It’s been quiet over here, yes. Fall gets me in the mood to do a whole lot of project work. In addition to that, I’ve become more inclined to declutter between work sessions. Messie Condo’s Nobody Wants Your Sh*t (that’s how it’s titled, I’m not censoring it) had a real impact on me, and now I see so many things I no longer want.
Let’s put it this way: I plan on living at least into my 80s, but I know that anything could happen before then. Accidents, comas, extraterrestrial invitations to explore the galaxy. I have quite a few folders and journals full of embarrassing older writings that would inspire my specter to haunt whoever discovered them, so I’m going through the hassle of destroying most of them.
There are a few gems here and there, but angsty twentysomething and clinically depressed thirtysomething Ellie are long gone. Their memories should serve as reminders of how far I’ve come, not as permanent records of their literary (lack of) achievements.
Besides, in the end, they’ll thank me.
Speaking of writing, my Brio stories from the Eximirene world may be getting a facelift, and all before their official debut.
Writing the original three (and the fourth one currently in progress) was an interesting exercise in discovering his personality, but I’m not too sure how Brio comes across to readers. He’s looking back on these adventures as a middle-aged man who’s outgrown the arrogance of his 20s and 30s. But I still feel there’s something… inaccessible, for lack of a better word… about his voice. He retains a somewhat lofty style, but I wanted it to come across as poking fun at his younger self rather than expressing demonstrating genuine arrogance.
I think it’s a nice way to show his character, at least in the notes where he discusses Eximirean culture. But where does that leave the actual stories?
I’ve been thinking about another character, specifically a bodiless narrator who oversees the story. An entity that may or may not have been human at some point, but is very familiar with human nature. An omniscient being that chooses to focus on certain events and people rather than the entirety of the world.
Something that sounds more like myself, because creating another character’s voice is difficult. As much fun as it is to revisit Patrick F. McManus’s works and get a feel for his style, it’s a bit of a chore. I’ll just have to trust my brain to squeeze out reasonable amounts of the lovable curmudgeon without trying to channel him entirely.
On another note, I’ll have to share how I’m writing the series in Obsidian with the aid of two plugins. Well, one I find necessary as a Scrivener replacement; the other is just neat to have around. They’re Word-Smith and Cursor-Smith, respectively.
There’s a minor update on my AlphaSmart over on Sporeshelf, if you’re interested. This could grow into a nice article in the near future.
Speaking of the near future, I’ll have a medium-sized announcement to make. I just need a little extra time away from the project in question before I’m ready to talk about it. My mind keeps wandering toward worldbuilding snippets and sequel possibilities, as it will. It’s getting easier to rein it in and tell it to focus on immediate tasks.
As a related aside, I finally figured out how to get files off the Dana: by using a printer cable and selecting the option to have it act as a typewriter. It was pretty neat watching the words appear in Notepad, as if a ghost had taken over my laptop and was writing my story for me.
It was pretty obnoxious, however, to discover that the fastest delivery mode skipped a lot of characters, as if said ghost were reliving the apoplexy that ended its mortal run.
So I’ll have to use the slower options when transferring my work from the device. But hey, at least I don’t have to sit there and manually retype everything.
And no, trying to transfer files from the SD card accomplishes nothing. Since they’re saved as Palm Pilot database files (.pdb), gibberish is scattered throughout the documents.
So. PAX East tickets are on sale. Guess whose bank account is crying after paying for badges, a hotel room, and train tickets all in one day?
If I get a call from my bank, I’ll know they’re on the job.