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Another thousand in the books. I hadn't planned on writing today, but Roomie wanted to play football on the Xbox, and I had no yen for reading, so I opened up the old word processor and got on with it. So now Sprache XXI has a few days' work left, and then I'll have a glut of fic to post at the end of the year.
As for new projects, I'm deciding which tense to use for my upcoming Haldirfic. Pluperfect was an experiment I don't intend to repeat. I'm leaning towards present, but there are more than a few pedants who declare that the story is ruined--ruined, they tell you--if it isn't in simple past. Some of them have supportable reasons, such as finding the relentless immediacy exhausting or being unable to suspend their disbelief, while others carp that stories should be written in simple past because it's the way it's always been done. According to them, present tense is the hallmark of tweens, hacks, rank amateurs, and MSFers with the attention span of a gnat at the talent to match.
I don't believe this specious argument; a good story is a good story no matter when it's told, but I haven't written in the preterite in a very long time, and like any skill, technique atrophies when neglected. We'll have to see what the story demands.
As for new projects, I'm deciding which tense to use for my upcoming Haldirfic. Pluperfect was an experiment I don't intend to repeat. I'm leaning towards present, but there are more than a few pedants who declare that the story is ruined--ruined, they tell you--if it isn't in simple past. Some of them have supportable reasons, such as finding the relentless immediacy exhausting or being unable to suspend their disbelief, while others carp that stories should be written in simple past because it's the way it's always been done. According to them, present tense is the hallmark of tweens, hacks, rank amateurs, and MSFers with the attention span of a gnat at the talent to match.
I don't believe this specious argument; a good story is a good story no matter when it's told, but I haven't written in the preterite in a very long time, and like any skill, technique atrophies when neglected. We'll have to see what the story demands.