(no subject)

Busy day again,
The cranes dance in the heavens
But not in England.

(haiku by the famous poet Cogman, while staring blankly at her computer screen and trying to get her brain to work)

having writ, moves on

It's a pity that going to bed early won't automatically assure writing talent and inspiration for the next day. If it did, I'd do it far more often.

In the meantime . . .

I've just been compiling a bibliography for the shoujo book Hearts, Swords, and Flowers (current projected date, Feb next year, I believe). In order to do so, I've been rereading the chapters which I wrote three or four months ago.

I could tear my hair out, kick myself, and rant painfully for the next half hour. (All right, the third of those shifts from conditional to absolute here.) My parents have been kind enough to assure me that yes, this does happen to everyone who's attempted to compile some sort of overview of a genre. You read new books. You see new movies/films/series/whatever. You change your mind. You get new perspectives.

You realize that half your definitions of shoujo could use amending. Dozens of new examples swarm at the back of your mind. Series such as Saiyuki, Fruits Basket, Hellsing, Cowboy Bebop, Basara, and others all crowd into your forebrain to point out how reference to them and inspiration from them could have made something really special of the book.

Blast and dammit.

Okay, so it's not that bad, and it would feel just the same if I rewrote chunks now and then came back to it in another three months, but, but, but, but.

I am dissatisfied. I hope what is there will please people. But . . . gah. I felt at the time that I'd climbed a mountain. Now I feel as if I'd climbed Pleinmont (a hill on Guernsey) and looked up at Everest.

I know that a lot of the heavier emotional twists of shoujo wouldn't export that well to a rpg, but . . . I'm ending too many sentences with buts here. But me no buts.

I'm also aware that a lot of the stuff I've referenced is far from being pure shoujo. Though, against that, I weigh the thought that a lot of stuff these days is neither pure shoujo nor pure shonen, but has elements of both.

I believe this is turning into a self-pitying rant. Let's stop it here.

The day was otherwise rather pleasant. And . . . well. Let's not mention the beads. :)

---

I have no time to sing with
The laureate at midnight
Composing songs in golden minor chords
And I may have been misled by
The lady in the lamplight
Who's dealing futures from the deck of swords.

All names return unto the dust;
I only run because I must;
I may not be here when you waken from your dream, from your dream,
I am so seldom what I seem.

Web of Angels, John M Ford