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Fel
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Update...

Post by Fel »

So, I'm about halfway through the next chapter of secession...and I've been halfway through it for about 2 weeks now.

It's not so much writer's block as it is a combination of IRL crap, too much Warcraft (I started PvPing again), having to plan out and script two major battles (those always take a major amount of behind-the-scenes time for me), and me just not leaving something well enough alone.

Much to my eternal chagrin, I just couldn't leave what I thought was a bad story a bad story, and I've been splitting time between writing Secession and rewriting the story of Darkest Night.

If you don't know that story, don't worry. You didn't miss anything. But despite the subject matter, I couldn't leave a morally flawed, conflicted, melancholy, angsty character like that alone. You know how I love to wallow in self-inflicted misery, and that essentially defines Darkest Night's character. I scrapped the entire "I wrote this for my 9 year old cousin" angle and redid it from a much more mature perspective, where I have more freedom to explore Darkest Night's internal moral conflict, his history, and his quest for redemption.

I must be a closet Goth. I seriously must be. If a character isn't miserable, it just doesn't seem like it's much fun to write.
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Hearly
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Re: Update...

Post by Hearly »

Thanks for the update fel.
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Mizriath
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Re: Update...

Post by Mizriath »

Thanks for the update Fel..... except Darkest Night.

I just cheated on how to find the story by using the search key and found that you release it on Christmas and i did not see it. :)

Well this is a rewrite and expansion for the future or a one time kind of thing. :P
The sea flows as long as Earth exist, Love is alive as long as people exist. I will read Fel's stories as long as my heart still beats.
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Fel
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Re: Update...

Post by Fel »

Mizriath wrote:Well this is a rewrite and expansion for the future or a one time kind of thing. :P
It's definitely a one-time thing.

Writing it in the first place proved that I'm bad at fanfiction. Making someone else's character stay "in character" from my perspective isn't as easy as you think it is, because you may not understand the character's internal workings. Plot? Easy. Writing someone else's character and making it feel like the character you already know? Not easy.

But my cousin did like it, so chalk that up to a 9 year old's limited ability to criticize writing. That may have been good enough for her, but I thought it was bad work, and I couldn't leave it alone.

Odds are I won't even post this story, given it's so far outside the mainstream of my usual work, and as such would probably not be well received around here...and that's okay with me. Even I feel a little weird writing it, but I wasn't satisfied with the first attempt, and I felt an intriguing character study like that of Darkest Night deserved better. It's a "I did a bad job despite liking the plot and the character I created, I'm fixing it because I can't leave it alone" project. It's all selfishly about me...and every once in a while, you gotta do things for "me."

So, while I thought it was fair you guys know why Secession's being delayed, you'll just have to live with me working the OCD out. That OCD DID produce Earth Bond the last time, cause I got OCD over a story idea I had that I just had to develop despite leaving you guys hanging with an unfinished Shadow Walker...you won't be quite so lucky this time, however. You'll just have to suck it up and wait for me to get back to real work.

It won't be THAT long. As I said, i'm working on both of them at the same time. In Secession, I'm doing a lot of the required "stuff you never see" work that makes what you DO see make sense. When I get bored with that (and I DO get bored with it quickly, it's kinda boring drawing up diagrams saying to myself "okay, this guy goes here and he blows up...now where did those missiles go? Did that GRAF cannon already fire? ARGH!"), I've been switching to wallowing in that self-inflicted misery I mentioned up there ^. Tormenting a character in a story makes me feel better, I get to take it out on someone else rather than terrorize my cat.

So deal with it. ;)
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Mizriath
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Re: Update...

Post by Mizriath »

Thanks Fel.

I wish I am the cat, now that i feel the cat will not be terrorized but having insight to Fel's working, how you work things out and really at work, seeing the master kind. I tried out at fiction ... no go and now I decide to just focus on photography. :D
The sea flows as long as Earth exist, Love is alive as long as people exist. I will read Fel's stories as long as my heart still beats.
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Greymist
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Re: Update...

Post by Greymist »

Fel wrote: It won't be THAT long. As I said, i'm working on both of them at the same time. In Secession, I'm doing a lot of the required "stuff you never see" work that makes what you DO see make sense. When I get bored with that (and I DO get bored with it quickly, it's kinda boring drawing up diagrams saying to myself "okay, this guy goes here and he blows up...now where did those missiles go? Did that GRAF cannon already fire? ARGH!"), I've been switching to wallowing in that self-inflicted misery I mentioned up there ^. Tormenting a character in a story makes me feel better, I get to take it out on someone else rather than terrorize my cat.

So deal with it. ;)
So basically you're playing D&D/Warhammer 40k (in space) with yourself, and then you write a summary of what happened (with a bit of gory detail for good measure)?

Do you have stats for all the ships? :P
NSC
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Re: Update...

Post by NSC »

I'd read it, if you'll share it. I read the original and while I have no familiarity with the source material, I did enjoy it. I would find a "grown up" version of the story interesting, and it would tide me over until the next chapter of Secession.
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Fel
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Re: Update...

Post by Fel »

Greymist wrote:
Fel wrote: It won't be THAT long. As I said, i'm working on both of them at the same time. In Secession, I'm doing a lot of the required "stuff you never see" work that makes what you DO see make sense. When I get bored with that (and I DO get bored with it quickly, it's kinda boring drawing up diagrams saying to myself "okay, this guy goes here and he blows up...now where did those missiles go? Did that GRAF cannon already fire? ARGH!"), I've been switching to wallowing in that self-inflicted misery I mentioned up there ^. Tormenting a character in a story makes me feel better, I get to take it out on someone else rather than terrorize my cat.

So deal with it. ;)
So basically you're playing D&D/Warhammer 40k (in space) with yourself, and then you write a summary of what happened (with a bit of gory detail for good measure)?

Do you have stats for all the ships? :P
Grey, that EXACTLy sums up what I've been doing. ;)

Choreographing a battle is very much akin to playing a game of chess against yourself, with the added flavor that neither "side" can be aware of the underlying strategy of the opponent. Each side's strategy and moves have to be independent, reacting only to what that side can "see."

It's not as easy as it looks. ;)
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miraborn
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Re: Update...

Post by miraborn »

Fel,

Any chance you can scan those diagrams and share them with us? I'm sure I'm not the only one who would find them quite interesting. How about a grand galactic map too :)

-M
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Fel
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Re: Update...

Post by Fel »

miraborn wrote:Fel,

Any chance you can scan those diagrams and share them with us? I'm sure I'm not the only one who would find them quite interesting. How about a grand galactic map too :)

-M
Sorry, I'm anachronistic. I don't have a scanner, or a printer.

I used to have one of those combo models, but I virtually never used it and when I moved I don't have room where I keep my computer for a printer stand, so I sent it to my mom. It does more than gather dust in Florida. ;)
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Wolfee
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Re: Update...

Post by Wolfee »

Fel wrote:
miraborn wrote:Fel,

Any chance you can scan those diagrams and share them with us? I'm sure I'm not the only one who would find them quite interesting. How about a grand galactic map too :)

-M
Sorry, I'm anachronistic. I don't have a scanner, or a printer.

I used to have one of those combo models, but I virtually never used it and when I moved I don't have room where I keep my computer for a printer stand, so I sent it to my mom. It does more than gather dust in Florida. ;)
I'm an IT geek and all I've got at home is a little B&W laser printer...

I must say it cracks me up... everyone see's Fel is online and sits there hitting refresh and hoping...does that constitute cyber stalking?! :shock:
miraborn
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Re: Update...

Post by miraborn »

Cell Phone Camera = Poor Man's Scanner ;-)
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