Writing woes
Jun. 4th, 2010 02:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shah_of_blahFor the last couple of days, I've been trying to write a new scene for my ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
pilotsbigbang fic. I decided (rather suddenly, with no prompting from my beta or anyone else) that this particular scene needed to exist. Sort of worked out what I wanted to say with it ("sort of" being the operative phrase) and when it ought to take place. And then proceeded to spend most of my time staring at the Word document.
I have this problem, and I'd be curious to know if other writers on my flist get this too, where I find it very difficult to write new material for a story that feels 'finished' (you know, there's lots of revision to be done but I've got the beginning, middle, and end). Like, when I was writing the first draft of the story, I wrote furiously for weeks (months, even). This story consumed my brain. And then I finished it, and floundered around for a bit before I found a new project.
Now I can't get that energy back. Frak. I'm at that 'just write something and worry about the quality later' stage, but it's frustrating.
One thing that has helped, actually, is listening to The Symphony of Science. They're videos/songs made with clips from, like, science movies/presentations/whatever and autotune. That may not sound good, but I found them quite stunning--visually, lyrically, and musically. My favorites so far are "We Are All Connected" and "Our Place in the Cosmos." They're beautiful in this really odd, almost haunting way. And I find them to be very good writing music. If I didn't already have a title for pilotsbigbang, I probably would have snerched something from the 'lyrics' to one of these. So you should all be grateful I didn't discover this website a couple of months ago, or you might have found yourself reading "We Are Made of Star Stuff" or "The Brink of the Known" or some other equally pretentious title. Actually, that last one's not so bad...
What else do I have to complain about? Well, this isn't such a point of frustration as the last, but![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
radio_silent and I are planning to start a blog where we post reviews and stuff of all the television we consume. Perhaps on tumblr? Not sure. We want something with a fandom presence but more officious-looking than LJ. Like, something I would actually show people I know. I know some of my flisters are on tumblr...any thoughts? We'd be posting mostly essays (with pictures probably) and I'm not sure if tumblr's the right place for that, since most of the blogs I read there are multi-media/graphics-based.
The other problem is we can't think of a name. Need something snappy, geeky, preferably meta, or perhaps containing a pun. Bah. When we do get this figured out, I'll post a link.
Day 22. Best pilot episode
I'm gonna be honest--I was a bit taken aback when I first saw "Best pilot episode" because I thought the meme had just read my mind. How did it know I was obsessed with pilots? But of course that is nonsense.
Best pilot episode. A lot of pilots are a little weak, like with Buffy, Sarah Connor, Veronica Mars, etc. Or maybe they're great episodes but a little rough as pilots, like Battlestar Galactica ('33' is confusing) or Firefly (if we're talking 'Serenity'--otoh, I think 'Train Job' is a great pilot but maybe not so great of an episode).
Instead of those, I give you...
Enjoy!
Then I tried to figure out which was the best Pilot episode. Was it YCGHA or Flight of the Phoenix for awesome space scenes? KLG1 for fighting pilots? Captain's Hand for reconciling pilots? Colonial Day for happy pilots? Unfinished Business for crazyawesome pilots? I've decided that it's Home (both parts) for the combination of happy pilots, angsting pilots, brooding pilots, bantering pilots, and badass buddycop pilots.
Day 23. Most annoying character
This is tricky. Unlike most BtVS fans, I actually like Dawn, although I must admit she is pretty annoying in seasons 5 and 6. But I don't want to perpetuate the Dawn hate. For most of Lost, I found Jack and Kate rather irritating, but I ended up liking them both. And Kate's pretty much holding down the feminist front all by herself, so I don't want to get in on the Kate hate either. Especially since what I didn't like wasn't her character but her boring ships. Now, I do hate William Adama, but that's because he's an ass, not because he's annoying. The adjective doesn't quite fit. And then there are characters like the Mouthbreather who are supposed to be annoying, so that doesn't work.
