For the things that never make any sense! XD

[angiwyn]

A few other things....
I forgot to mention that my initial inspiration for the "airship saga" comes from the work of H.G. Wells, specifically his story The Shape Of Things To Come. There will be a dominant "super power" government based on the "Air Dictatorship" from this story, while my protagonists are independent air couriers who belong to something like the Vanship Union from Last Exile.

A few questions that I'm still trying to answer include what to name the "super power" government, what to call the "airships" and what to name the over-all story. Now, I'm off to do some research and hopefully answer those questions.

Slightly off topic, but not by much, have you looked at Sky Crawlers? It might give you a few more ideas for your Story B.

[Geektopian]

Slightly off topic, but not by much, have you looked at Sky Crawlers? It might give you a few more ideas for your Story B.

Yes, I rented it last summer. I appreciate the suggestion though.

Interestingly, among the aircraft-related anime and manga I've checked out as inspiration, I would say that Porco Rosso has had the greatest influence on story development. Last Exile was inspirational from a technological standpoint, although I already had the basic idea in mind for a "retro-tech" counter gravity aircraft before I'd ever heard of it.

Sky Crawlers probably played a role in influencing me to study lesser-known, prototype or even "paper" designs from the '30s through '50s. I've got to admit I still don't know what many of these vehicles should look like, or how I would represent them in a photostory but at least I have a general direction now.

[Geektopian]

Dang it, the Russians beat me to it!
The VVA-14
In Soviet Russia, idea steals you. Admittedly, my idea is a bit "prettier" but the idea of a wingless aircraft with a "greenhouse" nose (like the American B-29 bomber) is definitely there.

Also, I think I like the Portuguese term "aeronave" to refer to at least the smaller aircraft in the story.

[leopardessmoon]

BOLOGNA!

[DollyKim]

When you write fiction you make up your own rules for the universe you created. I wanted my Justin to be a Colour Sergeant in the Coldstream Guards en route to becoming a Beefeater. His wool gloves and lack of a sash aside I found a chat board to ask some questions, and got great help, and found their culture to be a lot like Klingons.

Before I drove myself even more mad I decided Justin would find himself assigned to the Isle of Woman, near the isle of Man , where the silly exiles go. He and the other guards watch over the bungalow set aside for the Queen in case she ever decides to visit, thus I can add the Grenadier and Life Guard uniforms I have. It gives my Brit based dolls a place to hang and chase a wheel of cheese down a hill and Justin can run the reenactment society. Some day I may be able to put together a well basically article about it all but until then we live happily.

[Itsaiya]

Yeah, i agree with Kim... if you want fish to rain down in the desert on every fifth day, then make it so.
Just make sure to write down your own rules and anything made-up like locations xD;;; I tripped myself up this way while writing Light Casting Shadows... I ended up forgetting the main bad guy's name.... it kept switching up between "The Evil One" and "The Great Evil" (no official name... one of those taboo things). Specific skills that characters have, etc...

making a list of events helps, too

-so-and-so and other-person find the [elusive item]
-so-and-so argue over the [elusive item] with other-person, although so-and-so claims they saw it first
-other-person storms out and gets lost in the forest
-so-and-so sulks for awhile before going looking for other-person with the [elusive item]. Monologue with themself on what to say to other-person when they find them.

etcetcetcetcetc.... I'm only now (as in, the last few months) finding it helps like you wouldn't believe to connect dots... I'd get general ideas, but then more ideas in different parts of the story would end up more developed than other parts... and unable to figure out how to get from part A to part B without just... jumping straight to part B and leaving no meat to the characters...

But thats just things I've found x.x *in no way an expert* It'll probably work just as well for photostories, too, especially if extensive

[DollyKim]

It's kind of like writing a show bible, they did that for Star Trek, it's the rules and regulations that would allow anyone coming in to be able to join the writing team. Even a flow sheet could do it. Ofcourse now that I've seen someone dressed as the Sixth Doctor taking us on a tour of his local Ren Fair and time space continuum things it seems anything goes, not the Cole Porter version but "Anything goes in, anything goes out..."

As for getting from point A to B it's okay to write sideways and jump up to point W and get that out before filling the rest in. Write what parts come first, keep notes of what you need to fill in, and let it come when it comes. Had to turn one of my ideas in to a choose your own adventure style thing before it made my head explode but that freed up a ton of new ideas.

[Itsaiya]

It's kind of like writing a show bible, they did that for Star Trek, it's the rules and regulations that would allow anyone coming in to be able to join the writing team. Even a flow sheet could do it. Ofcourse now that I've seen someone dressed as the Sixth Doctor taking us on a tour of his local Ren Fair and time space continuum things it seems anything goes, not the Cole Porter version but "Anything goes in, anything goes out..."

As for getting from point A to B it's okay to write sideways and jump up to point W and get that out before filling the rest in. Write what parts come first, keep notes of what you need to fill in, and let it come when it comes. Had to turn one of my ideas in to a choose your own adventure style thing before it made my head explode but that freed up a ton of new ideas.

