:)

Immediate feedback to my latest Spiral chapter :)

9:56:13 AM Kolby: Dude

9:56:18 AM Kolby: this is fucking insane

9:56:25 AM Kolby: you just made this into an epic :S

10:01:43 AM Kolby: HOLEY FUCKING SHIT

10:09:01 AM Kolby: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

10:09:07 AM Kolby : You have got to be kidding me.

10:09:10 AM Kolby : This is just....

10:09:14 AM Kolby : too much

10:09:17 AM Kolby : holey shit

10:09:22 AM Kolby : I just shat myself

10:09:25 AM Kolby : wtf

10:21:25 AM Kolby : DUDE.

10:21:32 AM Kolby : ...

10:21:33 AM Kolby : dude.

10:21:47 AM Kolby : You just made The Spiral Project an epic.

10:33:43 AM Kolby : I'm.... speechless.

10:33:49 AM Kolby : I just don't know where to begin

12 259

I hate myself for saying this yet again but turns out the deadline I set for myself for 7.2 did not pan out. I said a week and a half upon receiving chapter 7.1, and turns out I received it on February 12th and I sent my chapter to him on April 10th. So that's nearly 2 months. It's still not the longest hiatus, that title still belongs to Kolby. (August 29th - February 12th :P). To be fair, he wrote the longest chapter to day ... 12 600 words or there about.

My chapter, in my meager 2 months clocked in with 12 259 words.

Upon finishing early this afternoon I went for a full outloud read of the chapter, and I fear I may've hurt my throat in the process. It really hurts right now ... that's what I get for talking to myself nonstop for about an hour and a half :P The fears I felt last time that I was a shit writer, turns out were ridiculously unfounded. My reread of the chapter made me feel really secure and there were just a few minor issues that needed to be addressed. For the most part it all flowed really well and I think the pace worked.

My biggest concern is that there is not immediate tension to my chapters. I guess there is the over-arching tension and character tension. Immediate tension ... perhaps I mean dramatic tension? I just mean general tension in the plot, the kind of obvious and unsubtle kind. I suspect most stories need to have a balance between blatant and nuanced tension and not really fully on the latter. Though I guess that's just my segments.

If I put it in the context of the book as a whole, Kolby's chapters definitely fit the former a lot more than the latter. So I guess I lack an intra-balance but in doing so create an inter-balance. Metaphorically, I think I could this book to season 6 of Lost. Kolby's segments are the on-Island action and mine kind of are the flashsideways. My big concern is that readers come to my chapters with head-scratching etc etc.

If anything, this latest chapter of mine works a lot like the latest episode of Lost, "Happily Ever After", in that it goes a long way to explain the flashsideways world or gives it some grounding. Mine does too.

I've learned that in our genre of storytelling, of creating mysteries, asking questions, red herrings and drawing answers out, it is absolutely invaluable to have live feedback from people. If you wait until the person has finished, then their opinion is tainted by the end, which usually has some game-changer/mindfuck/cliff-hanger type thing. They miss the more intricate construction details of the plot ... the misleading clues that lead the reader to think one thing before it's revealed.

I had desperately hoped Kolby could do that with this chapter for me, but could only get through about 3-4 pages before he fucked off on me. He said he'd text, but he's out of credit. I am disappointed by this. Particularly since this chapter is important ;)

Either way. I'm done. Hopefully not for another few months. A few weeks at best. I'm itching to see where he takes the story after mine ... twists. I genuinely have no plans at all for the next chapter, so I look forward to what he presents.

I'm a shit writer

I am so terribly sorry for not having written a post in such a long time, and for the days I did write, not having written anything substantial with them. I don't really have any reasons for this hiatus, it's just that there's no time during any of the past few days when I've felt compelled to write a blog. I worry that over the past few months (when the blog came back up) that I've just been blogging for the sake of blogging, which would by fine by itself, but each time I post here it's long, verbose and unnecessarily wall-of-text with nothing at all to say.

My mind hasn't been as engaged lately. That's probably consistent with coming into a holiday break. The first few days are always used for vegetating. It doesn't help that not only am I not thinking about how I'm interacting with the world, but I'm not really interacting with the world either. That and when I do think of something, I usually just tweet it and due to the extended break I've set my level of explication to being satisfied with several tweets. A combination of these three points have lead to my apathy in writing here.

As for what I have been doing:

• Played a bit more Pokemon.
• Played Mahjong with my parents and grandmother on Good Friday. I was up and winning the lot of them, and due to my grandmother insisting we continue playing (since she was losing) I ended up loading and she ended up almost breaking even. *sigh* I need to pick up my game.
• Went to Sydney for Easter to see relatives and get haircuts.
• On Tuesday I started the pledge I made last time which was to do something productive each day, even if only for several hours. Unfortunately the past 3 days have just been writing Spiral project. It is taking a lot longer than expected.

I'm 7700 words into this latest chapter. I've discovered that I am not content with stopping writing in the middle of a scene and picking it up later. Content isn't the right word ... I mean that I have lowered my standards where such an act becomes permissible. I have a tendency to break all my chapters down into smaller scenes or episodes/acts (especially having started watching Lost halfway through, you can notice how my chapters resemble more and more episodes from a television show), and previously in my writing I found it abhorrent to stop in the middle of writing an episode and do something else (even if only for 10 minutes).

The way I see it, chapters ideally should have some kind of integrity. Something holding it together, whether it be a theme or a word or a character or a plotpoint or something. At a more micro-level, each episode should not only help explore this central integrity, but also have its own micro-integrity. When you leave to do something else and then you come back, it's hard to just 'pick up' the mindset.

So I never dropped an episode and picked it up later. I would write it and write it all in one sitting. Preferable I would try to write my chapters in the same way. This probably was always an annoying to Kolby (yeah ... it's apparently a K now), who would write in a very different way, slaving away at it for weeks. Meanwhile I arse about for weeks and then I write it all in one or two nights and then send it over.

Either way, I've picked up this more laborious style. In particular, I'm writing this blog post write now when I've actually left the plot at a cliffhanger moment. I should be writing ... but I'm just not going to.

Observations? I'm not sure if this is related at all or not, but I have come to the conclusion a hefty section of this chapter is complete and utter shit Not the plot points or the dialogue (for the most part), but the expositiony bits. I've never been a ... traditional writer when it comes to exposition and sometimes I just find it totally unnecessary and wishing I were writing it as a script.

Now I've adopted this new paradigm of "write now; edit later", which I know is the way most actual authors write, with them pretty much rewriting the entire thing in time. Previous to this that never was the case, I'd just write and be happy with it.

I wouldn't say that when I did write I wasn't 'in the mood', but there are definite crests and troughs of good vs bad writing. Perhaps it's a function of me not having written in such a fucking long time. I wouldn't write if I wasn't inspired to write, but just looking at it now, some of it is good and some of it bad, all in the same sitting.

My initial plan for this chapter had like 15 episodes. I've now decided, at my word length, and extending it much longer than what I have right now would just be detrimental. Initially I would've been halfway through, but I'm changing this to the 2/3rd mark and dropping those points completely. Those sections potentially risked ... jumping the shark, I suppose, in a chapter that contains some ridiculous elements already.

Another thing I've noticed, due to spreading it out so long, I fear I keep reintroducing concepts/metaphors that I've used previous, in this chapter and others. So upon a full reread of the chapter, I will notice that I'm really just pushing the same point home and will need to cut those out.

