Friday 29 October 2004

Pic of the day: "Oh my, what have I done?" That's a good question. (Screenshot from the family-friendly underage romance comedy anime Daa Daa Daa.)

Gwalawala gone

OK, that is unlikely to make sense unlee you know that Gwalawala was the name of a novel I tried to write, four years or so ago, before I even began this NaNoWriMo thing. It was a story about a young boy who started to dream about the same place and the same people every night, as vivid as real life if not more so. The dreamworld was one full of magic and mystery, while his real life was fairly boring. Anyway, I never finished it. I did not even make it halfway. Ironically, a major problem was that I got used to describing almost every moment of this guy's life, and when I ran out of stuff for his waking life I gave up on the story.

Then again, I always give up on my stories. I believe it has never really happened that I have finished a coherent story. (I kinda finished a collection of interwoven short stories many years ago. On typewriter, in New Norwegian, so don't expect me to put it up on the web.)

I have written fiction of various sorts since I was a boy, but I believe Gwalawala was the first I put up on the Net for people's reading pleasure. I uploaded it on my crosswinds.net account. This was the web space provider that was too good to be true: Unlimited free space, no advertising on your pages, free e-mail accounts. Well, this was actually true for several weeks, or maybe months. But after an older relative of one of the founders died, things changed pretty quickly. Pop-up advertising, and periodical "crashes" which erased the free accounts. The paid accounts (a new feature) were backed up. As these "crashes" became more and more frequent, it was pretty obvious what they were about. Sadly I could not subscribe since they used the despicable PayPal, which has always refused to acknowledge my credit card and refused to tell me why. Anyway, the way things went it's not like I'd want to associate with crosswinds.net anymore. (I don't much like PayPal either, of course.)

So the wonderful world of Gwalawala was lost in one of those crashes, and then as I changed computers. I did not think to move it to the next computer, erroneously assuming that it was still available online. Well, it is not. So, now that I have plenty of web space rented for two years (at Dreamhost), I thought I would put it up again and it was gone. I kinda liked it, but I have burned or otherwise erased so much fiction through my life that it is not really a big part of it. It would have been interesting to have some of the fiction now that I wrote as a young adult. I have a few pages from my teen years, and it is a sorry sight indeed. If I am allowed to grow old, will I find my current writing as pathetic? I don't think so, but I am not sure if this is a good or a bad thing...

***

Anyway, I'm looking through earlier novel attempts. I intend to put them up on chaosnode.net eventually, when I have nothing else to do and am full of energy. OK, hopefully before that, because that will never happen. But not tonight. Just reading it zips away my time. Sorry to have to say so myself, but I sure can write. As long as I stick with what I'm really good at, barely indecent humor.

OK, that's a disturbing thought. It seems that my magic talent (since we're already summoning Piers Anthony) is casual indecent humor. Everyday stuff, flirting-level, no nudity required, but still ... indecent. I have to improve my other humor skills, so I don't have to burn in Hell with those who seduce the innocent. Well, that's one challenge for this year! Of course, this year's NaNoWriMo is challenging already. I intend to write a heartwarming, family-friendly description of boy love. Something in the spirit of David and Jonathan, not Marquis de Sade. That's my challenge for 2004. (Actually I will also try to have heartwarming, family-friendly underage girl crush on boy love, but she is so barely underage that this should be easy.)

If I live to look back on it, I will surely have failed again. I always do, when it comes to writing. But, if previous attempts are anything to go by, it will still be a jolly good read ... at least for myself.