the ramble dump
Monday, June 23, 2008
48.48%
I get some strange traffic. Usually for this site it's all the bizarre, amusing and sometimes downright disturbing variations you could think of for the term 'fat man'. (While I don't really want to encourage any more of the wrong kind of attention: 'fat man in leather pants' and 'fat man eaten alive' are two of the more recent--and not the worst.) And with each passing month, as I upload more content, new keywords are generated.
This month, nearly half of all my visitors have arrived here through the term 'parachute pants'. Is this significant, I wonder? What could it mean? Is there an underground movement, utilising the medium of the internet, seeking to reinstate parachute pants at the forefront of our cultural consciousness? Could I really be in the midst of something so epic? Or maybe it's more of a tragedy--maybe there are just a lot of people who miss the days when they could wear said pants with pride, but are unaware that there are so many others who still share the same passions. Now all of them are floating through cyberspace oblivious that they are a mere proverbial atomswidth away from each other.
It's something to wonder about. Maybe I should start a new section.
I get a few for 'jabba the hun', which is reassuring. It's nice to know I'm not the only one who makes those mistakes. About a month ago I got a hit for 'something something oohoohoo', which puzzled me for a while. I get quite a lot of very specific queries for Amelia's website, from friends who are no doubt requiring more evidence that she actually exists because they are not willing to believe in her singularly odd appearance. There's a couple for 'custard fight', one for 'frilly slug', one for 'surging organza'. 'Mel's custard' is, of course, extremely popular.
There's one for 'untidy wife'. There's another for 'convoluted metaphor'.
There's also one for 'tweed metaphors'. I wish I knew the story behind this one. 'My life is a tweed metaphor!' would, I am convinced, be such an excellent thing to exclaim. No doubt it would also be in some way profoundly true. Likewise, I want to see the news report that must have contained 'claims against tweed were exaggerated'.
Such a small sample of web statistics contains so many possible stories. And so very many parachute pants. What path of life, what desperate query or moment of inspiration, has led these mysterious people to my unnaturally green pastures? Only Google knows.
This month, nearly half of all my visitors have arrived here through the term 'parachute pants'. Is this significant, I wonder? What could it mean? Is there an underground movement, utilising the medium of the internet, seeking to reinstate parachute pants at the forefront of our cultural consciousness? Could I really be in the midst of something so epic? Or maybe it's more of a tragedy--maybe there are just a lot of people who miss the days when they could wear said pants with pride, but are unaware that there are so many others who still share the same passions. Now all of them are floating through cyberspace oblivious that they are a mere proverbial atomswidth away from each other.
It's something to wonder about. Maybe I should start a new section.
I get a few for 'jabba the hun', which is reassuring. It's nice to know I'm not the only one who makes those mistakes. About a month ago I got a hit for 'something something oohoohoo', which puzzled me for a while. I get quite a lot of very specific queries for Amelia's website, from friends who are no doubt requiring more evidence that she actually exists because they are not willing to believe in her singularly odd appearance. There's a couple for 'custard fight', one for 'frilly slug', one for 'surging organza'. 'Mel's custard' is, of course, extremely popular.
There's one for 'untidy wife'. There's another for 'convoluted metaphor'.
There's also one for 'tweed metaphors'. I wish I knew the story behind this one. 'My life is a tweed metaphor!' would, I am convinced, be such an excellent thing to exclaim. No doubt it would also be in some way profoundly true. Likewise, I want to see the news report that must have contained 'claims against tweed were exaggerated'.
Such a small sample of web statistics contains so many possible stories. And so very many parachute pants. What path of life, what desperate query or moment of inspiration, has led these mysterious people to my unnaturally green pastures? Only Google knows.
Labels: starcustard, webtechnical
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Yes, They Look Like Turds
Sometimes we do things that we just can't explain. Here is one of them.
Organza and the Minislugs, NOW IN 3D. Recreated, with a limited set of tools, in the Spore Creature Creator free trial:
Here's a few more.
Further notes:
(1) Spaceslugs not to scale.
(2) The trial was appallingly low on wig material.
(3) Yes, I got carried away.
(4) If the Nousus danced, they would dance like this:
(5) I just defiled my blog.
Organza and the Minislugs, NOW IN 3D. Recreated, with a limited set of tools, in the Spore Creature Creator free trial:
Here's a few more.
Further notes:
(1) Spaceslugs not to scale.
(2) The trial was appallingly low on wig material.
(3) Yes, I got carried away.
(4) If the Nousus danced, they would dance like this:
(5) I just defiled my blog.
Labels: starcustard, videogames
Monday, June 16, 2008
The Sacrifice that the Narrative Demanded
Those currently trying to access The Aberration Chapter 15 will be faced with this message:
There will, however, be spoilers for Chapter 14, so watch out for those.
Nearly all of the time, when they're not nitpicks over grammar or general attempts to improve the quality of description, these alterations boil down to something not working with the flow of the narrative. This might relate to how the story progresses from one point to the next, how events transpire, how the characters react to these events or to each other, and how those characters develop as a result of all these other things. It's a partly intuitive process: if an event feels overly contrived, or if a character feels inconsistent with how they usually act, or if anything about the story feels too forced, it sits uncomfortably in the final product. It can result in the story losing some of it's believability.
To some extent, even things like the specific characteristics of the characters themselves are not something that can be dictated in an overly deliberate way. Likewise, smooth transitions from Point A to Point B can't always be meticulously planned out--you can't account for everything until you get to the stage of actually writing it. That's why some of the Starcustard chapters ended up so long: because we set out, roughly, to cover a certain amount of ground in terms of outlined story in each chapter, and ended up requiring a lot more ground than we expected. When you're writing, you have to feel your way through the narrative, follow it a natural way so that it comes to be something you can believe in yourself before you expect the reader to do the same. That's probably why it usually doesn't work as an immersive, believable story when the author sets out to dictate the actions of some character in order to conform to a message that they are trying to convey--when the characters are reduced to functions of an idea or plot point at the expense of...well, character. (Thus: boo, allegory.)
This isn't to say that the writing process has to be something completely out of your control, or something that you have to surrender entirely to your subconscious. It obviously doesn't work like that. Control is, of course, one of the most important things in storytelling. It's about managing to strike a balance, but not a compromise, in attempting to achieve some kind of realism (or, at least, in order to make the experience real enough to be appreciated). But there are certain things that a story, a narrative, needs to be held together--the plot to frame it, the characters to drive it and the cohesion to bring everything together. Big ideas and viewpoints are all well and good, but they need to come from somewhere--they need to be grounded in a believable foundation.
These are things that seem to be true of many novels that I've read or films that I've watched, as well as presenting themselves as something repeatedly confounding when I come to write my own stuff. Hence all the revisions. Chapter 15's main problem was exposition: cramming in too much stuff I felt I needed to explain in order to get past it, at the expense of pacing, believability and narrative sense. To get anything worthwhile from a story, the reader has to be able to experience it in a way that doesn't pull them out of it every time the author feels the need to muscle their way in for some more control. There are times, I have found, when you just have to give in to the narrative--otherwise you start making compromises to the integrity of the narrative that can cause everything to fall apart.
Which brings me to Mike. Mike's fate is currently undecided. For the longest time I've been trying to determine a reason for Mike to be there; trying to feel out a purpose for him in the story. This sounds a lot like reducing him to a function, but in this sense, characters become functions of the narrative--as a part of that narrative--rather than being reduced for the sake of functioning as part of a specific plot point or any motive that might lie behind the story. This doesn't mean denying the fact that characters drive the narrative, but rather that there is an interdependency between the two that develops organically and emerges along with other things such as themes and plot.
In the case of The Aberration, the narrative is already being driven, and moulded, by Master Beef and the plot and ideas that have formed around him. Whereas Beef had always been at the core of the story, even if later themes and character developments had not yet emerged, Mike, like several other characters (including Detective Muse, Sim Hyde and the Microwave) had always sort of been attached to the story for the sake of it. Unlike these others, however, Mike's reasons for creation, and attempts to develop him beyond that, have not leant themselves to enabling his character to be continually relevant, and though over the years I've repeatedly reduced his personal story to fit in with everything else, I've never quite been able to assimilate him completely into the coherent whole. In other words, I don't know what to do with him. While I feel he's worked in a perfectly valid way as a character so far, it's reached the point that the only thing that feels natural to do is to write him out of the story, maybe able to offer one or two more hints at the wider plot on his way out.
It does sound as if he's being judged by his worth to the plot, and to some extent this is true. But as already explained, the Mike's character has to relate to all the other aspects of the whole. The characters drive the story or narrative, which is the sequence of events. The plot--what the story is about--is something that, in this case, has emerged as these characters have been driving the story. Narrative, plot and character have all formed in a mutual sort of way. But Mike has ended up the odd one out. I could invent new story just for the sake of keeping him in the picture, but there's no point in having a character perpetuated in this way. His character, failing to resonate in the same way as the others, would require his own plot, if he was given any plot at all, and his story would be irrelevant.
With regard to killing off characters, a similar thing happened with the character of Mars in the early chapters of Starcustard, though in his case it was more an immediate demand of the world as we'd constructed it, rather than simply having no place for him in the story after that (although we may not have done anyway). In our excitement of plot we'd inadvertently pushed him into a situation that there was simply no way around if we didn't want to contradict everything we had already said.
The character of Mike has suffered rather from a lack of direction, in terms of plot and character. Many of the characters in The Aberration have ended up treading narrative backwater at various points in its history, causing me to re-evaluate and revise repeatedly in order to sustain it (most significantly when it was in its Manifesting Surreal iteration, consisting of mounting absurdity and about to collapse in on itself). As a result, though it's been far from easy, the narrative has begun to form into something that feels at least somewhat coherent. Unfortunately for Mike, for the time being at least, he is no longer a part of it.
As a final note (and a little hint at other things): although on the level of plot Mike's (apparent) death does nothing but remove him as something with no further use, on the level of the narrative--which can incorporate things like, say, meta-commentary--the very necessity of his removal may yet itself function as something more significant in terms of the wider narrative picture. If you follow that, I'll leave you to try and figure it out once you start getting a sense of what that wider picture is. Until then, the important thing, in terms of what this post has been getting at, is that this function operates as a valuable extra feature of the narrative, but does not exist at the expense of narrative integrity as a whole.
Edit 23/07/08: some slight rephrasing due to a confusion between the concepts of 'plot' and 'story/narrative' (I got them the wrong way around).
This chapter is currently being revised. It will return, massively improved, sometime soonish.Anyone who visits this site with any kind of frequency will know that I have a tendency to go back and repeatedly edit the stuff I've already uploaded, usually one or two months after the fact. In the past I've offered various specific, long-winded reasons and excuses for each time I've done this, but I won't go into any specifics about Chapter 15 here. Its sparkly new edition will be posted along with the horrendously delayed 16 in the not-too-distant future.
There will, however, be spoilers for Chapter 14, so watch out for those.
Nearly all of the time, when they're not nitpicks over grammar or general attempts to improve the quality of description, these alterations boil down to something not working with the flow of the narrative. This might relate to how the story progresses from one point to the next, how events transpire, how the characters react to these events or to each other, and how those characters develop as a result of all these other things. It's a partly intuitive process: if an event feels overly contrived, or if a character feels inconsistent with how they usually act, or if anything about the story feels too forced, it sits uncomfortably in the final product. It can result in the story losing some of it's believability.
To some extent, even things like the specific characteristics of the characters themselves are not something that can be dictated in an overly deliberate way. Likewise, smooth transitions from Point A to Point B can't always be meticulously planned out--you can't account for everything until you get to the stage of actually writing it. That's why some of the Starcustard chapters ended up so long: because we set out, roughly, to cover a certain amount of ground in terms of outlined story in each chapter, and ended up requiring a lot more ground than we expected. When you're writing, you have to feel your way through the narrative, follow it a natural way so that it comes to be something you can believe in yourself before you expect the reader to do the same. That's probably why it usually doesn't work as an immersive, believable story when the author sets out to dictate the actions of some character in order to conform to a message that they are trying to convey--when the characters are reduced to functions of an idea or plot point at the expense of...well, character. (Thus: boo, allegory.)
This isn't to say that the writing process has to be something completely out of your control, or something that you have to surrender entirely to your subconscious. It obviously doesn't work like that. Control is, of course, one of the most important things in storytelling. It's about managing to strike a balance, but not a compromise, in attempting to achieve some kind of realism (or, at least, in order to make the experience real enough to be appreciated). But there are certain things that a story, a narrative, needs to be held together--the plot to frame it, the characters to drive it and the cohesion to bring everything together. Big ideas and viewpoints are all well and good, but they need to come from somewhere--they need to be grounded in a believable foundation.
These are things that seem to be true of many novels that I've read or films that I've watched, as well as presenting themselves as something repeatedly confounding when I come to write my own stuff. Hence all the revisions. Chapter 15's main problem was exposition: cramming in too much stuff I felt I needed to explain in order to get past it, at the expense of pacing, believability and narrative sense. To get anything worthwhile from a story, the reader has to be able to experience it in a way that doesn't pull them out of it every time the author feels the need to muscle their way in for some more control. There are times, I have found, when you just have to give in to the narrative--otherwise you start making compromises to the integrity of the narrative that can cause everything to fall apart.
Which brings me to Mike. Mike's fate is currently undecided. For the longest time I've been trying to determine a reason for Mike to be there; trying to feel out a purpose for him in the story. This sounds a lot like reducing him to a function, but in this sense, characters become functions of the narrative--as a part of that narrative--rather than being reduced for the sake of functioning as part of a specific plot point or any motive that might lie behind the story. This doesn't mean denying the fact that characters drive the narrative, but rather that there is an interdependency between the two that develops organically and emerges along with other things such as themes and plot.
In the case of The Aberration, the narrative is already being driven, and moulded, by Master Beef and the plot and ideas that have formed around him. Whereas Beef had always been at the core of the story, even if later themes and character developments had not yet emerged, Mike, like several other characters (including Detective Muse, Sim Hyde and the Microwave) had always sort of been attached to the story for the sake of it. Unlike these others, however, Mike's reasons for creation, and attempts to develop him beyond that, have not leant themselves to enabling his character to be continually relevant, and though over the years I've repeatedly reduced his personal story to fit in with everything else, I've never quite been able to assimilate him completely into the coherent whole. In other words, I don't know what to do with him. While I feel he's worked in a perfectly valid way as a character so far, it's reached the point that the only thing that feels natural to do is to write him out of the story, maybe able to offer one or two more hints at the wider plot on his way out.