And, to finish off, I need to just put this somewhere, but I'm yearning to do some writing outside of Spiral. Something in a completely, less complicated genre. Not that this is bad, but I'm just looking for a change of pace. To get to work on something that isn't so ... intense in my thinking and scrutiny. Something more simple. And first person. I want to write in first person. This becomes increasingly important as I've recently ordered 'An Abundance of Katherines' and 'Will Grayson, Will Grayson' both by John Green (the latter by David Levithan as well; in what is a very Spiral-esque project, in that it's 2 characters told in alternating chapters by different authors, though I suspect that pre-collaborated on the plot, which is the opposite of Spiral). Mr Green has a wonderful first person voice that is both witty and real.

And quite frankly, I want to do something like that. I've just noticed how many first person I's I've written in this entire post ... though arguable you could say that has to do with my self-absorbed narcissism. Your call.

Spiral update

So I totally couldn't meet the 7-day pledge I made to Colby to have the next chapter to him by today. Technically I said a week and a half, but I won't get it done by then either. I mostly blame getting incredibly sick with the flu (so much so that I've had to endure half a week more with my parents ;))

The guilt, however, was able to give me a fairly good spurt on my start. Just finished writing the first scene ... started at about 10pm today, so 2-3 hours work ain't bad for 1,433 words. This was a lot easier to write mostly because it works as in independent scene, so I didn't need to fully plan it out and I'm glad it organically evolved to something quite nice. The only thing stopping me from writing this days previous was I needed a name for a new character and  I couldn't think of one, but during dinner I found one so it all kinda fell into place

As promised this chapter will reveal my endgame, and ultimately, what I hope will be a nifty endgame for Colby's story though too, though I'd said in the past that we really ought not to have our own endgames.

Also, we're at 79, 592 words. And we're probably half or a third of the way through ... So yeah :\

Spiral 7.1

After the longest hiatus yet in-between chapters (though, I believe the longest chapter yet) Colby has finally relinquished the Spiral Project and handed me chapter 7.1. At about 10k words, I have to admit this might be his best chapter yet, in terms of the actual writing (not that it was bad before, but this would be the best).

I did tell him via text that I felt at times Spiral feels like a bit of a power struggle, with him and me in a tug-o-war with our two stories and trying to gain dominance and assert our literary penises, but he assured me he's doing no such thing, so I better promptly zip up. The whole idea of Spiral was that we'd take the book as the total canon, with all other ideas and plans we may've conjured to be peripheral and subject to spanners. I did say some point in the blog that I was starting to get really attached to my story (even going as far as to mention thinking of abandoning to project altogether to just write a kickass book using my story), so I only have myself to blame now that things are advancing away from it. But it's cool, I think I've come up with a suitable next chapter.

Something that will, as I've long promised, provide an overall feel for the endgame of the story. I guess you could say it'd be like the first scene in the season five finale of Lost, with Jacob and MIB ... that kind of a feel for a chapter, showing what the stakes are. Naturally what I originally had planned has had to change a bit, and I may've escalated the scope, but I do believe it is for the best and keeps in line with the ethos of the project.

AND I've thought up a really neat link for a stories ... something I've thought about for a bit now and was hoping Colby wouldn't write something that would make it impossible. Indeed, when I first started reading the chapter all hope for my plan seem scarce, but towards the end I was relieved to find it open enough to crowbar the link in.

As for my timeframe, I've given myself a week. By next Thursday I will have my chapter in for Colby. I have no intentions on making it a long one ... not like the epic 10k one he just sent, although it may end up long now I start planning it out and breaking it down into scenes. A lot has to happen to get to my ending, so it may well extend to a lengthy one. But I feel the story will need it's framing to gift it a sense of totality.

Oh, and I have a killer idea I'm dying to execute. ;)

A man of ideas but no action

Several weeks ago when I went to see Avatar with Sandy, I recounted for him the numerous stories I had in my mind. It even scared me how many I had, how many of which were nearing some severely indepth plotting, and how little had been done with each of them. Thus I thought it might be prudent to document them here, since this the blog where I journal such things. Here goes, in no particular order.

Paintball
STATUS: Shelved until Strike Rapier's EVO's newest version is released, which has several features I need.
MEDIUM: A bot controlled game in Active Worlds.
PROJECT: A new age paintball bot that reinvents how paintball has been done before.
NOTES: 'nuff said. The ideas are still here, most of them on the SWC forums, some detailed others not. I'll push it once EVO is developed to a point where my ideas can be realised.

T-Shirt Business
STATUS: Awaiting a quote from printer.
MEDIUM: n/a
PROJECT: Starting a t-shirt business selling mostly online with designs from my friends.
NOTES: This is the most financially viable project, and the current one I am obsessing over, which was reinvigorated today. I'm eagerly waiting for some replies to numerous e-mails, the most important of which is the one from my potential printer.

The Spiral Project
STATUS: Traveling steadily and awaiting Colby to write his latest chapter.
MEDIUM: Novel. Maybe more than one, depending on where the story heads.
PROJECT: A novel that begins with two disparate storylines that end up spiralling together. It is written chapter by chapter, taking turns between Colby and myself. We're not allowed to discuss plans or ideas and must make predictions based on what the other has written (in turn guided but what the other wrote previous) without intentionally guiding the story themselves.
NOTES: This is perhaps my most successful project in that stuff is happening with it. I have a kickass chapter planned (but of course subject to change based on what Colby gives me). I've made a prediction for how I think his chapter will end (jut based on what I have up to Chapter 6.2, and if he ends it that way then there will be an awesome link in the stories ;)

The Spiral Project TV
STATUS: Pilot written. Considering 2nd eps and how to proceed with series. Possible wait until novel is written.
MEDIUM: TV series... obviously. A serial drama. Probably more like a mini-series. Several eps long.
PROJECT: a translation of the Spiral Project novel into a TV series type format.
NOTES: The pilot script is written. I've yet to properly edit it. Mostly dialogue lifted from the chapters but delicately woven together by my dainty hand with lil' extras peppered here and there to add to the dramatic tension.

Helix Project
STATUS: Shelved pending one or two years until Connor is ready. Looking for replacement in meantime.
MEDIUM: Novel.
PROJECT: The book is written where person A writes a section and person B must pick it up, without talking to person A and continue the story. Not necessarily the storyline, but continue with what the story requires. The integrity of the project is imperative. In this way we can write two novels simultaneously, swapping between the two of us together.
NOTES: Connor says he doesn't want to do it right now, given uni commitments and all that. I respect that. He really likes the idea and wishes to do it. Gave me blessing to find someone else to do it with in the meantime. I have a first 'section' idea roughly sketched out. No idea where it will head though.

Trio
STATUS: Idea is sitting in my cognitive limbo.
MEDIUM: TV series.
PROJECT: A Prison Break/Code Geass/Death Note type psychological thriller and mindfucks galore meet the decadent Skins. As a TV series it can potentially span 2-3 seasons, though, like LOST, I feel it would be best if it had an end date so I can arc the story properly.
NOTES: I did say I was going to do with this Jeanne, but that kinda fell through and the more I think about it the more attached I get to these characters and so will probably do it on my own. Designed to work  with a major television network type thing. How this will be achieved I have no idea. Currently coming up with character names and may start definitively plotting the story out sometime soon. I have copious notes detailing plot points and ideas and characterisations.

