I'm off to see the Wizard!

Well... college. :)

After completing two years of my degree in my hometown state college, the time has come for me to uh... spread wings and fly? Leave the nest? Cast off the chains of familiarity?

Yea... it's exciting and rather frightening at the same time. Having spent the last twenty years with my family, moving away by myself is a daunting prospect.

But I think I'm ready for it. I've gone out to my apartment and spent the night twice now, each time learning more my way way about the city that will become my hometown for the next four to six years. (Depending on where or if I get my Master's degree :P)

So that explains the continuing absence here, lack of writing, etc. However, once college begins in earnest, and I begin to have this mysterious thing called a schedule... writing should pick back up. And of course, in two months in NaNoWriMo, so if for some odd and completely disastrous reason I don't get to writing till then (not going to happen :P), I will be... writing then.

So! Look for me, at dawn's first light, on the third day. Well, soon anyways. Until I return, go peruse Michael Hauge's Story Mastery site,  which I've been drooling over for the past few days. Enough tips and rules of thumb there to make any screenwriter/novelist feel equipped enough to adapt/rewrite War and Peace (which, consequentially, I haven't read).

Until then,
Farjag

That's a wrap!

Filming has wrapped on Ironwing!

After a long, rainy and exhausting last Saturday of filming (during which I was beat up by girls multiple times...), we finished!
After a bit of trouble (including difficulties surrounding the procuring a suitable a boat, getting a means of transporting it, not being able to find any extras, and a thunderstorm) the last two fight scenes were finished, and some of the most lengthy bits of dialogue completed in record time!

The sky was steely, the rain intermittent, the water dark... all perfect for probably the darkest moment of the film. That valley at the very end when nothing seems to go right, when everything the heroes have worked for comes crashing down.

But fear not! The sun always comes out brighter when the storm clouds pass, and so it will be with Ironwing. 

Now comes post-production, that lengthy, complicated process of editing, scoring, special effects, lighting, etc. etc. Fun stuff. :) Wish us luck!

Shadowland

Shadowland

Footsteps on the lonely beach

Fading marks on shifting sand

Incoming tide will wash away

I am walking in the shadow-land

Sojourning somewhere not my home

Traveling across the barren strand

Wandering where I don't belong

I am walking in the shadow-land

Smoke on the crying wind

No one around but the damned

There's fog on the barrow-downs

I am walking in the shadow-land

It's raining ash instead of tears

And all at once I understand

I'm meant for so much more

I am walking in the shadow-land

There's a place I'm meant to be

Just beyond the curtain spanned

Pull back the gray and look

I've been walking in the shadow-land

There He stands, just inside the glass

And He's reaching out his hand

I'm going home at last

I will say goodbye to the shadow-land

The Ironwing

A bit of metal caught on a string

A feathered scrap of cold hard steel

A weathered bit of history and pride

Caught the light on its furrowed keel

A strange shape for such a metal

A thing of the day shaped with blackest night

A token hung on leather ties

Gleams in the dark like a faerie light

A symbol of those who have come before

A bringer of hope, and joy, and pain

A witness to wars long since come and gone

Glistens with the fire and cries with the rain

What is this scrap of steel so bright?

Whence comes this pendant worthy of a king?

Who has worn this mixing of strength and flight?

Who forged this masterful Iron-wing?

Filming

Filming continues apace on Ironwing, with only two days of principal photography left!

Sets have been made...

Props gathered...

And more sets made!

Lines have been memorized...

More stuff gathered...

And haversacks clothes-pinned with infinite care by yours truly.

We're almost done!

Me, Myself, And I

When your job involves hours of driving (pizza delivery), and there's nothing good on the radio, and your new ipod won't charge with your old car jack...

It gets real quiet in the car. And my friends, when Farjag is alone, and it's quiet...

He talks to himself.
Extensively.
In different accents.

Here is a portion of the conversation he had with himself last night.


