I should get pissed-off more often. It seems to shatter my barriers and I suddenly see places in whatever it is I'm working on that I can improve. So after the last couple of days of ranting and raving around my apartment -- I did not go out; if I'd driven anywhere, I'd probably have smashed my car into one of the idiot drivers in this town, just out of spite -- anyway, I stayed in and made myself sit down to OT, today...and bam. Jake took over.
He finally sees someone he dislikes is being set up to take the wrap for a murder. How he handles it is pure Jake. He's a wolf to the core, all right. An alpha. He doesn't quite get it, yet, but that entails certain requirements -- like taking care of your pack. And deep down he's sensed, whether he likes it or not, this person is one of his. So he shifts into protection mode without a thought.
I know I've danced around this idea in earlier posts on this blog, but today it got clarified and I went straight to the section in question and changed it. Which means a lot more has to be changed in the rest of the story, but that also means cutting a sub-pot that probably should have been cut, anyway. I weep tears of the crocodile.
Something else that happened was, I saw a way into writing the very beginning of Darian's Point -- the part where the harpies are brought to life thanks to actions of The Dagda and Morriggan. I'm reading Seumas MacManus' The Story of the Irish Race -- which is really an anthology of other people's writings about the beginning of civilization in Ireland. I had to give up on that insipid collection of gay mysteries when I read one that was a direct rip-off of a Ruth Rendell mystery from the early 50s, and a rotten one, at that.
So I'm reading the part about Fionn and the Fian -- which is damn close to the Celtic version of Camelot and knights and honor and adventure, even though it takes place 1000 years earlier -- and the opening came to me. I'd had a problem with getting the Celts to Inish Ciuin, the tiny island near the Arans on the West Coast of Ireland where all three parts of the story take place. The story begins 3500 years ago, when the Tuatha de Danaan ruled Ireland, and the boats they had at the time would be barely seaworthy...unless the sea was preternaturally calm.
Well...Morriggan's a witch. She can control the earth and the sea and the sky...so make use of it. Instead of a storm to emphasize the emotional turmoil to come, everything is unusually calm and beautiful. Makes perfect sense, once you see it, but sometimes there's too much garbage in the way. Garbage is gone, now.
Reason for the garbage?
1. My insurance company double-charging me for my premium, even though I'd called them earlier in the month to make certain everything was okay. I was told they'd put the auto-debit on hold for January, so I paid my premium, then. On the 2nd, the auto-debit took out a payment for my premium, and customer service insisted that by the time they got the money back to me, I'd have to send it right back to them, anyway, so it's better if they just hang on to it. Fortunately, I could cover it, but it was irritating.
2. A word fight on Facebook with a young woman (and some man who backs her up) over Obama filling the military with illegals so he can have them come kill white people. I kid you not. This is the kind of two-bit mentality that thinks since you're queer you've got HIV and need to get tested, and accuses you of being on welfare because you don't agree with them. They are a danger to America, and they seem to be growing in number. What makes it really scary is, these are people who do not know the difference between "you're" and "your".
3. Family issues.
4. Getting an award-winning screenplay spit on, again, by people who think everything has to be according to Save the Cat. If it isn't, it isn't good...and you're not a good writer. I used to take criticism like this to heart; now it just infuriates me.
5. And then the old standby -- financial crap. Seeing how I'm deeper in debt than I was at the beginning of the year, even though I've been trying to change course. Maybe I'm the Titanic of monetary issues.
Hmm...sounds more like I'm becoming a cliche of a writer.
I know I've danced around this idea in earlier posts on this blog, but today it got clarified and I went straight to the section in question and changed it. Which means a lot more has to be changed in the rest of the story, but that also means cutting a sub-pot that probably should have been cut, anyway. I weep tears of the crocodile.
Something else that happened was, I saw a way into writing the very beginning of Darian's Point -- the part where the harpies are brought to life thanks to actions of The Dagda and Morriggan. I'm reading Seumas MacManus' The Story of the Irish Race -- which is really an anthology of other people's writings about the beginning of civilization in Ireland. I had to give up on that insipid collection of gay mysteries when I read one that was a direct rip-off of a Ruth Rendell mystery from the early 50s, and a rotten one, at that.
So I'm reading the part about Fionn and the Fian -- which is damn close to the Celtic version of Camelot and knights and honor and adventure, even though it takes place 1000 years earlier -- and the opening came to me. I'd had a problem with getting the Celts to Inish Ciuin, the tiny island near the Arans on the West Coast of Ireland where all three parts of the story take place. The story begins 3500 years ago, when the Tuatha de Danaan ruled Ireland, and the boats they had at the time would be barely seaworthy...unless the sea was preternaturally calm.
Well...Morriggan's a witch. She can control the earth and the sea and the sky...so make use of it. Instead of a storm to emphasize the emotional turmoil to come, everything is unusually calm and beautiful. Makes perfect sense, once you see it, but sometimes there's too much garbage in the way. Garbage is gone, now.
Reason for the garbage?
1. My insurance company double-charging me for my premium, even though I'd called them earlier in the month to make certain everything was okay. I was told they'd put the auto-debit on hold for January, so I paid my premium, then. On the 2nd, the auto-debit took out a payment for my premium, and customer service insisted that by the time they got the money back to me, I'd have to send it right back to them, anyway, so it's better if they just hang on to it. Fortunately, I could cover it, but it was irritating.
2. A word fight on Facebook with a young woman (and some man who backs her up) over Obama filling the military with illegals so he can have them come kill white people. I kid you not. This is the kind of two-bit mentality that thinks since you're queer you've got HIV and need to get tested, and accuses you of being on welfare because you don't agree with them. They are a danger to America, and they seem to be growing in number. What makes it really scary is, these are people who do not know the difference between "you're" and "your".
3. Family issues.
4. Getting an award-winning screenplay spit on, again, by people who think everything has to be according to Save the Cat. If it isn't, it isn't good...and you're not a good writer. I used to take criticism like this to heart; now it just infuriates me.
5. And then the old standby -- financial crap. Seeing how I'm deeper in debt than I was at the beginning of the year, even though I've been trying to change course. Maybe I'm the Titanic of monetary issues.
Hmm...sounds more like I'm becoming a cliche of a writer.
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