Word on the Novel Front

I hope everyone had a happy fourth. As you can see, I'm still here. My local Library allows internet access for one hour per day. At first I thought that could never ever ever be enough.

Now I know better.

Now I know I am an internet junkie and I NEED THAT HOUR!!!! DAILY!!!! PLEASE!!!! I DON'T CARE IF IT'S THE FOURTH OF JULY!!!! I NEEEEED IT!!!!!!

Which can get embarrassing at times.

Rather than write an entire essay or continue on my meanderings on Inspiration, I thought I'd give a novel update. The novel is going green right now. A nice healthy green.

A couple of weeks ago I started on Yet Another Outline (Sigh), which I assumed would putter out in a day or two into confusion. I bought a notebook and started writing it a chapter summary at a time and kept each summary no long than a page. . I would later translate my chicken scratches on to my computer before my computer started its fits. It was something new and different.

It also stuttered to a stop. But before it did, I had twenty four chapters out of an unknown number hammered out. As I knew, more or less, what was to come, this didn't bother me. Why I stopped, however, did.

I decided I didn't know enough about the characters in the novel. The main characters, sure, but not the rest. Not a surprise. My other YAO(S)s had failed for similar reasons. This time, however, I did something about it. I started a new notebook writing about what the characters want.

This has cleared up my problem nicely and I plan to keep it up. As of right now I have a complete list of Chapter Titles (which functions as a Outline Lite) and a New Outline, which is more detailed than my last YAO(S). Now the NO can become an YAO(S) ASAP despite the CT being a OL. But right now I feel alright.

I will try to post again later in the week, but no guarantees.

Technical Difficulties - Please Stand By

My computer is currently ailing. I have no access to the internet save going to the library. While the library isn't far and it's fairly reasonable to use their computers, I can not promise frequent updates. Which makes me a sad, sad little man.

In lieu of more word from me, I will mention that work on the novel is moving a pace despite computer rebellion. I have an almost complete outline, a better understanding of the characters, and a better grasp of the setting.

One of the things I'm coming to understand is that you have to teach yourself how to go about writing these things. And I'm a slow, stubborn student.

Anyway, that's all I've got at the moment. I hope to speak again soon. Working on the Blog has been quite fun and it's absence from my life is a bit noticeable.

See you soon.

Inspiration (II)

or I Drank What?

When last we checked, our hero, Cullen of Welltun Care Presents fame, updated his site with a portion of an essay that was loquacious, garrulous, verbose, and one might also say wordy. The Ghost of Polonius, after previewing the missive, was quoted on saying "The writer, if I might use the term loosely, could not have a harder time arriving at a point if he took that same point and thrust it thusly in a direction not towards, nay, even opposite that which would bring it to himself." He then went on to decry curtains as a hiding place and to wonder why the shades of his children refuse to speak with him.

In the whole, that portion dealt with seeing something that inspired Cullen as a writer. This portion of the essay will follow that theme. Assuming the chatty little fool can reach his point.

(It sounds like I'm complaining about writing in volume the day after complaining about writer's block, but I'm not. Well, maybe a little, but it's just that I can't help thinking I should have gotten to the point sooner. Hindsight is twenty-twenty, of course.)

---

Only a few days ago, I read for the first time Harlan Ellison's I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. It is the story of the computer AM and how he/it spends his/its time. There's more to it than just that, but I come not to spoil but to contemplate.

At the time I was less than impressed with what I'd read. I could give a litany of where the story lost me, but I'm not doing a review of a Hugo winning work. That strikes me as a wee bit too arrogant coming from a man who hardly has boo connected to his name. Besides, I reread it for this little piece and my opinion picked up a bit. I've found that sometimes I need a second readthrough with Ellison before he can work his magic on me. It's not because I'm so dense or any failing on his part; his writing doesn't always mesh with my reading.

No, really. Not dense at all.

Questions about my reading comprehension aside, I was discussing "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" with my dad, and I said something to the effect that I would have preferred the story had it been written by Theodore Sturgeon. Which is still true; Sturgeon could have made the plot sing.

But, then again, I say this as a bigger fan of Sturgeon than Ellison.

Be that as it may, the thought lingered with me. It's not the first time such a thought has come to me. I've wondered what "Lord of the Rings" would have been like had it bee written by various authors, ranging from H. P. Lovecraft to Stephen King to...

