writing update – the end is in sight!

Seriously.

It’s creepy.

I’m sitting at about 90k words right now, with 4ish chapters left to write – and it’s the climactic battle and fallout – FUN stuff to write.   Not that the rest hasn’t been fun, because it has.  But still.  This is THE. END.  I can see that sun rising over the horizon, almost feel the rays gently punching my face.  You dig?

Of course, then I have massive amounts of edits to make, friends to coerce feedback from (manuscript form will probably clock in around 420 pages – but that’s double spaced Courier 12 pt – it was 381 when I check the other day), and then the inevitable learning curve of agents &  soul draining query letters.  Then again, maybe I’ll get lucky ;).  But I will submit.  This is not just for me.  Oh sure, it’s for me at this stage – but I’ve got a story to tell, and a story isn’t even a shadow without readers.

It’s interesting to watch your/my writing style develop.  I’ve never even attempted long form fiction before – I’m comfortable with the shape of my poetry, and unsurprised by what I generate in the short story vein, but this is uncharted territory.  Guarded by fine young cannibals shaking their suspicious minds at me and bespectacled angelic owls, their calls of “who” long-twisted into “what the fuck”, I’m sure.  But I can dig those.

What am I finding?

• Well, evidently I abhor description.  Which makes sense. I generally skim all the (to me) pointless shit about how a room looks, what the fuck the bedposts are made out of, what clothes someone is wearing (unless it’s somehow relevant), etc when reading a book.  So, it falls out that I just wouldn’t even bother including those in my writing right?

Where someone else (don’t ask me who) might write something like:

“The door was wrought of finely shaped iron – covered in delicately sculpted flowers of black metal, each petal a ready razor for skin, each shaped thorn more dangerous & hungry than their inspirations.   The thing was heavy and cumbrous like an early attempt at a tractor, but well suited to its purpose: blocking passage.

He reached for it, fingers trembling at the thought of touching such fine workmanship, mind crumbling under the strain of its beauty.  Unfortunately, the physical weight of the thing outstripped its beauty in this case – Juan was dainty and weak, a butterfly-slip of a man, barely able to resist imploding with every inhale, struggling to remain upright with every exhale.  He most certainly could not budge the door – but just touching it was enough for him.  “I have lived!”  he whispered as he extended a finger, gently caressed a gleaming petal.  A single drop of blood slipped from the finger, striking a greedy thorn. “

I might say something like:

Juan tried to open the heavy iron door.  He pushed as hard as he could but couldn’t budge it.  Damn thing was heavy.

The reader should know by this point that Juan’s a fucking weakling – why should I tell them again?  And the decorations on the door don’t matter for shit, unless they tell us something about the rest of the story – is the person who made the door relevant?  Is this a useful way of telling us that they are very strong, or a skilled iron worker?  Then maybe.

• I’m also big into dialogue.  Seriously, most of the book is dialogue.  Which makes sense because it’s description light – something has to be filling these pages right?  I’m really not sure how the reader will take this, as I don’t recall having any thoughts about the percentage of dialogue to description in the stuff I’ve read thus far.  I’ll certainly never be able to read a book without pondering this in the future.  No doubt the process of trying to write as incidentally inspired changes in the physiology of my ‘reader’ aspect.

• It’s hard for me to write a story in isolation.  Ideas grow like cracked out weeds once I plant them.  My original intent was to write a “pulp” sci-fantasy-mystery, ringing in around 240 pages or so.  Light reading, you know.  Now, I’ve got an outline for a 9 book series.  Yeah.  I need to figure out how to get that shit under control.
• Every time I sit down to write, it’s hard.  It hasn’t gotten any easier to start. BUT it has gotten easier to continue.  Once I break about 500 words in a sitting I can usually keep going long enough to finish that scene, and potentially another.
• I’m finding that I agree strongly with Stephen King’s statement about writing being like “unearthing a fossil” – at least in the context of the story I’m writing now.  It really feels like I’m just “finding” stuff – the skeleton came first, and then as I write I find the flesh for each joint, and sometimes the flesh for the next joint too.  I’m not sitting down and saying really “What’s the next plot point, how do I get there?”  I’m saying “Here’s what has happened, here’s where they are now, what are they doing?”, while keeping the goal in the back of my mind – the subconscious seems to be doing the rest of dot connecting.

