There's not much to report on the writing front over here, and then when I decided to check in and write a blog post anyway, I was having issues with Blogger loading. I know, excuses, excuses. So I figured I might as well grab some of my tags to use as a title and ramble a bit about what I've been doing to entertain myself recently.
I believe I've mentioned it on here before at least once, but I'm a fan of Orange is the New Black. Gone are the days of binge watching stuff, as I'm a boring adult who has other obligations/responsibilities, but we still got through all 13 episodes in about a week. And it was SO GOOD. Like, the kind of good that makes you want to run around shouting it from the rooftops, or just shout in general because your body simply can't contain the level of good-ness it just experienced. Was this season flawless? No, of course not. But it was some damn fine television.
I'm in the camp that does believe the show is/was groundbreaking, as it went against a lot of what the entertainment industry believes people want to see (or what they tell people they want to see, anyway). Right off the bat, stories with a female lead are often a harder sell than those with a male lead. And when it comes to the stories OITNB tells, that's just the tip of the iceberg. I found this quote about the main character from an NPR interview with Jenji Kohan (the show's creator) both a little sad and not surprising at all:
"In a lot of ways Piper was my Trojan Horse. You're not going to go into a network and sell a show on really fascinating tales of black women, and Latina women, and old women and criminals. But if you take this white girl, this sort of fish out of water, and you follow her in, you can then expand your world and tell all of those other stories. But it's a hard sell to just go in and try to sell those stories initially. The girl next door, the cool blonde, is a very easy access point, and it's relatable for a lot of audiences and a lot of networks looking for a certain demographic. It's useful."
I'll admit to being similar to Piper in terms of background and privilege, so I'm not going to spout off about a lot of things I have little personal experience with. But I hope the fact that the show has been so successful will mean good things in the future when it comes to storytelling and how women are portrayed in the media. There's a large audience filled with people who will now demand diversity in what they want to see and who will refuse to believe that such stories aren't marketable, because there's plenty of evidence to the contrary. Which, in turn, will mean good things (I hope) for those of us who create art and want to find an audience of our own, even when what we create is different from "the way things have always been done".
Showing posts with label storytelling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label storytelling. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Sunday, January 18, 2015
(Spoiler-Free) Thoughts on Dragon Age: Inquisition (and how they relate to writing)
I'm nearing the end of my second playthrough of Dragon Age: Inquisition. This time, obviously, I've been taking my time and not blazing through to get to the end, letting the game consume every moment of my free time. Also (and I'll elaborate on this throughout), I was able to almost halve the number of hours spent on this playthrough, and not all of that was due to efficiency.
First, I need to preface this with my overall, general feelings: The game is excellent. I feel like the designers took the best parts of the two previous games without necessarily favoring one over the other. Perhaps most importantly for a game, it's fun, and I look forward to replaying it. HOWEVER (we all knew that was coming), there were definitely aspects that could have been better. A lot better. I'm not going to say I was disappointed, because I wasn't, and paying for the pre-order and immersing myself in the game as soon as possible was worthwhile. But it's not perfect.
Boobulon, who hasn't played yet, summed up my feelings perfectly when I told him of my impressions after I first beat the game. It's a short game, but very wide. Now at first, that statement may sound a little ridiculous - I spent over 100 hours (111 to be exact) just playing through the game once. How can that possibly be a short game?
Without going into too much detail about the mechanics, there are certain mandatory plot points you have to hit. While there's an order to them (except for two which are available simultaneously), you can pretty much do them whenever you want. As is typical for Bioware games, there are a crapload of side quests and companion quests available, along with many areas to explore. (For those of you familiar with the first Mass Effect, it's structured similarly.)
Ultimately, I think it's that lack of set pacing that drags the game down a little. And unfortunately, most of those little side quests did nothing to enhance the overall plot, in my opinion. Also unfortunately, it made me feel like a lot of the game was filler and the designers were having fun playing around with the new game engine while not focusing enough on tying all the elements together.
