Ais (12:14:56 AM): i can never think of description words
Sonny (12:15:24 AM): adjectives!
Ais (12:15:29 AM): HA
Ais (12:15:34 AM): HA.......
Ais (12:15:38 AM): case in point ;_;
Sonny (12:15:48 AM): lawlz
Friday, February 27, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
(Ais) Psyched about writing... And the obligatory rambling as well.
So, it came to my attention that the RSS feed doesn't include our tags. Which means anyone reading RSS (or not noticing the tags at the bottom of the blog entries) was probably going, "Who the hell is writing this entry?" every time we posted.
LOLZ. We just like to keep it mysterious, guyz. It's not that we just didn't realize that. Not at all.
Sonny and I were talking last night, and we noticed how much quicker Afterimage has been to write than Book One (some day I'll get off my ass and throw out some viable solutions for the name of that book.. I still really like the suggestion of palimpsest but unfortunately that word is way too awkward). We're not sure quite when we started writing Afterimage but it must've been early June/late May. We're working on Chapter 31 at the moment so that means we've written 32 chapters (almost the entirety of the book) in about 8-9 months. Which is pretty good. The first book took I think just about exactly a year to write. Although admittedly it was ++ times longer...
At the moment, I'm totally psyched about writing. I haven't really hit the super lows like I did for the first book (and the short stories afterward) where I'd have periods of time where I was just like, "FUCK THIS STORY I HATE IT I WILL NOT WRITE IT." I get frustrated here and there with parts and I think there was a week where I just didn't want to write at all because I needed a break, but other than that, Afterimage has been pretty smooth. (This is all aside from the hiatus, of course, which was needed too. I guess I just don't think of my mood during the hiatus as being as intense as my mood sometimes was with Book One. But I'm also a very forgetful person, so...)
The funny thing is, Sonny and I are both just itching to write Fade. We're already looking beyond this book and even the one shots in between (which will also be fun to write) but Fade is really what I can't wait for. It's so hard because I keep wanting to ramble about this or that or express my enthusiasm for different parts of the plot-- but obviously I can't, because, hello major spoilers.
Suffice it to say, there are things in Fade that Sonny and I both are excited about writing and exploring and we hope you'll all enjoy that (and all the other parts of the series) as much as we enjoy writing/creating it.
I'm enjoying reading feedback and theories and what people would like to see in Afterimage as it is. It's so interesting because obviously I know where the story is going and the scenes that will occur in the future and what plot line goes in which direction, but readers can only guess. So some people are probably a lot closer to what will happen than they realize and others have interesting ideas that are probably not going to see fruition, at least in this book. But I can't say anything about that, either =(
Woe is me...
And in the final parts of my rambling (why are my entries always a thousand times longer than Sonny's and about 70 times less interesting? XD), I'm really happy with how the trainee characters have been received. It seems like so far, judging by what readers have said about the different characters, we pretty much achieved the basic goals we were going for with them. I'm secretly (except not since I'm saying this in public spaces online) pleased with the reception of Cade, for instance, because I think it's understandable if people don't like him or write him off as a dick and that's it, but I'm glad that some readers actually like that about him. Not sure I'd want to be seated at a table with the guy but at least he'd make the night interesting, I suppose ;P
Waa. Enjoying writing. This is good for me. Srsly, half the time on my vacation I was twitching to get to a computer to write... I guess I'm just addicted.
LOLZ. We just like to keep it mysterious, guyz. It's not that we just didn't realize that. Not at all.
Sonny and I were talking last night, and we noticed how much quicker Afterimage has been to write than Book One (some day I'll get off my ass and throw out some viable solutions for the name of that book.. I still really like the suggestion of palimpsest but unfortunately that word is way too awkward). We're not sure quite when we started writing Afterimage but it must've been early June/late May. We're working on Chapter 31 at the moment so that means we've written 32 chapters (almost the entirety of the book) in about 8-9 months. Which is pretty good. The first book took I think just about exactly a year to write. Although admittedly it was ++ times longer...
