Bright Eyed and Bushy Tailed
Apr. 6th, 2006 11:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
itsallovernowI'm a wind-up toy this morning, rushing around pre-work to make sure I have everything for this evening's show. We're not ready. So not ready. And now it doesn't matter. Momentum and history and muscle memory and luck and audience all take over and sometimes that's good, and sometimes it's a Class A fuck up but there's nothing to be done for it now.
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rubberneck made my day this morning and she knows why. Grins foolishly. Would you believe, dear, that I was just talking about this to cofax7 last night on YIM? Patience is a virtue, and thus is rewarded!! Because I love our project so very much, and it makes me deliriously happy to see those themes spin out. It's not a project I could do on my own, and I've been so awed to find that, to learn how to work with another person, to bend and stretch, to reach, to go back and read things and think, "Either of us could have written that, and wow is that cool."
Watched Bones last night, and while the mysteries continue to be dumb, I sort of love this silly show. It's... despite the overabundance of technology, despite the sheer silliness and cleanliness of all of it, there's a really nice geek aesthetic that comes through. I can see these people as actual social scientists given the best tools to do their job, which is not a claim I might have made six months ago. These characters are really developing, have facets and flaws and humor and I'm enjoying that very much. And seeing David Boreanaz act really dorky has also been an unexpected treat.
I've paced out the rest of the origin story in my head, and there are two sections left and I want to ignore all my other work and just write them.
I've also been re-reading the big FS epics - Weight of the World, In the Company of Ghosts, Little Acorns, Bellum Interuptum,Rainer'sSideways series. Such good work there, such rich, complex universes and I love how, in the hands of a really capable writer, the world, the characters can go AU and yet they are still recognizable. Each author has a slightly different take on the characters, and yet I see enough of "my" versions of the characters to love each of these 'verses thoroughly, to see them seperately. I'm sort of awed, and a little afraid to read my own epic for fear it won't hold up. I need a little more distance, esp. from Ghosts, and from Little Acorns, to not be comparing with a scowl. And yet, when I do re-read my stuff, I'm always a little surprised at some of the plotting, some of the moments. Dude. I love that.
A few days ago, with the recc your own work meme,leadensky asked how you can recc yourself, how you can ever know if something's good. And this is a tough question because there are plenty of writers who love their own work, and I know that, really, it's not good. Or it's not..."good" in the way I consider writing good. Doesn't mean there's not potential, might mean that they reached too high or too far, or didn't reach far enough. Might mean they need more years, more mileage, more structure, more education, more feeling, more talent. Might mean a whole lot of things. But I think, as a writer, you can look at something you've written and determint whether it's good - for you - and whether it's good as a piece of writing. And opinions will change over time, but there's a core to lasting words that resonates immediately. Because I know, when I'm done, whether or not it's good. I know, looking at the story I recced for Cret, that it's better than the story it's a sequel to. I don't know why it worked out that way. I worked my ass off on the original story, but the sequel just works better, comes together better in prose, plotting, imagery, texture, everything. It's something I just know. And I could break it down like a good Lit major, tell you why from a structural POV, but some of it's instinct, I think.
rubberneck made my day this morning and she knows why. Grins foolishly. Would you believe, dear, that I was just talking about this to cofax7 last night on YIM? Patience is a virtue, and thus is rewarded!! Because I love our project so very much, and it makes me deliriously happy to see those themes spin out. It's not a project I could do on my own, and I've been so awed to find that, to learn how to work with another person, to bend and stretch, to reach, to go back and read things and think, "Either of us could have written that, and wow is that cool."Watched Bones last night, and while the mysteries continue to be dumb, I sort of love this silly show. It's... despite the overabundance of technology, despite the sheer silliness and cleanliness of all of it, there's a really nice geek aesthetic that comes through. I can see these people as actual social scientists given the best tools to do their job, which is not a claim I might have made six months ago. These characters are really developing, have facets and flaws and humor and I'm enjoying that very much. And seeing David Boreanaz act really dorky has also been an unexpected treat.
I've paced out the rest of the origin story in my head, and there are two sections left and I want to ignore all my other work and just write them.
I've also been re-reading the big FS epics - Weight of the World, In the Company of Ghosts, Little Acorns, Bellum Interuptum,Rainer'sSideways series. Such good work there, such rich, complex universes and I love how, in the hands of a really capable writer, the world, the characters can go AU and yet they are still recognizable. Each author has a slightly different take on the characters, and yet I see enough of "my" versions of the characters to love each of these 'verses thoroughly, to see them seperately. I'm sort of awed, and a little afraid to read my own epic for fear it won't hold up. I need a little more distance, esp. from Ghosts, and from Little Acorns, to not be comparing with a scowl. And yet, when I do re-read my stuff, I'm always a little surprised at some of the plotting, some of the moments. Dude. I love that.
A few days ago, with the recc your own work meme,
leadensky asked how you can recc yourself, how you can ever know if something's good. And this is a tough question because there are plenty of writers who love their own work, and I know that, really, it's not good. Or it's not..."good" in the way I consider writing good. Doesn't mean there's not potential, might mean that they reached too high or too far, or didn't reach far enough. Might mean they need more years, more mileage, more structure, more education, more feeling, more talent. Might mean a whole lot of things. But I think, as a writer, you can look at something you've written and determint whether it's good - for you - and whether it's good as a piece of writing. And opinions will change over time, but there's a core to lasting words that resonates immediately. Because I know, when I'm done, whether or not it's good. I know, looking at the story I recced for Cret, that it's better than the story it's a sequel to. I don't know why it worked out that way. I worked my ass off on the original story, but the sequel just works better, comes together better in prose, plotting, imagery, texture, everything. It's something I just know. And I could break it down like a good Lit major, tell you why from a structural POV, but some of it's instinct, I think.
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spoilery Bones ahoy!
Date: 2006-04-06 07:04 pm (UTC)None of this stopped me from going WTF last night when the boys thought a mixed gas, deep shaft, night dive would be a smart thing to do AFTER consuming a 6 pack of beer. *eyeroll*
Re: spoilery Bones ahoy!
Date: 2006-04-06 07:09 pm (UTC)Re: spoilery Bones ahoy!
Date: 2006-04-06 07:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-06 07:17 pm (UTC)I held off on loving it at first, because FOX always burns me, but lately I've just given over to it. Which means, naturally, that it will be cancelled in about a week. *sigh*
no subject
Date: 2006-04-06 07:22 pm (UTC)And yes, Boreanaz is working SURPRISINGLY well as booth. He actually almost has dimensions in his acting! ;) (I watched some S1-2 BtVS recently and just laughed my butt off at RobotActorBoy! ;)
no subject
Date: 2006-04-06 07:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-06 08:00 pm (UTC)For CSI, there are stories that I know, quite firmly, are good stories, but that I have no overwhelming emotional attachment to. I enjoyed writing them, but they didn't spark in the same way others did. One of them in particular, a long gen casefile, was very poorly received because of its nature. I still think it was a competently written, well-characterized, and an excellent example of gen in a fandom that's almost entirely bereft of that category.
Not sure if I have a point, there. But thoughts nonetheless. ;)
no subject
Date: 2006-04-06 08:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-06 10:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-06 10:34 pm (UTC)I tend to start with a fully formed sentence or paragraph, but from there, I'm almost universally surprised. It's why I have so many typos I think. I can read the sentence 100 times the way it should be before seeing it the way it is.
But yeah, when I go back to it, and it feels like someone else wrote it, and it feels right? Then I know it's good.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-06 11:54 pm (UTC):::ponders that visual and is vaguely disturbed:::