conversations with muses - part two
Nov. 13th, 2004 10:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seldearFrom bored muses may the good Lord deliver us...
Muse: BORING!
Sel: Hey, you started this!
Muse: But I didn't start it four times! I just wanted them to go to war and then go to bed!
Sel: *mutters about simplistic storylines*
Muse: It's not my fault you want to complicate everything.
Sel: It's life, it's supposed to get complicated!
Muse: It's a story! You're supposed to simplify it!
Sel: And you're supposed to help write it.
Muse: I did! I did help write it! I wrote the bit with Iestyn and Sabine, remember? And I thought up a whole sub-plot with Shalla - that was good, too! And there's the scene where Natan is coming back from the whore's tent and has this discussion with Sabine about male and female sexuality, and the one where they're fighting back-to-back...
Sel: But that's all later! I need scenes for now in the story.
Muse: Don't look at me. I have the big fight scene all set up where Constantin walks in and defends Sabine's honour, but you have to get there. Oh, and while you're at it, you should set up the Eandhlic menace now. Say what they're doing in the background. All that political stuff.
Sel: *headdesks*
Muse: Don't do that! It hurts the desk! Look, I'm trying to think up how to do the whole Eandhlic thing too. But it's boring. Backstory is boring. People relating is fun. Put Iestyn and Sabine back together again. Or Sabine and Natan. Or have Natan and Iestyn fight about Sabine. Or...
Sel: Okay! Okay! Stop! That's enough!
Muse: You have to make a bad guy, only he can't be too bad because that's cliche, and you've angsted enough about cliche-ing StalkerBoy already.
Sel: So we need to set up a bad guy who's not all bad, just mostly bad?
Muse: Right! He's just an arrogant sonovabitch, who thinks he owns the world, like every other arrogant sonovabitch ever born/made/written/created! Oh, wait, isn't that cliche?
Sel: Yes.
Muse: Damn. Hey, but we've reached 28,000 words, and that's good, right?
Sel: Yes, but it's the next 28,000 words I'm worried about.
Muse: You could have Sabine fall pregnant.
Sel: You had the pregnancy kick already - remember?
Muse: Yes, but that was Sam. And it was two months ago.
Sel: Besides, Sabine does fall pregnant - much later.
Muse: Are we there yet?
Sel: No. Definitely not. We are not there yet. We will not be there yet probably for another month or two - assuming that we still manage to write a couple of thousand words a day and don't delete huge swathes of text.
Muse: This is gonna be one of those stories, huh?
Sel: Apparently.
Muse: Can we write a bit of Harry Potter in the meantime? Or maybe some Justice League? I have this really cool angsty moment planned for Diana in the elseworlds story. Or we could turn the Elseworlds story into an original fiction. Like we did with this one!
Sel: *headdesks*
Muse: You're doing that a lot.
Sel: You drive me to it.
Muse: ... Are you sending me on a guilt trip?
Sel: Maybe.
Muse: Will I get the little travel chocolates if I go on this guilt trip?
Sel: ... *headdesks*
However, on the up side, we're a day or two ahead of schedule: 28K words. This is good. I just have to line up all my ideas like little ducks...
Muse: BORING!
Sel: Hey, you started this!
Muse: But I didn't start it four times! I just wanted them to go to war and then go to bed!
Sel: *mutters about simplistic storylines*
Muse: It's not my fault you want to complicate everything.
Sel: It's life, it's supposed to get complicated!
Muse: It's a story! You're supposed to simplify it!
Sel: And you're supposed to help write it.
Muse: I did! I did help write it! I wrote the bit with Iestyn and Sabine, remember? And I thought up a whole sub-plot with Shalla - that was good, too! And there's the scene where Natan is coming back from the whore's tent and has this discussion with Sabine about male and female sexuality, and the one where they're fighting back-to-back...
Sel: But that's all later! I need scenes for now in the story.
Muse: Don't look at me. I have the big fight scene all set up where Constantin walks in and defends Sabine's honour, but you have to get there. Oh, and while you're at it, you should set up the Eandhlic menace now. Say what they're doing in the background. All that political stuff.
Sel: *headdesks*
Muse: Don't do that! It hurts the desk! Look, I'm trying to think up how to do the whole Eandhlic thing too. But it's boring. Backstory is boring. People relating is fun. Put Iestyn and Sabine back together again. Or Sabine and Natan. Or have Natan and Iestyn fight about Sabine. Or...
Sel: Okay! Okay! Stop! That's enough!
Muse: You have to make a bad guy, only he can't be too bad because that's cliche, and you've angsted enough about cliche-ing StalkerBoy already.
Sel: So we need to set up a bad guy who's not all bad, just mostly bad?
Muse: Right! He's just an arrogant sonovabitch, who thinks he owns the world, like every other arrogant sonovabitch ever born/made/written/created! Oh, wait, isn't that cliche?
Sel: Yes.
Muse: Damn. Hey, but we've reached 28,000 words, and that's good, right?
Sel: Yes, but it's the next 28,000 words I'm worried about.
Muse: You could have Sabine fall pregnant.
Sel: You had the pregnancy kick already - remember?
Muse: Yes, but that was Sam. And it was two months ago.
Sel: Besides, Sabine does fall pregnant - much later.
Muse: Are we there yet?
Sel: No. Definitely not. We are not there yet. We will not be there yet probably for another month or two - assuming that we still manage to write a couple of thousand words a day and don't delete huge swathes of text.
Muse: This is gonna be one of those stories, huh?
Sel: Apparently.
Muse: Can we write a bit of Harry Potter in the meantime? Or maybe some Justice League? I have this really cool angsty moment planned for Diana in the elseworlds story. Or we could turn the Elseworlds story into an original fiction. Like we did with this one!
Sel: *headdesks*
Muse: You're doing that a lot.
Sel: You drive me to it.
Muse: ... Are you sending me on a guilt trip?
Sel: Maybe.
Muse: Will I get the little travel chocolates if I go on this guilt trip?
Sel: ... *headdesks*
However, on the up side, we're a day or two ahead of schedule: 28K words. This is good. I just have to line up all my ideas like little ducks...
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28,000!!!
Date: 2004-11-13 04:52 am (UTC)Muse: Don't do that! It hurts the desk!
You could print these at the end of the story, kind of like the "behind the scenes" special features on a DVD.
Re: 28,000!!!
Date: 2004-11-14 12:21 pm (UTC)