Ceridwen’s Cauldron

Meow. Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow. Meow? MEOW! Meow! Meow! Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow. Meow? Meow? Meow? Meow?

Meow?

Oh, it got better toward the end. Still. Nothing like banging your head against a metaphorical brick wall all day to make it a relief to walk away from the computer. Except I have to walk back tonight. To finish something else.

I want to know when it’s going to get easier. Like, at each mission I write I think “Oh, but the next one will be easier because I know the plot and it’s well-defined, and I’m gaining experience at this script writing thing and it will get easier. Yeah, that’s a nice theory. Except each mission has its own problems. So no, it’s not getting any easier or faster.

Bah.

Posted by Ceri under Scribbles | 1 Comment »

Because of having to adjust the license to a script, there’s been some woes and sticky bits writing-wise, the result being that I am WAY behind on writing and it is going SLOWLY. Urgh.

But this morning I discovered a way to marry together several threads that were left hanging because of the cuts, tying them all nicely into one sub-plot with minimal rewriting. GO ME.

And then I banged my head against a dialogue that should theoretically be easy, but the words won’t come out right to be impactful — I just can’t get them to convey the correct meaning to change another character. The potential is there. It has to happen. But I cannot make it happen.

I am going for a walk, and to get lunch. Then I will do some other writing stuff, and perhaps take a stab at it again. Or perhaps I will skip it and come back to it later today or tomorrow and see if I can’t make the words work.

Rgh.

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Actually, have gun, will pack — because the gun in question is a tape gun, and it is making my life a heck of a lot easier. We did have a little tape holder that’s supposed to dispense and cut — it came with the rolls of packing tape we got when we were picking up boxes at u-haul — but it didn’t work and was little better than just having a roll of tape and a pair of scissors. But today we stopped by the hardware store and picked up a proper tape gun each, and packed a slew of boxes.

I love my tape gun. I feel as cool as Rosie the Riveter when I am wielding it.

We are making progress packing-wise, and have several empty bookshelves to prove it, as well as the frustration of not being able to find the CDs I want to listen to because they are packed.

There are some dishes packed too, and some stuff that packed up easily because it was all boxed and in storage already (we have many ‘display’ pieces we got as wedding gifts that have never been out of their boxes, because there is simply nowhere to display them).

I have a feeling this is going to get worse rather than better as we go along, once we have all the easily-packable items into boxes and start looking around and finding all of the odds and ends that we’ve missed. There might be tears.

But there will be no tears over taping the boxes anymore. For have I mentioned, I have a tape gun?

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So the Habs got out of the first round of the playoffs, defeating Boston in 7 games.

And then there was the rioting.

Of course, maybe it wasn’t Habs fans doing it at all. It could have been Hooligans. From the article:

Gingras said it was not immediately clear if the rioters were just rowdy fans or others who “used the occasion to do their mischief.”

Or maybe it was partly rowdy fans, and partly others who were just there for the free booze and sportswear. And burning cop cars. Because what else is there to do on a Monday night in this town?

As others have said — if this is what can be expected after winning four games, I really hope they don’t make it to the finals.

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I came in this morning to find that what I spent most of Friday struggling to write was utter crap and needed to be rewritten entirely. And I stared at it, and banged my head on my desk, and printed off what I had and worked on it with a pen and notebook and that helped me fix it (Er…I think it’s fixed, anyway.)

Then there was a moment today when everything I was working on came together into a complete picture, and the words were flowing. It was glorious. It lasted about ten minutes. But it DID happen.

When it’s coming together there’s a certain rightness to it that I hope is coming across in the writing. When it’s not coming together, the clock is ticking and the deadline is short and my reputation is on the line and I don’t like how that feels.

I’m writing a lot about writing recently. I guess it’s what’s on my mind.

Had an idea for a story today. I might try and write some of it out before I head off to bed.

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I got an e-mail from Owldaughter on Friday that totally made my day. I made her little boy Liam a quilt back when he was born. Since then, the quilt has been on display on a quilt rack in his room, because the rigors of life with a small child mean that bedspreads have to be washed very often, and that’s not good for a quilt.

However, last week Liam’s regular bedspread was in the wash, and wasn’t dry by bedtime so his mom took the quilt off the rack to put it on his bed for the night. Liam’s reaction? This from his mom’s e-mail to me:

‘ “I get to sleep with *that* so beautiful blanket?” he said, and I
nodded. He said enthusiastically, “That is *so cool*!” ‘

And then he insisted that she take a picture of him with the beautiful blanket:

And the quilt is still on his bed, because he likes it so much it hasn’t been taken off, beating out the usual “Finding Nemo” bedspread.

How cool is that?

(Ar, your son has excellent taste!)

Update: Some interesting action going on in the comments. Owl added a further nuance to the story…

I just showed Liam your blog and said, “Who’s that?” “That is Liam,” he said, very pleased, “on his beautiful bed!”

