(no subject)

[apocalypsos]

When I said that I was going to get published this year or die trying, that wasn't BS. Luckily for me, the muses I thought had gone on permanent vacation were, in fact, in rehab getting off the crack. Fortunately for me, though, they went to the muse methadone clinic or something, because they're just as fucked up as they were when they left.

See, I have this story. A while back, I got some truly ridiculous feedback on my Buffy fanfic "Ghost in the Shell" that basically stated I was a bad writer because ALL fiction is written in past tense (unlike the story, which was present tense). Being me, I took it as a challenge to write a novel in present tense, just to show I could. Hell, that's how most of my stories start.

Anyway, I also had a lot of really fun fantasy characters left over from stories I'd started and never actually finished. So in a weird maneuver (to me, anyways), I took a whole bunch of totally unrelated characters and dropped them into this present-tense epic I was planning. And just to totally fuck myself over some more, I figured, "You know what I should do? Write it first-person! Yeah, and I could alternate characters for the entire book! Yeeeeeaaaah." Because I am, in fact, a 'tard.

Okay, to be honest, I was writing a nice steady clip like that for a good long, looooooooong while. It turned out that the whole bunch of unrelated characters got along (which was cool) and also bickered like a herd of restless five-year-olds (which was also good). And some of them clicked. Don't you love that, when your original characters stop in mid-story, break the fourth wall, and say, "Look, I know you made me hang out with this dumbass because we're all with the different and whatnot, but I happen to like the son of a bitch, all right?" The scary thing was, the story started out one book and suddenly said, "Screw you, I'm five books! And not only that, I'm five loooooooong books, so ... *raspberry*"

And then after twenty-five chapters (yes, twenty-five) I hit a dry spell, put the story aside, and now it's something like six months later. But now my stupid brain wants to work on it again, which would be great if it weren't for the fact that it now wants me to go back and rewrite the entire bloody thing in third-person past tense. Damn muses. I hope you all eat ambrosia laced with mad cow and fall onto pointy objects eyes-first.

But as I was writing out my plot notes again today, I realized just how much I already knew in my head. Damn, but I planned this out down to some embarrassingly excrutiating details. It's called a life, self. Get one.

Not that I'm complaining too much, though. It's not like I'm changing plot or dialogue for twenty-five chapters (gulp), just action. That's not too bad, right? Right?!

********

Also, watched "Arrested Development" tonight for the first time. I've been meaning to for a while, but just kept forgetting. *still giggling* That's got to be one of the funniest shows I've ever seen. And it stars Jason Bateman. I could have sworn those two concepts defy some law of nature.

Comments

[slodwick.livejournal.com]

Yes!! I watched the Arrested Development mini-marathon that was on the other day, and oh my dude... so freakin' funny!

And, I am loathe to admit it, but I be developing a(nother) crush on Jason Bateman. Damn my weakness for funny boys!

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Hey--I'm a total stranger, I know, but you get quoted a lot on metaquotes, so I thought I'd check out the rest of your journal, and it really is great. Just wanted to say good luck on your epic--it can be done. I wrote a whole novelly-thing in first person/second person (I do this, you do this, we did that), and... wait, that smacktard said that all fiction is written in the past tense? Wow. That's... wow.

Anyway, just wanted to wish you luck, from one writer girl to another. :)

[fyrdrakken]

Hmm, have you thought of writing some chapters third-person past tense and others first-person? I wouldn't recommend switching tenses but switching narration or forms of narration would work... (Not that I'm saying you have to go past-tense if you don't want to -- or that you can't switch it over if you find you'd rather.) Still, sounds like you had fun with what you've done with the novel, and that's generally a good thing. (If the writer isn't enjoying it, probably the reader won't either.)