LookingLand

i am forcing myself to do an update today. i've been slogging through a lot of stuff this week and have not been very diligent about this ol' lj blog. sorry flist!

webcomicsnation has stopped throwing shoes, but my confidence in it is shaky at best. i've decided to just take a break from Reconstruction as i need to finish all the other summer projects i got swirling around right now. i've made a good dent in things this week (and took thursday off, which helped a lot). i just keep staring straight ahead for the horizon. in three weeks this craziness will be over and i can get the keel even again.

in writing: i took a break from comic lettering to rewrite the first chapter of Figfield in one of those strange bursts of creative inspiration that strikes like lightning (if i may be so cliché). the results surprise me. they seem dense, but the voice is mostly right and i think i can work with it. i am sending it to some eyeballs (poke poke?) in the hopes of getting some feedback.

in reading: i also read Montmorency and the Assassins yesterday in a rare fit of page-turning. i've never been able to put a book from this series down once i have gotten started on it. can't believe i waited so long to read it. now i'm sad that i only have one book left and i desperately want to devour it this week since the last book ended on quite the cliffhanger.

if you're not familiar with the Montmorency series, i cannot recommend it high enough. Updale's world is full of charming characters, gritty details, murder, espionage, goofy romance, and vast silliness of the victorian sort that is simply irresistible. even though these books are tempered for young adults, they are wonderfully dark and don't shirk from realism: crime, drugs, etc. i loved book three, but so far book two Montmorency on the Rocks is still my favorite. i've never had an edge-of-my-seat read like that: it was just relentlessly good! but i do think you have to start from the beginning to really appreciate them. so do!

on top of which, Eleanor Updale is just a fabulously generous person and deserves all the credit and support she can get.

overall i didn't get as much done as i'd hoped, but it was nonetheless a good weekend. ate blackberries for breakfast, concocted salads with exotic tomatoes.

( blowing off a wee bit of steam about the kentucky derby )

spent sunday at Fort Snelling. had a grand old time. mebbe i post more pictures later.


overall was out a lot this weekend, which always takes more energy than it gives. as a confirmed closet anchorite, public appearances are a huge drain.

in writing: beginnings and endings.

last week i wrote twenty one pages from the beginning just to get back into the voice. this week i wrote twenty five pages from the ending. i have to write endings early in the process. they give me a target to shoot for. i rarely rewrite them, though how i get from beginning to ending is prone to all manner of digressions, etc.

i think i like my ending. the last couple of beats are giving me fits, but overall, i like the way this thing winds down. because this story is essentially the beginning of a long, long battle, it's hard to find the right note that will finish this both "resolved" and yet on the edge of the next adventure. we'll see if i can pull it off. i'm pretty confident that it doesn't suck, so we're facing the right direction at least.

all that and it's update day for Reconstruction. we're getting into the weirder of the transition areas. it's going to be a little bumpy for a while. i don't really like what i did with this scene (basically condensed it into three pages, which is pretty dang condensed). but i am hoping with the new style, i won't be so prone to trim the edges. we'll see in the next couple of weeks.

in reading: will prolly make a separate post later about the reading i've been doing. interesting stuff. a lot of american terrorism in the 1860s. it's actually been kinda depressing, but very educational. let's just say my vision of this world just got a whole lot darker.

finally, much much much cleaning still ahead in preparation for the fire inspection. i've only managed to clear out the kitchen and pantry area and i am already exhausted. i'll do it little by little this week and then throw myself into it this coming weekend. bleh.

happy monday all!

: D

23,171 / 50,000 (46.3%)

this NaNo is definitely in its death throes. earlier this morning i considered (considerably) the question that was put to me yesterday as to whether i was just poo-pooing my own efforts and calling the work slop due to lack of perspective. so i pulled up last year's NaNo (which, honest injun, i have not touched since i wrote it), and gave it the ol' read-through to see whether 2005's efforts were as big a waste of effort as i felt they were at the time.

the answer is a resounding yes. last year's book is even worse than i estimated. it's quite possibly the worst thing i have ever written (and i say that with no amount of hyperbole). in fact, if at all possible, it's worse than this year's NaNo by a long shot. i recall now, saying last Christmas that there was only one scene in the whole pile of it worth saving and that's definitely still true. interestingly, that one scene (a flashback) is the basis of this year's NaNo.

what goes around comes around, i suppose.

anyway ~ i think i'll finish running through the prompt cards (still have a pile here), and when they have run out, i'll just stop, regardless of the word count. and if each prompt yields a paragraph and no more, then that's sufficient.

thank you, everyone for being so supportive! i dunna mind quitting NaNo and i'm not discouraged. i just want to make good choices about how i spend my time.

: D

and those of you who haven't seen gwyn_hwyfar's post today, need to check it out immediately for a severe cute overload.

off to a slow start this morning and feeling sluggish about the whole thing.

three short scenes, 1,692 words.

5,692 / 50,000 (11.4%)

i've half a mind to stop, seeing as i've already made the day's quota and am sorta ahead of the game. but i know if i get lazy now and start slacking off, i will lose momentum and start falling in the hole.

so i'm picking three more scenes. some of the day's prompts include:

There was somethin' sweaty about Crabbits that rubbed me wrong..

That night I dreamt about a train fallin' from the sky. (ooo the train scene!)

I woke up feelin' like I's bein' crushed.

I meant to post something last night but got home late and was tired. i also realized this is the first NaNo i've done using a first-person narrative and it's a lot harder than i expected ~ i mean the writing is really bad and will need a ton of work. i'm sorta thinking that what i would like to do is try to finish the 50k well ahead of the deadline and then start the process of editing as soon as i have enough scenes to start putting the puzzle together. i can already tell that most of what i'm writing (and in some cases whole scenes) will be totally cut from the final. that's okay though, i'm exploring the characters and learning some inneresting things subtextually that will be useful in the rewrite.

how's everyone else faring?

: D

so here we are, november, and it's time to get cracking.

i have my 100 scenes and i've pulled the day's three scene prompts. i'm poised and ready!

some reminders:

1. my NaNo snippets will be f-locked, but if you want in, just post and i will add you.

2. i'm not posting everything i write, just excerpts.

3. i'm writing scenes randomly, so don't expect any sort of chronology that will make sense.

that said, today's prompts are a tough start:

1. The first time I got took to the breeding stall, I didn't know what to think. (i was going to try to avoid writing this scene for a while ~ feels a little early in NaNo to already be writing about sex! ~ but what the heck, maybe i'll get it out of the way).

2. Isaac's fists punched the breath back into me. (tough scene, but as cold as it is today, i've got plenty of sensory inspiration for this one, hopefully).

3. I liked the school uniform best of all. (no idea, actually, what this scene is about, just knew i needed a scene about starting school ~ so it'll be fun to make something of it).

good luck contestants on my f-list! lemme know how you are all doing!

: D

i'm tired of being poor at the moment. this morning i couldn't find my pencil. the thought of going out to buy a new one gave me angina (what kind of writer only has one good pencil anyway?).

i still can't find my pencil. but i've decided to do something else that doesn't require one.

: o p

i'm too disorganized. so i'm going to go back to outlining.

( randomness about my process )

~ * ~

i don't normally make paper dolls of famous people/famous characters, etc, but i so started to make a V (from V for Vendetta) paper doll. i sketched the design for it and then managed to restrain myself from actually executing it. but i don't know how long i can hold off (prolly until i find my pencil ~ hahahahaha). i would have scanned the prototype to share, but that sounds like work. hahahaha ~


who knew i could be such a fan girl?
but as they say:
one man's terrorist
is another man's freedom fighter.
something to think about.