the inciting event for the idea was a RL thing that happened just before last Thanksgiving. I think it's a combination, atm, of RL stresses & that I'm stuck in all the boring, set up/exposition stuff. I thought of just skipping ahead to the "good stuff", but that'd just be a truckload of words I'd lose so...

How's your story going?

And then there was Day Two

Ok, so far I'm up to 4,444 words. My opening chapter could be really cool once it gets a second pass, it's this kinda forshadowy nod to the baddies & will be all manner of creepy when it's done proper. I like it atm tho', I can live with it. Chapter two is lame & flat & such a cliche, lol, but thus far I'm avoiding the allure of the backspace button, so I guess that's something.

How's things?

Day One

OK, passed my base (1667) for a total of 2187 tonight. Got an opening scene done & I'm calling it quits. Starting again in the a.m.

How'd everybody else do?

G'night.

On your marks....get set....WRITE!

Ok guys...it's nearly time! Good luck! I'll post my count when I'm done for the night.

New year, new novel

Hallooo gentle reader! Ok, first off, I know...I said I'd brb & that was months ago so at this point I'm likely talking to myself, but...*shrug* RL got a little crazy this summer. I'll spare you all the gory details & just leave it at it involved a trans-Atlantic move prep for some of my relatives & a scary series of hospital stays & a long recovery for another. It just wasn't the smoothest of summers & for that, I beg your indulgence. But, I'm back now & Kickoff is mere hours away. I hope this summer found you all well & one or two of you are still loitering around & you're all jazzed & ready for tonight's event(s). I know I am..., lol, or as ready as I ever am pre-NaNo.

Tonight I'm hoping luck will be on my side as I'm also sitting with my cousin's kids this evening. Cross your fingers that I can get a room full of sugar crazed young'uns chilled down to a dull roar by midnight! I've weeded down to 3 story idea, so we'll see which one shows up to get written when the time comes.

Ok...*takes big, deep breath* gotta go get the last of my prep finished & a few errands run before I take off tonight. I'll write more later & this time, barring catastrophic collapse of the internet or my demise, I should be able to hold to it this time. See ya 'round Kickoff.

A quick hello before the day starts

Hello! See? That was quick! But seriously folks *pantomimes Groucho's cigar* I know I came back & promptly vanished again & for that I apologize. Some family things cropped up of late that've been occupying my time & mind. More on that in a while, for now I'll just stick to saying that life has been scary & weird & it's all making me feel both very, very old & far too young all at once.

On the lighter side of the news, I think I may be becoming a myspace apps junkie. So, if anybody out there plays something, let me know & chances are that I play too. If you're interested, let me know I'm always happy to get more family/crew/housemates/neighbors/whatever.

Writing is still going, all be it slowly. I need to find a way to kickstart my brain into the same sort of focus & intensity I somehow manage to muster in Nov, regardless of the date. Any suggestions? Sorry this is a short post, it's almost time to get the kid up & around. Connection permitting, I'll add more once I'm home.

Finally!

Greetings & salutations, gentle reader! I'm back! My cyber exile has come to an end & wow, could it have taken a little longer?? Lol. I'll not gloat overmuch about my return lest I tempt the cyberdeities again, will mearly say I missed you all & am thrilled to be back.

It's about dawn here so I'm not going to get too far into things just now, but with regular computer time not an option, I've been doing a lot of reading & a bit of writing as well. Without access to my game I was forced to, brace yourselves, write for myself rather than other people's projects & plots. I know right? I was pretty amazed too. And I've gotta say, tho' nothings finished yet, I have anywhere from sketchy outlines to several page starts on 4-5 ideas I think have promise. What's surprised me is the type of things that've been cropping up to be written; YA stuff & a children's book, complete with meter! I don't even read things that're in meter! Lol, generally speaking I hvae ZERO sense of rhythm & flow in that regard, yet there it comes cadencing through my mind anyway. Still sticking to various sci fi & fantasy realms, I'll post ore detail later.

The most recent things I've read were; The Veiled Threat, the novel between the Transformers movies, Anthem by Ayn Rand, novella that's sort of Atlas Shrugged meets THX1138 & have just started Sandman vol 1 Preludes & Nocturnes, Neil Gaiman's graphic novel series ala ten handy volumes.

And you all know how I love Neil.

Ok, that's it for our second innaugural posting. Feel free to holler at me if you're still around. I'll post again soon.

