crearespero

"Is there any cause in nature that makes these hard hearts?"
- King Lear (III.vi)
---

Beneath the torrid juncture of this cage,
a black spider
has come to sit.

Its weight is a dark river through my chest;
its legs outstretched, the inlets
to a stone-locked sea.

The members tremble faintly with my breath;
they bend and reach --- oh, what for?

Strange guest, to be so knitted to my bones.

It has tapped them for my essence,
      --- jaws clamped tight,
              and teeth sunk deep ---

to interrogate my nature, to anatomize my sleep.

Bad news: I am behind on my Lazy 28 challenge.
Good news: I'm not as behind as it looks like from my journal.

This is because I have occasionally been doing several hours of world-building work for the challenge instead of producing a chunk of writing that I can post here. I don't see this as a cop-out, because world building is one the most challenging aspects of creating fiction for me right now, and one in the most need of attention. If I have the idea of a scene in my mind, I can actually make myself sit down and type it out (I do have some angst about my writing right now, but I think I'm working through it). Inventing characters and developing their dynamics/arcs is becoming almost second-nature to me. But plots are hard, and world building is super hard.

That said, I did not make world-building easy for myself. Instead of focusing on developing one alternate world I insist on building three or four separate ones. My dislike for anything approaching realism (including alternate-world realism) doesn't really help either.

So I'm working on fleshing out my worlds, and that is good. I even found a helpful list of world-building questions that I can use as jumping off points. They're not all relevant questions, but even in those cases it can be helpful to articulate to myself why a given question is not relevant.

Nature of the piece: theater
Universe: The Metaverse
World: A land recently colonized by foreigners from a far-off nation, historically inhabited by three major cultures/nations: Quon, Erradia, and Aether.
Characters: Quetzal, Jen
( not the expertCollapse )

World: master's home world
Characters: Nell, Master
Context: an asylum, obviously. see The Chasm and What They Found

( the new boyCollapse )

Once I swore that I would find a way to fly, and you
A mirror that we may pass.

Now look at us,
Running in circles like we don't belong: two angels
With skins of shattered masks.

We bleed scales for eyes: our paper words
Too frail, too dry.

The reeling is beyond me:
Don't break my fall.

Let me say I wanted it this way. Tell me it's my fault,
So I can fix it.

We live in the ruins of our attempt
--- your mirror cracked, the shards my wings of glass ---
And fly the course that follows.

I know for sure now.
I will take you with me, on this path

         we cut as we cut

Nature of the piece: theater
Universe: The Metaverse
World: A land recently colonized by foreigners from a far-off nation, historically inhabited by three major cultures/nations: Quon, Erradia, and Aether.
Context: Takes place some time after Stupid Problems
Characters: Quetzal, Rhime

( first wordCollapse )

Note: ARRRRRG this is so damn short and it took me for EVAR to write and I can't write anymore until I work out some things about how this world stuff works in detail and how exactly I want to go about writing it and jklafsd;. stories are hard. especially when one is excruciatingly picky about How To Fiction and leaning towards disenchanted about one's skill level in How To Prose.

Nature of the Piece: fictional prose
Characters: Master
Universe: the metaverse
World: Master's home-world
Context: Master here is ~13 years old. A few years ago, he invented a means of summoning his oldest and most peculiar imaginary friend (Hand) at will, by carving a circular symbol into the earth, which becomes a kind of door through which he could invite it out into the world. The establishment of this symbol as a means of summons also had the effect of binding Hand to him as a servant of sorts. The Hand assisted its master in various adventures with its special skills in 'building' and `tunneling', processes through which it was able to either to build incorporeally upon the corporeal world, or else 'tunnel' into pre-existing incorporeal dimensions. These activities ultimately culminated in Master incurring a very traumatic figurative burn, whereupon Hand vanished and all the fun stopped.


( what they foundCollapse )

Nature of the piece: theater
Universe: the metaverse
World: the one I have been refering to as the 'motherfucking sorcerers' world, stil unnamed. It is inhabited by a species of single-sex (hermaphroditic) sorcers. For the time being I've been switching between 'he' and 'she' for their pronouns, but neither is entirely accurate. (In the piece below, i'm going with 'she').
Characters: Eckhart, Regis
Context: Eckhart is in some sort of academic program at The University (the only one in the world, it kind of runs everything) and lives with several of her peers. Regis is from a neigbouring nation-state and/or rival "school" of magic (they don't have a university. there can only be one.). Regis and Eckhart have recently become SUPER BEST FRIENDS TEAM AWESOME FOREVER WOOOOO who have all of the exciting adventures together and also probably make out. In the scene below, they were just illicitly exploring the upper levels of the University's library (because that's where keep the secrets, don't you know) when someone spotted them and they ran for it.
( a first infractionCollapse )

Nature of Piece: theater
Universe: the metaverse
World: Annabel Lost
Context: This takes place before anything else I have written for this world, when Hanna is still a child (probably ~11 to 13). Her sister has recently died.
Characters: Hanna, Cedar (her uncle)
( despondencyCollapse )

Nature of the Piece: fictional prose
Characters: Master
Universe: the metaverse
World: Master's home-world
Chronology: This piece falls some time after Shadows and Reality (part 2). An event (or rather the event) took place some time in the interim.
Context: Master here is probably ~13-15 years old. A few years ago, he invented a means of summoning his oldest and most peculiar imaginary friend (Hand) at will, by carving a circular symbol into the earth, which becomes a kind of door through which he could invite it out into the world. The establishment of this symbol as a means of summons also had the effect of binding Hand to him as a servant of sorts. The Hand assisted its master in various adventures with its special skills in 'building' and `tunneling', processes through which it was able to either to build incorporeally upon the corporeal world, or else 'tunnel' into pre-existing incorporeal dimensions. These activities ultimately culminated in Master incurring a very traumatic figurative burn, whereupon Hand vanished and all the fun stopped.


( The ChasmCollapse )