Okay, here's one:
Now, Sheldon fans, don't kill me. I don't dislike Sheldon. But he is really annoying. I almost didn't give the show a chance because Sheldon was so irritating. I'm too afraid to approach the BBT fandom though, because from what I've seen it's full of Sheldon worship. And c'mon guys, you'd write "DIE SHELDON DIE" on the walls if you had to live with him too. ;)
pilotsbigbang fic. I decided (rather suddenly, with no prompting from my beta or anyone else) that this particular scene needed to exist. Sort of worked out what I wanted to say with it ("sort of" being the operative phrase) and when it ought to take place. And then proceeded to spend most of my time staring at the Word document. I have this problem, and I'd be curious to know if other writers on my flist get this too, where I find it very difficult to write new material for a story that feels 'finished' (you know, there's lots of revision to be done but I've got the beginning, middle, and end). Like, when I was writing the first draft of the story, I wrote furiously for weeks (months, even). This story consumed my brain. And then I finished it, and floundered around for a bit before I found a new project.
Now I can't get that energy back. Frak. I'm at that 'just write something and worry about the quality later' stage, but it's frustrating.
One thing that has helped, actually, is listening to The Symphony of Science. They're videos/songs made with clips from, like, science movies/presentations/whatever and autotune. That may not sound good, but I found them quite stunning--visually, lyrically, and musically. My favorites so far are "We Are All Connected" and "Our Place in the Cosmos." They're beautiful in this really odd, almost haunting way. And I find them to be very good writing music. If I didn't already have a title for pilotsbigbang, I probably would have snerched something from the 'lyrics' to one of these. So you should all be grateful I didn't discover this website a couple of months ago, or you might have found yourself reading "We Are Made of Star Stuff" or "The Brink of the Known" or some other equally pretentious title. Actually, that last one's not so bad...
What else do I have to complain about? Well, this isn't such a point of frustration as the last, but
radio_silent and I are planning to start a blog where we post reviews and stuff of all the television we consume. Perhaps on tumblr? Not sure. We want something with a fandom presence but more officious-looking than LJ. Like, something I would actually show people I know. I know some of my flisters are on tumblr...any thoughts? We'd be posting mostly essays (with pictures probably) and I'm not sure if tumblr's the right place for that, since most of the blogs I read there are multi-media/graphics-based.The other problem is we can't think of a name. Need something snappy, geeky, preferably meta, or perhaps containing a pun. Bah. When we do get this figured out, I'll post a link.
Day 22. Best pilot episode
I'm gonna be honest--I was a bit taken aback when I first saw "Best pilot episode" because I thought the meme had just read my mind. How did it know I was obsessed with pilots? But of course that is nonsense.
Best pilot episode. A lot of pilots are a little weak, like with Buffy, Sarah Connor, Veronica Mars, etc. Or maybe they're great episodes but a little rough as pilots, like Battlestar Galactica ('33' is confusing) or Firefly (if we're talking 'Serenity'--otoh, I think 'Train Job' is a great pilot but maybe not so great of an episode).
Instead of those, I give you...
Enjoy!
Then I tried to figure out which was the best Pilot episode. Was it YCGHA or Flight of the Phoenix for awesome space scenes? KLG1 for fighting pilots? Captain's Hand for reconciling pilots? Colonial Day for happy pilots? Unfinished Business for crazyawesome pilots? I've decided that it's Home (both parts) for the combination of happy pilots, angsting pilots, brooding pilots, bantering pilots, and badass buddycop pilots.
Day 23. Most annoying character
This is tricky. Unlike most BtVS fans, I actually like Dawn, although I must admit she is pretty annoying in seasons 5 and 6. But I don't want to perpetuate the Dawn hate. For most of Lost, I found Jack and Kate rather irritating, but I ended up liking them both. And Kate's pretty much holding down the feminist front all by herself, so I don't want to get in on the Kate hate either. Especially since what I didn't like wasn't her character but her boring ships. Now, I do hate William Adama, but that's because he's an ass, not because he's annoying. The adjective doesn't quite fit. And then there are characters like the Mouthbreather who are supposed to be annoying, so that doesn't work.
Okay, here's one:
Now, Sheldon fans, don't kill me. I don't dislike Sheldon. But he is really annoying. I almost didn't give the show a chance because Sheldon was so irritating. I'm too afraid to approach the BBT fandom though, because from what I've seen it's full of Sheldon worship. And c'mon guys, you'd write "DIE SHELDON DIE" on the walls if you had to live with him too. ;)