A Show about Heroes
STATUS: Idea is sitting in my cognitive limbo.
MEDIUM: TV series.
PROJECT: A Heroes meet D. Gray-man type thing. Story based around people who get powers (and though similar in premise to Heroes, the storytelling will be quite different and I actually came up with it before watching Heroes. The idea of people getting powers intrigued me and I wanted to put my own spin on it).
NOTES: In my mind I have it planned into three definitive seasons. I have a basic mythology planned. No characters as of yet.

Liberi ex Janus
STATUS: Shelved, but not forgotten.
MEDIUM: Manga/Graphic Novel.
PROJECT: An original story idea. There is a premise that could sustain a long term manga, but in my mind I do have a definite story planned out. So if it's fleshed out then it will expand on this story. Basic mythology laid out, most names planned and characterisations of the main characters devised.
NOTES: I've written a draft for the first graphic novel. Awaiting detailed feedback from Gordon, who is/was going to be my artist. Project shelved due to lack of interest on his part. I also need to rewrite the entire draft to give it better dialogue. Plenty of notes for how the story goes, separated into 5 arcs, though upon reflection could be expanded to 6-7.

Doppelganger
STATUS: Idea is in cognitive limbo.
MEDIUM: A play.
PROJECT: An original comedic play. I have a basic premise, an opening and an ending in mind. I know the ideas and themes I wish to play with, but no characterisations and virtually no plot.
NOTES: I only have scarce notes on this. I did have plenty of ideas at one point, but failed to document them, and I suspect for the best.

Sekrit project
STATUS: Discarded.
MEDIUM: A web startup.
PROJECT: top sekrit.
NOTES: I don't feel the idea was ever viable and definitely isn't at this point in our technological history.

AWTowns
STATUS: Shelved.
MEDIUM: A bot based game in Active Worlds.
PROJECT: A game that is a little bit like interactive building. Gives a social element to the game, a lil' bit like Hyper Anthony's new Goal-Oriented Building Game, but more involved.
NOTES: Failed interest on my part led me to shelve it. I feel kinda bad for Baro, as I'm like the 4th or 5th developer to give up on him.

Romantic Comedy
STATUS: Idea is in cognitive limbo.
MEDIUM: A screenplay or maybe a play.
PROJECT: A love story told from two perspectives. A bit of a farce. Love from a different perspective ;)
NOTES: I know the basic 'message' of the story and maybe one or two themes. I have one scene planned in my mind, I hope it's as funny as I think it is. But that's about it.

Graphic Novel with Alastair
STATUS: Idea is in cognitive limbo.
MEDIUM: Graphic novel.
PROJECT: Taking a basic premise from Alastair and expanding its story and characterising it. Alastair as artist.
NOTES: I have the first 2 acts planned. No idea how to end it though, and through talks with Alastair, neither does he. Basic characterisations planned and name of the name character. Basic ideas on themes.

Bathos
STATUS: Shelved.
MEDIUM: web-comic, kind of like a xkcd meet ... I dunno. Slightly serial.
PROJECT: Just a fun lil' project on the side. Art style I blatantly am using the Order of the Stick, but I mean it's only 3 comics, so whatever.
NOTES: Shelved because it was waaaay too much work to make each comic. I have basic ideas for several comics planned. Maybe one day I'll find an artist to realise them. Although I've lately been thinking about deploying them through a different, non-web comic medium.

Musical
STATUS: Idea is in cognitive limbo.
MEDIUM: Musical.
PROJECT: Taking a story already written and turning it into a musical.
NOTES: Haven't formally asked permission from author yet. Probably won't until I have several songs written and if denied I'll adapt them for something else. I have several song themes planned, though no actual lyrics written.

NaNoWriWe
STATUS: Idea is in my cognitive limbo.
MEDIUM: A series of novels. Generally humourous. High fantasy.
PROJECT: Originally conceived as a story NaNoWriWe, but spiralled out into something else entirely. Still no name for it yet so I'll refer to it as NaNoWriWe.
NOTES: A full mythology and history planned. Character roles planned. Symbols and themes planned. Message and motifs planned. A lil' bit of characterisation, though no names. Begining fully planned. An ending fully planned. Only thing missing is an actual plot.

The Unremarkable Tale of a Boy and his Dog that Couldn't Talk
STATUS: Idea is in cognitive limbo.
MEDIUM: Rhyming poem. Dr Suess style.
PROJECT: A children's story with a pretty kickass moral.
NOTES: A rhyming meter determined, a few rhymes here and there. At one point I had several lines planned, but they are forgotten. I have a full plot planned. Just need to write it now.

Raffle House
STATUS: Just came up with a few days ago.
MEDIUM: Screenplay.
PROJECT: A comedy type drama film.
NOTES: Got the idea from Comit when he and I were having a discussion. A basic germ of an idea to set up the movie. Not sure where it goes.

The Phantom of the Opera
STATUS: Idea is in cognitive limbo.
MEDIUM: Mini-series.
PROJECT: A mini-series based on Phantom of the Opera. Based heavily on Leroux's original work.
NOTES: I have specific lines I wish to use. I think I would be quite good at this, especially when I'm in my Erikian mood.

Sketch Channel/Series
STATUS: Just an idea.
MEDIUM: An online youtube channel.
PROJECT: A series of character-based sketches, kind of like Little Britain, but done online.
NOTES: I have like a handful of sketches in my mind. Several characters I could play for it. But this is not much more than an idea.

Punk/Emo/Rock Band
STATUS: Awaiting the right people.
MEDIUM: A band.
PROJECT: The idea is to form a band around people I know IRL and taking to the online and building up a fan-base from scratch. I would be manager, of course.
NOTES: I have several plans. I know what I want the band to look like, but no actual people as of yet.

Duologue
STATUS: Awaiting the right people.
MEDIUM: Non-fiction.
PROJECT: A kind of back and forth exchange of philosophical discourse.
NOTES: Nawaaz did express interest at one point, but I think that was a one off.

Short Story Collection
STATUS: Idea is in cognitive limgo.
MEDIUM: Short story collection.
PROJECT: A short stories based around a real world event connecting these people together.
NOTES: I have a final story planned. I have the world-event premise. I have several stories planned. Just need to seriously plan it.

Documentary
STATUS: Awaiting the right idea.
MEDIUM: An amateur documentary released online. Maybe serially.
PROJECT: Just an idea for some kind of real world documentary. Just need the idea.
NOTES: I was thinking maybe using it as an excuse for an epic all-round Australia roadtrip. But dunno if I know the right people who would be up for like a month long roadtrip D:

Got AbMo?
STATUS: Back and coming along nicely.
MEDIUM: Online blog.
PROJECT: To keep a record of the thoughts that run through my head daily and the events that occur in my life daily. To be an effective "me on the internet". Destroying the notion of a professional image.
NOTES: This blog is a project, I nearly forgot. And is no doubt the most successful in front of Spiral.

Huh. 25 projects listed here. My God; how many of these are in cognitive limbo?! :P

The Survey

What a productive way to spend my morning. This was the e-mail I just sent off to Chris. Let us hope I hear a response ;)

Hey Chris,


Thanks for much for doing this. Both Colby and I really appreciate it.
Please forgive me if these set of questions becomes at any point long
or tedious, but as our first reason I think it kind of necessary. It's
going to be split into two sections, one regarding the plot and
characterisations (kind of comprehension and integration), and the
other about the technical aspects.


