• Member Since 30th Jan, 2012
  • offline last seen Yesterday

Tumbleweed


A guy. A guy who writes stories. Stories about ponies. (And sometimes robots).

More Blog Posts355

  • 33 weeks
    I still exist!

    Hello, FiMfic.

    Read More

    5 comments · 264 views
  • 52 weeks
    NEW OC DO NOT STEAL

    Oh hey, I still have a blog thing here.

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    6 comments · 302 views
  • 65 weeks
    River City Equestria Girls?

    Seriously, that's Pinkie Pie on the left, and Rainbow Dash on the right. Tell me I'm wrong.

    I will not write a fanfic about the two of them getting into all the fights.

    Probably.

    Read More

    4 comments · 324 views
  • 71 weeks
    An "I don't have livejournal anymore" sort of update.

    It snowed yesterday.

    Which just reminded me how much I don't like winter. It wasn't even a bad snow, just enough of a dusting to linger for a little bit. First one of the season. And I even had the day off from work, due to my schedule, so it's not like I had to do anything ...

    So I didn't.

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    5 comments · 290 views
  • 73 weeks
    Happy Halloween!

    So yeah. Despite various distractions (Steam had Darkest Dungeon for UNDER FOUR BUCKS), I've managed to hammer out a ridiculously shippy conclusion to the self indulgent Rarijack story I started.

    So that's fun? I gave myself a deadline to finish things on Oct 31, so that's what I did, dangit. Hopefully you guys will enjoy.

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    0 comments · 165 views
Jul
1st
2018

Tumbleweed vs. The Sunk Cost Fallacy. · 11:39pm Jul 1st, 2018

I have done ... very little today. Puttered around, did some chores, restocked the fridge. Typical weekend stuff. Going to go out and be social and see some live theater this evening, so that's nice.

But ... I find myself wondering if I somehow should have been more productive-- which is a fairly common thing for me as of late.

Among other stuff, Tor's got open novella submissions coming up. Neat, right? I'm sure there are better writers than I reading this who have some great stuff to submit ... 'cause at the moment, I, er, don't.

The thing is, I started working on my current original fiction project a few months ago, the last time Tor opened the slush pile, with the intention of having something readable by the deadline, aaaaaand that's looking a bit unlikely at the moment. At least on my current project, which is probably my third (maybe fourth?) attempt at exploring a particular setting & bunch of characters. I think part of the problem stems from this particular idea being very action-oriented, meaning lots and lots of fight scenes, and I find myself kinda straining to connect them.

And the rub is, I'm like, 19,000 words into this particular draft (janky and unpolished and disconnected as it is). Which means I'm at the point where I find myself wondering if I should try to salvage it, somehow, ooooor just start over and do something else from scratch. I've got some vague ideas for a swashbuckling-ish fantasy that could honestly be fun. Think something very (very) similar in tone to the Flash Sentry Papers, only without, y'know, ponies.

The thing is, The Flash Sentry papers work so well as they do is because they're based (however loosely) on a cartoon, which means the comedy and tension arises from the duality between shiny happy magic horses and Flash being a thorough scoundrel. Likewise, the Flashman novels which I'm shamelessly stealing from inspired by have actual history and Victorian adventure novels to contrast themselves with, and even the Ciaphas Cain books are firmly set (and thoroughly subvert) the Warhammer 40k universe. So I've got to figure out how to work that into something original without getting too expository. Or ... something.

Of course, if I were to start something new, I'd still probably reach the 'oh man this is crap' stage after about 15k words or so, and ... yeah. Really I'm just beating myself up and getting a little whiney-- I'm not even going to label it as anything as poetic as 'writer's block' so much as I'm just being lazy and indecisive. Mmmf.

But hey, whiny self indulgence is what blogs were invented for, right?

But yeah, time to go see a show, I think. I'll hopefully be more productive tomorrow.

Comments ( 2 )

Well I hope I get to read that original thing someday.

I'd suggest finishing what you are working on. Just about every writer gets to a point in their work where they go 'this sucks and I should write something else'. I'm of the opinion that one can't really judge a work until you see the whole thing. So try to finish it, even if it's just scattered bits and pieces until the end. Wait until you can see the whole thing before deciding.

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