[OOC][PLOT] The Fifth Thread of Planning for Arc 1 - Arrivals

[Labster]

Taco Town Terror

<stares bleary-eyed at the screen.> I have no clue what's being written, so I'm a little confused that Rob asked me to vote on something. The only thing I had pop into my mind, totally out of place, was that the title should absolutely not be the aforementioned one, unless Sonata Dusk was making an appearance.

I kind of made a point of including my bad ideas.  But hey, let me look up who that is real fast:

Sonata mentions that she once accidentally started a fire by putting tacos in a toaster.

You can make this happen, right Rob?

I have to ask how the hell you're managing to be some damned creative and actually produce output on the drop of a hat when I'm taking months to create a paragraph - and the best I can manage otherwise is a semi-troll post in Fenspace about building an RBMK on Frigga.

I mean, I'm sure everyone here's working as much as I am and otherwise has somewhere along the same level of life distractions - but here I am just staring at GDocs

Well I have a white-collar job so I get to be a lazy sonofabitch.  The nuclear reactor posts were really good, just not what I was in the mood to read lately.  But formatted as a proper blog it seems like the kind of thing Hacker News might like.

I don't quite know what it's like to be out of ideas.  Out of motivation, yeah, all the time.  But Rob set a deadline and I get much more motivated by deadlines.  Back when I had a dog last month, I used to let my mind wander on the story while taking our daily walk.  Sometimes it's a story passage I'm working through.  Sometimes it's just being open to the world.  I see a homeless person living in his van with two dogs, how does my character feel?  Or a different character?  A muscle car drives by; do I have a character who covets it?  Or do I have a character who wants to race?  Hey look, there's an ominous stormcloud, what if something bad happens in a rainstorm?

I still think you made it hard on yourself by choosing characters who don't have clear personalities set in canon, and don't necessarily have human emotions.  (I'd play it that they think they don't, but they really do, see also DWII.)  But there's still enough background about what they are to make it interesting.  Say that one of your characters falls for a guy.  A human.  Does she hate herself for it?  If not, does one of the other girls?  Maybe it's a hypocritical hate from the friend, because she's in love with a girl but doesn't want to admit it.  Maybe it's the same girl.  Your subject matter actually tends towards josei, because the 33-Stars are women protagonists dealing with adult trauma.  Maybe you could read/watch a little to get ideas.  And keep asking questions, then write down the answers.