Man, talk about the power of suggestion. When I'm rereading old chapters and it mentions Boyd making himself a cup of jasmine tea, most of the time I get this sudden urge to go make some myself. Then I can sit there drinking jasmine tea while editing/reading/writing the story.
Incidentally, I like jasmine tea the most with Silk soy milk in it, the original kind (not vanilla or any other flavor). I steep the jasmine tea for very little time-- about 30 seconds because otherwise it tastes bitter to me -- and then fill the mug mostly with tea but leave about an inch or two for the soy milk. It's also best not to have the water boiling before pouring it over the leaves. I use loose jasmine leaves that I get at a local Asian grocery store.
And that, my friends, is probably more than you ever cared to know about my jasmine tea preparations. ;P
Monday, November 10, 2008
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Trying to gather the inspiration -- and thanks
Ugh... I go in such waves of extreme excitement for writing the story and then complete, unenthusiastic lack of interest. It's pretty annoying, to be honest; I wish I could stay consistent with this shit. But I guess since I get so emotionally involved in writing the characters, it's no wonder that I periodically burn myself out.
For... hmm, at least a week (closer to 2 weeks?), I've been sitting on writing my part of the chapter we're currently working on (Afterimage 21). It's pretty silly, since this was a part I was looking forward to writing several chapters ago. But of course now that I'm here I just feel like I stare blankly at the screen and feel utterly uninspired.
I actually had a dream last week that had something to do with the chapter; I woke up with this really intent feeling and sat down at the computer to write, but then I had to research several things and I was checking some previous chapters and got distracted rereading something, and then I wrote out a start and hated it and had to go to work. Since then, I just can't get into it. Every time I open that page, I stare at what I had, then try to start over entirely and feel like it's just not right.
It really bothers me when I can't get description or the psychology down right. If it doesn't seem intense enough to me when I'm reading it, I feel disappointed in the scene, as if it's failed to be effective and now it sucks.
I'm such a perfectionist -_-; That flaw will kill me someday.
==
One thing I wanted to say -- thanks for the thorough response to our Boyd question, sglily! That was not rude/offensive at all; in fact, it was helpful.
I think one of the problems is that when we were editing, we removed some parts that in retrospect we perhaps should have kept in. We were worried about certain aspects of the characters seeming a certain way (ie, the first version had a scary sappy Boyd) and in editing I was just like UGH TAKE IT ALL OUT I HATE EVERYTHING. Like I usually do XD I'm very black and white about my own writing if you haven't all noticed yet XD
For the most part, our decision was the right one for the story and character. But I think maybe we went a little too far and accidentally took out more of Boyd being concerned/worried than we should have. At the same time, those were parts of paragraphs or parts of the scene and not the point of the scene so we didn't totally compromise the story by doing that or anything. But I do think that since we know the whole book, so we see everything in context of everything else, it seems different to us compared to what it would seem like to readers.
So that's another reason I'm glad we're doing this hiatus. I really think that in order to best tell the story to readers, it needs to be in arcs. We've started to split it up in our minds to figure out which chapters go with which... I can say that you will be getting 3 chapters at once in some cases, which I think will be more useful and interesting for all of you.
-Ais
For... hmm, at least a week (closer to 2 weeks?), I've been sitting on writing my part of the chapter we're currently working on (Afterimage 21). It's pretty silly, since this was a part I was looking forward to writing several chapters ago. But of course now that I'm here I just feel like I stare blankly at the screen and feel utterly uninspired.
I actually had a dream last week that had something to do with the chapter; I woke up with this really intent feeling and sat down at the computer to write, but then I had to research several things and I was checking some previous chapters and got distracted rereading something, and then I wrote out a start and hated it and had to go to work. Since then, I just can't get into it. Every time I open that page, I stare at what I had, then try to start over entirely and feel like it's just not right.
It really bothers me when I can't get description or the psychology down right. If it doesn't seem intense enough to me when I'm reading it, I feel disappointed in the scene, as if it's failed to be effective and now it sucks.
I'm such a perfectionist -_-; That flaw will kill me someday.
==
One thing I wanted to say -- thanks for the thorough response to our Boyd question, sglily! That was not rude/offensive at all; in fact, it was helpful.
I think one of the problems is that when we were editing, we removed some parts that in retrospect we perhaps should have kept in. We were worried about certain aspects of the characters seeming a certain way (ie, the first version had a scary sappy Boyd) and in editing I was just like UGH TAKE IT ALL OUT I HATE EVERYTHING. Like I usually do XD I'm very black and white about my own writing if you haven't all noticed yet XD
For the most part, our decision was the right one for the story and character. But I think maybe we went a little too far and accidentally took out more of Boyd being concerned/worried than we should have. At the same time, those were parts of paragraphs or parts of the scene and not the point of the scene so we didn't totally compromise the story by doing that or anything. But I do think that since we know the whole book, so we see everything in context of everything else, it seems different to us compared to what it would seem like to readers.