Obviously without a copy of the novel it might be difficult for you to
provide examples. But please do feel free to include what you can
remember. And we won't be offended if you make a few typos regarding
names :P


PLOT


In your own words, write a character description for the following
characters. We are interested in your understanding of the personality
and characterisation, not so much the factual aspects of the
character. At the end of each description, please also evaluate your
feelings and attitudes to the characters (whether you like them, think
they are successful characters etc) and state reasons.



Are there any characters that you feel you could walk away from the
book always remembering? If so which ones and what aspects about them
or their story? If there are none, are there any you think might have
the potential to carry this mantel?


Between the two stories, which one is most interesting and appealing
to you? Please state your reasons.


What are the enduring questions you have about the mythos of the
story? These may be things regarding aspects of the plot or universe
(as described in the book) or may be about certain character's traits
or history. List as many as you can think of.


Of these enduring questions, which ones do you think are most critical
to the plot?


Of these enduring questions, which ones do you want to find out most
about? Please state why.


Do you have any particular theories or potential answers for any of
these enduring questions? (Think how we used to analyse Harry Potter
aspects and try to construct theories). Please list your answers here,
being as detailed and descriptive as possible. Outline any potential
flaws/contradictions your theories may have with what's already
established with the book.


Do you have any idea as to what the ultimate endgame of the book will
be? Conceptualisations of where the plot will head, what kind of story
will take place, goal of the enemy, if any etc. Please be detailed.


If you were given all these chapters and had to 'finish' the story
yourself, what would happen? Briefly outline your plot.


TECHNICAL


Do you think the book thus far strikes a nice balance (not necessarily
equal, just a nice ratio) of raising questions and providing answers?


In terms of the reveals, do they have any impact upon you? If so,
please specifically state which ones you can remember.


Were there any omg-wtf moments for you? That is some detailed that was
revealed that totally changed the way you understood or saw the novel?
If so, please state which, in order of strongest to weakest.


Please answer the following questions for each of the two stories:
How do you feel about the technical quality of the writing?
How do you feel about the quality of the dialogue?
How do you feel about the strength and integrity of the characters?
Are they robust or weak? Original or stereotypical? Please provide
examples.
Are the characterisations real?
Is there a good balance between dialogue and description/exposition?
What do you feel about the narrators? Any point too irreverent or
intrusive, for example?


Do you feel the stories are technically distinct or is there a sense
of an integrated whole?


How is the pace of the story? Too fast, too slow? If you think it
varies, please state at which points.


What do you think of the length compared to what happens?


Overall, what do you think of the story so far? A nice, succinct
evaluation would be appreciated.


Any other comments you may have or wish to write would be most
appreciated. We've tried to be as extensive as possible with this
list, but if we've missed something, please mention it here.


END

Spiral Reading

Well I did it :D Today I did a full, single-sitting read of The Spiral Project up to chapter 6.2. That's 12 chapters, like 80k words. Took me several hours, but I'm glad I did it. I forgot a few plot points I had established earlier in the book, during my most preliminary chapters. Well plot points isn't the right word. Just specific sentences, lines of dialogue I'd like to revisit later in the story, maybe even as an ending. Nothing Colby would be able to predict, hence why I'm writing it here :D

There were two minor plotholes. One of them I've known for sometime... and actually Colby pointed out the day I gave him the chapter, but we're leaving that for the editting phase. The other one involves my latest chapter. It's nothing major. I just confused with the sporadic scene placement between Colby and my chapters and I ended up merging two timelines into one at one point :P But easily solved and does not impact Colby at all. So that can remain the editting phase.

Haha, it's odd, going through, I can remember how my plan for my story slowly evolved as Colby mindfucked my things away :P Rather salient what a passive bitch I've been regarding the plot, hence why 7.2 shall be mega-aggressive. Need to make Colby change parts of his story too.

It's actually quite a good read, I think. I kinda cringe at one or two things I've written and Colby's written, but that's to be expected. The pacing didn't feel too slow, characterisations were good, dialogue was good, plot seemed coherent. Was funny. Was poignant.

What more could an author ask for??

Spiral Revisited

I've been feeling a litle bit of a disconnect with Spiral lately. It took me several months to complete my last chapter, 6.2, and now I fear I may have quenched whatever momentum the project had with my sabbatical from Spiral. Colby and I are no longer Facebooking/MSN as often as we once did, which is saddening. There've been a conspicuous lack of Spiral'esque status updates, and I've yet to receive any sort of timeframe for chapter 7.1.

But I'm eager to keep it going. In fact, today, instead of working on two major assignments, I spent about 5 hours slowly and meticulously thinking about the project. About Zene and what his character had been through (as well as Adam, I guess) and thought about what I consider to be my ending, or at least as the 'book' sits at chapter 6.2. Really up until this point, I've taken a passive role in the mythos, I mean sure I've introduced my own mysteries, but nothing game changing or categorically definitive. My last chapter took a bit of control.

My next chapter, in my mind, will take a lot of control. Enough to potentially knock whatever Colby has in mind right out of the ballpark. Something big. Naturally, given that he is writing 7.1, he could very easily prevent that from happening. I mean I'm not deliberately going out of my way to mindfuck his ideal plot, but it's to add to the pacing of the story. One of my big fears is that it's going to end up really long and really kinda drag. Then again, the book is peppered with linguistic genius, literary references and philosophical gamets, and good, or so I choose to believe, characterisations with some humour, all of which might serve to engage the audience.

At the same time, I do feel like kicking the story up a notch. If anything, I'd like to call the end of my next chapter the end of the first act. I'm thinking the first of two acts, but ya never know. But this is all dependent on 7.1 and what that entails. I do believe both our stories are now taking a turn towards some sort of middle point, whether or not that's a whole middle act to make it a 3 act story I have no idea.

I don't for a second believe my intense thinking about the future of Spiral is wholly unrelated to giving Spiral thus far to Chris tomorrow. It really ought to be interesting getting feedback from him. Of course I'm going to have to take detailed notes such that I may report it all back to Colby, who would no doubt be interested in it. I'm not seeing Nawaaz until next week at least so he'll get it then.

I'm excited for feedback. I was reading over different sections and though I've said this before, I believe it deserves re-expression, I am extremely proud of how far we've come and the story we've set up. You can definitely feel the underlying strength and robustness of a mythos and plot and the reveals are quite tantalising and delicious.

At the end of the day, I just really want to write, so hurry the fuck up, Colby :P

Spiral chapter 6.2 completed.

I said I was going to get it done today. And lo and behold, I got it done. So fuck you, Colby, for not having faith in your collaborator. Of course I wanted to get it done on Friday night ... but I think staying up until 3am on Friday night for the sole purpose of writing a novel more than justifies why I pulled out and went to bed. Same goes for 4am on Saturday.

I got up 6 hours later. Went on Facebook and Colby says "Spiral!?" .... and then literally forces me to finish it. I told him I only had to write two paragraphs.. but that was a lie, I had to write the entire last section of that (Colby will know what I mean). Even though that was the first section I had planned all those months ago, it was all pretty spontaneous and generative, and I'm glad with the result. I created two new side characters, who may or  may not be critical to the plot (obviously I cannot say since Colby reads my blog (or at least I think he still does), but it also depends on whether he uses them or not, which I suspect he might, just because he tends to use all the characters I create :P).

