I Believe in Aardvarks, Spartans and Vampires

I know I haven't been around much lately and you all have my deepest apologies on this. Life has suddenly become insane - more so than I would have thought possible. To address Joely's comment from a week or so back, I want to participate more in the 1,000 Words a Day Club, because I absolutely love the community and I have material I am working through everyday.

I'm starting to look into publication for the Post-Apocalyptic Story and I've revising a short story for a submission to a science fiction mag in two weeks. I still have my work from classes piling up in drifts...and these are the things that are killing my time:

Speaking in the Third Person: Cerebus the Aardvark

A friend loaned me Cerebus, a comic written and drawn entirely by a man named Dave Sim. The story follows a barbarian aardvark named Cerebus on his adventures across Estarcion and the city-state of Iest. With a weird mix of philosophy, feminism and a brief but touching romance, it's a graphic novel I count up there with Jeff Smith's Bone.

I Believe in Master Chief

I've also been swallowed up by the release of HALO 3, Bungie and Microsoft's Official-Slayer-of-All-Useful-Brain-Cells-and-Time. So far the graphics, the tricks you can pull as a 7-ft-tall Spartan and the game play are simply and amazingly lovely. Master Chief, John 117, is of course the hero and the range of weaponry, shields, vehicles and environments is enough to rock your socks right off. Chief has always been one of my favorite characters in a game. This is probably for the simple face that I've never seen his face. He's an Everyman. A rather tall and heavy Everyman, but sympathetic and easy to relate to because of his anonymity.

This Doesn't Bite: Twilight

On the recommendation of a close friend's little sister, I took the book she loaned to me and ate it up in almost two nights. I'm still a little ways from the end and can't get enough. The story focuses on human Bella and vampire Edward and the strange relationship they begin in the depressing gray land of the Northwest coast. Give it a read - it's part one of a trilogy - and it is SO worth it.

I have school work and a social life in here somewhere. I'm sure. But between these three (and a number of other cool things I'm not elaborating on here), I'm desperately trying not to lose touch with all of you! But I find that I sort of like wading through all the cool and discovering new ways to waste time.

So say we all.
Bri

Day 22: Ex Machina is Good...Just Not in Plot

THE PLOT STORM OF THE SUMMER HAS ARRIVED
Things I Find In My Not-Spare Time

Plot problems plague me (and I like alliteration). For the past few days I have decided I would rather bum around than write and I figure maybe a few days furlough couldn't hurt. I find strange things to do with my time, like read obscure books and find even more obscure comics (see below). I've tried to focus, but with the weird weather and any number of other usually insignificant things, it's been difficult. I talked to Joce today and we came up with a few solutions.

1. THE END IS NIGH - I wrote the end of the book a very long time ago and maybe I feel trapped in that ending. She suggested I stop worrying, and write what felt right, and let the characters take over for a few scenes, just to see where the story would go. I agreed.

2. TAKING A BREATHER - I have always felt as if each scene should further the plot. As we talked, we discussed one of our favorite books: The Time Traveler's Wife. Several scenes in that book-of-wonderful don't seem to drive the plot. Rather they allow the reader a chance to breath and see the characters in a less stressful situation. They probably also help the author not stress out while writing. So I'll probably add some of those.

IN THE EYE OF THE STORM

Things I Find In My Spare Time

Ex Machina is a series about Mitchell Hundred, a civil engineer, who gains strange powers to speak to machines. In the comic universe, Hundred becomes a hero on 9/11 when he saves the second World Trade Center Tower by guiding the plane to land in the streets of New York. After unmasking, he is elected mayor of New York and the comic follows his political career and the further development of his powers. The series is clever and well-written by DC's Brian Vaughan (Runaways, The Pride of Baghdad, and Y: The Last Man), with ever single issue beautifully drawn and colored. This series is probably my very favorite (and the best) of all the comics I read.. If you get a chance, definitely try to get a copy and give it a look. I promise - you won't be disappointed in the least.

Speaking of Y: The Last Man, I also picked up the first volume this weekend. Y is the story of a worldwide tragedy in which all men die - all men, that is, except Yorick Brown. While it's sort of a tongue-in-cheek commentary on gender, Y is probably one of the more inventive comics as far as storytelling and concept goes. I loved.

And then after watching the first four episodes for free online, I decided that apocalyptic tv-drama Jericho is up there with my other very favorite shows - Battlestar Galactica, Lost and The Office. I was also thoroughly impressed that the fans of the show fought to save it from cancellation by pelting CBS high-ups with 20 tons of nuts. Bravo.

