Le sigh, if I may borrow from Zap

[sethgray]

There are things on my mind which I'm not sure I'll be able to express adequately because I have teh tired and can't brain.


Anyway, I've decide to "write" this down because maybe if I do I'll actually follow through. Tomorrow I will get up and actually write down in my giant sketch book the plot for the next few projects swishing around in my brain. Maybe if do that with them they won't end up being the mediocrity that is Devil Cares. I don't know why DC sucks so hard, but it does. In fact, I'm almost to the point where I'm giving up on even posting it anymore, which would really suck because it's almost over anyway. Just one major arc left. Part of me thinks I should just keep churning it out until it's finished. It might suck, but at least I'll be done with it. On the other hand, do I want to keep putting out subpar product?

Those of you who RP with me know I am capable of crafting a narrative with far more cohesion and character depth than I currently have been with Devil Cares. Maybe it's writing more than one character in third person that's screwing me over, I don't know. In an online RPG you only have character's thoughts and feelings to worry about. True, you must react to the other character's actions, but you only need describe your own characters inside-head-going-ons. Perhaps I've gotten so used to that I've lost the talent to do it with more than one character at my disposal. If, in deed, I ever had it.

With that said, I don't want to abandon DC completely. I like the characters and the world they live in. I like the way things operate and why the supernatural elements exist. Although I've come to find out by reading Alexandra Erin's Tribe my brilliant take on magic has been done already.

Should I give up on the main storyline, I might turn Devil Cares into a kind of anthology series or something, a string of mostly unconnected stand-alones. I have this idea where the boys get turned into fairy tale/fantasy characters, for instance. A short story every now and then might suit them better. Maybe they just aren't suited for a novel-length, quasi-epic storyline.

Before anyone tells me that Devil Cares isn't *that* bad--if anyone even would--let me say I know it wouldn't seem that way to the reader. The reader doesn't know the way it should be, only the way it is. The project is just not turning out like the idea in my head says it should be. Only a writer will know what the hell I mean by that, but I don't know how else to explain it.

Alright, enough of that.

So, the order of business for tomorrow is as follows:

1) Actually put some effort into writing down major plot points

and

2) Make some sort of decision about Devil Cares

Should be easy. Right.

Comments

[zapkilikan.livejournal.com]

*glomps* I know just what you mean about a piece of writing not turning out the way it is in your head. That happens with almost everything that I write, so I sympathize completely. But from what I've learned, just because it isn't turning out according to plan doesn't mean that it's necessarily bad. It actually reminds me of one of the Joker's lines out of Dark Knight, but I'm just digressing because I finally got to see it today...

Regardless, I'm going to urge you not to give up on Devil Cares -- but it's your own choice, of course. Be it short stories or the continuation of what you're working on now, just don't stop. Also, all I can really say about your dislike of the "multi third person perspective" is that oh-so-over-used phrase: "Practice makes perfect." Hell, I fucking despise writing in pure first person, but I keep coming back to it because it interests me. And the only way to get better at something is to keep doing it!

Anyway, no matter what you decide to do, you have my full support, because I understand just what you mean. :) *glomps again* Love ya.

[jupiterrhode.livejournal.com]

*huggles*

It's funny, because I used to not like writing in first person. I thought it was, I dunno, juvenile or whatever. But then I started reading the Anita Blake series and then the Meredith Gentry series, and I guess I renewed my appreciation of it. Now, it seems, the only quality stuff I can produce is written from one perspective and one perspective only. It's probably because the quirky way I think that first person works so well for me. Third person is awfully hard to translate that to.

Not for everyone, though. There's this yaoi fanfiction writer called P.L. Nunn who writes the most accessible, easy third person I've ever read. I positively envy her.

In all honesty I don't think DC is complete drek, but it isn't the best thing I've ever written. It's definitely not my best work.

[zapkilikan.livejournal.com]

Aah, yeah. See, I like third person better because I like having description, and it's hard to do in first person, because very few people who are "in" or "narrating" a story would pay close enough attention in order to describe things the way I like to do so. Which I guess is what causes me to naturally fall into third person as opposed to something else.

*nods* I know how you feel about that, too. There are things I've written and felt the same way about.