It does sound as if he's being judged by his worth to the plot, and to some extent this is true. But as already explained, the Mike's character has to relate to all the other aspects of the whole. The characters drive the story or narrative, which is the sequence of events. The plot--what the story is about--is something that, in this case, has emerged as these characters have been driving the story. Narrative, plot and character have all formed in a mutual sort of way. But Mike has ended up the odd one out. I could invent new story just for the sake of keeping him in the picture, but there's no point in having a character perpetuated in this way. His character, failing to resonate in the same way as the others, would require his own plot, if he was given any plot at all, and his story would be irrelevant.
With regard to killing off characters, a similar thing happened with the character of Mars in the early chapters of Starcustard, though in his case it was more an immediate demand of the world as we'd constructed it, rather than simply having no place for him in the story after that (although we may not have done anyway). In our excitement of plot we'd inadvertently pushed him into a situation that there was simply no way around if we didn't want to contradict everything we had already said.
The character of Mike has suffered rather from a lack of direction, in terms of plot and character. Many of the characters in The Aberration have ended up treading narrative backwater at various points in its history, causing me to re-evaluate and revise repeatedly in order to sustain it (most significantly when it was in its Manifesting Surreal iteration, consisting of mounting absurdity and about to collapse in on itself). As a result, though it's been far from easy, the narrative has begun to form into something that feels at least somewhat coherent. Unfortunately for Mike, for the time being at least, he is no longer a part of it.
As a final note (and a little hint at other things): although on the level of plot Mike's (apparent) death does nothing but remove him as something with no further use, on the level of the narrative--which can incorporate things like, say, meta-commentary--the very necessity of his removal may yet itself function as something more significant in terms of the wider narrative picture. If you follow that, I'll leave you to try and figure it out once you start getting a sense of what that wider picture is. Until then, the important thing, in terms of what this post has been getting at, is that this function operates as a valuable extra feature of the narrative, but does not exist at the expense of narrative integrity as a whole.
Edit 23/07/08: some slight rephrasing due to a confusion between the concepts of 'plot' and 'story/narrative' (I got them the wrong way around).
Labels: i am the ramblemaster, rabbit-hole theory, starcustard, the aberration
Friday, July 20, 2007
Amelia's Notebooks
The Aberration Chapter 7.
Amelia really does have that many notebooks. I've never seen them myself, but she has mentioned them more than once. She has lots for all different kinds of things and thoughts and ideas. I wonder if you could assemble all the contents of her brain with those notebooks, like a sort of psychological biography with a split personality. I know that the black one is for Starcustard. I am sure at least one of them contains a list of the children she has yet to eat.
She is not here right now, so I can get away with saying these things for at least another eighteen months.
Underneath that Sherlock Holmes reference is a considerable amount of truth. I lack the notebooks of both fictional and factual Amelias, but the same sort of process goes on in my brain when I'm trying to write a story. Things like sciencing and philosophising and most probably detectiving too all require very analytical approaches to be of much use. Storytelling, however, is the opposite. You can get ideas from all over the place, and while they might all share the same theme or have something in common, you're still left with the task of making something coherent out of what is essentially arbitrary. Whatever reason you might have for including something, whether as a plot device or to represent something or just because you thought it'd be cool to throw in, they're still only there because you put them there.1 There is therefore a great deal of Detective Muse's making stuff up as you go along.
As I've mentioned before, The Aberration has been a continuous struggle to try and achieve this. I started off with a couple of Halo parody characters, included a few more things just because I thought they were interesting enough, and then over the years the story has repeatedly run out of steam as I've tried to figure out where to go next or what relation any of it has to anything else. Its current form is very different from its earlier iterations, in which the aim was basically just to fill it with weird things, because I've got stuck and had to go back and change things constantly.
I've finally mapped out something that's a bit more coherent than it used to be, by mentally rearranging and adding to and editing the thing until it's formed something I can actually go somewhere with. But does all this arbitrariness, the fact that everything included is ultimately an arbitrary decision, mean that stories are empty? Well, as tA has shown, there's actually a limit to how arbitrary everything can be before it falls apart. It has to have some coherence, and even if the story works by its own internal logic or requires some suspension of disbelief, the logic still has to be there, and any kind of sustainable logic has to be based at least in part on reality.
Fictional stories are, for the most part, contrived. And creating the illusion that these things aren't arbitrary is all part of the craft. But reality plays its part, and the further a story drifts from it, the less believable it will be. This doesn't mean you can't include fantastical elements in your world's internal logic, and as Holmes points out and Detective Muse echoes in this chapter, improbability is not the same thing as impossibility. But that internal logic needs to be solid.
So where does this leave the meaningfulness of a story, beyond its entertainment value or simple emotional engagement? That internal logic, however sustainable or believable it might be, could still be considered arbitrary. Can you use a story to analyse or demonstrate something? Can you show, say, the personal, social or political consequences of certain circumstances being brought about? Or present a moral lesson or a warning? You can't scientifically analyse a work of fiction any more than you can analyse a dream (albeit a slightly more focused dream). But if the logic behind the story is reasonable enough, you can suggest. You, as the author, can throw light on an alternative interpretation; your interpretation. Conclusions drawn from a writer's own fictional world -- by the writer and reader -- can never be truly objective, but they can offer some balance of thoughts and ideas. In the end, you can't really conclude anything with a story. They can only offer questions. They can offer a new perspective, one that will always be open to criticism but is not necessarily without its worth. That, to me, is part of what it's all about.
And, as in the case of tA, things like fat men in tweed or talking microwaves or a man dressed in a mutated sort of rabbit costume, even if they were included out of complete arbitrariness to start with, can still become something suggestive or figurative in the context of their function in the story. And who knows, maybe there was already some subconscious significance to them.
So Detective Muse has a point, even if Mr Holmes might disagree that it applies in entirely the same way to his profession. Don't diss the improbable, don't diss the ridiculous, and don't be too quick to diss the arbitrary.
1 Which is why allegory can seem so manipulative.
Amelia really does have that many notebooks. I've never seen them myself, but she has mentioned them more than once. She has lots for all different kinds of things and thoughts and ideas. I wonder if you could assemble all the contents of her brain with those notebooks, like a sort of psychological biography with a split personality. I know that the black one is for Starcustard. I am sure at least one of them contains a list of the children she has yet to eat.
She is not here right now, so I can get away with saying these things for at least another eighteen months.
Underneath that Sherlock Holmes reference is a considerable amount of truth. I lack the notebooks of both fictional and factual Amelias, but the same sort of process goes on in my brain when I'm trying to write a story. Things like sciencing and philosophising and most probably detectiving too all require very analytical approaches to be of much use. Storytelling, however, is the opposite. You can get ideas from all over the place, and while they might all share the same theme or have something in common, you're still left with the task of making something coherent out of what is essentially arbitrary. Whatever reason you might have for including something, whether as a plot device or to represent something or just because you thought it'd be cool to throw in, they're still only there because you put them there.1 There is therefore a great deal of Detective Muse's making stuff up as you go along.
As I've mentioned before, The Aberration has been a continuous struggle to try and achieve this. I started off with a couple of Halo parody characters, included a few more things just because I thought they were interesting enough, and then over the years the story has repeatedly run out of steam as I've tried to figure out where to go next or what relation any of it has to anything else. Its current form is very different from its earlier iterations, in which the aim was basically just to fill it with weird things, because I've got stuck and had to go back and change things constantly.
I've finally mapped out something that's a bit more coherent than it used to be, by mentally rearranging and adding to and editing the thing until it's formed something I can actually go somewhere with. But does all this arbitrariness, the fact that everything included is ultimately an arbitrary decision, mean that stories are empty? Well, as tA has shown, there's actually a limit to how arbitrary everything can be before it falls apart. It has to have some coherence, and even if the story works by its own internal logic or requires some suspension of disbelief, the logic still has to be there, and any kind of sustainable logic has to be based at least in part on reality.
Fictional stories are, for the most part, contrived. And creating the illusion that these things aren't arbitrary is all part of the craft. But reality plays its part, and the further a story drifts from it, the less believable it will be. This doesn't mean you can't include fantastical elements in your world's internal logic, and as Holmes points out and Detective Muse echoes in this chapter, improbability is not the same thing as impossibility. But that internal logic needs to be solid.
So where does this leave the meaningfulness of a story, beyond its entertainment value or simple emotional engagement? That internal logic, however sustainable or believable it might be, could still be considered arbitrary. Can you use a story to analyse or demonstrate something? Can you show, say, the personal, social or political consequences of certain circumstances being brought about? Or present a moral lesson or a warning? You can't scientifically analyse a work of fiction any more than you can analyse a dream (albeit a slightly more focused dream). But if the logic behind the story is reasonable enough, you can suggest. You, as the author, can throw light on an alternative interpretation; your interpretation. Conclusions drawn from a writer's own fictional world -- by the writer and reader -- can never be truly objective, but they can offer some balance of thoughts and ideas. In the end, you can't really conclude anything with a story. They can only offer questions. They can offer a new perspective, one that will always be open to criticism but is not necessarily without its worth. That, to me, is part of what it's all about.
And, as in the case of tA, things like fat men in tweed or talking microwaves or a man dressed in a mutated sort of rabbit costume, even if they were included out of complete arbitrariness to start with, can still become something suggestive or figurative in the context of their function in the story. And who knows, maybe there was already some subconscious significance to them.
So Detective Muse has a point, even if Mr Holmes might disagree that it applies in entirely the same way to his profession. Don't diss the improbable, don't diss the ridiculous, and don't be too quick to diss the arbitrary.
1 Which is why allegory can seem so manipulative.
Labels: allegory, fat men in tweed, halo, i am the ramblemaster, science, starcustard, the aberration
Saturday, July 07, 2007
More Than Your Money's Worth
If this isn't a good selling point for the new Starcustard book, I don't know what is:
Yep, I ordered myself a copy. The official reason is that I'm checking it out to make sure that everything is as it should be. The unofficial reason is more egotistical.
Yep, I ordered myself a copy. The official reason is that I'm checking it out to make sure that everything is as it should be. The unofficial reason is more egotistical.
Labels: starcustard
Friday, July 06, 2007
Someone I've Never Met
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Organza Nousu vs Jabba the Hutt
So last night Amelia mentioned the similarities between Organza Nousu of Starcustard and Jabba the Hutt of Star Wars. Unfortunately, this is something that had bothered me before, and looking at pictures of Jabba again yesterday, I could match some pretty specific characteristics: aside from being a giant spaceslug thing, there's the leathery skin, the huge mouth, the big orange eyes and even the silly little arms. All I can say, as the one responsible for deciding that Gen's stepparents were going to be fat slugs, is that these similarities were not deliberate.
In my defence I could also point out some differences. The Nousus' leathery skin is described as just like extremely thick walrus hide whereas Jabba's is not. Our slugs don't have slit pupils, and I always imagined their eyes as a very clear, very bright orange, almost cartoony and much more expressive than the sleepy gaze of Jabba. In a similar vein, the Nousu slugs lack Jabba's general slovenly appearance: for all their plumpness and size they're much more mobile, and whereas Jabba's folds of fat collect to form a distinctive belly and head, I always pictured the Nousus as quite linear with wobbly but amorphous flab, for the most part slithering around just like regular slugs, their head only made distinctive from the rest of them by their eyes and mouth. The Nousus' arms are almost ineffectual blackened twig-like things, not fleshy, only added as a way of allowing them to hold a slavekid card catalogue. And finally, as far as I know, Jabba doesn't have teeth.
Not all of these features are made so explicit in the text, because 'more linear than Jabba' is just not something we would have included. I also can't account for exactly how Amelia imagines the Nousus (she might have different ideas of how they compare), but now that we've both become conscious of the unintentional similarities, although nobody else has mentioned it, we felt it was probably a good idea to set the record straight just in case. Back when we started writing Starcustard and I put these slugs in, I hadn't seen any Star Wars film but The Phantom Menace. The same is still true. Reading up on it recently, it turns out that Jabba made an appearance in that film too, but honestly I don't think it was memorable enough even to be a subconscious influence.
In fact, I have an amusing story about my ignorance of Jabba the Hutt. And...well, ignorance in general, too. As I told Amelia last night...
It's true. And it's a shame that there's such a similarity, because we don't want it to seem like we copied anyone. I made Gen's stepparents into fat, horrible slugs because it seemed appropriate: Gen's stepparents were supposed to be rich and horrible and giant slugs sort of personified this. No doubt George Lucas arrived at the idea of Jabba along similar lines. We could always go back and change it, of course, but then I don't think Organza would still be Organza. So a slug she remains. And we are entirely innocent.
In my defence I could also point out some differences. The Nousus' leathery skin is described as just like extremely thick walrus hide whereas Jabba's is not. Our slugs don't have slit pupils, and I always imagined their eyes as a very clear, very bright orange, almost cartoony and much more expressive than the sleepy gaze of Jabba. In a similar vein, the Nousu slugs lack Jabba's general slovenly appearance: for all their plumpness and size they're much more mobile, and whereas Jabba's folds of fat collect to form a distinctive belly and head, I always pictured the Nousus as quite linear with wobbly but amorphous flab, for the most part slithering around just like regular slugs, their head only made distinctive from the rest of them by their eyes and mouth. The Nousus' arms are almost ineffectual blackened twig-like things, not fleshy, only added as a way of allowing them to hold a slavekid card catalogue. And finally, as far as I know, Jabba doesn't have teeth.
Not all of these features are made so explicit in the text, because 'more linear than Jabba' is just not something we would have included. I also can't account for exactly how Amelia imagines the Nousus (she might have different ideas of how they compare), but now that we've both become conscious of the unintentional similarities, although nobody else has mentioned it, we felt it was probably a good idea to set the record straight just in case. Back when we started writing Starcustard and I put these slugs in, I hadn't seen any Star Wars film but The Phantom Menace. The same is still true. Reading up on it recently, it turns out that Jabba made an appearance in that film too, but honestly I don't think it was memorable enough even to be a subconscious influence.
In fact, I have an amusing story about my ignorance of Jabba the Hutt. And...well, ignorance in general, too. As I told Amelia last night...
Chris: to be honest, until recently i got him confused with atilla the hun anyway
plaid: ha
plaid: that's awesome.
Chris: i was actually surprised to find he was fictional
plaid: really?
plaid: what a strange kid you are.
Chris: and then weeks later it clicked: wait, he's real! but he has a different name!
plaid: heh
Chris: and then i thought, 'ah, poo. that's very similar to organza.'
Chris: 'but i was not to know!'
Chris: 'i shall not mention it.'
plaid: heh. ah well. no worries.
plaid: jabba the hut never wore fake eyelashes or [spoiler omitted].
Chris: no doubt a thousand million people out there will not believe that story because, like, EVERYONE knows jabba the hutt
Chris: but i didn't!
Chris: heh
plaid: heh.
