Workload and process musings

[gs_silva]

I probably won't get to my daily comic today, because I'm working on Draft 3 of the book and I have a clear road ahead of me for a few pages, but it involves a lot of grinding, tedious touchup.

I say "a clear road ahead of me" because I want to say "my work cut out for me" but it seems like the meaning of that idiom changed while I wasn't looking. Now it seems to mean "to have extra work piled on." I want it to mean "to have a well-defined workload." Did it change over time, or am I misremembering?

There was a scene where Jon talks Maurice into coming with him to see his old team play. Jon was on the University soccer team, and he would've graduated already if he hadn't gotten injured, but several of his old teammates are still on the team. So they show up, and Jon's soccer buddies whisk him away, and Maurice ends up sitting on the bleachers with Ren where they have a philosophical discussion about sports that only two rural kids from Cow Country can have.

(Well, not really. I'd cut the dialogue way down before I removed the scene entirely.)

Now the soccer scene is gone, gone, and the scene preceding it, where Jon and Maurice are chatting, is still there, but now I'll rewrite it so instead of soccer, it leads them to writing novels.

We're still gonna write novels here! Novels about novelists is a time-honored tradition.

But I got sidelined by my mother needing help with this and that, and with my fatigue in general, which is very high today. I did a few things that wore me out. I'll need another day to recover. I don't have another day to recover.

I have some thoughts on tropes that I'd like to write out, but I should be drawing. Sometimes the tedious touchup is just the level of work I'm capable of, especially when everything else requires brainpower that I just don't have. But even at those times, it's exhausting. Only because I need to put a time limit on the amount of tedious work I do in one sitting, and I never do that.

Comments

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I want it to mean "to have a well-defined workload." <<

That's how I mean it, but then I've done sewing. Other subcultures may see things differently. Computer geeks will talk about a "stack" of tasks to be performed in order, and I use that when I've set up a mental list that will fall apart if I mess with it.

>>Only because I need to put a time limit on the amount of tedious work I do in one sitting, and I never do that.<<

I have found it helpful to rock back and forth between a tedious task and something fun. If they don't have obvious breakpoints (e.g. a paragraph or section) then I've got a timer on my desk to help.

Re: Thoughts

[gs_silva]

I think I make the sewing connection too. But I keep seeing that phrase where it doesn't work like that, and I find it a little frustrated.

>>I've got a timer on my desk to help.<<

I'm using a Discord sprint-bot, and it should work the same way, and yet I'm not following it. I set it again and again, or I ignore it entirely...

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

If that tool isn't helping, try some different things. There are nannybots that will turn off a given app or a whole device, gamification apps, and so on.

[moth2fic]

You may not be misremembering but sayings like that tend to have different meanings for different cultures. As a Brit I'd always believed it to mean extra work piled on and assumed it came from factory culture in the industrial revolution.

Touching up can presumably be quite therapeutic?!

[gs_silva]

I looked it up, and cumulatively, it looks like the internet wants it every which way, but there's definitely a trend toward it meaning "to have a lot of work piled on." Good to know!

[no_apologies]

You're working on a book too! You have been very creatively busy. :D Are you more used to comics or writing actual books?

I haven't been heavily into the story writing as much as I wish I could. Lately, my song making and story telling has blended together on an often, frequent basis. Inserting myself, the creator, into some of these stories of songs seems natural to me at times, since I've been often aware of the fact that many of my muses have minds of their own.

Fritz just came to me, out of comfort and I sensed him in my mind on wanting to reach out. This is to name one example. ^^

[gs_silva]

Does Fritz have anything to say about Alien Romance besides noting Maurice's resemblance to Koyuki?

I keep meaning to watch and listen to your stuff, but then I keep finding myself working in a café or in a chaotic home environment and it hasn't been a good time yet. I will! Maurice knows he gives off an anime character vibe... not here, but by Book 2 he'll have had some exposure to anime and its younger fans, and he even gets to lament that this connection would have been more useful to him when he was in school.

(Anyway, he has no right to complain about his love life - he was married at age 21! And saw some action before that. He's no incel, haha.)

And it's cool about Fritz being right there with you. I know numerous other people with the same thing going on. In fact, I used to think of my characters as "the Peanut Gallery" because they always had 6 opinions about everything. It was like MST3K before MST3K ever existed. Now I think of them as "the aliens." Which is inaccurate.

The title "Alien Romance" came from my love of 80's Sci-fi schlock where the objectively attractive alien character always got a romantic subplot. That trope is an allegory for the idea of a sexy misfit who finds love in spite of being (appealingly) weird.

Who is the alien in Alien Romance? The easiest answer is Cathy. She doesn't even speak English and now she's gone and married an American. (Maurice.) But there are other ways to spin it. Everyone reads it differently. There's also an actual alien! She doesn't get a romantic subplot... yet.

[no_apologies]

Fritz actually is still getting used to me being such a big anime fan. He's getting a crash-course right now about the Beck anime, and I can tell that he already LIKES this series, just after I rewatched a little animated music video. Because he's such a passionate one when it comes to music, and the fact that Beck is very much like an ode to rock music in anime style... I know Fritz would be paying attention whenever I decide to rewatch this series. :D

Aww Maurice! ^^ I recommend both you and the character to check out Beck, too!

That's so interesting! Your title for the comic has like a double-meaning. That's really cool.

As for my music stuff that I post on my account--no worries! I had been making at least one new track every day, or almost every day. I'm going to have to link to my Glitchcore album sometime. It's been so fun, experimenting with this genre. Video game music on a seizure, that's basically what Glitchcore is, lol. I've been blending it with rock, industrial cinematic, and dubstep rock so far. I've heard freaking amazing results.

