Writing, Woes and Cataclysm

Writing Workshops

I struggled through the screen writing workshop but never completed my first draft.  It’s not the goal of the first workshop but something you’d really like to do within a few months afterward.  Since this was all just an experiment to find the form and length most suited to my style, I wasn't too deterred.  I pushed on and signed up for Introduction to Short Fiction, even though I felt my plots are too complicated for 5000 words or less.  It’s an experiment right? So there’s nothing to lose in a learning experience.

Early on in the Short Fiction course I discovered something amazing and kooky about my stories, something I think contributes to my inability to finish a projected. For whatever reason, the stories I concoct, while interesting and enjoyable for others to read – at least according to some of the workshop critiques, the stories do not interest me.  Say what???  I came to this insane realization, that I was writing stories I wouldn’t read myself, much less buy.  They were my ideas, characters and plots but they weren’t in the types of universes I enjoy escaping to when I read fiction. 

Writing Woes

It was a real mind-bender when I came to this conclusion while trying to force myself to sit down and edit a story.  My plots were all gritty and in your face like, Babylon Babies, which while I enjoyed the movie (Babylon AD), I WOULD NEVER have read the books - ever.    Then I considered my prose, this blog, which is also delivered in a cut-to-the-chase style.  But that's not what I actually read myself.  A few participants suggested I try graphic novels, that my tone and style were a perfect fit.  I cringed and wept on the inside.  Not really, I have nothing against those forms but once again, we're back to that's NOT what I read myself or enjoy.

When I pick up a book for entertainment and escapism, I want fantasy that is lighthearted and whimsical like Angie Sage’s Septimus Heap series or epic and urban, like The The Amber Chronicles by Roger Zelazny.  My favorite short story author is Ursula K. Le Guin, for her short stories that were the precursors to her novel The Wizard of Earthsea.  I don't want to even explore the physiological implications that what seeps from my pen is more like The Omen.  You can check out the simple assignment that brought the problem to light for me here.  Yet it could on some level explain my procrastination beyond the original blurting out of the tale compared the long road of refinement that follows.

Now that I thought I had unearthed a contributing factor, I decided to forage through much earlier story ideas.  Maybe I'd find something hidden there before I'd become so very jaded.  As luck would have it I did find something more like what I'd read, and it has a great opportunity to provide stories that will fit into this very short form I'm currently learning.   I've received good feedback and am actually excited about working on the next draft which is a new feeling for me.  *smile*

Cataclysmic Tragedy

I have this foreboding, that nothing sustainable is going to come along to capture my interest for long in 2010.  I’m still holding out hope for Allods Online.  Yet I’m going in knowing that I will likely exist at the end-game, over the group-only Allods exploration and ship combat. 

Once they get “foot-out-ass” with the Cash Shop, it’s still worth the trip to max level.  But where do I go from there?  I have a sinking feeling it will be next World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm.  No offense to Blizzard or WOW but if that's best available for me in a fantasy experience this year, then damn, I will have hit a new low.

I could return with my tri-box characters to see the changes while questing.  I could tri-box the new races, but that's a bit extreme to start over again.  Plus I’ve yet to step foot in WoTLK.  If Cataclysm brings back that nostalgic feeling for the original world, which was always my favorite, I might have to join the other returning players.  No one seems to be able to out shine Blizzard’s ability to add something at least once a year, that everyone wants to see – for a while at least.  Lord help me if that's my best choice for a fantasy MMO this year.

Comments

[Pan]

I hadn't heard of the Septimus Heap series. It looks cute, but maybe a bit too pre-teen for me. I'll check it out after I finish catching up with Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series.

The piece you linked to is well written and does a good job of making you feel the environment and emotion, but it seems a little too gritty and grim for my personal taste. Good luck with the alternative material you're working on.

As for finding a good MMO in 2010: Darkfall's $1 trial just launched if you want to play something new for a week. Have you thought about going back to Eve Online or trying out some of the indie, or smaller, or older games like Fallen Earth, Ultima Online or even Vanguard? I hear EQ2 is steadily improving too...

[Tesh]

You could always come back to Wizard 101 for a while. ;)

On writing, I hear you. I love to read lighter stuff, but the world I've been crafting (steampunk/magepunk/Dinotopia) could easily topple into dystopic myopia. Thing is, the *setting* intrigues me, and the potential to say something important about history and sociology in a "what if" environment. It may well turn out more like the original Star Wars, where death is clean, the baddies are threatening but not oppressive and heroes come out on top in the end. (Unlike that *awful* New Jedi Order series of books...)

It's a relic of a simpler time (some call it "campy", like MacGyver, where Mac almost always wins), but y'know, I *like* that sense of optimism and light heartedness. Crapsack worlds don't really interest me. So, while my setting of choice could easily slide into depression, I'm taking care to maintain hope and optimism. Time will tell if I can make it work, but there definitely is the potential for the setting to run away from what I actually want.

[Saylah]

I'm a fantasy whore. I go back and forth to EVE mostly when I'm in my darker moods. The environment fits me then as does the atmosphere. I'm sure I'll be back in EVE and when I do, I'm going to sign-up for the PVP crash course the Van Hemlock podcasted about recently. The problem I see now is that STO's ship combat is more readily available and more exciting but the rest of the game wasn't up to snuff. Darkfall isn't for me and older games have older graphics. Yes, I'm a graphics snob.

Thanks, yes it was nicely written and too gritty for me too, which has been my dilemma. :-)

[Saylah]

I have considered W101 but the zone I'd be moving to is the one players have complained about the most, Dragonspypre. Not sure what happened with the design of that zone but many are very unhappy about it which doesn't actually make me enthusiastic to come back and head there.

When it comes to the reading, I there with ya. I like the happy-gushy, good prevails over evil but my protagonists almost always end up face down in the dirt before its over. LOL I've learned there's a huge distinction between what I like and where my own mindset actually resides. I'm not fond of dystopian settings but I'll be damned if that's not what comes out.

What I really want to do is bring epic high fantasy out of the middle ages frame work. HP was successful in doing that to a degree. However, most of the magic of that world takes place in the non-muggle environment which is the middle ages genre with castles, lords and ladies. I want high fantasy but in some other setting.