The Importance of Characterization

I'm bad at backstories.

Notoriously so.

I've come to realize that there are two parts to any character, their history, and their personality. Both have a massive influence on who they are, how they act and dress, what drives them, what their goals and dreams are. But I seem to be far better at pinning down a particular look, feel and persona for a character than what happened to them in their past to get them where they are now.

I can imagine up countless details of their costume, hairstyle, eye color, the way they walk, what weapons they carry, how they talk, and on and on. But ask me where they were born? What defined their childhood? What their job was before this? I have no earthly idea. And coming up with a complicated or even just layered backstory when I create the character in my mind is seemingly beyond me.

That's not to say my characters are all history-less personas with no past whatsoever, I simply tend to create backstory as I go, filling in events and past meetings as needed for the plot. A character needs to sympathize with another? Add in some past shared experience. The protagonist needs a good-talking to learn a lesson? Boom. Side character had a father who told stories, and she proceeds to give him one.

I'm pretty sure this isn't the best way to go about this, for a number of reasons. Continuity... Oh, of course these two characters have met before! Wait... they can't recognize each other later... Never mind. Progression of character arcs, clear ideas of goals and dreams, knowing how a character would respond to a given situation... the list goes on.

So I don't know which way is better. And I doubt I'll get any better without actually doing it, which I seem unable to do, so I don't know if the problem will ever solve itself.

Who knows? Maybe someday, but for now, I'll stick to what I do best. Picking out hairstyles and trench coats.

Of Versions and Trying Again

I had the wonderful opportunity to return home this weekend to join my fellow homeschooler friends in a performance of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

Which was awesome enough in itself, but I also got two 2.5 hour trips there and back, which passed surprisingly quickly this go around, mainly due to the fact that I spent the hours brainstorming, plot hashing, troubleshooting, and generally working through stories.

Now, all this work is cerebral, not actual pen-to-paper, but its definitely worth doing. (Especially when there's not much else to do). I ended up working through several different stories all told, but the one I spent the most time on was the umpteenth version of a story I now call Hoprerise. (To differentiate it from the dozens of other versions).

But to explain what Hoperise is, I have to go back to 2012, to a little story attempt called Deep Red. What started off as a novel, morphed into a Lego stop-motion, transitioned quickly to a Lego comic book and then sat on a shelf for a year, until late 2013, when I decided to try to write a script off the idea.

Substituting walking for planet-hopping, and shotguns for plasma rifles proved a unique challenge, but also provided a place to develop a particularly gritty, almost western-style of sci-fi I found immensely enjoyable to create.

Retitled Hopefall, and fresh off the success of filming Shadowland, I set out to film my new script with conscripted college buddies, locations in and around my tiny apartment, and costume and props gathered from my parent's old stash of military gear.

I actually got one day of filming in before the project flopped. Mainly due to scheduling issues, but there were also problems with the script and my innate tendency to try to do everything myself. After that, it sat on the shelf again until I returned to college in the fall of 2013.

Over the summer, I had written and shot with far more success a short film called Minefield, set in the same world I had created for Hopefall. Armed with that experience, and a shiny new version of the script with most of the bugs worked out, I set out to try again.

One week out from commencing filming, things fell apart once more. Scheduling a film in between multiple college student's classes and other commitments proved to be too difficult a task. After that, I set Hopefall back on the shelf, I thought for good.

However, in my recent forays back into writing, the elements and ideas I had begun working with in those multiple previous versions kept coming back, and I decided to give it another shot, starting completely from scratch instead of trying to retrofit the previous version to fit a new set of criteria.

One of my good friends, after reading many of the earlier versions, had given me his opinion that a story dealing with the Bible as an outlawed, drug-like substance in a dystopian society warranted a far more serious story than I had been giving it. My tendency as a writer is to epicfy things, in the process missing the true point of the tale.

Taking this into consideration has been key as I have re-explored the different pieces that make up Hoperise. And mulling through it over and over again in the car has made me see things I never saw before, as well as realize just how intense the story can be, without adding in action for action's sake.

It's still going to take a lot of work before it'll be ready to do anything with, but I certainly have a better grasp of what needs to be done than I ever had before. I've also realized that setting myself on one outcome will only end in disappointment. So whether the story ends up as a novel, comic-book, film, play or puppet show, or nothing at all, it shouldn't matter to me. My job is simply to tell the tale in any way I can.

