Notes on Writing

Titles, titles everywhere so lets all have a drink

I’m pretty sure I’ve got my title for this final section.  It came to me well over a month ago and the odds of my brain setting it aside in any real way and letting the possibility of a new title exist are pretty slim.  My head is already sold on it.  And for good reason.  It’s fun, it matches well with the story and, as a nice bonus, it even matches well with my current state of mind concerning this project.

But, as usual, I’m going to hold off on changing the category until I’m really really sure.  Really.  Granted, if you’re reading this six months from now or something then this won’t make any sense because the category will already have been changed, so for those of you who weren’t reading this as it was posted, the category title is currently “Untitled 26.”

I think I’m giddy.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Way to stick to your guns there, moron

For those of you paying attention, you’ll notice that I did not come up with a wonderful new title for that last section.  Instead I went ahead and used the title that I came up with earlier in the week which I declared to be pompous and overly verbose.  I didn’t even trim it down.

Well done, me.

And now here we are.  One story left.  One section to go.  Matthew and Epp shall soon arrive at their ending.

Seriously.  This is great fun.  If you aren’t reading, you should be.  And if your friends aren’t reading, they should be.  And if your friends’ friends aren’t reading…well to hell with those losers.

Go tell some people.

Popularity: 3% [?]

The Tell-Tale Something

First draft is done.  It’s…well it’s done.  And I’m a little perplexed about how I’m going to wrap this all up with one more story.  You might think that, since I’m the only one responsible for said wrapping up of said story, I might have some idea how that’s going to go.  You’d be wrong.

And I haven’t come up with a decent title.  I have the mouthful I posted about a few days ago, but at the very least I need to streamline that, or better yet I’ll ditch it entirely and wind up using something from the text itself. Yet no champions of title-ness have emerged.

Curious as always to hear the response for this one.   Maybe more curious than normal.

Popularity: 1% [?]

From poo into something like the opposite of poo…food, I guess

So this story turned itself around rather nicely over the course of the day.  There’s nothing like not writing to help the writing along.  It really does wonders.  Some obsessive part of my brain can’t help do anything but work out the problems in whatever story I’m writing.  And it does its best work when I’m not paying attention to it.

Its like when you can’t remember an actor’s name and you think really hard about it and get nowhere, but then, once you’re focused on something else, suddenly something in the back of your head goes, “Oh! The guy’s name was Lanky McGinty!”

It’s like that.

Not that there’s an actual actor with that name out there.

That was just an example.

Would be a great name, though.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Holy bacon fat it’s hot out

New York City is currently the temperature molten lava. Which is fun.

And the Belmont was this weekend. Which was not fun. Or rather it sounded like a lot of fun from the texts I got from all my friends who were there, but I wasn’t with them. My first year living in New York my cousin started talking about this Belmont thing and how we had to go and I didn’t know what on earth he was talking about but I went that first year and absolutely fell in love with the whole day. I’ve been every year since then except for once when I had to be out of town. It’s not that long of a streak, mind you. Seven years. But it means a lot that I stayed home to write this year instead of going to the Belmont.

And, oh, what amazing writing it is. This story has been whooping my ass up and down the block since it started and I’m nowhere near taming it. I have complete and utter faith that somehow, at one o’clock on Thursday afternoon, this story will post. But that’s only because it’s happened like that twenty four times in a row now.

If I didn’t have that as a reference point I’m not sure I’d keep chipping away at this pile of poo.

I wonder if Fitzgerald ever had moments like this.

I wonder if Fitzgerald ever used the word “poo.”

Popularity: 1% [?]

Well, I’m on MySpace now

I’m on Myspace now.  I just signed up the other day and haven’t done a thing with it yet.  Not that I know what one does with a Myspace page.  I have a Facebook page as well and all I’ve done with that is play some scrabble.

So…yeah.  If any of you are Myspace people feel free to add me or tag me or link me or what have you.  And over the next few weeks I’ll start figuring out my page and seeing what it allows me to offer you.

That’s what I really don’t understand.  I have a website, why do I need a Myspace page?  (Shut up, grandpa.)

Anyway, I’m wildly stressed about wrapping up Matthew and Epp and looking for things to occupy my mind so, yeah, Myspace.  Dig it.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Surely I can do better

I think I have a title for the next section.  But you’ll notice that, currently, the category name hasn’t been changed.

I try not to sound pompous when I write.  That’s one of my only rules.  I’ll have characters who are pompous, sure, but if my writing, the bits and pieces in between character observations and dialog and what have you, starts to get too over the top I always try and reign it in.  If I can say something using three simple words rather than twelve grandiose words, I shoot for three simple words.  Again, though, my characters are driving the tone a lot of the time and if they’re pompous then the writing will take a turn that way.

So, for that reason, I’m not so sure about this title.  I don’t believe in big artsy sounding titles.  In fact, looking over the list, I seem to like titles that invoke a touch of wordplay.  “Robin’s Flight” being one of my favorites.  This current title I’m thinking of, even though I like what it means for me, seems a bit too over the top for my liking.  It might stick though.

For those of you who are wondering and who like doing bits of side research on this stuff, here it is as it stands now (I can’t even write it without blushing):

“Where Sarpedon’s Body Lay”

Really.  That’s a bit much, no?

Popularity: 1% [?]

Don’t answer that

I went to buy some Gatorade type stuff to drink today and found myself craving a Vitamin Water. Vitamin Water (you can make their bottles waggle and bounce in a hypnotic line at their site) is bottled in all sorts of pretty colors and all the colors do different things for your body…supposedly. There’s “power” and “vital-t” and they’re all written in lowercase on the label and they give you a little blurb about how this one type of Vitamin Water will help you “power through an active day of whatever and something.” Only it’s sort of humorously written and for some reason I always fall for it.

Am I really that stupid?

I honestly sit there and think, “Gee, I really need some endurance today so I better drink some Peach-Mango Vitamin Water because it has ribose in it whatever the hell that is.” Which is annoying in a “I should probably be smarter than this” sort of way, but the baffling part is I’ll only look at what superpowers are being offered when I choose my drink. To the point of totally ignoring what flavor they happened to have added to their sugar water.

So I wound up drinking a green tea drink today because, hmm, I could use some rescuing and, as we all know, egcg is just the thing for that.

The problem?

I f#$%ng hate green tea.

Popularity: 1% [?]

It must be Monday

Man I have a lot of questions.  I opened up a rather large can of worms with that last story, plus two new characters showed up, plus I have no idea where one particular storyline is going.  The good news is that I only have two stories left to finish this up.  Ha.

Also I’ m still hungover.

I’d like to get moving on this story because this weekend is the Belmont Stakes here in New York and I’ve gone every year I’ve been living here and I love it and Big Brown might win the Triple Crown and I really need to be there.  It’s tradition.

I just need to somehow conjure up a second to last story by Friday that answers all the questions I have even though I don’t have the slightest idea where to start.

This is fun.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Weekend, hangover is thy name

Whoever invented brunch was one crazy bastard.  I’m not sure why it’s socially acceptable to get blotto at eleven in the morning on a Saturday just because you’re being served melon.  And of course once you’ve had a few then it turns into a drinking afternoon and then you’re in bed by nine o’clock at night because you can’t talk.

It was a fun Sunday.   I’m going to go try and finish my breakfast.

Can’t believe I have to write the second to last Matthew and Epp story now.  So weird.

Popularity: 1% [?]

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