a curl of dragon breath

[asakiyume]

I saw the blue jays' exhaled breath, rising from their nostrils, as they carried off the peanuts I put out for them. Their internal furnaces are hotter than humans', around 105F (40.5C)--more than 120 degrees hotter (in Fahrenheit) than the outside temperature, so it's no wonder it was visible in curling plumes in the cold air. Little dragons.

I blew some soap bubbles and watched them freeze. This one got caught on the snow mound, and its deflated back rose and fell and rose and fell in slight breeze, as if it, too, were breathing. A very thin-skinned, tiny being.



Now maybe you're wondering if I'll ever talk about something other than the weather. I do have other thoughts!

Press A if you would like my thoughts on Sleepy Hollow--better yet, tell me yours.
Press B if you would like some hazy realizations about writing--or share yours!

I realized--or re-realized? realized anew?--how important details are for really giving a story a sense of depth. I know. This must win an award for the most unsurprising, well-known realization ever. But I was thinking of it with a short story that cafenowhere linked me to the other day. The story felt really *rich*, and it was because there were details that built up the scene.

... I realize this makes it sound like I'm arguing for really florid prose or something--or at least, I can see how what I'm saying could read like that--so I need to clarify somehow, because that's NOT what I mean. Writing could be either spare *or* florid, or neither. It's just that having more than the *bones* makes it feel real-er.

Some writers can and do get away with writing just bones--I guess famously Hemingway, for one--so it's not that it can't be done. But I like a dented coffeepot, the sound of the furnace firing up, the smell of onions and stale cooking oil, those kinds of things, to sink my mind into.

Press C if you would like a status update on my own writing--or tell me how yours is going (or your other pleasurable creative activity, if not writing).

Status of my main project, a novel, is that I realized whereas with most novels, I get a vague-ish sense of plot (summarizable in a sentence or two) along with a few characters, and then branch and deepen, with the current one, I have the characters and situation, and an ultimate destination (where I want the main characters to be at the end), but absolutely no firm sense of what I want the central story to be like. Depending on which way I decide to take it, it'll be very different in mood and feel. It's so strange to realize it's still so un-fixed!

Comments

[bondo-ba.livejournal.com]

I'm fine with you talking about the weather if you keep posting beautiful things!

[yamamanama.livejournal.com]

A
B
C - I haven't written much but I'm thinking about painting a portrait of Emma in Gustav Klimt's style. I'll try to get it done by mid-May.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Presses C

Yes please and for myself, I have a poem- a biggie- brewing.

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

A! Sleepy Hollow is one of my favorite shows. Last week's show blew my mind. This week's was good, but it felt a little bit anticlimactic. I'm worried that it won't get renewed, but at least they didn't leave us hanging like last year.

Do you listen to the podcast? They have the writers, directors, and often the actors on there, and it's interesting to hear their takes on telling stories.

[cafenowhere.livejournal.com]

A. Sleepy Hollow

My favorite part of last night's ep was when Abbie and Grace were prepping a spell and talking important shit, while Ichy stood there looking pretty and handing out herbs. <333

Annoyed as I've always been by Katrina, I've come to the decision that the writers just didn't know what the hell to do with her. As if the strain of writing bad-ass Abbie made them fumble all the other female characters. I think if Katrina's arc hadn't been so stretched out, she would've been a much more powerful character throughout, and more sympathetic.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

B
C

...

Maybe A. I've not watched more than half of the premiere, though.

Condensed bluejay exhalation seems like a good New Englandy spell component.

[pameladean]

Oh, how wonderful. I've seen little mammals' breath condensing in the cold, but never a bird's!

*presses B and C simultaneously, gets weird screen where the trackpad won't work properly, hopes for rescue*

P.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

I don't follow Sleepy Hollow, so tell me about B and C, please. :D

For moi:

B) Not so hazy is the realization that I need to write out the text (meaning: research and decide firmly on which facts to present) for my PB before I can firmly decide which age group to target.

C) I've been lazy since Sunday. Must remedy that now and sketch something!

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I'm releasing Partner as soon as the formatting is done - hopefully it will be out within the next few days! How about you?

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

A, B, and C, please.

In the summer of 2013, when Chun Woo and I visited his grandparents [and I drove us all to Niagara Falls to Disapprove of things], we visited Washington Irvin's house with smart_ted, and it was a lot of fun. I greatly enjoy seeing the domestic arrangements of the past, and experiencing Massive I am compared with people of 100 or more years ago, and I'd known nothing of Irving's life, really. Chun Woo (and the rest of his class) were for some reason quite enamored of The Headless Horseman, and he enjoyed the whole thing, so far as I can tell. smart_ted is generally copacetic, and says that she most remembers the coziness of the rooms.

[gwynnega]

A, B, and C!

I assume the Sleepy Hollow season finale has already been in the can for awhile, but it still felt to me as if the showrunners and/or the network thought, "Huh, Empire is a huge hit--maybe it really is okay if we focus on Abbie, Jenny, Frank, & Ichabod and don't force Katrina and Hawley down the viewers' throats." I just hope it's not too late for it to get renewed...

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

I think that blue jays like to be thought of as dragons.

[sovay]

Press A if you would like my thoughts on Sleepy Hollow--better yet, tell me yours.

I have no thoughts on Sleepy Hollow beyond what I can see from other people's Tumblrs, but I'd love to hear you talk about it!

[athenais.livejournal.com]

I pressed B. But I like weather posts a lot.

[yamamanama.livejournal.com]

Now that I think about it, the bubble looks like a ghostly bird skull.

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

That's very cool about the bluejays.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Bird breath! Wow!

Will your process let you just write scenes as they come to you, and shuffle them around later?

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Blue jays breath must be something to see! Looking forward to hearing about whatever you write next...