At the moment, I'm totally psyched about writing. I haven't really hit the super lows like I did for the first book (and the short stories afterward) where I'd have periods of time where I was just like, "FUCK THIS STORY I HATE IT I WILL NOT WRITE IT." I get frustrated here and there with parts and I think there was a week where I just didn't want to write at all because I needed a break, but other than that, Afterimage has been pretty smooth. (This is all aside from the hiatus, of course, which was needed too. I guess I just don't think of my mood during the hiatus as being as intense as my mood sometimes was with Book One. But I'm also a very forgetful person, so...)
The funny thing is, Sonny and I are both just itching to write Fade. We're already looking beyond this book and even the one shots in between (which will also be fun to write) but Fade is really what I can't wait for. It's so hard because I keep wanting to ramble about this or that or express my enthusiasm for different parts of the plot-- but obviously I can't, because, hello major spoilers.
Suffice it to say, there are things in Fade that Sonny and I both are excited about writing and exploring and we hope you'll all enjoy that (and all the other parts of the series) as much as we enjoy writing/creating it.
I'm enjoying reading feedback and theories and what people would like to see in Afterimage as it is. It's so interesting because obviously I know where the story is going and the scenes that will occur in the future and what plot line goes in which direction, but readers can only guess. So some people are probably a lot closer to what will happen than they realize and others have interesting ideas that are probably not going to see fruition, at least in this book. But I can't say anything about that, either =(
Woe is me...
And in the final parts of my rambling (why are my entries always a thousand times longer than Sonny's and about 70 times less interesting? XD), I'm really happy with how the trainee characters have been received. It seems like so far, judging by what readers have said about the different characters, we pretty much achieved the basic goals we were going for with them. I'm secretly (except not since I'm saying this in public spaces online) pleased with the reception of Cade, for instance, because I think it's understandable if people don't like him or write him off as a dick and that's it, but I'm glad that some readers actually like that about him. Not sure I'd want to be seated at a table with the guy but at least he'd make the night interesting, I suppose ;P
Waa. Enjoying writing. This is good for me. Srsly, half the time on my vacation I was twitching to get to a computer to write... I guess I'm just addicted.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Editing/Writing Spree
Man, I'm dead.
I got back from vacation + flying on Saturday evening and proceeded to spend ALL of Sunday and Monday reading, editing, writing, and just now-- htmling/posting. I even stayed up late and got up early, although that wasn't really on purpose. (What the hell? When on vacation I just wanted to sleep in and kept getting woken up, and then when I can sleep in here, I'm all, "7 am on a Sunday? I'M UP!" Yet on weekdays this doesn't happen. Curse you, sleep cycle! Curse youuuu!)
However, here are my (impressive?) list of accomplishments:
*I reread/edited chapters 17-31 in Afterimage (yes, all 14)
*I finished the scene in chapter 30 which was really only working with/writing about 9 pages but still
*I HTML'ed chapters 17-19, then posted them on our site and AFFN, then wrote/released the newsletter and put links/an FYI on my lj as well
*I got caught up on the forum and updated the chapter status post
*I changed some narration to flow better and updated a few scenes in a few chapters along the way, then posted my reply in chapter 31
..I felt like there was something else but I don't know, maybe that's it. Whatever the case, holy shit were my eyes hurting by about 7 pm today. It was one reason I initially said I didn't know if we'd be posting tonight because I had such a throbbing head/eye ache that I had to step away from the computer and Sonny was busy with homework so he couldn't do anything. (Not to mention, to be fair, he html'd/released 16 and we generally try to alternate)
So! I guess I did good this weekend although I'm super tired now. And I work tomorrow =( Vacations are so much nicer because I get to wake up whenever... not to mention we were in a warm climate so it was all, "Where's my swimsuit? TO THE BEACHMOBILE!" for about a week. Whereas here it's like, "Well, shit, where'd my ice scraper go and do I have enough time to warm up my car?"
But I missed my comforts (read: computer) and most of the week I really wanted to work on the story. Which is probably why I was able to focus so intently on it when I returned.
About the latest release -- you guys lucked out, yo! Originally it was supposed to be chapters 16-18. But then because of all these shenanigans, 16 was released like normal but during the delay, we thought about it more and both agreed that 19 just didn't make sense to go with the next arc. So that's why you got a bonus chapter this week.
