Spinwork Blog

As unheard of of two blogs in a week may be in recent years, yesterdays achievement is owed one.

After a lot of bitching, moaning, throwing things, and all the other crap I usually do that I’ll spare you when I have issues writing, I finally finished the first swath of Cloudnigh, bringing me just short of being ready to post. In retrospect its sort of horrifying that it took me almost THREE MONTHS to write THREE CHAPTERS (me, the dude who write 200 pages in four, once), but in my defense, this whole thing was a huge learning experience involving what it takes to get quality writing out of me, and the role editing plays in my process.

Over the next three-odd weeks, I’ll be editing what I have with Marina and getting the first episodes ready to post. By the looks of things, it turns out I’m actually going to be moving ahead with two-three updates a week, rather than bi-monthly as I was planning. I’ll have a definite one or the other closer to launching time.

Along with Cloudnigh, I’ll be moving house over to leophimstudios.com, and opening Leophim Forums, running on IPB. I don’t know when exactly the move is going to take place, since ‘Nigh is sort of the priority right now. ^^;

Keep an eye on my twitter for updates! Thanks for reading!

Spinner Cloudnigh, Daily Blogging, Site-related 2010, Cloudnigh, Editing, forums, launch, leophim studios, Site-related

School’s back in session again, thus returning me to the eternal struggle of finding the time to sit down and write. A lot’s been going on in both areas–what, with finding an apartment for the summer, finally getting passed some major Cloudnigh blocks that were making me about ready to make me stave in someone’s face, and this cute little idea I’m kicking around that may or may not sprout wings and crash into my window when I least expect it. So in short, all the usual.

I’ve been feeling a sense of impending doom lately about getting Cloudnigh going. The more I write, the more I realize how different the story is from anything I’ve done before. It’s weird to think of my writing and concepts in any sort of style, especially objectively–but if I did, ‘Nigh departs it in ways some of my other “off” stuff (like, for example, Shadower) doesn’t. I’ve come to consider my recent works–Hellion, Avondalius, and this new nameless one–to be more in the “innocently told, maturely realized” vein of things. In simple terms, I’m feeling a LOT of my Miyazaki influence coming out in those pieces. Again, really weird to think about it on those terms. Cloudnigh departs that completely. It feels more hardboiled, more serious, less escapist and more dystopian, real and intense. There’s a lot of irony in it–since I decided to rib every aspect of the music, politics and teen society that I could reach. On the whole, it’s been sort of unsettling to write. I like it

Speaking of changes and differences, expect a site move sometime in the near future before Cloudnigh goes live. Its been one hell of a task over three years to find a site name I actually like–maybe this time this one will settle well enough.

That’s all for now–thank’s for reading!

Spinner Daily Blogging, Site-related 2010, Cloudnigh, Site-related

My God. Holidays at Starbucks were made to murder both customers and baristas. The last five days has consisted of some of the most maddening hours I’ve ever spent at this job. Rushes have started lasting all day, from 8AM to 5PM, with intermittent swells before and after. I’ve even noticed it as a customer. Those of you who follow my twitter will know I had numerous occasions today where I had people’s butts shoved in my face for minutes on end. Not cool. Even if growing up on the New York City subways have me partially used to it.

The other day I finished something that’s been driving me starkers since mid-November, that being finally finding a good, solid opening to Cloudnigh. People who read the IF version may or may not know how much I hated the original opening. If I have one pet-peeve, it’s protagonists that give an impression of emotional patheticism–which Roman did, uncharacteristically so. After much attempting to soften what I had, and then fretting over it, I finally  broke down and wrote a new first chapter. I’m fairly happy with the result–again, shocking, since I hate first chapters.

Now that I’ve got a solid foundation, my effort can now go into editing the remainder of my material–my goal is five chapters as a buffer–and then getting things going. I’ve been toying with web designs and the like in my spare time, and leaning towards a brown-grey themed design (Matt’s artwork asks for it). We’ll see how that goes in the long run. I’m not sure how long it’ll be before I have something up, but I’m aiming for late January, early February. I’ve also got some Spinwork related changes coming down the pike, but that’s another update.

So, it’s the new year now, meaning I should have some new years resolutions. Yeah. Well, I do–don’t get me wrong–but nothing really worth discussing on a writing blog–losing weight and eating better is among them–but nothing writing-related that I’d call a resolution. 2009 has been the best year for writing for me since 2004/2005, and that’s saying a lot for me. I finished a draft of Lanternfly, which still continues to mature and grow in my mind even though its been 2 months since I did any work on it, worked on and off on Shadower throughout the year, and fixed my sights on Cloudnigh. Its hard to believe I’ve been working on the story for eight months–exclusively, for four. In short, there’s nothing I want to accomplish in this year that I can’t from setting realistic goals and just keep walking.

In other news, I’ve started reading Anna Karenina, which has induced many orgasms of joy. Tolstoy was one smart mother fucker when it came to people. I can’t count the number of times while reading I found myself laughing and thinking, “I’VE THOUGHT THAT WAY,” and “I KNOW PEOPLE LIKE THAT,” which seems to be the pinnacle reaction to my reading lately. Its so incredible how writers from the fucking 1800s are seeing the same sort of human traits I’ve picked up on with the people I’ve known. I’d always thought that when a society evolves, the mannerism did so too, which in retrospect, I guess is sort of naive. No–people seem to have had the same “shoulds” and “oh-god-fucks” and “ZOMFG WHY?” now as they did then, if not made a little bit more insecure and unstable by the 21st century’s marketing and media machine.

Things go swimmingly–so off I swim. Thanks for reading!

Spinner Books & Reading, Cloudnigh, Musings & Rants, Site-related 2010, Anna Karenina, Cloudnigh, Lanternfly, New Years 2010, ranting, Starbucks, work