Surety

I sound so sure of myself in blogposts. Perhaps it is because I tend to speak and think in absolutes and generalizations, and that flows through strongly into my writing. In other words, don't trust what I write... I tend to be wrong. Especially about goals and dreams.

In other words, things did not go as expected. They never do, I'm beginning to realize that now. For one thing, architecture school tends to get more intense as one progresses through it. Which means more time spent drawing and modeling in studio, and less time writing.

Despite that, my writing has continued, in tiny spurts and minuscule bounds, less of the slow and steady march I promised myself last January, and more of a spastic energy bunny who is slowly running out of energy.

Last month I had the great honor and privilege to be a part of a feature film production of The Scarlet Letter, turning my architectural skills to set design in what was possibly the most fun I've ever had. And considering The Scarlet Letter is a rather dark and depressing story by its very nature, that's saying something.

But the important thing as far as my writing is concerned was the three day trip up and back. Long hours in the car meant time for writing and reading, things I hadn't had time for in a long while. Christmas, to be exact.

Jumping back into three jobs while prepping for grad school has made writing difficult, but I continue to do so while I have time. And even if I'm not actually setting pen to paper, (or keyboard to document), I am constantly working through bits of story in my head, fixing problems, having lightbulb moments, and generally making sure I keep my imagination active.

All that being said, blogging is one more thing on top of all that, and I doubt I shall be able to continue with any sense of regularity, but sometimes it is good to simply sit down and verbalize the thoughts that have been running through my head, even if they are only read by me six months down the road.

Resolutions

Another year, another adventure. A fresh slate, with no mistakes in it. Not yet, anyways.

Another college semester started today, and soon I'll be full swing into regular schedule nicely full of classes and projects. But rather than let something like that get in the way of my writing, I intend to use it to help push me into writing a little bit every day.

So a New Year's resolution, if you will, to write more and dawdle less.

Not a lot of writing, mind you, perhaps no more than a paragraph a day. But writing non-the-less. I don't think I will be able to keep it up for long, but I shall take it as far as I can. And who knows? Maybe some good will come out of it.

I recently started reading again, after a rather longish hiatus from anything good, and that coupled with dozens of writerly friends back home over Christmas break has given me plenty of impetus to actually begin and possibly finish something after all.

The road goes ever on and on,
Down from the door where it began
Now I must follow if I can
Pursuing it with eager feet
Until it with some larger way meet...
And wither then? I cannot say.

Litters

So I was going along, minding my own post-Nano business, finishing off architecture finals, when I noticed something.

There was a tiny bunny following me. Now, this bunny was of the rare Ploteus Bunnius species, the kind that won't stop following you till you turn and give them attention.

So I did. I stopped, filled half a page with scrawled notes on the interesting creature, and moved on. However, much to my surprise, I soon found another, possibly related to the first, following me as well.

Accordingly, I filled up the rest of the page with illegible scrawlings on the exact nature of this one, and moved on once more.

Imagine my surprise, when a third bunny hopped out of the bushes and joined the gathering crowd. At this point, I realized that not only had my brief foray into writing reawakened normal writing tendencies, it had only produced a litter of plot bunnies.

And bunnies tend to breed with surprising rapidity.

I shall have to fill up my wall with these if they continue to come.

Welp.

Well, if you haven't guessed, I didn't quite finish Nano this year. In fact, I threw in the towel about the fifteenth. There are a lot of reasons why, but the least was the busyness of school. While definitely a contributing factor, there were other, more serious problems with my story.

As evidenced in previous posts, I lost my sense of direction on The Imaginarium/Fair too Far/The Farthest Mile fairly early on, and it was only after fifteen days of wrestling with a story that was fighting tooth and nail to go a different direction that I realized my mistake.

See, the story I had set out to write was far different from the one I found myself writing, and while that can often be a good thing, in this case it left me hogtied, trying to finagle characters and settings into a plot that wasn't theirs.

In addition, by the fifteenth, even though I was a good deal behind on my word count, the story was gearing toward the final act. Which meant that the story would be a great deal shorter than 50,000. That was the final piece of a rather complex puzzle of problems that contributed to my decision to stop and try again later.

Because that's what I plan to do. And though planning and writing have not always seen eye to eye in my mind, there are two full-fledged stories floating around in my brain right, just waiting for me to sit down and write them. One of them is The Farthest Mile, the final iteration of the story I settled on.

Mashing together themes from the parable of the prodigal son and awesome setting of steampunk, coupled with some good old-fashioned story tropes turned on their head will make a wonderful story, once I can separate it from The Imaginarium in my head.

