Retrospective on authorship (and more art to make you click the blog post) :b · 10:40am Apr 28th, 2019
If you're an author, have you ever begun to read one of your old works and thought 'damn, that's some good shit... wish the author would finish it.' Followed by 'Oh, wait...'
I've got an unfinished Tomb Raider fic from 2013 languishing on fanfiction.net that fits that description perfectly.
That's also where I'm at with Northland, after having spent the last three days re-reading the whole thing. Especially the middle to later chapters. The prologue and the first chapter are plain bad compared to those, even in their revised form (or at best sub-par, if you're feeling generous).
The originals were downright awful in comparison. Revised chapter two and three are mediocre at best and unrevised chapter four and five are little better. My heartfelt thanks to everyone who made it past those, especially the originals. Also: oh my god, I wrote those almost four years ago. *Headdesk*
After those I felt the 'damn, that's some good shit' moment approaching. :b
Apart from that observation, the funny thing about reading something that old is that I kinda lost the typical position of being your own worst critic and could just enjoy the story for what it is. So could somebody please kick the author? I want to know where the story goes.
Which brings me to something I'm curious about? Why do you write?
It appears that writing, when looked at as a process, doesn't bring me nearly as much joy as many other people around here. It's more of a 'this story should exist, and it won't if I don't write it' thing. Track Switch - Steel Dreams was a notable exception, that was delightful to write.
I've had many lovely comments on Northland, the last one from StormySkiesPony that I barely knew what to say to. So why is it so difficult? I do have the motivation, that's not even the problem. Maybe I'm afraid the continuation won't be good enough and that makes the amount of at times exhausting work required daunting?
Whatever it is, at least I know the story details again now and I've resolved to put in at least ten minutes a day in the hope that it turns into more by itself. A minimum word count approach killed progress last time. After reading the preceding chapters I've come to the conclusion that the perspective I had started out with was also wrong. I guess that's progress but also shows a real back to the drawing board is required here. I may need to find the money for another bottle of Scapa.
Meanwhile another later chapter is half finished and a revison of chapter three kinda started itself because I couldn't bear its current state it seems. How stupid is that?
ANYWAY. I'm sitting down to write now. Ten minutes. Wish me luck.
In the meantime have some eye candy, Solstice Spirit as he appears in a scene in chapter eight, 'Dear Wanderer - part one'. A somewhat 'horsey' interpretation of the character by SunnyWay. I love it ;)
I write because I need to get the ideas out of my head and others enjoy seeing what I extract.
As for Northland, I completely understand. It's hard to get momentum going again for an old project, especially when new ideas clamor for your attention. After a few years, the guilt and sense of obligation become a millstone, to say nothing of the ideas you had going cold and seeming like something someone else came up with. If you even wrote them down...
But yeah, don't feel like you have to force it. More would be wonderful to see, but do it because you enjoy it.
And here I was thinking of what picture to make an aggressively pink lithophane from.
images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/d2d61755-68e6-4060-bbc0-9c6260ef0d32/dd5olnq-cb409e6f-9ff6-48dc-b014-9f4f883a3196.jpg/v1/fill/w_1280,h_623,q_75,strp/20190428_210541_by_alkarasu_dd5olnq-fullview.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9NjIzIiwicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvZDJkNjE3NTUtNjhlNi00MDYwLWJiYzAtOWM2MjYwZWYwZDMyXC9kZDVvbG5xLWNiNDA5ZTZmLTlmZjYtNDhkYy1iMDE0LTlmNGY4ODNhMzE5Ni5qcGciLCJ3aWR0aCI6Ijw9MTI4MCJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl19.Rm94qo3LT-ibpctkg0J_bpc0PS5QWNukUfoqYvEGHLc
5050648
Whatever that is, it looks really cool ;)
Solstice can adorn just about anything I think. He's just like that.
5050548
Guilt and sense of obligation is indeed terrible, but I only see one way to solve it.
Very true. I dug up my old timeline and structure sheets today, along with a collection of 'what if' ideas... and I did indeed enjoy it. There's hope! And thanks for the answer.
5050723
It's a 3d-printed thin sheet of plastic. Due to variations of thickness, it makes the picture when light passes through it. Unfortunately, the only viable plastic I had was this aggressively pink. %)
5050728
Heh, nice one. That sounds like a lot of fun to play with.
5050736
Oh, it is. My room is filled with them. I probably need to slow down.
Good luck!