The actual plot stuff? EXCELLENT. FANTASTIC. LOVED. Like, "shit, it's 1:00 in the morning but I have to know what happens next but it's 1:00 in the morning but I have to know what happens next!" There just wasn't enough of it, and I was left wanting more. So for me, that's my biggest qualm. Yes, the world was incredibly detailed and amazing and expansive, but some of the storytelling was lacking.
So I'm going to use that to segue into talking about writing. (Smooth, right?) We all know by now that style is subjective and readers are often picky about the prose they enjoy. There are writers out there who use their words to paint pictures and spend pages and pages describing scenes in achingly beautiful detail. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
But it's not me. I don't like to write that way, and I don't particularly like reading that style either. I prefer well-developed characters who do and feel, which again, isn't everyone's cup of tea. There's no one method of telling a story that's better than the others, and it really does just come down to personal preference. And I personally would have preferred more characters doing and feeling in those initial 111 hours, but hey, you can't make everyone happy all the time.
I could probably write another novel about my feelings on the game, but I'll leave off here. Also on the topic of my own writing, I just miiiiight have a cover to reveal soon-ish, so stay tuned!
First, I need to preface this with my overall, general feelings: The game is excellent. I feel like the designers took the best parts of the two previous games without necessarily favoring one over the other. Perhaps most importantly for a game, it's fun, and I look forward to replaying it. HOWEVER (we all knew that was coming), there were definitely aspects that could have been better. A lot better. I'm not going to say I was disappointed, because I wasn't, and paying for the pre-order and immersing myself in the game as soon as possible was worthwhile. But it's not perfect.
Boobulon, who hasn't played yet, summed up my feelings perfectly when I told him of my impressions after I first beat the game. It's a short game, but very wide. Now at first, that statement may sound a little ridiculous - I spent over 100 hours (111 to be exact) just playing through the game once. How can that possibly be a short game?
Without going into too much detail about the mechanics, there are certain mandatory plot points you have to hit. While there's an order to them (except for two which are available simultaneously), you can pretty much do them whenever you want. As is typical for Bioware games, there are a crapload of side quests and companion quests available, along with many areas to explore. (For those of you familiar with the first Mass Effect, it's structured similarly.)
Ultimately, I think it's that lack of set pacing that drags the game down a little. And unfortunately, most of those little side quests did nothing to enhance the overall plot, in my opinion. Also unfortunately, it made me feel like a lot of the game was filler and the designers were having fun playing around with the new game engine while not focusing enough on tying all the elements together.
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| Gorgeous, right? I didn't even bother coming here the second time through, because it was unnecessary. |
The actual plot stuff? EXCELLENT. FANTASTIC. LOVED. Like, "shit, it's 1:00 in the morning but I have to know what happens next but it's 1:00 in the morning but I have to know what happens next!" There just wasn't enough of it, and I was left wanting more. So for me, that's my biggest qualm. Yes, the world was incredibly detailed and amazing and expansive, but some of the storytelling was lacking.
So I'm going to use that to segue into talking about writing. (Smooth, right?) We all know by now that style is subjective and readers are often picky about the prose they enjoy. There are writers out there who use their words to paint pictures and spend pages and pages describing scenes in achingly beautiful detail. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
But it's not me. I don't like to write that way, and I don't particularly like reading that style either. I prefer well-developed characters who do and feel, which again, isn't everyone's cup of tea. There's no one method of telling a story that's better than the others, and it really does just come down to personal preference. And I personally would have preferred more characters doing and feeling in those initial 111 hours, but hey, you can't make everyone happy all the time.
I could probably write another novel about my feelings on the game, but I'll leave off here. Also on the topic of my own writing, I just miiiiight have a cover to reveal soon-ish, so stay tuned!