Brains (Dr. Erskine accent): Is this on? Ok, here we go. There are three of us, three voices if you will, that inhabit this mind. There is the brains, that's me, there is the psychopath, and the poker face. The psychopath, he is the crazy ideas one, the one who skips around, and changes accents, and makes people laugh... then there is me. I am the intellect, the knowledge, the caution in this mind, and then there is the poker face. He is the normal, average, human person, the person most people see. He is not particularly crazy, or smart, he just is. But he is the one that gets things done. I for one, think that me and him could get along just fine by ourselves, but *cough, cough* Pardon, the psychopath is coming out....


Psycho (French accent): Well, what are we doing here? Has the Brains been spewing crazy talk about me? He think I am the crazy one, but that is not... not... right. I am the force of.... rightness! I make things happen! Without me, nothing would ever get done! (accent change to Russian) Ah well, you know how it is.


Poker (No/American accent): Um, Psycho, you just changed accents.

Psycho (Schwarzenegger accent): No, I didn't!


Poker: Yes, you did. You were French, and then Russian, then you sounded like a kid trying to imitate Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Psycho: Wha's the matter with dat? I'm the Pyscho! I can do dat!


Poker: Just shut up, were pulling into Pizza Hut.

Psycho: Oh ho! Zis is a problem? (accent change to Churchill) I will not be moved! I stand on... *muffled speech lines*

Brains: There, he is subdued. Can we continue the interview when you return?


Poker: Yea, I was listening. Be back in a min.



It went, for several trips. I'm starting to think that it's all in my head. :)

How Goes the Carving?

Ah, yes, the million-dollar question. That glorious ambition you set for yourself, Farjag? That write-every-night-till-it's-done thingy? That will-not-get-distracted-by-plot-bunnies idea? How's it going for you?

Quite well, actually. All things considered, very well.

Every night? Not exactly. But not distracted? Quite! Work is proceeding steadily forward!

I am currently on page 13, which may not seem like a lot, but it's the furthest I've at the deepest I've been working. If that makes no sense, don't worry. Maybe this will.

My furthest point of editing is page 28. And that was a fairly skimming editing to start with. It was only as I got further in the story that I realized how drastic some of the changes need to be.

For instance, the name of this land, Quartorlen, was one of the last names I created when drawing the map. It was the only place name at the time not formed of two actual words. (Flamehope, Thunderfell, etc.) I then went on to name the land of the shieldsfell similarly, calling it Dyrmlen. When I came up with the differing title system for the shieldsfell, I used the suffix -len as the basis. Patrollen, Magelen.

You see the problem yet? The land of the freeborn is named in the same vein as the names of the invaders.

Despair.... must rename single most used word in the book, must go back and retcon every single blog post, must wipe memories of all readers....

Light bulb! Quartorlen is named so because of the invaders. Think about it.

You and I come, as conquerors, to an island inhabited by a rustic, barbaric people, who divide land into so many tiny parts that it becomes impossible to tell where one begins and the next ends! One island should have one name! Additionally, if there no longer exists a homeland for the natives to fight for, they will not longer wish to fight! So, we shall name this place of provinces... Quartorlen, for when aligned with our compass, it can divided nearly into quarters along the cardinal points. There, problem solved!

Except for the fact that the folk of the four provinces, of Thunderfell, Flamehope, Deepdale and Whitefall, will never forget their own homelands. And the fact that Quartorlen combined is too big an empire to rule over as a united whole. The distances are too far, the landscapes too vast, and the shieldsfell army too small to effectively enforce their rule. And in the far reaches of the four provinces, freeborn wait.

The name of Quartorlen will live on far after the shieldsfell have been banished and many generations have come and gone. But it will be the name of the alliance of the four provinces, a reminder that they must never again refuse to come to the aid of another province, or they will all fall, one by one as they did in the Blood-Invasion.

That was a long for instance. :) But it shows the depth of what I need to do, and what I've already begun to do. Just in writing this, I realized as to why the Blood-Invasion was so successful in the first place. See that part one paragraph up about the provinces standing separately and not together? I hadn't even considered that before.

See, these blog posts aren't just for you readers, they're for me too. :) Long bits of mulling where I can run off my mouth and not get called boring for it.

Cause if you did think I was boring, you wouldn't finish the post and comment on it! Ha, ha I'm genius!

Have a wonderful day ya'll!

P.S. If anyone somehow manages to get the reference in the title, do let me know!