Carpal Tunnel
So, I have carpal tunnel due to a terrible workplace. As such, I haven't updated this in a while, despite the fact that I have tons of free time now. I love writing, believe me, more than I have in a while, but it has become so difficult to sit at a computer and writing that I can't do it for more than a few minutes at a time.
The most I can do right now is share the ideas I've been having for stories and an epiphany I had recently.
Epiphany:
I was watching Farscape recently, and at the end of the episode Dargo and Zhaan were discussing life paths. Dargo said that when he was young, he dreamed of two very different lives, that of a warrior, and that of a farmer. Zhaan said she'd thought of thousands. In response to this, I started jotting down a list of all the things I can remember wanting to be. Farmer, healer, singer, writer, artist, teacher, therapist, historian, librarian, explorer, scientist, homemaker, anthropologist, self-sufficient, paleontologist, astronaut, programmer. I crossed out the last three because I have either missed the boat on them or am now physically incapable of the actions required. But after writing all of these out, I realized none of them (save the last three) are mutually exclusive. I can be all of these things if I allow myself enough free time to execute them, and that free time is dependent on what I choose as my main occupation. Thus, writer. Thus, I am more desperate than ever to get this carpal tunnel business cleared up, because I have ideas and I am itching to write.
Story ideas:
So when I was a teenager and even younger, I was writing a long story called The Aleis Chronicles. I know, kind of a stupid title. Regardless, I was very excited about it and worked on character development and plotlines and all the business of writing. It was kind of how I learned how to write on my own. I wrote a lot of that story, then revised it to sound more professional, more like the authors I was reading at the time (Mercedes Lackey, Tamora Pierce, Piers Anthony, etc.). In time I realized that all I was doing was revising and no longer writing it, and I also realized it was too formulaic, too much like a television show. So I discarded the idea but kept all the relevant materials for personal posterity. During my most recent move (within California) I found the old folder filled with all my notes and even a manuscript of the Aleis story. And I decided to revisit them. As a whole, the problem with the story arose when I started to expand too far out and make it both fantasy and sci-fi. It would be a much tighter story with only fantasy as a setting, removing space from the equation. I also realized there were more tropes in this one manuscript than most sitcoms. So the next step is to rework it without the following:
After discussing the elements of the Tech/Magic storyline (you'd recognize it as the one featuring Esme on my LJ here) with my current partner, I came up with several overall storyline ploys to continue to make it interesting. A few ideas:
I'd like to continue work on the robot porn short stories. I've been reading some classic erotica (thanks to PaperBackSwap I now have two volumes of Anais Nin) and getting a better feeling for that style of writing. These may be what I can work on with the most easy, as they are short, and I can feel a sense of accomplishment quickly.
I'd also like to start on an "ideal life" kind of story. Haven't decided on a plotline, but expect a setting similar to The Postman. Post-societal collapse, post-peak oil, when roads are overgrown and people live on subsistence farming and historical skills. I admit, this is kind of a dreamstate piece, something that I wish would happen without the suffering and awful side effects. I'm hoping to get a few post-apocalyptic novels through PBS to get a feel for what I should do.
A good friend recently suggested a story with zombiism as a segregated disease similar to how AIDS was ignored because most of the people who were getting it were gay. I don't know if that fact about AIDS is actually true, but basically it would be your typical zombie story until people of a certain class, race, sect, wtfever caught it, in which case they would start trying to solve the problem rather than just shooting the zombies in the head. This also came up at about 4 am after watching Undead, an offbeat, low-budget zombie/alien movie from Australia, so take it with a grain of salt. It's just something I'm thinking about.
Finally, I had a dream recently about a post-apocalyptic story about one or more people on a sailboat similar to what my partner has. I'd like to write that, but not after doing more research and getting a few more stories under my belt.
You might be wondering why I'm so keen on post-apocalyptic writing. I just finished Endgame by Derrick Jensen, which you can kind of get a feel for here. Enjoy.
Regardless, hope you are all enjoying your individual lives. Let me know what you think, or what's going on with you. I'll try to respond when I can. Now off to relax my wrists.
The most I can do right now is share the ideas I've been having for stories and an epiphany I had recently.
