There Is A War Out There, And The Enemy Is Made Out Of Plasma (And LEDS) · 9:12pm Jul 4th, 2014
So my sister and my father went shopping yesterday without me. Not exactly big news, to be honest. They do that a lot, and I don’t enjoy going shopping as much as I should, so I tend to stay home whenever my family decides that buying stuff is mandatory.
However, they went shoe shopping and eventually bought a new TV, which was kind of a surprise. Especially because I was sleeping while they were away. Like, I felt the urge to take a nap, and when I woke up half an hour later, we had a new, giant TV, which has like a bazillion features. Just like that, really.
What bothers me about this is that it’s turning into a habit – earlier this year, while I was still in Barcelona (so I was with my flatmates, not with my family) I realized I didn’t have any bread left. I went to the closest store to buy bread and some other groceries, and when I came back we had a new, huge TV, with like a bazillion features.
So yeah, now I’m scared to close my eyes, because I fear I’ll see yet another new TV the moment I open them back. I’m getting surrounded by TVs. We are just three people in my house, and we already have five TVs, and I think they’re sentient and trying to win some hidden war against humanity and this has to be the weirdest phobia ever but I think I won’t be able to buy a TV ever again.
I’m not here to brag about my TVs, tho. Far from it. Those things terrorize me. No, I’m here to talk a little about writing. Why? Because I’m going to a place with no Internet for a week. Not exactly a long amount of time, I know, but even though one more week without my incredibly clever blogs that ramble about ghost TVs that haunt my dreams and watch me sleep won’t be exactly stressing for you, it means that I can’t really log in this site.
It also means that I can’t post any new story. And that’s a bugger, because I was planning to.
Y’see, if you kindly look at the left side of my user page, you’ll see I’ve added a progress thingy to let you know how hard I’m working. Here’s where the whole “talk about writing” thing comes into play!
I don’t know if this is a common thing or if this is something that nobody else does, but for me, not all stories have the same motivation behind. I mean, whenever I write something, I do it for a reason – but that reason can change! Sometimes I do it for the readers: I have an idea, and I believe it can be a good story, a pleasant story for them to read. If that’s the case, then I work hard on the story, I plan the whole thing (more or less) and I revise and rewrite it again and again and again until I think it’s good enough for me to post it.
But sometimes I do it for myself – I have an idea that I, personally like. Sometimes it’s a story I would like to see on the site, sometimes it’s a story that’s just entertaining to write but horribly boring to read.
So yeah, more or less I’m saying that some projects of mine are serious, and the others are author pets. I don’t know if that’s how you’re supposed to call them, but that’s how I refer to them. The Road is an author pet. Born On A Rock Farm is an author pet, too. You’ll notice those stories aren’t very popular, mostly because they’re pretty boring.
(They got in EQD because I’m a wizard and I fooled prereaders with black magic.)
The story I refer to as “unnamed heist fic” in that progress module I added to my userpage is a serious story. As in, for the readers. I’m carefully crafting it to make it enjoyable. However, I’m also writing an author pet story at the same time, because after finishing the second chapter of said unnamed heist fic I felt like clearing my mind with something simpler.
Then that something simpler became a 10,000+ words-long story. Kind of a f*cking behemoth, if you excuse my vernacular. Worse of all, it still needs some work, because the ending is not quite there yet, so now I gotta revise that thing.
And then I realize that I’m going to be away for a week, so I won’t be able to post it as soon as I wanted to. That sucks.
But then I had a realization. Being forced to postpone that story, I stopped for a second and thought: “wait a moment, Aragón, you handsome bastard. Why would you post that thing, if you know that most people are not going to enjoy it?”
And holy crap, that’s a good question. Why would I post that? After some thinking, I figured I would post it because, well, some people are going to enjoy it anyway. Maybe the general public won’t, but still, a small percentage of my readers are going to take a peek at it and maybe they’ll like it.
Yeah, that sounds like a good excuse.
It’s not good enough to justify me posting that story, though.
So you know what? This is what I’m going to do: I’m going to finish both stories. It’ll take some time, maybe a couple weeks, but you’ll have to bear without my incredibly shallow writing till then. Once both are complete, I’ll post the serious one, the heist fic, first.
And then, after a day or two, I’ll post the author pet.
That way, even if you don’t like the author pet story, you’ll still have a pretty long, multi-chapter “good” story to enjoy. Feel free to ignore the other story if you think it won’t suit you. Mind you, it’s still a comedy, but it’s one of those weird comedies that also try to be somewhat deep and end up not being that good because I’m only competent at writing absolute comical stories.
So there’s that. Once those two are complete, I’ll start Long Story Short’s sequel, by the way. Just in case you were curious.
And now that everything is said, I will go to a place with no Internet for a week. Please, don’t buy any TV while I’m gone. I beg you.
I feel compelled to inform you that every plane I've been on these days has little tvs in them. So you cannot escape them even in the air.
Looking forward to both of those stories. Born On a Rock Farm was a fun read, so hopefully this author project will be fun to read as well.
Author pets are always fascinating because it's so neat to see insight into what you really love writing without as much influence on what you expect to succeed.
Shhh, they're not supposed to know.
What am I going to do with this truck full of TVs now?
Man, who buys Plasma anymore? LED is where it's at.
2257927 Thing about those little TVs? They're paratroopers. Imagine all the little TVs flying around as we speak, ready to jump and strike from the air.
I didn't want to buy a TV, but maybe a new monitor. Does that count?
Nah, the TVs aren't watching you, thats the NSA watching you through the hidden webcam on the TV.
Woah, woah WHOA. I'mma have to report that buddy, you know we aren't allowed to use magic on muggles!