NaNoWriMo Summation Scene

I am a bit early on this as I have not yet achieved my ultimate goal of 70,000 words. However, I have reached the National Novel Writing Month mandate of 50,000 words. I'm at 50,491 actually.

The joy is there but not the irrational whoops of joy from previous years. I know so much more about novel writing, my creative process, the editing process, and what happens when I finish a book. It is true with novels as with art that you never finish a work. You just stop at an interesting place. It is also true about novel writing that the first draft is just a beginning. For sheer quantities of revisions, script writing for feature films wins out. Novel revisions make up for that in word quantity.

Yes, it's all about revisions folks. Once the glow of creation wears off, it's back to the salt mines of checking plot lines, character arcs, grammar, and other mundane technicalities such as deciding where the chapters begin and end. Unlike my fine art process in which I generally create an image in one sitting with little preparation or afterthought. I suspect my art could use a little kick in the development pants, too.

This year's novel pulled in characters from previous novels, as well as embellished plot lines, and added a third book to the Cosmic Control series. Sorta weird as I had no intention to do any of that when I started writing. I'm still grappling with a summation or log line for the plot. Here's a first try.

Cosmic Control: Defeat of the UnRegs

Working cover with
working title.

The story involves two soul twins who were separated before birth and came to life in separate universes with parallel time lines, which should have guaranteed they would never meet. And in a normal world they wouldn't have. However, the Prime Locus is tampering with the time lines again and the twins are needed to thwart his vicious and devious plans to destroy the power of gifteds. Enter the UnRegs—the UnRegistered Citizens—a huge confabulation of pirate-style, off-grid individuals who have been around for so long they are quite numerous and have fostered a wide variety of subcultures. Some UnRegs are lawful, some aren't, and some suffer from situational ethics. They have their own goals for changing history. Within all this, the two sisters must determine a course of action that will save time, prevent collapsing the time lines in favor of the evil Prime Locus, and yet still emerge with their identities and lives intact. (Your basic save the universe scenario.)

It's a lot of fun. Well, it has been for me anyway. And I intend to continue having fun for a couple more weeks yet while ignoring the distant call to get down to serious editing work.

cleaning creatively or forward into the past

For at least a year I've been using knitting and crocheting to clean out my (possibly) 10-year stash of yarns and unfinished projects. I had, for example, the remnant of a very expensive heavenly purple cotton yarn I once bought on impulse. I didn't buy a lot of it (see: expensive) and couldn't make anything truly useful. I knit a summer vest and added expensive sculpted silver buttons. They were all ocean themed: fishes, sand dollars, shells. Not practical although they did work as fasteners.

The vest didn't fit. I persisted in wearing it for a couple of summers. I don't know where it is now. Probably in my son's attic waiting for me to shrink into it.

Did you know that nothing is exactly the size
of an iPhone? I stuffed this with two matchboxes
and a Post It Notes pad to get the size right.
Because the only camera I have is in my phone.

I managed to use up the last few bits of the purple yarn today as trim for an iPhone cozy. Because sometimes I don't have any pockets for the phone and I put it in my purse where it rumbles around getting scratched. The screen has two light scratches (that you can't really see unless you hold it at an angle to the light). Anyway, I've been wrapping it up in a silk handkerchief which is okay unless I need to use the handkerchief. Which happens.

To make the cozy, I used up what remained of some Aunt Lydia's No. 3 Fashion thread (which I actually bought for a planned project—as opposed to the dreamy "some day" projects) and the lovely expensive purple yarn.

Results:
1.) I had fun.
2.) Knitting (the body) and crocheting (the edging) kept me from chewing up my cuticles or eating unsuitable food.
3.) Using up the remnants reminded me to be serious about my projects. Because if I don't follow through they haunt me.
4.) I had the satisfaction of finally putting to use some yarn that's been tucked out of sight but not out of mind. Ergo: a little weight off my mind.
5.) I designed and created something unique and expressive. Sure, it's a bit wonky, but the joy of creating—particularly on the fly—outweighs any wonkiness.

The joy of wonkiness is why I continue to use up and finish the old projects. At least the yarn-based ones. I'm nearly done and I've been steadily rewarding myself with a new project each time an old one is completed. A new real project, thoughtfully chosen and carefully executed. And then there's one more result:

6.) I've learned to take projects seriously because time and resources go into them and some of them hang around for a long time, so might as well do it right.

What I'm really doing is exercising my creative muscles in an extreme way by confining myself to what's available. That and making way for new, better projects and more opportunities for wonkiness. All that in a little iPhone bag.

