the deep moans round with many voices

I am possibly a terrible person for signing up to participate in Ouroboros Mix when I knew I was having trouble concentrating in the particular way that fiction writing demands, but nonetheless, I signed up. And I have been beating my head against the story I wanted to remix ever since -- I had reams upon reams of world-building and backstory and thoughts on character interactions... and no actual story worth a damn.

So tonight I said screw it and looked at my remixee's other two offered stories and suddenly realized exactly how to remix one of them. It is going swimmingly so far, and you know the best part? The best part is that the original is a grandfathered AU (that is to say, it was not AU when it was written but canon caught up and went in a different direction), but when I am done with it, both the remix and by extension the original will be canon. Because the set-up of the original and the rules of canon permit, and the structure of my reformatting demands.

Also because I'm awesome.

But mostly because of structure. Structure is cool. :-)

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In other news, the Vriska Among the Horrorterrors construction paper art proceeds apace. Tentacles are fun to draw. They are slightly less fun to cut out, and trace, and cut out again, but whatever, the finished effect will be worth it.

Then I have some subsidiary illustrations to make -- more cut-outs, woo -- and insert into the text in appropriate places, so you are not going to see this story section for another day or two, I think. Tomorrow and Friday are mostly for writing my remix, but Saturday is definitely an all-"Trollstuck" all the time day, assuming I haven't finished the pictures by then.

Man, art is so labor intensive compared to writing.

(proof of concept)

This is the picture I mentioned from last week's RE lesson. The kids were supposed to draw a picture of somebody feeling a particular emotion or of things that made them feel a particular emotion. By way of demonstration, I decided to draw things that make me happy, starting with flowers.

One boy promptly said something to the effect of, “Of course you like flowers. You’re a girl.”

“Lots of people like flowers,” I said, “and I like other things too. Like waterfalls and trees.” So I drew a waterfall and a tree. The kid said it had to be an apple tree, because they were the happiest, which is fair enough; it is now an apple tree.

In retrospect, I wish I’d said something more along the lines of, “Lots of people like flowers. They’re also a lot easier to draw than two people kung fu fighting on top of a speeding train that’s heading for an exploding bridge and is about to crash into a gorge in a huge explosion!” because seriously, who doesn’t love over-the-top action movies? With purple flowers in the foreground to add a pretense of art and poignancy to the imminent fiery death, of course. *wry*

But I am pretty sure I couldn’t actually draw that at the best of times, and certainly not in crayon in five minutes. And waterfalls are awfully cool too. :-)

[link to original post, for when Tumblr inevitably breaks the embedded image]

back to part 19

( Trollstuck, part 20 )

continue to part 21

And now to sleep, which I should have done two hours ago. *sigh* My priorities are frequently not the wisest from a health and functionality-at-work perspective.

Things I want for Christmas this year:

1. a tea cozy

2. a kitchen wastebasket with a lid

3. 25 hours in a day

...

I suspect the only one I will get is #1.

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And now back to drawing a six-panel comic of Karkat Vantas vs. a giant floating squiddleterror. (It's a "Trollstuck" thing, don't ask.) Five panels are done in pencil rough. When I finish the sixth, I will tidy them, ink them, and scan the damn thing in to my computer so I can color it in a more consistent fashion than markers or colored pencils allow for. :-)

ETA, 2:30am: All panels done and cleaned. \o/ I will ink and scan and do the computer stuff tomorrow night. Right now I am all out of fine motor control.

( proof of concept, aka the rough draft )

back to part 10

( Trollstuck, part 11 )

continue to part 12

And now I am going to bed, because it is so late it's come back around to being early, and I have a nine-hour shift awaiting me at work. *sigh*

ETA, 6/6/12: There is now a poll to pick the POV character for chapter 4. Please vote, so I don't have to resort to writing names on scraps of paper and picking one out of a teacup. :-)