So that's another reason I'm glad we're doing this hiatus. I really think that in order to best tell the story to readers, it needs to be in arcs. We've started to split it up in our minds to figure out which chapters go with which... I can say that you will be getting 3 chapters at once in some cases, which I think will be more useful and interesting for all of you.
-Ais
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Posting Status/Update
Chapter 7 and all Afterimage chapters afterward are now officially delayed.
We're going on a posting hiatus for a month or two. We'll still be writing in the background and will be around to talk/answer questions but we won't be posting any new chapters, including 7. When we return, we hope to post in mini arcs – sometimes several chapters at a time if it makes sense for the themes of the story.
This decision is a combination of multiple factors but the two main reasons are that our personal schedules have drastically changed, which reduces the amount of time we have to work on the story, and with fewer reviews/feedback lately than ever before, it seems like the weekly posts have not been as important to readers as we'd initially thought it may be.
This has nothing to do with the recent topic of Boyd in Afterimage. The fact that that debate/conversation came up was a good thing because in showed reader interest.
That being said, we don't by any means want to diminish our appreciation for those of you who have been reviewing. It's solely because of you that we'll even bother to come back from hiatus at all. When we started this story, we were writing purely for fun and had no intentions of posting it anywhere so we will continue to write, even if we think not very many people are interested in reading.
So, thank you very much to those of you who have been fantastic and have been reading and reviewing—we heart you. We'll see you all with new chapters in a few weeks to a couple of months. We think that ultimately this will be better for readers as well, allowing us to give you mini arcs that will make the story easier and more cohesive to read.
See you in a few!
Sonny & Ais
We're going on a posting hiatus for a month or two. We'll still be writing in the background and will be around to talk/answer questions but we won't be posting any new chapters, including 7. When we return, we hope to post in mini arcs – sometimes several chapters at a time if it makes sense for the themes of the story.
This decision is a combination of multiple factors but the two main reasons are that our personal schedules have drastically changed, which reduces the amount of time we have to work on the story, and with fewer reviews/feedback lately than ever before, it seems like the weekly posts have not been as important to readers as we'd initially thought it may be.
This has nothing to do with the recent topic of Boyd in Afterimage. The fact that that debate/conversation came up was a good thing because in showed reader interest.
That being said, we don't by any means want to diminish our appreciation for those of you who have been reviewing. It's solely because of you that we'll even bother to come back from hiatus at all. When we started this story, we were writing purely for fun and had no intentions of posting it anywhere so we will continue to write, even if we think not very many people are interested in reading.
So, thank you very much to those of you who have been fantastic and have been reading and reviewing—we heart you. We'll see you all with new chapters in a few weeks to a couple of months. We think that ultimately this will be better for readers as well, allowing us to give you mini arcs that will make the story easier and more cohesive to read.
See you in a few!
Sonny & Ais
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
voting and working, Sonny
I got up at 6AM to go vote, the line was down the block, over an overpass, down another block. Fuck this shit I'm going home. Went back 6 hours later and there was no line. I hope that doesn't mean like. no one else is going to vote in this area. Maybe everyone will go after work.
I'm pretty confidant that Obama will win but I'm still paranoid that some insane shit will happen and he won't. Think positive, Sonny.
So, lately my whole deal has been that I've been working part-time, going to school full-time, and living off my savings account which I managed to build up pretty nicely when I was working two full time jobs and just using my pay check for groceries/transportation/aya and kids while using my savings to pay bills. But then my boss was like "i'm going to only give you 6 hours a week if you don't work more" which seems really contradictory since the company has cut hours since the economy died but whatever. So now I'm basically going to be working full time again.
Which isnt going to kill me obviously since I previously did 15 credits + full time waiter job at night + full time HR job during the day but I was enjoying my freetime.
So yea. This means inevitably I will not be able to write as much, which really sucks. So things are going to slow down. So maybe that's another reason why switching to biweekly is a good idea.
I'm pretty confidant that Obama will win but I'm still paranoid that some insane shit will happen and he won't. Think positive, Sonny.
So, lately my whole deal has been that I've been working part-time, going to school full-time, and living off my savings account which I managed to build up pretty nicely when I was working two full time jobs and just using my pay check for groceries/transportation/aya and kids while using my savings to pay bills. But then my boss was like "i'm going to only give you 6 hours a week if you don't work more" which seems really contradictory since the company has cut hours since the economy died but whatever. So now I'm basically going to be working full time again.
Which isnt going to kill me obviously since I previously did 15 credits + full time waiter job at night + full time HR job during the day but I was enjoying my freetime.
So yea. This means inevitably I will not be able to write as much, which really sucks. So things are going to slow down. So maybe that's another reason why switching to biweekly is a good idea.
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