Common Cause Rewrite 2.0 - Days 6-9, (August 11 & August 13-15, 2019):
The writing continues apace - albeit a slow pace (at least until today), but still, slow progress is still progress. Word counts are, thus far:
A lot of those words aren’t narrative, but are instead notes to myself for the next time I get the chance to sit down and write for a length of time. I’m still working hard on the first and third scenes for Chapter Zero. Currently, I’m focusing more on the first scene, since that’s the antagonist’s scene and he’s the character I’m having the hardest time writing because, while he is a canon character, he didn’t get much screen time in the comics (not to mention, I haven’t read those comics). So, I’m doing a lot of heavy lifting on him.
But I’ve hit on some stuff that I think works well for a motivation so I’m looking forward to making some real progress. Onward!
Addendum 8/15/19 @ 1722: Yes, this addendum is in the right spot - I have the first scene of Chapter Zero written! It’s not perfect, but it’s something I can build from. In addition, I’ve started on scene three, which features the Combaticons and should, hopefully, be much easier to write.
The fact that a lot of what I’ve written has been notes rather than narrative means that my word counts are kinda/sorta meaningless at this point. Toward that end, I’ve altered the spreadsheet I’ve been using to track my writing to reflect the fact that I’m not so much writing the story this month as I am rewriting/refining the story.
Now, back to writing about Blast Off freaking out from North Atlantic hurricane induced claustrophobia.
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Addendum 8/15/19 @ 1623: I just spent the better part of I don’t know how long exactly but probably over half an hour trying to figure out a rough idea of average Transformer heights in order to come up with a way to wrap my head around Cybertronian units of measurement (in this case, length). I ended up creating a spreadsheet and coming up with the realization that, at least in *my* fic ‘verse, the equivalent of a Cybertronian “foot” is approximately the same as a human yard or meter.
This is all because I want to make sure that I get an off-handed reference to where the Decepticon Undersea base is located right - for a definition of right that means “my numbers-addled brain will let me stop obsessing over this stupid detail and move on already!
# # # # #
Addendum: 8/15/19 @ 1704: Second verse, similar but not exactly identical to the first - just figured out the more or less, close enough for government work location of the Decepticon Undersea base, then used a longitude/latitude converter to figure out the distance between it and the location of the Combaticons’ attack. Again, this is a whole lot of work for a relatively minor detail but figuring it out makes it easier for me to continue on with the writing.
Heck, yesterday, I changed the name of a location and suddenly, the thing that had been blocking me was gone and I could continue on. It’s weird and annoying and sometimes, it’s just downright cool.
# # # # #
Personal Aside: It’s things like this that are helping to convince me that I have OCD - not internet OCD (“Oh, haha, I’m so OCD, it bugs me that it’s not written as CDO! LOL!”) but actual OCD. I saw an article or a post on Facebook or something that talked about how OCD is actually an expression of anxiety and started doing some research on it and oh holy crap, does a lot of what I’ve seen sound like me. I’m not going to go into detail here but apparently, one of my compulsions is needing to have relatively insignificant things right or at least straight in my mind before I can continue writing. There are other things that aren’t relevant to this but I’ll talk about those on another occasion.
I’m looking into getting an official diagnosis as well, because I’m kinda tired of living with this untreated.
This entry was originally posted at https://dunmurderin.dreamwidth.org/206859.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
- Day 6 (August 11): 134 words
- Day 7 (August 13): 348 words
- Day 8 (August 14): 146 words
- Day 9 (August 15): 1,576 words
A lot of those words aren’t narrative, but are instead notes to myself for the next time I get the chance to sit down and write for a length of time. I’m still working hard on the first and third scenes for Chapter Zero. Currently, I’m focusing more on the first scene, since that’s the antagonist’s scene and he’s the character I’m having the hardest time writing because, while he is a canon character, he didn’t get much screen time in the comics (not to mention, I haven’t read those comics). So, I’m doing a lot of heavy lifting on him.
But I’ve hit on some stuff that I think works well for a motivation so I’m looking forward to making some real progress. Onward!
Addendum 8/15/19 @ 1722: Yes, this addendum is in the right spot - I have the first scene of Chapter Zero written! It’s not perfect, but it’s something I can build from. In addition, I’ve started on scene three, which features the Combaticons and should, hopefully, be much easier to write.
The fact that a lot of what I’ve written has been notes rather than narrative means that my word counts are kinda/sorta meaningless at this point. Toward that end, I’ve altered the spreadsheet I’ve been using to track my writing to reflect the fact that I’m not so much writing the story this month as I am rewriting/refining the story.
Now, back to writing about Blast Off freaking out from North Atlantic hurricane induced claustrophobia.
# # # # #
Addendum 8/15/19 @ 1623: I just spent the better part of I don’t know how long exactly but probably over half an hour trying to figure out a rough idea of average Transformer heights in order to come up with a way to wrap my head around Cybertronian units of measurement (in this case, length). I ended up creating a spreadsheet and coming up with the realization that, at least in *my* fic ‘verse, the equivalent of a Cybertronian “foot” is approximately the same as a human yard or meter.
This is all because I want to make sure that I get an off-handed reference to where the Decepticon Undersea base is located right - for a definition of right that means “my numbers-addled brain will let me stop obsessing over this stupid detail and move on already!
# # # # #
Addendum: 8/15/19 @ 1704: Second verse, similar but not exactly identical to the first - just figured out the more or less, close enough for government work location of the Decepticon Undersea base, then used a longitude/latitude converter to figure out the distance between it and the location of the Combaticons’ attack. Again, this is a whole lot of work for a relatively minor detail but figuring it out makes it easier for me to continue on with the writing.
Heck, yesterday, I changed the name of a location and suddenly, the thing that had been blocking me was gone and I could continue on. It’s weird and annoying and sometimes, it’s just downright cool.
# # # # #
Personal Aside: It’s things like this that are helping to convince me that I have OCD - not internet OCD (“Oh, haha, I’m so OCD, it bugs me that it’s not written as CDO! LOL!”) but actual OCD. I saw an article or a post on Facebook or something that talked about how OCD is actually an expression of anxiety and started doing some research on it and oh holy crap, does a lot of what I’ve seen sound like me. I’m not going to go into detail here but apparently, one of my compulsions is needing to have relatively insignificant things right or at least straight in my mind before I can continue writing. There are other things that aren’t relevant to this but I’ll talk about those on another occasion.
I’m looking into getting an official diagnosis as well, because I’m kinda tired of living with this untreated.
This entry was originally posted at https://dunmurderin.dreamwidth.org/206859.html. Please comment there using OpenID.