And then Carrie came in as well with her quilt story (I made a quilt for her little boy Aidan when he was born)…

Well I just read this entry and had to add my two cents.
The other night Aidan and I were talking about the new baby, and he asked if the purple blanket has to stay in the purple room with the baby. (Aidan’s getting a big boy room in the current guest room.) I asked him what purple blanket, and he said, “You know the special blanket with the cats!”

I realized that it has been in his room since he was born, so I take it for granted seeing it all the time. But with all the talk about him moving to a new room and the baby going in the “purple room” he was concerned that he would have to leave it behind. I assured him that it was his to take into his new room, no matter what colour we paint it.

The special blanket with the cats. I love it! And you can see that blanket here.

Posted by Ceri under Crafts and Sewing & Creativity | 6 Comments »

I shall be forever grateful to the little mouse who wrote me an e-mail one day saying ‘hey, my job is opening up and you could do it.’ And who critiqued my resume and submitted it, and effectively talked her producers into hiring me.

Because I love my job. For really and for true. It has its frustrations, sure, like the time earlier this week when I wanted to stab one of my bosses with something pointy over the ‘but what can we cut?’ discussions, and the fact that I’m supposed to be 2/3 finished a script that I couldn’t really start writing until just recently, putting me on an insane schedule of writingness.

But those are minor frustrations, really. I like all of the people I’m working with, and I think they like working with me. We have fun. We laugh a lot. We all care about our project and making an awesome game even if that sometimes means we have different ideas of what’s going to make it awesome. We work it out.

I am learning so much. I keep thinking I’ve hit a plateau where I’m reasonably confident in what I’m doing, but then something happens and it’s right back up the learning curve again. And not just about writing — truth be told, there’s not a whole lot of people around to critique the story as I tell it, which has its ups and downs. No, I’m learning about making video games, not to mention time management and people management. I am observing and trying to learn from everyone around me and they’ve got a lot to teach in the way they handle things.

There are days when I can’t see the future — not in any clairvoyant sense, but in the sense that I really can’t imagine what comes next. I’m a good fit for this project, but I don’t know what they’ll put me when game is finished. I don’t know what I’ll want to be put on next. On a much larger scale, I don’t know if my future lies in the game industry or not, though I think I would like it to. The thought of not knowing what comes next makes me kind of panicky. What will they ask me to write, then? But that’s the future, and I’ll worry about those challenges when they come. Because for now, I have more than enough things to worry about, to learn, to do.

I am having a great time.

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I have managed to convince my boss to let me work at home, as I will get more work done on the script if I can’t talk to anybody.

By the end of the day I also have to have a set of goals for the script, given my drastically reduced (due to meetings and other prep-stuff) writing time. And hopefully a better idea of what I’m capable of writing in a day, because honestly? I’ve never timed myself. And I’ve never written script before. So I have no way of knowing how much is a reasonable amount to expect from me in a day.

I’m also a little nervous. I’m pretty sure I can get a lot more done from home, but what if I become easily distracted by cats, and laundry and packing? What then?

There were more cut-related things happening yesterday afternoon, where I fought with the design leads about what got marked as highest priority in the game – I’ve been pleasantly surprised  (sometimes edging into alarmed) by their willingness to say “Okay, if that’s what’s needed for the script, that’s what you get.”
I don’t want to kill game fun at the expense of story. At the same time, I want the story to be good. I had several people express confidence in my abilities yesterday (’If you say you’ll handle it, it’s handled.’) which is both gratifying and intimidating, because I don’t want to let anyone down.

I mean, I think I have a really good sense of story and what’s required to make a good story, but what if I’m wrong? What if this is all the Dunning-Kruger effect?

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We had a meeting today where we had to cut stuff from the final game. I was fortunate in that I got to be there — it’s my understanding that sometimes they don’t invite the scriptwriter to stuff like this, but force us to make sense of it afterward. Not so this time. I had a direct hand in it.

They asked me what I’d remove and I told them. Told them what they’d lose if it was cut, too, but something’s gotta go and this won’t kill the story. It sucks, but it protects a lot of the other stuff that, were it removed instead, would kill the game. At least, that’s how it looks from here.

I think I’ve made the right choice. I hope I have. I talked to one of the other designers who supports me in the decision (which is nice), though he doesn’t like it either.  Nobody does, but there you are. Budget and time will only let you do so much, and we’re a small project.

I feel a little hollow, though, so I went for a walk at lunch to make me feel better.  It helped a little.

The producer just wandered by and asked me if I’m okay with everything. I told him loud music and writing are the only things that will cure it.  This afternoon I am turning up Invisible and writing script, and will beat off anyone who distracts me. Conveniently, the previous scriptwriter left a brick on my desk I could use for just such a purpose.

Also, I have chocolate.

Posted by Ceri under Work & Writing | 1 Comment »

Yes, I know, I haven’t been writing here much, and I sort of feel bad about that, because I miss it. But with house-related things and work often extending into overtime, I don’t have a whole lot of time to myself, and most of it is spent doing things like cleaning, packing, or spending a blessed hour reading.

To distract you from my lack of posts, here is a video of a cat playing a theremin:

And here is one of a narcoleptic cat.

Posted by Ceri under Cats | 2 Comments »