Monday, September 8, 2014
Copycats
It's been said for a while that there are no truly original ideas anymore. Which, well, maybe. I haven't decided whether I agree or disagree with that, but I subscribe to the concept that it's all about how you spin an idea and make it your own, and not whether the core ideas are similar to That Other Work.
I also believe that it is absolutely possible for two different people to come up with strikingly similar ideas at the same time. Without getting into the dirty little details, I've engaged in the Hunger Games vs. Battle Royale debate with a former writing buddy before. Now, I'm sure I'm biased as I did enjoy the Hunger Games series, and I'm also sure I wasn't as well-informed going into the debate as I could have been, as my knowledge of Battle Royale comes from friends who have read it and wikipedia. From what I've learned from those two sources, though, while the general concept might be similar (coincidentally or not, we'll never know), there are more than enough differences in execution and overall setting to make me roll my eyes at the people who are still harping on about how Suzanne Collins plagiarized another work and shouldn't be as successful as she is.
Most writers want to be regarded as having a unique voice to convey whatever scenarios their imaginations conjure, I would think. We all want to have those fresh ideas that make readers marvel, to be ahead of the trends so we can stand out. Yet, if we really are working from a limited pool, that's easier said than done.
Without sifting back through the archives, I'm fairly sure that I blogged about my "oh shit" moment when I was halfway through writing the first Disintegration and learned that it had a lot of similarities to the movie Robocop (the remake of which was in the works while I was writing). I panicked, but was talked off the ledge by a friend who had both seen the movie and knew my plans, so he could assure me there were enough differences to set me apart. No one's come after me with a lawsuit yet (or even whined at me about it), so I guess it's all good on that front.
So why this blog post now? Because it happened again. *headdesk* Since I got the contract, I went to scan through The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions just to reacquaint myself with what I actually wrote, since it had been a while. And what did I find? There's a scene in there that is quite similar to a scene in Dragon Age: Origins.
Well, damn.
It's even documented on this blog that I wrote TFotMS well before playing DAO, but that doesn't mean I didn't start second-guessing myself. I tried to remain as spoiler-free as possible, but in my perusing of DA2-related stuff, did I come across something related to that scene and it got stuck in my head? Are the circumstances not as accidental as I thought? I mean, the common thread is admittedly not the most novel of concepts, but that they happened so close together in my life had me scratching my head a bit.
I'm not going to change it, of course. It's not exactly the same, and the characters, setting, etc. are certainly different enough. Will someone come across that scene and think, "Hmm, this seems a lot like that game I played"? Maybe. But for now, I'll just stick it in the "coincidences" file and not worry too much. Suzanne Collins got past it, and I can, too. ;)
I also believe that it is absolutely possible for two different people to come up with strikingly similar ideas at the same time. Without getting into the dirty little details, I've engaged in the Hunger Games vs. Battle Royale debate with a former writing buddy before. Now, I'm sure I'm biased as I did enjoy the Hunger Games series, and I'm also sure I wasn't as well-informed going into the debate as I could have been, as my knowledge of Battle Royale comes from friends who have read it and wikipedia. From what I've learned from those two sources, though, while the general concept might be similar (coincidentally or not, we'll never know), there are more than enough differences in execution and overall setting to make me roll my eyes at the people who are still harping on about how Suzanne Collins plagiarized another work and shouldn't be as successful as she is.
Most writers want to be regarded as having a unique voice to convey whatever scenarios their imaginations conjure, I would think. We all want to have those fresh ideas that make readers marvel, to be ahead of the trends so we can stand out. Yet, if we really are working from a limited pool, that's easier said than done.
Without sifting back through the archives, I'm fairly sure that I blogged about my "oh shit" moment when I was halfway through writing the first Disintegration and learned that it had a lot of similarities to the movie Robocop (the remake of which was in the works while I was writing). I panicked, but was talked off the ledge by a friend who had both seen the movie and knew my plans, so he could assure me there were enough differences to set me apart. No one's come after me with a lawsuit yet (or even whined at me about it), so I guess it's all good on that front.
