Changing
Sep. 26th, 2026 05:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vriddyCould just be a "this project" thing rather than a "my process in general" thing, too. Just. I'm going in!
Community Thursday
Sep. 24th, 2026 05:37 amvriddyCommented on
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
common_nature.Commented on
booknook.
Somewhat Weekly Writing Logs - Sept 20th, 2026 - Self-indulgence, and the meaning of "Finished"
Sep. 20th, 2026 06:08 amvriddyGeneral status:
Started writing the Big New Project. Honestly, I haven't been coping ideally with life or the world lately, so it's a massive relief to have a big chunky project to load into my mind. Immersing myself in a novel-length story within a brand new universe leaves no space for the real world and related worries and concerns! Escapismaxxing?! It feels good, too.
The first outline attempt didn't land quite right, and I ended up reworking it to include more self-indulgence. I am so good at removing the bits that make me go "wheee!" and kick my feet. Fuck killing my darlings, I am kissing them with tongue this time.
Promising myself this is my last OW "novel" till I can call one of them finished. I have to figure out what "finished" means for me, for these long original projects. I can't keep reworking them forever. When to call something Finished? Or Good Enough? Or Abandoned? (There was a sprint bot quote recently about how a work of art is never finished, merely abandoned... Apparently a quote from Paul Valéry, looking it up now!)
Projects:
- Just the fantasy bodyguard OT3, which I guess I'll call that for now.
Snowflake method for Original Work, Take #3: New learning
Sep. 18th, 2026 06:15 pmvriddyAs always, this is more of snapshot of my process for my own record, fun to see the evolution. As with every iteration, I tweaked it a bit again. (Link to the original method for the unfamiliar!)
Past lessons: APPLIED
First, I definitely kept in mind my new awareness of character goals and stakes throughout, which feels like a kind of levelling up. That's so cool. (I still just hope it's for real lol, I haven't gotten eyes on anything I finished since developing this new awareness -- SOON* THOUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) (*time is relative)
I also have a lot more awareness of which threads will come back to bite me if I leave them dangling. There were a loooot of them in the Cursed Witch... Genuinely elements I went like "urgh I don't know what to do with this, but it seems pretty minor" that killed me before and some that are still killing me now XD And for the Soul Thief, it was more stakes-related issues I went through too fast or didn't notice. This time, whenever I stubbed my toe against a tiny edge, I took out the magnifying lens and went "Oh? Oh? What is this? You kick vriddy? You stab her foot like a lego? JAIL FOR YOU DANGLING PLOT THREAD" (well, hopefully, even if not always successfully -- see interlude below orz)
Extra Steps? Just The One
Before, I added a couple of extra steps along the way to explore various worldbuilding elements that kept coming up. Here it didn't happen for two reasons, I think: a mix of including relevant worldbuilding asides in existing steps (especially world/family history), and since I was snowflaking directly in the Scrivener project, also starting to set up my story bible as I grew my understanding of the lore (maybe I did start a bit too early, since there were changes along the way, but at the same time there wasn't that much either and the overview was helpful.) I did end up adding a step (5.5!) once I started getting a feel for the strange magic system, but wanted to get a better handle of it before going further. I kinda ended up copy-pasting that step directly into a Lore file.
Creativity quotes from Austin Kleon's book "Don't call it art"
Sep. 17th, 2026 07:45 pmvriddyANYWAY apparently I wrote down a few quotes while reading Austin Kleon's latest book, "Don't call it art." I didn't actually enjoy this book as much as the other ones, although because I read the other three around the same time, I can't remember which is my favourite. It's probably "Keep Going" because that's a good message and the one I started with. But "Steal like an artist" was good too, and "Show your work" kind of reminded me of what I do with this journal, sometimes, even though I don't actually share snippets or things like that.
A bunch of quotes related to creativity that I wanted to be able to revisit:
Abraham Maslow - The most mature human beings living are childlike. This is not as contradictory as it sounds. The most mature people are the ones that can have the most fun.
Remember to have fun.
Don't be afraid to do what comes naturally. Fight the urge to do things the "right" way. Don't lose the magic.
One way to boost your curiosity about the world [...] Take everything as a sign and you'll be less stumped about what to do next.
If your output isn't where you want it to be, try working on your input.
And here's a terrible photo of a table from a page from the book that I want to keep a reference of. I'm going to write down the contents below.
How to talk to a kid (or anyone else) about art (or anything else)
When you meet a kid, instead of "What do you want to be when you grow up?", try "What do you love to do?"
When they share something they made, instead of "What is it?", try "Tell me about this!"
When they like something you don't, instead of "I don't like this", try "Tell me what you like about this!"
When they come to you with a problem, instead of "You should just...", try "That sounds hard. How can I help?"
Community Thursday
Sep. 17th, 2026 06:04 amvriddyCommented on
common_nature.Commented on
booknook.
