Bard by BlueInkAlchemist, on Flickr

After a long dry spell, it’s nice to have the feeling of getting writing accomplished again. I’m still not entirely sure what was keeping me from making progress on Cold Streets. I guess my time management skills still wax and wane after all of this time. After playing Spec Ops and The Walking Dead (review in two weeks!), and realizing that stories like this would remain unknown if someone hadn’t carved out the time to write them.

I mean, Spec Ops borrows a great deal from Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now, but you know what I’m getting at.

Incidentally, I also finished playing The Darkness II, which I may go back and review at some point despite the fact it’s long past the release date. While the premise feels very much like the ’90s comic book that spawned it (no pun intended), the game features some decent moments of character growth or realization, and keeping it entirely in the first-person perspective of the protagonist makes some of the moments really work and the scenes where reality changes quite effective. It focuses on the characters, as any good story should.

Holy crap, I just figured out why I have such a problem with The Amazing Spider-Man… more next week.

It’s focus on characters that’s gotten me moving forward again. Banter is being exchanged and relationships are developing and being explored. The fact that I’m carving out the time as soon as I get off of the dayjob is helping, as well. My energy is still high enough to maintain a decent word count if I get right to it as soon as I get home, provided I don’t have to run errands, do chores, or buy something for the household.

At least it’s happening, though. And it’s not like one can expect the process to go smoothly. If anybody tells you writing is easy, they’re lying to you.