So say we all.
Bri

Day 5 & 6: I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing

With the word count proceeding smoothly on schedule, the different story lines established in the first scene continue to expand and work with the main story's goals. For this I am very grateful. Today, instead of proceeding with the established order of things, I wrote a scene from the middle and one from the end of the novel. Reason for this madness?

First, I have to have faith that I will finish the novel. When I write these out-of-order scenes, I inevitably want to fill in the gaps between what I have "now" to get to "there." While I am no Indiana Jones to take a leap of faith, I like to see at least a hint of a path before I hop off into nothing, dragging the story with me. Second, I like to know where my characters are going. By writing that middle and end scene early in the draft, I hope to sort of give myself a north star - a point of reference so I can be sure to guide not only the plot, but also my characters' development in the right direction.

Not involving the writing life, but still of (slight) importance is the following:

Comicbook Day: Alas, comics you have failed me. Three of the four were slow and tedious, dealing with horrid continuity problems or pointless dialog. I decided to shorten my reading list. These I will include for your enjoyment: Ex Machina, Y: The Last Man, and Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil, along with a few monthlies like Batman and The Spirit.

Mr. George R.R. Martin: You write entirely too well, ser, and your series The Song of Ice and Fire, being entirely too wonderful, is the sole object of my adoration.

So say we all.
Bri

War Reports, Erebus, and the (Maybe) Return of Barry Allen

I bring you news from the front. I return after a regretfully long campaign into the realms of plotting and viciously smug ideas that appear in the night and vanish before I can find a pen. My war against their evanescent nature continues daily. But, behold! An exit strategy appears for the first novel of XIII, which, by the way, needs a better title. Any suggestions?

How did I do this, you ask. I will tell you. I read. I read a lot. I read George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones, Steven King's The Drawing of the Three and Frank Herbert's Children of Dune. I watched my favorite episodes of Battlestar Galactica and Firefly. I watched and read and observed, making notes. And the method in which they plotted out long-standing story lines and character arcs became increasingly clear and not so amazing. I could see the mechanics behind the writing and applied those same observations to my own outlines of XIII.

Tension created by additional complications ("Bushwacked" episode of Firefly), foreshadowing given frequently, subtlety and early (Drawing of the Three), and the methods of creating interesting political scenarios and intrigues (Battlestar Galactica, A Game of Thrones and Children of Dune) were all things I added to XIII's first book.

The result was amazing. The story took on a new life and the scenes where I felt the action dragged had a way in which to improve. I'm not saying that the story is perfect, at all. But I am standing in the middle of a faster paced, more tightly woven story than I was a week ago.

Other news, not from the front. Our neighbor across the street has a giant black male cat. I have named him Erebus. While, Erebus is not so fearsome as his name would suggest (he let me pick him up and he flopps around on my driveway), he is very dark and very fat. Which had nothing at all to do with him being fierce or like Erebus. That's all.

Last thing: DC is probably bringing back Barry Allen as The Flash. And while this fills me with glee, at the same time I wonder if this does not cheapen his death and his character from the late 1980s.

So say we all.
Bri

On Picking Up Threads and Pieces

Well, after a day or two of thinking over the novel and wading through a cast of about thirty, I have divided my story into three main themes, and parred number of characters down to twenty-two. Don't get me wrong - it broke my heart to do that. Some of those characters have been in the since before I knew the story. But it was necessary. While the plot still remains a bit of a mystery to me, I have plenty of threads because of the overlapping themes. The idea to try the three themes came from a little book called Chapter After Chapter, thanks to Dr. V.

The two other science fiction short stories are coming along, evolving slowly, but steadily. All I can tell you is that one has something to do with a young man named Yuri, going faster than the speed of light, and madness. The other involves a young woman trying to find her way back to earth once we move out of our Solar system and lose our roots in the vastness of space. No titles exist yet, but I'm still running the ideas around in my head.

Last note on writing: my dear friend from Virginia called me tonight and we discussed her long-running novel. Mainly we talked about how she could restart the project by changing her point-of-view and narration styles. It was a fascinating chat about the actual technicalities of writing - why an author would use first person over third, or why a writer would show a certain scene from a certain character's perspective. It's been so long since I've had one of these conversations, I was terribly engrossed. Much fun was had by all.

On to much more light hearted subjects.

Comics:
DC's Countdown #51 just about blew my socks off. It was so much fun. Written by Paul Dini (the guy who wrote Batman: The Animated Series, Superman, Justice League, and JLU for a mazillion years) is the head writer of this series. The story they've set up looks great.

Battlestar Galactica (yes, it gets its own section):
I started watching Battlestar Galactica again, and that first season is just about enough to make your head explode. One of the things I noticed was that the writers began all the major plot lines of the next three seasons in that first episode. Pretty impressive.

So say we all.
Bri