Sunday, May 6, 2012

April Successes and Failures

April was a fairly significant month on the writing front.  As you may or may not recall, I mentioned that I'd be doing a whole lot of writing during that month.  Essentially, I was going to write 100 pages of scripted material through Scriptfrenzy during the month, while still maintaining my daily posts here in the Comics Cove.  As it turned out, I managed to crank out about 37 pages, little more than a third of my goal, while still maintaining at least one post per day here.

So, it didn't work out the way I'd hoped, but it helped me understand where my limits were, while I still managed to get some scripted material written.

I don't know what it is about creative writing that really seems to take it out of me, but I truly do have a harder time with fiction than I do with reviews, observational posts, and other nonfiction.  I'm actually really surprised at how I've managed to hold on to the streak I've created here--at the end of this month I'll hit six months of posting every day--but I think for now, it's probably the thing I need to do to keep myself writing on a consistent basis.  Not that I plan on abandoning fiction--that's the end goal, eventually--but it's going to be on a sporadic basis for the time being, until I can find a way to cultivate the time and creative energy to do both regularly.

Speaking of time, there were a couple of other factors that played into my ability to write extra on top of my regular posting, including a conference, and a convention--at the latter of which I was a moderator all day.  They really didn't suck up extra time so much as displace my work schedule and routines enough that it was a challenge to add extra writing work to what I was already doing.  I don't there's ever going to be a good time to add to the writing load I do, but April was perhaps a more challenging time than I should have picked.

In any case, I'm glad I tried, and glad I had the good sense to not overextend myself too much.

I'm a little behind on the cosplay side of things as well, but some progress has been made.  I'm basically focusing on the Nightwing costume, which is proving to be a difficult challenge.  I've recently bought material for a latex mask, which eventually I'll need to have fit, painted, and sculpted to my face.  My girlfriend, incidentally, is the one who suggested this method, and the one will be layering the thing over my face in the coming days.  At this point, I'm in unfamiliar territory, and trusting her suggestions here.

What remains at this point are gloves and a top, and these are where I'm really hamstrung.  Ideally, I want the blue hawk pattern on a black top, the ends of which extend all the way down the sleeves to two fingers of the gloves.  Of course, I have no clue how to go about making this happen that doesn't involve buying something that's already made with this design in mind, which I don't want to do.  I could go with black gloves and forego the blue on them for the time being, but I'm not sure what to do about the top.

In the meantime, Comicpalooza approaches, which I'm really excited about.  I'd love to have the costume completed by then, but am not gonna hold my breath for it.  Hopefully I'll see some cosplayers there who might have some suggestions about what I could do to get a decent home-made look for the Nightwing costume.  We'll have to see.

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