A Foolish Consistency Is the Blog-goblin of Little Minds

First of all, I’d like you to notice the new addition to my side menu: Categories. Sadly, Blogger isn’t super-friendly to the whole category-compilation issue, so I’ve had to go through a separate web-site to do it until I figure out something better. If you click on the link, it will take you to my del.icio.us page devoted to that particular topic, which basically looks like a Google results page, with the most recent post on the topic at the top. I’ll need to go back through the archives and tag all of my old stuff with the appropriate categories sometime soon, but I wanted to at least get the Cast List link up there, since I’ve been meaning to get around to that ever since G’ovich said “You know what you need . . .?”

And now, time for a bit more metablogging

I've been trying to work on my Spotlight Post on Flunky for the last couple of days, but have hit some snags along the way. With my spotlight on G’ovich it was simple; it was early on in the process, and was actually part of a larger overall post, so more of a mini-spotlight, if you will; I was able to hit on the basic mind-messing aspect of the Doc in brief without feeling the need to expand too much; with stand-alone posts, the pressure to make them substantial in and of themselves increases for me, and I begin to quadruple-think everything.

The first snag in effective spotlighting is deciding on the overall tone of the post; it kills me that I, who am among the first to crucify a work for its lack of a unified tone, am so guilty of the self-same offense all too often. There are times you could get conceptual whiplash from the speed at which I change from earnest to maudlin to absurd and back again with a few sentences; it's one of the dangers of writing from the gut, letting my random thoughts guide the process with little or no structure 90% of the time; as my warped mind goes, so goes my post. Mindful of this, I've been trying to decide just how to approach the Spotlight; should I focus on the overly-exaggerated persona I've developed for the subject, e.g. power-hungry world conqueror, or stick to the only-slightly-exaggerated persona that lives in my mind's eye? His real-life personality helps inform the exaggeration, but at times may also contradict it; I run into similar problems when describing G'ovich; playing up the Eeeeeeeeevil nature is fun, but sometimes gets in the way.

The second snag is deciding how in-depth this should be, and exactly where the focus should lie; should I just do a general character sketch, or talk about him mainly in terms of how he relates to me? Either way, it’s problematic figuring out what to say that won’t require gobs of extra information that I plan on covering anyway at some other time; which should come first, the spotlight or the Number War? Flunky or The Gutterboys?

And if I decide on a particular course of action, will I feel compelled to follow it to the letter when I get around to Wrath or Rose Hips or Little Man Stud or anyone else that the spotlight decides to fall on? Will the style used for Flunky’s spotlight work well for Rose Hips’ spotlight? And if not, will I try to force her spotlight into the Flunky-mold, just for some sense of consistency? Or will I be able to rise above my borderline-OCD and just do what best services the narrative? At this point, I think it could go either way. Is this too much thought to put into a blog-post? Indubitably. Especially since it’s just about Flunky; I’m sure by this point he’d be just as happy if I said nothing at all.

Afraid you’re not getting off the hook that easily, Flunkrow. Although, there’s still time for you to offer me bribes to omit the more embarrassing stuff (both real and made up) and paint you in a positive light (that will definitely by made up). