This past Saturday I received an unexpected Facebook message from DarkAngel1326! Man, I miss talking to her. Stupid college courses keeping her busy...
*ahem*
My point - aside from the awesomeness of talking to her again - was that she sent me a link that seemed PERFECT for what I was trying to accomplish this week. Namely, improve on my over-elaboration when I write, as well as my surprising fondness of adverbs.
Lolly, Lolly, Lolly was always one of my favorites...
So, what was this awesome website DA1326 sent me? Well, she introduced me to Hemingway Editor.
Out of curiosity, I dumped last week's blog post in to Hemingway in order to see what my normal journaling is like.
My blog post should be readable in less than six minutes.
It is written at a ninth grade reading level; a bit more advanced than my usual aim of the journalism norm of 7th grade.
Out of the 70 sentences that had made up my blog post, 16 were hard to read and another 19 were very hard.
I could have used simpler phrases 16 times.
I had three cases of passive voice; mostly when I was talking about critiques of my writing.
Here's the big one. I had 21 adverbs. TWENTY. ONE.
Now to clarify a few things. This is what Hemingway means when it says "hard" or "very hard" to read sentences:
Hard-to-read sentences: "long, complex sentences and common errors; shorten or split it."
Very-Hard-to-Read: "your sentence is so dense and complicated that your readers will get lost trying to follow its meandering, splitting logic — try editing this sentence"
The funny thing is, most of my "long, complex" sentences are just ones with two or three phrases combined via commas or semi-colons. For instance, this was one of the "hard" sentences: "Normally I'd just shrug it off because this is a smaller computer; I shouldn't expect it to be able to do too much."
Even better are the "dense and complicated" sentences. For example: "Well, that's frustrating."
Seriously? That sentence was dense, complicated, or had meandering and splitting logic!? Go home, Hemingway, you're drunk.
I think I just realized why they named the website that!
Honestly, I ignore the sentence difficulty notifications on Hemingway, but it's still cool to see what boosts your readability grade-level. Same more-or-less goes with the phrases with simpler options. Things like "use" instead of "utilize".
So, the stats I really zero-in on are the adverbs and passive voice.
Let me tell you, when I focused on the adverbs and saw twenty-one, I freaked out. How could I have never noticed that I use them so frequently?! However, I have to admit that adverbs are a nice way to short-cut what I'm trying to say. It's faster to say "rarely" than it is to say "only once in a while." I guess it's just part of my writing voice. I know I should fix that, but I sincerely doubt I'm going to get rid of as many adverbs as I should. I mean, I used one in the previous sentence!
All of that aside, I do wish to improve my writing. Therefore, when I was done editing the next portion of Please, Let Me Explain I dumped it in to Hemingway as well. We had twenty-three adverbs! Just as bad as my blog post! Worse, even, because it's prose. It kept a little bit of work and finesse, but with some real effort I was able to whittle down to only six adverbs. I was "allotted" five by Hemingway, and all of those were in dialogue. I wasn't going to cut adverbs out of dialogue, it just doesn't sound natural then. The other one? Well... I just couldn't figure out how to replace it without being legitimately long-winded about it. Yet, I also couldn't figure out how to omit it completely.
I had to do a lot of rearranging and rewording in order to get the section where it needed to be. I'm waiting for Ronoxym to get back to me approving the changes. The section I edited is only about 1200 words anyway. I might hold off until I get more of the story edited for the chapter. However, if I go until the next natural story break the overall second chapter will end up being an additional 3000 words long. So, what do you guys think? Should I post what I have polished off once Ron approves? Or should I polish off what I was originally considering as "part two" when I first organized the story? I mean, 4200 words isn't THAT big of a chapter, is it?
I mean, the first chapter I have up is a little shy of 2900 words. So 4200 isn't that much worse, right?
I'm just sad that I couldn't get more accomplished before now. I've been feeling under the weather, and so I tend to just open up the file, edit a couple of sentences, and then pass out.
I'm also ashamed that I failed at one of my resolutions. I didn't read a novel last month. I guess that means I need to go through two of them this month to make up for it. I did attempt to re-read my book of Greek mythology in order to better get in to the mindset of how they are written. This way I could go back and edit The Divine Legends so they seemed old-world and true-to-life without having an overwhelming amount of passive voice and adverbs. Problem is, I forgot the book I own isn't a direct English translation of the myths. It's a simplified retelling so it's easier to comprehend. However, this also means it feels more like a friend of mine telling me the myths instead of me reading them myself. Not a good thing to study in order to get the voice I want in these tales.
I'll have to try a different tactic, and remember to get some novel reading in!
Well, this post is late enough as it is. I think I should get to work on both PLME and reading.
Irony must be my stalker, because it's never far behind me wherever I go. Sleep, on the other hand, doesn't seem to like me as much....
I've been so burnt out lately. I legit forget what day of the week it is now. Which is why I missed last week's blog. Late Tuesday night I had that glorious light-bulb-moment when I went "Wait! TOMORROW is Wednesday! Shoot!" I worked first thing in the morning until after 1pm. Ya know, because IRONICALLY I started having things - work, for instance - to do first thing Wednesday mornings pretty much as soon as I decide to make Wednesdays my official update day. Funny how I had NOTHING to do Wednesday mornings prior to that decision.
Well, I obviously wouldn't have time to write a blog post before heading off to work, and when it dawned on me that it was Tuesday it was shortly before I wanted to go to bed. Too late to write a post then. Mildly ashamed, I decided to just leave it be and write a post after I was done with work; since I clearly wasn't going to be able to schedule one for my noon update.
Then 6pm chimed along and I STILL didn't have a post. Wasn't even sure what to write for it. I had updated the Friday before, and I had done nothing in regards to writing since then. The only progress I made was asking Writers’ Huddle for advice on my X-Future Reboot World conundrum. More on that later in the post.
I felt stumped and unmotivated and just dried up. I posted a Facebook status more-or-less stating just that. Lo and Behold, Irony wasn't too many paces behind. Of COURSE as soon as I post an "I'm not sure what to write" status THAT is when I finally have the juices flowing. Figures.
A month or two ago I started sending ChibiSunnie the super abridged version of what was going on with the X-Future boards. This way she could get a sort of speed-run of the story the role play acted out so far. This way she could better her ability to beta for me, as well as get those silly spoilers out of the way so she could finally get around to reading the X-Future: Snippets. Honestly, she was more afraid of being lost by not having the necessary background info for the snippet than she was afraid of spoilers. Anyway, my point is that I didn't get very far before I fell off the face of the planet. With my writing well being dried up I figured telling her more about the X-Future plot might be the kickstart I needed.
That's when I noticed that I had a backlog of messages from Chibi that I've read but never responded to. I was getting started on that - each of us writes about 8pgs worth to each other; so we take a little bit to reply - when Phfylburt sent me an IM. As per usual lately, he read my blog post from Independence Day and it sparked a new world idea.
What if they didn't have those pesky powers that was tripping us up? No one would bat an eye about a story centered around teens at a boarding school. The "rival gang" could just be a group of street thugs, students from the local public school, or even a rival boarding school. The "big villain" of the Challengers of Heaven could simply be an extremist group that focuses on the main cast due to their wealth and the pull their parents have.
We then spent three hours talking about this. A lot. I transferred it to a Word document the next day so I wouldn't lose our work; destined to be buried under other long discussions. Said Word document is about 13pages long! Phfyl and I talk just as much as I do with Chibi; the difference is that Phfyl and I speak in real-time while Chibi and I are essentially pen-pals.
Anyway, we were able to whittle our RP cast from nearly forty down to about nineteen; this includes Brotherhood and Challengers members as well as a few Marvel canon characters that would have to be reworked as originals.
For those curious we have:
Chayse, Lia, Willow, Ripley, Devon, Nys, Trish, Zeke, Shawn, Kinney, Lincoln, Blastzone, and Liam - although he's a bit reworked. Phfyl and I actually thought of a cool twist for Liam that ends up combining characters; which helps a lot too. We also have the two heads of the Challengers of Heaven in our reboot cast. The Marvel characters we need to create original versions of are Lia's parents "Multiple Man" and "Magma", Chayse's father "Gambit", and Trish's love interest "Pyro".
We have another grouping of ten background characters to fill in the ranks of both the X-Men and the Brotherhood - as well as two more members of the Challengers - but they're in the "maybe" pile for now. On top of ALL of that, we STILL have another four characters we'd like to include, but they don't really work without their powers.
While trying to figure out the best plan of action when it comes to which universe to build for this cast, I decided that two characters - Sebastian and Brianne - are best suited staying in a distopian cyberpunk world. The idea that Hubby came up with a few months ago would actually be an awesome setting for them. So they're going to get their own story. The four characters that won't work without their powers are most likely going to be bumped in to Sebastian and Brianne's tale, but we'll see what happens.
So, here I am, presumably stuck in a dried up creativity well, and suddenly I'm a geyser of ideas thanks to brainstorming with Phfyl. Admittedly, I'm still not the biggest fan of dropping the powers - to me that's a nice chunk of both the story and the character builds - but he does have valid arguments for the drastic change.
For one, there is NO possibility that it can be thought of as an X-Men fanfic. The characters would be completely original. We wouldn't have to figure out an original take on the holographic training area: The Danger Room. We wouldn't have to struggle to figure out how to make the powers, Xavier Institute, or The Brotherhood original. The things we love about the characters are the personalities themselves; not necessarily the powers. Sure, some major things would have to be tweaked with some of them, but the essence is still there.
It seemed the best solution, and Phfyl is so onboard with this idea that he's struggling to see the story any other way. I feel the same, only with the "we need powers" bias. I needed some outside advice to help figure out the best solution: Glitches, Mages, or Non-Powers?
As I mentioned at the top of the post, I went to Writers' Huddle for help. I had never asked a question like this of the group, but I trusted their judgment. So I wrote up a LOOOOOOOONG post explaining my predicament as well as the three possibilities. I explained what I loved about each option, and what the main concern for each would be. I was surprised at the resulting responses.
They all must have honed in on my love of the Glitches concept - difficulties be damned! - because they all told me to "follow my writing drive; which seems to be with the Glitches". Guess I couldn't write unbiased when describing the three environment possibilities. Even though the Glitches concept clearly had the most concerns, it seems I wrote the most passionately about that scenario. And they all told me to run with that passion.
On top of that, DarkAngel1326 chimed in about a week ago too. Right when I was in the depth of my struggling to figure out the best route to take. She sent me a quote she found that seems to have hit my problem right on the head. Coincidentally - and I didn't pick up on it until after reading through the quote a second time - she sent me a quote from another author that I follow.
I discovered this woman via Writers Huddle when someone else mentioned a blog post she wrote and later turned in to an instructional novel: 2,000 to 10,000: How to write faster, write better, and write more of what you love
She has also written a great many novels; nearly one per season. The works of hers that I read the most, however, would be her blog Pretentious Title. Thanks to DA's find on Tumblr, Aaron was able to inspire me yet again.
"If you are a writer, and you have a novel idea that you are excited about writing, write it. Don’t go on message boards and ask random Internet denizens whether or not something is allowed. … Who is the writer here? YOU ARE. Whose book is it? YOUR BOOK. There are no writing police. No one is going to arrest you if you write a teen vampire novel post Twilight. No one is going to send you off to a desert island to live a wretched life of worm eating and regret because your book includes things that could be seen as cliché.
If you have a book that you want to write, just write the damn thing. Don’t worry about selling it; that comes later. Instead, worry about making your book good. Worry about the best way to order your scenes to create maximum tension, worry about if your character’s actions are actually in character; worry about your grammar. DON’T worry about which of your stylistic choices some potential future editor will use to reject you, and for the love of My Little Ponies don’t worry about trends. Trying to catching a trend is like trying to catch a falling knife—dangerous, foolhardy, and often ending in tears, usually yours.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t pay attention to what’s getting published; keeping an eye on what’s going on in your market is part of being a smart and savvy writer. But remember that every book you see hitting the shelves today was sold over a year ago, maybe two. Even if you do hit a trend, there’s no guarantee the world won’t be totally different by the time that book comes out. The only certainty you have is your own enthusiasm and love for your work. …
If your YA urban fantasy features fairies, vampires, and selkies and you decide halfway through that the vampires are over-complicating the plot, that is an appropriate time to ax the bloodsuckers. If you decide to cut them because you’re worried there are too many vampire books out right now, then you are betraying yourself, your dreams, and your art.
If you’re like pretty much every other author in the world, you became a writer because you had stories you wanted to tell. Those are your stories, and no one can tell them better than you can. So write your stories, and then edit your stories until you have something you can be proud of. Write the stories that excite you, stories you can’t wait to share with the world because they’re just so amazing. If you want to write Murder She Wrote in space with anime-style mecha driven by cats, go for it. Nothing is off limits unless you do it badly.
And if you must obsess over something, obsess over stuff like tension and pacing and creating believable characters. You know, the shit that matters. There are no writing police. This is your story, no one else’s. Tell it like you want to.”
— Rachel Aaron
I love how she - unknowingly - called me out with the whole "Don’t go on message boards and ask random Internet denizens whether or not something is allowed," line. I mean, two sentences in and it's a suckerpunch to the gut. I also got a great chuckle out of "for the love of My Little Ponies don’t worry about trends."
And if THAT wasn't enough, good old Chibi joined in with her stating that people will ALWAYS find connections that may not even be there. Ask the internet and Frozen and The Lion King have the same plot. ANYTHING can have the same plot if you paint broad enough strokes, so who cares if those strokes don't need to be as broad to connect X-Future back to X-Men? Having that similarity still there could actually bring in more readers. People who enjoy X-Men, and would therefore enjoy X-Future because of the similar concept. We'd be like that "People who liked this also liked..." option that nearly every friggen website has now.
Well, DA, Rachel, Phfyl, Chibi, and everyone over at WH, I think you helped me officially decide.
Although I do greatly value Phfyl's input - I wouldn't have asked him to be my co-writer if that weren't true - I think my gut is telling me that I just HAVE to at least attempt to write this reboot using the Glitches and near-future cyberpunk universe. If I crash and burn, I have two other worlds that I can fall back on.
Besides, even Ali Luke states on multiple occasions that she feels like the worlds she writes are already there; she's just uncovering them. I have to say that I feel the same way. Maybe that's why I feel so strongly towards the Glitch universe; it's already there and I'm just uncovering it.
Either way, that struggle is over. Now begins the struggle of converting things in to original takes. Although, I think Ali may have given me a bit of a breakthrough on that one. She suggested an orphanage or group foster home instead of a boarding school. Since Chayse's mom was the school's headmistress, she can remain the founder of the group home, which would be why he's there even with both loving parents still raising him. Lia and Devon are a bit trickier. Lia's dad is the smothering type. There's no way she'd be abandoned to an orphanage/foster care without drastic change to her background; and thus her character development. Then there's Devon, who has already run away from the orphanage he was left at as an infant. He lived on the streets as well as in and out of Juvenile Detention Halls before the institute scooped him up as sort of a Second Chance school. So what makes this new group home any different than the orphanage he already ran away from? Is it simply because he's accepted as a Glitch in this one?
Actually, I think that MIGHT be the solution, and perhaps Chayse's parents called in a favor with Jamie for some help, which is why Lia is there now...
Did I just figure out some plot issues by blogging!?
I... I think I did! I'm tempted to go back and just delete all of that.
You know what, I'm leaving it there because it might be helpful for other writers to see brainstorming in progress! Sometimes just writing out the issue and all the reasons why it won't work helps you discover the one reason it WILL work....
Moving on.
So here I am, Wednesday night, still no clue what to do for a blog post since I haven't done any sort of writing progress since the previous Friday. I post an "I'm stuck" status, and get flooded with assistance from all corners. Even a friend of the family whom I didn't realize had any sort of writing advice chimed in! Heck yeah, support group! They are all such win.
I'm gonna pause here a moment to stress how awesome this was to have so many people swoop in with advice to try to keep me going; not a single person tore me down and told me it was proof I should stop attempting to write. It's equally awesome when people totally get why I have to hide away in order to write; again not criticizing my lack of socializing - or doing chores... EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE A SUPPORT GROUP LIKE THIS ONE!!!!
I don't care if it's about writing, drawing, running, becoming a professional wrestler, sky diving, eating your way around the world, or even being a parent. Whatever your passion is, you NEED to make sure you surround yourself with a support group. You NEED people who will pick you up when you're down, give you advice to help you move forward, and NEVER tell you that you're wrong to have the passion that burns inside you. If you don't have that support group, FIND IT. I don't care if you have to hang up fliers to find like-minded people or if you have to search the internet. FIND THAT GROUP! You're gonna need them.
You might also be surprised as to how many people you already have in your life make up that support group. Remember, I JUST stated that someone jumped in with some advice, and I NEVER would have pegged him as part of my writing support group before. Heck, if you flash back to a few Thanksgivings ago I was surprised to discover that my uncle writes. Last year I was humbled to discover my eldest cousin reads this blog - even though he gets lost in all my nerd-jargon.
So you may very well already have that support group, and you just don't know it. MAKE SURE YOU KNOW IT. I cannot stress how important this is. It is fantastic! Find those people and love them with all you got; because they're showing you the same love, even if it is only for that like-minded passion.
AAAAaaaaaaand now back to me.
Thursday morning I woke up re-energized to write. I had a new world concept to ponder - no powers - and a drive to just type my little heart out during my day off. I was geared up to finish writing my response to Chibi - since it was interrupted by the brainstorming session with Phfyl - and then work on this post. Sure, it would be a day late, but I had so much to talk about I figured "what's one day gonna hurt?"
I then saw something else that just screamed that THIS was my time to get cracking on writing. Ali had posted on both her wall and her blog that she's giving away a free e-course that she had set up for Writers' Huddle.
If anyone else wants to jump in on this, the course is called "On Track" and helps exactly that: keeping a project on track.
I had even MORE drive to work on this post after signing up. Just reading those first two modules got me pumped because it was like Ali wrote to me specifically. Both that feeling and the knowledge that she clearly didn't - meaning TONS of authors go through the same struggle - really got me energized.
Which quote hit home the most? This one of course:
The thing is, you’ll never feel quite ready to write. You’ll always think that there’ll be a better time – when you’ve got more energy, when life isn’t quite so hectic, when chores have been ticked off. Writing is hard work – emotionally, mentally – and there’ll always be a great excuse not to write.
There'll Always Be A Great Excuse Not To Write.....
Boy, have I fallen in to that pattern. I KNOW you have noticed that. Chibi had pointed it out to me last summer. So, how about I break out of that rut, huh?
Another great quote?
One of the reasons we get stuck is because we don’t know where to begin. It’s hard to get going if you’re not even sure that you’re starting in the right place.... If you have a huge project with no obvious beginning, start with whatever feels easiest.
That is for sure in regards to Gyateara, but I'm still not sure what point really is the "easiest." Do I keep going with just building the physical world itself? Do I bother re-naming the planet? Do I continue with building the pantheon? How do I even go about building a pantheon? Maybe I should work on backstories of the gods? What about deciding the countries and where they fit? Is it easier to figure out the culture and build the gods around that, or the other way around? So many options and no compass pointing me where to start my journey. It's daunting and overwhelming. It's good to know that this e-course can help with that.
For now though I'm going to ignore that this could be an awesome way to make some progress on Gyateara; it will have to wait until a second go at this course. Simply because I'd be lying if I didn't admit that my mind is completely consumed by thoughts of X-Future at the moment. Needless to say, I'm using On Track to keep going with X-Future; especially now that I have a few things pegged down.
However, the best part is that I'm not taking this journey alone!
As of this morning - thanks to some help from Cyhyr - I was able to go live with my own online writing group. All those people that came to my aid, they'll eventually need some themselves. I love Writers' Huddle, but I still feel like I'm missing something by not being able to include the people I've become such close friends with thanks to writing. People like Chibi and DA.
I attempted once before to have a local writing group, but life gets messy. So now I have this online group for my writing buddies - original local group included - and I'm excited to see it grow. We have twelve members right now, and we all seem to be at that "I WANNA WRITE" phase. So I threw the challenge out to them: sign up for On Track with me, and we'll do it together. I already have two people signed up at least. Let's see if I can snag a few more for this ride.
I feel like there's so much more to talk about - like how IRONICALLY, once I finally got in to the drive to write THAT is when I'm flooded with spontaneous social gatherings, which is why this post was just ignored all week long - but I'm already at epic levels again.
So instead I'm just going to leave you with this parody Weird Al posted on Tuesday to promote the launch of his latest album. Although he'll be posting a new song every day this week - started this past Monday with a parody of "Happy" by Pharrell Williams - and I'm excited by that, I can't help but love that this video has ALREADY gone viral. Hubby and I argue it's one of his best songs of all time.
For all of my writing/English major buddies. Enjoy Weird Al's parody of the Robin Thicke song "Blurred Lines," lord knows the internet needed this.
Soooooooo, this week has been so crazy I legit lost track of what day of the week it was. Wednesday came and went without my notice....
I feel like I've been non-stop for over two weeks now. The days have flown by so quickly I didn't even really have time to write. Thankfully, I changed that yesterday, but I'll get to that later.
Obviously, I didn't manage to write a blog post to replace that placeholder. Which means I'll have more to talk about today, right?
Let's start with why I even had a placeholder last week: the concert and my work presentation.
Let's start with Hubby's early 30th birthday gift for me. We went to the Monumentour with Paramore and Fall Out Boy. It was fantastic. I had such a blast, but I also worked the morning of the concert so I was on the go from about 6am until 1:30 am the next day. CRAZINESS! I was so tired I was NOT in the mindset to write a post in time for my normal noon update. I debated writing later in the day - after I woke up - in order to get SOMETHING posted. However, I had work that evening and I was still zoned out, so the placeholder was written.
The other reason I had no time was that work presentation. Not entirely sure how well we did. The way these presentations work is that each year a group of employees spend an extra hour a week trying to find ways to improve their individual store, or come up with an idea that could help better the chain as a whole. The first year I was a part of this project, we created a safety video to show during job orientation. Last year I BSed my way through raising employee morale. This year we threw together a last-minute presentation about what I have done throughout the year to improve wellness in the store's employees. Things such as moving the employee smoking section further from the store to keep non-smoking employees/customers from second-hand smoke, providing sunscreen for the employees that spend the majority of their shifts outside, providing things such as puzzle/activity books in the break room to help destress employees, and talking to the new-hires about the wellness program so that they know it's available.
So what I was doing since that last actual update was figuring out how to present these changes: taking photos, making a power point, writing out a script for MadDog24 to read off at the presentation, making hand-outs, etc. All while working long days at the store. By the time last Wednesday hit I was - as mentioned - exhausted and still needed to put on the finishing touches on everything to make sure we were ready.
Thursday was the presentation. We had to get up fairly early so that we could make the hour-plus trek to the building where the presentation was being held. We then watched other presentations - which were unbelievably boring compared to the previous two years; it was insanity - before giving our own. Once all the stores gave their presentations the managers in the sectioned off zone - so this would be about 15 stores - would then vote on who they think did the best job both on the presentation itself and with the improvements they did for their store. The winner is announced and said winning store moves on to present to the region and then possibly move on further to present to corporate.
The safety video went on to present to corporate, but we didn't win over-all. It was nice to win our zone though. Last year's pulling-this-out-of-my-butt presentation ended up getting us second place in our zone. This year we weren't informed where we were in the standings; we just know we didn't win. Oh well, at least it's over, our manager is happy with what we did, and we can move on.
Hubby already has a fantastic idea for this upcoming year, and we're going full-steam right out of the gate. Considering the previous three years more-or-less consisted of "[Lyco] throws something together in about three days before the presentation while [Hubby] plays tech-support so she doesn't throw the computer out the window," we're already off to a great start.
Now, once we were done with the presentation and we knew we weren't moving on to the "next round" - as it were - I had every intention of writing my actual blog update for the week. However, it was also the first day I could just sit and mellow out. So I did. Total zone out.
Then came Friday, and the start of Hell Week as the store dealt with the chaos that is "Preparing for the Fourth of July" shopping craze. We were non-stop! My manager's favorite word was "brutal". Every time I turned around he'd be muttering that word. Heck, this past Wednesday I went in to work and literally the first thing he said to me was "Brutal" as he shook his head.
Work. Has not. Been fun.
Everyone's hot and cranky and overworked and the customers are rushed.... it's just bad all around.
So whenever I wasn't at work I was pretty much asleep, or staring blankly at whatever was in front of me. Even now, after having a two-day "vacation" from work, I still have to focus on keeping my eyes focused. It's pathetic.
Want to know what helps with the focusing?
I HAVE MY NETBOOK BACK!!!!!!
My father-in-law is awesome. He totally Frankensteined the thing back to life. Actually, he had it set for me a few months ago, but he needed money from us in order to buy a few more components. Eventually he gave up. He knew how much I needed this thing back and how hard-up we've been, so he used some of his own scratch and we'll pay him back. Unfortunately, he didn't have enough extra to buy a new battery for the darn thing, so I have to keep it plugged in at all times. I can't let it off charge for even a second without it instantly shutting down. It's like a teeny desktop that way.
Still, I have it back and that means I'm writing this while lounging on the couch! Whoot! Perhaps this means I can actually get my butt in gear and get back to things like Writers’ Huddle or beta reading.
OOOO speaking of which. I'm redoing the writing group thing. Originally I was trying to keep it local in order to keep it off-computer; save my eyes and all that. Plus, I already have an online writing community with the Writers' Huddle. However, the local group didn't last long for a handful of reasons. True, I still have the Writers' Huddle, and so having another online community seems a bit silly, but this is with all of my online besties; none of which really have the spare change to join in Writers' Huddle.
So we're off to start up our own mini-group. Obviously the local peeps are free to join in, but this go around it will be me right along side ChibiSunnie, DarkAngel1326, AngelBlood666, Chopfe, Delaroux, Phfylburt, and introducing my one buddy from high school. I haven't found an online-presence for her yet, so I'm gonna use her Girl Scouts nickname for the time being. Everyone wave to Stargazer!
She's so excited. As far as I know she never really thought about writing too much before, but she recently took a writing course and loved it. She enthusiastically sent me a message about how she's now thinking about attempting to write a novel. I instantly threw out that I was trying to start up this online group and asked if she wanted to join. She happily accepted.
Now, to get my butt in gear and start up the group.
The only other writing update I have is that after over a week of the board being stalled out, I finally got around to getting Willow to do something. It's not much, but at least it's SOMETHING, right? I also went a bit hard-core on world building the X-Future reboot. Still haven't locked on to a definite environment idea, but I'm still coming up with possibilities; seeing which one works best.
Forgive me if I've mentioned this before, but I don't recall touching upon my latest roadblock. Although the actual world that surrounds X-Future isn't all that important - as long as the teens can somehow have these powers in some shape or form it doesn't matter if it's fantasy, sci-fi, horror, historical, futuristic, etc - but what IS important is the Xavier Institute. The fact that these kids with powers are all together in one closed environment away from normal humans. The fact that there's a rival "gang" as the main antagonists, and the fact that each group wants to get to potential "new recruits" first.
However, I fear that even if we do call them "glitches" instead of mutants, having a boarding school for these glitches to voluntarily be at just screams "this is blatantly the Xavier Institute and these guys are clearly X-men-like mutants." Even with terms changed and not really using any of the Marvel-owned characters, there's that real fear that Marvel could pick up on the "rip-off" and try to shut the story down. Either that, or any readers will be turned off by the fact that this is "fake X-Men".
Will the fact that the most basic environment structure is more-or-less straight out of X-Men turn away readers, or bring more in due to the familiarity of it all? Will it be obvious that it started off as an X-Men fanstory/role play? Will that matter?
I mean, I got drawn in to Order of the Stick because it was obviously a D&D campaign. Rich Burlew still makes TONS of D&D references throughout the strip. Do I feel cheated that he didn't completely create his own world? No. However, he also isn't pretending that he did, where as us changing everything except for the basic concept of "a school for mutants and the rival group they battle" feels like we are trying to pass our story as entirely original when it isn't.
