Sooooo, I changed my layout again. I know, I know. I just cannot make a commitment. What can I say? This journal just isn't as...as... official as my real one, and I like all the different possibilities. This time around, I didn't use a layout from the site options, I used a custom CSS one based off of "Smooth Sailing" by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
yamisama and fiddled a bit. She did not want people to do such a thing, and I feel guilty about it. But this is the first time I've felt excited about how neat my layout looks, and I seriously doubt she is ever going to discover this journal, which sits in the middle of nowhere and is about a subject nobody cares about. If she does, I will remove the layout immediately and hope that no horrible fight ensues...
Moving on, I think it's time that I do a general update.
He's There
Well, despite there being a gap in my performance recently, I have no reason to believe that HT is doing poorly. First, let's just take a step back and remember that it's somewhere approaching 140pgs, a length I have never reached before. Furthermore, I have at least some understanding of what has developed thus far and know to be about a third done with it. My main problem is simply knowing how to execute and having the skill to do right the exact things that I know must happen. It is the usual picture in my head that my damn earthly human body and brain cannot translate.
I have about a month and a half left of time to work on this before I must put it down for other projects. (And I really will. I know that last time I didn't stop because it was going so well, but this time, I have to be a little more fair.) It has been nearly a month of not working on it since chapter 22 had its hands around my neck, so yes it worries me that the walls are closing in already it seems, but being nearly free tonight, and the four nights after that besides studying for an Anthropology test, I have time to finally put to paper (or rather microsoft word), but I've had time to think about since the sudden halt. My hope is that when December 1st hits, HT will be left at a place that I can easily pick up again; before something interesting which I can handle happens, after a tie-up that readers and myself are satisfied to be hanging with for at least the following three months.
As for the actual story, I probably will (knowing myself, let's just be honest here), wing it the remaining of time. I can plan it whenever I choose, adding to the skeleton which I already have documented, and use it when I come back and no doubt hit the core of the story. I really do wish that my brain could handle such large projects all at once. To think the core is in the future instead of an aspiration this fall makes me upset, but we'll see what happens. I may have a writing spurt. I may suddenly know everything like God transmitted signals to me while I was sleeping. No passion denigrated for HT despite my struggles. The struggles are in fact because I have such grandeur I imagine in characters such as the Phantom and can't settle for less. I'm gonna stop blabbering now. I think most that read this journal (very few! Sara. XD) know all about how this story has been going along and my problems.
Wooden Light
WL is to be started December 1st, although not technically started. The schedule will be, with no time frames;
1. Redesign the remaining plot.
This does not mean start from scratch. I still have a lot of plot points, most which will happen. I just realized that they were a little too broad, and were all physical events. They did not show branches of development, nor were they grouped together in stages. The HT plot for instance only had a skeleton, but it had headers for larger shifts, and bullet points for 5-10 things that would solidify that change. It had plot points, yes, in between and in a few paragraphs below headers. But the WL plotline has just been 120 or so numbered happenings, which left a lot to the imagination, and I had to remember exactly where each individual character was in terms of their relationship. Also, I think it would help, since this is to be such a complex story, if I wrote a chain of development for each character matching to all the others.
2. Brush up on Surviving Schizophrenia.
I have not read it in forever and it would help me recollect some understanding of how to portray Dorian. I still need to do more research on it as well, but as I've said, I'm learning to sort of accept that the first draft won't be perfect, and none of the real problems with it will start until about 2/3 in, which is a while from now.
3. Stop being a baby and get up the godamn site.
I'm almost sure that if I just stayed persistent, I could draw what I need to draw for the layout. I just have to. I need a picture and it has to be good. It may go over a hundred revisions, but somehow I will make his face work, and I will make the bodies work, and it will not be cartoony. The layout will be fantastic, and telling, and I will force all my friends to go there.
Oh... and yeah, writing the actual story would also be on my list. I hope that I can get to that in the third or last week of December. But I really am excited about it. I miss being able to write for Dorry, because then there are more things he "officially" does that I can remember. It's ability to characterize him as I see him, and for him to develop and become a strong presence. This counts for all the other characters too, which I only grow more interest in. But when I say strong presence, I mean when someone really is just themselves and you don't quite see them as your character anymore, even though you know that they are. Akira and Cosmo for example, have had so many projects they were involved in, from the original thing still in development, to the comic where I let loose, to the first movie where I also let loose, and to CP3 where I'm having some of the funnest times writing ever. Akira really is just my distant, tired, borderline alcoholic husband, and Cosmo really is my cousin-in-law, ya know?
