Author: Don

Solo Action

I can relate to this.

“And maybe it’s our drive to be alone — not all the time, certainly, but enough to read and dream and reset our mental energies in order to deal with People again — that at least partly impels the drive to write. Reading and writing become the bridge crossing us from our carefully guarded alone-zone into the world, into the human condition itself. We contain multitudes, and those multitudes contain us.”

The sad irony of course is that I’m in a cafe doing this, instead of in the home office with the door closed. I can’t help it, I either need to be completely isolated or be surrounded by people who aren’t entitled to one iota of my time and attention.

I’m not so sure the solitude has to do with my particular drive to write. My drive comes from the struggle to take ideas from my head, some that’ve been there for years, and spit them out in a form others might appreciate. I’ve been doing the spitting part for years, anyway–why not construct something from it?

Tough Love

Today, I had my first story critiqued by the writers group I joined two weeks ago. “The one about the angel.” God, it was exactly what I needed! A lot of the criticism mirrored some of the general feedback I’d get when I’d submit it: “Good prose/writing, nice concept, but…” They gave me a lot to think about, and one or two things I hadn’t even considered.

Because of the length limits, I only brought in the first 2/3 of the story, picking a place that was somewhat of a cliffhanger. I figured that if I did my job right, they’d be interested in the end. Despite some of the problems they pointed out, most of the group–the ones present, despite Fathers Day–did want to know what happened next, which was pretty gratifying.

Childhood, Redux

“Utopia” has to be the best DOCTOR WHO episode of the new series, if for no other reason than it made me feel like I was twelve again, jaw dropped in awe of all the levels of awesome!

I’d always thought more of David Tennant’s episodes were more good than bad, but there was something that didn’t click the way Christopher Eccleston’s run did. I think it has something to do with age. Not mine, but the actor’s. To me, the image of the Doctor as this older, adult figure went hand-in-hand with his being a 900 year-old traveler in time and space. Whereas David Tennant is just over two years older than me. Not that his Doctor isn’t all manner of awesome; it’s just that some of the edge was taken off. Eccleston, on the other hand, has almost a decade on me. His Doctor, and his episodes, still held a bit of that larger-than-life gravitas for me. I enjoyed his run while fondly remembering the old childhood nostalgia.

But watching this last episode, I was right back there! Eleven or twelve years-old on a Saturday night with the lights out watching the only thing that PBS was good for (at the time, to me), getting my geek on.

I Can Buy This

Pretty, Fizzy Paradise: For Want of a Hero…

But the thing is. Anti-heroes don’t mean anything without a heroic presence to offset them. There needs to be a voice of conventional, approachable, relatable morality to make the counterbalance and contrast mean something. There needs to be a hero.

Again, thinking back to the one story anyone’s bought so far (I won’t link it, because it’s depressing that I’m the only reason the link pops up on my Technorati watch list anymore) which features an anti-hero of sorts, there is another character who provides that conventional, approachable, relatable morality.

This is also the reason, I believe, that a current project I’m working on is flailing right now. The main character is an anti-hero surrounded by scum. And I’m running–actually, the main character is running–into this wall…

An anti-hero doesn’t have to make the tough decisions, to choose their heart’s desire over an innocent child’s life, for example. Anti-heroes CAN’T make those tough decisions because once they’re faced with them, they can’t be anti-heroes anymore.

So, it’s clear what needs to be done, but how? In any case…

“The one about the regenerating assassin…”*

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
4,160 / 5,000
(83.0%)

*(This is a project title; I haven’t even been able to think up a working title yet.)

You Thought I Was Being Paranoid

…when I said: “I started to get worried though when I started noticing that the blog was coming up in search results for some of the more “classic” stories, Babel’s “My First Goose,” for instance. And these visitors would spend more than enough time to copy and paste, too.”

Do your own damn homework! 😉

Good Reads

Back in the day, I used to post a list on the other blog of the short stories I’d read in a week and say a few words about them. I started to get worried though when I started noticing that the blog was coming up in search results for some of the more “classic” stories, Babel’s “My First Goose,” for instance. And these visitors would spend more than enough time to copy and paste, too. I’m probably paranoid, and I can’t actually say I’ve ever said anything of substance. Still, I’m sure there was at least one desparate individual out there, cramming to get a last minute extra-credit assignment done and tried to Google and doodle his way to an easy essay. Well, screw him/her.

I felt I read through a lot of stuff lately worth mentioning, so I figure there’s nothing wrong with putting a list together of stuff you should check out if you have the chance: