Thou Shalt Not Judge (Except When it Makes for a Good Story)

Usually, it's not nice to pass judgment on people. You could always be right, of course, but that little bit of victory doesn't warrant jumping to conclusions and probably hurting the one judged.

However.

If you can jump to conclusions without actually jumping to conclusions—form hypotheses without assuming they actually apply—you can end up with some good story material. And the farther you go (or the more ridiculous, depending on your writing specialty), the better.

Let's say you're on your way to work/school, and as you pass the local running track, you catch a glance of a young woman. She's suitably fit and in what you consider to be normal morning running clothes, but she is currently sitting on a bench at the side of the track, sipping from a Starbucks cup. The first assumption you have is that she has either been out running or is getting ready to run. That doesn't explain the whole situation, though.

First, let's say it would be no one would go running with a full cup of hot coffee/whatever on earth else she's drinking from Starbucks. From there, we can take two basic routes.

One, she has not been running with a full cup of Starbucks and is drinking it before she hits the track. Makes sense—but why is she having her morning caffeine on an otherwise empty park bench? Maybe she's just enjoying the morning. Maybe she's pretending to just enjoy the morning. Maybe that other space on the bench had been taken up by her boyfriend, who then left her in both senses of the word. In fact, she doesn't have a habit of drinking coffee—she just left the bench to grab something bready and something sweet to drink to calm her buzzing mind, and she couldn't stand to stay around all of the people in that Starbucks when she's barely able to keep herself from crying. There aren't too many people that pass this way, certainly not many that would pay any attention, so she came back here, to a spot that she can no longer say is her favourite place to run.

Two, the cup is empty. She drank it before she started running, and there aren't any convenient disposal spots along the track, so she had yet to get rid of it when she caught a glance of her best, best friend from high school who stole her boyfriend and, just a few months ago, her job. Said best, best friend is leaving the tennis court in the middle of the running track, and the jogger was on route to run into her. Instead she decided to park it on a bench, pretending to drink some coffee so no one passing by suspects anything, until the best, best friend was gone. If they ran into each other again, the jogger would probably end up beating the crap out of her. That would not be a good thing to repeat.

But perhaps we're not interested in writing high school dramas. Luckily, as you pass the track and turn a corner, you see two men putting up a section of fence: one, who doesn't particularly stand out, squatting to hold the bottom down as another, topless and wearing bright orange pants, drives in some nails. It looks like something a prisoner would wear. But what is he doing in the street, if he is indeed an escaped prisoner? Did he have help? Did one of his helpers sustain a wound that required a little cloth to bind? How did he get out of that one?

Any normal human being would take note of such things, maybe find it odd, but shrug it off and keep moving. Writers, on the other hand, can keep chasing the most insignificant character on the side of the road—not with the car, hopefully, but with crazy trains of thought veering off to wild conclusions worth reading. Just try not to get anybody hurt.

Cover Me

Some of you may have viewed my first attempt at making a cover for The Long and Winding Road. For those interested, here is my second.

I'm not entirely sure if it will be usable in publishing, since the background is from a wonderful stock photo artist on dA. While I had been envisioning a much more, er, winding road, this picture really has a good feel to it, and I wanted something symmetrical with the hand design in front. I'll still try to find somewhere to take my own picture, but I doubt I'll be able to do as well.

The hands are mine, although I did start by tracing a how-to guide on them. Charlotte's nails are my own addition, which explains why they need more adjusting. I tried to add a little texture, though I'm not sure how well it really turned out. The main difficulty was the outlines. I did my shabby tracing, then the colouring, then the same-color outlines, all in an attempt to make it less cartoony. It's still far from realistic, but I like the effect. Of course, I'll have to redo it if I decide Arthur is white after all (he's currently Chinese with a little bit of Korean and Caucasian). We'll see.