Also, it's sort of a gift for ... these chapters happening around Valentine's Day. And that's all I'll say about that so there are no spoilers.
Wow...falling asleep....
I got back from vacation + flying on Saturday evening and proceeded to spend ALL of Sunday and Monday reading, editing, writing, and just now-- htmling/posting. I even stayed up late and got up early, although that wasn't really on purpose. (What the hell? When on vacation I just wanted to sleep in and kept getting woken up, and then when I can sleep in here, I'm all, "7 am on a Sunday? I'M UP!" Yet on weekdays this doesn't happen. Curse you, sleep cycle! Curse youuuu!)
However, here are my (impressive?) list of accomplishments:
*I reread/edited chapters 17-31 in Afterimage (yes, all 14)
*I finished the scene in chapter 30 which was really only working with/writing about 9 pages but still
*I HTML'ed chapters 17-19, then posted them on our site and AFFN, then wrote/released the newsletter and put links/an FYI on my lj as well
*I got caught up on the forum and updated the chapter status post
*I changed some narration to flow better and updated a few scenes in a few chapters along the way, then posted my reply in chapter 31
..I felt like there was something else but I don't know, maybe that's it. Whatever the case, holy shit were my eyes hurting by about 7 pm today. It was one reason I initially said I didn't know if we'd be posting tonight because I had such a throbbing head/eye ache that I had to step away from the computer and Sonny was busy with homework so he couldn't do anything. (Not to mention, to be fair, he html'd/released 16 and we generally try to alternate)
So! I guess I did good this weekend although I'm super tired now. And I work tomorrow =( Vacations are so much nicer because I get to wake up whenever... not to mention we were in a warm climate so it was all, "Where's my swimsuit? TO THE BEACHMOBILE!" for about a week. Whereas here it's like, "Well, shit, where'd my ice scraper go and do I have enough time to warm up my car?"
But I missed my comforts (read: computer) and most of the week I really wanted to work on the story. Which is probably why I was able to focus so intently on it when I returned.
About the latest release -- you guys lucked out, yo! Originally it was supposed to be chapters 16-18. But then because of all these shenanigans, 16 was released like normal but during the delay, we thought about it more and both agreed that 19 just didn't make sense to go with the next arc. So that's why you got a bonus chapter this week.
Also, it's sort of a gift for ... these chapters happening around Valentine's Day. And that's all I'll say about that so there are no spoilers.
Wow...falling asleep....
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Writing...writing
I think I write these Zachary back stories more for my own amusement than anyone else's. As soon as I finish the latest one, I'll start coding for the mini-update.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Some languages in the story and Afterimage 13-15
Ais here, with further thoughts on language. I know I'm pretty much a one-track minded person sometimes with the topics I repeatedly bring up, but whatever.
Languages are extremely interesting to me, as are cultures. We always try to include as many accurate details as possible when writing the story but I tend to get wrapped up in it and always want to know a little more, be a little more detailed.
So, chapter 15 was one of the first places where I really whipped out the Spanish skillz to try to at least somewhat make some believable conversations. But it drives me nuts when I can't quite translate things correctly. I tried to use a combination of Venezuelan and other Spanish slang along with the proper forms (Venezuela's one of the few places that uses the vosotros form, which Boyd doesn't know because he basically learned Spanish from immersion in Mexico-- hence his "what the hell are they saying??" response). Yet it's always frustrating to try to get the correct level of casualness, etc.
Like, I don't usually speak in complete sentences and I also use a lot of contractions and so on (don't instead of do not, gonna instead of going to, etc). But some of the conversation had to be in complete sentences because I'm still not fluent enough to know which words to drop to make it sound naturally native.
At least I have enough understanding of Spanish to be able to do different tenses ("I have found the bodies" rather than "I found" or "I find") but the other languages I'm acquainted with? Ha. Not a chance.
I barely know any French although I can read/understand it decently due to my knowledge of Spanish, I hardly remember much Japanese and pretty much lose at recognizing any kanji anymore, and I'm just starting Russian but so far I can basically say "My name is __" and that's it. We're only just learning the Cyrillic alphabet.
