(no subject)
Procrastination. Is there a more beautiful word in the English language? (well, maybe paycheck or chocolate.)
Haven't updated in a long time, again, and for the same reason as always. Life is just kind of going along. Work is good, kids are good. Not watching much- I desperately need to get a new series, but we don't subscribe to Netflix.
I did start writing again, but I started writing original. It's coming out shit right now, but I am just trying to pound through and get a first draft. I have a hard time with world building and describing characters, which makes sense because those are things we never focus on in fanfic. I mean, I can say "Adama's study" or "Gryffindor Tower", and everyone knows what they're supposed to look like. More than that, it's trying to casually do exposition without info dumping. But that's why I figure- get the first draft down. Then go back and rewrite and fill in what needs to be filled in. When I know where things are going better, I'll have better ideas of what needs explanation and how to better drop info.
So the basic idea is I'm picking up on a remnants-of-human-society thing, post apocolytic, etc. But instead of focusing on the destruction, I wanted to focus on rebuilding. So there's this whole backstory where Earth was invaded, humans were killed off/enslaved, and then there's this period of 25 years where the aliens ruled. Then eventually another set of aliens came along to invade them, and made a pact with the humans. Help us and we'll help you after. So the humans did, and Alien Race 2 is brutally occupying/killing off Alien Race 1, and kept their promise to the humans and helped them locate a little NC-like world where they could live.
So right now, the humans are sort of torn. There's a Galactic UN type government, that protects (to an extent) its members, and has rules and all that. Alien Race 1 was a part of that though, and the UN didn't exactly pay attention when they enslaved Earth. But humans weren't covered in that UN at the time. There's also an alliance that can be brokered with Alien Race 2, but a lot of people are a little nervous about the "we're okay with genocide" sort of attitude, and it's been pointed out that the humans will have to be able to give Alien Race 2 something at some point- and right now, Alien Race 2 has all the power in this relationship. It looks good now, but it has potential to end very, very badly. The humans are also physically separated- some are on the NC-world, setting up a new human settlement. But it's hard to do that without money, so some are on a world that's owned by the UN, working in a settlement and mining. They're workers, not slaves, and the conditions are fairly good. Then there are also humans living in other places: space stations, back on the worlds where they were slaves, etc. So the story is all about where do they go from here, and how do the humans navigate this new galactic community, and finding their own place.
So one problem I'm having is that I suspect that some of the government stuff might be a little beyond me. I don't know. I figured I'll go ahead and try, and see what comes out of it. I don't want to focus as strongly on the government aspects as some of the moral aspects, and there's definitely an adventure element, as well as murder and blackmail mysteries to start things off. But I'm not sure, and that flows into the next thing...
The other fun problem I'm having is that I've been developing my characters, and sometimes I wonder if their backstories aren't more interesting than the story I'm trying to tell. Am I starting my story too late? I mean, I love characters with fascinating backstories. But maybe some of those backstories are better than this story. I don't know. I figure I'll just keep writing this as best I can, and I'll see what happens.
Summer is almost halfway over, which sort of freaks me out, and it's going by so fast. I'm starting to get annoyed by Facebook, because everyone posts all their fun summer things, and we really haven't done much/aren't doing much. We did our big vacation in February, and I don't have a ton of vacation time left. But we do have a few plans.
We did go to Dorney Park/Wildwater Kingdom with my sister's family, which was a lot of fun. Not my all-time favorite amusement park, but we had a good time. (The park had a lot of great kiddie rides, which were very appreciated by my 4 year old niece, and a lot of roller coasters, but not a lot of in-between rides. No bumper cars, no boats, etc. And you had to be 48" to get on some of the lesser thrill rides, and Trevor is 47.5" in shoes.) So we've done that. Howard was out of town this weekend, so I started planning a fun day. I want to do a "National Treasure" tour of Philly, hitting the spots that you can see in the movie. (Minus the Franklin Institute, because we were just there in April and will be going back to stay the night over the winter. We'll see the Silence Dogood Letters then.) But I started planning it out: go on the Duck Tours, then go to Reading Terminal Market for lunch (YUM). Then back to the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, and there's a historical re-enactment where they train the kids to march in the militia. There's also a Lights of Liberty 3D show there. So do all that, then up to Franklin Square for Philly mini-golf, to ride the Parx carousel, maybe to play on the playground, and to have dinner at SquareBurger. But as I was looking at it, the day sounded TOO fun to do without Howard, so we rescheduled that one. We went to a park with some friends and the kids got to climb on very large rocks and we had a picnic. Hard to beat Very Large Rocks, though :)
I also want to take the kids to NYC over Labor Day. In my ideal little world, I want to do the Empire State Building (Trevor's dying to do that), the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, and I haven't decided what else, but there's so much. Maybe some Central Park stuff, maybe Times Square... I don't know. But I'd really, REALLY love to take them to a show on Broadway. I'd just have to fight it out with Howard. Because he would want to take them to the Lion King, and I want to take them to Les Mis. Normally, I'd say Howard's right. But my kids have been on a major Les Mis kick. (We were coming home from a camping trip VERY late one night and I told them I got to pick the CD, and put in Les Mis, because I sing along and it keeps me awake. And both kids fell in love with it. We have to listen to it every time we're in the car. They've both seen the movie musical and want to see it again. Toby's read the abridged version several times. They are Les Mis obsessed right now.) But at the same time, a Broadway musical is SO expensive... it may not even be a matter to decide :P
But as long as I can get us to NYC, I'm happy.
And of course, today we're going to see the Minions.