I might make the title bigger, although I like the effect (Hooray for SumoPaint layers!). It goes well with this background, at least. I was originally going to do black letters with a white glow, but then I stumbled upon this effect. The lettering worked well enough for me to stop font-surfing at the "B"s, but if anyone has an idea that might look better for a post-apocalyptic romance, let me know.

I'm planning to have my name centred, same font and effect but smaller than the title, about where the fog comes in on the road. I really don't mind the cover without it, but that probably wouldn't help get my name out there.

Then again, eBook covers really aren't seen as much as "real" book covers. I have to look at a solid book cover every time I go for the book, but 'tis not so in digital publishing (at least, not for the Nook). I just need to snag some attention and hope the writing is worth looking back at the description for my name.

So, better than my last cover? Worse? About the same considering the different styles? Any other photos of the same style you know I could use?

New Fan Fiction Idea #11

Another old idea I spontaneously remembered.

Working Title: "My Name Is Aragon"

Fandom: Hetalia: Axis Powers

Genre Tags: Romance/Tragedy

Length: Possibly a oneshot; could be a short multichapter if I choose to do research

Protagonist: Spain (as Aragon)

Other Main Character: Castile (female OC)

Antagonist: Er... Either Spain or fate.

Plot: Aragon and Castile have been in love for a while before they finally unite under the name Spain. But suddenly Castile isn't feeling too well—and by the time Aragon realizes his recent gain of strength when he's around her isn't just love, it may be already too late.

Setting: Historical; the unification of Aragon and Castile.

Point of View: Third person, limited to Spain.

Dream Journal #9

100th post, hooray! Thanks to anyone that's been more or less keeping up with all of this. Hope it's enjoyable.

18 May—19 May

I was playing some sort of video game with Schoolhouse Rock!-like graphics. It was a small, modern-day town, and by selecting various buildings, etc., I had to explore the area and find all of the sections I could. I had found all but one thing on the goal list before I finally caught sight of a certain selectable sign that had a list of all of the sites. Amongst several places I had already been was an option labelled "Don't tell me I don't exist." I selected it to be taken to a screen showing the town's king. He had short, brown hair and was in the process of spinning his crown in the air. Apparently his label was some sort of reference to his lack of political power.

At this point, the video-game feel of the dream was gone. Kari* was the mother of a 4- or 5-year-old brown-haired boy whose father (the real king of the town) had been missing. They lived in a big mansion with white wood stairs. At some point we managed to track down and release the real king, who went on to battle the usurper.

As the two kings stood poised for battle with their swords, the fake king prepared some momentous pre-battle words and shouted: "I like your daikons!" The real king responded, "I... don't know what to make of that!" and they both charged into battle. (It should be noted at this point that the fake king had made similar comments before using different vegetables.)

The real king won, bringing peace to the town and whatnot. I wondered why Kari didn't free him sooner because she had a blue, superpowered sword.

*Kari was the wife of the sponsor for the Japan portion of my trip. She has two kids as well, but she was the only one of the group to appear in this dream.

New Fiction Idea #25

This somehow happened after listening to "The Boxer" and "Gypsy" in succession (although I didn't pay attention to the lyrics).

Working Title: Roughhouse

Genre: Action/Adventure

Protagonist: Hamilton (only to his friends since it's not a great fighting name; in the ring, he's Ingram), a compact sixteen-year-old with dirty blonde hair (in both meanings of the phrase) and blue-grey eyes. He's quite responsible but has trouble being optimistic or relaxing around friends.

Other Main Characters: John, a fifteen-year-old of Caucasian and Thai heritage. He smiles a lot and is pretty darn scary when he gets serious. He's a bit bigger than Hamilton but not as skilled.
Terry, a thirteen-year-old boy with dark red hair and amber eyes. He's tan but still rather freckled, and he's definitely the lightest of the group. He's affectionate but easily scared off.

Antagonist: Various other fighters, mostly teenagers, possibly one recurring. Officers seeking to shut down rings. Upper-class people who can't fathom why the boys don't have parents or real jobs.