I'm still awaiting an indepth review/feedback session from him. It's actually really quite pleasant writing an extended piece of creative writing and then getting feedback from someone, resulting in a nice, long, intellectual discussion. Precisely why I wanted to do the collaborative novel idea - to make the whole process fun, or dare I say, novel.

(I'm quite sure I've made the novel novel pun before and long time readers are no doubt groaning)

I have several ideas for where I want my next chapter to go, but naturally that depends on where Colby takes his chapter. Perhaps he'll mindfuck me up. I'd like to think I mindfucked him at least once. There's a few minor ones in there.. but I guess you can't have major and minor mindfucks. A mindfuck is a mindfuck, there's no quantifier.

There's some stylistic differences between what I've written this time and before I think. As I mentioned last night, I've ceased with the tangential Zenic passages... I'm finding myself writing a lot more tangential passages period ... from the perspective of the narrator. Please see my extended monologue on rectal insertion as the chapter's intro :)

I am still so heavily dialogue-based. It runs almost as a script. Just looking at a few of the books I have sitting on my shelf here, many writers adopt the say one or two lines of dialogue, then explain some action or some setting aspect, or give a character's mental reaction/cognition/perception of the information. Instead almost all of mine is conveyed via the speech and the spaces and the pauses... And I guess to what is not said. It's funny, when I write my dialogue I have a very specific vocalisation that sounds in my mind, and even rereading the first chapters I wrote all those months ago, I still have the optimal vocals.

I wonder at times whether Colby and I should venture out and let someone read our work thus far. Either we find an independent party to read, evaluate and give feedback as a whole and respectively. Alternatively we could each seek out one person each and let them read it. That might be fun. I mean we're probably what, 1/3 of the way through the plot I think? Or at least that's how it feels... I dunno. We might be halfway or even over halfway. It's a lot harder to tell with two stories... I think we're both trying to write a full blown novel for each of our characters.. meaning we'll be at 150k-200k by the end, twice as long as a normal book. And we're about halfway there now.

There's also a lot of retro edits that will need to be made by the end. There'll be some stuff that can be cut from both sections since neither of us used them... There's also characterisations/descriptions that have changed over time, bit by bit, but that's natural given I don't know what his characters look like and he mine. And that we're both working off the cuff, so to speak, in terms of how it's all pieced together, so one or two oversights are permitted.

I'm certainly interested in seeing what Colby's endgame is gonna be. I have one in mind, naturally assuming Colby doesn't mindfuck it to oblivion. I dunno if I've done that to his, seeing as he doesn't blog about these things like I do :P Next chapter I think I'm gonna make it more clear what the endgame of mine will be like... Haven't decided yet.

How long will it take Colby to get back to me? Let's hope to our lovely Lord that it's nowhere near even half as long as I took :P I'm hoping 2-3 weeks. Less if possible. Like I've already said, I'm imposing on myself a time limit of a week and a half to get back to him (which I said last time and look where it got us, the longest hiatus yet :\).

On the cusp

I am so close to finishing chapter 6.2!!! Just need to write the final episode and then the special ending section. Should only be like 750 words each, so 1500 left. This leaves us at about 7000 words for the entire chapter. One of the longer ones, I'll admit.

My god, it's been like 3-4 months, for something that I said would only take me a week. Feels so good, to both me and to Colby, to finally be able to finish this. It also feels good for the characters in the novel, who've been waiting for some loving for a long time now.

When I was writing today, I was reflecting on this chapter ... and comparing it with the chapters I wrote before. A lot of the time the narrator would go into unncessary detail about Zene's history. I think I've lost that in this chapter and possibly the one before.  I'd like to go back to writing in that style the next chapter. There's still a few eccentricities about Zene I'd like to fully explore.

In many ways it's very Lost like. I've moved from the first 2-3 seasons more heavily character based to a more plot based structure of seasons 4-5. But then again, I need to have got Zene's plot moving ... what happens in this chapter 6.2 could possibly span two or three chapters at the slower pace, but I'm feeling I ought to pick it up a bit ... at least until I get to where I want to get at the end of the next chapter.

Will crap it up tomorrow morning, and failing that, tomorrow night. Gonna see District 9 tomorrow as well as have dinner with parents tomorrow evening. Once I finish the chapter I'll have to study for a midsemester quiz I have on Monday ... then start working on a frickin' lab report :\ :\ :\

17 Days to 20 - Shanan's Best Friend

(Let us just assume that this post isn't two days late, shall we? or that I even forgot about posting altogether yesterday, reneaging on my promise to blog each day this month and write 20 posts for the 20 days to 20. I'll use my bloggical powers to make it seem like it actually happened, with this one paragraph here the only evidence to the contrary. So please don't read this if you don't want the illusion destroyed.)

In this 20 day retrospective on my life, I knew I would eventually have to evaluate my status and position on the front of friends. One of the few things that do concern me about how other people view me is to do with the number of friends I have. I have a lot of friends and most people find me amiable and easy to get along with. I am not some loner boy that is forced to spend entire weekends hauled up in his apartment. I am just a boy who chooses to spend his weekends that way and my friends are good enough to accomodate to my whims and not to place strenuous demands on my behaviour.

Read what you want into that, but I felt compelled to preface this blog post with that caveat.

Anyway, while I had known I would have to write about friends, I had no idea that one minor thing that happened at tutoring would send into a week long musing/depressive cycle about it. Just one small non-action. One non-act of acknowledgement could give me two newly perspicuous epiphanies.

One, perhaps the most salient with the inaction: That many of the people I had held in my hand of close friends not only are no longer close friends, but they virtually don't count as friends any more. And that the majority of them have made it quite clear that anything more than acquaintenceship with me is unwanted. It isn't just the one downgrade, but it's two.

And what depresses me about the situation isn't so much that they aren't friends of mine anymore (as depressing as it is) but it's that I didn't realise it myself sooner. Given that the change in status quo prolly happened months, if not a year ago, and I've just foolishly mentally considered them still friends, despite having not have any (or maybe just a little) communicative communication with them.

This oversight mostly stems from my standard of friendship not being one of needing to have constant social interaction. That is the quality of the friendship does not fade with time without social interaction. I find such conceptions of friendships to be most fickle and misleading. Naturally I hold none of my friendships to this definition, and rather, I can go for years without a single interaction with someone and would still call them a friend.

But at the same time, that doesn't mean friendships can't change. Some will fade, some will end. This isn't due to non-interaction. It just happens. And it had happened to so many of my friendships and I've totally not realised.

My second epiphany is a lil' more abstract and that is pretty much that I have no best friends. I mean, Jay asked me when he and I first started talking, "Who's your bestie" and I could answer him. Of course he and Cody make their best-friendship known most loudly on any Facebook medium (status, wall, comments, photos, notes), and I know him through Cody, so I guess it's only naturally that he'd ask me that question as a get-to-know-you.

Someone else asked me that today (two days after this post is up ;)) and I wasn't able to answer them either. In fact, while my reply to Jay was quite non-chalant, the one I gave today was hurried and awkward, purely because I had realised I have no best friends and was caught off guard in that momentary intersection between the outside world and that of my mind.