So why this blog post now? Because it happened again. *headdesk* Since I got the contract, I went to scan through The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions just to reacquaint myself with what I actually wrote, since it had been a while. And what did I find? There's a scene in there that is quite similar to a scene in Dragon Age: Origins.
Well, damn.
It's even documented on this blog that I wrote TFotMS well before playing DAO, but that doesn't mean I didn't start second-guessing myself. I tried to remain as spoiler-free as possible, but in my perusing of DA2-related stuff, did I come across something related to that scene and it got stuck in my head? Are the circumstances not as accidental as I thought? I mean, the common thread is admittedly not the most novel of concepts, but that they happened so close together in my life had me scratching my head a bit.
I'm not going to change it, of course. It's not exactly the same, and the characters, setting, etc. are certainly different enough. Will someone come across that scene and think, "Hmm, this seems a lot like that game I played"? Maybe. But for now, I'll just stick it in the "coincidences" file and not worry too much. Suzanne Collins got past it, and I can, too. ;)
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
We Were On a Break!
I'm still taking a little breather from writing, and yes, still playing games. I finished the main part of Dragon Age: Origins, finished DA: Awakenings tonight, and I have one more DLC to go. I'll probably play through a couple more of the origin stories, but I don't know how many times I'll replay the entire shebang.
Now that I'm (mostly) finished, I stand by my opinion from the last post, which is that while the game is a lot of fun to play and has its good qualities, I am not completely in love with it. The main game actually got pretty good near the end (more on that in a bit) and some of the characters did grow on me a little more. Awakenings started off pretty well and there were some pretty cool sections, but truth be told, I thought it fizzled out a bit at the end.
Okay, now to tie it back in to storytelling, as this is my writing blog. When working on The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions, I had a conversation with friends about foreshadowing. Specifically, in that book, I wondered if it would come across as if I were foreshadowing events that wound up not happening and whether that's a good or bad thing. There were two things that really surprised me in DAO.
Before I go any further, I'll point out that when it comes to foreshadowing and/or picking up on hints, I'm really hit or miss. For example, it really annoyed my mom when she told me to watch The Sixth Sense and I figured out the twist right away. On the flip side **SPOILER ALERT FOR DRAGON AGE 2**, I did not see Anders blowing up the Chantry in DA2 coming AT ALL, and in retrospect, it seems so freaking obvious.
So onto the two surprising plot points from DAO. I really, honestly thought that the death of one of the characters (one of the ones I really liked, actually) was being heavily foreshadowed throughout the entire game. I was expecting a touching scene where she finally dies...and then it never came. On the one hand, I was just as glad not to lose a character I liked, but on the other, I was anticipating that moving, cathartic experience. (See: character deaths in Mass Effect 3). And then that made me wonder why I thought her eventual death seemed so obvious and how I could have been so far off. Interesting.
Right near the end there's a twist which I won't describe in detail because it would take too long, and for me, that one came out of nowhere. And DAMN, it was a good one. Just about on par with that aforementioned spoiler. I was really impressed by how it totally took me by surprise while still being coherent with the rest of the story. Some twists feel cheap and overly dramatic (and I'm sure there are some who would put this plot event in that category), but I had a completely enjoyable "OH SHIT!" moment.
So I still haven't come to a definitive conclusion on foreshadowing, how to do it properly, and what the right amount of it is. At least my opinions on the games stay strong.
Now that I'm (mostly) finished, I stand by my opinion from the last post, which is that while the game is a lot of fun to play and has its good qualities, I am not completely in love with it. The main game actually got pretty good near the end (more on that in a bit) and some of the characters did grow on me a little more. Awakenings started off pretty well and there were some pretty cool sections, but truth be told, I thought it fizzled out a bit at the end.
