The Center Didn't Hold

Okay, so the title is kind of lame, but I heard a Ferengi quote that line of that poem on Star Trek and I just couldn't resist. (Of course, it left me wondering how on DS:9 Quark could possibly know that line from that poem by Yeats, seeing as he despises all things hu-man, but now I'm just thinking too far into it.) (Bonus points for everyone who got both of those references before I explained.)

Anyway, the last time I posted was four months ago when I was attempting the BIAM a second time for a second story. Y'all might have guessed from my sudden silence that it did not go well. Actually, it all kind of fell apart. I think it was a combo of the story not being ready and the timing of the attempt. I realized halfway through that I had no idea where the story was going. I thought I did, but it took trying to write the story to completion to realize I had no idea where it was supposed to end or even what the characters were doing in the story. I didn't know why they were there or what they wanted or anything.Add to that the fact that my FT job got super crazy busy and you have a recipe for disaster. I just didn't have the time that I'd had with the other project. Things were just too busy and I couldn't dedicate the time I needed to to finish on time.

I also realized that I needed to reexamine the story and characters and figure out just what everything was about. Why did my antagonist do what he did? Why did my protagonists do what they did? Why did they feel about each other they way they did. So I took a month or so and just thought and did rough character sketches.

Finally, I found another system that seemed like it might work better with this story and started with it. And the good news, it worked pretty well. I'm still struggling here and there. But overall, I'm much happier with where this story is going than I was back in September. I currently drafting scenes and I'm really hoping with my vacation coming up I'll be able to finish the scene drafts by the end of the year.

I also feel kind of bad because I've been ignoring the whole online world for about four months now. I haven't been blogging, I haven't been on LWC, I've been on Facebook but not really posting. I just haven't been present, at all.

I really want to try and fix my terribly blogging habits, well really my terrible internet habits. Because let's face it, I'm really bad at having an online presence. But I want to try and be better. I even have a few ideas for some blog posts. And I'm officially asking for ideas. Anything y'all want me to post on, talk about, rant about, or comment on? I'll give it a try. I'm also going to try and post a few book reviews, though, I'm really bad at writing those. Still, I've been reading, so I might as well talk about what I'm reading.

So tell me what you want me to talk about. I'm going to try and post at least once a week. I can't guarantee what day or what time, but I'm gonna try.

Now, I'm gonna go, cause this is long enough as it is. :)