The State Of Artemis
Jul. 30th, 2011 08:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xhesikaSimply put, my writing has been suffering since losing so much of the book, and as I have been unable to write much in the way of the actual storyline, the best place to see the change is in the short stories.
For example the short story Of Sheets, when I planned it out it was supposed to take place right before Valerie's rise, and was supposed to be an exercise in writing something intimate since Artemis and Kamen seem to dart around it CONSTANTLY, but the reader gets from the context that there's something going on in the Haven.
My plan sort of back fired, they're talking, Kamen voices his own disapproval of the current state of politics, and, per usual, they begin to bicker:
He sighed, “All that studying gone to waste, all you ever did when we were young was stick your nose in a book.”
She let her jaw drop slightly in anger, and with a furrowed brow began in a hard tone: “It isn’t wasted! Mother will need help, we’ll be working together.”
Kamen sat up and turned slightly to look back at her, “Yes, Valerie is going to throw away her pride and ask her daughter for help running a country.”
Artemis clenched her jaw, “Oh how very nice, after the day I’ve had the first thing I need is for my best friend to start nagging me about politics, prime, because he so loved the idea of venturing into them himself.”
Kamen sat back for a few seconds, bitten by the venomous tone she took with him, and then gave her a skeptical glare, “Touch a nerve, did I?”
“I’m bored with this, Covington.” Artemis drolled before falling backwards and rolling back onto her side away from him.
“Covington?” Kamen said quickly, angered by Artemis’ attempt to change the subject with a condescending shrug. He quickly pushed himself to stand on his knees on the bed and hobbled over to her, “And the day I’ve had? Following you around? Watching you? You think this is easy?”
Now from here my plan was to turn it around and start working on things you never actually see in the book, BUT it quickly plummets, and next thing I know Artemis is going into crazy/depressed mode and I just feel awful for Kamen:
“I couldn’t follow you if you were queen, is that it?”
“Part of it. A lot of it. Most of it.” Artemis murmured.
A low chuckle and slight vibration of his chest resounded in Artemis’ head, “Less than five minutes ago you were trying to bruise my ego.”
“I’ve been spoiled, you’ve spoiled me.” She mumbled once more, cutting off Kamen’s sentence and drawing his attention once more. “Do you think sunflowers die if they never see the sun? If all they receive is shade and never see it directly?”
Kamen swallowed and gave Artemis a squeeze, “Don’t talk like that.”
“I suppose I’ll find out once he gets me and locks me up in Gorgosa away from you.”
The pair of blue eyes that hovered just above Artemis’ head clenched themselves shut as Kamen bestowed a strong peck into her hair.
“I don’t think I mind the taste of ambrosia so much, as long as he keeps me doped up enough to not remember anything.”
Kamen released her, sending Artemis down and back onto the bed, all the while giving her a hard look and clenched jaw.
She swallowed, watching him cautiously, “Am I making you angry?”
“No.” He attempted a smile, but struggled in keeping it from twisting into a frown, and ran a hand through his already messy hair. “Just sad.”
The line about sunflowers and then the one about ambrosia kills me a little inside.
But there you have it, my writing is suffering and so I've started the Ritzko Project in an attempt to work back up to it. So far it's working, I at least feel up to writing, and I even opened up Artemis after a session with Ritzko because I felt better about it. I'm pretty sure Artemis is cursed in some way or other, but I don't plan on giving up on it any time soon.
Speaking of misfortune with Artemis, one of my main editors (I think actually my only editor on the project at this point) lost use of her computer. Basically it died in a great display of fire, ash, lightning, and divine retribution--without the fire, ash, lightning, and divine retribution. I've been trying to work with her to get her computer back on track, but I'm failing quickly. I didn't even realize until she said it that she had lost all the editing she had done on it. It was weird, it didn't even hurt. I think I'm numb on that front
For example the short story Of Sheets, when I planned it out it was supposed to take place right before Valerie's rise, and was supposed to be an exercise in writing something intimate since Artemis and Kamen seem to dart around it CONSTANTLY, but the reader gets from the context that there's something going on in the Haven.
My plan sort of back fired, they're talking, Kamen voices his own disapproval of the current state of politics, and, per usual, they begin to bicker:
He sighed, “All that studying gone to waste, all you ever did when we were young was stick your nose in a book.”
She let her jaw drop slightly in anger, and with a furrowed brow began in a hard tone: “It isn’t wasted! Mother will need help, we’ll be working together.”
Kamen sat up and turned slightly to look back at her, “Yes, Valerie is going to throw away her pride and ask her daughter for help running a country.”
Artemis clenched her jaw, “Oh how very nice, after the day I’ve had the first thing I need is for my best friend to start nagging me about politics, prime, because he so loved the idea of venturing into them himself.”
Kamen sat back for a few seconds, bitten by the venomous tone she took with him, and then gave her a skeptical glare, “Touch a nerve, did I?”
“I’m bored with this, Covington.” Artemis drolled before falling backwards and rolling back onto her side away from him.
“Covington?” Kamen said quickly, angered by Artemis’ attempt to change the subject with a condescending shrug. He quickly pushed himself to stand on his knees on the bed and hobbled over to her, “And the day I’ve had? Following you around? Watching you? You think this is easy?”
Now from here my plan was to turn it around and start working on things you never actually see in the book, BUT it quickly plummets, and next thing I know Artemis is going into crazy/depressed mode and I just feel awful for Kamen:
“I couldn’t follow you if you were queen, is that it?”
“Part of it. A lot of it. Most of it.” Artemis murmured.
A low chuckle and slight vibration of his chest resounded in Artemis’ head, “Less than five minutes ago you were trying to bruise my ego.”
“I’ve been spoiled, you’ve spoiled me.” She mumbled once more, cutting off Kamen’s sentence and drawing his attention once more. “Do you think sunflowers die if they never see the sun? If all they receive is shade and never see it directly?”
Kamen swallowed and gave Artemis a squeeze, “Don’t talk like that.”
“I suppose I’ll find out once he gets me and locks me up in Gorgosa away from you.”
The pair of blue eyes that hovered just above Artemis’ head clenched themselves shut as Kamen bestowed a strong peck into her hair.
“I don’t think I mind the taste of ambrosia so much, as long as he keeps me doped up enough to not remember anything.”
Kamen released her, sending Artemis down and back onto the bed, all the while giving her a hard look and clenched jaw.
She swallowed, watching him cautiously, “Am I making you angry?”
“No.” He attempted a smile, but struggled in keeping it from twisting into a frown, and ran a hand through his already messy hair. “Just sad.”
The line about sunflowers and then the one about ambrosia kills me a little inside.
But there you have it, my writing is suffering and so I've started the Ritzko Project in an attempt to work back up to it. So far it's working, I at least feel up to writing, and I even opened up Artemis after a session with Ritzko because I felt better about it. I'm pretty sure Artemis is cursed in some way or other, but I don't plan on giving up on it any time soon.
Speaking of misfortune with Artemis, one of my main editors (I think actually my only editor on the project at this point) lost use of her computer. Basically it died in a great display of fire, ash, lightning, and divine retribution--without the fire, ash, lightning, and divine retribution. I've been trying to work with her to get her computer back on track, but I'm failing quickly. I didn't even realize until she said it that she had lost all the editing she had done on it. It was weird, it didn't even hurt. I think I'm numb on that front
