Journal Entry 16

The last week has been…unpleasant. The short of it is that I developed pneumonia and have been weening myself off of various drugs in an attempt to claw my way back into the bright daylight that is Life. In a way, it was nice. My family took excellent care of me, waiting on me hand and foot and protesting profusely when I tried to circumvent their work. In other ways, it sucked. Last week held some important deadlines. I missed them. As it turns out, there were more than I knew. This week is another mad dash to catch up on assignments.

One of the major projects due last week was the developmental edit of my manuscript’s first three chapters. As much as I am enjoying this class, I’m not too sure that I’m an editor. I can’t seem to grasp the fundamentals–or, at the very least, put them into practice. This set of edits was further compounded by my wavering ability to concentrate. My own editor’s voice was all over the map: ridiculously informal in some cases and overly harsh in others. I meant to remedy that before handing in the final document, but it was already two days late by the time I finished it. I find that I end up doing more copy-editing than developmental editing. Even those assignments that are meant to help us develop an editorial ear sound like book reviews when placed in my hands. We did have the opportunity to avail ourselves of our classmates, particularly those who were in our group. Had I been in class at all last week, I may have done just that…or not. I do tend to play my cards rather close. One of these days, one of these classes will strip me of that mentality.

I fully intend to sit down with my professors (who are reading this, so it seems oddly self-serving) when I return to class. I was definitely at a bit of a loss when we did this as a group, but there is strength in numbers. Doing the edits without regular input to ensure that I was at least headed in the right direction revealed my inadequacies far more quickly. It will be interesting to post some insights after having a chat with my teachers.

Z.

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Journal Entry 9

We are at nine, right? On a completely random side note, Myka is still with the Warehouse. I find this annoying. Moving on, though.

Well, I’ve been babbling a great deal about the fantasy genre–nigh unto gushing in some instances. I am now tasked with describing the key elements of fantasy and deciding whether my suggested manuscript (Pale Queen’s Courtyard, in case you were wondering) fits the bill. This should be fun. I’ll apologize up front for any fantasy fans whom I ostracize by missing something.

The main identifier of a work of fantasy is that the story occurs in an alternate, parallel, or wholly fictitious world. Sometimes the real world and the fantastic are intermingled, often with the denizens of the former being unaware of the latter’s existence; other times, the imagined universe is a piece of reality’s distant past or future; and then there are those stories that create entirely new worlds.

Another common theme is magic, but not just any poof of sparkly dust will do. There are rules, frequently taken from commonly known principles (Every action has an equal and opposite reaction for instance). These restrictions can be stated outright, such as in cases when a character is receiving actual training in the art; most often they are revealed in-scene, a character experiencing a headache or fatigue after using magic to lift a large boulder for instance.

There are a few common story arcs: a character with no magic must face a character with powerful magic, a character with slight magical talents must learn to expand those in order to face a character with powerful magic, or a reluctant character with great power must save the world from a character with powerful magic. Sounding a bit similar, eh? That was done deliberately. It is vastly over-simplifying things, but it is not so very far from the mark. There are variations, of course.

Pale Queen’s Courtyard certainly fits into this category. This world is a part of the real one, seemingly occurring in the distant past. Of the first two protagonists mentioned, one has magical abilities that take a toll when employed and are difficult to control, while the other has no talents in that respect.

This is not an exhaustive list, clearly. It is merely enough to point out the placement of the manuscript that I suggested. I am also thinking that it may be time to sleep soon…

Z.

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