Whining

To Whine:  To complain in a feeble or petulant way.

Yup.. sounds about right.

Ok.... this has devolved from me not being inspired, to me actually avoiding this.  It's true, I have everything I need to start writing.  Character's to work from, and outline to guide me when I wander off on some random path or wonder where to go from where I am... I've even decided to start writing from the second chapter.  But event this isn't enough.

I figure once I really buckle down and start writing, that I won't be able to stop.  That I'll get the narrative going in my head and I'll actually start writing faster and faster as I feel the story flow... but those first few words are... well... hard.

Final Prep Work

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Distractions

Umm... yeah.  I hate it when I make promises to myself and don't follow through on them.  It's worse when I do it publicly.  I obviously didn't get to the friend's bios.  I didn't get an updated outline.  I didn't get to start the writing process.

Truth be told, it was a combination of not feeling inspired and being distracted.   The lack of inspiration isn't surprising as my interest in (and fear of) doing this waxes and wanes.  I'm hoping that once the ground work is laid that I'll be able to bypass this reason for not writing.

But no matter what happens distractions will always be something that can derail my best laid plans.  And since I've gone on and on about inspirations, I figured I might as well open this door and talk a bit about distractions as well.

Happiness Found (Short story and Cap)

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Surprising and unexpected happiness

So I've written about several ways that I try to inspire my own moods.  About how I try to nudge myself in the correct direction to get myself ready to work on a graphic, write and/or cap.

But all of that is used with the assumption that I am in a 'normal' mood.  A flat, not too happy, not too sad state of mind.  And to be honest I hadn't given that much thought until this afternoon.  Because I am in a very rare state... at least rare for me over the past few years.

I'm happy.

I'm not 'glad' that I had a kind of interview earlier this week.  I'm not glad that my birthday passed without much fanfare (which is how I prefer it).  I'm not even glad that I'm working this weekend (I didn't work 2 out of the last 4 weeks).  I'm just... happy.  I'm in a good mood.  The things that normally bring me down are still here and are still as serious and impending as they were yesterday.  I've done absolutely nothing to even work toward eliminating those things (I did buy a lottery ticket, but that didn't do it).  If I listed out the differences between yesterday and today I couldn't point to a single thing that would help predict that today would be a good mood day.

It just is.

Handler Bio

Sorry that I've been absent for awhile on this project.  A lot of things worked together to sap any creativity I had, but I'm putting that behind me and forging ahead.  I don't think I have a lot more 'prep' work to do before diving into writing.  If things go well, I should start that part early next week.  My goal is to have at least part of a chapter done and posted here by January 30th (next Wednesday).

But before I get there, I still have to flesh out some of the other characters, and finish with the outline.  I will say that I'm going to take Rauk's advice and not flesh out the outline completely.   I don't want to lock myself into a narrative that may change as I write out the Main Character's actions and reactions to what's happening.

New Story Idea

I know, I know.  I haven't even really started this story so I shouldn't focus on another.  But I wanted to write this idea out so that I can hopefully come back to it later and maybe make it another project.

You know I've always been a big fan of the 'Good Guy in the Wrong Place' scenario.  Normally this manifests itself in a person getting transformed (or at least convincingly dressed and made over) and having to fool people around him.  At the same time that he doesn't want to be female, he has to convince others that he IS female... often sexually... or risk losing something (his girlfriend/wife, his good friends, his business...).  But every step he makes to convince people of his femininity he makes it harder and harder to ever get back to 'normal' and even ups the stakes as to what he will lose if he's found out.

That always makes me melt into a little puddle when I read it or even think about it.  But there's another side of that scenario.

Personal Inspiration

I wrote in an earlier post how I'll use music, movies and even books to get inspiration.  Inspiration for moods, for characters and character traits.  But obviously those aren't my only way of finding inspiration.

And to be honest, while those types of inspiration will color my mood, my primary inspirations are from within.  Take for example the 'Good Guy in the Wrong Place'.  It's one of my favorite scenarios to use.  The impetus for that scenario is me thinking of myself as a Good Guy (or at times a Good Girl).  So it's easy enough to draw upon that internal feeling and put it down into a cap or a story.  

But I believe that the most personal of inspirations can come from our own emotions.  We've all been happy before (although sometimes it's hard to remember those times).  We've all been sad (although thankfully it's sometimes hard to remember).  We've all been angry, indifferent, and aroused.  We've all been afraid, disgusted, and expectant.  And just because I was happy when I passed a test, doesn't mean I can't channel that happiness and use it in a character with a whole different scenario.  I can sit back and recall that joy I felt and use it to write out how happy a character is at getting his new breasts.

But for me personally, the most powerful emotion I can call upon is sadness.

Main Character Bio

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Diary vs Narration

I have to admit that after making that last post, I'm 100% on board with making "Language Barrier  into a story.  So I'm going to go ahead and lock that down.  I still have a ways to go before I start writing, but the more I post about it, the more I think about it.  And the more I think about it, the easier it is to iron out all the little details.

Just from the comments section I think I've nailed down the character and his group of friends as college age kids.  And yes, I'm old enough to call 20 and 21 year old people 'kids'!  Don't believe me?  Well what were you doing in 1995?  Because that's when I drank my first (legal) alcoholic beverage! Anywho... I think making them that age fits, and I can put them in Italy on a summer break.  Maybe they just got their baccalaureate degrees and are having a final fling before getting their careers started.