It's true. And it's a shame that there's such a similarity, because we don't want it to seem like we copied anyone. I made Gen's stepparents into fat, horrible slugs because it seemed appropriate: Gen's stepparents were supposed to be rich and horrible and giant slugs sort of personified this. No doubt George Lucas arrived at the idea of Jabba along similar lines. We could always go back and change it, of course, but then I don't think Organza would still be Organza. So a slug she remains. And we are entirely innocent.
Labels: alien conversations, films, i am the ramblemaster, starcustard
Monday, May 28, 2007
An Amazing New Toy!
Coming soon to a spaceretailer near you: the Talking Organza Nousu™ Doll!
The Talking Organza Nousu™ Doll is capable of many of your favourite Organza Nousu™ phrases, including such classics as this, this, this and this!
This amazing toy is totally not the product of an instant messaging conversation we had just now!
The Talking Organza Nousu™ Doll is capable of many of your favourite Organza Nousu™ phrases, including such classics as this, this, this and this!
This amazing toy is totally not the product of an instant messaging conversation we had just now!
Labels: sketches and doodles, starcustard
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
The English Language
Probably, sadly, the most interesting thing we've done all year in English Language class has been the history of the English language, something that we don't even need for the big and important exams that are coming up in the next few weeks.
I always find it interesting to see how things have come to be the way they are; how the world has reacted to the biggest and smallest events, the rippling and fizzling of the almost uncontrollable chaos of cause and effect. That's history. A duke is shot in Sarajevo, the proverbial camel's back breaks and suddenly we find ourselves engaged in a world war. The USSR launches the Sputnik space programme, spurring the USA to regain a technological lead by founding an agency which seeks to further the research of a nationwide network of radar systems; and now, nearly fifty years later, I'm on this thing called the internet inventing stories about skateboarding slugs and spacecustard with some weirdo on the other side of the Atlantic.
Wrapped around all these events in history great and small is language. Every modern language carries with it the weight of all the history it's been through, and yet it's the most immediate reflection of the world we currently live in: we're constantly introducing new words or changing the meanings of old ones to fit our purposes. Language changes or it stops being useful and, unless you deliberately preserve it, it dies out. Some words fall out of use, become obscure and fade away, but language is forever changing and expanding to stay alive and leaves us with some impressive banks of vocabulary to draw from whenever we decide we want to say or write something (assuming the recipient has a dictionary on hand).
When it comes to the size of vocabulary, the English language, in its various forms, is currently the richest, most diverse language there is. Why? Because we've absorbed so many others. Here are some of the 'landmarks' according to the timeline I've been given: in 436AD, the Romans withdraw from Britain leaving behind Latin. A few years later, the Anglo-Saxons arrive and bring with them the Germanic language, forming Old English. In 597 Latin then returns to Britain in the form of St Augustine and the Roman Catholic Church, and two hundred years later the Vikings pay a visit and give us some Norse. In 1066, the Normans invade and social changes are reflected through a rift in the language: those of higher class use grand and sophisticated French words like faeces, while German--and shit--becomes common and a bit vulgar. In 1204, King John loses his English territory in France and the French influence retreats.
Then when Britain decides it has quite finished being invaded, it sticks its colonial fingers abroad and taps the lexis of all its gains: in 1600, the East India Company establishes a trading post in India; seven years later, the first British Colony is established in Jamestown, Virginia (had it been different, the USA may today have been speaking French). In 1610, battles with Ireland reduce the influence of Gaelic; in 1745, the Battle of Culloden results in the Anglicisation of Scotland. The first convict transport ships arive in Australia in 1788. Britain abolishes slavery in 1837, blacks become lawfully equal citizens and the language is broadened. In 1845, the Great Potato Famine drives thousands of Irish immigrants to British and American shores. And so it continues, each event influencing and further expanding the language. Now there's the internet, with millions of people worldwide communicating with each other.
I'm probably being weird, but I find the thought of this pretty awe-inspiring. Most English-speaking people only ever use the smallest fraction of the language in their lives, enough as is practical. But here we are with all this wealth of language, and when people do explore it and utilise it and realise it as a powerful means of expression, the richness of the English language--with all the subtleties and nuances that have developed during its long history--is really something to appreciate.
I always find it interesting to see how things have come to be the way they are; how the world has reacted to the biggest and smallest events, the rippling and fizzling of the almost uncontrollable chaos of cause and effect. That's history. A duke is shot in Sarajevo, the proverbial camel's back breaks and suddenly we find ourselves engaged in a world war. The USSR launches the Sputnik space programme, spurring the USA to regain a technological lead by founding an agency which seeks to further the research of a nationwide network of radar systems; and now, nearly fifty years later, I'm on this thing called the internet inventing stories about skateboarding slugs and spacecustard with some weirdo on the other side of the Atlantic.
Wrapped around all these events in history great and small is language. Every modern language carries with it the weight of all the history it's been through, and yet it's the most immediate reflection of the world we currently live in: we're constantly introducing new words or changing the meanings of old ones to fit our purposes. Language changes or it stops being useful and, unless you deliberately preserve it, it dies out. Some words fall out of use, become obscure and fade away, but language is forever changing and expanding to stay alive and leaves us with some impressive banks of vocabulary to draw from whenever we decide we want to say or write something (assuming the recipient has a dictionary on hand).
When it comes to the size of vocabulary, the English language, in its various forms, is currently the richest, most diverse language there is. Why? Because we've absorbed so many others. Here are some of the 'landmarks' according to the timeline I've been given: in 436AD, the Romans withdraw from Britain leaving behind Latin. A few years later, the Anglo-Saxons arrive and bring with them the Germanic language, forming Old English. In 597 Latin then returns to Britain in the form of St Augustine and the Roman Catholic Church, and two hundred years later the Vikings pay a visit and give us some Norse. In 1066, the Normans invade and social changes are reflected through a rift in the language: those of higher class use grand and sophisticated French words like faeces, while German--and shit--becomes common and a bit vulgar. In 1204, King John loses his English territory in France and the French influence retreats.
Then when Britain decides it has quite finished being invaded, it sticks its colonial fingers abroad and taps the lexis of all its gains: in 1600, the East India Company establishes a trading post in India; seven years later, the first British Colony is established in Jamestown, Virginia (had it been different, the USA may today have been speaking French). In 1610, battles with Ireland reduce the influence of Gaelic; in 1745, the Battle of Culloden results in the Anglicisation of Scotland. The first convict transport ships arive in Australia in 1788. Britain abolishes slavery in 1837, blacks become lawfully equal citizens and the language is broadened. In 1845, the Great Potato Famine drives thousands of Irish immigrants to British and American shores. And so it continues, each event influencing and further expanding the language. Now there's the internet, with millions of people worldwide communicating with each other.
I'm probably being weird, but I find the thought of this pretty awe-inspiring. Most English-speaking people only ever use the smallest fraction of the language in their lives, enough as is practical. But here we are with all this wealth of language, and when people do explore it and utilise it and realise it as a powerful means of expression, the richness of the English language--with all the subtleties and nuances that have developed during its long history--is really something to appreciate.
Labels: i am the ramblemaster, language, starcustard
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Beans
CoA Chapter 6
I wonder if anyone remembers Beans from last year's trailer. Probably not.
In the dark and grim history of all things FMIT, beans have a somewhat ominous presence, having worked their way into the depths of my very consciousness and my every MSN conversation, etc, etc, and through their mischief caused incredible trouble and wonderful things also.
For example: did you know that a text message with the single word 'beans' triggered a set of events that would provide the basis for Jesnails Returns? Just ask Holly. She was so happy about it.
Mind you, everything to do with Jesnails and Chrisbot has such ridiculous origins that it could make you cry. But this is all Ella's fault. For she is Ella, and crazy. Crazier than me (she'll try to deny it, but that's just because she's crazy).
CoA Chapter 6 is full of nods to various things and people. Sometimes I can't help it. But, whateverbeans.
I wonder if anyone remembers Beans from last year's trailer. Probably not.
In the dark and grim history of all things FMIT, beans have a somewhat ominous presence, having worked their way into the depths of my very consciousness and my every MSN conversation, etc, etc, and through their mischief caused incredible trouble and wonderful things also.
For example: did you know that a text message with the single word 'beans' triggered a set of events that would provide the basis for Jesnails Returns? Just ask Holly. She was so happy about it.
Mind you, everything to do with Jesnails and Chrisbot has such ridiculous origins that it could make you cry. But this is all Ella's fault. For she is Ella, and crazy. Crazier than me (she'll try to deny it, but that's just because she's crazy).
CoA Chapter 6 is full of nods to various things and people. Sometimes I can't help it. But, whateverbeans.
Labels: boardfic, city of anarchy, jesnails, starcustard
Sunday, December 31, 2006
The Exodus
(Note: contains major Starcustard Chapter 8 spoilers.)
So, we have reached a fairly exciting point in Starcustard. If we were to split the story up into acts, this would be the end of Act One.
And now, an announcement. Due to some pretty major lifestuff that will be occuring relatively soon, I am sad to announce that this is now it for Starcustard for a couple of years. While we would probably have time to post another chapter, we both feel that this is an appropriate place to end it, for now. We hope that you've enjoyed the run so far, and that you'll still want to find out what happens next when it returns. Thanks for all those who've ever commented or suggested music tracks since we started, and thanks for reading.
Other than that, there's nothing left to do but to wish you a happy new year. I hope 2007 proves to be a good one for you.
1st July, 2004.
Chris: would you be interested in ever doing a collaborative story?
Amelia: ooh... with you, you mean?
Chris: yeah
Amelia: quite interested. that would be fun. i can just imagine the insanity...
Amelia: what would it be about?
Chris: heh
Chris: dunno yet
Chris: we could think of something
Amelia: goats.
Amelia: .... or .... anything.
So, we have reached a fairly exciting point in Starcustard. If we were to split the story up into acts, this would be the end of Act One.
And now, an announcement. Due to some pretty major lifestuff that will be occuring relatively soon, I am sad to announce that this is now it for Starcustard for a couple of years. While we would probably have time to post another chapter, we both feel that this is an appropriate place to end it, for now. We hope that you've enjoyed the run so far, and that you'll still want to find out what happens next when it returns. Thanks for all those who've ever commented or suggested music tracks since we started, and thanks for reading.
Other than that, there's nothing left to do but to wish you a happy new year. I hope 2007 proves to be a good one for you.
Labels: alien conversations, starcustard
Saturday, December 02, 2006
Cuisino Royale
Rather brilliantly manipulated from the original by Amelia.
There is lots of stuff I want to talk about regarding this chapter. There's also lots I can't talk about just yet. I don't want to ruin things. But, as far as the stuff I can talk about goes, a good place to start would perhaps be with custard.
The custard fight is an idea we had very early on. Curiously enough, it was originally going to be some kind of pillow fight. Then later we decided on pirates when it started to look like pillow fights would, unfortunately, not be an option.
We approached writing the café sequence slightly differently to how we normally do. Usually we each work on different threads of the story, and most of the time this a better way of doing it because it gives us both more space to explore our own ideas, but for this sequence in this chapter we tried the old method of writing a bit and passing it to the other person, who then writes a bit and passes it back and so on, both editing it as we went along. Although there was some petulance from both parties over various points, I think for the most part it worked. It was fun to see in which direction it went and helped to add to the spontaneity of the sequence, especially with there being so much going on at the same time. It's definitely something we could try again.
As for 'Cuisino Royale', that actually started out as the title of an email I sent to Amelia containing the Stat and Andromed kitchen scene, with 007 signifying, of course, Chapter 7, and then we realised that, what with the lengthy action sequence and custard fight and all, the name was becoming more and more appropriate. So we've used it as a selling point.
For a long time the pirates and the custard fight were just 'a thing to happen next'. But since July, we started making sudden and extreme progress in deciding where the plot was going, and this soon gave way to something much, much bigger. These past few months, the progress we've made can only be described as it is on Amelia's website:
the most intense starcustard chapters yet... { in deeper than we thought }
The first big story arc, as you might have started to notice with the fade-in/fade-out sequence at the start of this chapter, is coming to an end. Although we've always had some very vague idea of future points in the story since we started it, the story (or stories) we've been following so far have for a long time been the only thing we've had. But what we now have planned is so much bigger than anything yet, and even what we had as those vague future points have been swallowed up by the avalanche of ideas that we've both suddenly found ourselves in. And so have the pirates.
There is, like I said, lots I want to talk about. But I can't. And although we've almost been breaking our brains trying to sort it all out, much to our amazement, I think we sort of have. And it's been hard for me to contain my excitement, feeling fully the need to talk about it like it is the biggest thing ever to happen. Starcustard, we feel, is now on the brink of something massive.
Labels: pirates, starcustard
Friday, October 13, 2006
Some Good, Old Fashioned Silliness
Back all those many years ago in 2003 when I decided 'I want to write humour', it quickly developed into a marathon of ridiculousness, which escalated millionfold. Funny equalled absurd. Overarching plot was not a main concern.
These days, it's no longer a case of 'I want to write humour'. It's back to, 'I want to write a good story', in which, when I can manage it, humour in whatever form (be it through parody, satire, irony, surreality or whatever) is just another layer in the whole thing. Sure, the end product could have any one of those things (and that whole period of seeking to write in that way definitely made a lasting impression on my whole writing style), but they're not ends I specifically aim for.
Some of my older online stuff (i.e. pre-FMIT) really was just me being as weird, surreal or downright silly as I could get it. The best example of this is most definitely the collaborative effort Agaffa, which had a minimal plot that was really quite hard to follow, and chronicled the exploits of two pretty horrific characters with other things happening mostly as vague background noise. Although Cholesterol the fat, talking monkey will forever have a place in my heart. And then there's The Manifesting Surreal, the previous incarnation of the current Aberration, the premise of which was quite simply as the name suggests: things got weirder and weirder until everything started to fall apart.
These days, as I said before, it's a little bit different. A greater focus on story (or at least on more tangible ideas rather than just a load of random stuff thrown together) has also meant that, in an unintentional sort of way, the stories are slightly more... grounded. Probably just as surreal and odd, but in a less overtly and forcefully outrageous way.
Over the years, The Aberration has changed. Starcustard started out with a tongue-in-cheek feel to it that is still evident, but turned out quite different to anything we would have expected. City of Anarchy is still weird, but the focus is now what has grown into a fairly complex plot.
But, see, now there's Jesnails. Which will be parody, satire, surreality, irony, absurdity and, quite frankly, as much crazy stuff as the concept allows while still being coherent enough not to fall apart. We would be lying if we said we weren't, at this point, here to present the profoundly silly, freakish and bizarre in the most flamboyant and shameless way possible.
So it's all very well for me to say that I've moved on from all that silliness, and I can talk about big concepts, ideas, themes and thoughts until the cows return from their trip to the moon, but really I haven't moved away from it at all. Jesnails is a refreshing reminder of that. And it is something still present in everything I do, reminding me never to take things too seriously, because some things just aren't worth taking seriously.
