Friday, December 17, 2010
Monday, December 13, 2010
I Am A Wild Party
Ladies and gentlemen, I am done for the semester! Boo Ya!
Time to slide into a hedonistic debauchery of video games and, ah, writing. Yes. I am just that exciting.
Time to slide into a hedonistic debauchery of video games and, ah, writing. Yes. I am just that exciting.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
The Naming of characters is a difficult matter, It isn't just one of your holiday games
I have a character name (ok a couple actually, on a couple of different stories) giving me grief. The name in question has changed.... oh let's see, 20 times now? More? The problem, and this sounds completely crazy I know, is that, because I can't get the name right, the character keeps changing on me. Usually with the name.
Sometimes, I can't even start something until I have the name right. It's like the name literally defines the character and everything that springs from them. Every quality, phobia and dislike. If I can start without it (and I have on several occasions) I have to watch constantly that the character isn't inconsistent because... because they don't have a fucking name?! Seriously? *Sigh* Apparently so.
This particularly character started out based on several things, one of which was that the name had to be one syllable. Or something that could (and would) be shortened down to that. Weird eh? I have gone through literally every one syllable, female name I could find. None of which have fit "just so." I thought I had it for a while there. The character spent the last 2 years with the same name. But it didn't feel entirely right. One small experiment on readers later and we're back to changing it up again.
I have a fallen angel I can't get a proper handle on because he lacks a name (of the only ones that seem to fit, I can't use because they are entirely too pre-loaded with meanings I don't wish to ascribe to him). I have a heroine who becomes someone else entirely sometimes because she lacks the correct name. I have an entire story with NAME1 through to... damn, I think we're on NAME5 or NAME7 now, stalled out. *shakes head*
If I waited for the right names, I'm pretty sure nothing would ever get started.
Sometimes, the name just comes. Blam! There it is! Puff of smoke, thank you, dude's jacked up and good to go. And then there's those other times...
Sometimes, I can't even start something until I have the name right. It's like the name literally defines the character and everything that springs from them. Every quality, phobia and dislike. If I can start without it (and I have on several occasions) I have to watch constantly that the character isn't inconsistent because... because they don't have a fucking name?! Seriously? *Sigh* Apparently so.
This particularly character started out based on several things, one of which was that the name had to be one syllable. Or something that could (and would) be shortened down to that. Weird eh? I have gone through literally every one syllable, female name I could find. None of which have fit "just so." I thought I had it for a while there. The character spent the last 2 years with the same name. But it didn't feel entirely right. One small experiment on readers later and we're back to changing it up again.
I have a fallen angel I can't get a proper handle on because he lacks a name (of the only ones that seem to fit, I can't use because they are entirely too pre-loaded with meanings I don't wish to ascribe to him). I have a heroine who becomes someone else entirely sometimes because she lacks the correct name. I have an entire story with NAME1 through to... damn, I think we're on NAME5 or NAME7 now, stalled out. *shakes head*
If I waited for the right names, I'm pretty sure nothing would ever get started.
Sometimes, the name just comes. Blam! There it is! Puff of smoke, thank you, dude's jacked up and good to go. And then there's those other times...
An Inopportune Mouthful
The exercise was to take a piece of dialogue and work it into a story. Somehow, I ended up making it the entire story. Italics indicates the piece of dialogue.
It needs to be further revised, now that I've gotten it back, but here's a wee bit of it:
The fight started because Fat Dan was still eating biscuits and refused to leave the tavern. In all honesty, it wasn't his fault. Fights had a way of happening at the Slug and Manticore and earlier that day he'd had the misfortune to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. For that, he'd been cursed by a crotchety wizard.
The wizard in question, one, Marvo the magnificent, had just been dumped by the sword mistress, love-of-his-life. She'd told him he wasn't tough enough. Never mind that Marvo could nail a pumpkin with a fireball at 40 paces. His sword skills were positively laughable and that was a deal breaker for her.
"Four years Marvo. Four years I've been giving you sword lessons and you haven't learned shit." She'd said, storming off and muttering something about how he never took her seriously.
Like most bipeds, Marvo believed in passing it on. So he did.
It needs to be further revised, now that I've gotten it back, but here's a wee bit of it:
The fight started because Fat Dan was still eating biscuits and refused to leave the tavern. In all honesty, it wasn't his fault. Fights had a way of happening at the Slug and Manticore and earlier that day he'd had the misfortune to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. For that, he'd been cursed by a crotchety wizard.
The wizard in question, one, Marvo the magnificent, had just been dumped by the sword mistress, love-of-his-life. She'd told him he wasn't tough enough. Never mind that Marvo could nail a pumpkin with a fireball at 40 paces. His sword skills were positively laughable and that was a deal breaker for her.
"Four years Marvo. Four years I've been giving you sword lessons and you haven't learned shit." She'd said, storming off and muttering something about how he never took her seriously.
Like most bipeds, Marvo believed in passing it on. So he did.
Friday, December 3, 2010
It Is Done
My final short story is done. 19 pages. 6,500 word or so. Not bad, not bad at all. And might I even be so brazen as to suggest it is a pleasant read?
I am actually proud of it, something I can't say happens as often as it probably should. I dug deep and hit a new level of editing on it, which I am also happy and proud of.
Is it perfect? Hardly so, but it is as good as I can make it currently and that is better than anything else I've produced to date, so I will take my hard-earned victory and enjoy it.
Now, if only I can make my final script and major research essay (among others) as snazzy, I will surely end this semester exhausted, but pleased.
Totally unrelated note (or maybe it is, who knows! I should probably monitor these things more closely) my dreams have been awesome lately.
I am actually proud of it, something I can't say happens as often as it probably should. I dug deep and hit a new level of editing on it, which I am also happy and proud of.
Is it perfect? Hardly so, but it is as good as I can make it currently and that is better than anything else I've produced to date, so I will take my hard-earned victory and enjoy it.
Now, if only I can make my final script and major research essay (among others) as snazzy, I will surely end this semester exhausted, but pleased.
Totally unrelated note (or maybe it is, who knows! I should probably monitor these things more closely) my dreams have been awesome lately.