I’m working a late night at Ditto tonight, finally rebuilding replication between some of my databases. It’s boring, painfully slow work that makes me respect competent Database Administrators even more than I already do. While SQL Server does it’s thing, I’m watching The Matrix on my iBook, and I have two stories to critique for group tomorrow night. At the rate replication is going, I’ll be here half the night, so I should have plenty of time to get it all done.

On Monday, Trey mentioned something in his journal that struck a chord. Losing interest in a story once you’ve put time and effort into it. The same thing has happened to me with Temperament. I was enthusiastic writing the first draft, and even while I was marking up the copy for edits. Somewhere through making the edits, though, I realized something was missing with the story. It was too clichè, too much like every other fantasy story I’ve read. Trite. I came to realize something. The traditional fantasy genre, i.e., swords and/or sorcery in a medieval setting, has been played out ad nauseum. I don’t think the genre as a whole has been overused, but the traditional setting has. One of the things I’ve seen lately (which doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s new, just new to me) is traditional fantasy elements in a more modern setting. I also have some pure science fiction stories in my head that I’d like to explore.

Writing is about expression and exploration. We keep writing and adapting, because that’s the way it is meant to be.