The Last Bastion of Creativity

Rambling: It lives!!! or why is this bedroom so small

Reports of my death have been sadly untrue. Still here, actually still working on stuff. Just not all of it is writing related or at least not Legacy related.

Sent the first 5 rough draft chapters off to a few folks. Curious to the reactions. Actually, I might print it and bring it to my sisters this weekend for her as well.
Yanked out those chapters and have been making small changes and highlighting larger possible changes in word.
Got The Misses almost completely set up in Eastabutchie. TV should arrive Wednesday and I will be bringing a taller thinner dresser with me when I bring the car up to her.
Apartment complex companies must hire architects FRESH out of school cause floor plans are just dumb. The Misses apartment has this CAVERNOUS living room but the bedroom is teeny tiny. Like, give up some of the living room to make the bedroom actually functional, come on!
Oh and the only cable jack in the living room is on the opposite side of the cavern to where it would make the most sense to put a tv.
I thought I was done with D&D setup but it seems the old campaign that petered out 2 years ago is likely coming back together with a plus one. She is looking at either a aasimar or changling psion. Should be interesting.
TOTALLY considering getting a smaller drawing monitor so I can trace draw some of my characters.

On this episode of fun with numbers, I got curious how abysmal my stats would be in writer so heeere we go:

Continue reading Rambling: It lives!!! or why is this bedroom so small

Weighing my Heart against my Mind

The first couple books in the story have some sci-fi elements hinted at in a “is she/isn’t she?” manner until you see that yes, she is. Then it becomes a “does that mean he is?” mystery. The answer to that mystery is completely deflated doing the flashback/forwards.

My mind wants Chronological. I get the best truest version of the story doing it that way and all the minor story lines stay intact.

My heart wants Flashback/Forward. I get to have fun with my preferred characters and the format is more technically sound but things get cut, lost in the shuffle, or deflated.

*sigh*

I think I’m going to ship out the first couple chapters to the betas so they can confirm exactly how boring the beginning is. I can see what adjustments I can make from there.

God damn it.

Meandering to the analytical to the ultra perceptive or Yet ANOTHER roadblock to work around

Writing Ikher is easy. He just sort of exists, pulling the wisdom of Solomon out of his ass every now and then.

Nancy’s a challenge with the near constant examination of everything and predicting what could be.

Getting into Shirley’s head is even harder. Figuring out how to write someone who notices everything without it being just a detail dump is mental exercise.

Thankfully, Marcus is easy since I just have to make a jokes when ever possible.

That said, I’ve just realized that doing it this way (flash back/forward) completely obliterates the two big cliffhangers since the story now starts after those.

“Just start right before one of them.”

I mean, I guess.

But a) it’s a horrible place to begin the origin story, b) there’s no build up to establish shit, and c) runs into the same problem if i start with the latter one.

Simplest fix is to go back to chronological but then thats not as fun and i have to figure out how to fix but still keep the slow start.

Another stupid bit is I have to write another opener. Took me fucking forever to work out one for the original start point I didn’t hate. So why not another?!?!

I dunno man.

I want to say that I need a break from this. Moving all our stuff up to Eastabutchie this weekend would be a good excuse but I know better. I’ll keep thinking about it.

Perhaps I’m not treading water anymore and it’s time to ask for help from people who have done this a couple times.

The never ending story or just another excuse not to edit

This damn book is never getting finished. lol

I’m halfway to being all in on the kids hosting the origin story telling. I went with a straight chronological telling because I could sprinkle things in for reveal later and I needed to break up the constant drone of Ikher and Nancy.

I’m still trying to figure out how to move/save the fun little things but the flash forward to Shirley/Mack/Landyn/etc and whoever the hell they’re talking to will take care of the drone. Plus it lets me showcase the characters I really enjoy.

Oh, on that. I was working through the logistics, I thought about why I really enjoy the kids as opposed to the adults. I think it’s because they’re usually in groups and I can play them off each other. That doesn’t really happen with the parents until B04.

So now I have to wonder, is this just my brain making an excuse to write my preferred characters? Mayhaps me thinks. lol

The varnish wears a little more

The more I ruminate about the ‘rewrite from a particular perspective’ idea that I had, the worse it gets.

If the host is telling the story cobbled together from POV 1 + POV 2, I lose a lot of diversity since that story wouldn’t include the side relationships viewable from the omnipresent perspective. So for the first half of the story, almost all the non M/F relationships would get SUPER diminished or sidelined completely.

Fuck. I can make it a better technical product but I lose the heart and soul of it. This might be another “I’m going to take this loss because (all) the story deserves to be told.

Thanks for ~~listening to me whine~~ reading! ^_^

Monkey wrenches or Fixes that create more problems

On the way back from Eastabutchie, NY at fuck thirty this morning, I stop at the usual place at the end of DE to get some horrid cold brew that keeps me up ~~for the rest of the fucking day~~ until I can sit at my desk.