There's probably one or two people who are or will be reading this who will be surprised/shocked, having thought me to be best friends with them, and if so, you're a moron for not making that clearer to me at the time of writing this.

That's not to say I don't have close friends. Of those I have plenty. And they're not just friends. I follow conventional heirarchies, strangers -> acquaintencnes -> friends -> close friends -> best friends etc. So while I have a nice handful of close friends (a population that was recently culled, as I explained above), I have zero best friends.

Perhaps it's useful here to give my conception of best friend. The way I see it, it's basically a romantic partner but without the sexual component/overtones. Someone to whom you feel connected, who gets you and who you get. It's more to do with understanding more than anything else. You'll note that I specifically avoided saying "someone you can confide secrets in with" because I don't consider that best friend material at all, I don't even consider it a friend matter. (Who you divulge your secrets to shouldn't be a matter of information control. You tell them to whoever needs to know them, by whatever criteria you wish to hold them do at the time.)

And the more I think about it, I can't help but think that maybe I've never had a best friend. That people like Wally, Jan, Alastair, Nawaaz, Will, Sandy, Chris, Gordon ... all these people were just really close friends. I'm not categorically saying that, so if you're one of those don't get offended yet. My point is that's just how I'm feeling and the rest of this post is assuming my feeling is correct, which may not be the case at all and will be categorically stated in a later entry once I give it more thought.

Like all good Shanans, I am now faced with the question of why. Why is it that I lack best friends? For that I have several theories.

Perhaps the best one, or at least the one that is most self-serving, is that people realise I don't live by the same rules as them, and so, out of respect for me, they don't try to force me to live by their definitions. They may feel that I don't want a best friend and therefore are content with just close friend.

Alternatively it may just be that I'm being ridiculously picky with my standards of best friend, something that is either objectively impossible or impossible given other Shananian factors. That maybe my close friends fit the bill and I shouldn't question it further.

Perhaps (another rather ego-stroking theory) is that people are interested in me because I present an enigma (for whatever aspect of life) (or maybe I am just so abnormal that I fascinate). Over time the enigma gets stale and therefore interest wanes. Alternatively I may peel away too many layers until they eventually solve the riddle, concluding that I wasn't worth the time, that the real Shanan is boring and uninteresting and disinteresting (see what I did there?? ;))

Or maybe I just haven't found my best friend yet. It could just be that simple. Either way, for a birthday restrospective, both epiphanies I came to today are both ridiculously depressing. And I'm sure my future self will blame that on why I haven't managed to finish Spiral yet, despite promising Colby that it would occured over the weekend.

Renouncing the Holiday from Shanan

Was a niggardly week. In fact, what a niggardly month. Maybe even two. It's been like two, perhaps even three, entire months of very little Shananing. The only work I've got to show for it is half of the next Spiral chapter and nothing else. This chapter was supposed to take me a week. It was supposed to be the start of the new, upbeat pace. Instead, I've found myself disintegrating to a measley meander through a non-affective life. Complacent and automaton.

Wake up. Eat. Watch some TV show or rewatch some TV show. Shower. Dinner. Watch more. Sleep. Occasionally uni when the timing was right. This has been the extent of my activities. I look at myself one year before now, and I actually can, thanks to the wonders of perpetual blogging, and I see a guy so infused with the impossibilities of the future.

Honestly, I think I burned out. I was pretty much on full throttle for a year and a half, projects here and there, picking up about 20 or so at one point. Still coming up with stuff now, except I'm not pushing it as hard as I would, instead placing those ideas in the back furnace. I'mi'd done with pretdown preliminary notes, which I'd done with pretty much everything else, which leads me to fear I may lose some real gems of ideas.

So I burned out and I took a holiday. A holiday from Shanan.

That also includes this blog. Looking back I've barely pushed the 7 post per week mark in so long. Meaning there's at least one day a week I didn't blog. Screw that. I mean now with uni and all my 9am classes, I can't blog right before bed, so I pretty much don't blog any more. I'm going to change that. Blog more often on more ideas, as they come to me and capture the moment.

There's 27 days until my 20th birthday. That's 27 days straight of blogging. Perhaps I might update or make a new Manifesto of Dreams, perhaps I'll do something different. You can definitely expect an assessment of all the things I did there. I haven't read it since I wrote it... I'm fairly certain I'll have NOTHING on that list completed.

And I told Colby that I would have Spiral done by the end of this weekend and so it shall be! It must!

Hence I call an official end to the Holiday from Shanan '09. Lest there be another.

Getting Inspired

I know I said I wouldn't do this again, but here I am, 2am, right before bed typing up another entry ;)

For the past few days I've been pretty heavily investing some time with some great writing in terms of plot and character. I just finished watching Prison Break half an hour ago, and boy was it fan-bloody-tastic! I mean the plot in and of itself wasn't exactly the most original, but the way they told it, through the twists and turns, the fabulous dialogue and the strong characters is what made it most enjoyable.

Particularly satisfying were Bellick, T-Bag and Mahone, three side characters that I thought had the best character arcs that I didn't see coming. T-Bag especially. I'm still siting here going through his character in my mind, watching the transition of his character, from the murdering paedophile > seeking salvation > seeking new identity and back to > murder paedophile. I mean a character can only go through a story getting kicked in the teeth so many times, but to watch how his character unfolded in the face of all those hurdles, how his charm and wit and prolixity were anchored despite the changing goals. (And he ran pretty funny <3)

Next was playing Left 4 Dead. So yeah, sure, it's an FPS game, so what story could there be? You're right, it's pretty much the whole world is infected and there are 4 survivors who need to (duh) survive. That's the story. But there's something in their execution of the game that makes it all the more worthwhile. It's not just another FPS. Nor is it just a game with kickass AI. There's just something in how they've executed those insane hordes of zombies, all barging through and door and attacking you. There's something in the "special" zombie characters they've made that just make them fucking insane to play. The overall mechanics of the game are a thing of beauty. And I look forward to heading back to play some more.

Realistically speaking, my experience at the Barracks was not pleasant. For one thing, it's such a geek den down there. Full of geeky internet jokes and "witty" quips tossed to and fro. And they're all pretty much in there all the time everyday. I'm not complaining about that, but by being down there so often, they become great players of the games. Not so great news for me, the n00b. To quote:

"WHO THE FUCK IS ABMO AND WHY AM I STUCK WITH THE NEWBIES?!"

That was yelled across the room when I failed to kill a particularly feisty Hunter that got in and attacked my crew. Did I react? Nope, just stayed low in my seat and kept playing. Eventually I got better and better and though I ain't a pro, at one point I was the only guy left standing after a zombie attack and I pretty much eliminated the enemies so that I could revive my team. Considered not saving the jackass, but I needed him. I'm looking forward to going back and learning more and having more fun with friends campaigning, as opposed to 8-playering it up.

Thirdly I plan to rewatch Code Geass in its entirety starting tomorrow. I'm still feeling shocked and awed by that anime from when I watched it months back and I intend to re-instill that feeling as I move into my holidays and start writing again.

EDIT: OH! And I've spent so much time listening to the soundtrack for FFXII (it was my study music for two exams). Amazing how music can have such visceral effects on a person. I think I should get the full FFX soundtrack and listen to that... see what memories crop up there <3

I've spent a lot of time in-between shows thinking about Spiral. I definitely have a very good, philosophical and intellectual ending ... a discussion that takes place is pretty well planned. Naturally this can change and bend according to Colby's contributions, but I like my ending and I will be writing towards it.