So I'm stumped, do I just go for it and re-name the institute and be done with it? Or do I try something different?
I thought that maybe humanity forced these kids in to mutant-only schools; getting back to the X-Men social commentary roots about segregation. Phfyl threw out the idea that they're all together because of refugee/internment camps or reservations; again creating a social commentary on the American treatment of Japanese Americans in WWII or Native Americans throughout our country's history. The only real problem with these segregation/racism concepts is the idea of recruitments. There wouldn't be any X-Men vs Brotherhood recruitments. Everyone would be forced to go to these places, so a nice chunk of story would be lost, while a whole new one would emerge. Said new story would mostly have people rooting for the Brotherhood over the X-Men. The Brotherhood would be the group fighting back against this oppression while the X-Men would patiently bide their time while trying to show normal humans that not all of them are dangerous; that they can be just as productive parts of society as anyone else. I would think more people would cheer on the Brotherhood for trying to stand up for their kins' rights, and get irritated with the X-Men for not doing anything; content with their lot in life.
No go.
I then thought back to recruitment. If I wasn't going to use a school because it would be too obvious, what other options would I have for children to have a choice in whether or not they wanted to join one group or another; or any at all? Where else do children come together in groups?
That's when I looked to Rick Riordan and the Percy Jackson universe. He used "summer camps." Most of the demi-gods in his stories would still live at home and go to school like a normal teen; spending their school year trying to stay under the radar, but also knowing enough to fend off monsters if need be. Then they would all come back to Camp Halfblood for more survival training over the summers. There were even some demi-gods who either had no place else to go or were so powerful they couldn't go a day without a monster harassing them. These teens just stayed at camp year-round.
It was a fantastic idea and a great twist on the Xavier Institute problem. However, it would still be a blatant rip-off if we turned the institute in to a summer camp. Sure, it may not be AS noticeable with the rest of the world having a vague X-Men feel, but you still have teens with specific powers and facing daily dangers all gathered at a camp. Anyone NOT thinking X-Men going in to the story will most likely think Demi-gods. We now have the same issue as we did with the school idea.
But how else do teens gather in one place and live together? I was thinking "mutant slums; they all just live near each other" but this then goes back to the segregation issue.
I bounced back to the fantasy idea that Phfyl had a little while back. As much as I love the cyberpunk world we were creating - and I loved the idea of mutants being called glitches, and they were each categorized in a pseudo-cyberpunk category - the fantasy world just seemed like a better fit.
We could go back to the idea of the schools, but have it be mage guilds instead. It was enough of a trope inside magical stories for it to just feel natural instead of stolen. Teens going to a guild/school to learn how to master their birth-given powers? That could be any number of things. That could be D&D. It could be the animes Fairy Tail or The Familiar of Zero. It could be Harry Potter. It could be the video game Fable. The list goes on, but those are the things that first pop in to my head when I think "school for mages".
Sure, since it's a trope it's a bit played out and "safe"/"expected", but at least it won't jar our readers by having them go "wait a minute... isn't this like...?"
Yesterday I pitched the following idea to Hubby and Phfyl as a way to have a fantasy/steam/cyberpunk world where the "mutants" are now all mages.
The mages started off as a small few for whatever reason (TBD) and were praised as heroes and saviors against the dangerous creatures (insert generic fantasy creature here; ie - dragon, goblin, ogre, etc). Citadels were built as homes for these mages and the cities sprung up around them so that the mages were at the center of the communities and capable of saving the city at a moment's notice.
As the threat of creatures waned and the reliance of the mages simply became a generational norm, the mages became power hungry. They became tyrannical rulers over the non-magic citizens and warred among themselves.
An industrial revolution became necessary for the non-magics to be able to compete at all with the mages. In the end, they were able to dethrone their magical dictators.
Mages were cast out of society and they created communal homes for themselves by way of guilds hidden in wooded areas surrounded by the few remaining creatures that they once saved the non-magics from.
Humanity still feared mages, but more and more were being born among them. Some were slaughtered instantly when their powers were discovered. Some were cast away, letting fate decide if they could survive the creatures of the woods in order to get to the mage guilds. Some were found out by wandering mages; undercover and unknown to be magical among their neighbors. These sleeper mages were tasked to whisk the newly discovered mages safely away to the guilds.
Some mage guilds were embittered by how their ancestors were cast out, and how their kind is currently treated. Their goal is to make mages the supreme rulers once more. (Brotherhood)
Other guilds wish to just be left alone; to live in peace away from the humans. (Morlocks)
Then there is at least one guild who wishes to show non-magics that mages are the same as them. Just as some humans are just "evil" and do things like kill and fall to corruption, so do mages. However, just as most humans are NOT inherently cruel and evil, neither are mages. Therefore, mages should be treated just as non-magics (I really need to think of a muggle-like term). Most are decent human beings, but discipline and punish those who deserve it. (Obviously this is the X-Men)
Finally, you have the guild that just wants to see the world burn. (Challengers of Heaven)
The actual world will be based as a fantasy world. However, instead of the typical medieval England atmosphere that most fantasy takes place in, the world will have a cyberpunk look. Now, I'd like to still restrict human technological advancement a touch, so this fantasy cyberpunk world has one more twist: Steampunk technology.
So, this is a fantasy world with Steampunk technology but a Cyberpunk look.
These tightly packed cities around abandoned mage citadels are dark, gritty, and filled with corruption in order to fill the power vacuum.
However, this overpopulated environment just screams out to the youth to not just become another number. They struggle to show that they're still an individual, not just a member of the human herd. So they wear bright, vibrant colors to stand out against the dark, gritty environment. They stylize their hair and dye it bright, unnatural colors. The advertisements are the same. Businesses struggle just as much to stand out against their competition, and so the billboards and other advertisements are just as bright, and vibrant.
Hubby's a bit hesitant on the cyberpunk still sneaking in. He thinks just the fantasy/steampunk will be enough. Phfyl hasn't commented yet.
If we do decide to go this route, it changes the way Devon does a crucial bit of research before setting off on his own. Plus I still need to figure out the rough mechanics of the magic. So I'm still trying to figure out the whole "teens grouped together" thing in order to keep them mutants instead of mages.
If you have any advice on the subject, feel free to drop it in the comments below.
And now to conclude I'd like to throw out that Chibi has started up her own blog a few weeks ago! She's still nervous about her writing, so I'm sure I'm going to get a response along the lines of "How sweet of you to promote my blog, but now I'm super nervous about what I post..."
Fret not, dear Chibi. My readers are kind, and I'm sure they'll enjoy your work as much as I do.
So, go ahead and check out her work. Don't forget to let her know what you think of it. Even if it's constructive criticism, us writers love the feedback so we know how to improve.
Wow. This has felt like such a loooooong week. I legit had to read back through last week's post to even remember what I last talked about. Weird to think how slow this month has been going. Bombarding poor Phfylburt as well as Mother's Day both feel like weeks away instead of just a few days.
