I have a mode.

[kiya]

I have a mode, I have a mode, I have a mode.

I have a mode for nonfiction work, which is fascinating, but it's theology, which as I said this weekend is as much about truth as fiction, so apparently I've hooked in some of the same parts of my brain.

I know the shape and the rhythm of it.

I have a mode!


In other random enthusiasms, I figured out how to snap at about 2am on Wednesday/yesterday night. Only with right hand, but hey, I've never done it before, and I'm easily amused.

Filing so I don't lose it:
http://www.geocities.com/skhmt_netjert/neith.html

ETA: I fear I need to learn to read German. My obsessive completism will be the death of me, or something.

Comments

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

If you need help with German, wave. Or scream. Or do _something_ to attract my attention. I'm not good at teaching the language, but can tell you whether the sense you get out of a text is the one the author meant to put in.

Mostly.

[kiya]

Thank you!

It will probably be a while before I get that far in my to-do queue, but I will endeavour to keep the offer in mind.

[sammee42.livejournal.com]

I also learned how to snap, but a few years ago, and I can only do it with my left hand. Not so coincidentally, this I'm also left-handed. Are you right-handed?

What is this mode you speak of? I'm so curious. ;)

[kiya]

Yup, righthanded.

"Mode" is a writing term that papersky developed for her own work, that a bunch of other people have nicked off her. It's one of those terms that in my experience people either get right away or don't.

Basically, what "mode" is is the spirit or soul of the work, the animating force. It can be viewed as a set of constraints on what the story will do, or how it is structured; its overall personality. Just as the personality of a character will determine its actions in various ways, the mode structures and limits the way a story can go.

I can't make good progress on a written work without a handle on the mode; I can have characters, plot, setting, whatever, but if I don't have mode it doesn't hang together and generate story. Or, apparently, theology. Or maybe the theology is just easier now I have one.

(The cheap shot anti-explanation of 'mode' requires the new Star Wars flicks: "Midichlorians are a mode violation." One of those, 'even if true, it doesn't belong in this story' things.)

I've got ideas by the dozens kicking around, story fragments, bits and pieces, all looking for the right animating spirit to turn them into writeable stories.

[sammee42.livejournal.com]

This is very interesting. I was thinking of modal notation and musical modes in medieval music when I read it, as I am just taking a break from notating 13th-century music. But how you describe your usage is very intriguing. :D

[kiya]

I don't think it's all that different from musical modes, if one drops the animism a bit; each of those has a particular structure, a flavor that it puts into the framework, yes?

[sammee42.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think loosely, this is correct. :)

[meranthi.livejournal.com]

I loaned my German textbooks to a friend, but you are welcome to them when he gives them back. Or let me know when you want them and I can grab them from him, since we don't have a time table right now.

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on finding your mode. And I'd be interested in reading your theology - I'm not into a lot of theology, and I'm not promising to convert, but I find your religious writing a) comprehensible and b) I get a strong sense of even-if-this-is-not-my-religion,-if-religion-includes-this-I-can-fit-mine-in-too.

If you follow.

[kiya]

If I put a filter together for discussing the project -- which is something I'm dithering on doing -- I'll include you, then.

[pariyal.livejournal.com]

Me, too, please!

[kiya]

Done -- you should be able to see two posts more recent than this one now which are on the filter.

[arianadawnhawk.livejournal.com]

I'd love to be on the filter too. I'm curious to see how this turns out. :) (And go you!)

[kiya]

Updated. :}

[arianadawnhawk.livejournal.com]

Yay!

(And I dearly love the tag of "jackal homework". My most recent bit of that was acquiring yarn for berets for m'Lord Avant-Garde. :) )

[kiya]

*grin* This project will be tagged with 'jackal homework' all through, so I can find my notes.

[arianadawnhawk.livejournal.com]

Sweet!