Ohbalto Online Welcome to the new blog. Same as the old blog.

A Word-Filled Month or: God, he’s Crap With Blog TitlesPosted by dhoffman on November 2nd, 2009

An interesting (and, obviously, late) night of writing for me today.

I got started late, as we had people over playing boardgames this afternoon.  We played three different games, I think, and the third one, Battlestar Galactica (with the new, Pegasus expansion) went until nearly nine o’clock at night.

Yowza.

We cleaned up a bit, I microwaved some leftovers and then, probably about eleven or so, I sat down to write.

It was a bit of a slow start.

Well, okay, that’s not fair.  It wasn’t exactly a “slow start” — I started, I wrote, I rather enjoyed myself.  About 800 words later, I had a neat little scene that did a lot of things I was looking to do.

Problem is, it was too cutesy.  Too clever.  Too self-conscious.  Its the kind of scene that would only happen if it was a scene in a book.

So: gone.  Buh-leeted.

I was able to salvage a handful of paragraphs, so I took those and went back to the drawing board.  I thought about what I did that I’d enjoyed and how it didn’t work.  I thought about how much of it didn’t work.  Not because it was bad but because it was . . . is trite the right word?  Maybe.  It was obvious.  It was weak.  It might have been entertaining, but it needed to be more.

What I’ve got now, I think I like a lot more.  Less artificial dialog.  Less posturing.  It’s lean and mean and it puts me in a nice place to pick things up tomorrow night.

So, that’s a good thing.  Of course, it’s also ten after two in the morning (and remember, with daylight savings, that’s ten after THREE in the morning — thank goodness tomorrow I can get up — functionally — at seven in the morning) and that’s not such a good thing.  I hate started the week out sleepy, but I’d hate more if I got a good night’s sleep but didn’t get any good work done.

This was for Chapter Thirteen.  I didn’t write yesterday (Saturday) but I did write about two pages of notes on how I’m going to close this chapter out and move to Fourteen.  A lot of what I came up with is stuff I should have thought of before.  Needed to take a step back.

I’m hoping I’m in a good place here.  It feels like I am.  If it was only ten or even eleven at night, I might put a few more hours in and see where they take me.

Oh, and as it is, officially, November, I am, officially, skipping National Novel Writing Month for 2009.  I’m more than a little upset about this.  I’ve done it (and won) the last two years, and was sort of looking forward to the awesome grind that is NaNoWriMo for a third year.

I don’t want to derail where I am with this book, though.  And I will, I definitely will, if I try to have my cake and eat it, too.  I will satisfy myself, then, with making a nice donation and making sure I’m as productive as I can be with this month I’m gifting to myself.

Also, I’ll encourage the few folks I know in my persona life who ARE partaking this year.  It’s not the same as doing it myself but for most of them, it’s their first shot at it.

I wish them all luck.  I hope we ALL have a good, word-filled month.

A Weekend PostPosted by dhoffman on March 22nd, 2009

Friday night I was stuck working, then recovering from said working.  Saturday just seems to have slipped away from me, and was one of those days where first the freezer breaks, then the refrigerator breaks, then you realize the microwave is going, and all those little things which are supposed to make life easier suddenly seem to be rebelling.

We watched the series finale of Battlestar Galactica last night, as well.  I found it deeply satisfying and, which I’m sure I could pick nits and poke holes in things, at the end of the day, it felt right.  It felt true.  That’s something I’m always watching for in my own stuff — they might not make everyone happy with how they ended things, but nothing felt cheap, or like cheating, so I’m very pleased with it.

I’m sort of interested to watch it all again, from the start.  Not sure if I have the drive (or the time) for that.

Today was all about writing.  I got up, had a bite, set down writing.  Jessy brought us some lunch, I ate, and got back to writing.  Now it’s about 5:30, and I’m forcing myself to take a break, maybe go for a run or something, and hopefully I’ll get some more writing in before bed tonight.

Something very interesting seems to be happening in this chapter.  I’m curious to read through it again, once it’s “in the past” and see if what I feel is happening is actually happening.

Things are moving along nicely.  I’m about halfway through this chapter, and looking forward to working on Chapter Five.  Once that’s done, things are going to get . . . interesting (for me, at least).  Six and up are going to be an odd combination of new and old, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how the page compares to what’s in my head.

Adama at the U.N. — Now With Video!Posted by dhoffman on March 20th, 2009

Oh, excellent, someone’s posted video of Edward James Olmos, Battlestar Galactica’s Admiral Adama, speaking at the United Nations earlier this week.

Here you go, folks:

“So Say We All!”

Pretty awesome . . .

Admiral Adama Addresses the United NationsPosted by dhoffman on March 18th, 2009

No, really.

Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell, Admiral Adama and President Laura Roslyn from SciFi’s Battlestar Galactica, and Ron Moore and David Eick, two of the series’ writers and producers, took part in a panel discussion last night at the United Nations.

The panel was moderated by Whoppi Goldberg and, interspersed between clips from Battlestar Galactica and statements from various representatives, this happened (quoted from io9.com):

At one point the discussion lit a fire under the Admiral, and the talk of human rights turned personal for Edward James Olmos. The “Old Man” launched into a passionate speech about casting off the idea of race as a cultural determinant, and said we were one race, the human race. His voice echoed throughout the chamber growing louder until – I kid you not – he was yelling, “So Say We All,” and the crowd answered right back. Hell, even I yelled it, I was in the fraking United Nations with Adama, the gods themselves could not have stopped this moment. It was surreal – the entire audience turned into one massive optimistic/role-playing/saddened goosebump, because who knows when we’ll ever hear those words again? And then we were doubly geeked out when, as if on cue, Mary McDonnell turned to Olmos and put her hand on his cheek.

God, I hope somebody caught that on video.

More Battlestar Galactica? And What’s With That Ottoman?Posted by dhoffman on February 21st, 2009

Wrote last night, after catching up on the two most recent episodes of Battlestar Galactica.  Last night’s was something of a “middle” episode and with, um, four episodes left (I think), my assumption is that we’re basically going to get a setup episode, some manner of two-parter full of action and asplosions and then something of a conclusion episode.

Except.

Except I saw this story on Ain’t It Cool News which says Universal is planning a new BSG movie for a Christmas release.  It says the story will have nothing to do with the continuity of the current series BUT will features the characters of Adama and Baltar.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, folks?

Either way, more BSG is good BSG, and if there’s a big-screen movie with Bill Adama growling in it, I’m already set to plunk down my money.

If, however, Universal’s plan is to reboot the BSG line mere months after the current series’ conclusion . . . well, that’s just . . . weird.

I just took a quick pass through the two or so pages I wrote last night.  I got started late — seems to be happening a lot lately — and I crashed about 1:30 in the morning, literally turning 180 degrees and falling onto Jack’s ottoman to snooze until 4am or so.

I’ll scan that later and see about bridging the new with the old and I *might* just get to keep the bulk of the “old” Chapter Two’s beginning.  I didn’t plan it that way and it might not work out, but in my head it seems like things could just go that way.