The Crowded Time

Happy birthday to Caitlin. She has a new issue of her Sirenia Digest out to-day. It has two fragments of unfinished stories and a bit of comic, some of Caitlin's work on The Dreaming, a spin-off from Neil Gaiman's Sandman. I remember buying all Caitlin's issues of The Dreaming I could find ten or so years ago. It's good stuff, less conceptual than Gaiman's work, more freeform and about characters bouncing off each other, which generally seems to describe the difference between the two writers. Though the first of the two new fragments feels much more about establishing concept as it is essentially a description of a setting, a Lovecraftian sea-scape which is intriguing.

The second fragment is co-written by someone named Vic Ruiz who I think is someone Caitlin role plays with in the MMORPG The Secret World. Given what I said about Caitlin's tendency to construct stories from character conversations--often arguments--it seems natural that she uses RP to generate stories. Having seen Caitlin RP, I can say she and her friends seem to generate some interesting things. I've been invited to participate a few times but I mostly seem to end up alone in The Secret World's interminable, soul-sucking single player quests. The game actually has good writing but there's so much grind in between I get antsy. I just wasn't made for MMORPGs, I guess. That, and I've just got too much to do. I'm still playing Fallout 4, I guess, except I haven't played it in nearly a month. I guess I say I'm still playing it because if I were playing something, I'd probably be playing it. At least I don't feel like I'm trying to demolish a mountain with a needle when I play a single player game.

But with school and my comic I don't really have time for video games. Speaking of Neil Gaiman, I seem to recall in his "George R.R. Martin is not your bitch" post those years ago, he talked about how writers need time to dream. It's an easy thing to underestimate because it's basically saying a writer needs time to do nothing. I certainly agree, at least from my own experience, so much of the ideas I have come when I'm driving or walking, when I'm not trying. They just happen. Caitlin has committed herself to another novel, her blog, her Patreon blog, and the Sirenia Digest, I kind of wish she could pull a GRRM for a couple months.