Superb Owls?
Journal 81 6- 12 Feb 2013
I love owls. Barn Owls, Horned Owls….
What?
Superbowl?
Oh.
OK. Kidding aside, this week was mostly spent on outlining and having to go back and reread chapters. Actually, I didn’t do enough of the latter, and will probably spend the morning of the Superbowl rereading the first half of my novel.
All said I did get in a session but it was just a chore. I couldn’t remember so many details and 90% of what I was writing was dialogue. Dialogue is tough enough without having to remember who said what 50 pages (and over three months of real time) ago.
To be honest the dialogue was already pretty terrible without me forgetting what was said (discovered/theorized/etc.) in the previous chapters.
Once again, I have to double down on saying DO NOT take extended time away from a manuscript. At least not during the draft. Finish and entire draft, then take time off, then come back read the whole thing, and THEN revise/ redraft.
Words
So, I spent the beginning of the week drafting new characters. Working on the command structure of an abandoned base. (“abandoned” is the wrong word, undermanned and long left to its own devices is correct). All the usual character creation processes I go through. Physical, mental, social, interesting history. Mix it in a pot, spend an hour doing fantasy casting, pour out your characters and allow to cool to room temp.
Easy.
But sometimes I’m lazy and after spending literally, 2 or 3 hours creating a bunch of characters (only 2 have talked so far and the others are just dressing the scene… sigh) I called it a day. And then the rest of the week had its own issues.
That all said, I did manage a day of writing… well a half day for me.
This meager session produced 2,202 words, pushing the novel up to 129,903.
2000 words of dialogue is pretty decent considering how awful it feels.
My largest problem is having 12 named characters sitting in a room and only have 2 of them do the bulk of the talking with three other making a few comments or addendums. I don’t know… maybe I’m being a little overly critical. But I hate it all so far.
Story
There isn’t much to the story really, it’s just the characters trying to convince the lords of the keep to let them enter a forbidden land. At the same time, they’re also trying to convince these holy knights (Paladins if you’re a gamer) to abandon their post and go fight in the war happening in the valley below the pass. (Stronghold is in pass through the mountains that bars passage).
I think its telling that even I, as the writer, just want to get past this chapter and move on to better things. Usually that would mean that it’s a chapter that shouldn’t exist in the book. And I would just cut it. But at the same time, I feel that if I hand waved them getting past this point. Just started the chapter with a single paragraph recap of how they passed the castle and moved right on.
This is something I argue with myself all the time. I strongly believe in the Elmore Leonard quote: “Only write the stuff the reader won’t skip.” I’m sure I paraphrased that.
But at the same time, I get bogged down in the details and I like to make sure all the travel and other time is accounted for. As it is I often skip a few days here and there, but at the same time I have a habit of cataloging all of that time as well.
Writing is a constant battle. Between imposter syndrome, hating/loving your writing (changes back and forth EVERY session), second guessing your POV, second guessing your style, not understanding if you HAVE a style, purple prose, over describing, not describing enough. Too fast. Too slow. Forgetting details. Forgetting whole characters.
Battlefield.
Hobby, Gaming, TV, Etc.
I haven’t done much this week.
Roll20 kind of failed us so I only had 1 of 2 games this week.
The one game was a lot of fun, but also a little crazy. We perhaps handled a situation the wrong way, but it was all improv and fun on the spot. A fight without throwing a single punch. However, the aftermath of this decision will catch up to our characters.
My in-person game was a food feast and a good time with a few “knock down, drag out” fights. We’re a large group and a little over-powered, so fights have been… uneven. Also, the game is rotating through DMs, with everyone taking a turn. Including a lot of people who have NEVER DMed before, or in my case never ran 5e.
Vox Machina Season 2 ended this week and the changes/ streamlined storytelling has been very enjoyable. They did a decent job with the Kayley story. Thinking it over I feel like the show has to be written for five seasons minimum. They could finish the Chroma Concord in one more season, but I think it might take two. And the Vecna storyline afterwards deserves a whole season, probably two as well.
I’m thinking they will finish the Chroma in 3, and then reveal the Vecna/Cult/Brairwood story over two more seasons to finish it.
I’m just wondering if they plan to release Mighty Nein after Vox Machina, or during. My wish would be to get Vox Season 3 and MN season 1 in the same year, and thus have a new crit role cartoon twice a year.
Other Hobby
I have a paint project underway, nothing fun, just some contract work.
I haven’t been watching any K Drama’s this week, I’m half way through The King: Eternal Monarch. I like it a lot, but I’m worried that reviews say it gets muddled and confusing after this point. I’ve already noticed that the villain’s story seems a little disjointed. He’s hoping around the timeline a little but the first time I caught it, it was something that shouldn’t be possible.
I know that’s not a clear sentence, but I don’t want to spend a full paragraph explaining details and how they don’t line up.
I haven’t played Nocturne in a few weeks, meaning I will have a hell of time getting back into it. A very bad habit I know. But time is weird, I always seem to be running out of it.
Outro
Speaking of time running out. I have to wrap up.
Thank you for reading this far and I hope you all enjoy the Super Bowl (if you’re into that, and if not, I hope you enjoy your Sunday and the rest of your week as well).
