12.17.07
Locking Up The House
So maybe I lied a little when I said that I wasn’t going to type much. I’ve just been thinking a little bit about Blueberries and getting it ready for the first looks. It’s one of those strange things– I’m done with the story, yes, but there’s still a ton of work left to do with it. Even at about 114K, there’s still a few thousand words of detail that I’d want to put in– one of my original character sketches from September has the walkthrough of the house that I basically relied upon throughout the writing, but I realized last night that I sort of took it for granted that the reader would be able to visualize the house as well as I did.
It’s the strangest thing, really. The house is a composite of a number of places I’ve lived in, so I’ve never actually set foot in it. At the same time, I seem to have these strong memories of the walkthrough, and I can replay pretty much every step I’ve never taken in it. I feel like I’ve lived there for ten years. It’s quite an unusual feeling, really; I see all the details of the house– the study, the game room, the parlor and the foyer, and that’s just in the lower wing– and I realize that I will never actually see them, because they don’t exist. No other location I’ve written about has gotten into me so deeply, and it’s as awesome as it is frightening.
So now that the story’s over, it’s a little depressing to have to say goodbye to it. I really like that house. I might go back to it, might see how the characters are doing in five years or so, but really, it’s just a strange attachment. Ah well.
Speaking of the characters. I had a conversation with Rick last night about the traumas I’ve put them through. One of my big worries about the story is that I painted the events in an unrealistic light– either by having things be too rosy in the end, or by not getting into the horrible gory details of the actual troubles. I think I did a fairly good job of showing the aftermath– the main characters are really only involved on the periphery, are intervening– but I’m not entirely sure how it’s going to be received. That’s probably the crucible, in my mind– if the characters can make it through, can live through the disaster, then I’ll feel I did a good job.
Survival is not the same as living. Some characters merely survive trauma, but the most memorable ones are the ones who stay believable and don’t fall victim to becoming one-dimensional criers of woe when disaster befalls them. This does not necessarily mean they make it through the encounter with their life; some memorable characters live through their fatal encounters just by dying in a believable manner.
So what’s the next step? Obviously, I have some coding work to do that I’ve been neglecting. I intend to continue to neglect that until after Christmas. In truth, I’m probably going to hold off on the New Year’s Project until February (but will enact most of the changes on the 1st anyway). Trust me, things are gonna change around here, and hopefully for the better.
As always, new year’s resolutions are coming up, as well. I’ve already laid out a couple of them but some new ones have popped up as well, and I’m curious to see if I can accomplish one or more of them. I’ll still be keeping them mostly private, but if and when they get accomplished, you’ll know. Just as an example, Inconsequential was one of them. (It kinda still is… sort of. I figure it’s going to be like “Lifehouse”, “Duke Nukem Forever”, or “Chinese Democracy”… I keep talking about it but it never gets done.) Anyway, we shall see. It depends a lot on certain other factors, but I’ll be working towards most of these pretty hardcore throughout the year.
The only other interesting thing for the time being is my previously-stated goal of getting another Game Cleared notice up for 2007… with less than two weeks to go, the odds of that happening are increasingly small, but I could probably blast through Touch Detective 2 1/2 or maybe some other shorter DS game over the time before Christmas. We’ll see– I’m not likely to rush through a Rock Band campaign, but I do have four days alone with the 360 after I get home to hone the skillz (Guitar Solo Tour on Medium… that would count, right?). If I’m lucky– and I think I am– I might even be able to squeeze a third Clear in, bringing me to an even twenty for the year. I have no idea which one that would be, but odds are good for LocoRoco. don’t quote me on that, though.
That’s all I’ve got for this week, folks. We’ll definitely have Bailout tomorrow through until Friday, at least. Catch you folks soon.