Huh. Theres 800 words right there.

I really think blogging so regularly has helped get my mind in shape for daily writing.

Caffeine isn’t hurting either.  It goes give me gas though.

a “No Surrender” for the 90s?

We’re not done with the 00’s yet – so we’ll get to that later.

Here’s my question – does anyone know of a song

a) as good as No Surrender, sonically, lyrically and thematically (within the quality boundaries of the decade) with

b) a title direct, yet powerful enough that one wouldn’t necessarily be embarrassed to get a tattoo of it somewhere (yes, I’ve debated getting a “No Surrender” tat on my calf for years) and

c) a chorus catchy enough to be a radio single that

d) either overcomes the boundaries of its cliche or

e) isn’t a cliche at all and is

r) well enough written that you don’t want to stab yourself after the 30th listen.

So, to start us off, a refresher.

Gotta prepare first though:

Turn the lights off. Then turn the volume up. Hit play.  Lean back in your chair/bed/lovers arms and relax.   Close your eyes.   There is no video.  Just what the music finds for you.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN5e2qZr1Oc

Still not feeling it?  Then I guess you’re not human!

But seriously.  Just stop reading if that does nothing for you

Still here?  Good.

OK.  So what is that for the 90s?  Not bound by genre.  Could be an RnB song.  Could be country.  Who knows.  I was thinking about it tonight while running, and wondering if Rancid’s “Life Won’t Wait” could be a contender (I haven’t heard it in a while).  The title seems to fit criteria b), and the song tiself fits in d/e & r.  But a…ahhh “a”.  No, it’s not “a”.

So, better candidates?  I’ll be thinking about it.  Drawing a blank right now.

Anyone else?

new Green Day album is not better than the last

Contrary to what Rolling Stone says, at least. IMHO.  YMMV.

vs. 

Here’s a couple, completely subjective, ways in which I know this.

1. I’ve only made it through 21st Century in its entirety like once.  The rest in pieces.  And, tellingly, I never have any particular urge to finish it once I start.  Idiot on the other hand – once I start that, I want to play it start to finish.
2. 21st Century has some “good songs”.  Idiot is a good piece in itself AND it has good songs (pretty much all of them – give or take When September Ends – although I understand what it does for the piece, as a song I don’t like it much).
3. It doesn’t sound like anything new.  It sounds like the same thing.  No, not just that it sounds like them, but it sounds like the same thing – no real moving forward, just refining in place.

Not to say it’s not a good album, because I think it is.  But it’s not one of their best. So far, who knows maybe it will grow on me.  Idiot didn’t have to grow though, it tackled me.

Maybe the whole “knowing it’s coming” is why it failed to do me in this time.  Maybe they want to be a rock opera band – that’s actually pretty cool.  I’m ok with that – we could use a decent one.

Things wrong with the X-Men Origins: Wolverine script

Caveat: I enjoyed the movie, toxicly, dangerously, stupidly, rotundly horrid as the script was.  How?  Because people punched each other.  With super powers.

So, let’s get this out of the way – this is one of the worst scripts I can remember seeing visualized:   scenes make no sense in connections to other scenes, characters have motivations so thin a pebble of baby shit would crush them, and the few bright spots of writing there are don’t involve any dialogue at all.

