A different kind of swing

I feel sort of like I’m back in the swing of things. We’re both doing better with housework, and this week was not as long as I had expected. Even getting sick was only a minor setback. I bounced back in full.

I’ve been able to play video games and watch movies, but I’m still writing. I dropped the nowhere blog for that story, because it’s either cursed or just a bad idea. But I finished the dangling episode–that was only infamous to me–and even made notes for TF2 TAS episode 6. I came up with Fey Hunter and wrote about 1600 words for a rough first chapter.

There’s another high school paranormal romance I thought of, but it’s kinda dumb. Basically the main character is a fairly ordinary girl whose best friend infallibly predicts the future. He predicts that she will be together forever with the new guy in school–but then they find out that the new guy is a hellspawn abomination who will bring about the ruin of mankind. There’s also a gay dad in the story, so it must be a marketable idea. [/lame]

Yesterday I made a scene in Novelty. I posted on my Twitter account that it made me realise that I do not have the chops as an artist that I wish I had. My shading is not complex enough, and I don’t have much skill in drawing the same character over and over. I respect myself and others too much to just draw one character and then change nothing but her facial expressions.

Still, it was nice to give the maker a go. The scene was about the meaning of the title Every Time We Say Hello. Maybe I’ll knock out a small cast and make a quick shoujo ai game. I’m better at drawing girls, and there are probably not tonnes of games in that genre. And best of all, with this type of game, the title doesn’t have to make sense.

Anyway.

Today, I finished writing Chapter 8 of We Have to Start Somewhere. …I say finished, but I think after I post this, I’ll add another two pages. I want to end that chapter with the fourth man found, so the next chapter can be in his point of view.

The only things really suffering right now are my blackwork and the PaPW encounters. Part of the problem with PaPW is that I was writing it on the Alphasmart, and then I got new batteries in my keyboard. Haven’t taken the time to transfer what I had, or to just continue. I also don’t have it with me today.

It’s actually less that I don’t know what to write, and more that I don’t have my stuff with me. Besides that, I don’t think I have anything to fuss over. I just want to be writing, whether its WHtSS, PaPW, or just freewriting a new idea. It’d be nice to have a schedule, but then it’d feel like work.

………I just realised that I’ve got another sock with holes. That’s the fourth one this month. I need new socks. My jeans are starting to betray me, too. So many holes!

Was it only hiatus?

As I said in a previous post, I spent some time yesterday getting back into my attempt at writing a script for a Team Fortress 2 animated series, which I commonly abbreviated to TF2 TAS. I ended up finishing the las episode I left hanging, and then wrote out the arcs (or whatever I should call them) to figure out that they spanned about two episodes an arc.

Knowing that has helped me define a guideline for the progression and pacing. It takes about two episodes to cover an arc, and each of them has so far led naturally into the next.

Arc 1 – Scout joins BLU Team. Covered in episodes 1 and 2, as initiation, and then training, concluded by the introduction of opposition and a mission as the start of the next arc.

Arc 2 – BLUs attack, REDs defend. Covered in episodes 3 and 4, as the beginning of the mission, and the failed end, with the tail of the next arc in mind.

Arc 3 – Attempts to recover. Current/incomplete arc. Covered in episode 5, as the signs of physical recovery, and the official introduction of the Spy and GRY.

To conclude this third arc in the same amount of episodes as the rest, I will have to tie up the starting threads of episode 5 and leave tails for Arc 4.

The Spy is playing both sides, arranging a meeting with each to regain (or in the BLUs’ case obtain) the pilfered item. Both BLUs and REDs are too smart to trust him, and decide to set a trap at the meeting place.

This is one of the two things that got me stuck when I stopped writing this series.

First, I was having problems with Episode 5 being significantly longer than every previous episode. When I looked back at it yesterday, I just finished it, never mind the length. Episode length doesn’t matter if it isn’t syndicated and broadcast on telly, yeah? Besides, I’m only writing them. So that’s solved.

The other problem, the second one that I actually mentioned first, is that I don’t know what to do next. I can get as far as episode 5 implies, but then I’m stumped.

Of course, the biggest problem that I had with writing this–the one that made me decide to quit–was that nobody cared that I was writing it. It is not an easy format, and it’s one of the forms of writing that is almost guaranteed not to be appreciated unless it’s “done” (animated), which I do not have the wherewithal to do.

