We’re
pretty much knee deep into the busy season at the day job for the past
month. And it’s only going to get busier June/July/August and start to slow in September/October.
I’m easily doing 10 -12hr days now. So progress
on the wip is still slower than I’d like, but I’m still crawling forward in
increments.
Came across
a couple interesting surprises while doing some editing/revising. Authors usually have a general feel for their
characters before they start writing. Sometimes it’s really in depth and you
know all about their childhood, etc., right on down the line to the present. Sometimes it’s just basic bare bones stuff,
like Character A is angry at Character B for this reason. Then after writing
some of the story, you’ll realize that there are actually several reasons A is
angry at B, and it may not be all B’s fault.
Sometimes a character’s dialogue/internal narrative runs away from you
on the page and you learn a bunch of stuff you didn’t know/plan. Or it could be
a single line that makes you think *that’s it! That’s the key to your
character/motivation!* And the character comes alive for you in a way they hadn’t
been before.
So there I
was, cleaning up some of the writing and I came across a couple of throw away lines
for my hero, that made me pause and chuckle and think *this is soo you. Such an
arrogant asshole. lol* But in the end,
lines like the final one below, just help to make him a little more real. .
My hero,
Balthazar, is the dragon-shifter Alpha. In little snippet below he’s having a
polite (coughcough) discussion with the heroine’s father, a powerful wizard. Figured I’d throw in an eye candy pic of
Jason M, because he’s the inspiration for Balthazar.
* * * * *
"Speak."
"I want your promise—”
"You want? Who the f**k are you to make demands of me? You're just the latest Wizard, in a long line of them. All of whom I've outlived. Or killed."
"I'm not demanding. I'm asking for your help."
"I don't like the way you ask. You need practice. Down on your knees."
"I want your promise—”
"You want? Who the f**k are you to make demands of me? You're just the latest Wizard, in a long line of them. All of whom I've outlived. Or killed."
"I'm not demanding. I'm asking for your help."
"I don't like the way you ask. You need practice. Down on your knees."
6 comments:
Oh dear, arrogant indeed.
I'll be over here in the corner, patiently* waiting.
I do hope you are at least getting properly compensated for the insane work hours! :sending good thoughts:
*okay, I'll just fake patience.
Compensated? *insert cynical snort*
I just deleted a huge post/rant because even though I'm here under a pen name and haven't named my employer, shit happens...
But the snort speaks for itself. The big improvement I've implemented for myself this year is: I won't work weekends and I take advantage of flex hours by starting a later shift daily, so I have 2-3 stress free hours in the morning before heading out to work. I'll always find that *one-more-thing* to take care of at the end of the day and stay later than I intend to, but those few hours in the morning that are mine to write, cook, clean house, exercise, whatever, and really helps with life/work balance.
I should add that they do offer OT periodically on rare occasion. But only if you come in on weekends. More often I've heard this year they're offering time off in lieu (again, only if you come in on the weekend), but that opens up other workload issues in the long run. And most of the OT gets eaten up in taxes anyways. Also, when you come in on Monday morning you'll be greeted with a response to a good 1/2 to 3/4 of the emails you sent out on the weekend, so you may be ahead in terms how recent you've reviewed a file, but still be buried under the actual load of things that require your response attention. Buried is buried, so I don't mind being behind as well if it means I get the time off to relax.
lol. ^^ And I still end up with a long ass response, but at least it's not ranty. long story short, I got a job that pays the bills. And aside from the workload, I like my job/company. Other jobs/companies have their own drawbacks, so it's a wash.
Oh, and, yes, I will probably hit you up for a beta read. :) I know you'll be brutally honest. :)
I am with you on the "at least this is a good company" bit--considering how bad things are everyfreakingwhere, having a job that actually pays the bills is HUGE.
Brutally honest: I'm wincing a little, while appreciating your outlook and courage, a LOT.
I'd be wincing too, but for all my posturing (lol) the fact is if there was no other way to manage workload but come in on weekends, I'd kinda have no choice. The fact that I can make the choice not too, and also not to work the crazy 12-15hr days on average (more like 9-10hrs right now) says workloads have improved.
Also company has habit of rebalancing workloads, so if you have 10 files and I have 4, they'll give me 3 of yours, so you'll have 7 and I'll have 7 (although, the 3 you gave me are still your files, I'm just working on them for you today for whatever is *currently* outstanding on them. Once I've reviewed docs that came in or answered an email, the file is back to you, I don't have to follow up)
BUT the problem with rebalancing is... If had 14 files, busted my ass putting extra hours and now I'm down to 4 files, per the example above, instead of "enjoying" the pay off of all my hard work and getting a little bit of a breather, here comes 4 additional files dumped on me by way of *rebalancing*!! *sob*
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