Okay, now to tie it back in to storytelling, as this is my writing blog. When working on The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions, I had a conversation with friends about foreshadowing. Specifically, in that book, I wondered if it would come across as if I were foreshadowing events that wound up not happening and whether that's a good or bad thing. There were two things that really surprised me in DAO.
Before I go any further, I'll point out that when it comes to foreshadowing and/or picking up on hints, I'm really hit or miss. For example, it really annoyed my mom when she told me to watch The Sixth Sense and I figured out the twist right away. On the flip side **SPOILER ALERT FOR DRAGON AGE 2**, I did not see Anders blowing up the Chantry in DA2 coming AT ALL, and in retrospect, it seems so freaking obvious.
So onto the two surprising plot points from DAO. I really, honestly thought that the death of one of the characters (one of the ones I really liked, actually) was being heavily foreshadowed throughout the entire game. I was expecting a touching scene where she finally dies...and then it never came. On the one hand, I was just as glad not to lose a character I liked, but on the other, I was anticipating that moving, cathartic experience. (See: character deaths in Mass Effect 3). And then that made me wonder why I thought her eventual death seemed so obvious and how I could have been so far off. Interesting.
Right near the end there's a twist which I won't describe in detail because it would take too long, and for me, that one came out of nowhere. And DAMN, it was a good one. Just about on par with that aforementioned spoiler. I was really impressed by how it totally took me by surprise while still being coherent with the rest of the story. Some twists feel cheap and overly dramatic (and I'm sure there are some who would put this plot event in that category), but I had a completely enjoyable "OH SHIT!" moment.
So I still haven't come to a definitive conclusion on foreshadowing, how to do it properly, and what the right amount of it is. At least my opinions on the games stay strong.
Monday, April 28, 2014
Another Point of View
(Second Skin is still available a while longer for just 99 cents on Amazon, don't miss out!)
I needed a mini-vacation, so I snuck away from Thursday to Sunday. I was able to relax for a bit, eat some good food, read a book, and I even managed to write a reasonable number of words. (It was a "no men allowed" weekend with my mother, and I am not at a point in my life where I can write smutty things on my computer while she is in the room. In fact, I don't think I'll ever reach that point in my life. At least she went to bed earlier than I did.)
I'm writing another novella for the 1Night Stand series, and I'm super excited about this one. I won't give away all the details just yet, but I will say: Damn. I fucking love this fucking story. As of right now, Disintegration has the honor of being referred to as my "masterpiece", but this book might overtake it.
One of the reasons I've been writing up a storm is that I'm trying something new - the book is written in first-person present tense POV. I've done little projects using that technique before (like my story in The Big Book of Orgasm), but this is my first major undertaking in the first person.
It's not without its challenges. Firstly, I need to establish a voice that is not my own (so something other than snark and adverbs, I guess), because I am not the character and vice versa. Secondly, I have to find a way to describe things that sounds natural and doesn't slip into too much of a narration. Finally, I've arrived at the sex scenes. Those first two issues I mentioned? Multiply them by a hundred while writing those.
That said, I've realized while writing that there's no way this story could have been told any other way. It's an emotional, poignant journey for both leads, and really digging around inside their heads is the most effective way to get that across, I think. I'll also admit to torturing my characters a little bit before they find love and their satisfying happy ending. And no matter what point of view is used, we can all breathe a sigh of relief at that point, right?
I needed a mini-vacation, so I snuck away from Thursday to Sunday. I was able to relax for a bit, eat some good food, read a book, and I even managed to write a reasonable number of words. (It was a "no men allowed" weekend with my mother, and I am not at a point in my life where I can write smutty things on my computer while she is in the room. In fact, I don't think I'll ever reach that point in my life. At least she went to bed earlier than I did.)
I'm writing another novella for the 1Night Stand series, and I'm super excited about this one. I won't give away all the details just yet, but I will say: Damn. I fucking love this fucking story. As of right now, Disintegration has the honor of being referred to as my "masterpiece", but this book might overtake it.