Setting: Dystopia with plenty of dirty cities and plenty of people, but not enough jobs. Orphanages are overcrowded and only hold up to age twelve. There is a gaping hole where the middle class would otherwise be. Fighting rings are relatively popular but frowned upon.

Plot: Each without a blood family, Hamilton and John struggle to survive and support their makeshift family of three. Battles are brutal enough, but the government has started to crack down on the fighting rings, so Hamilton & co. are forced to drift from town to town to keep up the only job (that they consider moral enough) they can get.

Point of View: Third person, limited to Hamilton.

I feel like this would be a good opportunity to work on developing characters' fighting styles, which I've yet to do even in my Hunger Games fan fictions. This is still too vague to actually work on, but it could happen.

New Manga Idea #6

The first draft of this idea came some time ago, though I can't remember when in relation to some of my other manga ideas. There wasn't really any source of conflict, though, so, under inspiration from a recent dream, I'm tentatively putting out this version of the story.

Working Title: Jump

Genre: Seinen, maybe.

Protagonist: Aiiro (愛色), a 14-year-old girl with her dark hair in a short ponytail and tareme eyes. She's the quiet, artistic type, although she can get a bit rowdy with her friends.

Other Main Characters: Yukiame (雪雨), the same age as Aiiro, one of Aiiro's childhood friends. She's kind of chirpy and adventurous. She has brown hair, which she keeps in a bun.
Yoshiko (悦子), Aiiro's little sister. She's 10 years old, plays volleyball, and likes to run around with her friends.
Kenseki (健赤), Aiiro's father. He has reddish hair and looks quite young. He's kind but can be a bit passive.

Antagonist: Unsure.

Setting: Takes place in modern-day Hitachi; however, Aiiro starts spending more and more time in her own little world. By that, I mean she spends more time "jumping": an old childhood play place of hers where she would draw an environment or characters and then jump into it, usually with her friends. This environment consists of everything into which she's jumped and grows every time she adds another sketch. The flora and fauna can grow or die regardless of her presence in the world, though she can keep tabs on this by watching her drawings.

Plot: Aiiro has a normal life and hasn't jumped in some time, but when her little sister becomes persistently, progressively ill and her father starts losing his head, she finds herself drawn to her own world much stronger. That's not to say nothing ever goes wrong there—but saving her own characters is a lot more appealing than staying to watch her life fall apart... Even if it means she may not be able to go back outside...

I'm aware that some of the names are weird, but that's just what happened.

The Required Amount of Slacking Off

Writing requires discipline. Staring at a blank Word document just letting random scenes flit about my head is not productive. Looking at a half-written page, closing it, and running off to play Neopets is not any better. Trying to write the next chapter of a fan fiction while checking email, forums, and deviantArt every few seconds isn't the best idea, either.

At the same time, forcing myself to stare at the blinking cursor for forty minutes when The Muse is hiding behind the lamp and laughing at my foolishness isn't the greatest way to write, either. Discipline by itself can put words on a page, but a story should be more than just that. What's the point of writing for enjoyment if, well, I'm not enjoying it? Writing isn't necessarily a romantic enterprise 100% of the time, but the words should start flowing once I get started. If not, I can't guarantee the slightest bit of quality in the story, and that's not going to help me get back into the swing of things.

I'm still trying to find the balance between putting my rear to the chair to write and taking enough breaks. I need some taste of life to write about it (or some strange, alternate version of it, anyway), but I didn't exactly get loads of writing done while I was running about Japan and China in May. (Additionally, I'm too much of an introvert to want to experience too much on a daily basis.) Managing NaNoWriMo alongside a full school/social schedule really helped, I think, but it's a totally different balance to strike in the middle of summer with nothing but church and some hospital volunteering as my face-to-face social interaction.

How do you manage writing at a good pace for you? Do you have any recommendations for disciplined writing (other than my favourite, Write or Die)? How about for break time?