Busy Weekend

But not for writing. Was gone all weekend visiting family. Managed to write the tiniest of bits, but I can't remember where or what because I wrote it at about 3am when I couldn't sleep. So glad to be back in my own home. So desperately in need of sleep.

So much catching up to do online now.

Forbidden Kingdom

Saw it over the weekend. Not a big movie reviewing type of person, so here's the quick and dirty version. Awesome movie, sure the plot is technically predictable as all hell, but honestly I didn't really notice that during the movie. It's pretty much everything I like from the genre, breathtaking scenery and costume, incredible awe factor, spectacular fight scenes without too much wire-fu for those who aren't a fan of that sort of thing. Imaginative. Go see it.

Also Hellboy 2 is shaping up to be a frickin' wicked looking movie. Mike Mignola's creative genuis plus Guillermo Del Toro's = awesome! The youtube trailers don't actually do the movie justice. The movie trailer we saw waiting for Kingdom to start does. I was jazzed before for this, now I'm... er more jazzed. :)

Something old, something new

Not last night, but the night before I had a crazy cool dream partially presented to me in comic form. Yes, it's true, I sometimes dream in movie, comic, MMO and book form. For real. No I don't know why except to say that given the legendary (to my friends and family at least) dream craziness this is pretty par for the course. So yea I actually saw several panels of the comic and now I'm intrigued. I wrote them down and the little I could remember of the plot which was unfinished and very convoluted even in dream form. But I want to do this at some point. I'm not sure yet how the story got from the beginning to the end, I'm not even sure the story (or my subconscious) really knew either because there was a chunk missing from the middle then it skipped to the end. Great, even my subconscious won't just write a story in order!

Thinking about that comic idea made me start thinking about another one I've had kicking around forever that's got no hardcore outline done or anything, but it does have lots of notes. Rereading it made me fall in love with it all over again. Er not that I ever fell out of love with it. Baby, baby, baby, why you gots to be like that? Come on baby, you know I didn't mean it like that. I've always loved you... I really want to do that as well. The problem? I can not draw. Can not. And I don't know anyone who can draw it for me. But if I did...I would make it a webcomic in a heartbeat. It's funny, irreverent, surreal. It's got ninjas!

Word count yesterday wasn't as good as I would have like, but I did get some great character stuff thoughted out. (Why, yes I did just use the word thoughted.) :)

My Writing Process

So to expand on something mentioned in comments. Here’s my (oh so fascinating I know) current writing process in all its fledgling glory…

I write something, it's a scene, but I frequently don’t yet know, what for, or where in the story (if it even is this story) it belongs. I don't seem to be able to write my story in sequence. I write scenes as they come to me. It’s a barebones scene, in a frantic attempt to get it down before it’s gone. And it's almost more like I'm writing the heart of the scene, anything that I consider, I dunno not extraneous, but not to be the heart of the scene, the meat of it, rarely gets down/out in that first rush of words. Things like description, setting (physical setting, i.e. where they are) get left out. I skimp like hell on descriptions. And given that they feel like one of my weakest areas, I have to make a very concentrated effort to go back later and start adding in sight, sounds, touch etc. So I write scenes, as many as hit me, if multiple ones hit me at once I try to make quick notes that will jog my memory on the others, pick one and run with it. Somewhere down the road I go back to fill them in. I do this several times till I have an actual scene with plot and descriptions and pacing and a point to it, though I’ll likely still have no bloody clue where in the story it goes. Sometimes I don't even know why I'm writing them, but I've learned to trust it because, even if I have to make huge changes later, some part (or the whole thing, it really just depends) belongs somewhere in that story. Ok usually, sometimes it belongs in a different story.

Later when I've got so much written down that it seems like I'll never be able to organize it and it towers above me like a gigantic, virtual, paper monstrosity, I brace myself and start to try and assemble all these seemingly disparate pieces into some sort of cohesive whole. Try to untangle the massive spaghetti style throw down of words I’ve disgorged.