Jesnails 1875, Part I.
These days, it's no longer a case of 'I want to write humour'. It's back to, 'I want to write a good story', in which, when I can manage it, humour in whatever form (be it through parody, satire, irony, surreality or whatever) is just another layer in the whole thing. Sure, the end product could have any one of those things (and that whole period of seeking to write in that way definitely made a lasting impression on my whole writing style), but they're not ends I specifically aim for.
Some of my older online stuff (i.e. pre-FMIT) really was just me being as weird, surreal or downright silly as I could get it. The best example of this is most definitely the collaborative effort Agaffa, which had a minimal plot that was really quite hard to follow, and chronicled the exploits of two pretty horrific characters with other things happening mostly as vague background noise. Although Cholesterol the fat, talking monkey will forever have a place in my heart. And then there's The Manifesting Surreal, the previous incarnation of the current Aberration, the premise of which was quite simply as the name suggests: things got weirder and weirder until everything started to fall apart.
These days, as I said before, it's a little bit different. A greater focus on story (or at least on more tangible ideas rather than just a load of random stuff thrown together) has also meant that, in an unintentional sort of way, the stories are slightly more... grounded. Probably just as surreal and odd, but in a less overtly and forcefully outrageous way.
Over the years, The Aberration has changed. Starcustard started out with a tongue-in-cheek feel to it that is still evident, but turned out quite different to anything we would have expected. City of Anarchy is still weird, but the focus is now what has grown into a fairly complex plot.
But, see, now there's Jesnails. Which will be parody, satire, surreality, irony, absurdity and, quite frankly, as much crazy stuff as the concept allows while still being coherent enough not to fall apart. We would be lying if we said we weren't, at this point, here to present the profoundly silly, freakish and bizarre in the most flamboyant and shameless way possible.
So it's all very well for me to say that I've moved on from all that silliness, and I can talk about big concepts, ideas, themes and thoughts until the cows return from their trip to the moon, but really I haven't moved away from it at all. Jesnails is a refreshing reminder of that. And it is something still present in everything I do, reminding me never to take things too seriously, because some things just aren't worth taking seriously.
Jesnails 1875, Part I.
Labels: agaffa, city of anarchy, i am the ramblemaster, jesnails, starcustard, the aberration
Friday, July 21, 2006
Freakshow
So, dragons.
Dragons like to do everything on a grand scale. Flamboyant, ambitious and perhaps a tad egotistical, they love to be the centre of attention. Or so it is according to the Chinese zodiac.
One day I'm going to create my own zodiac, probably, and those born on the exact date and the exact time as myself, with the same name and characteristics, will be the great ones. But for now, I'll stick with what we have, and with that, I'm probably more in line with my supposed Western sign, Scorpio.
But I noticed an interesting thing about dragons.
And, inevitably, it's to do with writing.
To come from a seemingly total otherdirection: why do I write?
No...that's too big a question for just yet. How do I write? Cinematically. This is something I've realised quite recently, especially during the bigger, more action-orientated events in a story. Even if it doesn't always turn out that way in the end, the approach is cinematic. I get an image in my mind's eye, sometimes a very specific image, literally looked at from a certain angle, and I try to put it into words. In City of Anarchy, there's Hermes being launched into the sky as a building explodes underneath him, for example; Chimaera in SciBoard Fiction forcing the snout of the shotgun into the top of the alien's head and firing; or vehicles being hurled into the air and thrown into buildings as the fat men in tweed pursue the Mini Cooper down the street in The Aberration.
But why do I write like this? To impress? To turn to the audience and go, 'Look what insane and spectacular stuff I can make happen!'
I think I'm guilty of this even more than I realise. I do tend, I'll admit, to get a bit carried away. When I first posted City of Anarchy I had people going 'Is this story going to give me nightmares?', and while I was staging a zombie versus pirate fight in SciBoard Resurrection, the climax of which was a hundred barrels of gunpowder and rum igniting and tearing the pirate ship apart, I was too busy having altogether too much fun with it to realise how over-the-top it was, and ended up having someone commenting, accompanied by a shocked-looking smiley, 'My dear God. Not afraid of spectacle, are you?'
So is that all it is? Spectacle? Am I some sort of literary showman, with trailers and posters and general enthusiasm, trying to gather an audience to witness this showcase, this freakshow, that I have brought before the public?
It's that dragon thing, in a way. Eccentricity and flamboyancy. Showing off. Being the centre of attention, which all writers love to be, even though some might pretend otherwise.
But then, while I'd be lying if I said I didn't take some delight in people responding with pop-eyed smilies when I present the absurd, the dark or the unusual, entertaining other people is actually a very small part of it. It's much more selfish than that. I do it to entertain myself.
Picture, if you will, a dark and eerily-lit laboratory. Its centrepiece is a large slab, upon which lies a dormant creature of freakish qualities; and somewhere to the right is I, the mad but nevertheless genius scientist, cackling maniacally and bringing down a giant lever with all my force. Impressive lightning effects ensue, and the monster becomes alive. I shriek with glee at that which I have created.
Enthusiasm, sometimes demented, is needed to bring ideas to life, whether it's being curious about or taking interest in some line of thought or image, or throwing yourself full-force into a concept or hypothetical world, either way exploring it and seeing what interesting things you can find.
This is why I write. This is what I love about writing. It can be figuring out a way of telling or presenting a story, through the way I use language and the way I construct different scenes and situations, or it can be examining what-if scenarios: what if there was a universe with giant slugs that wore wigs and slippers? What would happen if such an aspect of history was changed in this way? Fat men in tweed as seemingly inhuman, terrifying monsters...weird, eh?
Entertainment. Imagination. Perspective. Causality, history, humanity.
Exploring, experimenting, seeing what happens. Making something good out of it, and making something interesting.
Dragons like to do everything on a grand scale. Flamboyant, ambitious and perhaps a tad egotistical, they love to be the centre of attention. Or so it is according to the Chinese zodiac.
One day I'm going to create my own zodiac, probably, and those born on the exact date and the exact time as myself, with the same name and characteristics, will be the great ones. But for now, I'll stick with what we have, and with that, I'm probably more in line with my supposed Western sign, Scorpio.
But I noticed an interesting thing about dragons.
And, inevitably, it's to do with writing.
To come from a seemingly total otherdirection: why do I write?
No...that's too big a question for just yet. How do I write? Cinematically. This is something I've realised quite recently, especially during the bigger, more action-orientated events in a story. Even if it doesn't always turn out that way in the end, the approach is cinematic. I get an image in my mind's eye, sometimes a very specific image, literally looked at from a certain angle, and I try to put it into words. In City of Anarchy, there's Hermes being launched into the sky as a building explodes underneath him, for example; Chimaera in SciBoard Fiction forcing the snout of the shotgun into the top of the alien's head and firing; or vehicles being hurled into the air and thrown into buildings as the fat men in tweed pursue the Mini Cooper down the street in The Aberration.
But why do I write like this? To impress? To turn to the audience and go, 'Look what insane and spectacular stuff I can make happen!'
'Woah,' said the detective.
I think I'm guilty of this even more than I realise. I do tend, I'll admit, to get a bit carried away. When I first posted City of Anarchy I had people going 'Is this story going to give me nightmares?', and while I was staging a zombie versus pirate fight in SciBoard Resurrection, the climax of which was a hundred barrels of gunpowder and rum igniting and tearing the pirate ship apart, I was too busy having altogether too much fun with it to realise how over-the-top it was, and ended up having someone commenting, accompanied by a shocked-looking smiley, 'My dear God. Not afraid of spectacle, are you?'
So is that all it is? Spectacle? Am I some sort of literary showman, with trailers and posters and general enthusiasm, trying to gather an audience to witness this showcase, this freakshow, that I have brought before the public?
It's that dragon thing, in a way. Eccentricity and flamboyancy. Showing off. Being the centre of attention, which all writers love to be, even though some might pretend otherwise.
But then, while I'd be lying if I said I didn't take some delight in people responding with pop-eyed smilies when I present the absurd, the dark or the unusual, entertaining other people is actually a very small part of it. It's much more selfish than that. I do it to entertain myself.
Picture, if you will, a dark and eerily-lit laboratory. Its centrepiece is a large slab, upon which lies a dormant creature of freakish qualities; and somewhere to the right is I, the mad but nevertheless genius scientist, cackling maniacally and bringing down a giant lever with all my force. Impressive lightning effects ensue, and the monster becomes alive. I shriek with glee at that which I have created.
Enthusiasm, sometimes demented, is needed to bring ideas to life, whether it's being curious about or taking interest in some line of thought or image, or throwing yourself full-force into a concept or hypothetical world, either way exploring it and seeing what interesting things you can find.
This is why I write. This is what I love about writing. It can be figuring out a way of telling or presenting a story, through the way I use language and the way I construct different scenes and situations, or it can be examining what-if scenarios: what if there was a universe with giant slugs that wore wigs and slippers? What would happen if such an aspect of history was changed in this way? Fat men in tweed as seemingly inhuman, terrifying monsters...weird, eh?
Entertainment. Imagination. Perspective. Causality, history, humanity.
Exploring, experimenting, seeing what happens. Making something good out of it, and making something interesting.
Labels: boardfic, city of anarchy, excerpts, fat men in tweed, i am the ramblemaster, starcustard, the aberration
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Irregular As Clockwork
Back in February, Amelia and I went through all the old Starcustard chapters, most thoroughly the first, and picked out and changed lots of bits with awkward syntax or phrasing (admittedly, they were mostly mine), so it was all nice and improved for the FMIT launch.
However, writing Chapter 6 these past few weeks, we've found we've had to go back again and take out or change a few more things, only this time for different reasons.
There are ideas that don't seem to fit so well now that we've defined the Starcustard universe a bit better. For example, we got rid of teleporting, which was briefly mentioned in a quick description of the slavekid card catalogue, because that makes things too easy.
There are also things that, in the context of the chapter, are so minor that they've merely been mentioned in passing, but that could potentially lead to some pretty sloppy plotholes if we don't see to them. The example of this that we found this time round we did actually try to sort out in Chapter 6, only to find out that the idea just didn't work, so we had to cut it out completely.
And then there was a single word we had to get rid of because we'd used it when we had a much vaguer idea of where that aspect of the story was going. While working on the sixth chapter, we had a long, deep conversation about where the story is going way beyond where it's at now and more than we ever have before, ranging from doctors to darkness and wide story arcs. And so we've had to go back and change this one little word, now that we have a clearer picture.
They were all very minor changes in the context of the chapters we've published so far, but all of them could have caused problems or huge differences as the story advanced. That's one of the main features of a system where each chapter is published when it's finished and you don't know where everything goes next. You have to constantly go back and edit what people have already read. If you're lucky, this is just minor things.
But then sometimes it isn't. I think there are few stories that have undergone as many drafts, redrafts and recreations as The Aberration. After their 'final' redraft for the FMIT launch a few months ago, I was supposed to leave those first few chapters alone for good. However, this week, as well as the usual syntax proofreading and some almost invisible minor changes, I've gone back and made more slightly bigger changes.
Minor TA spoilers follow.
The first isn't especially exciting, but here it is just so you don't have to go back and read it all again. The type of metal Beef encounters, which started off as copper-coloured, then went to shiny and silver when I posted it online, and then to green, is now back to copper-coloured. These changes happened for various reasons that I can't really go into as I kept changing my mind about things, but now (I think) I'm finally settled on it.
The second is the addition of the strange clock as the object they find inside the porcelain woman. For the past few months it's been a boring, bleeping sort of object that has mostly just been there as a more credible replacement for the note that they find in the old Kommingle version of the story. I just thought the clock would be more interesting. If you want, you can go and read Chapter 2 to see its new ending.
Hopefully, I can leave those chapters alone now. Poor things. But, you never know.
You can expect an extended Chapter 5, though. That'll be posted along with the new chapter in the not-so-distant future.
Before that, however: City of Anarchy.
(And yes, I've been going through that, too.)
One final note, harking back to the beginning of this post: Starcustard has a new opening track! As grateful as we are to friend Lonkey for coming up with Fleetwood Mac's Albatross at the last minute almost two years ago, we've decided it didn't sit quite right as the opening track (and also I personally now loathe it after all those M&S Food adverts), and replaced it with... Mystery, by Kelley Stoltz (some guy Melia found).
However, writing Chapter 6 these past few weeks, we've found we've had to go back again and take out or change a few more things, only this time for different reasons.
There are ideas that don't seem to fit so well now that we've defined the Starcustard universe a bit better. For example, we got rid of teleporting, which was briefly mentioned in a quick description of the slavekid card catalogue, because that makes things too easy.
There are also things that, in the context of the chapter, are so minor that they've merely been mentioned in passing, but that could potentially lead to some pretty sloppy plotholes if we don't see to them. The example of this that we found this time round we did actually try to sort out in Chapter 6, only to find out that the idea just didn't work, so we had to cut it out completely.
And then there was a single word we had to get rid of because we'd used it when we had a much vaguer idea of where that aspect of the story was going. While working on the sixth chapter, we had a long, deep conversation about where the story is going way beyond where it's at now and more than we ever have before, ranging from doctors to darkness and wide story arcs. And so we've had to go back and change this one little word, now that we have a clearer picture.
They were all very minor changes in the context of the chapters we've published so far, but all of them could have caused problems or huge differences as the story advanced. That's one of the main features of a system where each chapter is published when it's finished and you don't know where everything goes next. You have to constantly go back and edit what people have already read. If you're lucky, this is just minor things.
But then sometimes it isn't. I think there are few stories that have undergone as many drafts, redrafts and recreations as The Aberration. After their 'final' redraft for the FMIT launch a few months ago, I was supposed to leave those first few chapters alone for good. However, this week, as well as the usual syntax proofreading and some almost invisible minor changes, I've gone back and made more slightly bigger changes.
Minor TA spoilers follow.
The first isn't especially exciting, but here it is just so you don't have to go back and read it all again. The type of metal Beef encounters, which started off as copper-coloured, then went to shiny and silver when I posted it online, and then to green, is now back to copper-coloured. These changes happened for various reasons that I can't really go into as I kept changing my mind about things, but now (I think) I'm finally settled on it.
The second is the addition of the strange clock as the object they find inside the porcelain woman. For the past few months it's been a boring, bleeping sort of object that has mostly just been there as a more credible replacement for the note that they find in the old Kommingle version of the story. I just thought the clock would be more interesting. If you want, you can go and read Chapter 2 to see its new ending.
Hopefully, I can leave those chapters alone now. Poor things. But, you never know.
You can expect an extended Chapter 5, though. That'll be posted along with the new chapter in the not-so-distant future.
Before that, however: City of Anarchy.
(And yes, I've been going through that, too.)