Scene-by-scene, as I can remember:

1. The opening was actually nice, and would have made for a good movie by itself.  Seriously.
2. There is NO reason, in the context of this movie, for Wolverine to be called “Logan”.  In the comics, Logan was the last name of Dog’s father (Dog->Victor in the movie).  In the movie, that dude’s last name is obviously “Creed” (because Wolverine calls his nemesis alternately Victor & Creed), and Wolverine/James’s dad’s name is “Howlett”. So. Fuck you #1.
3. Without any interaction during the opening scenes, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense why James would stick with someone he’s obviously so different from – he has zero problems ending their relationship when Victor is about to kill the dude in Africa.
4. The Vietnam scene was stupid too – Victor is going to rape someone, then he freaks out and attacks a commanding officer? K.  I guess James just didn’t catch that part or the relationship would have been over sooner I guess?
5. The Africa scene. SERIOUSLY?  Some fucktard hack screenwriter just wrote this scene (and most of the others) to show how badass the characters were.  Each one (except James & Victor) had a stupid solo moment where they used their powers, when anyone ONE of them could have completed the entire mission alone. STUPID.  Oh, and the Blob special effects bit – you know some producer (?) shot their wad when they realized how cheaply they could shoot it : “dude puts his fist in tank cannon – nothing happens!!! AWESOME!!!!”
6. Yes, Wade Wilson is cool/funny.  But I’m really not big on the killing indescriminately part.  I guess technically him and Agent Zero both have the same powers too – super agility?  Because “deflecting bullets with a sword” is not a super power.
7. The Agent Zero showoff scene was dumb too – no one can hit a moving target? Really?  He still has to pull the trigger you know.
8. The adamantium recovery in Africa scene.  “It’s cool Wolverine, we’ll let you walk off, knowing what you know.  See ya.”
9. Oh, and don’t get me started on James acting like he had a bond with Wraith & Blob later in the movie, when they went on one goddam mission together.  They knew each other for LIKE ONE DAY.
10. “Kayla Silver Fox”.  The Native American who looks white, and has a blonde haired blue eyed sister.  Uh huh.  Seriously people, it’s not like there are many roles out there for Natives as it is. Get a fucking clue.
11. Aforementioned bitch’s “death”.  Seriously.  Cuz, you know, Wolverine knows what blood smells like.  And there weren’t any cuts on her so.  Yeah.  Did I miss something here?

OK, it’s been a few days, and I’ve forgotten a bunch, but here’s a few more:

1. The scene where Logan finds out that Silver Fox is still alive, etc.  All that crazy bitching about how Stryker was going to kill him and then he lets him just walk out? MMM kay.  Nevermind that Logan would have picked up the extra sweat/stress in her scent and realized she was under pressure. Oh wait, except that this Wolverine is retarded.
2. Reborn Deadpool has way too many powers to be interesting in a sequel.  Oh wait, he wasn’t interesting in this movie either.
3. Stryker’s PLAN was actually to shoot up Logan’s memories?  REALLY?  That was his stupid PLAN to save himself.  Then again, whatever. BUT HOW DO YOU HIT THE RIGHT ONES?  Maybe you just make him forget the first time he wet the bed, then he shoves his claws through your fucking skull.  Oh, double wait, Wolverine killed exactly zero persons in this movie.  Ok wait, he sort of killed someone named “Zero” (who had just shot to death two innocent old people), so I guess that counts.
4. Eh, I forget.
5. The script  sucked gigantic roasted whale testes, did I mention that?
6. ?

So yeah, script bad, movie somehow entertaining because the action barely kept it going.  Which I’M SURE is what they intended.  No one could not realize that was logicFAILriddled trash.  But come on.  Respect us a little.

clock solitaire, the dumbest game in the world?

Seriously.

1/13 chance of winning (although another site said 1% for some reason), NO SKILL INVOLVED.  Entirely luck and chance – which is fine for silly things like flipping a coin, but playing a round of this game (even on my phone, where viciously taunts me) takes a good few minutes (more if you were flipping cards by hand maybe?).

So, it’s like a 3 minute coin flip basically.  Except that the coin has 13 faces.

Why would anyone ever play this, let alone invent it? *shakes fist at hopfully dead game “creator”*  The coin flip thing would be trippy if you were high.  This has no such redeeming quality.

I stupidly tried it a few times, wondering if there was a skill angle I was missing.  Then I finally looked that shit up. Wow.  Life owes me the chance to punch the person in the face who bundled it with my solitaire app, at least.

new CoH xpack announced! : “Going Rogue”

So glad they spelled motherfucking R O G U E correctly ;).