Actually, I haven't talked to Phfyl at all this week aside from sending him more brainstorming on Thursday. I'll get to that in a bit.
Honestly, aside from bouncing more ideas off of Hubby and having the gears grinding, I haven't done terribly too much with writing this past week. I was finishing up this little fella:
Sorry for the blurry pictures. My camera broke a few years back and I haven't had the money to fix/replace it. Anyway, that little guy up there is supposed to look like a toy version of this dude:
That would be George, my best friend's pet rabbit. The crocheted version of him is a toy I made for Bestie's first-born son. Picking out what I would make for him was part of her baby-shower gift, much like what I did with my sister-in-law and the blanket I made for my niece. It's been so long since I last saw my bestie - and it kept me so long to get down to business and make the silly toy - that the bunny also became the kid's baptism gift.
So my week was spent frantically trying to finish up the toy while working my now-normal insane hours and getting ready to trek home for the kid's baptism. Oh yeah, and be surprised by Bestie that I'm one of the kid's godmothers! YEAH! I have a niece and now I have a godson! About a month ago Hubby and I even got a hand-me-down frame for our mattress and we've been sleeping off the floor. Look at who's growing up and junk!
Alright, back to writing.
So, my time was obviously spent on slightly-higher priority stuff this past week: work, finishing the kid's toy, becoming a godmother, visiting my mom and sis, etc. Oh, and, Mom, if you're reading this I put those in order of what I did for the week. I'm not saying visiting you was on the bottom of the list....
*Ahem*
During my work breaks, however, I was able to FINALLY finish editing the collab Ronoxym and I started back in February. There were a lot more edits - mostly typos - than I initially realized, and Ron has the collab word doc set up so that only he can edit and I can only make comments on it. So, I think I'm going to have to redo it as a new word doc, set it up so that both of us can edit, and send him that as a replacement. Hopefully if he re-reads the whole thing like I did it will respark his inspiration and he can finally advance the story.
Yes, I'm trying to guilt trip you in to writing, Ron!
So, that project is done and the project of actually typing up the second draft shouldn't be too daunting, I hope. The only other thing I really worked on this week - as I mentioned - was using my husband as a sounding board.
Which brings us back to my statement at the start of this blog: the brainstorm with Phfyl this past Thursday.
Technically I wasn't really brainstorming with Phfyl as much as I was relaying over an awesome concept that Hubby came up with. See, last Wednesday Hubby and I went to go watch the second Amazing Spider-Man movie. While we were waiting for the movie to start I relayed over Phfyl's thought of a cyberpunk fantasy setting for our X-Future original reboot. After some discussion, Hubby came up with the following:
In the near-future groups of hacktivists - such as Anonymous or The Rising Tide from Agents of SHIELD - succeed in taking down the corrupt governments of the world. Not sure if it's more of a domino effect or a simultaneous attack. Either way, this results in a massive power void. The hacktivist groups decide to take control since they feel they understand what works best for the people.
After a bit of a power struggle between the groups and the previous government officials and supporters the hacktavists manage to become the new government. They aren't numerous enough for a different person to be in charge of each country in the world, and so they break down the modern borders and restructure the world in to kingdoms. This will give us the "fantasy"/medieval setting.
Over the generations - Hubby was thinking our story would take place in like 2250 or something - the Cyber Lords become more and more corrupt and power hungry. Eventually they become just like the governments the original hacktivists overthrew. During those same generations, citizens have become more and more dependent and trusting of their devices, and so most are easily manipulated by the Cyber Lords' "approved" information. The Cyber Lords are the best hackers in the world and can manipulate any information that goes online.
Soon, people begin to age out of the knowledge of how the world was before the rise of the Cyber Lords. They only know of the existence of the Kingdoms.
Meanwhile, due to food additives, genetic manipulation, "unclean" power sources, and pollution, mutation has switched from a strange phenomenon to an almost every-day occurrence. And the mutations become more and more extreme; such as fur, wings, high healing factor, etc.
The mutations also become more and more genetic, so if your dad had wings you have 1/2 chance of having some as well.
Because of the Cyber Lords the worlds' dialects have become more internet/gamer oriented: text/tweet shorthand and leet-speak. Due to the new modern dialect, the mutants were typically described as something similarly found in games. For instance, mutants with wings would be angels, demons, or fairies depending on how the wings looked. Mutants with super-human strength and/or fast healing would be berserkers. So on and so forth.
Along with the information distortion that all but erased the pre-cyber-world, the idea of mutants gave way to just "new races".
Technology became more and more impressive, but the average citizen became less and less knowledgeable of how it worked. They just took for granted that it did. Only the Cyber Lords and the other nobility knew how technology truly functioned any more.
Because of this, citizens began believing in magic again. This gave way to elemental-kinetics, psychics, and other "physics" manipulators to be thought of as "mages" instead of "mutants".
Thus is the setting of our Brave New World of cyberpunk fantasy while still holding on to the original concept of mutants.
Now, I embellished a bit on his initial idea; adding in things like how the mutations kick-started and why technology was considered "magic" in the future. However, the core of the above was from the mind of my husband. Man, I miss having him as a Dungeon Master...
Anyway, the concept is amazing, but there's one downside. It's TOO good. X-Future works so well and is able to be converted in to an original tale so easily because the background universe it takes place in barely affects anything at all. We can put these characters in to virtually any setting, and as long as they're able to still have the normal teenage-high-school-drama and powers/magic the story works.
The above setting is too intriguing for X-Future. You don't want to watch an ensemble cast play around in this universe without really acknowledging it. You want to explore this new world. You want to explore how it came to be and determine if it will stay as is. You want to maybe watch a Cyber Lord as he ruled. Or you want to watch a citizen become disillusioned and try to start a coup. Maybe you just want to watch a woman struggle as she's declared an outlaw simply because she wants to become an archaeologist; discovering how the world once was and how it came to be. There could even be a really cool tale if the citizens of this new world decided to rename Earth - or never refer to their planet by name - and so the reader thinks it's a tale on an alien planet. Then someone discovers the history of the world and BAM! The reader is shocked to discover that they're still on Earth!
That's what happened in one of the mangas I used to read. I won't say what manga so that I don't give away spoilers, but the basic concept is that teenagers were magically teleported in to this barren, hostile, desert-like planet with ruins that vaguely resembled modern buildings. Then, one of the teens discovered his uncle's house perfectly preserved. That's when they realized they weren't being sent to a different world, they were being sent to the future! Dun Dun Duuuuuun!!!!!
My point is that the setting Hubby came up with is almost a character in and of itself. However, the focus of X-Future is definitely on the interesting characters we all came up with. It would be way too complicated if we tried to run a story where the reader is torn between wanting to know more about a cast of at least seven people or learn more about the setting.
I am planning on slotting that idea away for some future project, though. I just need to figure out who will be the character that gets to play in that playground. ONE interesting character running around an intriguing world is a much better fit.
So.... still trying to figure out the world behind the X-Future reboot. Wonder if Phfyl has thought of anything over the past week.
In the meantime, I'll brainstorm some more with Hubby. I may even take up world building Gyateara more. Silly Hubby actually told me on Sunday "If you ever need help with naming things, I'm pretty good at it."
