Addendum: Librarium Painting Challenge Vow Complete!

 

Let it not be said that I neglected the deadlines of some of the stuff I do.  I’ve been devoting those hours where I’d hit a wall during my draft rewrite to finishing my entry in the annual Bolter and Chainsword Librarium Painting Challenge, and somehow it turned out alright.  Much like everything else in my life, it really came down to the wire, but hey, with this done I have one less thing to worry about when I’m busy with the revisions of my other submitted draft.

As per practice, I named my Chapter Veterans based on some of the people I know online.  In this case it’s The BigN from Drastic My Anime Blog, Myst1ord from That! Animeblog, Setsuna_San from Atalude, Owen Saturnine, and Bluemonq.  So congratulations guys, you’ve found a place in my Space Marine army!

Denouement

My own afterword at the end of my rewritten first draft pretty much sums up the frustration and disappointment I felt over the course of its creation:

This is pretty much a complete rewrite of the draft I initially submitted, and is literally the product of almost a week’s worth of long evenings.  I’m not sure I entirely succeeded though, as it’s become painfully clear that I have problems constructing both continuing narratives and characters.  At the end of the day, this seems more of a slice-of-life story, and not many readers would like to read something like that; there’s no gravitas, no pathos, no so-called oomph to it, at least compared to what my classmates had written.

Also, there’s little visible change from the viewpoint character, and I can see how that can annoy some people.

I took what I thought worked in the initial draft, and built from it, but I feel that the story broke free from my control somehow.  I tried to implement some of my classmates’ suggestions, but I think in the end my lack of experience (and skill) wasn’t able to utilize fully those good intentions.

I really tried though, but I suppose that doesn’t really matter in the end.

One more rewrite to go.  Time to get on it.  I only have less than two days to work on it after all.

Also, to say that my health has taken a major blow over the past two weeks is putting it very lightly.  If I get through this, I swear, no Coke for a month.

Status Report: March 29

Ah, so close to finishing the rewrite of the first draft.  I have to admit, this has certainly transformed into an altogether different beast than what it began as.

I blame the Coke Zero, actually.

Now to work on the other draft that needs to be redone.

But after I finish my vow for the LPC.  Deadline is tomorrow. Can’t forget.  Keeping a Penitence sig for a whole year is NOT an option.

Status Report: March 28

I went to sleep at around lunch fully intending to wake up at 3:30 in the afternoon to work on my rewrite.

It’s now around 9 in the evening.

Well, now at least I won’t have an excuse not to burn the midnight oil.  That’s more than 8 hours worth of sleep, right there.

Wonderful.

Status Report: March 27

Eh, I am screwed, screwed, screwed.  There’s just no way around it.  Just… ugh.  Why, why can’t do anything decent?

I’ll be happy to get 10 pages on the rewrite.  Really.

Status Report: March 26

What can I say?  I’m tired and making absolutely no headway.  I’m seriously thinking about just applying verbatim Kurt Vonnegut’s rules to writing a story…  But that would require me being even passably competent as a writer.  As it is, I’m just sputtering along with the revision of my first draft.

*sigh*

That’s it.  I’m taking a short nap,  if only to give my mind a chance to ‘reboot’.

Status Report: March 25

Hmm.  I really wanted to go faster, but some progress is better than no progress at all.  Depending on how it goes for the rest of the evening, I might be able to start on the other draft tomorrow.  That’s something to be happy for, I think.

But, my, is the draft shorter this time around.  I guess that’s what happens when you separate the chaff.  Ah well.  Better continue, I need to get this to the people who’re supposed to proofread it for me.

Status Update: March 24

*sigh* Sometimes I really have to wonder sometimes if my own body is conspiring against me. I’m just feeling unbelievably tired… Which is strange since I pretty much slept properly last night, and had a good long afternoon nap.  Maybe I’m sleeping too much to compensate?  Wouldn’t be surprised at all.

I have the whole of Friday tomorrow. Hopefully I can get something done.

Status Report: March 23

Not much development on my part, except for the fact that, if anything, I’m feeling so tired.  The rewrite is definitely getting to me, and I’m having serious issues in balancing my body’s need for sleep with the need to finish the darned rewrite already, so I could send it over to my friends for proofreading.

I suppose I could try and get by with sleeping later again.  We’ll just have to see.

Status Report: March 22

Whenever I make very short posts, it means I’m either stressed out of my mind, very busy, or both.  In this case, I’ve been terribly busy.  And yes, this is connected to my Fiction Workshop class.

I mentioned that this rewrite was going to be an uphill climb all the way.  Boy, is it.  Makes me wish I could go on leave for a week and head off to a cave somewhere so I ca focus my complete attention on it.

Sadly that won’t happen. Oh well, I’ll just have to do with stimuli deprivation instead. So no anime and whatnot.

God, these two weeks will suck. A lot.