Comedy, I've learned, helps me feel out a character more because I'm not trying so hard. Actually, (embarrassing reveal ahead:) Kate and I have slightly once considered a few weeks ago to do a Wooden Light sort of...fanfic. I told her how comedy helps me, and she said it would kind of... be sorta fun and stuff... So... I don't know what we're doing exactly yet. I know that she and I will be moving into Spiraling Summit and Kate will have her eyes on Kurt, but since it's been so little talked about, I'm trying not to expect it will happen much, and if it does, that's just icing on the cake.
Either way, I can make the personas bloom on my own, in my own writing, and I'm happy that I can come back to a story that captured so much of me a couple years ago. I will work for it until the end of Winter (March 1st), I hope, and we'll see where I am then.
Crystal Palace
Still working on representative site. I might mess around with the layout a little more tonight.
S.S. Flavion
Won't be able to work out after all. With big stuff taking up the next 3 seasons/year, it's too much of a sacrifice considering all of the development I have to do on it before I even write it. It sucks, but that's just how it is...
I have decided that since a while remains before this is back in business, I should do chapter 8 whenever I'm inspired so I can post that plus the other hidden parts that I wrote in summer but couldn't post thanks to the gap. That would be 30 new pages to hold me (and someone else?) over for now. ....Good?
CP3: Crystallina & HEC
Going pretty smoothly. This will underly all schedules, since no real planning is needed for it and we can write a 10-15 page part in one sitting. Kate's inspiration inconsistency is actually kind of convenient for me because our spacing makes work on this story like it's not taking up any space at all. There will be no canceling on this, only gaps of "both of us not ready to do it at the same time", until it is finished. And it's quite marvelous so far.
Wow, it feels so weird just plainly having something really good to say about a story. XD
yamisama and fiddled a bit. She did not want people to do such a thing, and I feel guilty about it. But this is the first time I've felt excited about how neat my layout looks, and I seriously doubt she is ever going to discover this journal, which sits in the middle of nowhere and is about a subject nobody cares about. If she does, I will remove the layout immediately and hope that no horrible fight ensues... Moving on, I think it's time that I do a general update.
He's There
Well, despite there being a gap in my performance recently, I have no reason to believe that HT is doing poorly. First, let's just take a step back and remember that it's somewhere approaching 140pgs, a length I have never reached before. Furthermore, I have at least some understanding of what has developed thus far and know to be about a third done with it. My main problem is simply knowing how to execute and having the skill to do right the exact things that I know must happen. It is the usual picture in my head that my damn earthly human body and brain cannot translate.
I have about a month and a half left of time to work on this before I must put it down for other projects. (And I really will. I know that last time I didn't stop because it was going so well, but this time, I have to be a little more fair.) It has been nearly a month of not working on it since chapter 22 had its hands around my neck, so yes it worries me that the walls are closing in already it seems, but being nearly free tonight, and the four nights after that besides studying for an Anthropology test, I have time to finally put to paper (or rather microsoft word), but I've had time to think about since the sudden halt. My hope is that when December 1st hits, HT will be left at a place that I can easily pick up again; before something interesting which I can handle happens, after a tie-up that readers and myself are satisfied to be hanging with for at least the following three months.
As for the actual story, I probably will (knowing myself, let's just be honest here), wing it the remaining of time. I can plan it whenever I choose, adding to the skeleton which I already have documented, and use it when I come back and no doubt hit the core of the story. I really do wish that my brain could handle such large projects all at once. To think the core is in the future instead of an aspiration this fall makes me upset, but we'll see what happens. I may have a writing spurt. I may suddenly know everything like God transmitted signals to me while I was sleeping. No passion denigrated for HT despite my struggles. The struggles are in fact because I have such grandeur I imagine in characters such as the Phantom and can't settle for less. I'm gonna stop blabbering now. I think most that read this journal (very few! Sara. XD) know all about how this story has been going along and my problems.
Wooden Light
WL is to be started December 1st, although not technically started. The schedule will be, with no time frames;
1. Redesign the remaining plot.
This does not mean start from scratch. I still have a lot of plot points, most which will happen. I just realized that they were a little too broad, and were all physical events. They did not show branches of development, nor were they grouped together in stages. The HT plot for instance only had a skeleton, but it had headers for larger shifts, and bullet points for 5-10 things that would solidify that change. It had plot points, yes, in between and in a few paragraphs below headers. But the WL plotline has just been 120 or so numbered happenings, which left a lot to the imagination, and I had to remember exactly where each individual character was in terms of their relationship. Also, I think it would help, since this is to be such a complex story, if I wrote a chain of development for each character matching to all the others.