First of all... I KNOW he's really good at it! I love all the names he comes up with for his characters and settings. I tell him that a lot, actually! Heck, there was a month or two where he had me convinced that we should name our son - if we were to ever have one - after one of his D&D characters. Would have been a really cool name too....
Secondly: DOES HE NOT KNOW ME BY NOW!? Of COURSE I need help naming things! I frequently lament how horrible I am at naming things! Where has he been!?
That being said, he's now going to help me with coming up with names for my world building.
Before I jet for the week I do want to do a couple shout-outs!
Seems a trio of my online writing buddies are finally back in to the groove of things, plus Omnibladestrike has been chugging along with his own world-building for about two weeks now.
Friday I had a message posted on my Facebook wall:
"All right, I'm doing the '5 minute writing' that you talked about in a blog. Let's break my hiatus."
AngelBlood666 later commented that his "five minute writing" turned in to a half-hour; easily. He has since written for "five minutes" every day and is ready to do his first update in a long time. Should be up sometime today! Mad props, AB666!
Same day I also received a message from AB666's beta and the mutual friend that got us to meet: DarkAngel1326.
"You better be writing! I'm writing tonight too. Rose (my princess/undercover knight) has some stuff to say."
So glad she's getting back in to Of Blood and Honor! So YAY for her too!
The real shocker was when I received this message yesterday morning just before running off to work:
"I want to write a story, but I need someone to be my sounding board. Up for it?"
Heck yeah, I'm up for it! Especially since that message was from someone I haven't mentioned here in AGES. Good old Delaroux! I honestly have no clue how much writing she's been doing over the past year or so since I stopped frequenting the Facebook group she started up for her original characters. It was a fun time and I loved both her and the other girls I met in that group, but they would be up at about 2am role-playing. I'd spend HOURS just going back through and reading everything they've posted while I was sleeping, like the old broad that I am.
I kept telling Delaroux that she needed to create a forum - much like X-Future - for her and the girls to role play on. I'd be able to read more at my leisure that way. Instead of scrolling on endlessly in the group set-up Facebook switched to a few years back. I still can't stand that. The old groups where everything was organized in threads was so much easier to navigate; especially when you aren't on the group 24/7.
Anyway, I'm off topic.
My point is that I'm so proud of all four of you!
Omni! I'm excited to hear what progress you've made with your world building. Perhaps we'll make a day to draw maps together.
AB666, I'm so proud that you've tried out the 5-minute writing challenge, that you've stuck with it, and that you have something to show for it. Doing better than me, haha! I can't wait to read the end result.
DA1326, I'm just amazingly excited that school let out - or is soon? - for you and that you finally have writing time again! I want to know everything Rose told you Friday night.
Delaroux, I still need to go back and read everything you sent me - probably my next task after posting this - but I'm elated that you're writing again! Your characters are always so intriguing to me. I can't wait to see what you have in store this time.
I feel silly being proud of so few hits in the grand scheme of things... Still, having people reading my ramblings at all is awesome.
Anyway... My point is that I want to thank those of you still around after yet another emotional turn for the worst in my blog. I do that a lot, don't I?
I actually debated going back and taking those two posts down.
My rage and sadness faded as I vented for seven hours in my blog. Yup. SEVEN HOURS OF CONTINUOUS WRITING. They were rantings and a bit rambled and I deleted a lot before posting, but still not bad for someone who didn't want to write at all! Ah, the power of writing; journaling.
The thing is though, that with that rage and sadness gone there was no point in having those posts up. They were essentially my passive-aggressive way of slapping Phfylburt in the face, and making him feel bad about his decision. Worst part was that it worked. Worked so well that he wanted to Skype with me so he could apologize "face to face".
On top of that, I had at least three friends take pity on both me and my predicament.
So then I felt even MORE of a loser for making people either feel bad for me or feel guilty of what they had done, all because of what I had written. Again: the power of words.
Those were all reasons to just take down the posts so no one else could see my low point.
Then it hit me. Maybe that's the exact reason why I should keep them up. I know that if I went to Ali Luke's or Rick Riordan's blog and saw a post like those up it would be humbling for me. To see an author I admire admit their failings and show the open wounds of a low point.... they would be more human and my own struggle wouldn't seem so lonely.
Thing is, I'm not alone in this struggle to find myself as an author. I'm not alone in getting WAY too attached to a fictional world. I'm not alone in wondering if I'm where I should be.
You're not alone either.
I kept those posts up because I hope that one day - if it hasn't already - someone will read those low points and realize I'm in the same boat as them. We're the same. If I can make it out of this pit and actually become a professional writer then perhaps you can too.
That bit of help. That bit of connectivity that can only come from the beauty of the internet. That encouraging thought. That minor legacy. That - and the fact that I more-or-less haven't STOPPED writing since - is why I am never taking those blog posts down, or any of my emo-rific blog posts.
Future authors need to see that someone who came before them had the same struggle, and was able to overcome it. Now... to just overcome it enough that I can make something of myself!
First step in that direction? Acknowledging my support network. Well, outside my husband, of course...
My online buddy AngelBlood666 and my mentor Ali were instantly there to perk me up after I posted last week. I'm sure DarkAngel1326 would have been right in their ranks too if she wasn't about to die from schoolwork....
But the one who really pushed me in the right direction was my lovely ChibiSunnie. It had been a little while, but she found last week to be the perfect time to return to her usual "my comments about your blog are too long for the actual comments section, so I'll send them to you in an email."
It was indeed a long email, but it was filled with empathy and encouraging words - as well as concern for Lia, but I'll get to that. Out of the full email though, I thought this bit to be the part that really hit home the most. Wonderful insight about struggling to figure out if you should follow a certain path in life.
Chibi:[It's like] if you're running late for the bus and you're starting to worry you won't make it. So you briefly slow down for a sec, thinking "Why bother running if I won't make it?" Then you either give into that idea and walk the rest of the way, or you start running as fast as you can...so that you can at least say you gave it your all [to try to make it]. It sounds like you're in that brief sec part. So you need to decide if you're just going to walk the rest of the way and make writing a hobby, or if you're going to start running and at least know that you gave it your all attempting to make it a career.
I'm sprinting, Chibi! I'm sprinting! You better have a towel and water for me at the bus stop.
I have to admit that I loved that quote so much that I made sure to post it here as soon as I read it. I knew I'd be able to build a blog post around it somehow. If not, I was going to post just the quote. Didn't care.
So, like I said, I have more-or-less been writing non-stop since.
Well... world building non-stop since; to be specific.
Phfyl sent me an IM after reading my blogs in order to apologize yet again, but also admitting how humbling my posts were.
Phfylburt:For me the whole situation was a bit of a roller coaster. Cause on the one hand I felt bad that I put you through this. Then there is the other side that was kind of thrilled about it. I've never had anyone react this way to my writing. Ever. I mean granted not a lot of people have read my stuff, but still. And then you put up that second post and it was even more humbling. I mean the fact that you said you were excited when I posted something and that you were a fan was simply unreal for me. And then there was your outro paragraphs. Damn, [girl], if I don't have those similar thoughts every...day. What if I'm just someone who likes to write but isn't meant to be a writer?
