Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Evaluation: Golden Sky 5

Yes, it is Tuesday, and not Monday. Sorry about that, no real excuse other than "by the time I remembered it was way too late to get started and I needed to sleep". (One day I'll figure out why I apologise to imaginary readers, but today is not that day).

In somewhat better news, progress! I'm pretty sure where everything fits now, all that's left to figure out is whether to fill one particular blank spot or leave it blank. I'm tending towards the latter option, will be what happens if I don't get any good ideas to fill it with this week. Not long till the end, now, I think, but I have a habit of being wrong about that.

I'm thinking of eliminating one aspect of the story that gets almost no mention, but it just might survive to the end and the big "action scene". I'm terrified of writing that, I suck at action, but I need to learn some time, right? (I want to, at any rate).

Other than that, I'm kinda annoyed about Anna's dialogue, it sounds too adult. She's supposed to be 10 (in this particular part) and I have no idea how to write her to be more childlike but still herself, mostly because her character is built around her being unusually smart. So she talks about deep stuff (sort of), and it sounds older than it should. Very tempting to just say "fuck it" and leave it at that. Shitty, but very tempting.

Not much else to say. This week better be productive.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Evaluation: Golden Sky 4

Blergh. Two straight weeks without an update, and I only really have an excuse for the first one. The second one was mostly "Yay, no more studying, let's do something fun!" which got me to basically gaming at all my free times. Even this past weeks I've been doing mostly that, though I managed to pull off a few things.

So, developments, wrote very little, but solved the biggest problem with the plot so far. In two stories, no less, one of 'em being Golden Sky and the other my work-in-progress novel, provisionally titled Project Tapir (not really, but I'll refer to it as such until I find a better title than the one it has right now). Technically evaluations are supposed to be about Psychflares that arebeing written, but hey, it's writing, so I'll babble about that for a minute. 

So, Project Tapir is a fantasy novel I began plotting, um, two years ago or so. It has undergone several bajillion changes, to the point it has basically nothing to do with the original except the genre. To give an example: One of my characters, Sophia, began as the protagonist of the first major incarnation (meaning when I began writing it as opposed to just thinking about it). By the time I said "Well, this sucks" and restarted, she was one of many viewpoint characters. Third start, the one I'm currently at, she no longer appears in the story. The plot is also ridiculously different, it began as epic struggle to save the world, now it's political intrigue and separatism. The only reason it qualifies as a single book as opposed to two or three different ones is that the changes are gradual, so I began by adding a few characters, changing a few aspects of the world, diminishing some roles, phasing out annoying details, and before you know it your protagonist is demoted to extra and might not even exist.

Though I believe it has greatly improved. Take Mielen, for example, a relatively early arrival that has had a few ups and downs in relevance. When she first appeared, she was basically a physical goddess, in terms of power at least. Over time, I de-Mary Sue'd her (it was difficult, I'd grown quite attached to her overpoweredness), and now she's still powerful and probably needs further nerfing, but no longer has the whole "THE GODS THEMSELVES COWER BEFORE MY MIGHT!" thing going on. She's also no longer part dragon (seriously, my shittiness as a writer never ceases to amaze me). The backstory for the universe no longer requires mysteriously ancient people with lost magicks, elven and dragon societies make a lot more sense and have a few original twists, the plot is actually tolerable and somewhat original, etc. And, today, I even solved one of the bigger holes left in the plot by the latest rewrite. I'm not sure how long it'll take me to finish it, and how long after that to deshittify it. But hey, progress.

So, as for that other thing I'm writing and that is in the title of this post... well, not much to say, really. Just, figured out something that was annoying me, if I get more focused this next week I'll be able to make some serious progress. If not, then, fuck me.