But when I was reading the episodes again, I enjoyed them on my own. Maybe because I’ve spent time away from all the negative stuff. It made me want to finish the series, or at least continue it.

The dream still exists, but I’m not that kind.

Writing a smorgasbord of current, old, and new

It is amazing what can be done with three hours almost bereft of diatractions.

To start, I did distract myself reading some manga, but only for a few minutes. I also did two loads of laundry in that space of time–phenomonal, considering how long it usually takes. I want a new or different brand of dryer. Seriously.

But before that (well, while clothes were in the machines), I wrote quite a bit, but in many different places. I continued the story I blogged about the other day.

Fey Hunter is the tentative title. It was initially supposed to be my own take on the Girl Meets Boy Who is a Supernatural Thing story type. Being who I am, the first thing I did was start twisting it to what I wanted to do. In this case, the girl became the thing, and that thing was a hunter of many things.

Also, the setting may be high school, but she starts the story homeless. I’m not sure how or even if that will change. Her first friend is kind of a statue, too, which I find funny. The first chapter isn’t done, but I only have to get her to the school, maybe meet the guy.

I also did some work on TF2 TAS, but I want a full entry for that.

Then, I wrote a few lines for chapter 8 of We Have to Start Somewhere. I didn’t get a lot done, since I had to get the laundry finished. But it was funy how quickly I got on a roll. I really coildn’t stop writing, the ideas just kept coming.

That sounds quite pompous, but it’s one of those things that really can’t be said properly. I don’t mean anything abstract, that concepts and new plot points kept coming into my head, just that I knew what to write next, and I had to write it down. I couldn’t really find a stopping point right away, and Imhad to intentionally refrain from continuing.

Anywho. Now it’s time to make dinner, then I might have a chance to write an entry about TF2 TAS.

Too long a lie-in

Listening to: Cauterize – Something Beautiful
via FoxyTunes

Yes, it’s my own fault for going to bed around 8:00am, but I still feel like a berk when I wake up at 3:00pm.  Especially when I just want to get up and play Fallout 3.  At least I wrote myself to the middle of chapter 2 in Mixed Media.  That story is still going with the smoothness it initially had, so it’ s not going to get the axe.

Some others will.  I need to come up with a comprehensive list of things I want to write and that I’m writing at this time, so I can go through it and decide what to continue, postpone, or just put in a drawer.

A Question of Causes — I have to finish it.  I still like the story, characters, and world, and I have a lot of things that I know are going to happen.  So it isn’t so horribly directionless.  Some of my notes are even on my Sony Reader.

Mixed Media — Going well enough that I think I’ll keep going.  It’s not like it’s a difficult foray into the uncharted.

Nightingale Road —  Hmm…  :\  Pretty much already on a backburner.  I will say that its plot needs to be something different.  Something less gloomy.

Shades of Blue — I really want to do this, but I’m not sure I like the start I have.  It was a goofy zombie blue, written on the way to Manti while my friend KK was singing along to random things on a mix CD.

Finding Our Feet — This one kills me.  I love the idea, and I know it would work and be fun, but I hate the start I made.  I mean hate. The other part that kills me is that the cover is done and it looks great.  Of course, I have no idea why I hate the start so much.  Maybe I just don’t have a handle on Rosie, and it’s in first person, which I hadn’t done in almost a year.

TF2 TAS — Momentum has been lost on this long ago, and I feel kind of disinclined to pick it back up.  No one will miss it, I’m sure.  Though I might.  I did learn a lot about screen-writing, but it became such a laborious, thankless process that perhaps I’m better off letting it fade.

~

With that done, it looks like what I intend to go on with are Bianca and Mixed Media, and possibly Shades of Blue.  This seems manageable.  It’s not the long list I used to have, but that list was slowly added to over time, and spent most of its time in the middle of everything.  I can get back there if I really want to.

That’s how it is

Listening to: Nightwish – Sleeping Sun
via FoxyTunes

No wonder I been puttin’ this off, I say to myself.  When one writes the Scout, one begins to talk like him.  But that isn’t why I’ve been dragging my feet on this current episode script, no. It’s because I didn’t feel like doing it.  I’ll be honest.

