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Below are the 3 most recent journal entries recorded in
KV Taylor - SpecFic and Nonsense's InsaneJournal:
| Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 | |
| 6:07 pm | Where did you go?
I’ve mostly been busy with holidays and holiday preparations/travel (been to WV most of last week, likely going back very soon. Even have some of my shopping done already, if you can believe it), reading (beta reading and novel reading), and even some little writing when particular characters pipe up and decide it’s their turn. None of this has really been at the computer, which makes a change for me, but isn’t so bad in spite of all I’ve heard. Reading-wise I’m fairly excited. I hit up a bunch of PG Wodehouse short stories (Tales from the Drones Club), which I’ve nearly finished, but they’re best read a few days apart– brilliantly written, of course, but you know how he has his formulas. Also trying to re-read Ulysses without the month-long breaks between sections this time– which was going very well until I went to the library again last week. Because I picked up Thackeray’s The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon*, and now I can’t put it down. Because, I’m really sorry Joyce, I love the feeling of your prose bouncing around in my head, but I love Thackeray more than life itself. He wins. (I’m sure Joyce is devastated.) It’s convinced me that The Resurrectionists really needs some little illustrations, particularly like the one above, to start each chapter. Which of course even if I did sell the thing by some weird stroke of overblown luck, I wouldn’t have any say over anyhow. But without these little fantasies, we would surely go insane. And apart from some rejections and new projects that have more than canceled each other out to leave me rather happy, that’s all the news. I know, the holidays are so eventful. *If you’ve never seen the movie Kubrick made out of it, Barry Lyndon, oh god, do it. If you have Netflix you can watch it online. So, so awesome. Hilarious and gorgeous… and not the usual Kubrick fare, for sure. —————- |
| Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 | |
| 5:54 pm | Stupid Inspiration I have not contracted some deadly illness of dubious provenance that keeps me in bed all hours of the day– I’m just distracted. There, I’m sure you were worried! But no, I’ve been beta reading (fun!), world building (odd, but I do love making maps), and even jotting down some little scenes. I’ve had this weird mashup epic fantasy/clockpunk story floating around in the back of my head for a year now, and apparently parts of it are ready to gel this very moment. This is me, not arguing. But being very distracted. I was thinking about the characters and where they come from, and I wondered, how do other people’s brains work this out? Mine is erratic, and so I assume yours will be too– but it’s the details that are most interesting. Like, what is the single oddest thing that’s ever inspired a character of yours? Your best friend, your mom, your dog, something odd you read, a picture? Here’s one of mine. I was reading an interview with Noel Gallagher (songwriter and guitarist for the now defunct Oasis. Even if you hate the band, their interviews are always hilarious)– I think it was in Q, but I preserved it in my writing journal for future reference without proper footnotes– that went like this:
And naturally, being me, I thought, “That’s f@#king awesome.” Because yes, I find the childish antics of arrogant assholes hilarious, what can I say. (That alone might explain most of my characters, but wait, there’s more!) This combined with various evenings I’d spent in younger days, watching certain persons who shall not be named chop out lines of pharmaceuticals and snort them (hits harder and faster than popping, apparently, but don’t tell the kids) while relaxing with Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network. This was us, unwinding from a long night working at a local restaurant and bar in my home town– which I love, but is not known for its entertainments. These elements collided to suddenly and violently form Alex Franklin, a possibly schizophrenic (but he’s not, really), vaguely nymphomaniac, vicodin (not viagra!) snorting small town waiter. He has issues with mirrors, and is the linchpin of my Wolfton world. I also once based a vampire on Thomas Jefferson, and a whole town, in which I regularly set stories, on an alternate-reality Charlottesville. Which I guess is also very weird, but he makes an excellent vampire, for reasons that will be obvious to students of history, and boring to every one else. What about you? There have to be some weird character inspirations lurking in there– I know you all! —————- |
| Thursday, November 19th, 2009 | |
| 12:15 am | Productivity greets you like your naughty friend Hmm, that’s supposed to be temptation greets you like your naughty friend. (At least that’s the title. The lyrics go: temptation greets you like your naughty mate//the that made you steal and set things on fire//but one you haven’t seen of late. Because with a band as awesome as the Arctic Monkeys, even their b-sides are amazing. Don’t believe me? Oh-ho! You Tube does!) But I digress. As usual. I’m really just here to crow because I finished my polishing edit on Scripped. Meghan and Amanda were invaluable beta readers/editors (yes, it’s different, thanks), and thanks to them I was able to figure out just how to say exactly what I wanted. I hardly ever feel that I’ve said what I meant to, so this is big. Imperfect, oh hell yeah, but perfection is probably boring, right? (Justify!) But yay, I was productive. Forgot what that was like. Discussion of Scripped brings me to another motif I tend to repeat: sex. I joke about all my stories being about sex and death, but be serious for a minute: what stories aren’t? Two inevitabilities of human existence (although with the former, it’s only inevitable that you’ll think of it, not necessarily get it, or even want it), both of which consistently frustrate our attempts at such ideals as logic and reason. I don’t mean I write a lot of sex scenes, because I don’t– that’s a different genre, and a great one, but not mine. However, I’m particularly interested in the sorts of things one can show about a character in those situations. People are honest in bed– at least, if they’re having fun. Two sentences in the bedroom can reveal things about a character that’d take pages otherwise. These are not things we want to know about real people, of course, but things that are often quite useful when it comes to the fictional characters we follow from point A to point B– which to me is the main point of any story. So how they go about getting f!#ked*, and with whom, says a lot about them**. Not always necessary, but it certainly provides some illumination at times. Is it cheating? I don’t know. But it sure is fun. *I am anti-euphemism. There are about three acceptable terms for this. And f!#ked is the best of them, because honesty is always the best policy. —————- |