Fritz and his band are into this genre too, and have been incorporating it into their sound, after we've discovered how crazy cool and fun Glitchcore and rock sound together. Especially when the guitar riffs go hard and aggressive, hahahaha! And Fritz has his own fun playlist of the covers/remixes he did out of my Glitchcore album.

[gs_silva]

I went and watched it, and if anyone in the café gave me a dirty look, I didn't notice. No apologies!

Maurice is the one with the white t-shirt and baseball cap, I assume? There's a very strong resemblance indeed! Steve would love Beck's energy; he only wishes that Osking Robert could play like that. And he'd have audience envy. Look at those people throwing their hands in the air! Whoa! Maurice is happy with the audience they currently have, a scattering of beer-drinking regulars who barely pay attention, and Cathy, who sits enraptured with a glass of wine and occasionally squeals something that might be an attempt at English.

Does Koyuki also have a girlfriend/boyfriend who doubles as his biggest fan?

Does Fritz? Or Tom or the other guy...

[no_apologies]

Baseball cap young man who has played the White Falcon guitar, and the yellow and white Fender. That would be Koyuki! :) Fritz has a red and white guitar that's his most favorite one to play! He seems to hold a great deal of sentimental value towards it. This very guitar is on the art cover of our song, "Lowest of the Low."

Oh, I wish I had a Koyuki muse. I might gain one one after watching Beck again, lol. This character does have a girlfriend who is the biggest fan of the band. Maho is her name. She can sing, like popstar, but she doesn't wish to sing professionally! She's been more into filming.

[gs_silva]

Oh well, you get the muses you get! If your Koyuki muse comes along, so be it. He can hang out with Maurice and trigger Maurice's inferiority complex. :D

(I'm half kidding. My characters put a lot of work into accepting their own mediocrity. I know it's more common to imagine characters who are actually good at things, but my aliens aim to serve as inspiration for the rest of us. lol.)

I have a character guide somewhere, but I'll just quickly introduce you to the folks who chose me. They're not all on muse duty all the time, but altogether they cover a lot of human experience.

There's Christine, who grew up in a fundamentalist Christian family and was trying to fit the role of demure, godly, family-oriented wife/mother material. But she failed spectacularly. She's 6' tall and an intellectual powerhouse, and so she decided to throw caution to the wind and embrace being a pansexual AND a woman doctor!! Her family is reluctantly supportive, sometimes. Her alien friends think she's the nicest and mildest mannered among them. Christine herself is sure she's going to hell in a handbasket.

There's Ella, not as academically inclined but a self-appointed bosslady and master of sarcasm. She's Christine's girlfriend and is also ARO/ACE and as a muse she has a lot to say.

There's Ren, Christine's boyfriend and Maurice's 'brother'. Ren is 2 years younger than Maurice and 15" taller. He started as a jovial best friend archetype but he got complicated.

Jon, my jock and Ella's big brother. He's the oldest and would be in charge but he's in too much chronic pain. He was Maurice's employer in Book 1.

Cathy! Weird French girl who aspires to be an artist, but who isn't good at anything. Not even language learning. She pretends she knows what's going on, but usually she doesn't.

And Maurice, of course. The child of immigrants who, with Ren, grew up in farm country and spends most of his time in culture shock. He knows a little French, less Vietnamese, and he subsists on a stubborn inability to say no to anyone in need. He's getting used to failing at everything, but soon he'll have to get used to success too.

[no_apologies]

That's quite a cast of OC's! Christine sounds like one of your favorites, other than Maurice. :)

I think I might have muses getting revived. If I can revive one of my Final Fantasy 12 muses... Ohohohoh, he'd be an amazing performer on Suno, I think! After all, Balthier likes to refer to himself as a leading man. xD He's a pirate type of character, who has a flying airship. He's partners with a lady who has big rabbit ears; Fran.

And there's Scara (my most fave character from the game Genshin Impact). I named him that in the game, which is short for Scaramouche. He doesn't go by that old name anymore, since that is associated with really, really horrible memories. He used to be involved with horrible crimes against humanity until he realized how terribly he had been manipulated and deceived. Very tragic backstory. :( I'd have to convince my old and very interesting Scara-muse to want to have a music career of any kind, or whatever. :) Maybe he'll have a place to just vent.

[gs_silva]

Scara-muse, haha! Will he hate that too, though?

[no_apologies]

I'll wait until I approach Scara.

Balthier however is going in on this in stride, with swagger! lol. It's going to be a classy, snappy, catchy hip hop introduction song in his POV.

Lyrics snippet;

[Verse 2]
I used to wear a uniform.
They called it perfect order.
I saw the strings attached,
Crossing the world's wide borders.

As the pompous fools commanded,
I chose to cut the lanyard.
Turned my back on ruthless glory,
For a life freer and skyward

Now my pursuits are simpler.
I seek the kind of magic,
That glows bright among ruins,
Not in that palace--too tragic.

And through every close call,
Every dodge, and risky flight,
Fran, brave and bold co-pilot
Always keeps the bearing right

[Pre-Chorus]
I don't follow signs,
I write destination
Won't need a map
Running on imagination

I've got my eye on fortune--that sweet sensation
Now watch me escape this tired Ivalice station.

[Chorus]
I'm the leading man!
No, you can't deny it.
I'm the leading man!
The one who's firin' it

I'm the leading man!
No one can ground me.
I'm the leading man!
No other role I'd be.