So we shall see. I've been writing a bit since, in tiny spurts and leaps, and plan to continue doing so for some time, perhaps even setting a much smaller goal for myself every other day or so. And since that is the case, the blog shall remain open for a bit longer, though I highly doubt regular posts will become... regular again.

All said and done, I had a blast Nanoing this year, and thoroughly enjoyed diving back into writing. I'm already looking forward to next year!

A Change of Pace

With the transitions outlined in my last post, it became apparent that my novel needed both a change of title, as well as a slightly different direction to aim for. So, unless I find a more aptly suited name in the future, the title is now Fair too Far. We'll see how long that sticks.

And as for the change in direction, perhaps a change of theme would be a more accurate description. I try to let everything I write have a purpose. I.e. I try not to write something simply for the heck of it, or simply because its awesome or hilarious. I write because there's a story that needs telling, and hopefully a truth that can be investigated or made clear.

One of my ultimate goals in writing is to create a vacuum of space where I can make a darkness so deep that when it cracks, the light shines through with stunning brilliance. That's why I love writing, because I can create awful scenarios, horrendously dark moments, and put my characters through more than they rightly deserve, so that the reader sees the truth with the same clarity that my characters do.

Sometimes that truth is simple. Or straightforward. Other times it is not. Sometimes it is very clear before I begin writing what the end goal will be. Other times it is not. This time is one of the not so clear times. But at the story gains more strength in my mind, and as words add to words, it will become more and more clear to me what exactly I need to bring to light in this particular tale. Perhaps hope. Or justice. Or patience. Most likely something more complex than that.

I am reminded of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. There is a deep message in that book, behind all the wonderful action and science, but it is sometimes hard to put in words that will not make the story seem cheap and fake. The best way to understand what I am talking about is of course to read the book itself.

Hopefully that is what Fair too Far will end up being like.

Gaining courage,
Farjag

On Existential Crises and Ninjas

So after the good start on day one, day two found me suffering from an existential crisis.

I had no idea where my story was going to go. Which is bad. Because I thought I knew that already.

It turns out, the plot I had outlined prior to November 1st didn't have enough forward impetus to be properly labeled a plot. It had character development by the buckets, danger and mystery by the tons, but nothing to dictate what happened next, no forward catalyzation.

Which evidently isn't a word.

Anyways, that was the main problem, but there was a second problem hiding behind it. And that was a lack of setting. I had characters, but nowhere particular for them to inhabit. Which quickly caused the story, already lagging from a lack of forward motion, to stagnate in a undecided place somewhere between Transylvania and the southern half of Virginia.

I.e. nowhere particular.

So all this is running through my head on day two and into day three. The setting was a relatively fix, and helped me push through the existential crisis of wether or not I should even continue Nano.

And then, late on day four, I remembered the old Nano adage: "If your story stalls, add ninjas!" Or something similar. While ninjas aren't exactly suitable to my story, it definitely started me thinking on what I could inject in the plot to completely create a new story. I realized that the plot I had was very thematically similar to 2011's Nano novel, The Trust Hole. I.e. A young, innocent character enters a dark place, meets colorful characters with dark secrets, and turns the place around, learning in the process their place in the world.

So while by day four I was really warming to the characters and setting, I realized the plot had to go.

So I added ninjas.

Or more properly an armada of death-dealing dirigibles breaking out of a cloud-filled sky to the sounds of hundreds of gatling guns.

I'm pretty sure this is going in a far more interesting direction than previously. :)

On Arson

Now, some of the very astute readers here will notice that the name "Arson" has been used once before here on the blog. Back in March of this year (so long ago!) I waxed lyrical about a plot bunny that momentarily distracted me from my other current literary projects.

That trail went nowhere particular in the end, I wrote about another half page before the trail dead-ended. The reason was very clear, I had no plot. I had two very distinct characters, without a true trail for them to follow. So they were forgotten.

But I very much liked the name, and so I resurrected it from the grave of unfinished tales, dusted it off and set it back to work. And while female protagonist's name stayed buried, the character itself soon found its way into my pre-Nano scribblings and plot prep.

So, in a way the story is finding new life. I took characters with no plot and placed them in a plot that had no characters, and hopefully I shall find a happy marriage between the two before the end of November!

Writing on,
Farjag

Off To A Good Start

Well, today went well. Not only was I able to turn in my architectural homework on time, but I also happened to finish off my first 1,700 words just now. Which means I have time tonight to relax and write a blog post!