Epiphany:
I was watching Farscape recently, and at the end of the episode Dargo and Zhaan were discussing life paths. Dargo said that when he was young, he dreamed of two very different lives, that of a warrior, and that of a farmer. Zhaan said she'd thought of thousands. In response to this, I started jotting down a list of all the things I can remember wanting to be. Farmer, healer, singer, writer, artist, teacher, therapist, historian, librarian, explorer, scientist, homemaker, anthropologist, self-sufficient, paleontologist, astronaut, programmer. I crossed out the last three because I have either missed the boat on them or am now physically incapable of the actions required. But after writing all of these out, I realized none of them (save the last three) are mutually exclusive. I can be all of these things if I allow myself enough free time to execute them, and that free time is dependent on what I choose as my main occupation. Thus, writer. Thus, I am more desperate than ever to get this carpal tunnel business cleared up, because I have ideas and I am itching to write.
Story ideas:
So when I was a teenager and even younger, I was writing a long story called The Aleis Chronicles. I know, kind of a stupid title. Regardless, I was very excited about it and worked on character development and plotlines and all the business of writing. It was kind of how I learned how to write on my own. I wrote a lot of that story, then revised it to sound more professional, more like the authors I was reading at the time (Mercedes Lackey, Tamora Pierce, Piers Anthony, etc.). In time I realized that all I was doing was revising and no longer writing it, and I also realized it was too formulaic, too much like a television show. So I discarded the idea but kept all the relevant materials for personal posterity. During my most recent move (within California) I found the old folder filled with all my notes and even a manuscript of the Aleis story. And I decided to revisit them. As a whole, the problem with the story arose when I started to expand too far out and make it both fantasy and sci-fi. It would be a much tighter story with only fantasy as a setting, removing space from the equation. I also realized there were more tropes in this one manuscript than most sitcoms. So the next step is to rework it without the following:
- NO:
- talking swords
- rotating costume changing pendants
- evil for the sake of evil
- melodramatic convoluted bullshit romances
- "sending" (cribbed so heavily from ElfQuest it's not even funny)
- victimizing the female main character
After discussing the elements of the Tech/Magic storyline (you'd recognize it as the one featuring Esme on my LJ here) with my current partner, I came up with several overall storyline ploys to continue to make it interesting. A few ideas:
- Their war is endless
- There are no main characters, developments are told from different perspectives each time.
- There is a large rotating cast of main characters
- Story is not told linearly, but through multiple flashbacks/forwards
- The main female character (Esme) and her male counterpart on the Tech side run away from the war together
- They already have partners
- The partners won't come with them
- They aren't in love, just have mutual respect for one another
I'd like to continue work on the robot porn short stories. I've been reading some classic erotica (thanks to PaperBackSwap I now have two volumes of Anais Nin) and getting a better feeling for that style of writing. These may be what I can work on with the most easy, as they are short, and I can feel a sense of accomplishment quickly.
I'd also like to start on an "ideal life" kind of story. Haven't decided on a plotline, but expect a setting similar to The Postman. Post-societal collapse, post-peak oil, when roads are overgrown and people live on subsistence farming and historical skills. I admit, this is kind of a dreamstate piece, something that I wish would happen without the suffering and awful side effects. I'm hoping to get a few post-apocalyptic novels through PBS to get a feel for what I should do.
A good friend recently suggested a story with zombiism as a segregated disease similar to how AIDS was ignored because most of the people who were getting it were gay. I don't know if that fact about AIDS is actually true, but basically it would be your typical zombie story until people of a certain class, race, sect, wtfever caught it, in which case they would start trying to solve the problem rather than just shooting the zombies in the head. This also came up at about 4 am after watching Undead, an offbeat, low-budget zombie/alien movie from Australia, so take it with a grain of salt. It's just something I'm thinking about.
Finally, I had a dream recently about a post-apocalyptic story about one or more people on a sailboat similar to what my partner has. I'd like to write that, but not after doing more research and getting a few more stories under my belt.
You might be wondering why I'm so keen on post-apocalyptic writing. I just finished Endgame by Derrick Jensen, which you can kind of get a feel for here. Enjoy.
Regardless, hope you are all enjoying your individual lives. Let me know what you think, or what's going on with you. I'll try to respond when I can. Now off to relax my wrists.