New site is barely up here.

Not much info yet, but it looks like it will include access to opposing side content, and at least 2 new powersets (dual pistols & demon summoning (?)).  I’m really curious how much of this second world is going to be fleshed out in content…technically it wouldn’t be that hard since it’s just a mirror of this world they could re-use all the same maps and just angle the content differently…

I’m hoping in also includes power customization (coloring your blasts, etc.) and a graphics engine overhaul.  Those are the two things REALLY needed to compete with Champions online & whatever the DC & Marvel online games will be.  Without those it’s just going to look dated.

Either way, I’m actually excited about this.  Wee.

my “to read list”

(Yes I’m lazy and just grabbed Amazon images).

My small pile currently consists of:

Every damned writing blog I read mentioned this so I figured WTF.

This sat on my Amazon maybe/wtf list for so long that I felt bad and shelled out basically the cost of shipping for it.  I’m not expecting much.

Impulse buy.  I read Name of the Rose and it was decent & this was only a few bucks used at Powell’s today.

The 3 cds that have been in my car for the last 2 weeks

Just looping in this order, and I haven’t gotten bored yet.  But still, I think it’s time to swap them.

New Mutants #1

Is this volume 3 or volume 4? I forget.  Anyway, they’re back!  Yes, it is true – Marvel seems to be at an all-time high for # of x-books again.  The bloat is so bad I’m actually NOT buying as many as I am buying… I think.  Somewhere in there.

Anyway, so, was this any good?

Sort of.  The art was passable, and the general plot skeleton could be fine BUT.  But. What the hell is up with Sunspot’s characterization?  Is he 15 again?  Has he not been running a powerful corporation and sitting on the board of the Hellfire Club for a couple years?  Now he’s excited by stupid cars and stupid jets that I’m sure he’s seen/driven better than before.

His whole character is ringing horribly wrong.

Magic has this weird gothy-self-inflicted drama thing going on too that doesn’t seem to mesh with her most recent appearance.  Not to mention she’s trying to hard to be Layla Miller in this issue.

Magma is ok so far, but that’s really only because her character has always been to be a blank slate.

Cannonball was the best of the bunch, and that’s not saying much at all.  His outburst against the younger students in the beginning was embarassing.

I get that the writer is trying to bring back some old school feel or something (especially the villain – why??) – but that doesn’t mean everyone has to act like they’re 15 again – they should be early/mid 20s at least by now.

I really wanted to like this.  It’s a better start than Young X-Men, but it’s still looking pretty dismal so far.  I didn’t really realize how bad it was until I just spelled it out here and forced myself to accept that it’s really sub-par.  SigH!

songs that “mean something” to me

I’m sure this is probably a meme…how can it not be right? But it came to me on my way to lunch today, so I’m going to roll with it and pretend I made it up.

So, the task:

Songs that trigger an emotional resonance, or strong memory,  when you hear them. THEY DO NOT HAVE TO BE GOOD SONGS!  Just songs that have a strong memory attached, etc.  That being said, I think most ofmine are good songs ;).

I’m trying some new tech to get the songs to you, so bear with me hear.  I’m using 8tracks.com to attempt to get some full playlists and not have to embed each song one by one via vox.  They have some weird restrictions, like the second time you play the list it will be out of order, but whatever you can skip through them to the appropriate songs.  So, just hit play and leave this tab up while the list plays, then read below for the stories…or whatever.

Various flavors of nostalgia, in chronological order, part 1:

http://8tracks.com/mixes/25021/player_v2

1. Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen – The album is one of the ones I remember my dad having in his truck when I was a little kid…the cover has stuck with me all these years. Since I got back into Springsteen years later, the nostalgia effect is mostly muted – but this song still has it – mostly because it reminds me of the album cover of the cassette in his dashboard.
2. Down on the Corner – Creedence Clearwater Revival – While my dad did also have a Chronicle I cassette in his truck, and this does stem from that, the real resonance comes in in that I think it was the first song I learned to play on the guitar. Duh du du duh da…etc.
3. Pure Energy – Information Society -I spent YEARS trying to figure out what this song was. I hear it somewhere around 4th or 5th grade, and just remembered the chorus line: “I wan to know what you’re thinking, tell me what’s on your mind” – or whatever. I had that stuck in my head for years with no way to find out what it was (no internet back then you know, and my parents certainly didn’t know). I eventually found out the name of the song and band *I THINK* from Jeremy J. in 7th or 8th grade. He had a cassette that I think had this album on one side, and their second (not so good) album on the second.
4. She’s the Queen – Starflyer 59 – I’m not sure why this is the Starflyer song that’s stuck in my head for this period, but it is what it is.  It reminds me of when my musical tastes were finally starting to come into their own in 7th or 8th grade.  I started getting rid of all the random cassettes I bought as a kid (Beach Boys, Motley Crue,  Madonna,  a bunch of random stuff really) and moving on to stuff I actually liked for personal reasons.
5. Selling the Drama – Live –<cheesy as fuck teen-drama warning> OK.  So, this was the song I would sing under my breath to keep myself going when my HS girlfriend broke up with me and then I saw her kissing another guy a few days later.  I think, that’s how it sequences in my mind anyway.  So yeah you know I was like …15?  16?  My tiny, angsty world was ending for a few weeks or a month or so there, and instead of talking to people like a normal person I would walk around singing this song.  TOTALLY overdramatic I KNOW THIS.  But, you know, shit seems important at that age ;). I wasn’t even really a Live fan…this song just stuck for some reason.
6. Stars – Hum -I can’t quite place this one – I’m not sure if it was late High School (I think it was), or early post-HS.  Either way, I’m sitting at the (only) gas station in Templeton (which has since closed down due to the economy – I think there is one other station now though), and I think it’s after midnight because that’s the only time the local rock station plays non top-20 shit…and this comes on and blows my mind.  I spend years trying to find the name of the band – (not sure how long it took to find them, but I did eventually!.  I’m thinking HS now, because the internet was still small enough that I couldn’t just search up the lyrics.
7. 3 AM – Matchbox 20 -Reminds me of driving around the streets of San Luis, after my first college “party” I think. A guy I worked with at Cuesta had invited me.  The whole thing was rather awkward and not particularly entertaining, but still a worthwhile experience.  I think I was lost  on the way home for a few minutes or something, and it was exactly 3 am, and this song came on the radio.  I’m sure the DJ thought it was funny, but it stuck in my mind and locked in that moment.
8. Molly – Sponge & What do you want from me? – Monaco – Ahh, college.  These are the “Isla Vista nights” songs for me.   Ahh, San Raf 6th floor. There were more, but these are the two that still cling to my memory.  We had several mix cds we made for warming up/pre-drinking…but I think these were on the one I liked the most.  Hearing them now I still get a little pumped.  And miss alcohol.
9. Lost Ones – Lauryn Hill – If the two above songs are the San Raf nights, the whole Miseducation album is San Raf days.  We all rotated discs on the cd player, and this one was Ryan’s – but I think we all liked it, so it got more play than if just he were playing it.  This was the first hip-hop album that really got me into on an album level (although I did have Cooleyhighharmony as a kid).  Up until then, it was just the random tracks you hear on the radio.  But this – this album was something else.  I’ve looked for other hip-hop albums that appealed to me this strongly,  but haven’t found one yet (alas, poor Lauren, why the fuck did you have to go crazy?).   Every single track on this thing is solid.  That’s a rare find for me any genre – but especially for hip-hop.  So why “Lost Ones”?  Because it’s the first song after that silly intro…it got things started.
10. All My Best Friends are Metalheads – Less than Jake -This one always reminded me, in college, of the friends I’d left behind from high school. Sort of nostalgia for nostalgia type thing… that”s two levels of nostalgia for your ass!  I think I remember these feelings first triggering during on of my radio shows on the campus station too…so it reminds me of that as well.

Feel free to comment with your own songs, make your own blog post, Facebook thing, etc.  I’d love to hear what is stuck in the back of your mind, cooking up images all by itself.

To be continued…