One of the reasons I've been writing up a storm is that I'm trying something new - the book is written in first-person present tense POV. I've done little projects using that technique before (like my story in The Big Book of Orgasm), but this is my first major undertaking in the first person.
It's not without its challenges. Firstly, I need to establish a voice that is not my own (so something other than snark and adverbs, I guess), because I am not the character and vice versa. Secondly, I have to find a way to describe things that sounds natural and doesn't slip into too much of a narration. Finally, I've arrived at the sex scenes. Those first two issues I mentioned? Multiply them by a hundred while writing those.
That said, I've realized while writing that there's no way this story could have been told any other way. It's an emotional, poignant journey for both leads, and really digging around inside their heads is the most effective way to get that across, I think. I'll also admit to torturing my characters a little bit before they find love and their satisfying happy ending. And no matter what point of view is used, we can all breathe a sigh of relief at that point, right?
Sunday, April 6, 2014
The Slow Burn
In trying to keep up with the day job, hitting the promo trail for Second Skin, and doing the final edits before submitting The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions, I seem to have neglected this blog. Oops!
(But I haven't neglected Facebook and Twitter as much, so I hope you're following me there as well!)
(I barely know how to use Google+, but I guess I'm on there every now and then as well.)
Okay, enough with the parentheses. As I've been proofing/editing FotMS, I've come to accept that much like its predecessor, it's not really a straight romance. There's a whole lot of plot going on with little threads of the romance strung throughout. While going through the whole book, I realized that in certain aspects, this book is unlike anything I've written before.
In all my previous publications, the main couple gets together fairly quickly. Now, there's still plenty of conflict and drama to sustain the rest of the book(s), of course, but there's a pattern of me jumping right into the bedroom scenes and working my way out from there. This story is a little different.
Our lovebirds start as friends first, and there's a lot of "will they or won't they" tension before they finally give in. In a way, this was a challenge for me to write - I didn't want to rush the journey from being friends to becoming something more, but at the same time, I didn't want to drag out that plot line unnecessarily and risk losing the reader's interest. I wanted the reader to be just as relieved as the characters when they finally get together, but I didn't want a whole lot of contrivance to get in their way. As with many elements of writing, it was a tricky balance.
Time will tell if I accomplished a good mix of flirtation and satisfaction. After a big project like this one, I'm not sure which I prefer, the instant gratification or the slow burn. Each has its place in the erotic romance genre, and I suppose it really comes down to the reader's mood.
So what's your reading preference: getting all hot and steamy right away or taking a long, agonizing trip to that one perfect moment?
(But I haven't neglected Facebook and Twitter as much, so I hope you're following me there as well!)
(I barely know how to use Google+, but I guess I'm on there every now and then as well.)
Okay, enough with the parentheses. As I've been proofing/editing FotMS, I've come to accept that much like its predecessor, it's not really a straight romance. There's a whole lot of plot going on with little threads of the romance strung throughout. While going through the whole book, I realized that in certain aspects, this book is unlike anything I've written before.
In all my previous publications, the main couple gets together fairly quickly. Now, there's still plenty of conflict and drama to sustain the rest of the book(s), of course, but there's a pattern of me jumping right into the bedroom scenes and working my way out from there. This story is a little different.
Our lovebirds start as friends first, and there's a lot of "will they or won't they" tension before they finally give in. In a way, this was a challenge for me to write - I didn't want to rush the journey from being friends to becoming something more, but at the same time, I didn't want to drag out that plot line unnecessarily and risk losing the reader's interest. I wanted the reader to be just as relieved as the characters when they finally get together, but I didn't want a whole lot of contrivance to get in their way. As with many elements of writing, it was a tricky balance.
Time will tell if I accomplished a good mix of flirtation and satisfaction. After a big project like this one, I'm not sure which I prefer, the instant gratification or the slow burn. Each has its place in the erotic romance genre, and I suppose it really comes down to the reader's mood.
