Thursday, July 05, 2007
The Day's Progress
Today sucked.
I hate Mondays, as I've established, since they are invariably my least productive days. And days after mid-week holidays are just as bad. So today I made quota, but barely, since I lost much of the afternoon in a panic after realizing that the physics of a pivotal middle sequence was all wrong. I had the Dragon going on a Brachistochrone trajectory when what I really needed was a Hohmann transfer orbit. Which was simple enough to fix, except that then my whole Obligatory Space Fuck Up from the second act (or OSFU, which was the short-hand that Matt Sturges and I used to use to refer to that moment in a Star Trek episode in which something inevitably went wrong, and which I now use in my head to mean the bits of business that keep the characters from just standing around and talking at one another) was completely thrown out the window. It took me about an hour to rejigger the physics so that it was all correct again, and to rework the outline (and the already written sections) accordingly, and then I was left having written only a couple of hundred words with only two hours left in the day. I managed to get the chapters done in time, but it was exactly like pulling freaking teeth again.
Tomorrow will be better again, and then Monday will be, of course, Monday.
Yeesh.
Just a short sample today. I fell in love with "rutting" as a nice substitute for "fucking" the other day, but only later realized that Whedon had already used it in Firefly. Then I figured, what the hell? I've inadvertently (and advertently, for that matter) stolen from so many sources in this book, what harm could one more do?
I hate Mondays, as I've established, since they are invariably my least productive days. And days after mid-week holidays are just as bad. So today I made quota, but barely, since I lost much of the afternoon in a panic after realizing that the physics of a pivotal middle sequence was all wrong. I had the Dragon going on a Brachistochrone trajectory when what I really needed was a Hohmann transfer orbit. Which was simple enough to fix, except that then my whole Obligatory Space Fuck Up from the second act (or OSFU, which was the short-hand that Matt Sturges and I used to use to refer to that moment in a Star Trek episode in which something inevitably went wrong, and which I now use in my head to mean the bits of business that keep the characters from just standing around and talking at one another) was completely thrown out the window. It took me about an hour to rejigger the physics so that it was all correct again, and to rework the outline (and the already written sections) accordingly, and then I was left having written only a couple of hundred words with only two hours left in the day. I managed to get the chapters done in time, but it was exactly like pulling freaking teeth again.
Tomorrow will be better again, and then Monday will be, of course, Monday.
Yeesh.
| |
48,689 / 90,000 (54.1%) |
Just a short sample today. I fell in love with "rutting" as a nice substitute for "fucking" the other day, but only later realized that Whedon had already used it in Firefly. Then I figured, what the hell? I've inadvertently (and advertently, for that matter) stolen from so many sources in this book, what harm could one more do?
“Rutting pile of dung!”
Steersman Ang slammed the heel of his palm against the control housing, his lips curled into a snarl. Then he hissed, shaking his hand as though he could fling from him the pain of the impact.
“Steersman, report,” called Captain Zhuan from his seat at the center of the bridge.
“Rutting thing is still not rutting working!” Ang raised his hand again, as though to slam it once more against the controls, then thought better of it before bringing it down.
“Details, Steersman?”
Ang shot the captain an angry look and gave a ragged sigh. “The thrust aperture is still not rutting opening, captain. That detail enough for you?”
