Jake needs a flashback. We have to know him for something other than what he is going to do during his fight with the ghost ship. I thought about flashing him back to a battle, the rings (as in Saturn’s rings) battle, but I don’t think that’s necessary. We already have one fight, there’s not much of a need for a second fight. This brings me back to the Empire’s decline. I want to relate this in. I want Jake, a young, idealistic officer, to confront this decline and understand it, at least at a subconscious level. If he understood it consciously, he probably wouldn’t have lasted as long in the navy.

Ah, but it is interesting if he understands it consciously, but makes the choice to stay with the navy. He wants to pilot planetships. There’s that love in him that you’ve seen in others. It’s his desire to pilot even though he knows he’s piloting for a corrupt and declining civilization. It’s his day job which is divorced from his philosophical understanding.

He is piloting dignitaries when he comes to these realizations. These are leaders of the empire, and perhaps one in particular. He’s a former pilot, like Jake,, and sits in the cockpit with Jake and the captain of the planetship. Jake is piloting as Cini does in the main part of the story. Is it going to be more discussions? Too many fucking discussions! All this exposition done through conversations. This is a character story; stop worrying about boring people and tell the story. Not everything has to involve the mugging of little old ladies to be interesting. It’s your love of the characters and the opportunity for choice that should excite the reader (or at least me, which is why I’m writing this—right, right?).

So Jake and the captain and the dignitary are discussing things. Well, Jake’s not discussing so much as editorializing as he listens in on the conversation. He answers the questions put to him, but makes the decision early to answer in a way that they expect to hear, as opposed to sharing what he feels. This is to protect his career, and he knows what a coward it makes him.

Who are the captain and dignitary? I’m not sure. What are they discussing, how does it arise to something that Jake can later use?

I could flash it back even further, returning to Jake’s childhood. How is this going to help you? The story returns to a more mundane basis. This is when planetships are first being built and the empire is stil at its peak. It’s going to decline, but Jake doesn’t know it yet.

I’m stpinning my wheels again. I’m thinking about giving up on this story and going back to my daily stories. I’m not happy about either decision. I want to create more output, but I also want to finish what I start. I’m struggling to find the basis for this story. I have the basics, but the world is so complicated and beyond me that I’m not sure I can pull it off. I need to read and vouyeur more. I’ve been neglecting the food I need to write. When things run around in my mind with nothing pushing or inspiring them, my stoires and writing turns flat. I need to relate what I write with what happens around me. I’m a derivative artist, in the best sense of the word.

I’m feeling the pull of distractions. My phone, in plane mode, begs to be played with, and I’m itching to open up my drawing program to see if I can sketch the idea I had for the sewcrates picture. I’m trying to resist but it’s difficult…

I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t resist. I spent most of the flight sketching the mascot for sewcrates. I thought of him a few mornings ago: a silhouette of a guy leaning over a laptop computer with a fire burning in the background. Once I have a mascot, I figured the rest would flow. I’ll post the sketches to show you what I’m going for (I obviously still haven’t achieved it) when I return to Seattle. I’m spending the weekend with Doolies (yeah!) and since I’m still using the old version of sewcrates, I can’t upload from here (just way until the new one is finished—sometimes this century).