Must learn to use the cut tag more often so's not to overload people browsing this thing, so:


Well, for me anyway. Given that characterization is one of my weaker points, dialogue can be particularly hairy. Not only do you have to carry on the "framing" narrative, and have some purpose for the conversation (especially an extended one, not a brief exchange), you have to have a sort of arc to the content of the conversation itself. Add to that the speech styles, motives, and perceptiveness of each person involved in the conversation, and finding 6x6 matrix determinants by the cofactor method begins to look a lot more fun in comparison. (I could go into a digression on how betrayed I felt when I encountered row-reduction in Math 221, Linear Algebra, but I won't. Those who care can figure it out from that sentence anyway.)

An associated problem, if you want it that, is usually I go into a long conversation scene with things I want to accomplish in terms of characterization and plotting, but the conversation follows a course of it own that often results in my neglecting to cover something. And of course additional things occur to me, often necessitating retconning. When I'm more alert, I leave myself notes in the margins, but if I'm already having difficulty keeping up with my thoughts and giving myself writer's cramp as a result...

Anyway, I got my writing quota done for the day, but ohhhh, that conversation between Haczinev and Brio just would not end. I think I overloaded the political counter-counter-counterscheming, but revision is where I'll worry about unpacking (and cutting!) some of it. Of course, tomorrow (God and little one willing) is when I tackle the Horrible Council Scene. We'll see. This should be rather more fun, if I can keep myself from attempting to depict oratory in the American tradition. I really need to be reading more historically appropriate material while I work on Origami Souls, but by golly I am going to finish the Johnson, I am, darnit!

Aside on methodology: I put placeholders [in brackets], e.g.
She stopped to smell the [whatever that flower's called again].

Extended notes or self-commentary are preceded by slashes, e.g.
// Must remember to work out the level of horticulture in this society and mention it in the previous chapter.

I got the former from Piers Anthony, as aforementioned, the latter from Java. (I used to use {curly braces} as per Pascal, then hit C and Java.)


Meanwhile, in Living German I just hit declension of adjectives, which I shall have to review assiduously. Yay case-marking. 'Course, after even a semester of Latin, it doesn't look bad at all.

Also, in my quest to warp Ara's use of language, I have decided that I am going to memorize Macaulay's "Horatio" (yes, at the bridge) if it kills me. I have the first three stanzas, plus one from somewhere in the middle ("Now Roman is to Roman/ More hateful than a foe..." because I liked it especially), memorized so far. At the rate of one stanza a day, optmistically, this is gonna take a few months. But I love that poem, and it is so meant to be recited. And Arabelle is a forgiving audience for repetition, so...

Other poetry I have memorized? Not much, I'm afraid. I've forgotten Beatrice Farrington's "Ragged John" (from A Treasury of Unicorns, ed. Bruce Coville) except the last stanza. A.E. Housman's "I to my perils," because it's beautiful and cynical in a way I like. The first two stanzas of Poe's "Annabel Lee," which is probably next after the Macaulay (if, if). O'Donohoe's ballad from "Hunting Destiny," in one of the Dragonlance (yes, Dragonlance) Tales anthologies, mainly because I liked the story and it was long and I wanted to show off and my mom helped me memorize it. Lanier's "A Ballad of Trees and the Master." Parts of "Thunder and Roses" by the sf story of that name by Theodore Sturgeon; I had it once but didn't review it enough. Ditto Gordon R. Dickson's "Soldier, Ask Not" (sf again).

Poems I would also like to be able to rattle off: Mary Oliver's "Wild Geese," PMF Johnson's "Lizard Fairy Tales," in Ara's honor. Kim Soweol's "Jindallae," both in the (original) Korean and in (English) translation. Masefield's "Sea Fever." And let's not even get into the haiku....