I've also been thinking about Trio, my TV show with Jeanne. I need to write my pitch for the first episode for her. I've been getting a ton of ideas that could fill in 40 minutes. Once I can get that done, I think I will start planning out the full 22/24 episodes - whatever a full season is. I still haven't decided whether I can do more than 1 season yet. I mean I'm not precisely tethered to my show's brief, like how Prison Break stopped being about breaking out of a prison at the end of the first season or Lost sorta stopped being about being "lost" pretty early on. But could I really extend beyond my decided setting, without venturing into the territory of shady organisations like "The Company"!?

Funny how I've sort of thought about making the world of Spiral and Trio the one and the same. Not exactly the same story, just linked in the same universe. I'll have to talk to Colby about whether I'd be allowed to do that ;) Naturally that would also depend on what happens in Spiral. I mean if we destroy the universe then I can't write a sequel set in nothingness. :P

I am a winner.

Perhaps it's just me trying to compensate for my lecturer's stringent mocking of me yesterday, but today I was determined to win at everything. Any debate, discussion, Pokemon card duel or chess match, I was determined to beat my opponent and beat them down hard.

To be fair, most of the time, that's likely to be my mentality. Or at least it is when it comes to talking with Colby. We talked a bit about Spiral - nothing that would compromise the integrity of the project, just musing out loud about how we work. For instance, I criticised him to having picked up all the deliberately loose threads I'd placed. Often in the chapter directly succeeding mine. But he pointed out to me that he'd also not bitten a lot of hooks I'd thrown out.

Which was true. But I never noticed because those things I'd thrown out were almost never anything I'd considered significant to my plot or mythos. Ergo, the lines he did pick up on were all the ones *I* too had considered important. Guess we're both on the same wavelength - why else would we novel together? ;)

I'd still prefer it if they didn't all happen directly after my chapters... leave the readers with a bit of suspense about what they mean. It'd be like on Lost you see the four-toed statue and then the next episode you see it's Tawaret. But the speculation and intrigue and the sublimity of when the threads come together lies in the fact that we saw the foot in the season 2 finale and finally got to see the rest of it in the season 5 finale.

I should've mentioned the above to him during our chat today, but I didn't. But hopefully he still reads in which case he'll receive my message and my apt metaphor.

Probably an equally valid comeback he could make is that there are threads he has yet to pick up but are planning to later on down the line. That's the position I'm taking. There are things he's alludes to and I've mentioned in passing of my own chapters that will come together further down the line. Most likely in chapter 7.2.

Eugh. How did I manage to turn a post that was supposed to be about my chess match against Chris today into one about Spiral?

Chris came up for our usual Tuesday appointment. My Darkrai deck vs his Magnezone deck. Both of them are supremely good. It hadn't occured to me just how good they were until today. In terms of strategy, we've got it down pretty well. The first match I couldn't setup at all, and thus I lost. But second match, I got set up very quickly, him a little later but I was pretty too far ahead and thus won.

After that, we shethed our decks and I unfurled my chess board. I so should've bought the glass chess set I saw at Paddy's Markets for $10. But I'm too cheap for that. That and the fact that they REFUSED to lower the price just drove me away.

The frst match was really fun. He opened with the "3-move-checkmate" I'd learnt from Ferr all those years ago, and so I countered it pretty quickly. I soon got some Rooks out and was blitzing the field. It didn't take long, but an oversight from Chris made him very vulnerable for a checkmate (and I was surprised that I even saw the opening. I may not be as rusty as I imagined myself to be having not played chess in years and yearned for it for months now).

Second match was far more fun. The way he opened blocked his Bishops and thus I was able to get both Rooks out very early in the game. a quick castle from him opened up his other flank vulnerable. I very quickly acquired a lot of his key pieces (what with him having a Rook and Bishop trapped). He quickly made use of his Queen to make some threats against my side, but since I had both Rooks out and about and my knights, I was able to come to a 'stalemate' with her, allowing her in my territory but leaving it no where to run. Eventually I make a crucial mistake and forget that in an attempt to prevent a potential escape, I lost a Rook, deafening my strategy.

Eventually, however, we puts on a strong offensive with his minimal pieces left. And I put up a few *very* good offensive-defensive moves. And then when he was very close to victory, I was able to find a loophole in his defense, checkmating him ;)

And thus today I am a winner.

Arrogance in a morning

Douchebag: *rides past Shanan and Alistair on a bike despite it being a very narrow path*
Me: I don't get people who do that. Just walk until you reach a wider area.
Alistair: Yeah, well, he's probably in a hurry to get somewhere.
Me: The time he takes to navigate past padestrians will probably cost him more than if he just walked. He's a moron.
Alistair: That's a quick judgement.
Me: It may be quick, but it's a fair assessment. Especially considering how he's not me.
Alistair *brief pause* ... and therefore must be a moron.
Me: Precisely, anyone not me is a moron.
Alistair: *chuckle* I like that logic.
Me: Well take you for example. You're a moron. And you're not me. What more empirical proof to we need?

*brief pause for laughage*

Me: I'm sorry, if Connor were here I would've definitely picked on him. As it is, however, you're going to have to be my bitch.

I had only 3 hours sleep this morning, but I was totally in my witty prime and on was on fire all day. It's such a satisfying feeling when you end a day assured that every conversation you had was filled with gratifying lols of your own doing. Ideally that'd be the way I live every day.

Past few days have been hectic, hence the lack of posts. Each night I've been doing work (or taking a break and watching something) and by the time I realised what time it was, I had to hop straight into bed to maximise my sleeping time. I was going to write up my Lost season 5 finale analysis tonight, but as it turns out, it's 2am and I'm buggered. This was seriously one of the best episodes ever - I was able to rewatch the entire double episode the next day ... I think that says something ;)

I've got a lot of thoughts and theories on Lost... so I'll see if I have time to write it up tomorrow, it'll be a coupla thousand words long, as usual, but most likely going to be worth it ;) However, I'm likely going to go watch Angels and Demons tomorrow with Gobi, so that's a few hours gone. AND I plan to work on Spiral, either fully plan out my next chapter or even write it, which will take another few hours.

As I think I mentioned in my last Spiral entry, I came up with a pretty kickass final scene for the chapter. And I know the scene that comes directly before it. But between the opener and the penultimate scene I have no idea what to do. I'll have to come up with something to fill it in. The time frame can't be too long either, to make the final scenes work. Maximum a day or two. Might do a character based chapter.

It's going to be so frickin' sweet if I'm able to send Colby my next chapter by Sunday evening or Monday. Since I only received it a day or two ago. I can't even remember, my sense of time is completely rooted (or unrooted, as the case may be...).

I wonder how many hours I'll be able to sleep for - anyone wanna place a bet?

Muse's Triad

I probably speak about the Muse far too often, but sometimes the timing of things just is too perfect. (Isn't it odd how I attribute all the shit in my life to a malicious, bitchy omnipotent God, and all the perfection in my life to an ethereal, practically powerless Muse?) She speaks out to me with three things that will happen or are happening this week.

1. House.

If you asked me a few weeks ago about this would all end I wouldn't have a clue. It really has felt like one long episode starting with Kutner's suicide. The result of this is the catalyst for Cameron and Chase marrying, but also House's introspection into who he is and why he is the way he is. But this latter point was deftly avoiding overt explication, rather it was symbolically represented in Amber and how he handles with that.

