Once Again With Feeling

Okay, it's Saturday afternoon. Not exactly 'one week later' than I said I would write an entry last time. I might be a little more excited than I thought I'd be writing my blog again. Also, as the light is dimming and the Bangkok sun slowly disappears behind the tall structures of the polluted skyline, I find myself with some extra time before Nancy and I put Alex to bed and we hit the night scene for some good ole fashioned movie watching (yes, we are nerdy that way).

A more important change in my behavior is that I've started reading young adult novels again. For a while I guess I was feeling disenfranchised with the whole scene as I wasn't getting anywhere writing to agents and publishers and Nancy was coming down hard on my material as the editor. I'm not as daunted with positive criticism as I am with the whole promotion and business scene. No doubt do I follow many other artistic purists out there, who'd rather focus all there time on their art, rather than having to deal with the business end. Adding to that was the failure to get ahead financially with my paintings for Asian Daily Paintings and the pressure to start finding proper IT/Web design gigs.

But now I'm writing again and the Muses sing and dance away my self-pity and depressive attitude. I can look for work and write after all. I can turn off the TV and paint for pleasure instead. It's all doable. So where am I then now? Well, as I am writing draft 4, focusing on the balance between emotional development of the characters and the action of the plot, I find that I am altering 2-3 chapters per week. Not bad for the hour and a half I carve out each morning between making breakfast and lunch for my son and working out at the gym before work.

And as the enthusiasm of writing once again holds me in her grip I rediscover the pleasure of reading what my (hopefully future) peers are doing with their creative minds. Fablehaven by Brandon Mull still portrays teenagers in peril like no other, so I started with that. Stands to reason that if I'm going to spruce of the characters in my own work I should learn from the best, right? Other than that I'm pleasantly surprised by what I learn from books like 'An Innocent Mage' by Karen Miller (once again proving my point that women right characters better, while men generally have stronger mythologies) and TV-shows like 'Game of Thrones'. All solid works of fantasy fiction, yet heavy on the character conflict - which according to experts is what any noteworthy scene/story should be about.

Funny that I myself have no conflicts within to explore anymore as I'm now once again at peace with the writing process.