So what's your reading preference: getting all hot and steamy right away or taking a long, agonizing trip to that one perfect moment?
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
It's always so wonderful to log in to Blogger and see right at the top how long it's been since my most recent blog post. Hahaha NOT. According to that lovely little header, it's been over ten days since my last post, so I figured I might as well write about something.
It wasn't a very productive writing week. No, wait, let me rephrase that. I didn't write shit.
To be fair, I did do some proofing and editing, but not nearly enough to feel good about myself. I'll admit that I've been caught up in watching the Olympic coverage and I don't write too well when the TV is on. The other major deterrent over this past week has been the amount of work my day job dumped on me. I finally feel like I'm starting to climb out from beneath it and I hope to get some good writing done over the next couple days. (And let's face it, the money doesn't hurt either.)
I think I've mentioned a couple times that I work in the legal field (which is about as specific as I want to be here). While some days can be fairly average and/or boring, I'll also say that I've heard some crazy things. This past Tuesday was one of those days where I just came home absolutely wiped, but with a pretty outrageous story to tell.
People frequently joke that workers in my profession could write a book about everything that happens. I suppose it would be possible for me to incorporate work stories into my fiction, but I'd really rather not. Firstly, the vast majority of the time, I don't deal in happy matters. Now, obviously not everything I write is all sunshine and roses, but I'd rather choose my own original flavors of drama and angst. Secondly, it's true what they say - truth is stranger than fiction. In case the bolded text up there didn't emphasize it enough: crazy. You can't make this stuff up. Thirdly, though I dabble in it sometimes, I don't write a whole lot of contemporary fiction (she says as she has a contemporary release coming out next week) and I think it would be a stretch to insert a lot of those scenarios into my own worlds.
I'll concede there could be a lighter, fluffier side of the law. I mean, by now there must be stories out there about what really happens in the judge's chambers, or opposing attorneys' eyes meeting across the table after a contentious argument and then the sparks start flying. I could write one of those stories, but for now, I think I'll stick to my cyborgs and spaceships. I like them, and they help me escape the drearier parts of my career.
(All that's left is sitting down and actually writing....)
It wasn't a very productive writing week. No, wait, let me rephrase that. I didn't write shit.
To be fair, I did do some proofing and editing, but not nearly enough to feel good about myself. I'll admit that I've been caught up in watching the Olympic coverage and I don't write too well when the TV is on. The other major deterrent over this past week has been the amount of work my day job dumped on me. I finally feel like I'm starting to climb out from beneath it and I hope to get some good writing done over the next couple days. (And let's face it, the money doesn't hurt either.)
I think I've mentioned a couple times that I work in the legal field (which is about as specific as I want to be here). While some days can be fairly average and/or boring, I'll also say that I've heard some crazy things. This past Tuesday was one of those days where I just came home absolutely wiped, but with a pretty outrageous story to tell.
People frequently joke that workers in my profession could write a book about everything that happens. I suppose it would be possible for me to incorporate work stories into my fiction, but I'd really rather not. Firstly, the vast majority of the time, I don't deal in happy matters. Now, obviously not everything I write is all sunshine and roses, but I'd rather choose my own original flavors of drama and angst. Secondly, it's true what they say - truth is stranger than fiction. In case the bolded text up there didn't emphasize it enough: crazy. You can't make this stuff up. Thirdly, though I dabble in it sometimes, I don't write a whole lot of contemporary fiction (she says as she has a contemporary release coming out next week) and I think it would be a stretch to insert a lot of those scenarios into my own worlds.
I'll concede there could be a lighter, fluffier side of the law. I mean, by now there must be stories out there about what really happens in the judge's chambers, or opposing attorneys' eyes meeting across the table after a contentious argument and then the sparks start flying. I could write one of those stories, but for now, I think I'll stick to my cyborgs and spaceships. I like them, and they help me escape the drearier parts of my career.
