Falling Out and in Love with the Man(uscript)

Falling Out and in Love with the Man(uscript)

Sometimes it's good to be obsessed with your writing.

And then sometimes, it makes you sick with the intensity.

So it's good to be able to take a step back, and get back into your life. AND, you'd be amazed at how much easier it is to edit when you have a little perspective.

And then, when you get back into it, there's a lot of THERE there. Sure, trim away all the fat.  Lots of crap, but now it's easier to let go of it.

And I'm sure it'll be a cycle.  I need to get through this draft.  And then, rinse, repeat.

I'll forget again. But I'll fall in love again.

Readable Draft

I hope you are as fascinated by the novel writing process as I am.

I'm taking 2 classes (1 on Query Letters to Lit Agents and one on World Building in Fiction). Getting an editor lined up, workshopping one of the chapters.  Very exciting.

My goal this month is a readable draft.  I have the structure, and 250 pages of scenes, notes, and things to write.  I want to send out the first 50 pages to my editor asap.

I've published several short stories and plays, but getting together a giant chunk of something (with a full time job plus travel) is tremendously difficult. But rewarding!

NYC Doesn't Care, but it's fine

You can have a life, a DEVOTION around the cult of NYC.  You can be its slave for years, trying to get it to love you back.

But it doesn't give a fuck.

You can starve, can live in a closet, can work 24/7, can work as a barista, can perform on Broadway.  you can make it there one day and feel like you are starting over the very next.

Other cities will welcome you back with open arms.  Embrace you like your Mom.  Alumnae returning to the geographies of their youth.  New York will be like, 'Oh, did you leave the party?"

Every neighborhood, every block is a new beginning.  You start from scratch, you reinvent yourself.  Hopefully smarter this time. 

You can go for years and never run into any of your previous friends, or selves.  And then you can spend 24 hours playing "This is your life", and seeing mirrors everywhere you go.

UX and Design Discourse is in a state of disarray

https://www.fastcodesign.com/90155005/design-discourse-is-in-a-state-of-arrested-development

UX doesn't criticize itself.

All the articles are about how-tos, case studies and "aren't we great?" articles.  Very few, in any address the bigger questions, like about Evil UX, and when and where to include friction in interactions (Hawaii warning system anyone?)

We are creating the interactions that create patterns for the future.

We should be aware of what we are doing.  And be critical of ourselves as we try to move forward.

A Dream of Escape

A dream of escape.

Here in the Northeast in America, we are under a cold snap.

Since Christmas, we have been suffering with below zero temperatures and into the predictable future (according to the iPhone).

And then, with or without a cold (which I have), we are essentially trapped indoors.

I've been lucky to have a writing project to take me out of myself.

The BEST vacation I can ever have. 

Gamification of Relationships

Some aspects of relationships CAN be Gamified.

Some already are in ways we think are appropriate.  Measuring marriages in years (1 point per anniversary), kids (1 point per human created).  Artificial numbers which seem to mean something; especially when there is little to no other tangible signifier.

Note that the fewer number of relationships is an indicator of "being haunted".  The fewer experiences, the more likely the few have tremendous impact. But the number seems to want to be low-note that we hardly ever confess the truth here in numbers.

Beginning relationships can be gamified too-but must be considered in terms of Game Theory-Theory of Mind.  Think of playing a game of chess and predicting your partner's next move and deciding on your moves based on the outcome you predict.

The question remains: do people want PREDICTABLE relationships?

Theater and Software

The idea comes first.  Something brilliant, that bugs at you until you DO something about it.  (UX at this stage will involve people responding to this idea, is it something they even want? What is closest to it?  How is this different?  How can you iterate before you even begin?)

Then there is the planning.  Laying out a skeleton and working your way through it.  Revise and rework. (In software, this stage may be Agile, built 2 weeks at a time.)

The final draft, the final blueprint.  Now you have to build it. Program it, cast it, hopefully you'll have enough money to see it to birth. A real prototype of what you want it to be. You can test it out on people before its actual release, the UX testing is equivalent to bringing in your directing mentor for the final dress.  "Tell me its fatal flaws before we open!!"

Then finally, its on its feet.   Opening night, the day everything goes live. Maybe its an MVP, Minimum Viable Product.

2 weeks of previews, features added to the next iteration. People get to see it and clap or yawn.  If they are somehow trapped into usage, then hopefully their suffering won't be too bad.

And then it is out there. The longer it is out, the longer it has to be polished, or to have the shine taken from it. Have all its faults displayed openly, prominently.

Or more likely, it will be a bore.  And will get washed away by the tide of exciting and better.

And new.