And since we're going to the Minions, I'd probably better get some things done. Hope everyone is having a good weekend/summer, and that it's a nice, relaxing day :)
Haven't updated in a long time, again, and for the same reason as always. Life is just kind of going along. Work is good, kids are good. Not watching much- I desperately need to get a new series, but we don't subscribe to Netflix.
I did start writing again, but I started writing original. It's coming out shit right now, but I am just trying to pound through and get a first draft. I have a hard time with world building and describing characters, which makes sense because those are things we never focus on in fanfic. I mean, I can say "Adama's study" or "Gryffindor Tower", and everyone knows what they're supposed to look like. More than that, it's trying to casually do exposition without info dumping. But that's why I figure- get the first draft down. Then go back and rewrite and fill in what needs to be filled in. When I know where things are going better, I'll have better ideas of what needs explanation and how to better drop info.
So the basic idea is I'm picking up on a remnants-of-human-society thing, post apocolytic, etc. But instead of focusing on the destruction, I wanted to focus on rebuilding. So there's this whole backstory where Earth was invaded, humans were killed off/enslaved, and then there's this period of 25 years where the aliens ruled. Then eventually another set of aliens came along to invade them, and made a pact with the humans. Help us and we'll help you after. So the humans did, and Alien Race 2 is brutally occupying/killing off Alien Race 1, and kept their promise to the humans and helped them locate a little NC-like world where they could live.
So right now, the humans are sort of torn. There's a Galactic UN type government, that protects (to an extent) its members, and has rules and all that. Alien Race 1 was a part of that though, and the UN didn't exactly pay attention when they enslaved Earth. But humans weren't covered in that UN at the time. There's also an alliance that can be brokered with Alien Race 2, but a lot of people are a little nervous about the "we're okay with genocide" sort of attitude, and it's been pointed out that the humans will have to be able to give Alien Race 2 something at some point- and right now, Alien Race 2 has all the power in this relationship. It looks good now, but it has potential to end very, very badly. The humans are also physically separated- some are on the NC-world, setting up a new human settlement. But it's hard to do that without money, so some are on a world that's owned by the UN, working in a settlement and mining. They're workers, not slaves, and the conditions are fairly good. Then there are also humans living in other places: space stations, back on the worlds where they were slaves, etc. So the story is all about where do they go from here, and how do the humans navigate this new galactic community, and finding their own place.
So one problem I'm having is that I suspect that some of the government stuff might be a little beyond me. I don't know. I figured I'll go ahead and try, and see what comes out of it. I don't want to focus as strongly on the government aspects as some of the moral aspects, and there's definitely an adventure element, as well as murder and blackmail mysteries to start things off. But I'm not sure, and that flows into the next thing...
The other fun problem I'm having is that I've been developing my characters, and sometimes I wonder if their backstories aren't more interesting than the story I'm trying to tell. Am I starting my story too late? I mean, I love characters with fascinating backstories. But maybe some of those backstories are better than this story. I don't know. I figure I'll just keep writing this as best I can, and I'll see what happens.
Summer is almost halfway over, which sort of freaks me out, and it's going by so fast. I'm starting to get annoyed by Facebook, because everyone posts all their fun summer things, and we really haven't done much/aren't doing much. We did our big vacation in February, and I don't have a ton of vacation time left. But we do have a few plans.
We did go to Dorney Park/Wildwater Kingdom with my sister's family, which was a lot of fun. Not my all-time favorite amusement park, but we had a good time. (The park had a lot of great kiddie rides, which were very appreciated by my 4 year old niece, and a lot of roller coasters, but not a lot of in-between rides. No bumper cars, no boats, etc. And you had to be 48" to get on some of the lesser thrill rides, and Trevor is 47.5" in shoes.) So we've done that. Howard was out of town this weekend, so I started planning a fun day. I want to do a "National Treasure" tour of Philly, hitting the spots that you can see in the movie. (Minus the Franklin Institute, because we were just there in April and will be going back to stay the night over the winter. We'll see the Silence Dogood Letters then.) But I started planning it out: go on the Duck Tours, then go to Reading Terminal Market for lunch (YUM). Then back to the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, and there's a historical re-enactment where they train the kids to march in the militia. There's also a Lights of Liberty 3D show there. So do all that, then up to Franklin Square for Philly mini-golf, to ride the Parx carousel, maybe to play on the playground, and to have dinner at SquareBurger. But as I was looking at it, the day sounded TOO fun to do without Howard, so we rescheduled that one. We went to a park with some friends and the kids got to climb on very large rocks and we had a picnic. Hard to beat Very Large Rocks, though :)
I also want to take the kids to NYC over Labor Day. In my ideal little world, I want to do the Empire State Building (Trevor's dying to do that), the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, and I haven't decided what else, but there's so much. Maybe some Central Park stuff, maybe Times Square... I don't know. But I'd really, REALLY love to take them to a show on Broadway. I'd just have to fight it out with Howard. Because he would want to take them to the Lion King, and I want to take them to Les Mis. Normally, I'd say Howard's right. But my kids have been on a major Les Mis kick. (We were coming home from a camping trip VERY late one night and I told them I got to pick the CD, and put in Les Mis, because I sing along and it keeps me awake. And both kids fell in love with it. We have to listen to it every time we're in the car. They've both seen the movie musical and want to see it again. Toby's read the abridged version several times. They are Les Mis obsessed right now.) But at the same time, a Broadway musical is SO expensive... it may not even be a matter to decide :P
But as long as I can get us to NYC, I'm happy.
And of course, today we're going to see the Minions.
And since we're going to the Minions, I'd probably better get some things done. Hope everyone is having a good weekend/summer, and that it's a nice, relaxing day :)