Can't tell I've had a Horror bent longer than a Fantasy bent, can you? How about "I Robot" or "Foundation" by way of Tolkien? "Road to Rio" by way of Douglas Adams?

Or we could go obscure. Slasher movie in space (Not Jason X so much as Alien). Casablanca in a future setting (um..Maybe not; that's Barb Wire...) and so on.

It's speculation like this that can lead to Insparation, that lead to new thoughts and ideas. Not necessarily good ones, but not necessarily bad ones, either.

---

Another part done and more to go. Hopefully everyone's enjoying this as much as I am.

Inspiration (I)

or Oh My Sweet, Sweet God

This essay started out as something completely different. Something shorter. It will be a rambling, free wheeling thing and it will stretch for several days worth of writing. With luck, will come together at the end.

---

I was surfing the web, trying not to think about the novel, about the short story ideas that popped up here and there doing the week, about the essays I want to write for this site, and about how the seconds are crawling across my skin, leading me closer and closer to the grave. Too much, too much, the thoughts clutter around, and, instead of doing something I do NOTHING.

So I'm surfing, thinking of nothing so that I might think of something, when I hit The Shrew Review, a comic book review site. There I find a review of "Fables", which will change how my day tastes.

Now I had heard of "Fables" before, mostly through reviews like the one the Shrew (writer Rose Vess) presents. The milieu it presents (Story book characters living in the modern day) both intrigues me and depresses me. Intrigues because I think its a great concept. Depresses because I wish like hell I thought of it.

However, I have never actually read any of the series. I don't recall ever seeing it in the Borders or Waldenbooks selection of comic books and I haven't visited a House of Long Boxes in a while. Not that that matters, mind you. When I look at comics, I tend to look for the Old Familiar Faces. The Spider-men, the Hulks, and the other Marvels, the Batmen, the Supermen, and the other Distinguished Characters. Occasionally I might look at something else, but it is the exception rather than the rule.

The review is of an abbreviated nature. Vess also writes for
Buzzscope and I, genuinely curious if not invested in the series, followed the link from one site to the next.

Now you might well suspect, with all this blathering on my part and the title of this essay, that the review had something wonderful it. Well, almost.

The review at Buzzscope was located beneath a link to
a five page preview of the comic. As it was a positive review (one in a long line for the series), I clicked up there to see what all the fuss was about. I was greeted with good art (a fair bit of nudity on one page, to warn those who need warning), good writing, and a page which caused the aforementioned taste change.

It comes on the last page, but there are hints of it on the preceding pages, where various characters are preparing for what is to come. The Winter Queen is coming through the city and warm clothes are a must. Her presence takes all trace of summer away, it seems.

The final page show the Queen walking down the street. She has this small smile on her face. Already snow is gathering in her wake. The next panel has her gone. Several inches of snow covers the ground.

Now anyone else might look at that and not have the same experience I had. They might even be able to point to a moment in another Fantasy and say how it was better than this.

And this is all right. This is fine.

But I saw that page, and I wanted to be a writer all over again. I wanted to write something like that scene, have a moment in a novel, in a story, in a movie or play that had that power for someone else. Something that had that sense of wonder and have it be mine all mine.

Inspiration comes. It comes in many shapes, sizes, and colors. But when it comes...

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This has led to other thoughts, but I've wasted enough of your day. I'll pick up on this tomorrow, God willing and the creek don't rise.

Blog? I Have a Blog?

I... I have a Blog? And it needs updating every now and then? Beyond cosmetic changes?

Whoa. Heavy.

I'd like to say that my life's been filling up my time, but the truth is that I've been dealing with a bit of writer block when it comes to this thing. I've had things I wanted to say and/or post, but getting them out has been a P A I N.

Such is life.

Bird Creature - Images

When in doubt, post art.

This picture is of a more recent variety. Here is the original:

And here is the finished product

It won't win any awards, I know, but he looks good. Well, the hand could use work, and shading would improve things...

Meh. I like 'im.

Site Update - A New Month

Just dropping a line so that thoses that read this site (all two of you) know that I'm still plugging. The end of May brought the first bit of fiction to the site; more will be seen in the near future. Maybe even tomorrow.

Gotta go. Be seeing you.