Last night, I finished Constitution, which was one of the more challenging short stories I’ve had to write. I think I feel far more comfortable when writing in the post-TNG era of Star Trek then I do writing pre-historical stories dealing with the construction of the Constitution-class starship. The end of that story left me feeling as though I had chickened out with the intention of the message I wanted to send. Next time the random number generator lands on the pre-TOS era, I think I’m going to redo it, because it was like pulling teeth and every time I read I just recall the sense of complete confusion over dealing with it.
The next installment of The Quarterdeck Breed will be named Dallas and is a mid-Dominion war story about a ship trying to return to the Federation after carrying out a reconaissance mission. There’s death and destruction in this one, for the fans of my horror shorts (The Taking of the USS Venture and The Face of the Smiling Vulcan) who keep telling me that they miss that in my writing. It’s true, I’ve managed to write three whole short stories without introducing a character death. War stories are good for that, but even more so, I had the opportunity to watch The Siege of AR-558 last night on television, and it reminded me that there have not been any really good and moving stories about the loss of life suffered during that conflict with the Dominion. Dallas will hopefully turn out to be a lot longer and more personable than the last three, if I can manage to pour into it what I want to.
Each of these stories go through a series of drafts. The first draft of Agamemnon is a far cry from what’s actually published, as the evolution of writing should be, but even so, I’ve always been the kind of perfectionist writer who feels that he should get it right the first time. Oh, and also be able to write it all out in one sitting. The only story that fit that order perfectly was The Face of the Smiling Vulcan. Of course, it used to be called Wasted Chances and actually had TWO endings, but rather than rewrite it, I trimmed the second ending and that was it. The words remain unchanged and every time I look at it, I can think of nothing that I want to add, remove, or edit from it. I wish all of my writing could go as smoothly as that story did.
My first name:
You want to be productive and feel useful, and enjoy helping solve problems. You like to be busy and not waste time. You are relatively demonstrative in your affections. You enjoy being stroked verbally and physically. You are clever, inventive, imaginative and youthful. You enjoy socializing. You work hard to achieve material success through your own efforts. You have much enthusiasm with a driving attitude toward achievement in life. You can be quite inventive and quite curious. You have a diplomatic flair to your nature. Equality and fairness are important to you.
My middle name:
Your world, good or bad, revolves around your family. You are determined and loyal, and your word is your bond. You have a need to be up front. You can handle details well. You have a methodical mind. You need to learn to give and receive love for love’s sake. You have a need to be assured of affection. You need to learn to be expressive. You are a person who cannot tolerate being misunderstood. You must learn the lessons of self-worth; learn to love yourself before you can love others.
My family name:
You strive for perfection and worry when things don’t turn out just so. You enjoy doing a job well. You tend to procrastinate. You have a need to be up front. You enjoy a challenge. You can take thought-directed actions. You need to learn concentration and not to scatter your mental energies. You need to learn to give and receive love for love’s sake. You have a need to be assured of affection. You have a need to be up front.
http://miva.zodiacal.com/acro.mv (via
I think it’s amazing that we endeavour (that one’s for
1 comment
Why, thank you. 🙂