Vysnu » writing

Ache

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Stay, says Viragor,
I want you near me.
Nay, breathes Matilda,
Tho I can’t bear to leave thee.

His hair she clasps with twists and turns,
Hers he touches softly, kissing in burns.
‘Twill be months, years yet we meet,
But fleet should be our hearts be, sweet.

And then she’s gone, an orphan left,
Between people near but dead.
Stolen moments, sweet but misery,
Slowly turned dear, restless and finicky.
Oft-shaded heart and steady work’s a blanket,
A poor salve that, uproars many a racket.
Bent, slippery, tested and hurt,
But so doth love be stronger for worth.
A true refrain then, to ease parted hearts,
His heart and hers may beat to stars:

Come, says Viragor,
Been aching to hold thee.
Love, smiles Matilda,
When have we been free?

Tags: love • poetry • writing

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Hyperwriting

Monday, June 11, 2007

One element of good writing for the independent web^[1] which is often overlooked is that your writing is part of a larger story which is not under your control. This is to an extent true for all writing which doesn’t stand alone: an article is part of a magazine just as much as a recipe is part of a cookery book. And like all such writing, it’s perceived as part of a larger whole.

What’s special about the online jungle is that you can’t even assume constant assumptions on the part of the reader. For example, NYT articles are democratic, CNN.com has propganda [;-)], and Fark.com is (adult) funny. If you write your articles in one of these media, and if you keep your average reader in mind (you’d do this is you want effective writing, which is what all this is about) then you’d tailor your articles to suit expectations. But in the larger miasma of the web, how do you decide what and how to read expectations? The web is connected, and the spiders that visit your frayed hideyhole might come on from thousands of different places, and there’s no guarantee of any continuity.

One simple answer is that you create your own universe and let your reader be immersed into it. People buy this oh very quickly. The hypothesis is that every page is special, and a click-through from an adult site is as likely to be impressed as one from a search engine.

As an aside, one technique which is underutilized to propogate this mass-hypnosis is clever linking. Hypertext is alive because it can send your user to other pages. Even though Google has perverted the medium with commercialization, people do like to click on links. Use that fact! Lead them on. Make a story within a story (it’s much better than enclosing an aside in parentheses), or even make them read a worthier one. You get to choose.

Getting back, is there a different way? Creating your universe is oh-very-well, but can you match zillions of varied expectations? A good way is to try to reduce it to a few common ones. A lot of sites use a technique where visitors coming in from a search engine get their words highlighted on the site automagically. Let’s say you come here searching for “porn king” (god forbid). To help you out, my site will highlight all instances of that term in your landing page. Is this good for the visitor? Undoubtedly. Does it match your interests, does it tell your story more effectively? Maybe. In this example, very much not, but it’s still a very user-friendly thing to do.

You probably can cook up a different version of a page for a user that comes in from:

a social networking site
your girlfriend’s site.
a mobile browser (device dependent).
a competitor’s website, etc.

Condensed, what I’m talking about is that referrals and clever referral management to rewrite your content could pay dividends. True?

^[1] Blogs, pages, documentation, stuff which floats.

Tags: musings • reading • web • writing

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Thomas Crown

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

There will be, one day, in a small, rickety-rockety town,
a man named Thomas Crown.
Dear of heart will be he,
beautiful, brown, broken and free.
Into his life will come a vision oft not seen,
Of sweet curves, open and shut lips,
revolving heels and a rumor of easy access.
Word will be, you just got to press a button to get her going.

There was, on a day not long past,
with the same manner and cast,
a man who called himself an uncompleted half.
His baby didn’t mind him having a bit of fun,
but always knew where to draw that whispery line.
“Oh honey, can’t you come over tonight?”
Open, shut. Revolve, press a button.
Dial a tune, bad reception.
“I want to tell you something, I love-“.
Flicker, flicker, crackle crack.
A dead battery holds him back.

And then there is, a small lesson,
for all you aspiring vixens.
The easiest way to a man’s heart is
through his mobile.
Pick her up, hold her high, regard her
with just the right bit of envy,
Look into his eyes and tell him,
“I love your mobile, Thomas!”
Watch his eyes glisten, his breath draw closer,
his grip tighten on you.
Oh, and make sure you prepped yourself right.
Be prepared to show him your cute little button.

Tags: writing

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Dark Princess

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

This goes out, with love, to the two women who broke my heart, and taught me to love.

Miss Beautiful, unreachable, suave and Me;
the broken hearts recipe.
Let it be said that when fate frowned a wee,
I did hold on and smiled afree.

But that was later,
for
knees turned to jelly,
voices to dust, and non-existant throat-sounds
for when she was near,
I listened, gave and loved her drunk.

Scarred? Hated women and their breed,
and all their conniving ruthless heartless souls

But then, sometimes, you listen and learn
from your dark princess,
lessons she gave, but you forgot
thus:
Moan, for you have doubts
Laugh, for you have misery,
and smile,
and keep smiling,

Then, my second,
that special type of woman
a girl who smiled and talked and wrote anew
a chapter in my life, the foolish I had thought
Lost.

When you learn the lesson that
it takes two to love
But one to keep loving,
two to kiss,
but just one to take a breath;

When you learn to part ways,
and still earn a loving

You remember not with hate,
but with true memory
and you salute your dark princess
and seek a new one.

Tags: writing

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Fairytales Last Forever

Saturday, January 15, 2005

A hard divorce.

[RTF]

Tags: writing

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Seven, v0.5.20040723

Friday, July 23, 2004

I’ve restructured Seven so that the document should be much nicer to read and also much easier to update. I’ve added a new chapter to the story, and polished off many of the earlier chapters. Read the Note before the story for more of what I have to say. The changes in this version are:

Friday, July 23, 2004, version 0.5.20040723

Summary: Major Changes. Recommend a re-read from Chapter One.

Added Chapter Five, Cast, Units, the Note and Changes.
Major formatting changes in this version, Seven is now a nicer, single document, easily converted to lots of different formats.
Standardized magicka.
Removed Interrupts and Sci-Fi tie-insâ€¦ for now.
Ashlands tie-in added everywhere.
Many typos and sentences fixed.
Note: The changes in earlier chapters havenâ€™t yet been finished, the next few updates could also be â€˜re-readâ€™ ones. Sorry!
Note: About one half of this story has now been posted

Sunday, January 25, 2004

Set in the Kharke universe, this story starts off the epic about Anaka and how she became the icon of Kharke. Seven describes her awakening as a Sorceress.

[Link removed, see this]

Tags: kharke • writing

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