Nicer Than Nice

One of the side effects of doing more reviews & edits than I had previously is that I’m getting a better sense of what works (for me at least) and what doesn’t. I realize that, from time to time, these are all things I do as well. I imagine anyone that writes anything more than grocery lists fall victim to these pitfalls as well, but picking them out in the work of others is easier than it is in your own. The view from a remove is just clearer. There are a number of things that vex me when I find them. Misplaced modifiers for example are, to me, very jarring. Another thing I’m none too fond of is clunky, bland language. Descriptions like ‘she had a nice smile’ make me want to start yawning. Nice is just…well, nice. Not impactful or interesting or unusual, just…nice.

There are so many words out there that every year dictionaries have to move a handful of archaic ones out to make room for new ones. With that in mind, why do we insist on falling back on the same handful of descriptors time & again? I’m not saying there needs to be 80,000 $20 words in every book to see print, but surely there’s some sort of middle ground, right? Instead of that exemplar of ‘she had a nice smile’, why not dazzling? Why not luminescent? Why not beguiling, contagious or enticing? Instead of commenting on her nice smile, why not take it further? ‘…and when she smiled it was enough to make a man forget where he was going & plow right into a wall’ or ‘…all she had to do was flash that megawatt persuasion of glossy lips & that hint of an overbite that had enamored him & it was a done deal. The smile did all the convincing for her.’

Ok, perhaps not the most dazzling, luminescent examples ever committed to the page, or screen as it were, but you get the idea. So, next time you try reaching for a descriptor, make it a good one.

Requiem for Mary Sue

I promised you an actual topic & I've kept my word, dear reader. Today I'd like to take a moment to attempt to help stamp out a vile scourge that plagues the literary community from prize winning novels to the campiest fanfic; the Mary Sue.

I've mentioned my game on occassion & how it's where a lot of my writing ends up, but what I may not have mentioned is that I'm also a member of the admin team. One of my jobs as co-runner-of-the-realm is bio review. This is where potential characters are submitted to the admin & we critique them & help players hone them into chars that are (in theory at least) better, more streamline & more likely fit to our collective vibe. This is where today's was born, a marathon review session with one of my players. The Mary Sue, for those five of you out there unfamiliar with the term, is a char that is too perfect. Everything goes swimmingly for Mary Sue, her life is unencumbered by strife or conflict or flaws of any kind thus making her the postergirl of the Vanilla People. She's bland, she common & she just doesn't try very hard. Mary Sues tend to be inoffensive to the point of coma inducement. Everything they touch is golden. They're the perfectly coiffed neighbor with the perfectly behaved children, the one you just want to strangle so something would happen.

I'd like to extend the definition a bit further though, I think our Mary Sue has her fingers in more pies than just banality, I think she could well be cliche incarnate. Let me give you an example. Last night review session involved me giving notes to this player & attempting to help her make changes to her proposed bio, rather like a cooperative editing session. This particular bio needed many, many edits. It had everything, sentence fragments, dangling modifiers, confusing descriptions, over worked imagery...the works. But, at the heart of the problem, I think, was Mary Sue. This char wasn't perfect, far from it. She was, in fact, the anti-perfect. Street kid, attitude problem, drug culture, gang member, broken home...she had the lot. And that, I think was where little Mary Sue was hiding. The cliche! She used every cliche in the 'Troubled Teen' handbook all on this poor char. She had abandonment issues & was afraid she'd die alone & unloved, but she never listened to anyone & got distant to downright violent with anyone that would try. She was an "edgy" alternative kind of girl, with her dyed hair, multiple tattoos, leather jacket & fishnet stockings. And of course, what true reble is without that classic bit of exotica, that daring glimpse of lesbian chic that emblazens you as a true original; "I'm bi".

Oh yes, dear reader, this girl had it all. It was a 10+ page bio, so I'll spare you the extended highlights, but sufficed to say, she was a sight. So, with that in mind, let me place upon you this most humble of entritise, please, please make the people in your writing actual people, not caricatures! Give them depth! Give them humanity & quirks & spark! Remember that it's the foibles, not the dazzling talents that shine above all others that make someone worth reading! Good girls may go to Heaven while bad girls go everywhere, but chars that are so predictable, so much literary bromide aren't going anywhere but flat.

We can do better.

Radomness Seems to Be the Theme Lately, Huh?