Once infused, I realized how to remedy the problem I mentioned previously (the beginning dragging).

Instead of starting at Day Zero (dad getting out of college) and writing forward all the way to Day 25,000 (the epilogue after dad kicks the bucket), I COULD use the old flash back trick.

Have each child ‘host’ that book explaining to someone how their mother met dad. That would get rid of possible filler and let me write the kids (who the story is really about) a bit.

The problems with this?

a) It’s a bit of a logistics mess.

Where would each ‘hosting’ session occur in the timeline. Not a big problem as I’m working out how to schedule the big events now.

b) The sex scenes.

This one is a problem as any graphic stuff goes out the window if it’s a child retelling the tale. Like, I know the story of my pops getting mom pregnant and them getting married after but I don’t know the gritty details.

It’s not a problem but it is. As I put in the disclaimer, there’s no story critical information in the sex scenes. I do use them to showcase small personality tells/quirks and minor character information/backstory. Again nothing critical, just fluff.

Also, aside from dumbed down plot relevant sex scenes, reading the sex was going to be completely optional.

I mean, I guess instead of the kids telling the story it COULD be the mother retelling it to another adult. But then I don’t get to write the kids as adults. Fuuuuck, I don’t know!!

As if I didn’t have enough on my plate…

I’m thinking of cranking up another project.

I’ve always felt weird writing in 1st person. Dunno why, it’s just… bleh. However, I have no problem detailing thoughts or experiences in a diary/journal format. So I’m thinking perhaps I do it in that format so maybe it’s not so… weird.

Being back into dungeons & dragons had me combing through magical items for the players. I came across the belt that swaps your gender. That got me to thinking and posting elsewhere about how that would work in these present times where it’s not just a two party system anymore. And a whole ‘nother conversation about what the parameters were for changing (like what determines breast/penis/ballsack/labia size etc).

Anyway, so I’m thinking a journal style story about someone who has the whole magical switcheroo happen and the hijinx that ensue would be fun.

I mention to my wife I might be starting another story and she gave me the writers equivalent of “You’ve lost another submarine?” lol

Thanks for reading! ^_^

Rambling: Pacing or how many seeds have I planted?!?!?

I’ve been watching advice videos about writing better (i know i know, super double edged sword) and it’s got me picking my shit apart. And I’m worried now that the first part is too slow.

I admit the first… four chapters are sort of slowly rolling down an incline in neutral, maybe first gear but no one’s pushing the pedal. C05 through C07 I would say are moving but shit doesn’t REALLY get going until C08 and C09. Editing is about removing the bits the story isn’t using/doesn’t really need, right? So I took a look at those chapters to see what I could slash.

The first portion isn’t overbearing with text walls of world building or narrative, but it’s one dude doing a lot of mundane day to day shit with some character introduction/interaction and light sprinkle of conflict here and there.

Now that I write that out, I’m wondering if I’m being too hard on myself because it IS a modern day slice of life story with little to no supernatural/scifi elements (right now). Hmmm…

C01 through C08 have already gotten the first editing pass, so they’ve been trimmed and tightened. At this point I zoom out and say “Do I really need this scene/chapter?” I’m hesitant to cut anything because there are one or more things in each chapter which are referenced/used later. If not in this book, then in one down the road.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not fighting to keep anything because I’m super in love with them or because I did a ton of research. It’s more that they’re building blocks that don’t really fit in other places and axing them would mean potentially cutting an entire character (or at least getting rid of some origin stuff).

At the end of the day, this is a long (multiple) life story, with TONS of moving parts to it. I guess I need to be ok with having a slow opener. I know that might turn some folks off but the people who stick with it will get fun “wait, what” and “ah ha” moments ~~in twenty years~~ when I finish this story.

Thanks for reading! ^_^

Stuff… things… missing things…

Having been away my heart yearns to write/edit. Sometimes you just need to take a break.

This break and chatting with someone about the book has help me narrow down a bit more what it might be. Don’t think Life Story is a genre but that’s kinda the best classification for the series. Also need to work on a summary cause “The tale of a group of women and the guy they have children with.” sounds baaaad.

So that’s on the plate as well as bringing out Nance’s voice and personality. It’s one thing that I know why she does what she does but NO ONE else does. Gotta do better. lol

In other news, One thing I really enjoy is making/formatting things. For the last D&D campaign I copied out all the spells and made myself a binder with them sorted by spell tier. I know the binder is in storage with all my other stuff. Problem is, I have NO idea where the digital files are for it. It was a separate word doc for each spell tier. I copied out the D&D folder that was on my storage drive to a removable but its not on there.

That’s worrying cause I wasted A LOT of time at my last job making that. I’m not terribly worried if I cant find it because The Grimoire exists. Would just suck to lose all that work.

Ah well, the mountain of backlog work is calling.

Thanks for reading! ^_^