Larp burnout; editing progress; writing challenging scenes
Everyone's talking about the prep they're doing for Intercon.
I have done almost no prep for Intercon.
To be perfectly honest, I just can't get excited about it this year. It's not that there's anything wrong with the games I'm playing in, either. I just think of the time I would spend sewing and think, "I would rather spend that time writing/editing."
I've almost finished a mockup for a really cool-looking mantle for Cirque du Fey, but I've just been struck with a total disinterest in following through. It's been stuffed away in the box I stored it in when I had Mel/Will/Chris/Stacy over for boardgames. Three weeks ago.
I have nothing for Mayfair.
I can probably cobble something together for Wreckers.
And I just don't... care?
Additionally, I haven't written my TBC PEL for the game that happened two weekends ago. I probably won't. I'm honestly not sure I care enough to continue with the game.
I'm just not sure I want to larp any more? Admittedly, winter is hitting me pretty hard this year in terms of depression, so it could just be that...
I am at least looking forward to Shadows of Amun starting up again in the spring. So there's that.
--
On the writing side of things, I finished editing chapter 20 of Gods and Fathers last night. That puts me two-thirds of the way through the editing process, by numbers.
That said, there are some big fixes still ahead of me. There's a scene I want to add at the end, as part of my "give this novel more of a denouement" project. (I also want to give Serevic one last POV). I know roughly what I want to write, but it remains to draft it. I should probably do that before I get there in the editing process, so it can be line-edited along with the rest.
There's also the scene where Mirasa makes the bargain with Ruksha. It needs to be more intense. There is a hint of a sexual dynamic there; it needs to be brought out more. It needs to make me uncomfortable. I was playing it too safe when I wrote it, and my reader, Doug, was clever enough to point it out.
This is something only my most recent fiction suffers from--when I look back at Mode, for all its flaws, I see that I wrote some quite challenging scenes.
The risk with challenging scenes is that someone will hate them. But that probably is where you want to go; being "meh" is the death of fiction. I was in the critique group for a story at VP that made me uncomfortable in this way, and the criticism Bear had for it was that "I knew when I was getting reactions like this that I was close to being published" (as opposed to the "there's nothing wrong with this piece, but I'm not going to publish it," reaction she had been getting).
Not coincidentally, that was basically Bear's reaction to what she read of G&F--"there's nothing wrong with this, but it didn't grab me." (Admittedly, she only got the first chapter).
But you know what? That story I critiqued stuck in my head, far more than any other from that weekend.
Fiction should be polarizing, inciting. It should make you feel ways about things. Even if that way is sometimes "uncomfortable" or "ill at ease."
I have done almost no prep for Intercon.
To be perfectly honest, I just can't get excited about it this year. It's not that there's anything wrong with the games I'm playing in, either. I just think of the time I would spend sewing and think, "I would rather spend that time writing/editing."
I've almost finished a mockup for a really cool-looking mantle for Cirque du Fey, but I've just been struck with a total disinterest in following through. It's been stuffed away in the box I stored it in when I had Mel/Will/Chris/Stacy over for boardgames. Three weeks ago.
I have nothing for Mayfair.
I can probably cobble something together for Wreckers.
And I just don't... care?
Additionally, I haven't written my TBC PEL for the game that happened two weekends ago. I probably won't. I'm honestly not sure I care enough to continue with the game.
I'm just not sure I want to larp any more? Admittedly, winter is hitting me pretty hard this year in terms of depression, so it could just be that...
I am at least looking forward to Shadows of Amun starting up again in the spring. So there's that.
--
On the writing side of things, I finished editing chapter 20 of Gods and Fathers last night. That puts me two-thirds of the way through the editing process, by numbers.
That said, there are some big fixes still ahead of me. There's a scene I want to add at the end, as part of my "give this novel more of a denouement" project. (I also want to give Serevic one last POV). I know roughly what I want to write, but it remains to draft it. I should probably do that before I get there in the editing process, so it can be line-edited along with the rest.
There's also the scene where Mirasa makes the bargain with Ruksha. It needs to be more intense. There is a hint of a sexual dynamic there; it needs to be brought out more. It needs to make me uncomfortable. I was playing it too safe when I wrote it, and my reader, Doug, was clever enough to point it out.
This is something only my most recent fiction suffers from--when I look back at Mode, for all its flaws, I see that I wrote some quite challenging scenes.
The risk with challenging scenes is that someone will hate them. But that probably is where you want to go; being "meh" is the death of fiction. I was in the critique group for a story at VP that made me uncomfortable in this way, and the criticism Bear had for it was that "I knew when I was getting reactions like this that I was close to being published" (as opposed to the "there's nothing wrong with this piece, but I'm not going to publish it," reaction she had been getting).
Not coincidentally, that was basically Bear's reaction to what she read of G&F--"there's nothing wrong with this, but it didn't grab me." (Admittedly, she only got the first chapter).
But you know what? That story I critiqued stuck in my head, far more than any other from that weekend.
Fiction should be polarizing, inciting. It should make you feel ways about things. Even if that way is sometimes "uncomfortable" or "ill at ease."