I couldn't jump sections unless I had them completely separated from each other (sep docs or 62487362487920543782 spaces away from the main story o_O) or I'd so forget and just leave it there xD.... or get uber neurotic/paranoid about getting it in there o_O roflmao



in other random ramblings that is -always - TL;DR, roflmao...

I keep forgetting to take photos of my father's and my swords O_o *hopes, if she writes it enough, she'll remember while at parents again* (....if it's a weekend, you have a 75/80% chance that I'm down there again...). Maybe I'll take a photo of my bow and bo...

I got my OOP (as of 1988) book collection of doujins (a collection of artists doujinshis - or fan comics of another/pre-existing book/show/movie, really) for that oooold anime, Yoroiden Samurai Troopers.... it was awesome. It even has one from ye olde CLAMP (yeah, the Chobits/Tsukasa/XXHolic/Card Captor Sakura CLAMP). They did the cover and mini poster inside, too. It was nice to look at all the different artists styles and takes on the same characters and series... some serious mini stories, some downright humor, some cute, some headscratching...
It really made me laugh to look aaaaall the way to the end and see a printed ad for the original tv series, in all Japanese, but for the sudden random English, "ANIMATE TAPE CASSETTE". lol.
Dated right there.


I did five loads of my sister's laundry - two separate laundromats, same day, at the same time (uuuhh long story as to why she has THAT much laundry >_>) and ended up with a good $60... (she waved it at me D: lol)

I used some of it to get an OOP figure kit that I passed by while looking at the doujin book... (in other words, also from Yoroiden Samurai Troopers >.> ... (...you know, I wish the name wasn't so Power Rangers-like... I like the 1995 American title - Ronin Warriors - better x_x But then I still feel like I'm flashing into the 1980s for a split second).
I couldn't pass it up... (and quite honestly, it felt good to have a tangible goal to reach for.... which is why I raised my hand to take such a large, cat hair-infested, old dirty laundry job... it's been awhile since I've felt like I had something to strive for without it being completely invisible or dependent on others - as in, dependent if they buy a craft/cosplay item... which...no one has. ANYWAY)

Anyway, yeah... I couldn't pass it up. The only one I've seen, it's old and also OOP (Out of print) from the late 1980s and my fav character from even 1995 watching it on Fox >____> *points at new icon/post picture....thingy...*

Ironically, what started this was that dream I had a month or so back with said character walking somewhere with a grocery bag marked with Tacobell's logo.... also weird since I completely forgot the show's existence/farthest from my mind.

As for the fugure kit, I've been debating back and forth.... do I leave it in the box all nice and safe and let it stew till it's super old when I'm some granny and hope it's worth something some day (though, you'd have to kill me for me to giuve anything rare up).... or dig in, build him and um.... I guess let it join my Figma and other figures, roflmao. hell, I should just put them in the little wooden house my grandfather made not too long ago and was shoving in my direction x_x The 'random figure house'.....

Speaking of moneys... I'm going to sell my Anubis fursuit mask and husky...dog....mutt o_O I originally put them up in a fursuit auction LJ comm asking for an assessment of what people think I could sell them for.... instead, I just got people wanting them off the bat o_O and not one price suggestion OTL oh well. In the end I just decided to put them up for auction, since there were a few interested. I was surprised in general that there were interest at all.... o_o It made me pretty happy...

Hopefully, they sell, and make things feel less 'impossible'/non-existent... less 'quietly failing' o_O


Edit: Screw it - i;mma dig into that kit, build em and appreciate him >:o

[Geektopian]

Itsaiya said;
"Screw it - i;mma dig into that kit, build em and appreciate him >:o"

Yessss, doooo eeeet!
Oh, and please post some before and after pics if and when you get the chance.


On a vaguely related note, I'm now hoping that a Japanese model company releases kits of the walking tanks from Sora no Woto. I watched it over the weekend and, being a "gear head", I was drawn to the tanks. The Roman tank is obviously closely modeled on the early WW2 American M3 Lee/ Grant medium tank (but with legs!), so it could probably be built from an existing kit. I'm not that ambitious however.


Oh, and how did I let myself get drawn in to yet another silly-ass moe anime series? Even though Sora no Woto isn't quite the sugar-induced coma that K-On is, it's still pretty lightweight in spite of some drama in later episodes.

[DollyKim]

I work a lot from a beat sheet as well, it's a list or an outline if that works better, of plot points. I've started putting that at the very beginning of my story file, it kind of works as a table of contents. Just separate the sections with bold type headers or something that causes a visual break, like the illuminated capitals in old manuscripts. The most important thing is to write.

Writing insanity is doing a choose your own adventure type story. I did have enough sense to do a strait forward version of each story first. I diagramed a few of the books to see how they work and figured out to have a core starting story then a handful of first choices. Every time the protagonist dies in mine they go back to to the handful of first choices, if they keep going there's a handful of long endings but no real way out, just back to the start. It started on a dry erase board, then a big piece of paper, and now index cards to make the choices somewhat self contained before I type it up.

It's good to do things that make your brain hurt.