That's when I start to realize that my brain actually knows far more about what it was doing than I give it credit for. Pieces I couldn't begin to place will start dropping into the puzzle and, duhhh, of course it should go there. That links this up with that and lets blah happen down the road. Ooooh! I get it! Then I marvel at how cool my subconscious is and pat myself on the back, something I don't do nearly enough of.

I really wish I could add all the details in right from the beginning, but pre/first draft writing is usually a frantic thing as I attempt to get everything down before it's gone from my head. Even if it does play hell with organization and such. There’s a Flow that comes with it. Time ceases to matter, I can ignore things like food and the need to pee. I’m just thoroughly enthralled with the writing and loving it on a level I’m not even conscious enough to take stock of until after. Thoroughly engaged. God it’s grand.

I have a sneaky suspicion I'll dislike intensely revising for final drafts. On the one hand, a blank page is horrifying and intimidating. On the other hand I’m trying to balance between adding in relevant description and all the extra bits I left out while not losing the flow and momentum of something I’ve previously written.

Ok enough brain spitting, back to character write-ups for my course. Currently these are second and tertiary characters, but who knows! Anything can happen! Cheryl was only supposed to be a mentioned thing and now she’s got a back story to rival Gwen’s! I am not making a story for her. Not a novel anyways. Maybe some sort of short story for the two of them…but not right now. Must finish at least one writing project I start.

Class assignments and lateness

Once again I'm an assignment behind. It's a trend I've noticed more than once now. It's a good thing these aren't graded because I'd be failing all over the place and that worries me. The problem is that my writing process is lengthy as all hell. Or maybe more specifically my revision process. My first drafts... you know, I'm not even really sure they can be considered first drafts, are chaotic, terribly unpolished things. I go over them and go over them, probably an extra 2-3 times before I'd even consider them to be show-able as something unfinished, let alone something finished and polished. And that going over them usually takes a day in between each pass so stuff can percolate in the back of my head. Add to that the fact that I get seem to get words out on the page everyday... It's more than a little frustrating and makes me worry whether this will change. I would eventually like to make writing a full time career. Obviously down the road. But this process I go through, it seems like it would negate that dream. Most published authors seem to take about a year to get a book out and off. Maybe I'm wrong on that one, but when you read the answers of authors to this question, that seems to be the general timeline/consensus. I have no confidence in myself that I could do that.

I even hate writing Blog posts and posting them in the moment. I want/need time to go over them. Let them sit and come back to them fresh so I can reword better, make it more coherent, hopefully more engaging and smarter sounding. But I usually don’t do that for posts and end up going back and hating what I’ve posted. Because the idea of always being a day or more behind on even Blog posts kind of drives me a little nuts.

Will I be able to shorten this whole process down at all? How? Does it just come with experience and confidence? Will I just learn eventually how to put more of what I want to say down on that initial jotting down of ideas? I wrote a lot more, going into more details on my writing process. Not sure that’s really going to be interesting to people and was kind of getting a bit away from the point of this so I’m not going to post it.

But yea, being chronically behind = hate. I'm an incredibly punctual person and this seems to be one area where I'm consistently not and have no idea how to fix that.

Anyone know...

If "comments" posts can be edited? So far I'm not seeing a way to do that and my eyes are notorious for missing really obvious errors when viewing them on a screen instead of on paper.

Thanks.

Problem the second

I cannot decide on a color scheme and do not like my template options. But I'm poor and were I not poor, I would still be cheap. What if I pay and they mock me with their crappyness? Why must I be mocked? Why! I may not sleep tonight. I may lie awake completely torn by this, flipping furiously back and forth. Layout. Color. Color. Layout. I may even snap and find myself writing a 3am post.

No one should have to read my 3 am ramblings.

Problem the first and a welcome.

I know nothing about metal, metal alloys, tensile strength and what I do and don't need to know about it.

Also, I really need to nail down the various strength levels of my characters and their respective species. Time to go read comic encyclopedia's or something.

And a hearty welcome to my blog! Which I will spruce up hopefully soon.