One final note, harking back to the beginning of this post: Starcustard has a new opening track! As grateful as we are to friend Lonkey for coming up with Fleetwood Mac's Albatross at the last minute almost two years ago, we've decided it didn't sit quite right as the opening track (and also I personally now loathe it after all those M&S Food adverts), and replaced it with... Mystery, by Kelley Stoltz (some guy Melia found).
Labels: city of anarchy, starcustard, the aberration
Saturday, July 01, 2006
Spaceturns
Lots of things seem to be happening this weekend. It's 4th July weekend on the other side of the Atlantic. Over here, people are waiting for England's World Cup quarter-final match against Portugal. Tonight is the first half of the much-anticipated two-part season finale of Doctor Who. And the new Muse album arrived on my doorstep this morning a lovely two days early.
But let's not forget the most important thing about today. Today marks the second anniversary of Starcustard, this space opera sort of thing I've been doing with this girl called Amelia. And so we decided that maybe today would be a good time to, you know, post the next chapter. Because we're cool like that.
We hope you enjoy. :)
But let's not forget the most important thing about today. Today marks the second anniversary of Starcustard, this space opera sort of thing I've been doing with this girl called Amelia. And so we decided that maybe today would be a good time to, you know, post the next chapter. Because we're cool like that.
plaid says:
six chapters in two years.
plaid says:
holy cow.
Chris says:
heh
plaid says:
we are lazy.
Chris says:
it's like cheese, dood. it takes a while to mature.
plaid says:
ew.
plaid says:
no cheese metaphors
Chris says:
aw
We hope you enjoy. :)
Labels: alien conversations, starcustard
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
SC6 On Its Way
'Make haste, my most innocent and victimised children,' growled Organza. 'We have much vindication to inflict!'
She slithered massively up the steps, her flab moulding to them and providing a smooth ride. Her restless offspring followed in her immediate wake. She hummed a horrific tune, a collision of several pianos filled with trumpets, barely concealing her excitement.
Starcustard Chapter 6. Saturday 1st July.
Labels: excerpts, starcustard
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Status Report!
The stalled traffic allowed Sofia and the Agents to run across with ease, one or two of them even taking the opportunity to throw up their legs and slide stylishly across car bonnets.
'And once again the Agents proceed with their task with startling appreciation for aesthetics!' Sofia said, already some way ahead.
So, I started City of Anarchy Chapter 4. Two weeks ago. I haven't written any more since, but I have plenty of valid academic excuses for that.
Amelia's been doing bits and pieces of the next Starcustard chapter. I haven't done any yet, but: fear not! I will.
Before any of that, however, I will be working on The Aberration. For the next chapter, I'll be introducing some stuff that I've had in my head for so long I'll have to blow the dust off before putting it to use. Be excited. Lots will be happening.
Unfortunately, exams are a priority at the moment, and I probably won't be doing much else until they're over with.
One final note: no, the strange message on the front page isn't just me being weird again. Apply your brains to it, dudes. See what happens.
Labels: city of anarchy, excerpts, jesnails, starcustard, the aberration
Sunday, January 01, 2006
Welcome...to the Year of the Happening
An optimistic title maybe, but a good way to start things.
Almost a year in the making, it's about time Fat Man In Tweed got online. I know what I have to do, and now it's just a case of doing it.
The Aberration, City of Anarchy, Starcustard. That's it, now. That's the launchlist. No more changing it. No zombie games. Just those three things to work on. As well as any half-decent drawings I churn out along the way, although that's not going to be much.
I hope you all enjoyed Jesnails Returns, by the way. For about three weeks, since finishing my part of Starcustard Chapter 5, this project has received pretty much all my attention (apart from doing birthday art). It was something that was just going to be a quick, really short story that we could rattle off really easily, but then it grew and grew with all the insane ideas we had, and in this last week we've had to work pretty hard to get it done. I think it turned out good, though.
But after working on nothing else for weeks, it's such a feeling of accomplishment now that we've finished it. I'm wondering whether to do the same with the other things I now need to work on, instead of kind of flitting from one to the other. I think I get more done this way, and if you're working on this one thing non-stop, you can really get emersed in it.
But which to work on first?
Happy New Year, by the way.
Almost a year in the making, it's about time Fat Man In Tweed got online. I know what I have to do, and now it's just a case of doing it.
The Aberration, City of Anarchy, Starcustard. That's it, now. That's the launchlist. No more changing it. No zombie games. Just those three things to work on. As well as any half-decent drawings I churn out along the way, although that's not going to be much.
I hope you all enjoyed Jesnails Returns, by the way. For about three weeks, since finishing my part of Starcustard Chapter 5, this project has received pretty much all my attention (apart from doing birthday art). It was something that was just going to be a quick, really short story that we could rattle off really easily, but then it grew and grew with all the insane ideas we had, and in this last week we've had to work pretty hard to get it done. I think it turned out good, though.
But after working on nothing else for weeks, it's such a feeling of accomplishment now that we've finished it. I'm wondering whether to do the same with the other things I now need to work on, instead of kind of flitting from one to the other. I think I get more done this way, and if you're working on this one thing non-stop, you can really get emersed in it.
But which to work on first?
Happy New Year, by the way.
Labels: jesnails, starcustard, the aberration, zombies
Monday, November 28, 2005
A Fragment of Passion
Chris says:
character depth!
Chris says:
our protagonist shall not be a mere vessel for the reader to witness our world
Chris says:
*triumphant pose*
plaid says:
mhm
character depth!
Chris says:
our protagonist shall not be a mere vessel for the reader to witness our world
Chris says:
*triumphant pose*
plaid says:
mhm
Labels: alien conversations, starcustard
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Arrival
I have the Hepthazard concept art open on the screen in front of me and I'm trying to put it into narrative in an interesting way, from the point of view of Gen, who's watching it as they approach. It's bloody difficult. I'm probably going to need help from that girl I'm writing this whole thing with, whatever her name was.
Also, can anyone think of a good synonym for 'cylinder'?
Also, can anyone think of a good synonym for 'cylinder'?
Labels: starcustard
Monday, November 14, 2005
SCENE 58. EXT. BLOG - NIGHT.
So, I went ahead and wrote my own sitcom episode. It's very short, so it's probably more of a sketch. I might post it if anyone's interested. I really like the script format, though. It's much quicker than regular prose. It's also strangely addictive. I'm now trying out making another coursework idea, already typed up as a short story, into a script. It isn't really the right type of story to translate directly (i.e. without making any changes to it), so I don't really know how it's going to turn out, but so far it's working quite well.
But it made me think... it'd be great to write a proper film script one day. To direct it too would be even better, only I know next to nothing about that.
Coming soon to this here blog...
Excerpts! Of previously unseen material! (See, I'm getting the hang of this film business already.) Agaffa, Starcustard, City of Anarchy and The Aberration!
And a few months ago I mentioned these ideas for a novel I've been having. More info on that is on its way.
But it made me think... it'd be great to write a proper film script one day. To direct it too would be even better, only I know next to nothing about that.
Coming soon to this here blog...
Excerpts! Of previously unseen material! (See, I'm getting the hang of this film business already.) Agaffa, Starcustard, City of Anarchy and The Aberration!
And a few months ago I mentioned these ideas for a novel I've been having. More info on that is on its way.
Labels: agaffa, city of anarchy, starcustard, the aberration
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Month the Eleventh
I got a very brief confirmation letter from the Athenaeum on Friday. Meh. That's probably the last I'll hear of it.
I told Avgi to remind me to get City of Anarchy Chapter 3 done by the end of last week. Thankfully, she appears to have forgotten. I have made some progress, though. I plan to make more sooner rather than later, but I really need to work on Starcustard and The Aberration.
I failed to complete everything in my October to-do list, which just goes to show that to-do lists are useless.
I told Avgi to remind me to get City of Anarchy Chapter 3 done by the end of last week. Thankfully, she appears to have forgotten. I have made some progress, though. I plan to make more sooner rather than later, but I really need to work on Starcustard and The Aberration.
I failed to complete everything in my October to-do list, which just goes to show that to-do lists are useless.
Labels: city of anarchy, starcustard, the aberration
Sunday, October 09, 2005
I'm On A Roll...
Right, a general where-things-are-at update for today...
The equivocal Project CAM is now moving foward at a good speed after a newsgroup was set up for the five of us to post ideas and sort things out, which seemed to get things going.
I also set up one for Gnome Milk. I still need to upload all the old versions of the first few chapters of Agaffa ready for drastic editing, and then everything will be in one handy place. Whether or not this will encourage any significant activity remains to be seen.
I've nearly finished the first part of Starcustard Chapter 5. (I'll get typed that up and send it to you during the week, Melia.) That means I'll be able to scribble out the first of my priorities for this month. Then I can get to work on The Aberration Chapter 2 and City of Anarchy Chapter 3. Woot.
The equivocal Project CAM is now moving foward at a good speed after a newsgroup was set up for the five of us to post ideas and sort things out, which seemed to get things going.
I also set up one for Gnome Milk. I still need to upload all the old versions of the first few chapters of Agaffa ready for drastic editing, and then everything will be in one handy place. Whether or not this will encourage any significant activity remains to be seen.
I've nearly finished the first part of Starcustard Chapter 5. (I'll get typed that up and send it to you during the week, Melia.) That means I'll be able to scribble out the first of my priorities for this month. Then I can get to work on The Aberration Chapter 2 and City of Anarchy Chapter 3. Woot.
Labels: agaffa, city of anarchy, project cam, starcustard, the aberration
Friday, September 30, 2005
Here Ends September
Things to do this October (starting with the biggest priorities):
- Finish the first bit of Starcustard Chapter 5.
- Make a proper start on the Chapter 2 rewrite of The Aberration.
- Get some ideas for Project CAM down in ink.
- Write City of Anarchy Chapter 3.
Labels: city of anarchy, project cam, starcustard, the aberration
Saturday, September 24, 2005
The Pie Exploded In The Microwave...
Lots of good stuff for you today (I was intending to get this posted on Friday, but... well, it's still Friday in Official Chris Time).
To start of with...
...some Starcustard concept art of Hepthazard, the spacestation. It is very, very big.
Amelia has also sent me some nice ideas for the Fat Man site design. We've discussed a few things and have come up with some neat stuff that will hopefully be possible, but we don't know yet.
Secondly, the first two chapters of City of Anarchy, with Chapter 2 being brand-spanking new. I know it's a little on the short side, but it's been a big last-minute rush to get everything finished for this update. I meant to get some of it done earlier on in the week, but after I've finished all my schoolwork, I'm always too tired to do anything else.
Now... this next thing is what this update is really all about. I've talked about it so very much, and now it's finally time for you to actually read the first bit of it.
I present to you... the NEW... The Aberration Chapter One: The Tramp.
All improved and refreshed. :) I think the old Kommingle version is still up if you feel like comparing the two.
DeviantArt will be where I post any updates of my independant projects until the site is launched.
And to finish off this rather spectacular update (by my standards, at least)... an announcement.
I will be teaming up with Holly Heuser, Michael Achtzehn, Sam Draxler and Amelia 'Aliens' Chesley to bring you the ambiguously named... Project CAM. All that remains to be said is: watch this space.
To start of with...
...some Starcustard concept art of Hepthazard, the spacestation. It is very, very big.
Amelia has also sent me some nice ideas for the Fat Man site design. We've discussed a few things and have come up with some neat stuff that will hopefully be possible, but we don't know yet.
Secondly, the first two chapters of City of Anarchy, with Chapter 2 being brand-spanking new. I know it's a little on the short side, but it's been a big last-minute rush to get everything finished for this update. I meant to get some of it done earlier on in the week, but after I've finished all my schoolwork, I'm always too tired to do anything else.
Now... this next thing is what this update is really all about. I've talked about it so very much, and now it's finally time for you to actually read the first bit of it.
I present to you... the NEW... The Aberration Chapter One: The Tramp.
All improved and refreshed. :) I think the old Kommingle version is still up if you feel like comparing the two.
DeviantArt will be where I post any updates of my independant projects until the site is launched.
And to finish off this rather spectacular update (by my standards, at least)... an announcement.
I will be teaming up with Holly Heuser, Michael Achtzehn, Sam Draxler and Amelia 'Aliens' Chesley to bring you the ambiguously named... Project CAM. All that remains to be said is: watch this space.
Labels: city of anarchy, project cam, sketches and doodles, starcustard, the aberration
Monday, September 12, 2005
Freefall
In English class today, we were asked what we thought was more important when it came to creating a good story: writing from experience, or what the teacher called 'freefall imagination'.
I think 'freefall imagination' certainly describes my personal style of writing better. When the teacher was trying to explain what she meant, she told us that science fiction books with their huge concepts and ideas would be an example of where freefall imagination was prominent. I guess it's science fiction of sorts that I write, but I don't think it's just that which makes it so freefall. I love completely crazy and insane concepts, especially when I can just about pull them off and still make an enjoyable story that's not too confusing. I like to create worlds and chains of events that are almost always on the brink of chaos, and I want the reader to feel like they've been grabbed by the collar and pulled in after me, to enjoy the plummet and to hit the end at full speed having not been able to stop, to take a moment to recover and think about what just happened, and then to say, 'Woah...'. Whether or not I'm actually successful at this is another matter. This is, though, definitely what I aim for.
The main argument for writing from experience being more important would probably be because it helps make your story more believable, and it can help give your characters depth. Freefall imagination is definitely what's needed when it comes to spaceslugs and cannibal drag queens, but maybe the crazy ideas I have for characters are based upon certain traits I've seen in people I've met in real life. There's no way you can create a truly interesting character with more than two dimensions without basing them on something you've encountered in a person you've met, seen or heard, even if the character has these aspects greatly exaggerated. And a good story does need interesting characters. The same goes with how believable situations you put your characters in are. And if you're going to give your story some moral or philosophical message... well, you're going to have to have lived your life and arrived at them yourself before you start dishing them out.
I think it depends on what kind of story you're writing. In my case, freefall imagination is extremely important, but I think writing from experience is equally as important, especially as I try to include a lot of humour, a lot of which comes from characters, as well as amusing concepts.
The life experience versus freefall can apply to other things, too. Like art (I've just been talking about it to Holly, and her art is definitely freefall).
Which would you say is more important for you?
I think 'freefall imagination' certainly describes my personal style of writing better. When the teacher was trying to explain what she meant, she told us that science fiction books with their huge concepts and ideas would be an example of where freefall imagination was prominent. I guess it's science fiction of sorts that I write, but I don't think it's just that which makes it so freefall. I love completely crazy and insane concepts, especially when I can just about pull them off and still make an enjoyable story that's not too confusing. I like to create worlds and chains of events that are almost always on the brink of chaos, and I want the reader to feel like they've been grabbed by the collar and pulled in after me, to enjoy the plummet and to hit the end at full speed having not been able to stop, to take a moment to recover and think about what just happened, and then to say, 'Woah...'. Whether or not I'm actually successful at this is another matter. This is, though, definitely what I aim for.
