Editing Sex Scenes

In my history of writing, I've written two sex scenes. The first was a scene from Ashes of War that I put together last summer. The other is a key scene from Vitamin F, a scene that has been read by two other people now.

I don't like writing about sex. I feel like I'm describing something cheesy and stupid. I feel dumb for having written it. I know that it's actually solid writing, but I just don't believe in those scenes. For me, sex is an imaginary concept, nothing more than an expresion of lust.

I can deal with having written these scenes well enough. Hearing my words being read by someone else is another matter. One of my beta readers reviewed some of the text with me over the phone. I felt like it was all a big joke, even though that wasn't the case.

Keeping in mind my inherent hesitations on the subject, I'm fairly sure I'm going to dodge writing any more sex scenes for the forseeable future. It wasn't an experience I was pleased with, so unless it's vital to the story, from now on, I'm going to keep away from it.

Less screwing around. More blowing shit up.

I Need To Post Something!

That's taken care of now, I think.

In addition to my chapter assembling and other editing, I've been trying to put together another idea. This one's not something that I've fully fleshed out as of yet, but I know a few of the elements already. I've been gorging myself on Japanese culture for a while, but recently, I've been drowning in the samurai concept.

Samurai movies: The Last Samurai, Yojimbo, Versus (to a limited degree).
Samurai music: The Last Samurai soundtrack, various Princess Mononoke and Inuyasha mp3s.
Samurai video games: Samurai Warriors.
Samurai books: Across the Nightingale Floor, by Lian Hearn; The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori, by Mark Ravina.

Funny thing is, except for the book on Saigo Takamori, none of those inspired this idea. What I've thought up is a story in three time periods, each featuring a main character of a shared bloodline. The earliest point would be around 1600 and feature the Battle of Sekigahara. The second would take place during the Satsuma Rebellion and feature a follower of Saigo Takamori. The third would be close to the present, starring a kendo instructor who taught Commander to use a katana.

A lot of the structure is similar to a book a read about six months ago, Autumn Bridge, by Takeshi Matsuoka. It's a multi-generational story set during the Warring States period, the Meiji Restoration, and post-Meiji Tokyo/San Francisco. It features a unique concept on prophetical messages--information imparted by a spirit fron the past is actually a conversation a living woman had hundreds of years earlier with a vision of the future. The other time periods are ghosts, be they from the past or the future.

Some Returns

I found out a fine bit of information earlier. It appears that, after a few years being practically joined at the hip to Deadpool--which is a wonderfully entertaining thing itself--Cable is finally getting his own series again. It's about six months away and I'm really looking forward to it (since Cable is my favorite comic book character). Here's some series art from Ariel Olivetti:

Not totally crazy about the costume. It's a little too 1990s for me, but that's what a lot of people are clinging to these days. If you look close, Cable's finally got the proper number of scars on his right eye again (three). Coming March 2008.

On another note, I finally touched base with my overt creative drive today. I was looking through the list of files I have on Vitamin F, and I found I needed to touch another note on Oriane's quest to find the pharmacist's killer. What I decided to do was have her seek out a few potential suspects and keep coming short, only being able to speak with one of the people she's after. The suspect she eventually does speak with enrages her to such a degree, she invokes a genetic audit on him, paying off several references I've put to the procedure throughout the novel.

I mention it because, in the process of assembling the chapters, I've been unable to do any real raw writing. It's the one near-regret I have over being this far along with the writing on Vitamin F.

Chapter Notes

In the past week, I've managed to assemble everything through Chapter 5 of Vitamin F. It's been an interesting challenge assembling everything from the piecemeal files I've already made. It's always a bit irritating, but I have occasional moments of clarity that bring everything back together, making it well worth the frustration.

My process is simple. I've already got a loose synopsis, labelling each plot point with the file the text can be found in. I just bring up the files, make sure they're the pieces I want, then make a new file with all the parts thrown in. A few hours later, I'll slowly read through the makeshift chapter, changing any bits of text as I go through. Inevitably, I'll come to some point that feels clunky as a transition from one section to another. A few sentences later, and I'm off running again.

The clunky transitions are the biggest problem at the end of a chapter. Sometimes, I'll have a new batch of files set aside to make the next chapter. When this is the case, I'll have to stop and focus for a few minutes on what I need to do. I've been lucky in that the pieces of text I come up with at these points don't have to be as smooth transitions, since each chapter usually has its own set of inner themes to deal with, something I don't carry over to the next chapter.

The end of Chapter 2 had a note telling me to write more on the scene. There might have been 100 words before the note, so it was very open-ended. I had already developed a conversation about majors between Bridgett and Penelope, which turned momentarily into information about their parents--Bridgett's were dead, Penelope's mother is a bitch. There, I lucked out again because the next chapter was the introduction of Oriane Panettiere, Penelope's mother. I didn't originally want to establish that until much later, but I knew it was better to imply the connection up front. It let's me avoid having to create any extra tension by letting the story between the lines express what's going on.

Speaking of Oriane, it's time I visited her contribution to the story again. I don't want to establish an every third Chapter pattern with her, but right now, I need to cut away from Bridgett and Penelope for a bit. Let them have some time to themselves without the writer butting in, screwing it all up.