(All that's left is sitting down and actually writing....)
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Immersion
Ah, here's that promised blog post a week later. Better late than never!
So here's what happened: Almost three weeks ago, I finally sat down to play Mass Effect 3. And it was amazing and addictive and I didn't want to do anything else. I went to work, I fed myself on occasion, I pulled my hair out when some home improvement projects made a giant mess in my house, and I played the game. That's really it.
I actually finished the game last Saturday night (well, I've seen 3 out of 4 endings, and more on that later). Now that I'm done and I don't have to worry about spoilers, I can truly jump into the fandom with both feet. I've been reading trivia, perusing fanfic, looking at artwork...all that stuff you do when you don't want your experience with a story to end. I'm not sure if that really counts as being productive, but I don't mind the little mental break. We all deserve that every now and then, right?
And what a story it was. Yeah, yeah, I knew going in about the controversy over the ending. Truth be told, I was initially disappointed, but after a little time passed, I grew to appreciate some aspects of it. Is it perfect? Wait, scratch that...is it satisfying? Eh. Mileage varies. While I'll never condone some of the behavior that immediately followed the game's release (sending death threats over a video game? really?), I'm also not rolling my eyes at the people who are in the "well, THAT sucked" camp. Amusingly enough, I've done some guest blog posts on this very topic before - how important is a stereotypical happy ending?
Regardless, the game was still fantastic. Since this is supposed to be a writing blog after all, I might as well pontificate a bit about the storytelling aspects. The worldbuilding is rich and complex, and the characters that inhabit said world are varied and compelling. The romantic in me was satisfied with the love story on the side, especially since the relationship I chose seemed so realistic. I both laughed my ass off and cried my eyes out, and it's rare that something can elicit both those reactions. Even if you're not really a fan of games, I highly recommend the series because it's such a vibrant fictional universe.
And yeah, there are fanfics coming out of my keyboard. I've already knocked out a quick one, and I'm collaborating with Boobulon to write a humorous tale about late nights aboard the ship. Don't judge me.
So here's what happened: Almost three weeks ago, I finally sat down to play Mass Effect 3. And it was amazing and addictive and I didn't want to do anything else. I went to work, I fed myself on occasion, I pulled my hair out when some home improvement projects made a giant mess in my house, and I played the game. That's really it.
I actually finished the game last Saturday night (well, I've seen 3 out of 4 endings, and more on that later). Now that I'm done and I don't have to worry about spoilers, I can truly jump into the fandom with both feet. I've been reading trivia, perusing fanfic, looking at artwork...all that stuff you do when you don't want your experience with a story to end. I'm not sure if that really counts as being productive, but I don't mind the little mental break. We all deserve that every now and then, right?
And what a story it was. Yeah, yeah, I knew going in about the controversy over the ending. Truth be told, I was initially disappointed, but after a little time passed, I grew to appreciate some aspects of it. Is it perfect? Wait, scratch that...is it satisfying? Eh. Mileage varies. While I'll never condone some of the behavior that immediately followed the game's release (sending death threats over a video game? really?), I'm also not rolling my eyes at the people who are in the "well, THAT sucked" camp. Amusingly enough, I've done some guest blog posts on this very topic before - how important is a stereotypical happy ending?
Regardless, the game was still fantastic. Since this is supposed to be a writing blog after all, I might as well pontificate a bit about the storytelling aspects. The worldbuilding is rich and complex, and the characters that inhabit said world are varied and compelling. The romantic in me was satisfied with the love story on the side, especially since the relationship I chose seemed so realistic. I both laughed my ass off and cried my eyes out, and it's rare that something can elicit both those reactions. Even if you're not really a fan of games, I highly recommend the series because it's such a vibrant fictional universe.
And yeah, there are fanfics coming out of my keyboard. I've already knocked out a quick one, and I'm collaborating with Boobulon to write a humorous tale about late nights aboard the ship. Don't judge me.
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