The main argument for writing from experience being more important would probably be because it helps make your story more believable, and it can help give your characters depth. Freefall imagination is definitely what's needed when it comes to spaceslugs and cannibal drag queens, but maybe the crazy ideas I have for characters are based upon certain traits I've seen in people I've met in real life. There's no way you can create a truly interesting character with more than two dimensions without basing them on something you've encountered in a person you've met, seen or heard, even if the character has these aspects greatly exaggerated. And a good story does need interesting characters. The same goes with how believable situations you put your characters in are. And if you're going to give your story some moral or philosophical message... well, you're going to have to have lived your life and arrived at them yourself before you start dishing them out.
I think it depends on what kind of story you're writing. In my case, freefall imagination is extremely important, but I think writing from experience is equally as important, especially as I try to include a lot of humour, a lot of which comes from characters, as well as amusing concepts.
The life experience versus freefall can apply to other things, too. Like art (I've just been talking about it to Holly, and her art is definitely freefall).
Which would you say is more important for you?
Labels: boardfic, starcustard
Monday, August 29, 2005
Quintilicious!
And so as we once again fall upon an odd-numbered chapter, it is my duty to begin it. And I shall. Today. Maybe.
Yep, Starcustard. Ye beware! the following contains spoilers for Chapter 4.
As Chapter 4 ended, the story began to split into several directions. Gen is on her way to Hepthazard where Gregarium and Tenua have to leave her with the doctor's friend Mel Marsh, because, as Gregarium said, 'I have important work to do some way from here. It's commission work. I'm afraid I can't take you with me.'
Meanwhile, the Captain, Andromed and the other slavekids have to decide what to do now that the two surviving slug-filled pods are on their way to get help from the Authorities, their attempt to stop them having failed.
Escaped from the chaos of Organza's ship, things calmed down a bit for Gen in Chapters 3 and 4. Chapter 5 is where the pace starts to pick up again.
Yep, Starcustard. Ye beware! the following contains spoilers for Chapter 4.
As Chapter 4 ended, the story began to split into several directions. Gen is on her way to Hepthazard where Gregarium and Tenua have to leave her with the doctor's friend Mel Marsh, because, as Gregarium said, 'I have important work to do some way from here. It's commission work. I'm afraid I can't take you with me.'
Meanwhile, the Captain, Andromed and the other slavekids have to decide what to do now that the two surviving slug-filled pods are on their way to get help from the Authorities, their attempt to stop them having failed.
Escaped from the chaos of Organza's ship, things calmed down a bit for Gen in Chapters 3 and 4. Chapter 5 is where the pace starts to pick up again.
Labels: starcustard
Saturday, August 20, 2005
Trailer
A flock of spacesheep waded through the weightless atmosphere, free and wild.
* * *
IT ALWAYS HAPPENS... WHEN LIFE IS AT ITS MOST NORMALEST...
* * *
Miss Darley sat at her desk, scanning for things to whinge about. A small pile of envelopes caught her attention. 'Ooh, fan mail!' she exclaimed, grabbing the topmost envelope. Using a diamond-encrusted letter opener, for no good reason as it would be just as easy to rip it, she tore it open.
A small, brightly coloured letter fell to the desk. 'YOU'RE OUR ONE MILLIONTH CUSTOMER!!!' it read.
Tears began to swim past Miss Darley's eyes. She decided to try again.
* * *
Winnie was currently driving as slowly as her car would allow her to without stopping altogether. The traffic behind her was starting to build up and, judging by the honking horns, was also becoming quite frustrated.
She decided that she was much too elderly to notice this, and continued to happily crawl along, positioning herself carefully so that any overtaking would be an extremely difficult task.
* * *
Shaking her head, Organza smiled a hideous smile at her husband and replied, 'You like it disgracefully untidy and you know it.'
He grunted and after a moment, said, 'What is the kid good for, eh?' Gen appeared in the doorway at that moment, standing unhappily, watching her stepparents. 'What is the kid good for,' her stepfather repeated, more loudly, 'if we can't order her pointlessly around? Eh, honey? Water the plants, Hydie. And then mop the ceilings. All of them.'
Gen looked around the room and thought to herself, they are fake plants.
* * *
SOMETHING HAPPENS WHICH NOBODY EXPECTS...
* * *
'Er...is this Miss Darley?'
The addressed woman took her turn to snort. 'Of course, for this is my phone!'
'People with money and brains hire secretaries,' mumbled Agaffa.
Miss Darley ignored her.
The caller respoke, after being momentarily confused by the argument. 'Um... I was wondering... would you be interested in obtaining... the Elixir of Life?'
* * *
Gen was clutching at the railings on the left, gazing down at the struggling mass below that was apparently her stepfather. She gasped.
He was spinning madly around, swinging his great tail dangerously and flailing his pathetic, tiny, useless little arms. Two slaveboys clung to his thick skin, tugging and tearing viciously at it, and at his sticky clumps and clusters of hair, pulling it out. Fluorescent green, viscous liquid oozed from his layered folds of fat. He was bleeding.
The slaveboys looked crazed, insane. Their eyes were wide and bloodshot, their teeth bared. Gen could tell that they were extremely tense just by looking at them: their muscles were stiffened, the veins in their small temples bulged, their hands extended like claws.
* * *
'Behold,' mumbled Phil, vaguely.
'Aren't shadows fun?' said Beef conversationally, as some more gum hitchhiked his fur. 'I can do the rabbit thing. Y'know, with the ears...' He made a strange gesture with his arms in an attempt to clarify his point, and promptly collapsed face down onto the ground again.
'Behold,' insisted Phil.
Beef finally managed to get himself up, relying heavily on the support of a wall. He squinted and fancied he saw something looking out from the darkness at him.
'Rahahahaha!' declared Phil, waving his arms about madly.
* * *
AND BEFORE YOU KNOW IT...
* * *
The porcelain girl fell from their grasp and slid down the roof, grating nastily against the tiles. As the two men flung themselves in the direction she travelled, somehow still on top of each other, they too rolled down not far behind, struggling madly to get a hold of something. They left the roof...
* * *
...THINGS... WELL...
* * *
The dark, grey sky cracked with streaks of yellow light and rain fell. The great balloon that was the dirigible stood as a tall, haunting silhouette against the clouds.
It was all very dramatic.
Miss Darley appeared on the scene. Still in her silk pyjamas and tired (because it isn't clever to have adventures at midnight), she plodded towards her vehicle of escape.
* * *
'Look out!' someone shouted. Slavekids rarely spoke, and Gen had never heard any of them shout before. Her companion ducked and pulled her down with him. She turned her head to see one of her stepsiblings trying to skateboard up the curved wall of the corridor, perhaps in an attempt to overtake the rushing slavekids. It wasn't working.
* * *
...GET A BIT OUT OF CONTROL.
* * *
'Emby, these men are ruining my house,' said Winnie, as Beef re-entered the room. 'I'd like you to do something about it.'
Beef rushed over to the original intruder and began to poke his flab with a fork. After the third or fourth stab, it stayed there, moving around a little before being dragged inwards and disappearing altogether.
'That didn't work,' said Beef. 'We may have to try something else.'
* * *
The Captain, simultaneously trying to steer, slammed his fist down on a fluorescent green button. For a moment, the lights on the ship dimmed, flickered and then restored. There was a jolt as energy surged across the surface of the ship.
* * *
'Ah, monkeys,' said Miss Darley. She stepped smartly forth. 'Which one of you is the one I spoke to on the phone?'
'Seize them!' hissed Kadaverus.
'Aaah,' cried Agaffa. 'It's a trap! It's all been a terrible trap! We were lured here so they could cook us over a spit and then eat us alive!'
'How would we still be alive after they've cooked us over a spit?'
'Mysterious are the workings of the evil,' said Agaffa, darkly.
* * *
There were about eight of them now, and they tumbled and swept through the street like a tweed tidal wave. Lampposts snapped under their weight. One of them planted a foot directly on top of a car. The metal body strained under the pressure, and the entire vehicle bent in two, folding up like a deck chair.
* * *
Stat entered the cockpit. 'This is mad,' she told them, having figured out what they were going to do.
''Course it is,' said the Captain. 'You're all mad. Mad, crazy and insane also.'
* * *
'Oh my f-'
* * *
FATMANINTWEED.COM. COMING TO YOUR SCREENS AT SOME POINT IN THE DISTANT FUTURE.
* * *
'Whorebag!'
IT ALWAYS HAPPENS... WHEN LIFE IS AT ITS MOST NORMALEST...
Miss Darley sat at her desk, scanning for things to whinge about. A small pile of envelopes caught her attention. 'Ooh, fan mail!' she exclaimed, grabbing the topmost envelope. Using a diamond-encrusted letter opener, for no good reason as it would be just as easy to rip it, she tore it open.
A small, brightly coloured letter fell to the desk. 'YOU'RE OUR ONE MILLIONTH CUSTOMER!!!' it read.
Tears began to swim past Miss Darley's eyes. She decided to try again.
Winnie was currently driving as slowly as her car would allow her to without stopping altogether. The traffic behind her was starting to build up and, judging by the honking horns, was also becoming quite frustrated.
She decided that she was much too elderly to notice this, and continued to happily crawl along, positioning herself carefully so that any overtaking would be an extremely difficult task.
Shaking her head, Organza smiled a hideous smile at her husband and replied, 'You like it disgracefully untidy and you know it.'
He grunted and after a moment, said, 'What is the kid good for, eh?' Gen appeared in the doorway at that moment, standing unhappily, watching her stepparents. 'What is the kid good for,' her stepfather repeated, more loudly, 'if we can't order her pointlessly around? Eh, honey? Water the plants, Hydie. And then mop the ceilings. All of them.'
Gen looked around the room and thought to herself, they are fake plants.
SOMETHING HAPPENS WHICH NOBODY EXPECTS...
'Er...is this Miss Darley?'
The addressed woman took her turn to snort. 'Of course, for this is my phone!'
'People with money and brains hire secretaries,' mumbled Agaffa.
Miss Darley ignored her.
The caller respoke, after being momentarily confused by the argument. 'Um... I was wondering... would you be interested in obtaining... the Elixir of Life?'
Gen was clutching at the railings on the left, gazing down at the struggling mass below that was apparently her stepfather. She gasped.
He was spinning madly around, swinging his great tail dangerously and flailing his pathetic, tiny, useless little arms. Two slaveboys clung to his thick skin, tugging and tearing viciously at it, and at his sticky clumps and clusters of hair, pulling it out. Fluorescent green, viscous liquid oozed from his layered folds of fat. He was bleeding.
The slaveboys looked crazed, insane. Their eyes were wide and bloodshot, their teeth bared. Gen could tell that they were extremely tense just by looking at them: their muscles were stiffened, the veins in their small temples bulged, their hands extended like claws.
'Behold,' mumbled Phil, vaguely.
'Aren't shadows fun?' said Beef conversationally, as some more gum hitchhiked his fur. 'I can do the rabbit thing. Y'know, with the ears...' He made a strange gesture with his arms in an attempt to clarify his point, and promptly collapsed face down onto the ground again.
'Behold,' insisted Phil.
Beef finally managed to get himself up, relying heavily on the support of a wall. He squinted and fancied he saw something looking out from the darkness at him.
'Rahahahaha!' declared Phil, waving his arms about madly.
AND BEFORE YOU KNOW IT...
The porcelain girl fell from their grasp and slid down the roof, grating nastily against the tiles. As the two men flung themselves in the direction she travelled, somehow still on top of each other, they too rolled down not far behind, struggling madly to get a hold of something. They left the roof...
...THINGS... WELL...
The dark, grey sky cracked with streaks of yellow light and rain fell. The great balloon that was the dirigible stood as a tall, haunting silhouette against the clouds.
It was all very dramatic.
Miss Darley appeared on the scene. Still in her silk pyjamas and tired (because it isn't clever to have adventures at midnight), she plodded towards her vehicle of escape.
'Look out!' someone shouted. Slavekids rarely spoke, and Gen had never heard any of them shout before. Her companion ducked and pulled her down with him. She turned her head to see one of her stepsiblings trying to skateboard up the curved wall of the corridor, perhaps in an attempt to overtake the rushing slavekids. It wasn't working.
...GET A BIT OUT OF CONTROL.
'Emby, these men are ruining my house,' said Winnie, as Beef re-entered the room. 'I'd like you to do something about it.'
Beef rushed over to the original intruder and began to poke his flab with a fork. After the third or fourth stab, it stayed there, moving around a little before being dragged inwards and disappearing altogether.
'That didn't work,' said Beef. 'We may have to try something else.'
The Captain, simultaneously trying to steer, slammed his fist down on a fluorescent green button. For a moment, the lights on the ship dimmed, flickered and then restored. There was a jolt as energy surged across the surface of the ship.
'Ah, monkeys,' said Miss Darley. She stepped smartly forth. 'Which one of you is the one I spoke to on the phone?'
'Seize them!' hissed Kadaverus.
'Aaah,' cried Agaffa. 'It's a trap! It's all been a terrible trap! We were lured here so they could cook us over a spit and then eat us alive!'
'How would we still be alive after they've cooked us over a spit?'
'Mysterious are the workings of the evil,' said Agaffa, darkly.
There were about eight of them now, and they tumbled and swept through the street like a tweed tidal wave. Lampposts snapped under their weight. One of them planted a foot directly on top of a car. The metal body strained under the pressure, and the entire vehicle bent in two, folding up like a deck chair.
Stat entered the cockpit. 'This is mad,' she told them, having figured out what they were going to do.
''Course it is,' said the Captain. 'You're all mad. Mad, crazy and insane also.'
'Oh my f-'
FATMANINTWEED.COM. COMING TO YOUR SCREENS AT SOME POINT IN THE DISTANT FUTURE.
'Whorebag!'
Labels: agaffa, excerpts, starcustard, the aberration
Friday, August 19, 2005
Bother and Blast
I'll start this entry with a bit of a mystery. Even though I've checked my AOL email preferences over and over again to try and make sure that it doesn't happen, every once in a while, the emails that are automatically 'saved on my PC' disappear. At first I thought it might be something AOL did every few weeks for some reason or another, but checking the main family account, this hasn't happened there.
As a result, I've started sending any emails I don't want disappearing to a Gmail account. I thought I'd done this with Agaffa Chapters 6 and 7, but it turns out I'd only done it with the latter. I asked Olli if he could sent me Chapter 6 yet again, but apparently he doesn't have it anymore either.
Shit.
I started a frantic search through every single folder in my account hoping to find it, which gave me nothing, and then I tried looking for anything of the chapter in my entire harddrive. All I got from that was a paragraph on Emporer Pseudonym's exercise machine. It looked like we were going to have to write most of the chapter again.
Thinking it would just be in vain, I then started to look through the computer's AOL files, looking for some kind of back-up. I found the files that manage emails. The relevant one didn't appear to have a filetype, so I tried opening it with Notepad. It was mostly just unreadable code, possibly encrypted or in a language only AOL could read, or probably just random characters because you're not really supposed to try and open it as a text document, but occasionally there were dates, email addresses and subject titles visible. I realised that some of these were emails that had disappeared from the 'saved on my PC' folder. Unfortunately, most of them didn't display the contents in anything other than the unintelligable code, but I looked for any Agaffa-related emails anyway.
To my surprise, I found parts of previous chapters of Agaffa, from when we'd done email relays (write a bit, send it, other person writes a bit, sends it back, etc) in readable text, even if it was often filled with HTML tags. I don't know why only these few emails weren't unreadable... there were also some early drafts of Starcustard and some other emails that were prepared in Word, so that might be why. It took me a while to scroll down through the whole text looking for Chapter 6, with the previous chapters slowly building up to completion as I progressed, but eventually, luckily, I found it... or at least, most of it. It has all the emails for Chapter 6 and therefore all of that chapter, but the final few emails' contents are just code, which I have no idea how to convert into English.
I've been trying various things all day... trying to get it so I can view the email in the AOL email window, searching for a decoder on Google, and even trying out some frequency analysis (replacing the most common character with the most commonly used letter in the English language and working my way down to the least common from there, stupidly hoping that whatever encryption there is will be that simple), but that got boring after about ten minutes. It's all been a waste of time.
So, like I said, we have most of the chapter, which is lucky. We've lost roughly the last third of it, possibly less. Now I'm just trying to remember everything I can about it...
The moral of this story is: don't use AOL.
I think it's odd that I've been putting more effort into avoiding having to rewrite it than we'll now have to do actually rewriting it. Oh well.
As a result, I've started sending any emails I don't want disappearing to a Gmail account. I thought I'd done this with Agaffa Chapters 6 and 7, but it turns out I'd only done it with the latter. I asked Olli if he could sent me Chapter 6 yet again, but apparently he doesn't have it anymore either.
Shit.
I started a frantic search through every single folder in my account hoping to find it, which gave me nothing, and then I tried looking for anything of the chapter in my entire harddrive. All I got from that was a paragraph on Emporer Pseudonym's exercise machine. It looked like we were going to have to write most of the chapter again.
Thinking it would just be in vain, I then started to look through the computer's AOL files, looking for some kind of back-up. I found the files that manage emails. The relevant one didn't appear to have a filetype, so I tried opening it with Notepad. It was mostly just unreadable code, possibly encrypted or in a language only AOL could read, or probably just random characters because you're not really supposed to try and open it as a text document, but occasionally there were dates, email addresses and subject titles visible. I realised that some of these were emails that had disappeared from the 'saved on my PC' folder. Unfortunately, most of them didn't display the contents in anything other than the unintelligable code, but I looked for any Agaffa-related emails anyway.
To my surprise, I found parts of previous chapters of Agaffa, from when we'd done email relays (write a bit, send it, other person writes a bit, sends it back, etc) in readable text, even if it was often filled with HTML tags. I don't know why only these few emails weren't unreadable... there were also some early drafts of Starcustard and some other emails that were prepared in Word, so that might be why. It took me a while to scroll down through the whole text looking for Chapter 6, with the previous chapters slowly building up to completion as I progressed, but eventually, luckily, I found it... or at least, most of it. It has all the emails for Chapter 6 and therefore all of that chapter, but the final few emails' contents are just code, which I have no idea how to convert into English.
I've been trying various things all day... trying to get it so I can view the email in the AOL email window, searching for a decoder on Google, and even trying out some frequency analysis (replacing the most common character with the most commonly used letter in the English language and working my way down to the least common from there, stupidly hoping that whatever encryption there is will be that simple), but that got boring after about ten minutes. It's all been a waste of time.
So, like I said, we have most of the chapter, which is lucky. We've lost roughly the last third of it, possibly less. Now I'm just trying to remember everything I can about it...
The moral of this story is: don't use AOL.
I think it's odd that I've been putting more effort into avoiding having to rewrite it than we'll now have to do actually rewriting it. Oh well.
Labels: agaffa, starcustard, webtechnical
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Spacefish
It's finally here...
Now on the sparkly new temporary Starcustard blog: Chapter 4.
Enjoy.
Now on the sparkly new temporary Starcustard blog: Chapter 4.
Enjoy.
Labels: starcustard
Monday, July 11, 2005
Pregnant Pair
This was in the back of my German exercise book.
That was done just before the exams, at the peak time of exam stress. I think it would make a great animé series. The two action heroines have to fight the forces of evil with the added complication of pregnancy. One's serious and moody, while the other is chirpy and ditsy. The unlikely pair find themselves stuck together with this one thing in common. Drama and comedy ensue.
On a sidenote, Starcustard Chapter 4 is finally finished. It just needs to be soundtracked and polished up.
That was done just before the exams, at the peak time of exam stress. I think it would make a great animé series. The two action heroines have to fight the forces of evil with the added complication of pregnancy. One's serious and moody, while the other is chirpy and ditsy. The unlikely pair find themselves stuck together with this one thing in common. Drama and comedy ensue.
On a sidenote, Starcustard Chapter 4 is finally finished. It just needs to be soundtracked and polished up.
Labels: sketches and doodles, starcustard
Monday, July 04, 2005
First Impressions
The first part of City of Anarchy went online on Friday. I think those who read it liked it, but some responses were a little...bemusing.
One guy said, 'I like except for the bits with violence and pain. I kept having to close my eyes.' I don't understand how closing his eyes would have helped. How did he know when to open them again? Did 'YOU HAVE REACHED THE NEXT PARAGRAPH' flash across his eyelids?
Aside from that, I didn't think it was so...well, dark. Another person said, 'Is this story going to give me nightmares?' If people are seeing it this way, I think I'll just go with it, though I really can't see how they are.
Another guy told me, 'it reads like comics.' This is probably a good thing, because it suggests that the opening was sufficiently action-packed, but it was still something I really didn't expect.
Still... as long as they're enjoying it...
Tomorrow I'm going to force myself to sit down and get this bit of Starcustard done. I think one of the reasons I've been avoiding it is because I'm not sure how I'm going to go about it, but if I take another look at what we've already got, I'll probably be able to figure it out.
Also, Olli awaits Agaffa. I really need to be getting on with websitey things in general.
One guy said, 'I like except for the bits with violence and pain. I kept having to close my eyes.' I don't understand how closing his eyes would have helped. How did he know when to open them again? Did 'YOU HAVE REACHED THE NEXT PARAGRAPH' flash across his eyelids?
Aside from that, I didn't think it was so...well, dark. Another person said, 'Is this story going to give me nightmares?' If people are seeing it this way, I think I'll just go with it, though I really can't see how they are.
Another guy told me, 'it reads like comics.' This is probably a good thing, because it suggests that the opening was sufficiently action-packed, but it was still something I really didn't expect.
Still... as long as they're enjoying it...
Tomorrow I'm going to force myself to sit down and get this bit of Starcustard done. I think one of the reasons I've been avoiding it is because I'm not sure how I'm going to go about it, but if I take another look at what we've already got, I'll probably be able to figure it out.
Also, Olli awaits Agaffa. I really need to be getting on with websitey things in general.
Labels: agaffa, boardfic, city of anarchy, starcustard
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Why, Hello There!
Do you know what I have now, what with all my exams being over? Lots and lots of free time.
I admit, I'll probably be spending a lot of it playing Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath, but here's some of the stuff that's coming up...
Starcustard Chapter 4 isn't far from completion. It hasn't been for weeks, but, well, you know... I'm also part way through a Starcustard-related drawing. I'm making my first task finishing this off.
Olli mentioned revising/rewriting the first few chapters of Agaffa in a conversation at school. I don't know if we're still going through with that. We managed to finish Chapter 6 back in April, and we started Chapter 7, but there's most of that still to write.
(See also: Gnome Milk.)
The Aberration is the same as it has been for a while. The first three chapters are being partially rewritten, there are a few minor adjustments to make to Chapter 4, and Chapter 5 has barely been started.
The first part of City of Anarchy, a new project (with the characters based on the members of a message board I'm part of), will be posted online sometime next week. The second of the two drawings I'm currently working on is related to this.
And I want to make some progress with A Room Full of Zombies, my zombie game. I've had some neat ideas for this that I'm going to try and implement.
Nothing except the powers of procrastination and video games are standing in my way now. Time to get things done.
FATMANINTWEED.COM. COMING SOON.
I admit, I'll probably be spending a lot of it playing Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath, but here's some of the stuff that's coming up...
Starcustard Chapter 4 isn't far from completion. It hasn't been for weeks, but, well, you know... I'm also part way through a Starcustard-related drawing. I'm making my first task finishing this off.
Olli mentioned revising/rewriting the first few chapters of Agaffa in a conversation at school. I don't know if we're still going through with that. We managed to finish Chapter 6 back in April, and we started Chapter 7, but there's most of that still to write.
(See also: Gnome Milk.)
The Aberration is the same as it has been for a while. The first three chapters are being partially rewritten, there are a few minor adjustments to make to Chapter 4, and Chapter 5 has barely been started.
The first part of City of Anarchy, a new project (with the characters based on the members of a message board I'm part of), will be posted online sometime next week. The second of the two drawings I'm currently working on is related to this.
And I want to make some progress with A Room Full of Zombies, my zombie game. I've had some neat ideas for this that I'm going to try and implement.
Nothing except the powers of procrastination and video games are standing in my way now. Time to get things done.
FATMANINTWEED.COM. COMING SOON.
Labels: agaffa, city of anarchy, starcustard, the aberration, videogames, zombies
Sunday, May 29, 2005
54 Minutes of Starcustard
Starcustard Chapter 4 is nearing the point that's somewhere near completion. I need to write one final bit, which can probably be done sometime this week, and then a quick proofread (because we've done some of that already) before we decide what music we want to feature in this chapter.
Speaking of which, I made an album with all the tracks from Chapters One, Two and Three, which is just over 54 minutes long. I didn't realise how strange our choices had been in places, and how varied some of the music is, but as a compilation, it all fits together strangely well.
Here's the tracklist (in order of appearance in the story):
I haven't really made much more progress with the TA rewrite yet, apart from a little bit on Phil's intro, but I have decided on a few things for Chapter 5.
I've also started writing another story that might end up on Fat Man, which will feature characters based on members of a message board I'm a regular on (or used to be until I had all these exams to deal with). This isn't the first one of these I've done (it's known as 'boardfic' there), but the others were a little too reliant on in-jokes to be put elsewhere, and this time around, a lot of usernames that are the names of characters of someone else's work will be changed to something else.
And this one's going to be a lot more KICK-ARSE than the previous ones I've written. YEAH!
So, priorities for this week (other than exam revision): write that last bit of Starcustard Chapter 4, and get some work done on The Aberration.
Speaking of which, I made an album with all the tracks from Chapters One, Two and Three, which is just over 54 minutes long. I didn't realise how strange our choices had been in places, and how varied some of the music is, but as a compilation, it all fits together strangely well.
Here's the tracklist (in order of appearance in the story):
Fleetwood Mac - Albatross
The Chemical Brothers - My Elastic Eye
The Chemical Brothers - Out of Control
Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak
Fuel - Falls On Me
Jeff Beck - Where Were You?
Blur - Ambulance
Stereophonics - I'm Alright (You Gotta Go There To Come Back)
Radiohead - Where I End and You Begin
The Flaming Lips - Slow Motion
Beethoven - Für Elise
The Ramones - Cretin Hop
Muse - Ruled By Secrecy
I haven't really made much more progress with the TA rewrite yet, apart from a little bit on Phil's intro, but I have decided on a few things for Chapter 5.
I've also started writing another story that might end up on Fat Man, which will feature characters based on members of a message board I'm a regular on (or used to be until I had all these exams to deal with). This isn't the first one of these I've done (it's known as 'boardfic' there), but the others were a little too reliant on in-jokes to be put elsewhere, and this time around, a lot of usernames that are the names of characters of someone else's work will be changed to something else.
And this one's going to be a lot more KICK-ARSE than the previous ones I've written. YEAH!
So, priorities for this week (other than exam revision): write that last bit of Starcustard Chapter 4, and get some work done on The Aberration.
Labels: boardfic, city of anarchy, starcustard, the aberration
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Pirate #001
An alien that'll be appearing in Starcustard in the near future.
His right arm is supposed to look oddly misplaced like that. The idea is that he can hook arms with different functions to the metallic belt around his chest, and these arms are not fixed in any set position on it; they can slide along it freely, so he can have them attacking someone directly behind him quite easily. The arms he's not using are attached to an easily-accessible belt around his belly.
All the wires going into the back of his head and neck are so he can control the arms as if they were a real part of his body.
From left to right, the arm functions on this particular drawing are supposed to be as follows: regular 'grabhand', some kind of firearm, a torch and a knife.
This is just the simple mechanics of the thing. The proper description of the creature itself will be in the actual story, whenever it gets written. This isn't finalised or anything, but it's likely that the one we eventually used will be very similar to this one.
Labels: pirates, sketches and doodles, starcustard
Monday, April 25, 2005
Same Old, Same Old
I say I'll do things, and then I hardly ever do. I didn't get any more of TA Chapter 5 done over the weekend. I never drew any room plans for the places visited in that chapter (although I've more or less decided what they're going to look like now anyway). I said I'd do sketches of gadgets and weapons and, er...storage rooms, apparently. I sort of did that, but then gave up.
I have, howevrar, almost finished a messy concept sketch of this new alien that's going to be in Starcustard. I might post that here at some point, maybe with a few annotations.
I get the feeling I'm going to need all the free time I have after the exams if I want to get the site up in the Summer, but I know I'm still going to waste it. It's just one of those inevitable things.
Inevitable, Mr Anderson.
The stories aren't really a problem. I'd like to get as much of them done as possible for the launch, but there's already a chapter of The Aberration and a chapter of Agaffa that will be new-to-fatman content, and the same'll be true for Starcustard in the next few weeks or so. It's getting Release 2 of the zombie game done, and also learning CSS and designing the whole thing, that's going to be the real challenge.
But I shall rise to the challenge!
If and when I feel like it, that is.
I'm really going to have to stop posting about the same stuff every entry. I'll try and post more interesting stuff, like concept art and more excerpts and random junk like that. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy film is released this week. I could post stuff related to that once I've seen it.
I have, howevrar, almost finished a messy concept sketch of this new alien that's going to be in Starcustard. I might post that here at some point, maybe with a few annotations.