So yeah. Sorry...but only kind of. And thank you for the kind words.
Like I said.... we're not alone in the struggle.
This is a guy that got me exited to always read what he wrote. This is a guy who evoked so many emotions from me last week. This is a guy who creates such awesome characters and masterful plot twists. Even HE wonders if he can make it as an author.
On the one hand you can take that as "well, then what chance do I have?" but on the other hand you can ALSO say "We're alike. So maybe I can make it too..."
In fact, a big ego boost that helped me think I can actually make it as a writer was what I mentioned at the top of the blog: Chibi's concern for Lia. In fact, I recently found out that apparently quite a few people seem to really like her.
Phfyl and I were having our little heart-to-heart when he told me that he "had to" do what he did last week because "in my book, Lia is the main character, and so torturing her is part of the job." HUH!? Lia!? The main character!?
Now, I knew that she was one of the central characters right alongside Willow since I try to ALWAYS have the girls active and involved in everything on the boards. It's more fun to play like that, and it makes the characters more embedded in the overall story if they have at least a LITTLE role in everything that goes down.
But MAIN character? I didn't really see X-Future as HER story per se. However, he argued that she was essentially the introduction the reader had to this universe and it was about watching her grow - among other things. Also, poor Lia gets struck with all the feels for the most part.
No wonder The Bard and Chibi love her so much. I thought the poor girl was shoved in to the back seat once I really got the hang of Willow and created Trish. It's good to know that not only is she loved, but she's probably the most loved of my characters, at least by the readers. Part of me feels bad for Willow now - who is my favorite - but screw it; she has everything else going for her. What else does Lia have? Plus, it's awesome to see that people truly do care for my original characters!
Like I said: ego boost!
So now I'm pushing hard to ride this high. I've actually made progress with converting X-Future in to an original universe for a story reboot. As you all know, I've been thinking about this for a while. Some of the tweaking has been easy, but it has mostly been a brick wall in front of me for some time now. I even tried to use one of the weekly writing challenges during the Writers’ Huddle Winter Challenge to help me with the conversion. The challenge was to work out a mind-map. It only helped me a little and certainly did not turn out pretty at all....
Have I mentioned that I suck at making these?
Well, this past week has really made me want this to happen even with the stalled out momentum for the past few months. In truth, part of it is so I can reboot the story so Phfyl's fopaux is either non-existent or at least waits until further in the overall story before it occurs. Also in truth, part of it is so I can run Devon. Ronoxym takes too long to do anything and I see so much untapped potential in Devon. But mostly it's because I'm still not sure how to react on the forum right now, but I am still so hooked with this story.
Novelizing it as X-Men fanfiction is one thing, but I'd LOVE for a broader audience to experience this story. I also keep thinking of it as a much more visual story than what we can do on the boards. Thus my pull towards making a webcomic of it.
Now, the trick is trying to figure out how to handle making it a webcomic. I know I want to work with Phfyl on this project. He's like a walking Marvel Comics encyclopedia. He knows the best way to tell stories by way of comics. He knows the Marvel universe. He's also such a great writer; ya know... in case I didn't hit that point hard enough yet...
I also consider it a given that I work with Hubby on this. X-Future was his idea to begin with and a large portion of the cool plot twists on the board are either his brainchild or birthed from he and Phfyl collectively being evil. Even without those merits, he's also a great sounding board and support network for me.
I'd also like to work with Ron since we worked well together when we were working on that Devon/Willow collab. However, Ron clearly isn't really geared up to write ANYTHING until his life gets more settled and he has more free time. Main reason why that collab isn't done yet and posted for you fine folks to read. Trust me, I'm working diligently on the second draft of what we DO have so it can be posted as fast as I can get Ron to move.
So, I have my writing "staff" for this thing. In and of itself that's quite unique. Most webcomics are just one writer/artist. Perhaps they're a team: one artist and one writer. Having four writers and no artist though? Rough start. Taking applications...
After getting Phfyl on board with the webcomic idea, I spent the week smoothing out the edges on my concept of "classifying" mutants in to categories based on the core of their powers. I think it's a cool system Hubby helped me create. The trick though is to figure out a new collective term besides "mutants" since calling them that and having them all train at a school is a blatant rip-off of the original source material.
This is the latest snag. Poor Phfyl has spent the past week innocently bringing up Facebook, only to be bombarded with about a page's worth of my brainstorming ideas every day.
Phfylburt: That is quite a bit of information.
Me: I may have been thinking intently about this for a few months....
Phfylburt: Well that much is obvious....
Do you ever sleep?.... I'm too tired to take this all in. I'll come back later and digest it all and give you a response.
To be fair.... each ellipsed comment is a separate day's response to my insane bombardment on the poor schmuck...
At the very least I am enjoying the discussion and the brainstorming. Obviously... otherwise he wouldn't have to wade through so much every day. But hey, even if he groans every time he sees another message from me at least I am writing. That's what counts, right?
We've looked up "mutant" in multiple languages and tried synonyms to broaden our search. We've thought about locations for the first "mutant outbreak" that brings them to the public eye. We've even learned a new word: Preternatural - very unusual in a way that does not seem natural; existing outside of nature; exceeding what is natural or regular; extraordinary; inexplicable by ordinary means.
We don't have one term tied down quite yet, but I'm personally leaning towards an almost cyberpunk term I came up with. It would work well with the pseudo-cyberpunk mutant classifications Hubby thought of. Phfyl, I think, is leaning more towards the Finnish translation for Preternatural: Travaton. Although, to be truly accurate, the proper translation of Preternatural for the meaning we're leaning towards would be yliluonnollinen. I don't even KNOW where to start with pronouncing that!
The next snafu would be the actual world we want to have our universe in. Personally, I've always thought of X-Future as a near-future sort of environment. Very close to the source material of X-Men: Evolution. Once I started shifting it away from X-Men fanfiction and more original work I was seeing it more of a cyberpunk story. However, Phfyl seems to be nervous that it will still feel too close to X-Men. Although slight, there's a possibility that if we follow through with this idea of creating a webcomic Marvel might notice the similarities and take it down for copyright infringement. A bit of a stretch, but still a definite possibility.
To try to prevent that, he pitched the idea of switching gear completely, stripping everyone down to their most basic roots, and converting the whole thing in to a fantasy. He even thought the idea of a cyberpunk fantasy world would be cool.
I have to admit that when I first really started hearing The Girls I was a bit upset that they were tied down to X-Men fanfiction. They are all so compelling to me that I want to write volumes of books about them. I even debated the idea of creating them in a High Fantasy world. Perhaps throw them in to Gyateara. Different continent than Amara or Natalie and Connor, but still.
I keep going back to near-future cyberpunk though, and it seems less complicated that way. Less world-building. We still have a few crucial questions that we need to answer, but it seems like a better option. I'm throwing a million options at Phfyl - as per usual - and seeing which idea sticks. The more ideas I have out there the easier they come to me. I'm liking this!
So, let's see where this takes me. Hopefully to an on-time update next week...
.jpg)
