At Least I've Still Got the Needle in My Hand

My corner of the world is quiet and still, and I find I have very little to say. Rammfen have slipped into a torpor from which I doubt they will emerge until the release date for the Best Of is announced, and CSI:NY fen are quietly awaiting the commencement of season eight. Aside from the customary flouncing and bed-shitting from the DL contingent in the latter, who have eagerly dug their cherished persecution mantles by Armani from the storage closet, there has been precious little excitement.

I'm beginning to suspect that the Rammstein Best Of compilation isn't going to be released in September as fans had hoped. If it were, there would have been some word by now, and surely Amazon, that great benevolent god of e-commerce, would have listed it for pre-order, and I would have pounced on it like a nympho on a three-dicked spider monkey. I'm betting on a mid-October release. Any later than that, and they're going to have a great deal of trouble touring on an album that no one can buy. Yes, it's just a rehash of their older catalogue, and fans will still know the words and still eat it up with a spoon, but the whole purpose of touring is to attract new fans and convince your loyal ones to buy your swag and whatever you're promoting with the tour. If there's no CD on the shelves, then why bother loading up the trucks?

As a fan, I know why they should bother: because I want to see them again, and to see them perform their older songs in their older costumes. I would gladly pay them fistfuls of cash for the opportunity. But from the perspective of the bean counters, why would you mount a tour to promote a product that is not yet available? Maybe they've realized the extent of their worldwide fanbase and further realized that a vast majority of them are rabid diehards who would pay to see them perform Sesame Street jingles on the side of the highway, new release be damned. Maybe their arcane arithmancy has shown that to cover touring costs and earn a tidy profit, they must needs only back up the merchandise trucks to the venue, open the doors, and wait. They might not need a new album in order to mount a profitable tour, but I'd be lying if I said I weren't panting shamelessly for one. I've been waiting for the DVD especially since it was announced, and just between me and Rammstein, it would make a ripping birthday gift.

I'm still grinding away on part XVII of Sprache. Two hundred words here, three hundred there, eight hundred pounded out the day before that. It's not the fluid elegance of one thousand words every day, but it's progress, ugly and herky jerky as it might be, and that's more important. Nothing dooms a story in progress faster than the loss of momentum. I've lost too many excellent fics to its withering predation. Too often, I've opted not to write anything for the day because I couldn't write everything I thought I ought, and then one day of neglect and procrastination became two, and then three, and before I knew it, a week had elapsed with no progress, not even a quick line or two to keep the characters limber and fresh in my mind, and before long, I'd lost the plot entirely, the characters and settings rough and foreign where once they had been smooth and familiar.

I'm determined that Sprache not suffer the same fate. Unlike previous long fics, which have been written without an outline, I have made notes to remind myself of important plot and character details and set malleable goals for where I'd like the characters to be by X chapter. A margin of error of plus one or two is acceptable; plus five, not so much. This has helped keep me on track and limit the number of digressions the story takes. Anyone who reads it can tell you that there are digressions and internal musings aplenty, but there are still far fewer than there might have been had I not drawn a crude map beforehand.

Most importantly, though, I'm maintaining precious momentum by writing something every day, even if it's a page of dialogue, half of which will be rewritten or discarded entirely the next day. I'm keeping the characters vibrant and pliable and the story hot-blooded until I regain the energy and discipline to resume my former habit of a thousand words per day.

It's not ideal, and it's a far cry from my glory days when writing was as natural as drawing breath, but it's what works for me right now, and so I'll take it gladly.

At Least I've Still Got the Needle in My Hand

My corner of the world is quiet and still, and I find I have very little to say. Rammfen have slipped into a torpor from which I doubt they will emerge until the release date for the Best Of is announced, and CSI:NY fen are quietly awaiting the commencement of season eight. Aside from the customary flouncing and bed-shitting from the DL contingent in the latter, who have eagerly dug their cherished persecution mantles by Armani from the storage closet, there has been precious little excitement.

I'm beginning to suspect that the Rammstein Best Of compilation isn't going to be released in September as fans had hoped. If it were, there would have been some word by now, and surely Amazon, that great benevolent god of e-commerce, would have listed it for pre-order, and I would have pounced on it like a nympho on a three-dicked spider monkey. I'm betting on a mid-October release. Any later than that, and they're going to have a great deal of trouble touring on an album that no one can buy. Yes, it's just a rehash of their older catalogue, and fans will still know the words and still eat it up with a spoon, but the whole purpose of touring is to attract new fans and convince your loyal ones to buy your swag and whatever you're promoting with the tour. If there's no CD on the shelves, then why bother loading up the trucks?

As a fan, I know why they should bother: because I want to see them again, and to see them perform their older songs in their older costumes. I would gladly pay them fistfuls of cash for the opportunity. But from the perspective of the bean counters, why would you mount a tour to promote a product that is not yet available? Maybe they've realized the extent of their worldwide fanbase and further realized that a vast majority of them are rabid diehards who would pay to see them perform Sesame Street jingles on the side of the highway, new release be damned. Maybe their arcane arithmancy has shown that to cover touring costs and earn a tidy profit, they must needs only back up the merchandise trucks to the venue, open the doors, and wait. They might not need a new album in order to mount a profitable tour, but I'd be lying if I said I weren't panting shamelessly for one. I've been waiting for the DVD especially since it was announced, and just between me and Rammstein, it would make a ripping birthday gift.

I'm still grinding away on part XVII of Sprache. Two hundred words here, three hundred there, eight hundred pounded out the day before that. It's not the fluid elegance of one thousand words every day, but it's progress, ugly and herky jerky as it might be, and that's more important. Nothing dooms a story in progress faster than the loss of momentum. I've lost too many excellent fics to its withering predation. Too often, I've opted not to write anything for the day because I couldn't write everything I thought I ought, and then one day of neglect and procrastination became two, and then three, and before I knew it, a week had elapsed with no progress, not even a quick line or two to keep the characters limber and fresh in my mind, and before long, I'd lost the plot entirely, the characters and settings rough and foreign where once they had been smooth and familiar.

I'm determined that Sprache not suffer the same fate. Unlike previous long fics, which have been written without an outline, I have made notes to remind myself of important plot and character details and set malleable goals for where I'd like the characters to be by X chapter. A margin of error of plus one or two is acceptable; plus five, not so much. This has helped keep me on track and limit the number of digressions the story takes. Anyone who reads it can tell you that there are digressions and internal musings aplenty, but there are still far fewer than there might have been had I not drawn a crude map beforehand.

Most importantly, though, I'm maintaining precious momentum by writing something every day, even if it's a page of dialogue, half of which will be rewritten or discarded entirely the next day. I'm keeping the characters vibrant and pliable and the story hot-blooded until I regain the energy and discipline to resume my former habit of a thousand words per day.

It's not ideal, and it's a far cry from my glory days when writing was as natural as drawing breath, but it's what works for me right now, and so I'll take it gladly.