What's that? Getting ahead while I have time? Pssh!

We shall see. I enjoy stopping writing at particularly chewy points of the story, much like commercial breaks for a tv show. It gives me an impetus to finish the next part the next time I sit down to write, sort of like a self-propelling kick in the rear. All that to say I stopped at a particularly delicious point, more on the comedic than suspense side, but still very much a kicker. To illustrate my point:

Arson grumbled. “Your head’s a little big for your shoulders, Alice.”

“Exactly what will get me a job someday. Or today, for that matter. Tell you what, I’ll make you a deal. If I impress your boss, Mr. What’s-what’s-face with what I can do, I get to stay. If he won’t hire me, than I’ll be off back home and you can keep on your merry, solitary way.”

Arson frowned in thought before extending a hand to his sister. “Deal.”

A half hour later Arson found himself setting Alice up in a bunk next to the juggler twins. Apparently her sleight-of-hand magic had duly impressed Mr. Kash.

Mwuah-ha-ha!

The Iceman Cometh

And with him November, that dreaded, longed for month. Sometime within the next 36 hours I shall sit down before the white wilderness of the blank page and begin to build, carving line after line of black letters until the wilderness has been civilized and a story has begun.

Time will tell how fast or far my attempt will go, but I hope to reach the other side of the month having built at least a 50,000 strong army of words who tell a story worth remembering. But if I fall midway, to battle or busyness, at least I will have attempted the journey.

I hope to see you on the other side, if my mixed metaphors don't get to me first :)

Forth, and fear no darkness!

Let the Games Begin!

NaNoWriMo has officially entered pre-production! That is to say, I logged into my account... and set up my novel. :D

But that did require some thought, as I had to synthesize all the dozens of different ideas bouncing around inside my mind into a single, semi-coherent train of thought that could be further synthesized into a synopsis.

In addition there was that pesky thing called a title... my novel had been going by the unassuming name: NaNoWriMo Novel. That was going to fly any further, so additional thought was necessary on that front.

And to complete the trifecta of unknowns, I had not named any of my characters yet. They had been simply going by Protagonist and the Sister. So that had to change too.

So after much soul-searching and brain-wracking, I worked the bits and pieces of a story in single whole, filled in the missing pieces and came out the other side with something resembling the skeleton of a novel. It definitely isn't much, but it's enough to go on.

The Imaginarium

When Arson Folkert ran away to join M. Kardanian's Traveling Imaginarium, he didn't realize he would never see his parents again. Now his younger sister Alice, an orphan with nowhere to go, comes looking for him, but Arson has no intention of leaving. And the Imaginarium hides a dark secret; the small troupe who run it are far more than they seem. The deadly road that Arson has started on will take both him and Alice into the darkest places of their soul, and it will take a strength they don't have to escape.

Once More Into The Fray

Once again, dear readers (the few, the proud), I'm back. Probably not for long, but definitely for the duration of November and NaNoWriMo, and possibly after that! If it does continue, the theme of the blog will likely shift to represent my more current interest of screenwriting and architecture, but in the end it will still be all the same story I am telling. 

So expect the next month to be filled with a smattering of ideas, brainstorming, dead ends, restarts, random plot threads and the like, while the following month of November will be filled with excerpts, rants on plot, more brainstorming, more dead ends, probably at least one reboot and quite a few cringe-worthy grumblings at my own ineptness. After that? Hopefully some cohesiveness as I seek to organize the brain-frenzied creative outpourings of the month previous into a coherent whole. 

Until very soon,
Farjag

The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then? I cannot say.

All Good Things Come To An End

Sadly, yes, dear readers, all good things do come to an end, and for this particular corner of the blogosphere, that time has come. If you are one of the few still reading this, you know how sporadic and intermittent my posts have been of late. College is requiring more and more of my time, leaving little for other activities, and among them blogging has always ranked low.

As a writing blog, this blog depends on how much I write, and with sparse amounts of time for writing, little writing gets done. So instead of me dragging my feeble posts on until one day they simply drop dead and never come back, I shall lay them to rest with some scrap of honor left.

But all is not lost! For come November, and the ubiquitous NaNoWriMo, there exists a strong possibility of a brief resurgence of updates, outlines and the like.

Until then, I bid you all a fond farewell, and will always keep in my heart the memories, comments and wonderful bookish friends I have made during my tenure as a blogger.