How's things? Lately for reasons I'm not clear on, my Firefox, or maybe just my computer in general has been fighting with a few sites. I can get into my gmail, but can't get on blogger, I can follow a link to twitter, but can't go in through my bookmark & it'll let me get to yahoo, through the login screen, then won't load my mailbox. Plus, YM seems to have forgotten my computer exists. Fun, huh?

Everything around me seems to be falling apart lately; my computer runs -rather sporadically- on sheer force of will alone, I got a converter box & a new antenna & am getting fewer channels & last night, for what I'm certain was the very last time, I drained out my waterbed.

I know...Waterbeds are very 80s. I got it in the 80s. Get past it.

Anybody watch Dollhouse? What'd you think of it so far? I'm a big Firefly fan, so I was all over the idea of Joss coming up with a new show. So far, I like the premise, it has potential. I wonder how many Actives there are. And, with names like Echo, Sierra & Victor, ya gotta ask yourself....Does this mean somewhere there's a Lima, Tango & Whiskey running around? Gotta feel bad for a guy called Foxtrot, doncha?

Friday's kinda my big tv night; Sarah Connor Chronicles, Dollhouse & Battlestar Galactica. Any SCC fans in the audience? BSG? I'm a big fan of dystopias. Most people, I think, like happy endings, but give me a broken underdog dropped in the middle of a grimy, warped dystopian realm & I am a happy girl. It's a little messed up, I realize, but there it is. I like the skewed vision, the struggle against things greater than. I like the choices that need to be made & seeing where lines are drawn or crossed. I like the 'what if'. I like the hurt & the fight beyond what someone is to what they could become & I like seeing how they live with themselves once they get there. I'd take a world that's sleek & dingy & hard peopled with giants & zealots & madman, preying upon the unassuming & the yet to flourish & the too damned cussed to give up over a whole truckload of fluffy treacle.

But that's just me, I suppose.

In case I haven't mentioned it & you somehow failed to notice in any of my earlier missives, I am, in fact, a big geek. Particulary I loooove science fiction, hence the show list above. I like Sarah Connor, I like Terminator in general. Coulda lived without 3, I suppose, but i'm hoping Salvation makes up for it. Sarah herself is a great character. She's a tough chick I that was hard to find in a lotta media for a while without it coming out all campy. It's gotta be hard being her, putting up not just a tough as nails front but nearly a tough as Wolverine front. She's pretty firmly in the 'has destiny thrust upon them' camp & is doing what she can about it, even with this giant, ticking clock looming over her life. And yet, beneath it all, if you dig deep....ok, really deep, there's still a little glimmer of who she was before it all; the sometimes silly Sarah, the talks tough but is unwilling to kill just because she could (and sometimes maybe even should) Sarah.

Anyway, I'm wandering somewhat off the, rather sketchy, path I had to begin with, aren't I? Sorry. I'm tired & I get kinda stream of consciousnees when my brain starts winding down for the night. One thing I noticed about terminator though, and a lot of other stories - Harry Potter & Eragon just to name a couple, you ever notice how the villains create their own destruction? If Skynet hadn't sent someone back to kill Sarah, she never woulda had John, or gained the fortitude to fight like she has & teach him everything he'll use to try to take them down. HP too; if Voldemort heard the prophesy & just shrugged it off saying 'well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it & besides, I'm me & that's some kid & no way that'll happen', Harry'd been just some random, ordinary wizarding kid.

I realize from the audience perspective, that without some initial catalyst that sets the villain down the path, which in turn creates their would be destroyer, there'd be no story. Still... ya gotta wonder , from the character's perspective, how different things'd been if they just let stuff be.

In other news, my X-Men game is about to make a full changeover to a whole new setting. I'm rather excited. In the new place there'll be lots of different places to see & expiriences to try, plus the structure is drifting away from a school somewhat which should open all sorts of new avenues to write. I'm the current mapmaker for our new digs as well. And, once they were finished, I was asked about coming up with a picture to go along with. I been trying out a 3d modeling program, a thing which I'd never tried before. If you ever have the chance....Don't. Lol, ok, maybe not don't, but if you're new to it, realize it's gonna take a while & there'll be lots & lots of stumbling blocks along the way.

Alright, my brain has just about closed up shop for the night, so I should go. i just wanted to post & say hey (and, it would seem, a few other things as well) since I hadn't been able to get on revently. Next time, I promise, I'll try to have an actual topic.

