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1. Almost shaved my novel down to 700 pages. It was well over 800. This means, I've shaved off over 100 pages. And rewrote some bits, made them more succinct. My muse is back - yay! I was feeling "creatively constipated" which made mother laugh. I feel so much lighter and happier now. Creative constipation makes me cranky. And while there is some area for creativity at work - there's not nearly enough.
I write stories to work out issues and ideas that bug me. Also I'm weirdly interested in the darker side of human emotions, such as guilt, shame, remorse, grief, and yearning. I had a creative writing professor who told me once that I was an interesting writer - in that I was interested in examining the emotions most people didn't want to look at.
I also like to subvert tropes, and play with them. And work out why people do the things they do. My favorite trope is the back from the dead trope - where a person fakes their death, or is forced to pretend to be dead, then comes back years later - and everyone has to deal with it. Including them.
But they aren't the same. No one is. So here you are grieving the person, but they aren't dead, just the version you knew and loved is, and this is someone new, yet it is still them.
I write and tell stories to figure things out for myself, and often feel as if I'm channeling the story? I don't write for people to have something they want to read. I'm not a commercial writer. I can't write stories others want to read, only stories that I want to tell. While I do want to share it with others, part of me doesn't, and doesn't really care if they see it - because I'm writing it for the story...more than anything else.
Not sure that makes sense to anyone out there, but there it is.
I write this journal for the same reasons - I think? To work stuff out, and to somehow connect. It's why I wrote meta for television series. Or even fanfic. To work stuff out - that was puzzling me or bugging me?
Anyhow very happy muse is back. And I now understand why I need to work on this novel. I'm curious about the characters, and how they work out their issues. I'm also interested in figuring out how to heal someone traumatized by what they did in a War, and how Wars and violence damage people. And how sex can be used as a drug often to detrimental effect.
2. I've joined a Calvin & Hobbes facebook group - that just reposts comic strips from Calvin & Hobbes.
3. The guy taking over the editing duties for The X-men has a blog, and he's apparently a Rick and Morty fan, albeit not of the problematic fandom and recent issues. Anyhow he is interesting, and had interesting responses to questions about how he would edit the X-men and views comics. He also is a huge Doctor Who and sci-fi fan. Tom Brevoort's world or the Man with the Hat. I subscribed to his newsletter out of curiosity.
( excerpt from his newsletter on the joy of mail - regards including more minority characters, for example Latino or Hispanic in X-men comics )
I was actually impressed by how he answered it. Because he's right - when you are writing "commercial" fiction for a broad subscription or paying audience - then you do have to somewhat cater to what that audience wants.
4. Per the rumor mill, Marvel may have decided to rework their plans for Phase 4 and 5 after Quantiumania bombed at the Box Office, and Jonathan Majors got into all sorts of embarrassing legal trouble. They decided Kang the Conqueror was not really working for the audience or fans. (Most had no clue who he was - myself included - and I read comics. He goes too far back and is too obscure. Only true comic book nerds know who the guy is - and they make up maybe 1% of the MCU film going audience?)
So..guess who the new Big Bad Villain is going to be?
Doctor Doom could end up Replacing Kang as the new villain
There's also rumors that they are bringing back the original Avengers Slate, with the entire cast including Downy Jr as Iron Man (Which is actually possible - since comics do that all the time, I just didn't think the actors would return? All those characters are still active in the comics.) Lots of rumors about the Return of Iron Man film - but Downy Jr has yet to confirm any of them, nor has Marvel.
But I can see them doing Doom, since it is a way to bring in both the Fantastic Four and the X-men.
5. Posed a question out of curiosity on FB.
"Curious? Iphone or Android? And techie or not techie?"
And I got interesting responses.
( Android vs. Iphone, Techie vs. Non-Techie )
The skinny? Preference doesn't matter if you are techie or not. In fact there is no discernible pattern regarding preference.
I write stories to work out issues and ideas that bug me. Also I'm weirdly interested in the darker side of human emotions, such as guilt, shame, remorse, grief, and yearning. I had a creative writing professor who told me once that I was an interesting writer - in that I was interested in examining the emotions most people didn't want to look at.
I also like to subvert tropes, and play with them. And work out why people do the things they do. My favorite trope is the back from the dead trope - where a person fakes their death, or is forced to pretend to be dead, then comes back years later - and everyone has to deal with it. Including them.
But they aren't the same. No one is. So here you are grieving the person, but they aren't dead, just the version you knew and loved is, and this is someone new, yet it is still them.
I write and tell stories to figure things out for myself, and often feel as if I'm channeling the story? I don't write for people to have something they want to read. I'm not a commercial writer. I can't write stories others want to read, only stories that I want to tell. While I do want to share it with others, part of me doesn't, and doesn't really care if they see it - because I'm writing it for the story...more than anything else.
Not sure that makes sense to anyone out there, but there it is.
I write this journal for the same reasons - I think? To work stuff out, and to somehow connect. It's why I wrote meta for television series. Or even fanfic. To work stuff out - that was puzzling me or bugging me?
Anyhow very happy muse is back. And I now understand why I need to work on this novel. I'm curious about the characters, and how they work out their issues. I'm also interested in figuring out how to heal someone traumatized by what they did in a War, and how Wars and violence damage people. And how sex can be used as a drug often to detrimental effect.
2. I've joined a Calvin & Hobbes facebook group - that just reposts comic strips from Calvin & Hobbes.
3. The guy taking over the editing duties for The X-men has a blog, and he's apparently a Rick and Morty fan, albeit not of the problematic fandom and recent issues. Anyhow he is interesting, and had interesting responses to questions about how he would edit the X-men and views comics. He also is a huge Doctor Who and sci-fi fan. Tom Brevoort's world or the Man with the Hat. I subscribed to his newsletter out of curiosity.
( excerpt from his newsletter on the joy of mail - regards including more minority characters, for example Latino or Hispanic in X-men comics )
I was actually impressed by how he answered it. Because he's right - when you are writing "commercial" fiction for a broad subscription or paying audience - then you do have to somewhat cater to what that audience wants.
4. Per the rumor mill, Marvel may have decided to rework their plans for Phase 4 and 5 after Quantiumania bombed at the Box Office, and Jonathan Majors got into all sorts of embarrassing legal trouble. They decided Kang the Conqueror was not really working for the audience or fans. (Most had no clue who he was - myself included - and I read comics. He goes too far back and is too obscure. Only true comic book nerds know who the guy is - and they make up maybe 1% of the MCU film going audience?)
So..guess who the new Big Bad Villain is going to be?
Doctor Doom could end up Replacing Kang as the new villain
There's also rumors that they are bringing back the original Avengers Slate, with the entire cast including Downy Jr as Iron Man (Which is actually possible - since comics do that all the time, I just didn't think the actors would return? All those characters are still active in the comics.) Lots of rumors about the Return of Iron Man film - but Downy Jr has yet to confirm any of them, nor has Marvel.
But I can see them doing Doom, since it is a way to bring in both the Fantastic Four and the X-men.
5. Posed a question out of curiosity on FB.
"Curious? Iphone or Android? And techie or not techie?"
And I got interesting responses.
( Android vs. Iphone, Techie vs. Non-Techie )
The skinny? Preference doesn't matter if you are techie or not. In fact there is no discernible pattern regarding preference.