However, I sat down to just do it not long ago, figuring that I have the whole thing mapped out, scene by scene.  Should be easy.  And now I’m taking a short break and laughing at myself.  Because somehow, one scene has become four…well, technically three.  There was one scene I wrote before mapping the rest, so that one doesn’t properly count.  But still, it tri-sected, and is nowhere near done.  This will be the longest episode in terms of wordcount.  It’s already about 900 words and there are three more scenes that could well sect themselves.  :lol:  I’m having fun though.

HANDS OF DEATH

Listening to: Cirque Du Soleil – Patzivota
via FoxyTunes

Post title means nothing, I just felt like shouting a Rob Zombie song title.  For absolutely no reason.

I shouldn’t even be awake right now.  I just finished futzing with bloody Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro (heaven help me) after a fairly crappy day that I spent being a fairly crappy person.  I need a job that I want, and am waiting to hear if it’s yet another thing I am to be denied–hope is always the worst possible thing to give me, I swear–and my novel has finally been sent to get reviewed by CreateSpace.

It sorta gives me that “between episodes” feeling that I get from writing the TF2 TAS script.  The mild euphoria of “lol i got ‘er dun” mixed with the horror of “poo-cakes i must do it AGAIN already”.  Really does not help that that is exactly where I am with TAS right now.  ^^;  Episode 5 has a beginning, and a couple of lines of dialogue, but no other plan.  I was lucky with ep 4, it all just flippin’ came to me.

We’ll see if tomorrow’s hair-washing helps that part out.

But anywho, perhaps because of that feeling of “hrrm must do again”, I pulled out the remains of my last NaNoWriMo novel.  You can find out about it from clicking the link to my NaNo userpage on the sidebar, and then mucking about there.  In a matter of wordcount, I won that year, despite the fact that I had a very hard time of it, but I did not actually finish the story.  I had planned on a doubled wordcount, because of this spotty rumour that I hate myself, but only made it to 56K before folding like a wet playing card.

Which was actually quite sad.  It’s got very fun and (I think) unique characters, and a rather different storyline, even though it is a variant of a Modern Girl falling into a Magical World.  I do think it varies enough to be good though–for one thing, the girl is neither Ordinary with a big banner saying how SPESHALL she is, nor is she blatantly perfect.  She’s a fun character who would have done just as well in another story or even completely different genre, but just happens to be in this one.  There are some things I can see that I’ll have to tackle, but I think I’ll be able to capture enough soundboard from Brother that I’ll be able to figure the tougher stuff out.

So I spent a good deal of time re-reading in a somewhat skimmy way, and editing as I went because I do that and also because I wrote the poor thing in WriteMonkey, which is great for writing and lovely if you get a kick out of typing sounds and full-screen WP, but isn’t really a friend of formatting or even spelling.  Not for me, anyway.  I found some hilarious typos (none of which I will actually make public) and also just changed some things because I felt like it.

It’s written in Bianca’s first person POV, so getting a handle on her voice is crucial, but I think I’ve managed it.  Plot was always a bit nebulous, although it thankfully never quite looks it, so I’ll need to do what I did before and just headbutt my way through the fog until something really cool happens.  Which was my method for writing it before, anyway.

…this is getting long, I’m going to initiate a ‘more’ tag.

When and when not to run faster

Listening to: Bomb Factory – Memory
via FoxyTunes

I just wrote a nearly complete summary for the fourth episode of TF2: The Animated Series in 10-20 minutes.  That may not be impressive to anyone but me, but it made me really dang happy.  After all, I have a long-ish history of taking forever writing these episode scripts.

The really funny thing is, writing this series has become oddly integrated with water–more specifically showering/bathing.  At first, I had ideas and entire sequences of dialogue come to me in the shower, whereupon I refined them until I was done washing my hair and could hobble down to my PC in a comparatively dignified manner.  Then I got soaked in a water ride at Lagoon and wrote roughly half an episode on my cellphone, thus setting something of a trend.  And then while writing Episode 3 (the most recent one, at the time of writing) I went into the bathroom with the intent of showering, and had an entire scene pop into my head.

I went down and typed up all the dialogue and some basics of the action sequence therein, and then proceeded to type up a summary of the rest of the episode.  Granted, it wasn’t a lot in words, but it was all stuff that I hadn’t yet had in mind for the episode.