Good Mornin' World!!

Ok, this is gonna be a big, crazy mess cuz I've pretty mch been up for about 20 minutes because I started having one of those 'yeah, asleep, but kinda leaning towards waking, can sorta directionalize it & remember' kinda dreams & it was about my mermaid story. I got up & sat up & just sat there in the dark for a few minutes while I made sure what I was thinknig & getting together all the details I coul,d then I grabbed my external HD, raced in here & started typing notes! I don't usually do notes or outlines or whatever, but for a few 'X struck me as being a really cool line/scene/twist, but I'm about 80 pages before then' where I'll scribble a sentence or two for later, but this morning, nope! it's like 600 words of new note! And, if my somewhate crazed & sleep addled brain does say so myself, they're good ideas! Things that're gonna be so cool & interesting to try'n sort out into something, lol, a little more coherent than a half asleep at 6:30 a.am., scribbling like a mad woman to keep hold of dream images brain, something useable & interesting &, lol in some kinda order!

OK....*takes deep breath* I'm a little better now, lol. And I really wanna finish, no actually, I really wanna write some of it out from it's scattered piecemealed form, but I can't right now cuz RL sucks like that sometimes & I have things that I have to do for a little bit this morning. But, in about...*checks clock* 2-2/12 hours, I'll be home, fed & noone will need anything till this evening. I'm gonna write like a fiend!

Well....providing my buzz doesn't wear off *clings tightly*

Pre-Dawn Ramblings

Evening...or...early morning or....*shrug* well, you get the idea. For reasons I'm fairly unclear on, I just signed up on Twitter, so if you, uh, Tweet, I geuss (what is the verb form there?!?) feel free to add me if you like. I have all this stuff now, IMs, a MySpace page, this blog now Twitter. Only thing I haven't done is Facebook, I've never even been on that one, but apparently about half the people I know have it, so I suppose it's only a matter of time. I don't really do a lot with most of these things; I've got 3 IMs & most nights only use YM, I do minimal updates on my MS only got it to do the Peoria NaNo chats, dunno what I'm gonna do with Twitter, I don't even know anyone there, so far as I know. I'm est at keeping up here, so I guess that makes you guys special, huh?

I went to see Coraline this weekend. I really enjoyed it. Cool visuals, interesting story. I took my cousin who's almost 12 & her review consisted mainly of "creepy", so I wouldn't bring any young kids, but she liked it. Finished reading Stardust yesterday. It's somewhat different from the movie, but thankfully not in the you read/see one, then when you go to do the other it's a total letdown. Just different. The movie's a bit lighter, nut both are very fun stories.

I had an idea for a new story the other day. I want to do something like a colony ship or something with planet seeding or terraforming or the like. Bit vague yet because I don't want to just do Firefly or Titan A.E. I liked them both, I adore Firefly, in fact, but somebody already told those stories so...The only certainty I have just yet is that the ship/project is going to be called Appleseed.

In other news, my li'l 10 m/o niece started walking Friday! I completely understand if you're not anywhere near as excited on that one than I am, lol. But, I thought it was pretty awesome.

New Books!

So I went shopping today & three guesses what I bought. I got Watchmen, which I've read before, but it was a borrowed copy & was a while ago. I wanted to reread it before seeing the movie, plus I wanted a copy of mine own just because it's that good. If you've never read Watchmen & are one of those 'comics are just dumb kids' stuff' kind of people go buy it. Or indeed, V for Vendetta which I liked even better. They'll change your tune in a hurry. I may be a bit biased though, if Alan Moore wrote a book on making a ham sandwich, I'd want to read it.

Yes, he's that good.

Don't believe me? Ask Neil. He has a whole section of his blog entitled 'why Alan Moore should be made Wizard of England'. Now, I'm clearly not English, but if I were, he'd have my vote for the job. And speaking of, I got two new Neil Gaiman books (because he is also just that good) today. I now have Stardust & Anasasi Boys to add to my collection. I've yet to read either; cuz let's face it, they were bought this afternoon & even I don't read that fast, but I have movie of Stardust, so I'm looking forword to seeing it in it's original form.

And finally, I got A Lion Among Men, the third book in the Wicked Series. I'll tell ya how it turns out.

Ok, I'll write more when I'm properly rested, lol. It was a long day & I have 2 more hours of zombie-like wanderings at work before I can go home. Hope everything's well with you.