Nosey Adobe

No. No, I don't have to sign in. And it's none of your business
when or how often I use your software.

Exactly what you don't want to see when booting up the computer: a software application login screen that you can't quit. I can force quit, but that's not the point. No software should pop to the front of my computer unless I asked it to. I did not give Adobe permission to place this screen on my computer. At least, not to my knowledge.

I'd like to find another software that lets me be an artist freely and professionally without all the passwords and locking-up that Adobe does. However, nothing is as good as Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator are. As industry standards they make it difficult to use anything else.

I like to make comparisons to pre-computer tools. So, for example, if I had purchased a set of brushes and oils from Adobe, it would mean I could only use them if I unlocked them with a password and then only used them in one location. They would have to know when I used my supplies and for how long. (This is what logging in does, tracking where the software is being used, when, and by whom.) I would be unable to donate or gift my used brushes and partially emptied oil tubes. In fact, the only thing I could do that didn't require their consent would be to trash my supplies.

The first joy I had from computer programs was the unending supply of art tools. No more running out to the art shop when my pastels were worn down. No more last minute paint purchases when the tube emptied sooner than expected. No more broken erasers or dull pencils.

Adobe has squeezed that joy right out of their programs.

Mucking About with Adobe Illustrator 6

Not much mucking about, really. Took some time to download and set up, and then update. After that I was free to have a bit of fun.

Exploring making a random leaf brush and using variable lines.
Still not possible to make brushes with gradients fills.

Variation #4. 2&3 were not that exciting.

 I am not pleased with the interface. It's all dark and gloomy with tiny icons, all of which make it look and feel like a PC. Too lazy to make two interfaces are we, Adobe? I bought an iMac for a reason and I like the way it looks and feels.

Where are we again? Oh, right. On an iMac. 

Story Basics in Graph, Table, and Diagram

Here's a clean copy of Kurt Vonnegut's graph of character arcs from the shape of stories video.

Kurt Vonnegut's diagram illustrated by Elaine Greywalker

In the video, he mentions that the names of the plot arcs are just reminders; not limitations. For example: Boy Gets Girl is your basic romantic comedy no matter who gets whom.

The "Cinderella" plot line (which Kurt says will make you a million dollars) could be fitted to the character arc of Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games trilogy—with modifications. The first book is classic Cinderella. Over the entire trilogy, it's a bit different. Primarily, Katniss goes below her beginning level, unlike Cinderella. Secondarily, she ends in the mid-level between Good and Ill Fortune. An interesting exercise would be to graph her arc across the trilogy on Kurt's chart.

Here's Aristotle's version, which is rather more conceptual.

Aristotle's Table of Plots

A good exercise would be to make character arc graphs for these concepts. 

By the way, the central line is "moderate complexity" in case you were wondering. I know I was.

While reading Story by Robert McKee, I made this triangular diagram which is a modification of Mr. McKee's from page 45 of the book.

My version of Rober McKee's plot triangle.

The three corners are indicators of plot types and not quantity of plots. Mr. McKee doesn't write much about the non-narrative plot area. It's still a big undiscovered sea. And, yes, another good exercise would be to make character arc graphs from this triangle.

scribble text effects for breakfast

Fooled around and fell in love. Although, I'm sure it's just puppy love.

Fooled around with the Scribble effect, adding in the Appearance panel,
combining a gradient with texture, and modes in Transparency. 

Today's initial experiment with Scribble and
adding fill and line in the Appearance panel.

After fooling around with the scribble effect, layer transparencies, and gradients, I discovered the Scribble presets. Not all the descriptors are good. Childlike doesn't seem to be really child like. Tight is good, though. You can see my modification of it below. I varied the spacing a bit.

Steady on, captain! Nearly monochromatic palette might indicate
I've found a happy medium.
Nice to have a lined paper texture on file.

It was a good breakfast.

Why those colors?

The Palette.

While I was on the road amusing myself,* I discovered that the sketches I thought were random were actually color studies. Investigations into palettes. Which is how I ended up researching "colorist" yesterday, only to discover that wasn't what I meant.

I'm interested in discovering why certain colors and combinations appeal to me at various times. The beach theme I get. The rest, not so much.

I wish I would post one of these a day and sort of discuss it a bit. Probably won't.

Here's the full image from the previous post and the four colors involved.

purple, green, lavender

* Finger sketching with Adobe Ideas on an iPhone.

On the Road

I attempt to amuse myself. Two friends admitted to getting depressed when they weren't creating. It's a hard job and when you have this disease you have to do it. A college German professor I hated said one useful thing all year, "Writers must write. Even if they write and then put it away in a drawer."