And that final moment at the end, when he realises his detox and sexual encounter were part of the delusion... So perfect and unexpected and yet you feel like you should've seen it. They dole out precisely what the fans one, the long awaited Huddy relationship, and in our fervour, we don't examine its possibility. No one cried foul and accused them writers of writing unrealistic scenes - the situation in which House and Cuddy fall into each others' arms was too perfect. I could learn a thing or two from that.

Seriously though, the delusions aspect of it has been hinted at for ages. Like that bus scene with Amber at the end of season 4. He wasn't in some drug addled state, such as season 2's finale, perfectly lucid and rational and yet he converses with Amber on a celestial bus?! Surprised no one joined the dots sooner.

Where can they go in season 6 with House in an institution? I have no idea. But I seriously hope they introduce a psychiatrist character (STEPHEN FRY!? OMG!) that examines him ferociously. Why not even have the guy sit in on differentials (whilst House is still there)? Alternatively, they could focus on the hospital with them trying to work without House there. Imagine a whole episode without Hugh Laurie in it... that would be an amazing ep (from an artistic point of view).

2. Lost

Lost finale on Thursday. Incident fever has hit an all time high here. My mind is just constantly running and trying to come up with some ideas as to how it all pans out.

3. 8-Bit theatre.

If you don't read 8-Bit Theatre, then you haven't lived. Go do it. Now. I've always maintain that despite it being a webcomic, despite it being designed for comedy, despite its "subpar" graphical style, that the plot and the characters were the work of a genius. That they were characters capable of ringing true, archetypes that spoke to the irrational. That, and they were fucking hilarious.

All of my time at Grammar, I had pinned up the infamous episode 434. Why? Because of the intense and rapacious discussions it created. A vague and wholly unfunny episode generates the most discussion out of any episode for a comedy based comic? That only spoke to how powerful the plot and its fans and speculation would run.

But people are only realising now how perfect the characters are. They're morons. It was apparent from the very get go (after 100 eps or so) that it all started to fall together. Despite the variable personalities, such as a character was as dumb or as smart as the joke needed, there was some core truth to it all and now it's coming out.

The shits real now. Everyone can feel the ending coming soon. Maybe he'll cut to a tangential arc and keep us in the lurch. If he does, great, the lols are needed. But I suspect he may not, Mr Clevinger, that clever man, will truck along, going down this inevitable path towards his story's end.

This afternoon when I read the latest episode, I sat here stunned, in silence. Were it another time of day, I may've got emotional. Over pixelated characters on a screen? wot?! But that feeling of having everything you thought you knew pulled from underneath you. That's so powerful. Again, another lesson I could use for my own writing.

***

All this to say that Colby has (finally) given me the latest Spiral chapter. I'm planning on staying true to my word, that I would get it back to him within 1.5 weeks. So that gives me until about Friday of next week. I suspect, if all goes according to my tenuous plan, I will give it to him on Monday, having utilised the weekend to my advantage.

What can I say about Colby's latest chapter... Well, he's managed to throw a spanner into the works. That is, disrupted the things I wanted to do with a few characters and suddenly lit a fire under my plot's ass. That is, he's placed pressure now onto me to write something I hadn't planned. Which is great. I sort of did plan something similar, but his way is probably better.

He's also ruined my larger mythos that I wanted to use. Well not totally ruined, but definitely placed it udner duress. I think I can still manage to salvage most of it.

However, there were no mindfucks, as he promised. Just spanners. And that was to me as a writer. No minor-mind-fucks for the readers... But I intend to throw him a mindfuck next chapter. Pretty much planned it tonight just sitting here studying. From there, I have a few spanners to throw him as well. Partly to salvage my plot and partly just to fuck with him :D

The Law of Fives

The Law of Fives states simply that: All things happen in fives, or are divisible by or are multiples of five, or are somehow directly or indirectly appropriate to 5


The Law of Fives is never wrong.


—Malaclypse the Younger, Principia Discordia, Page 00016

Earlier tonight I discovered Discordianism (I was looking at Greek theology and game across all these sweet Gods. Inspiring me for the Helix project :D). Just from the outset, if you know me at all, you can see what attracts me to this view. I downloaded myelf a cop of Principia Discordia and will probably give a shot reading it some day. Actually, it reminds me of The Dice Man, which had similar ideologies, but also distinct in some quanlitative ways.

Law of Fives struck me as particularly salient, and possibly one of the best ways of representing one of my Irrationalist views that I've had for some time. Again, it's that blasted Articulatory Paradox (in which other peoples' words better express our deepest and my instrinsic thoughts that we cannot articulate).

I'll let you all to think about it.

Speaking of all this, it's also been generating some ideas in my my mind for Spiral 6.2. Colby assures me 6.1 is coming underway and I look forward to reading what he's written. Right now I'm pretty much going off what he's written, I've hit a point where I don't know where to take the story next, though I have a plethora of ideas of where it will end. And I say many because I fear their mortality rate is pretty high, given Colby's mindfuck grenades.

I do, however, have a pretty kickass opening, similar in feel to chapter 3.2 (which Colby liked least of my chapters :@). I don't know if it will go in this next one, or maybe one after. It depends on what Colby gives me in 6.1. I also have a small scene which I will need to include as some time (just 2-3 lines of dialog that I'm gonna try and make 'quote worthy' - aphoric).

Spiral 5.2

Done and ported over to Colby. Clocking in at about 7000 words, we've officially jumped to 50 000 words. That's half of the 100k goal we set at the beginning of the project, but realistically only like a 1/3 through the story.

If memory serves me correctly, I've had 5.1 sitting and waiting for like a month. I've certainly been lagging. So a new thing for me. When I get 6.1 from Colby, I'll get my chapter to him in a week and a half or less. (If timing lines up, I'd be writing it over the weekend after I get it). 5.2 was pretty much composed over a night and this morning, (with like 1000-1500 written previously).

We'll see how that goes.

As for story development, 5.2 is a pretty plot driven chapter. Zene has to get through a lot of places, so it jumps between viewpoints. I quite liked doing that, I was treating it sort of like a Lost episode, dual storylines and jumping between the two at opportune moments.

Most of well, I'm just chuffed we're at 50000 ^_^

Happy Birthday, Mum! '09

'nuff said. T'is the AbMother's birthday today! We shall be celebrating it with a buffet dinner tomorrow evening, which shall be nice.

Today was uneventful. My Fridays, I've decided, are disgusting. I'm outta the house for 5 hours at a time, like, that's pretty much exactly what school was. Except this is far less exciting than school because I only get that hour long break, which isn't enough for coffee, but is too long for any self activity.

Apathy I described two days ago is still rearing its flamboyant head.

My internet slowed today. Which is pretty sweet, 1 day before my month is over. I sooo nearly made it to that one month without slowed internet mark. And this one doesn't count, considering I came back to Canberra midway through February. Tomorrow, a Saturday, shall be full of much internetual challenges. But outside of that, Sunday should be sweet <3

I Spiraled today too. Got about 1000 words in, taking two arduous hours. But it's a good 1000, I think. I've come up to the really awkward unplanned part of the chapter. But once I get over this hump it should be pretty smooth sailing as I embark upon some interesting exposition ;)!