Still Alive & Still Tech Impaired

Well, my 'I need new tech' fund is a bit fatter than when last I posted, but it's slow going. Anybody else find it a cruel twist of irony that there are such astounding sales going & still nobody has the cash to take part? Cuz I do. I hope this missive finds you all well & lemme just say a quick hello to my newest blog follower. Hello!

I'm still having trouble getting things going when trying to actually write things out on paper, so instead (and yes, I know this won't improve my word counts any) I've been reading a lot. I just finished Son of a Witch, the sequel to Wicked. They're an interesting take on the world of Oz & a good example of how the same events can be taken from differing directions.

How 'bout you? Read anything good lately?

My Life in (Technological) Exile

Hallooooo blogosphere! My computer is still dead, which may sound obvious, but it's made miraculous ressurections before. I've started my 'Gawd, how I need new tech!!' fund, but it'll be a while yet. Beyond that, I'm fine save a lingering bit of a cold & nearly succumbing to actual cold outside. I don't know where you live, gentle reader, but it's a startling realization when it occurrs to you that you could climb into your own deep freeze & be warmer (by something like 25+ degrees!) than it is outside! Yikes! I hope if you're in the clutches of this as well you're out there somewhere with extra socks, lots of cocoa & a nice blanket.

I've been trying to make some ground on my story, but I just can't seem to get the same momentum going with a pen & paper as I do when I type. Does anybody else have this as well? A preferred format where things just flow or one where everything is a complete slog? I'm trying, I've been working on little details rather than the whole picture in the hopes that it'll jog things. I've also done a little sketching because sometimes for me, it's helpful to be able to actually look at a char. I shall perceviere & I hope wherever you are, your pieces are going well.

Missing my computer...and the lovely rhythm of clicking keys...and talking to all of you.

Well, it did hold up its end of the bargain...

A joyous New Year to one & all, mine's...hit a bit of a rough patch. Last night, my battered, but beloved laptop went off to that good death. I make a glorified allowance, so a new system is sometime off for me yet, but thankfully, I can get online from work (much like now) so I won't dissappear entirely.

The computer's been threatening to kick off for quite a while now; it's nearly 5 years old, it's hand-me-down & it's been moved around (and on rarer occasions, dropped) too much. It'd been getting noticeably during NaNo, so the computer & I made a deal - if it really must die, I needed it to wait till I a) finished my novel & b) got an external HD so I didn't lose EVERYTHING(again!). Well, I finished my novel, at least the first draft I was shooting for anyway & for Christmas, I was pleasantly surprised to get an external hard drive. So, while only getting on a couple times a week is a bit of a drag, I had time to save everything & it held up it's end of things, so I'm not too upset.

This is going to make writing interesting. I haven't written, as in pen & paper, anything longer than a grocery list in AGES, I always type. But, I don't want to wait to write exclusively on the computer, ass I've found, it's hard to get/keep momentum going if you wait days between sessions. I hope I can get the same kind of flow writing on paper as I do when I type.

In other news, I've been doing a lot of reading recently. Just a couple days before Christmas, I bought a copy of American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I'd been meaning to read something of his for a while, but when I was buying comics (actual, single issue comics, not the compilations I get now cuz it's just easier, lol) there was only one or two places in town that sold them, it was a very limited collection & did not include Sandman, but that's where I knew the name from. He did one of the Pep Talks for NaNo last year & I really liked it, so I've started reading his blog & I think I can fairly well say....I *heart* Neil. If you haven't read him, you really should, he's awesome, clever & engaging & funny. Look him up on neilgaiman.com or wikipedia or imdb.com If you haven't read him, there's a good chance you've still seen his work, several of his pieces have been made into movies & he's written screenplays for other things as well. Anyway, I read American Gods, then a couple days after Christmas, went back out & got Neverwhere & Good Omens(with Terry Pratchett) & I've already read all three of them, lol. Now I'm onto a borrowed book which, just coincidentally (I'd gotten it loaded to me sometime in Nov & had half forgot about it) is by Terry Pratchett called Johnny Maxwell Trilogy. One good thing about faulty tech, I suppose....it gives you a lotta time to read.

Ok, that's all I've got for now. I'll be back around as opportunity permits, so likely about 1-2 times a week. Enjoy your new year & go read a good book....or write one!