I get the feeling I'm going to need all the free time I have after the exams if I want to get the site up in the Summer, but I know I'm still going to waste it. It's just one of those inevitable things.
Inevitable, Mr Anderson.
The stories aren't really a problem. I'd like to get as much of them done as possible for the launch, but there's already a chapter of The Aberration and a chapter of Agaffa that will be new-to-fatman content, and the same'll be true for Starcustard in the next few weeks or so. It's getting Release 2 of the zombie game done, and also learning CSS and designing the whole thing, that's going to be the real challenge.
But I shall rise to the challenge!
If and when I feel like it, that is.
I'm really going to have to stop posting about the same stuff every entry. I'll try and post more interesting stuff, like concept art and more excerpts and random junk like that. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy film is released this week. I could post stuff related to that once I've seen it.
Labels: agaffa, starcustard, the aberration, webtechnical, zombies
Saturday, April 23, 2005
Aliens
Me and Melia came up with some really quite cool (at least, they are in my opinion) ideas for a group of aliens that are going to feature sometime soon in Starcustard. Nasty aliens, too. Nastier than the slugthings, maybe. They'll be able to do things that you'll wish you could do, but which you won't ever be able to do because you'll never be as amazingly fantastic as they are.
I've been doing bits and pieces of the opening to TA Chapter 5 during the week. I might work a little on it tonight or tomorrow. Because, yes, miracles do happen from time to time.
I've been doing bits and pieces of the opening to TA Chapter 5 during the week. I might work a little on it tonight or tomorrow. Because, yes, miracles do happen from time to time.
Labels: starcustard, the aberration
Friday, April 22, 2005
More Ideas
plaid says:
if i were an alien like that, i'd like to keep one arm growing out of my head.
Chris says:
yes, but you're weird
Guess what we're discussing. :P
if i were an alien like that, i'd like to keep one arm growing out of my head.
Chris says:
yes, but you're weird
Guess what we're discussing. :P
Labels: alien conversations, starcustard
Friday, April 08, 2005
Checking Status...Btthrrhp
A Room Full Of Zombies - Been working on the zombie-specific outcomes of attacks. The green zombie does exciting things.
Agaffa - Failed to get the two chapters done in those two weeks. Doesn't really matter, though.
Starcustard - Running through some ideas for the events in the next few chapters, including something pretty big for Chapter 6...which is ages away, but still. I might sketch some stuff. That can be a good way of generating ideas. Sketches of gadgets, weapons and storage rooms.
The Aberration - The first draft of Chapter 4 has been completed. There are a few things I want to go back and add in, but they're minor things. I might start typing that up tomorrow. I also started writing Chapter 5 today. I think I'm going to have to doodle some stuff in my sketchbook for that, too. More room plans. It's about time I did something other than character designs anyway.
Agaffa - Failed to get the two chapters done in those two weeks. Doesn't really matter, though.
Starcustard - Running through some ideas for the events in the next few chapters, including something pretty big for Chapter 6...which is ages away, but still. I might sketch some stuff. That can be a good way of generating ideas. Sketches of gadgets, weapons and storage rooms.
The Aberration - The first draft of Chapter 4 has been completed. There are a few things I want to go back and add in, but they're minor things. I might start typing that up tomorrow. I also started writing Chapter 5 today. I think I'm going to have to doodle some stuff in my sketchbook for that, too. More room plans. It's about time I did something other than character designs anyway.
Labels: agaffa, starcustard, the aberration, zombies
Monday, March 21, 2005
Starcustard Ideas Generation - Spaceship Shields
Chris says:
what's the shield made of?
plaid says:
hm.....
Chris says:
i'm hesitant to say plasma, because that's been used in things like Halo (and possibly Star Wars) and i don't want to seem like i'm copying
plaid says:
let me think...
plaid says:
it should be made of something random and unexpected, but plausible...
Chris says:
some sort of electric pulse? they'd have to time it right, though
plaid says:
like... really really hot... something.... some sort of magneticized substance.
plaid says:
electro magnetic.... um...
Chris says:
and that wouldn't really effectively deflect weaponry, which is what it would be designed to do with a ship like that
plaid says:
electromagnetic something. fumes. some kind of fumes.
Chris says:
electro magnetic..if you look at the Matrix, they used an electromagnetic pulse to cut off the power of everything within a radius
plaid says:
electromagnetic blank fumes.
Chris says:
electromagnetic fumes?
plaid says:
i don't really know what im
plaid says:
talking about
plaid says:
i don't know...
plaid says:
i just thought it might sound good
plaid says:
:P
Chris says:
the pods wouldn't be obtaining their air supply from an external source, so fumes wouldn't really work :P
plaid says:
hm?
plaid says:
but if they were electromagneticized, they'd be all... electromagnetic...
Chris says:
fumes wouldn't be able to get inside the pods if there are no air vents or grids or anything
plaid says:
well, that's not what i meant anyway. i don't really konw what i did mean though
Chris says:
we wouldn't have to go into depth
Chris says:
it could just be 'energy shield'
Chris says:
i dunno
plaid says:
that's true
plaid says:
how about you just pick some impressive sounding phrase and use it?
Chris says:
it's got to be technically correct though. this is a comic story in some ways, but still.
plaid says:
technically?
Chris says:
it's actually got to be plausible
plaid says:
because energy sheilds actually exist in the world?
plaid says:
maybe they do. what do i know?
Chris says:
they could do.
Chris says:
we don't want something that just wouldn't work, plain and simple
Chris says:
like electromagnetic fumes :P
plaid says:
heh
Chris says:
we could cover it up with a name...a proper noun that they've given the shield
Chris says:
and it'd be alien technology anyway
plaid says:
like what?
plaid says:
yeah.
Chris says:
like McBob's Zaptasterum Shield
Chris says:
but not as stupid
plaid says:
heh. hm.... organic nitrogen-based powersheild. or super-enforced electron barrier.
plaid says:
how're those random random off the top of my head ideas?
Chris says:
crazy
Chris says:
you're razy
Chris says:
*crazy
Chris says:
organic?!
Chris says:
shield?!!
Chris says:
heh
plaid says:
heh
plaid says:
it could happen...
plaid says:
it's like... recycling.
plaid says:
only... um....
plaid says:
okay i'll shut up
Chris says:
'Quick, switch on the organic nitrogen-based powershield!'
'It's not working!'
Chris says:
'That's because it CAN'T! HAHAHAHAHA!'
plaid says:
you come up with it then. i give up.
Chris says:
we need a sensible yet alien sounding name
Chris says:
an alien scientist's name
Chris says:
Zaptasterum
Chris says:
:P
plaid says:
hm...
Chris says:
Kaltruxan Generator....generates the shield
plaid says:
okay
plaid says:
except i don't really like the letter k
Chris says:
Caltrux is a company/person's name anyway
Chris says:
Gantruxian
Chris says:
created by the scientist, Pierre Gantruxi :P
plaid says:
okay
plaid says:
i really don't care, chris. do whatever the heck you want
Chris says:
*sniff*
what's the shield made of?
plaid says:
hm.....
Chris says:
i'm hesitant to say plasma, because that's been used in things like Halo (and possibly Star Wars) and i don't want to seem like i'm copying
plaid says:
let me think...
plaid says:
it should be made of something random and unexpected, but plausible...
Chris says:
some sort of electric pulse? they'd have to time it right, though
plaid says:
like... really really hot... something.... some sort of magneticized substance.
plaid says:
electro magnetic.... um...
Chris says:
and that wouldn't really effectively deflect weaponry, which is what it would be designed to do with a ship like that
plaid says:
electromagnetic something. fumes. some kind of fumes.
Chris says:
electro magnetic..if you look at the Matrix, they used an electromagnetic pulse to cut off the power of everything within a radius
plaid says:
electromagnetic blank fumes.
Chris says:
electromagnetic fumes?
plaid says:
i don't really know what im
plaid says:
talking about
plaid says:
i don't know...
plaid says:
i just thought it might sound good
plaid says:
:P
Chris says:
the pods wouldn't be obtaining their air supply from an external source, so fumes wouldn't really work :P
plaid says:
hm?
plaid says:
but if they were electromagneticized, they'd be all... electromagnetic...
Chris says:
fumes wouldn't be able to get inside the pods if there are no air vents or grids or anything
plaid says:
well, that's not what i meant anyway. i don't really konw what i did mean though
Chris says:
we wouldn't have to go into depth
Chris says:
it could just be 'energy shield'
Chris says:
i dunno
plaid says:
that's true
plaid says:
how about you just pick some impressive sounding phrase and use it?
Chris says:
it's got to be technically correct though. this is a comic story in some ways, but still.
plaid says:
technically?
Chris says:
it's actually got to be plausible
plaid says:
because energy sheilds actually exist in the world?
plaid says:
maybe they do. what do i know?
Chris says:
they could do.
Chris says:
we don't want something that just wouldn't work, plain and simple
Chris says:
like electromagnetic fumes :P
plaid says:
heh
Chris says:
we could cover it up with a name...a proper noun that they've given the shield
Chris says:
and it'd be alien technology anyway
plaid says:
like what?
plaid says:
yeah.
Chris says:
like McBob's Zaptasterum Shield
Chris says:
but not as stupid
plaid says:
heh. hm.... organic nitrogen-based powersheild. or super-enforced electron barrier.
plaid says:
how're those random random off the top of my head ideas?
Chris says:
crazy
Chris says:
you're razy
Chris says:
*crazy
Chris says:
organic?!
Chris says:
shield?!!
Chris says:
heh
plaid says:
heh
plaid says:
it could happen...
plaid says:
it's like... recycling.
plaid says:
only... um....
plaid says:
okay i'll shut up
Chris says:
'Quick, switch on the organic nitrogen-based powershield!'
'It's not working!'
Chris says:
'That's because it CAN'T! HAHAHAHAHA!'
plaid says:
you come up with it then. i give up.
Chris says:
we need a sensible yet alien sounding name
Chris says:
an alien scientist's name
Chris says:
Zaptasterum
Chris says:
:P
plaid says:
hm...
Chris says:
Kaltruxan Generator....generates the shield
plaid says:
okay
plaid says:
except i don't really like the letter k
Chris says:
Caltrux is a company/person's name anyway
Chris says:
Gantruxian
Chris says:
created by the scientist, Pierre Gantruxi :P
plaid says:
okay
plaid says:
i really don't care, chris. do whatever the heck you want
Chris says:
*sniff*
Labels: alien conversations, starcustard
Sunday, March 20, 2005
Pleasant Things
I've started working on Release 2 of A Room Full Of Zombies. The basic elements of the flamethrower are now in place, as are a few other random quirks (like replacements for default messages). For example:
is now
Nice and cheerful, because it's that kind of game.
I've done about a page and a half of Starcustard today, handwritten A4. There are a couple of issues that need to be sorted out, but aside from that, I've made some good progress. And that is always a good thing, children.
I also did half a page of The Aberration. The bit I'm currently on is IMMENSELY fun to write.
Are you sure you want to quit?is now
Are you sure you want to randomly drop dead?Nice and cheerful, because it's that kind of game.
I've done about a page and a half of Starcustard today, handwritten A4. There are a couple of issues that need to be sorted out, but aside from that, I've made some good progress. And that is always a good thing, children.
I also did half a page of The Aberration. The bit I'm currently on is IMMENSELY fun to write.
Labels: starcustard, the aberration, zombies
Friday, March 18, 2005
W00t!
I got the FTP thing to work! I don't know what I was doing wrong last time, but I'm now posting an entry into Kommingle. I tried the SFTP thing and it did that constant page-refreshing thing again, but when I retried the regular FTP, it worked.
So...problem more or less solved. I can take it off Kommingle now that I know I can do it, and put it on Fat Man In Tweed in the Summer.
Olli's sent me what we've written of Agaffa Chapter 6 so far. Today I'm going to work on that and send the whole lot back to him so he can do his next bit, and then I'll get some Starcustard done.
Things are moving along nicely, and I'm happy. :)
So...problem more or less solved. I can take it off Kommingle now that I know I can do it, and put it on Fat Man In Tweed in the Summer.
Olli's sent me what we've written of Agaffa Chapter 6 so far. Today I'm going to work on that and send the whole lot back to him so he can do his next bit, and then I'll get some Starcustard done.
Things are moving along nicely, and I'm happy. :)
Labels: agaffa, starcustard, webtechnical
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Halo There
Now that the Easter holidays have started, I can start getting things done. And who knows? Maybe I even will. I have exam revision to be doing, but I'll still have quite a lot of free time.
The Aberration, Starcustard, Agaffa, A Room Full Of Zombies...and fatmanintweed.com. It's odd, I never really considered Kommingle as a 'project' as such...at least, not in the same way I consider all these other things to be...but with Fat Man In Tweed, it's different. It's a much bigger challenge now that I don't have anybody to rely on for the financial side of things, or for the webdesign.
Anyway.
Something completely unrelated: Master Beef, the protagonist of The Aberration, was originally created as the main character of a spoof of the first Halo game. The spoof was called Bananas and Laxatives. I intend to bring back some of the characters from the spoof. This will mean some nice Halo references for fans of the game(s), but it won't ruin it for those who don't really know anything about it.
You could always go and look up some information on the Halo games if you want to try and guess which characters' spoof versions are going to be used. :P
Or, alternatively, you could just not bother. Up to you, really.
The Aberration, Starcustard, Agaffa, A Room Full Of Zombies...and fatmanintweed.com. It's odd, I never really considered Kommingle as a 'project' as such...at least, not in the same way I consider all these other things to be...but with Fat Man In Tweed, it's different. It's a much bigger challenge now that I don't have anybody to rely on for the financial side of things, or for the webdesign.
Anyway.
Something completely unrelated: Master Beef, the protagonist of The Aberration, was originally created as the main character of a spoof of the first Halo game. The spoof was called Bananas and Laxatives. I intend to bring back some of the characters from the spoof. This will mean some nice Halo references for fans of the game(s), but it won't ruin it for those who don't really know anything about it.
You could always go and look up some information on the Halo games if you want to try and guess which characters' spoof versions are going to be used. :P
Or, alternatively, you could just not bother. Up to you, really.
Labels: agaffa, bananas and laxatives, halo, starcustard, the aberration, videogames, zombies
archives
03.0504.05
05.05
06.05
07.05
08.05
09.05
10.05
11.05
12.05
01.06
02.06
03.06
04.06
05.06
06.06
07.06
08.06
09.06
10.06
11.06
12.06
01.07
02.07
03.07
04.07
05.07
06.07
07.07
08.07
09.07
10.07
11.07
12.07
01.08
02.08
03.08
04.08
05.08
06.08
07.08
10.08
11.08
12.08
01.09
02.09
04.09
05.09
06.09
07.09
08.09
09.09
10.09
11.09
12.09
01.10
02.10
03.10
04.10
