Friday Rants and Raves - November 7

[sarillia]

Hello everyone! I suddenly remembered that it's Friday. So how are things going? Any NaNoWriMo news to report?

Today's picture is The Illusion of Diversity by Michael Cheval:

Comments

[dhampyresa]

I have apparently blown the charger cord for my laptop at some point today and now only have about 50 minutes of batery life left. I'm behind on wordcount.

[splinteredstar]

Eeep! Good luck getting it replaced!

[dhampyresa]

I've borrowed one from a friend for the time being.

[sarillia]

Sorry to hear that! Terrible timing.

[dhampyresa]

Thanks for the sympathy.

[sarillia]

NaNo has begun to fry my brain already. I managed to forget that I made this post minutes after submitting it. But I'm doing good on the word count at least. I just need to figure out how this story is going to end. And there's a character who should probably die but I don't want him to.

[splinteredstar]

Hmm - why does he need to die? (and why don't you want him to?)

[sarillia]

There's an epidemic going around and two of the main character's family members have caught it, and it just seems pretty unrealistic for them both to survive when so many other people have died. But my main character is already sad enough so I feel bad.

[splinteredstar]

Hmmmm. Compromise and have him be permanently crippled? So it's not erasing the consequences, but isn't, you know, dead.

[sarillia]

That's a really good idea. I even meant to remember that there are consequences to serious illness that can be permanent even when people survive but managed to forget about it. Thanks!

[splinteredstar]

You're welcome!

[splinteredstar]

I am not nanoing this year, as keeping up with actual school stuff is enough to make my head spin. However, last week I finished two of my request fics (it was a weekend for finishing things! as long as they were not homework) and I'm working on the third.

Brain chemistry has started to sort itself out, thank fuck. This has helped.

[sarillia]

You're making great progress! I remember you mentioning the request fics before. And I'm glad to hear about the brain chemistry. That stuff can make everything so much more difficult than it needs to be.

[badass_tiger]

I never get to NaNo, it always comes at exam time for me! I really want to but I've just never had a chance yet. Oh well, someday. Hope those of you participating are doing okay, and remember - don't panic! Or at least, don't panic until it's over, panicking now is just a waste of time hehe.

One of my irl writer friends and I have agreed to meet up regularly for writing exercises though, so that I can at least sharpen my writing skills every now and then. We practiced writing descriptions last week, this week it's character development. She has problems writing more than one type of character (she sticks to pessimistic, cynical bastards) while I have trouble keeping interest in my characters at all, so we're working on it together.

[sarillia]

That's cool that you get to practice with your friends. I sometimes have the same problem with characters as your friend.

Actually, for this NaNo story I was toying with magical abilities based on personality, where it's a mix of nature and nurture influencing what ability will manifest according to the strongest traits you're predisposed to and the ones that are important to you and are practiced every day, and it occurred to me that this is a good way to face my problem head-on. It's keeping their differing personalities front and center in my mind and I'm exploring the different ways the same traits can be expressed by different people.

[badass_tiger]

Oh wow that is an awesome idea! You're going to show us this story afterwards, aren't you? I'd love to see that :D That does sound like a good way of making sure that all your characters remain separate people, I know I sometimes let slip a moment of mischaracterisation in the name of a joke or a one-liner.

[sarillia]

Thanks! This is one that I want to fix up so I can show people eventually but it's going to need a lot of work.

[agilebrit]

I sold my story Habeas Felis to Stupefying Stories this week, and Bruce decided to serialize it at the Showcase in three parts.

This is one I thought I'd never sell because:
1. It's long, at 9000 words.
2. It stars two talking cats
3. It has four POV characters. One of whom is one of the talking cats.

But Bruce really liked it, enough that he published it nearly as soon as he accepted it, which is really unusual for them. (They've had another one of my stories for two years, so... yeah.)

Anyway. I am thrilled to bits, and you can read it here. :)

[sarillia]

That's amazing news! Congratulations! It's always so inspiring to hear about others' success. :)

[skyjam]

I ended up not doing WriMo this year. I tried to write when the time came, but I don't think I am currently in the right mindset to accomplish anything. Nothing continues to come out, my mind drawing a blank though inspired with ideas, and what does manage to come through I am frustrated by because it sounds stilted and forced. I may try and write some other time, maybe when I can find some form of motivation again.

[sarillia]

Aww, I'm sorry to hear that. It's a frustrating headspace to be in. I get like that sometimes too. Sometimes it helps to go back to the books and movies and other stories that I love and look at what I like about them and try to think of new twists that I could put on those things.

I hope you find some way to get motivated again soon.