These darned characters need to leave me alone, they really do. I think. (I'm not sure, it is fun being able to sit down and bang out a lot of text)
Anyway, I think I can ignore this story for right now and work on the things that come earlier. Since that means this'll likely get ignored for a year or two I'm splatting it out here, well, just because. Probably splat out the beginning of the third chapter soon as well, since that's close to being set-aside-able.
This is uneditited, even b
The problem with having a good setting and characters you like is that they tend to get out of hand. You think that you've got things under control and pretty much ready to go and... ha! Surprises happen and it turns out that you don't.
I've a pair of characters, Ben and William, I very much like. They're sweet and sappy, and when circumstances call for it can kick much ass and wreak massive amounts of mayhem, which is always good for some fun. (They're the two in the Wedding Bells snippet I
First things first, though not necessarily in that order, right?
This is part of a piece I shouldn't be working on, since it's the fourth (or fifth? Sixth, maybe, with the side-stories, I'm not quite sure) sequel to a piece I should be working on. Personally I blame Dio, since he's sick and can't defend himself. (and has the summary of that piece, waiting for a second read-over -- the first time he read it he was altogether too kind and I ended up savaging the plot. It's much better now, but
I dunno about anyone else who writes, but I find that ideas tend to hit me as scenes entire scenes or chapters. Not necessarily complete ones -- they're often incomplete, with bits and pieces missing -- but scenes or chapters. When that happens I open up a new doc in the word processor, bang out as much of the thing as I can before I lose it, and save the thing. If I have some clue as to what's going on I'll have a separate file with notes, character sketches, plot points, and suchlike things, a
This piece started with a gag. Well, two of them, actually -- it does really start out:
It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in Massachusetts that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness
Though I know t
Well, it looks like I'm going to be using this blog for more than I planned, so I went and tweaked things a bit. Added in some categories, changed the titles of some of the entries already posted (made 'em the names of the stories), categorized the things I've posted, and limited the size of what's shown, since the main display page is damned big what with these 1-2K word story pieces stuck in them.
Yay for excuses to avoid real work!
Right, I know I should be working on the last chapter of Yankee (and the first few chapters of its sequel) but I've been distracted by work and other stuff. This has been sticking in my head too -- I guess I shouldn't ever say "I wish I could write like that, but I can't" since then my brain will nag at me until I do.
I think I'm calling this one By Design, but I'm not sure. It actually involves a lot of landscape architecture, though you'd not know it from this bit.
Anyway, this is on
I've got a houseful of sick people (including me, though not nearly as badly as everyone else) so I've been up weird hours and bored to death, though not actually competent to do anything useful like write. Trolling the shub-internet's a dodgy thing at the best of times, but at 3 AM, well...
Anyway, courtesy of the top site list, I found Wizard and Warrior. And some other stuff that was pretty darned good, but that's for another time.
It's a Michael Moorcock riff, and a damned good one.
This one's been kicking around for ages. Yes, before you mention it, I write far too much dialog -- with Yankee (and some of the other stories I've got in progress) you see the third draft. The first draft's generally 80% dialog, the second has all the intervening bits added, and the third's the cleaned up version after getting a twice-over from an editor.
This story, for reasons I never did figure out but accept anyway, takes place entirely inside an apartment. That's not to say that the ch
Well, OK, there's a remote possibility this one'll get touched, but I'm not betting on it. Again, it's got characters and a setting, but no plot. Pesky things, plots -- they go missing when you need them most. (Maybe I should check between the couch cushions)
The substitute
I know it's pretty normal for kids to have imaginary friends when they're little. Someone to play with and talk to when things get really bad, someone to confide those secrets that you just can't tell anyone e