Point being, this sucks, because Boyd knows French so I want him to sound fluent, but since I'm not fluent it makes this difficult. Hence me hitting people up for help with cultures/languages btw, although I also try to utilize other stuff like babelfish and triple check things back and forth to make sure it's not some really random translation. And even then I bet it sounds awkward.
I was thinking about how we use language in the story, though. For instance, it worked well enough for all that chattering in Spanish with Boyd trying to translate, but later in the chapter we had to resort to our typical "Blahblah," so-and-so said in __xx__ language.
We don't do that because we're too lazy to translate (although it's probably best we don't try since some languages we just aren't fluent in) but rather because some things need to be understood by the audience. And since the story is in English, the audience is too, even though most of you could kick my ass in fluency of multiple languages, and many readers aren't even native English speakers in the first place. (Major points for reading such a long story in English, by the way, to those of you who aren't as good at English.)
Anyway, if this were a movie, there would be English subtitles for parts where they're speaking another language but it's important info. Since we can't do subtitles, this works as a substitute. The perfectionist in me finds it a little sad but the realist in me knows this is the best way for us to write the scenes without getting so sidetracked we never finish.
Incidentally, I code the languages so they should be properly read by audio programs or the browsers as the correct language it is. Hopefully that works if anyone views the site in a manner where that would be useful.
Blah. There was some other shit I was going to ramble about but I quite suddenly got tired so TOO BAD. Although I doubt anyone is lamenting a few less paragraphs of my wordiness ;P
Languages are extremely interesting to me, as are cultures. We always try to include as many accurate details as possible when writing the story but I tend to get wrapped up in it and always want to know a little more, be a little more detailed.
So, chapter 15 was one of the first places where I really whipped out the Spanish skillz to try to at least somewhat make some believable conversations. But it drives me nuts when I can't quite translate things correctly. I tried to use a combination of Venezuelan and other Spanish slang along with the proper forms (Venezuela's one of the few places that uses the vosotros form, which Boyd doesn't know because he basically learned Spanish from immersion in Mexico-- hence his "what the hell are they saying??" response). Yet it's always frustrating to try to get the correct level of casualness, etc.
Like, I don't usually speak in complete sentences and I also use a lot of contractions and so on (don't instead of do not, gonna instead of going to, etc). But some of the conversation had to be in complete sentences because I'm still not fluent enough to know which words to drop to make it sound naturally native.
At least I have enough understanding of Spanish to be able to do different tenses ("I have found the bodies" rather than "I found" or "I find") but the other languages I'm acquainted with? Ha. Not a chance.
I barely know any French although I can read/understand it decently due to my knowledge of Spanish, I hardly remember much Japanese and pretty much lose at recognizing any kanji anymore, and I'm just starting Russian but so far I can basically say "My name is __" and that's it. We're only just learning the Cyrillic alphabet.
Point being, this sucks, because Boyd knows French so I want him to sound fluent, but since I'm not fluent it makes this difficult. Hence me hitting people up for help with cultures/languages btw, although I also try to utilize other stuff like babelfish and triple check things back and forth to make sure it's not some really random translation. And even then I bet it sounds awkward.
I was thinking about how we use language in the story, though. For instance, it worked well enough for all that chattering in Spanish with Boyd trying to translate, but later in the chapter we had to resort to our typical "Blahblah," so-and-so said in __xx__ language.
We don't do that because we're too lazy to translate (although it's probably best we don't try since some languages we just aren't fluent in) but rather because some things need to be understood by the audience. And since the story is in English, the audience is too, even though most of you could kick my ass in fluency of multiple languages, and many readers aren't even native English speakers in the first place. (Major points for reading such a long story in English, by the way, to those of you who aren't as good at English.)
Anyway, if this were a movie, there would be English subtitles for parts where they're speaking another language but it's important info. Since we can't do subtitles, this works as a substitute. The perfectionist in me finds it a little sad but the realist in me knows this is the best way for us to write the scenes without getting so sidetracked we never finish.
Incidentally, I code the languages so they should be properly read by audio programs or the browsers as the correct language it is. Hopefully that works if anyone views the site in a manner where that would be useful.
Blah. There was some other shit I was going to ramble about but I quite suddenly got tired so TOO BAD. Although I doubt anyone is lamenting a few less paragraphs of my wordiness ;P
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