And today, my left hand was hurting like mad, so I thought that typing would be out of the question for quite some time, and ended up watching a few episodes of Doctor Who (1963-4).  Did laundry.  Dull things, you know.  And then not long ago, I thought a bath would be nice–a change of pace and an opportunity to get some more reading done–and poof.  Idea.

Wrote down a bit, stopped, and then went back, singing “Baaath~”…more idea.  :D  And now I’ve got the whole of episode 4 planned out.

Of course, it will take a while longer than 20 minutes to actually write the episode, but I can’t get block on it as O.S. Card puts it.  The old persnickety jerka**.

Back to business

Reading: The Physics of Superheroes by James Kakalios
Listening to: Shaman – Distant Thunder
via FoxyTunes

Had an awesome birthday, followed by the relief of some major stress–that ironically caused a bit more, but infinitely minor stress–so, y’know, todo bien.  I feel like writing, but I’m having a little ADHD problem with TF2 TAS.  Which basically just means that I’ve got the whole episode planned with a fair bit of detail, so the task of actually writing it makes me groan.

One thing I wonder about with the whole project is if I’m doing alright from a screen-writing point of view.  I’ve never done it before, after all, and this may be the only time I do.  When I write it, I do miss some of the subtleties of prose, as well as the language I get to use.  …Speaking of language, I’ve gained an aversion to swearing that I didn’t used to have, and I don’t know if it’s a detriment or a benefit.  Funny thing about it is that it makes me think of very early Batman comics.

You know, back when they used words like obsure words like “chum”.  If I hadn’t read Batman from infancy, I would have grown up associating that word with fish for most of my life.

Anyway, this is all just procrastinating from writing.  And feeling pain.  Not a good day for the old bones and organs–that makes me sound agéd.  :lol:  I swear I’m not, I just have a history.  …not that anyone cares, no one reads this.  Perhaps it’s odd, in this day and age, with attentionwhores and trolls everywhere, but I honestly prefer this blog to be unread.  I need that freedom.  I’ve probably said this, but it never ceases to amaze me that it continues to be true.  Particularly because I am, in actuality, a bit attention-starved.  But then, so is anyone else, if one is honest.

Maybe I’ll be a total heel and play Left 4 Dead or read some more superhero physics, then write later.

addendum without a point

I solemnly swear that I do not read the Team Fortress 2 developer’s blog.

Anymore.

Maybe I should start doing it again though.

The evils of BLOCK

Listening to: Ivri Lider – יותר מדי הרבה
via FoxyTunes

So blocked. I’ve been staring at this scene for twenty minutes, and that’s only my time logged for this particular session.  I know what I need to do, but I just can’t bring actual words to the fore.

Maybe it isn’t so much that I’m blocked.   It’s a factor, yeah, but there’s also the fact that when it comes to experience with this medium, I’ve got zippity doo freakin’ da.  One episode, hoorah.  That’s nothing.  Even I can spot all the feckless points in it.  What made me think I could do this?  Gripe gripe gripe.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s as fun as it’s supposed to be.  I’m just whinging, and flappin’ about in the wind.  Like a sock tied to a pole.  I ought to have just plunged in and done this back when I first decided to, then I would have at least had an attentive sounding board.  At least until it b***hed out on me.  Now I have a wall, texts sent to myself, and a load of formatting that I barely understand.

Guh.  No more gloom.  That isn’t why I wanted to write this.  I don’t even care about getting attention about it, not really–I want to learn how to write an animated series, just to say I can.  Just to know that I can.  Cartoons are one of my longest-lived passions.  I know that passion is a dirty word, but there it is.  I love voice actors, animation, and GOOD writing.  Avatar: The Last Airbender?  Halfway there.  There is a nirvana out there for those who really love cartoons, something better than the supposed mecca that anime might be supposed.

Fluid movement.  Lip syncing technology so sensitive and advanced that the original animation can be changed to accommodate dub after dub, from Cantonese to Tagalog.  I’ve seen some of this.  I want it to leap ahead.  Disney’s made the most significant bounds in history, but that horse is all but dead.

And there I go on a tangent again.  Anyway.  I know how the rest of this episode goes, and I’ve got it easy.  I have no deadline or expectant anyones, and I don’t need to do anything beyond the script, not even a storyboard.  I can do this.  I will do this.

Ta.