random nonsense thought of the day

I want a fanvid set to Joanna Newsom's Only Skin. Which is, to be clear, a 16+ minute song, so we're already off to a questionable start. Also, even after years of hearing it and singing it to myself contentedly, I...don't have the slightest idea what the lyrics mean. So I can make no suggestions as to the visual or emotional content of this imagined fanvid.

But I have intensely associated the song with reading printed-out copies of Gundam Wing fanfic in the summer sunlight. It is such a good memory, which has made it into one of my favorite songs. And I'm rereading old GW fic at the moment, so.

I don't even care about the fanvid being for GW, to be clear. I just have this strong but vague impression that it would make an amazing vid. I am definitely the only person on the planet to have thought this.

Done This Week

I got a lot done, but nothing I did will be as important as what my ducks did: first egg of the spring!

Lewisia: REVISED! Well, technically it took Sunday morning as well, but now I get to spend this week ignoring the hell out of it while it gets beta read, which is the important part. Also, jesus wept, it is over 12k.

Gratitude journaling: 35 new entries

Tumblr queue: 35 posts added

Day job: 42.25 hours

Cooking: sausage crumbles, rice, I despair of my food choices for work; Buddha's Hand shortbread, in infinite improvement to my life

Other: cleaned living room end table, sorted clothing; did major grocery shopping

Link: Writing advice you’re not going to like

I reblogged this post a few months ago, with the thought that yes, I probably WOULD make myself do this at some point. The gist is that you use retyping as a revision method for a piece of writing. Fresh document, the old draft either printed out or pulled up in another window. As you retype, make changes as needed.

I have now done this terrible thing! It was great! My hands are killing me! Probably you should not do this to a 12k story over the course of 36 hours!

It functions--and this is what made me think it might work for me when I first read it--a bit like reading a story aloud. That's been one of my go-to ways to work out what a piece needs. It's very useful for individual lines, of course. Reading a story for podfic makes me hyperaware of how lines can work or not, which is useful when revising.

But this retyping process just generally made me more aware of what is happening in the story. I picked up on patterns I hadn't realized were forming and places where the plot hadn't quite come together. Just because I'm tuned in to the story in a way that normal reading and revision don't always give me.

In summary: Very useful. Kinda painful.