Heh, sorry. Far be it for me to avoid the call of the wild 80s tune, sprinting into my thoughts and then gone again.
Originally, I was just going to say "Happy New Year", seeing as it was 2011 the last time I posted. This time I don't even really have the excuse of being too busy. Yes, there were a great many things to do before the new year, and before I knew it was back to work to finish one quarter, then starting the next, and an almost-week-long cold in between, but I had plenty of time to rest, unlike most breaks.
All I can say is that I felt I didn't have much to contribute to the internet-y world of writing and publishing.
My life the past month:
1. "Clockwork Seams" hit another snag, again, some more. It sits there in my mind, waiting, but I don't know for what.
2. I have begun editing "Hounds" again. I am learning that I am far too likely to focus on the details and miss the larger (rewrite that scene, and Character X can no longer exist!) sweeping edits. I am forcing myself to focus on the broader changes. Then I will try to talk to someone who's read the whole thing and run a few ideas by them.
3. I also realized, though this has been said to me once before, and is not a new observation of my own, that I love to complicate stories. I love to hint at and tease out past bits of history that have a bearing on the current situations, I love adding another character to throw a wrench in. My protagonist is being pelted with wrenches. Wrenches hurt.
4. As I edit "Hounds" (I keep three chapters on me when I go to work, so I can read large chunks and scribble over them when I have free minutes), I am realizing things to fix with other stories, like the short story which led to someone telling me the plot was too complicated for a short story.
5. Sleep. I have been trying to sleep more, because...
6. If I don't sleep, the last, fitful dregs of this cold will never go away. I can't not work, so the sniffly-ness lingers, as does the plugged ears, and a weak little cough.
7. And as of last night, I am watching "The Pirates of Dark Water," a cartoon I loved when I was younger, and the complete series of which I received for Christmas. And I realized, amid fairly rampant whitewashing in many shows for many years, "Dark Water" boasts a central cast of only COC. I also realized that it was science fiction, or at least science fantasy, because the premise of finding the 13 treasures would restore a city to a rather modern style. Maybe it'd by dystopic?
Here, have a blurry picture of the three main characters, Ioz, Ren, and Tula (apparently from a time when Cartoon Network ran episodes in syndication).
2 comments:
I don't know if I remember that show, but somehow Tula looks familiar!
I totally know what you mean about overcomplicating things. Lately I've been noticing ghosts of previous revisions which feature complications that no longer make sense or are even necessary to the story. Argh! Good luck and keep going...
Oh, yes, the complications. I think a lot of writers like to throw trouble at their protagonists, but I'll say, "Sure, they're already dealing with X, Y, and Z, but now let's bring in this person from their past who knows about situation Z and can make it even more complicated! Mua ha ha."
I am trying to take a hard look at how many of the named characters really need to be there, and how much of people's pasts need to have a bearing on the present issues.
There was Tula, and Jasmine from the animated Conan series (yup, I watched that). I remember they looked kinda similar, though I can't picture Jasmine now.
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