I find myself suddenly self-conscious about all the formatting issues around here. I don’t know why. I can count on one hand the number of people who actually see this site and I don’t even need all my fingers. And when I find myself perusing other blogs, there is a staggering number with really sloppy formatting that breaks my brain. (And makes this place look pretty decent.) Giant text and text that overflows because there is no distinction between main content and side bars, picture resolution that requires scrolling in all directions just to see the whole image (*ahem* food bloggers), illegible fonts galore, and don’t even get me started on the multitude of pop-ups begging me to sign up/follow/like/subscribe/validate!me! every known type of social media account associated with the domain. If I have to close three different boxes just to read your page, the next X I hit is going to be the browser itself. If you need to beg for attention that much to earn a few pennies in ad revenue, you are probably in the wrong profession.
ANYWAY.
NOT where I planned on going today.
I beaned myself on the corner of the bathroom counter while picking up a tissue that missed the trash. Now I have a bruise and a knot on my forehead.
It’s currently 54 degrees outside, the sun is shining (off and on), and my bedroom windows are open.
FRESH AIR!
IN MY HOUSE!
WHEE!
*ahem*
Things that are far more difficult than they should be…when it comes to writing…
… writing an author blurb for a fictional writer — That little paragraph at the back of a book that gives you generic tidbits about the writer? Even knowing everything there is to know about a fake person, it’s damn difficult to construct that little block of text.
… naming fictional TV shows or movies — Trying to come up with something that doesn’t sound like a blatant ripoff of something else is damn difficult. As is coming up with a premise for said fake TV show and/or movie.
… naming fictional bands — You’d think I’d be better at this considering how many projects I have revolving around music artists, but no. Probably why so many Chance Records artists are solo with backing bands.
… naming characters in general — More specifically, not beating to death the same names over and over again. I have a tendency to build up characters before I have an actual story to use them in. When I finally figure out just the right fit for them, finding a variety of names to use that I like becomes damn near impossible. I keep using the same ones over and over again to the point where five different projects will have almost identical character lists.
I am in a deep rut with character names these days. More so than usual. There are names I’ve used consistently pretty much from the beginning, some that I’ve moved away from over time for various reasons, others that have cropped up within the last few years. But if I made character lists for each project in the arsenal (and I always have a cast list for every project) and put them side by side, there would be very little variation in the names. There’s movement in the roles, but not so much the names.
I repeat myself.
A lot.
We’ve been over this.
Several times.
But these are the things I fixate on, especially when the writer’s block is sitting at critical mass.
I sit and stare at 215 folders and 2,096 files and think…
I got nothin’.
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Old Man Time O.A.R. |