On thee Contemplacion of His Fyrst Postinge

[jducoeur]

Always the most difficult part for any writer: what to say first? Middles are quite easy, and endings often fun, but that first sentence is always a bear to write. One wants it to be pithy; informative; meaningful; catchy; playful; intriguing; and all those other Good Things that will make the reader want to continue. One can spend weeks, even months just thinking about that one little paragraph that will frame the rest of the story to come.

Ah, screw it.

Things To Do #1 -- Mood Theme: Snails

(With apologies to Arval Benicoeur, whose Heraldic Snails idea I am shamelessly ripping off here...)

The system-defined mood themes, while not dreadful, aren't quite right for my tastes. The ones that are sufficiently silly are also painfully cute. So here's one that's more my speed (and apt in more ways than I care to consider).

Base form: a snail. Even I can probably draw a snail. Snails don't have faces, but they do have antennae. One can do a lot with two antennae.

• Happy: antennae waving back and forth.
• Sad: antennae drooping forward.
• Angry: antennae pointing forward determinedly, and glowing red at the tips.
• Energetic: Snail moving across the window. Slowly.
• Hyper: Coffee cup on the snail's back. Snail moving across the window. Still slowly.
• Horny: Antennae curling around each other.
• Relaxed: Antennae slicked back.
• Silly: Antennae attached to the shell instead of the head
• Depressed: Head withdrawn into the shell.

And so on. Add in the usual question marks and exclamation points for various moods, and we have an expressive theme for the sluggards among us.

Comments

[tpau]

if you implement this, you _have_ to make it public, i want :)

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

It sounds great to me! ;)

[tpau]

ok, am disturbed, why do you knwo what a horny snail should look like? :)

[cellio]

Sounds like fun! (Oh, and hi. :-) )

[tashabear.livejournal.com]

I like the Little Gent... semi-cute, but not kyoot, if you know what I mean. Sort of reminds me of Zippy the Pinhead.

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

You could have 'Introspective,' with the two eyestalks looking at each other, and 'Excited' with the stalks bouncing up and down, and 'Hungry' with a little gaunt snail, and 'Thoughtful,' with it's head tilted to one side, and....

Okay, stop me before I scare myself.

-becky :)

[jducoeur]

All fine suggestions...

-- Justin
Who is going to have to follow through on this one, in his Copious Spare Time...

"You.  Your opponent.  The thrill of competition.  A plate of blini.
 Need we say more?"
		-- Alex Newman