For some reason, I am unable to sleep.
I think it's daylight savings time messing everything up. The extra hour is nice, but apparently it's a little too jarring for my body to adapt to.
Argent is progressing smoothly, perhaps a little more so than I thought it would. I'm still nervous about getting it all done by the end of November, coupled with the fact that people have begun asking me for due dates on letters of recommendation and I'm not exactly sure what to tell them as I haven't yet picked out schools (but we'll see).
The goal initially was to do a chapter a day, and while I haven't quite held to that (it's more like a chapter every two days over here) it's been okay. I haven't created anything utterly ridiculous and it's looking like I'll come out with a pretty decent first draft. Then, revisions are planned for finals week, where I only have one final, so I should be able to come out with something pretty nice by the time I need to go home and get the final product together.
I'm still pretty excited about it. I'm using a lot of body language in this one, which was something I didn't notice before in my writing. Maybe it's just how I see the characters, or maybe I'm letting myself get carried away with all of this and should just rely more on dialogue. We'll see how it plays and if it continues I'll start to tweak it.
In the mean time, buggy. What a week.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
{ of saints & souls }
The days at the end of October and kicking off November are some of my favorite holidays. It's because they're so arcane and so off the radar for most people that I like them. They're also off the beaten path as series of days festivals: each day has a clearly-defined and specific purpose: Oct. 31 is All Hallows, Nov. 1 is All Saints, and Nov. 2 is All Souls.
As a writer, I tend to mix all three of these, notably most in Callahan. But, Callahan, being what he is, couldn't really be Callahan without demons to pursue him, saints he's not sure have any right to sainthood, and the souls of the City at sake. I like the touch of magic that otherworldly creatures add, how saints are ethereal and yet permanence personified at the same time, and the idea of souls.
For me, these past few days are perfect times for me to be creative and figure out fun new things to do. It's also, miraculously enough, the start of NaNoWriMo, one of my favorite writerly activities beyond writing itself, doing prompt challenges, and going to or giving readings. I started doing it when I was a sophomore at university and I was tired of the work that I was doing at school. Back then, I was in a major that I liked, but didn't love, and I wasn't taking any creative writing courses because a lot of people I hung out with thought that humanities courses were just boring.
So, now, even though I've mended my straying ways and have changed majors and write and submit to literary magazines regularly, I'm doing it again. The first time was Crane, the second Callahan, and now this year's is being devoted to telling the story of Trypt and Sigel.
As far as pairs go, they're pretty odd. Crane has Sammy Briggs as his co-narrator (and eventual love interest) and Callahan really didn't leave any room for anyone else to have a story but him. Now, I'm back to having a story spread out over two worlds, a magical one and the one we see as reality, with a character rooted in each one. I suppose the reason this didn't happen more with Callahan was because he was already firmed planted in the entirely imaginary world already. But it's weird getting back to it, having to actually have people explain what the tea bags are doing and why they're doing that, as opposed to having Callahan just slide over it in his nice, brash way and explain it like you would, say, a toaster or a skewer of meat.
I'm seeing a lot of things changing from what I originally thought I would be doing: most notably, Trypt. He's intended to be a relatable character, someone who's more than a bit clumsy but also really good and a total fanboy when it comes to technology. When I first started writing him, he was a bit more stuck-up, and now he's just out of sorts. Maybe he's less true to character or realistic now, but I'm just finding it strange how I remember scenes where he was really mean to Sigel about something (granted, Sigel was more than mean to him as well about it--he's a very nasty guy) and now he's toned down a little bit. The only thing I changed was to have the antagonists try to kill him again, and that really altered his perspective.
So, yes, NaNo is incredibly fun and I am enjoying myself mightily. Hopefully this thing won't be too much of a behemoth to edit and have into a nicely packaged copy by Christmas.
As a writer, I tend to mix all three of these, notably most in Callahan. But, Callahan, being what he is, couldn't really be Callahan without demons to pursue him, saints he's not sure have any right to sainthood, and the souls of the City at sake. I like the touch of magic that otherworldly creatures add, how saints are ethereal and yet permanence personified at the same time, and the idea of souls.
For me, these past few days are perfect times for me to be creative and figure out fun new things to do. It's also, miraculously enough, the start of NaNoWriMo, one of my favorite writerly activities beyond writing itself, doing prompt challenges, and going to or giving readings. I started doing it when I was a sophomore at university and I was tired of the work that I was doing at school. Back then, I was in a major that I liked, but didn't love, and I wasn't taking any creative writing courses because a lot of people I hung out with thought that humanities courses were just boring.
So, now, even though I've mended my straying ways and have changed majors and write and submit to literary magazines regularly, I'm doing it again. The first time was Crane, the second Callahan, and now this year's is being devoted to telling the story of Trypt and Sigel.
As far as pairs go, they're pretty odd. Crane has Sammy Briggs as his co-narrator (and eventual love interest) and Callahan really didn't leave any room for anyone else to have a story but him. Now, I'm back to having a story spread out over two worlds, a magical one and the one we see as reality, with a character rooted in each one. I suppose the reason this didn't happen more with Callahan was because he was already firmed planted in the entirely imaginary world already. But it's weird getting back to it, having to actually have people explain what the tea bags are doing and why they're doing that, as opposed to having Callahan just slide over it in his nice, brash way and explain it like you would, say, a toaster or a skewer of meat.
I'm seeing a lot of things changing from what I originally thought I would be doing: most notably, Trypt. He's intended to be a relatable character, someone who's more than a bit clumsy but also really good and a total fanboy when it comes to technology. When I first started writing him, he was a bit more stuck-up, and now he's just out of sorts. Maybe he's less true to character or realistic now, but I'm just finding it strange how I remember scenes where he was really mean to Sigel about something (granted, Sigel was more than mean to him as well about it--he's a very nasty guy) and now he's toned down a little bit. The only thing I changed was to have the antagonists try to kill him again, and that really altered his perspective.
So, yes, NaNo is incredibly fun and I am enjoying myself mightily. Hopefully this thing won't be too much of a behemoth to edit and have into a nicely packaged copy by Christmas.
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