Violent Rabbits, Yoga Pants, and Other Gobbledygook

Stuff and things, guys! Stuff and things!

Another exciting day in the life of Nathan Rudolph. I was extremely tired and relatively productive all day. I wrote a solid amount yesterday: roughly 1200 words. I am really starting to have high hopes for Werbel. He's totally a little messed up though.

One of the things that's really fascinating about writing (at least for me) is discovering the characters. For example, one guy sort of threatened Werbel's sister, and Werbel went dark-mode angry:

She stared at [Pragga] calmly, quietly. "They don't tell us much in these tunnels. I'm not quite sure what we're mining."
"Don't feed me your lies. I see you wandering down that tunnel probably consorting with some vile lizard." Anger began to sound in his voice. "You're probably one of them, aren't ya?" He stood up now. "You're part of this sick scheme, aren't ya?" He took a step toward Allison. Suddenly, he found himself thrown back onto his cot with a young face growling in his.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I meant nothing by it." Pragga now sounded afraid.
Werbel's eyes were unwavering, sinister, silent.
Pragga glanced Allison's way, looking for support.
Georj and Allison both remained motionless, waiting to see what would happen.
Unable to match Werbel's gaze, Pragga muttered again, "I'm sorry."
Low and seething, Werbel replied, "If you ever threaten my... her again, I will bleed you dry."
"I didn't threaten her–" began Pragga but was silenced by a backhand to his face.
"Do not speak again," instructed Werbel. "You will keep your silence, and then you will go back to the mines."
Pragga's face was partly colored by anger but mostly by terror.
"Good," grunted Werbel before kicking the man's cot. He then returned to his chair, glared at Pragga for another minute, and then closed his eyes again.

I really did not expect that from him. Considering what's been going on for the past eight months with him, it makes sense, but I wasn't expecting it. And that's the strange magic of writing: Werbel - in some strange sense - did his own thing! Technically, I imagined it and wrote it; practically, he took on a life of his own - albeit a violent one. The same sort of thing happened with Mary early on: I thought she was a strong wife and mother, but she has a sort of wild venom sometimes. Same thing with Jeremy: he's an old, confident man, but he has a lot of panicky streaks. Not as much, but I was also surprised by Sturga: he's been the crass, lighthearted man up to this point. Recently, however, Jeremy made a comment Sturga's wife (who, as far as I can tell, was killed). Sturga scared me a bit.

Rereading "I will bleed you dry" gave me chills. I know they're in a really crappy situation, but, man, my characters are kinda scary sometimes.

Chirrratka is a beautiful psychopath though. He really likes how tough Werbel is. He really likes bleeding. He really likes making others bleed. It's really a mess. For now, it's just violent. When the time comes, though, it's gonna be an awful mess. I think he's gonna be taken down by Werbel and Alabaster. It's gonna be a mess.

The mad king - may his scars never be too many nor his scales ever too few - is still almost entirely aloof. I want to be able to admire him once he does make a proper appearance. I think he's going to talk very slowly, articulately, politely. In my vague imaginings of him, he sits on a throne, half hidden in shadow. He speaks softly with a deep, smooth voice. All things considered, he seems reserved, almost humble.

I'm not sure how he's going to be overthrown properly. I think it will have to be in some sort of grand battle. I imagine he will have lost Chirrratka by then: his trusted, psychotic general. I think Rrraktotrrraka (the librarian) will have switched sides completely. I think the rabbit clans will have some sort of siege outside their lair that will draw the mad king out. I'm not sure.

I am so glad I sent the rabbits from Meadowvale on a journey to unite the other rabbit villages. As I lamented before, it seemed that the story was too linear, like an infinitesimally small thread: no substance, no vibrance. There are peoples; there is purpose. There is space for a mighty battle. Everything doesn't rely on the Highfallow family anymore. They will be pivotal to be sure, but their people really are coming to their rescue.

Writing yesterday was pretty satisfying. I wrote for a good four maybe five hours. As much as I like Starbucks, I may have to write elsewhere. It was just a bit too easy to become distracted. It wasn't even the sounds that got me (though I want to bludgeon people who talk on their phones: there is something irritatingly different between a human-to-human conversation and a human-to-phone conversation). It was the outfits. You might not be, but I definitely was surprised by the ubiquity of yoga pants. I assure you, most of those people were neither coming from nor going to yoga. Why yoga pants? Why? What ever happened to skirts? Or even skinny jeans? Or normal tight-fitting jeans? Or anything that doesn't show things that don't need to be shown to everyone in public? It doesn't stop there, but the banning of yoga pants would be a great relief already. Aaaaanyway, writing was good. I'm slowly whining less about how my writing has to sound and slowly plain-old writing more (and, if not more quickly, at least more fluidly).

I'm going to attend a painting class! I'm starting this Saturday! One more of my many dreams is to illustrate my own literate - half so I can be doubly awesome and half so I can have an easier time visualizing and depicting the things about which I want to write.

I smell bad. Not oppressively bad, but my scent has just barely passed the "neutral" threshold. Hopefully, my aura of too-much-coffee-and-too-much-tea will suppress anything else. I had blueberry tea today. I like tea. I want all the tea. I like chocolate milk too. I want all the chocolate milk. I like flamenco guitar too. I want all the flamenco guitar. I don't want the christiany chords.

I have to learn a new language: serious Spanish (since I know it just a bit), Japanese, or ASL.

I'm tutoring tonight. I'm going to end now so that I don't have to end abruptly.