Today Robin Williams died a city is
rioting over the questionable death of black youth at the hands of a
police officer, someone somewhere is falling in love and I've
decicded while taking a shower that it is high time I start writing
in my blog again. Much like Amilie on that fateful day temporarily
blackened by the death of Lady Di but with less drama, I've decided
to change my life. Here it goes.
The idea is to dedicate an hour of my
time before I go to sleep to writing at least on the days where I am
not doing anything like a game night. I don't know if I will publish
every night. Maybe I'll select the “best of the week” and
publish it all over the weekend. Maybe I'll publish everything.
Publishing isn't the important part. The writing is.
In all honesty this is being caused by
a couple of things. The desire to run a roleplaying game, the
excitement of being able to play in one, the proximity to NaNoWriMo,
and some other stuff that is harder to put a specific name on. I've
been thinking a lot about NaNo, what I want to write about and stuff
like that. The current front runner is a sequal to what I wrote last
year which I never published but whatever. It is set in the Eclipse
Phase universe and it is actually my second favorite thing I've ever
written. It also feels a bit like cheating. I like to try to do
something different every year, to exparament. NaNo is by and large
a judgement free excersice for me so I feel like if I am not trying
something new and different I am wasting the opportunity. My first
novel blended aspects of magical realism, Twin Peaks, and melocholic
reflection and it turned out great. It remains my favorite thing
I've written. The year after I wrote about a support group of people
who tried to end the world at the turning of the milenium, failed,
and now are adrift in a world that is not supposed to still be here.
This book still has potential and I want to redo it. As is it didn't
turn out all that great. The lone female character feels tacked on,
the ending was forced, and some other things. It was my first time
writing using a large group of people and it turned out strangely.
I'd also like to talk about how dour and grey America became after
9/11. It isn't so much that we've gone mad. We are America we've
always been a little bit crazy. It is just that after 9/11 we
started to let the crazy off the leash and that's a bad thing.
Trying to recapture my previous glory I
decided to write a sequal to the first book I wrote. The first book
ended in the main character's suicide cause that was always gonna
happen. As soon as I hit 50k words he was gonna pull out a gun and
off himself. I was kinda hoping he'd be just walking down the street
or something but no he was in the middle of an epic battle. It still
worked and it even looked a little bit like I planned it. Go me!
The sequal was going to be about the characters getting on with their
lives. It was horrible. I want to rewrite it. I really do but not
this year.
Last year my book was about a guy who
everyone in power hates but he's to dangerous to kill and to useful
to cut loose. He is the enemy that the keep closer and the only man
for the job. He's old, mean, and haunted by his past. Trying to
make up for his mistakes he joined Firewall to do good but he keeps
ending up on their bad side. I loved it. It was actually a very
plotty novel. Most of my otherones have a lot of navel gazing which
is code for, “I have a daily word count to meet and I have no idea
what to do next so we are going to stand around and think about
life”. I really like doing things like that so it doesn't bother
me.
It is nice to remember what you wrote.
All my characters are very much outsiders, like myself. Sometimes
they have a tight knit group of confidants. Sometimes they are
utterly alone. Sometimes they struggle to be alone and sometimes
they just struggle. Go with what you know I suppose. The thing I
currently have on the burner is something that is very much along the
same lines of what I've done before. The idea is that a small group
of American teenagers have turned into people with low level super
powers. There is a secret family of assasins who have sworn to
protect such people but they can't operate in America because, well,
America sees and hears to much and this group is supposed to be
invisable. One of the group sets off to guard these kids anyway even
though the partiarch of the family has ordered their deaths. He's
alone, he's one of the most dangerous men in the world even amongst
his family, and he's gotta keep these kids alive, out of the hands of
the military, and away from the various groups who might want to
capitalize on them. It came from the idea of, “Just because you
can life and throw a car doesn't mean you can fight”. It has been
knocking around in my head for a very long time. Originally I wanted
it to be part of a serialized fiction thing I was going to do but it
never got off the ground. However, I kinda want to do something
different this year. Something new.
I'd like to write something about
someone who is comfortable with his otherness. They know they are
different and they are okay with it. Think of Superman without Clark
Kent. Kent is more than just a secret identiy. It is a security
blanket or if I am feeling uncharitable it is a type of madness.
Here is a person who in modern comics could cure every disease on the
planet, create and infinite clean powersource that could power the
planet forever, to give us interstellar travel and to introduce us to
the multitudes of alien life out there and instead he runs around
Metropolis getting into trouble and pretending to be a bumbling do
gooder from Kansas. Clark is Superman's insistance that he is human.
That he belongs on our planet, that he thinks, feels, and looses
just like the rest of us do. The crazy thing is that it works. He
needs Clark to be Superman. Without him he is something differen.
Something other. I find that it is this distinction that causes
people to not understand the recent Man of Steel movie. That is what
Superman looks like without Clark. He still loves his mom but he is
torn between his Kryptonian heritage and the life built on earth. As
the movie went on he piece by piece lost his connection with Kypton
until there was nothing left but he and Zod. I think that even at
the end Zod would of accepted him if he submitted to his will and let
Krypton be rebuilt. Instead he chose us and at the very end of the
movie we saw the half joking mischevious man of steel we know and
love from his best comics. It was a very subtle journey. Sublety
isn't something the internet is capable of.
I want someone with a confidence to be
different. The modern day retelling of Sherlock on BBC is a good
example. The big thing is less the character but what are they going
to do? One of the most brilliant things I've ever read on the nature
of heroism is, “Only villians try to change the world...” I
wanted the exact quote but I couldn't find it. It is in the Runaways
somewhere after they defeated the Pride. I don't need a whole lot of
excuses to reread it I'll find it later. The point is that just
about all my character's have ridden the line between heroism and
villiany. I am okay with that I did it on purpose most of the time
time especially with my first and last books. I don't know. I do
know that I want to do something different this year. Maybe
something truly reflective. Like a magically realistic memior.
Actually that sounds really good. I might do that. The completely
true story of my life. It would be more emotional than literal.
Actually that wouldn't be very happy so I'd use my life like a model.
Take some things fictionalize others and create something new. I
like this. Imma do that. There is a 99% chance that it will turn
out horribly. However, it has been an hour and I need to sleep.
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