This weekend I bit the bullet and spent a very, very long time revising some of my old articles about a certain Japanese video game series. It was an unbelievable pain in the ass, but it's DONE. I didn't even really want to do it, but -- well, OCD is a pretty powerful motivator. The things have my name on them and they were pretty insubstantial compared to the later additions, so I fleshed them out a bit to bring them up to par. This would also be why I don't have a post prepared for this week.God, I need something else to think about. Something to flush the Espers and dragons out of my brains.
On the agenda for the next few weeks:
No rest for the broke and driven. Maybe something good will come of it all.
My friend Jeff got married two weeks ago. I was the best man, so I had to give a toast. The geek that I am, I thought it would be appropriate to offer the happy couple my blessing by raising a glass to Shakespeare's 116th sonnet (which I imagine gets a whole lot of play in the wedding circuit). For your reading pleasure:
SONNET 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Note #1: My recitation omitted the "O no!" in line five. I couldn't find a way of working it in without killing the rhythm.
Note #2: "Bark" is an old term for "ship." You know -- ships were made of wood, wood comes from trees, trees are covered in bark...
Note #3: When Shakespeare wrote this poem, "proved" rhymed with "loved" and "come" rhymed with "doom." This certainly isn't the only time the evolution of English pronunciation has worked against the bard. I always get blue balls from the very first lines of Macbeth:
When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
When the hurlyburly's done,
When the battle's lost and won.
That will be ere the set of sun.
Where the place?
Upon the heath.
There to meet with Macbeth.
HEATH IS SUPPOSED TO RHYME WITH MACBETH BUT IT DOESN'T ANYMORE. MOTHERFUCKER.
Random Question #1:
ReplyDeleteWhen you're writing a n-v-l how much of the story do you plan in advance and how much just sort of happens as you're actually writing it?
Random Question #2:
Do you tend to write more "from the beginning through to the end" or do you write sections while they're top of mind?
Random Question #3:
And while we're at it why do you write the word n-v-l that way?
I can't help but notice that you still haven't updated the intro to your FF retrospective or updated FF13's final conclusion so it relates.
ReplyDeleteWas it a trite waste of time? Do you feel crazy? Was it always called the rise and fall of final fantasy? Did you just keep on writing for the page views? What were the dates for all these articles? HOW IMPORTANT ARE THEY!?
C'mon man, I know at the the end of the FF13 article you said that FF13 was awful and Square Enix has driven the series into the ground but that isn't a summary of the series. I demand vindication for my time invested.
Adam:
ReplyDelete1.) I always start with a pretty clear idea of where I want it to start, where I want it to go, and what I want it to do. It's the figuring out how to get it there and make it happen that ends up being a surprise and a challenge.
2.) I usually do beginning-to-end, but I'll jot down ideas, snippets, and even sketch out passages for later if inspiration suddenly strikes.
3.) I feel silly and self-conscious talking about how I've written a "book" when it's clearly not a book -- it's a Word document on my computer. It'll be a novel when it's something other people are carrying it around with them.
Zade:
D'oh. I actually have another introduction written, but I need to get Polly to post it.
Uh, one question at a time.
1.) I had fun doing it and other people seem to enjoy reading about it, so I guess not!
2.) I do feel crazy.
3.) I think I picked the title as soon as I finished writing about II and realized I basically had to keep going at that point.
4.) The page views are definitely a motivation. I have more fun writing other stuff, but video game jibber-jabber is what people want to read. These things are still fun to write, especially when I need to step back from a heavier project.
5.) Nuts. I meant to date the articles, but forgot about it. It'll really take some buttering-up before Polly agrees to upload revised and dated versions. (I don't have access to SMPS's ftp, so everytime I have a typo or a glitch to fix, Polly has to go fix it herself. It's a bit of a pain in the ass for her.)
6.) They are the most important things anyone has ever written. Or were you talking about Final Fantasy?
Vindication, vindication. Okay, in a nutshell: when Final Fantasy is good, it's REALLY good. when it's bad, it's REALLY REALLY bad. They should have quit while they were ahead after VII, but that's not how an entertainment franchise works.
Thanks.
ReplyDeleteHow does one pronounce n-v-l or: What do you call your n-v-l when telling people about it?
ReplyDeleteZade: You're welcome? That didn't seem so cheery.
ReplyDeleteZukonub: I rarely tell anybody I've written a novel or that I'm working on a novel. In conversation I just call it a "story."