2. Brush up on Surviving Schizophrenia.
I have not read it in forever and it would help me recollect some understanding of how to portray Dorian. I still need to do more research on it as well, but as I've said, I'm learning to sort of accept that the first draft won't be perfect, and none of the real problems with it will start until about 2/3 in, which is a while from now.
3. Stop being a baby and get up the godamn site.
I'm almost sure that if I just stayed persistent, I could draw what I need to draw for the layout. I just have to. I need a picture and it has to be good. It may go over a hundred revisions, but somehow I will make his face work, and I will make the bodies work, and it will not be cartoony. The layout will be fantastic, and telling, and I will force all my friends to go there.
Oh... and yeah, writing the actual story would also be on my list. I hope that I can get to that in the third or last week of December. But I really am excited about it. I miss being able to write for Dorry, because then there are more things he "officially" does that I can remember. It's ability to characterize him as I see him, and for him to develop and become a strong presence. This counts for all the other characters too, which I only grow more interest in. But when I say strong presence, I mean when someone really is just themselves and you don't quite see them as your character anymore, even though you know that they are. Akira and Cosmo for example, have had so many projects they were involved in, from the original thing still in development, to the comic where I let loose, to the first movie where I also let loose, and to CP3 where I'm having some of the funnest times writing ever. Akira really is just my distant, tired, borderline alcoholic husband, and Cosmo really is my cousin-in-law, ya know?
Comedy, I've learned, helps me feel out a character more because I'm not trying so hard. Actually, (embarrassing reveal ahead:) Kate and I have slightly once considered a few weeks ago to do a Wooden Light sort of...fanfic. I told her how comedy helps me, and she said it would kind of... be sorta fun and stuff... So... I don't know what we're doing exactly yet. I know that she and I will be moving into Spiraling Summit and Kate will have her eyes on Kurt, but since it's been so little talked about, I'm trying not to expect it will happen much, and if it does, that's just icing on the cake.
Either way, I can make the personas bloom on my own, in my own writing, and I'm happy that I can come back to a story that captured so much of me a couple years ago. I will work for it until the end of Winter (March 1st), I hope, and we'll see where I am then.
Crystal Palace
Still working on representative site. I might mess around with the layout a little more tonight.
S.S. Flavion
Won't be able to work out after all. With big stuff taking up the next 3 seasons/year, it's too much of a sacrifice considering all of the development I have to do on it before I even write it. It sucks, but that's just how it is...
Huggle the Puppet
When I'm not forgetting it, I'm realizing how much of a clever and adorable idea this is. My guilt kills me, as usual. I think about what it could have been and envy my high school days when I worked on it whenever I was bored in class. So many ideas were never illustrated, and not even one-page ideas. The Beginning, for example; the cute umbrella scene and Billy situating in his new home: never finished. Billy wanting to be a surgeon and the neighborhood cats, him disappearing, hiding in the couch cushions, the secret club in my guestroom closet... It's like the perfect little creative outlet that could so easily be done and done satisfactorily because there's nothing to get frustrated about: the comic is what it is, aspires to nothing, and it's all for living in the moment.
There are also some things about comic-making that I would like to try and sometimes pictured without getting the chance. Like doing it on the computer, adding more color, possibly not doing it in boxes so there are more angles and detail. Eee...just thinking about it is making me excited.
That's why I've decided to tack it to the bottom of Winter. With WL being SAW related as well, I figured I would be happily in that mindset and bounce between Dorian and Billy just fine. Both my little babies... :3
I have decided that since a while remains before this is back in business, I should do chapter 8 whenever I'm inspired so I can post that plus the other hidden parts that I wrote in summer but couldn't post thanks to the gap. That would be 30 new pages to hold me (and someone else?) over for now. ....Good?
CP3: Crystallina & HEC
Going pretty smoothly. This will underly all schedules, since no real planning is needed for it and we can write a 10-15 page part in one sitting. Kate's inspiration inconsistency is actually kind of convenient for me because our spacing makes work on this story like it's not taking up any space at all. There will be no canceling on this, only gaps of "both of us not ready to do it at the same time", until it is finished. And it's quite marvelous so far.
Wow, it feels so weird just plainly having something really good to say about a story. XD
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