Oh Small Crimes. You are a story that never fails to alternately infuriate me, make me incredibly gleeful, and creep me the fuck out.

Part of the creepy has to do with Cain and the way he sees Scout. Basically, he sees his mission/experiment/thing (because he essentially is trying to torture the Rak out of Scout) as a kind of fucked up catcher in the rye thing--he wants to save her innocence by removing her inability to not act on her murderous impulses. The other complicating factor is that he sees this (subconsciously, I think) as a kind of self-redemption thing--because he hasn't been successful thus far, and also in part because of the bigger, creepier factor.

Which is, of course, the fact that he's somehow replaced Scout in his head with his baby sister Lindsey. Who he has lost contact with and just... Cain feels like he's failed her because he wasn't there for large portions of her life. He wasn't with her when she got her wings--he's almost disappointed that she turned out to be a guardian, and he feels like that is his fault because he left the house when she was eight, to go to college. And their relationship has always been creepy anyway, and with the whole connection to Scout it gets so much creepier. Because... well.

Cain has sex with Scout, a few times, before she escapes. He's drunk every time, and it's not something that he thinks about consciously. But it does happen, and whether it's an extension of incestuous feelings he has towards Lindsey or not, it complicates matters--Cain is trying to preserve Scout's innocence, but at the same time he's taking it away by having sex with her. It is a present part of their relationship, as much as Cain almost deliberately does not think about it.

I guess really what the whole ramble is about is me struggling to write sympathetic creepy characters. I want them to come across as sympathetic--because as fucked up as he is, Cain does have sympathetic qualities. He wants so badly to succeed it's probably limiting him. The same thing is happening with Matt. I just... don't know if I can pull it off. But I'm working on it.

Woooooow. And then I proceed to not update for nearly six months. SORRY GUYS, not that anyone really follows this. More like sorry to myself, because posting here always gives me some kind of motivation to write and I've really been missing that.

So. In terms of updated things. I hit the 50,000 word mark for my NaNoWriMo, CIRCLING THE EDGE, but the story is kind of... resisting being finished. Possibly this is because the characterization overall is not as strong as I would like and it's more plot-driven, and I suck at plot. Oh well. I'll look back at it another time, perhaps. It's got a little bit of promise left in it, I think.


THE TEAM is stalled as well, for opposite reasons. I think it's going to end up being similar to THE AFTER ADVENTURES, with the whole apocalypse thing--more focusing on the apocalypse itself than the aftereffects, and obviously it's not going to be a children's story like THE AFTER ADVENTURES, but... clearly I need to go back to the plotting stages of that one. Both of them, actually. Oh JOY.

BURN THE DEVIL OUT is actually... okay. So I haven't touched it since like JUNE, but I read a portion of it for the coffeehouse thrown by the school's literary magazine (which I am one of the head editors for... yeah, I'm a nerd) and people really liked it so I've started kind of poking at it again. I forgot how much I really enjoyed that story, and how fun the characters were, and I can't wait to finish the first part so we can move into the second, which is one step closer to me being able to WRITE THE DEVIL. And I love the Devil in that story. So much.

HER I MUST FOLLOW might be permanently scrapped. I mean... I love the title, and I love Mat (the main character) but I have no idea what his story is. I just know that he's connected to the title. So it's kind of back to the drawing board on that one. Yeah. I have so much plotting to do over break.

I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY I HAVE SUCH A BLOCK WHEN IT COMES TO THE ADVENTURES OF SIR SHAGSALOT. Seriously. I just... cannot seem to sit down and actually WRITE that thing. It's very very frustrating. Granted, I'm working through some backstory stuff for him, which is nice in understanding why he's such an asshole. Okay, not really. Whatever.

And finally, the work that is currently EATING MY BRAIN OH MY GOD is SMALL CRIMES, which is actually more like a collection of short stories about the same characters than anything else. But it's fulla sketch and I love it so much because it's so twisted.

All links for these stories (save OUT which... also needs to be reworked OH GOD SO MUCH REWORKING TO DOOOOO) can be found in my (very not shiny) profile. I will try to keep updating more often with things like revelations about characters, plot things, etc.

I used notecards to plot for the first time yesterday! It was really exciting. It helps me see the plot a lot clearer. I mean, I have no idea how it would work for a project that's not split up. Because, uh, yeah, new development! KILLING THE DEVIL? Is now called BURN THE DEVIL OUT, and it comes in three parts! Which is very very exciting. They're very shiny and color-coordinated and yes! I'm very excited about that. Now, to actually start writing... that's always the hardest part, isn't it?

Also! There's been some plotting for HER I MUST FOLLOW. And a couple of revelations that I have to write down so I don't forget them. All in all, exciting stuff! I've been kind of failing at writing four hours a day, but tomorrow that begins anew. Or, you know, today. I'm getting up at 8:30 (whoo hoo five hours!) in the hopes that that will inspire me to, you know, actually sit down and WRITE. So... I should sleep now.

Exam week has once again rolled around, and I should be stuyding. I am not right now, because I don't know if I can study for this stupid English exam any more. However, I am also not letting myself write because I CAN'T. Because I should be studying. HOWEVER. There is no rule against me POSTING ABOUT MY WRITING. SO HAH.

Okay. Um. Where to begin. I have NO idea what's going on with THE TEAM. That thing doesn't even have a plot right now. It's kind of ridiculous. It just consists of Finn passing out and waking up. Not that I mind, because I love her, but.

I'm resisting writing KILLING THE DEVIL in first person. Because that's just so cliche, and it could work in third if my brain didn't insist it be in first. Or something. I don't know. It feels TOO removed in third, and it's a pretty upclose and personal story. I don't know. It's frustrating.

And then, we have the as yet untitled screenplay I'm writing based on vaguely real events for my friend for her graduation. It's about a mutual friend as an action hero, based on certain events that actually happened that I've twisted and changed the order of so it makes more sense in the context of the story. It's not a full-length screenplay by any means--just a basic breakdown of scenes and dialogue and fun stuff. But I'm enjoying it and I think it's pretty funny if you know the whole story, hah. OH. Just thought of a title. I love when stuff like that happens. A CHANCE HAPPENING. You'd... get it if you knew the whole story. Or something. The title will probably change at some point. I don't know.

OH MY GOD. I just went into my writing folder to make a file the previously mentioned screenplay, and I found OUT, which was going to be my romantic comedy for ScriptFrenzy before I came to my senses and dropped out in favor of We Write in Hell. MAN I will have no problem writing four hours a day with all these projects.

And, of course, JUMP WITHOUT THINKING is laying across the room moping at me to pls be revised. THAT IS ANOTHER SUMMER PROJECT, DAMMIT. Or something.

AND NOW, TO GO DO MORE STUDYING. Wish me luck!

Um, hi.

This is my 'hello out there internet' post. Because yeah. I'm... here. Thanks muchly to falcon_horus for the invite. I'm not entirely what this will be used for... probably, like, writing stuff or maybe personal. I don't know entirely.

But, uh, yeah! Hi.

EDIT: Oh wow, new HTML tags. This is going to be interesting.