Stay strong, dear ones, and may your quills never run dry!

Attack of the Bog o' Swords

*evil grin* Or Blog Awards.

Because we all know I need an excuse to put anything up here these days...

Anyways, Charley R over in her Leaning Tower of Terror Plot decided to break her normal rule (hah!) about doing blog awards and then decided that in the spirit of breaking rules she would not pass it onto anyone in particular, but instead open it up to the entirety of her readership.

And me, after a mercifully almost homework free Saturday, decided to take her up on it. *evil chuckle to match previous evil grin*

Ze questionz are as followz:

(1) Has a piece of music ever given you a headache? If so, what was it? If not, what was the closest thing?

Every time a car drives past with its speakers up so loud the chassis is actually rattling. It's usually a rap song consisting of ten words, four of which are unfit to be spoken. *rant over*

2) Do you like pens, pencils, or word processor better?

An interesting question, seeing as I'm not sure myself. Most of my writing is done on my laptop, so quantitatively, a word processor. However, I've always had a soft spot in my heart for pencils, as the callouses on my ring and middle fingers on my right hand can attest to. At the same time, as a architectural student, most of my notes are actually in sharpie permanent marker... so it's a hopeless mess.

(3) Out of the last five books you’ve read, what character was your favorite?

 Oh, goodness. What were the last five books I read? *five-minute mental computing break. Mutterings about syllabi and textbooks and powerpoints* Well, over Christmas break I read On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness, which was an awesomely fun read (and the first fiction I had read in over a year). And in that book I met Peet the Sock Man, who covers his arms with socks to keep the blades that grow there from being seen. That's the kind of man he is.

(4) Out of the last five movies you’ve seen, what character was your favorite?

Javert, from Les Miserables. Hands down. If I could sing (which I can't [in public]), I would love to act him in a play. The man who would stop at nothing to bring justice to the guilty, and became so fixated on his task that when mercy was granted him could not bear it. The perfect hero, who ended up on the wrong side as the villain instead.

Stars 

In your multitudes 

Scarce to be counted 

Filling the darkness 

With order and light 

You are the sentinels 

Silent and sure
Keeping watch in the night 

Keeping watch in the night 

(5) What’s your favorite genre to write?

Fantasy. And its many variations, such as steampunk. When the world is yours to shape, and the rules yours to make, there is no greater freedom. Still, the best story I've written is more dystopian than anything, with perhaps some sic-fi. Hardly fantasy. So I don't know.

(6) Is that your favorite genre to read?

Yup. Ultimately, I like a good book, whatever genre it is. But discovering new lands, creatures, customs, races... that is my favorite thing to experience in a book

(7) When was the last time you wished your library bought more good books, more often?

Last time I went to the library, which was about a month ago. Now, it was my college library, and I was looking for Les Miserables... so it's ever so slightly understandable. I haven't been to any of the libraries in town since I moved out here for college.

Interestingly enough, I wished that the local Goodwill had a better and bigger selection of belts, suspenders and hat racks the other day... You'd think the capital of the state would have a bigger Goodwill than my hometown did...

(8) Do you write with music or not?

Almost always. But silence has its merits, as I discovered last year during NaNoWriMo. You can check that post for an exhaustive list of what music I normally listen to while writing.

More recently my writing has been limited to sleepless nights of scriptwriting, listening to the haunting music my friend composed for Shadowland. (Check it out here!)

(9) Do you outline? If so, what method do you use?

Ha. Ha ha. Maybe....

See, its a sorta-kinda thing. I have a method.

Which I thought I had written a post about some time ago... and so went looking for it so I could link it here and save me some typing...

All I got was an awesome trip down memory lane :D.

Anyways, I got bored of making bullet points out of plot lines a long time ago, and have since developed my own way of keeping track of where the story will go without locking myself into a set path.

I was so sure I had already blogged about this!... Guess I'll have to now! Look for a post soon! Suffice for now to say that yes, I do outline, but in a very particular way.

(10) About what book or movie are you the geekiest, especially in public?

Definitely The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Seeing as that's the one most people talk about, giving me plenty of opportunities to geek out. Other contenders might be Doctor Who (which isn't a book or movie, technically), and Sherlock Holmes (All of them: books, BBC and recent films)

That's all folks! Till next time (which there will hopefully be),

Farjag

Shadowland

Once upon a time, last August to be precise, I wrote a poem based on a concept borrowed from C.S. Lewis. The idea of earth as a Shadowland of heaven. Well, after writing the poem, I went on to do a series of lithographs inspired by the same idea. That was in the middle of last semester. And the idea still wouldn't stop knocking around in my head.

