2.12.2013

A Predilection For Procrastination

Oh, you're here. Quick, get behind that tree! Oh, please don't let it find me!

I'm writing this post because I'm procrastinating from writing.

That has to be the worst reason to write a blog post ever.

*Stops typing.*
*Googles "Worst reasons to make a blog"*

Nope. Nothing there.

For some reason, the mobile blogger site decided to tag this post with Tom Hiddleston, and now it won't let me edit that text box, so I feel like I have to mention Tom somewhere in this post now. XD

We now return our regularly scheduled bullshit program.

Oh no! That sudden tangent punched a hole in the blogosphere and created a massive energy fluctuation that attracted the plot bunny's attention! It's found me! Aaargh!

Okay, as promised, here is yet another excerpt of Deus Ex Machina.

This was the city of Planet Hell on Drunei. Michron Nebulon was at the epicenter of society, in the heart of the buzzing behemoth. The crowd surged around him; he stood free and lonely as the desert sky, and already he felt more like a Commoner than he ever had at Exxox.

What? I never said how long it would be!

Also, I just wanted to name a place Planet Hell.

*Crawls under a conveniently placed rock*

This hiding is part of a larger pattern. It's been days since I logged into my desktop. I've been ducking behind a corner every time I think of opening up Scrivener. I've been sneaking a few sentences into plain text files here and there. 

I don't want to know what my word count is. I don't want to see the collective whole. I'm afraid of opening it up to find a giant pile of crap staring back at me.

Thus you see me, the guerrilla writer.

*ninjas off a few more words*

I think I might actually have broken a thousand today, with this intermittent writing. I still don't have a count, but we'll see what we'll see. 

And now, it is 12AM, and I'm dead sleepy. Adieu waking world. Parting is such sweet--

Zzzzzzzzzzzz.


2.09.2013

A Hamster In The Dark

The correct party to whom you might apportion the blame for this post entity's existence is my friend Maxwell, over on The Wandering Quille. Around me, blog posts from the internets wastelands that formed at the beginning of 2013 are starting to pop up like little guilt gophers with big blinky eyes. I suppose I'll join the ranks, and be grumpy about how I feel like I'm running while standing still, like a hamster on a treadmill in a dark, empty room.

*Cue Dio singing A Rainbow Hamster in the Dark*

That has got to be the worst reason for a blog post ever. 

Be that as it may, it's that time of year where writers everywhere suddenly start waking up after the January doldrums. In my case, it's been a little more than a month since I started writing Deus Ex Machina.

That recurring quote in Battlestar Galactica comes to mind -- "All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again." 

What it means is, this is the time frame when my stories fall apart. I start feeling like I've made no progress. I feel like my characters are flatlining. I start spiraling into the Chasm of Despair, in a fit of black depression, feeling like I'm the worst writer on the planet.

Which is exactly what happened. 

I've ranted about all of this before, and I will rant about all of this again, so there is no need to go into it all, because the answers remain the same. 

I'm in the pit, and I want out. My characters are bored. My dialogue is wooden. My setting is nonexistent. 

Oh, Exxox. Nothing happens in Exxox. It's the same thing every day. The worst part is, I can't change that. That's the point of Exxox. It's a prison camp hermit retreat for prisoners of state. It's a voluntary retreat from the rest of humanity.

Yet, for some reason, two agents have decided that this is where they have to be.

Also, why does it so prominently allow access to the Sybe? And what's with the hyperspatial death hallways? I know what Exxox is supposed to symbolize, but how to turn it into plot, I have no clue.

Then there's the moon that looks so boring that no one even looks twice at it, yet Ante says that it's haunted by something beyond science.

There's the virtual reality realm inhabited by The Presence, mysterious NPCs which come and go as they please, which seem to serve no purpose, and whose origin no one knows. Yet, Mike and Nova seem to have the ability to control them. Who is the master, and why?

There are movements and migrations all over the place. Suddenly, the human government decides to kick the  Earthmen off of Earth. 

There are the mysterious red discs, each the size of a large thumbnail, which shine like the eye of Sauron in the darkness...also known as the Chaos Nodules, also known as a Maguffin.

There is the force of the Chaos Division, a.k.a. Memory Men, an organization of official "paper shredders," who erase from history any incidents the government and anyone else with enough money wants covered up. (Not the same as the Agency, which is Khronos Division -- I don't think they have time travel.)

There is Michron Nebulon, a mysterious man with a past that he seems to prefer forgotten. I could launch into an entire blog post by itself of his idiosyncracies, but suffice it to say that he could have anything in the world that he wants, but he doesn't want most of it. I won't say much more, because spoilers, but I am wondering why he is in Exxox, and why he and Crais are simultaneously enemies on the weekdays and friends on the weekends.

There is Nova, who is a homeless Syber star, and who doesn't even seem to want to be in the story. 

There are Crais and Ante, the former a Memory Man, the latter a Sybernetic soldier, or Sybernaut, who, for some reason, think Exxox is the place for the cool kids, and who love stepping on each other's toes.

There is also Rena, who is...Rena. I have a feeling that she will serve as one of those narrators who is there for a lot of the story, but whose actions aren't as central. Oh, and that brings up an awkward question that you'd think I'd have thought about before: who is Rena? I have a feeling that that's something that might even turn out to be central to the plot.

Oh, and I can't forget about the depressed Imperator of humanity, and his ailing son, Victor. 

Then, of course, there is Nicholas, who gets sent off on a huge ship into the deeps of space, and meets mysterious space elves who warn of a great danger that threatens to engulf all sentient species.

Then there is C. Valen, the existential Earth girl who refuses to leave Earth.

I know all of these things are related, but I don't yet know how. I have no plot. I know what I want this story to be, but I have no idea how to turn it into that. I want an epic science fiction story, of the sort that often comes up in fantasy, except this is science fiction. It may not always be hard science fiction, and may sometimes venture into science fantasy, but that's about the gist of it.

Oh, and how do I summarize this whole thing? Lord of the Rings in space. It's not at all the same story, really, but it resonates in some ways.

Anyway, the only thing I know to do at this point is to keep writing, and to hope that something will make sense at some point. So forth I venture, running and standing still...or not. 

That hamster wheel better be comfortable.