Good mood

[rowyn]

I'm cheerful today. I don't know exactly what's got me in a good mood, but everything just seems right today. I set to this morning as soon as I got in, and I've wrapped up my usual daily work already, which leaves me the remainder of the afternoon to wrestle with thornier problems. But I'm not worried or intimidated by them today.

No, it's Friday, I got some writing on Prophecy done last night, and I'll get some more done this weekend, and all will be well with the world.

I've been re-reading bits from Silver Scales. I was about to write "to psyche myself up to write more" but that's not true. I've been re-reading them because I enjoy them so much. Of all the thousands of pages of stuff -- fiction, non-fiction, journals, RP, novels, short stories, you name it -- I've ever written, I think I like Scales the most. Maybe it's not the "best" thing I've written, on literary grounds or whatever, but I enjoy it. Maybe part of the reason that I'm reluctant to write more is that I don't want to see that promise fall short. I'm afraid that the future bits just won't be as good -- as funny, as entertaining -- as what's already gone.

But that's OK, too. I may go ahead and write something more -- today, or this weekend. Time will tell if it's up to snuff or not. :)

Comments

[gen.livejournal.com]

Folks seem to forget that happiness is supposed to be a 'default' setting for people! If all is well and as it should be then you're supposed to be happy!

[rowyn]

Y'know ... I'm not so sure. That makes sense and all, but "happiness", like "depression" and "anger" and "elation" is an emotion ... and doesn't necessarily make sense. I would like to be happy whenever I don't have a reason to be upset. I'd like to only be upset whenever I have a reason to be upset.

But my emotions aren't that rational. I can go from being somewhat depressed to entirely content, with no significant changes in my environment. It's not as though "nothing's wrong, ergo, I am happy." My life is not problem-free, and some of the problems I have today would be plenty enough "reason" for me to be upset or irritated, on some other day. But today, as it happens, they don't bother me. To which I say:

Hurray! :)

[gen.livejournal.com]

Well, one doesn't feel elated when one is stumbling around in the morning trying to find socks or what have you, but one would hope that the prevelant emotion in a person's life is quiet contentment.

True, to be 100% happy all the time you probably have to be one something, but one would hope that if all is well, you've got a general underlying contentment with things.

Leastwise, I'd like to think that's the general rule. It's how the past few weeks have been for me :)

[rowyn]

My own default state seems to waver around from month to month, or year to year. I'll go through periods where my default is "generally happy/upbeat", and others where the default is just "neutral/mostly content", and others where the default is "depressed".

That default state doesn't necessarily correlate with how well I perceive events in my life to be going. I'd like to just throw a switch and make "generally happy/upbeat" be my default setting for the rest of my life, but my psyche doesn't appear to work that way. :)

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Well, Silver Scales is a lot of fun! I go back and look through my short-short story archive now and then too, and see all the cool little bits I wrote way back when.

You shouldn't worry so much about living up to your past work though-- worry more that your future bits will be so much better or you'll see a better way to do things, that you'll want to go back and rewrite it all. ('gryn)

[rowyn]

Heh. I have to admit, when I was still going back through and picking out the early bits of Prophecy to piece into the new work, I did a lot more than my usual level of revising. Some times the old stuff doesn't seem up to snuff. Other times, it just doesn't *fit* any more.

But by now, I've been working on this book so long and so regularly that I have no "distance" on it at all. It could be great (Greywolf certainly likes it). It could be horrible (I'm inclined to think so). But I just can't tell. Maybe in another couple of years I'll be able to look back on it and decide.

[jordangreywolf.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean about being afraid that things won't live up to prior performance. That seems to be the great Catch-22 about positive feedback in my life, at least. I love getting positive feedback. I live for it. But when I do ... there is this nagging worry. If I'm doing too well ... then does that mean that it's all downhill from here? But I can't freeze up and just not try, or else I've fulfilled my own fears. Or, at least, I shouldn't.

As for Silver Scales, I think it's an interesting setting. No, really! "Interesting" can seem like such a bland, dull word, overly used, but Silver Scales interests me. I want to find out more. And I think that even if it takes a more serious turn for a bit, without constant slapstick, you would still have me hooked. I care about the characters. It would take a whole lot of work on your part to change that. ;)

I believe in you! Of the LJs that I follow, there are two I look at with the most interest. The first would be gwendelkitty's (which rarely has anything for me to read), and the second would be yours. I look forward to whatever story snippet, slice of life, financial education blurb or whatever that you put out on a given day. You have a knack for the art of dialogue and engaging characters, and plots that make me care. Don't ever short-change yourself! =)

[rowyn]

You're a good friend, Greywolf. Thank you. :)