About a month ago I began to ask my college friends if anyone was interested in making a movie. I got enough interest to warrant me writing a script, but didn't have any solid ideas. Until late one night, after several hours of sleepless tossing and turning, God gave me the nudge to start writing. So after scrounging out my old glasses I sat in front of my laptop in the dark of a room lit only by its screen; and began to write. Two hours later I had finished a seven page script across which were scattered the verses of the poem I had written months earlier. A few days and helpful critiques (thanks, Director!) later I had a finalized script. 

And we filmed it, less than a week later. And now, exactly one week after filming day, I present you the finished product: Shadowland.

The Music of the Light

Let me tell you a story. Or, rather, let me retell you a story.

The year is 1881, the place the Opera Populaire. A young girl named Christine has just replaced the Opera's leading lady and enchants the proprietors with her beautiful voice. But someone else hears her too, a mysterious figure with a masked face known only as the Phantom. He is enthralled with her music, but cannot bring himself to speak to her. The weeks pass and Christine continues to see him peering from the shadows, always watching, always afraid. Finally her curiosity gets the better of her and she follows him down beneath the opera to his wretched abode, a ramshackle dwelling among cast off set pieces and abandoned furniture. Even though his shame is so great that he drives her away, she pities him and continues to venture down to the dark underbowels to visit him in his dark existence. When she discovers that the only way he will ever listen to her is through song, she begins to sing, pouring out her heart in a beautiful melody of hope and light. And this is what she sang:

Night time fades and, waken each sensation
Darkness flee, and stir imagination
Silently commence to abandon your defense

Slowly, sturd’ly, dawn unfurls its splendor
Grasp it, reach it, powerful yet tender
Turn your face away from the shadows oh so gray
Turn your thoughts away from cold and silent night
And listen to the music of the light

Come away and leave behind your darkest dreams
Wash yourself of the life you knew before
Come with me, let your spirit start to soar
You will live as you've never lived before

Strongly, sharply, music shall empower you
Hear it, grasp it, let it now awake you
Open up your mind, leave those nightmares behind
Draw closer to the flame you cannot fight
The fires of the music of the light

Let your mind start a journey in this strange new world
Leave all thoughts of the life you knew before
Let your soul take you where you long to be
Only then can you truly be free

Leaping, running, sweet intoxication
Hold it, trust it, savor each sensation
Let your life begin, let your older self dive in
To the power of the music in your sight
The power of the music of the light

He alone can make your song take flight
Let Him sing the music of the light!

Tonight

Tonight is the night.

The night all the work is done.

The night when the lights dim, the music starts and a story unfolds.

Tonight was the premiere of Ironwing.

Note: The url at the end of the trailer is to a private blog. Attempts to hack will be shot down by acid firing laser robots.  :P

The Tale worth Telling

Two-thousand years ago, on a quiet night in a small country town, with the lights of the big city shining in the distance, several homeless men sat silently around a tiny fire, content to let alone and leave alone the world around them.

That was before the sky above them ripped open as a window into another dimension split across the starry skywall. And framed in the glorious light spilling from the crack stood a powerful being the likes of which they had never seen. Fear clutched at their hearts and terror shot through their knees. But the words this being spoke calmed them as easily as oil calms a turbid wave.

"Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger."

And no sooner had he finished than the entire sky disappeared behind a sheet of blinding light as an army thousands upon thousands sprang in existence and began to chant with a noise like rushing waters:

"Glory to God in the highest! And on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!"

With that they were gone, and the darkness of the night settled slowly back over the hills, leaving those awestruck men in silence. It only took a hurried conversation for them to decide what they must do. And leaving behind all that was familiar to them, they set out to find what had been told of.

And they found it, several miles away, in a tiny cave tucked into a rocky hillside. A donkey and a few sheep huddled in the back, their stalls taken over by an exhausted couple and their feeding trough by a newborn baby. 

The humblest of beginnings for the greatest of all kings.

The smallest of abodes for the most powerful of all rulers.

The lowest among men witnessed the birth of the Highest.

God rest ye merry, gentlemen! (and ladies)!

29 hours

29 hours in studio so far*...

3 days in the same cubicle...

2.5 models completed and 2.5 to go...

And I think I'm starting to crack...



*Non-consecutive, I did catch a few hours sleep :P