Solace; or, Hemingway Was Purple · 11:52am Aug 1st, 2012
The funny thing about parodies is that they don't necessarily need to be funny - for the most triumphant example see the magnificent bastard Fon Shaolin's Forever is Forever, of which even thinking induces a very deep sort of despair. Some people ask me what the point is to Solace. It has an idea and it has poetry, but the plot is very subtle and purely emotional.
There's a reason why it originally had a 'comedy' tag; besides the fact that is hilariously exaggerated, it is meant to be a thematic parody of Hemingway's A Clean, Well-Lighted Place. Hemingway's central theme was the idea of the inevitable purgatory of loneliness before death; Solace is about friendship palliating the impact of death and facilitating acceptance. It's a lighter and softer version with more plot, essentially.
If anyone wants to know Solace's creative process:
1. read sadfics
2. think 'I want to depress the shit out of people with short sentences'
3. read hemingway for inspiration
4. think 'wow this guy is pretty purple I should use less words than him'
5. sit down
6. open gdocs
7. write story
8. proofread for the first and last time in my life
9. play games with wordcounts
10. intellectual masturbation
I have a terrible creative process.
He's "pretty purple"?
Forgive me for saying, "???"
263609 Purple prose, overly verbose
You don't revise? You're kidding me. Please tell me you're kidding. I spent two months revising The Detective and the Magician, and it's only 14,000 words.
I also wrote a Hemingway parody, but mine is sadder than Hemingway. My starting point was that Hemingway didn't seem to realize that he portrayed himself as a psychopath in The Green Hills of Africa, and that I wanted to show his actions having consequences. I originally wrote a non-pony 6,000-word story where he hurt himself instead of hurting others, but... no ponies.
To Have and Have Not has too many words. Like, at least the first two chapters. Sheesh, Ernie.
263742
I let grammar nazis revise my grammar and then I go mess with it as little as possible because fiddling my old work can induce rather potent despair.
Remember what I said about my intuition being mechanical? That has the side-benefit of me rarely making genuine, detectable, indefensible mistakes.
Also, liked and favourited. Those are good stories you have there.
>intellectual masturbation
Pics or it didn't happen e.deviantart.com/emoticons/moods/love/lust/aroused.gif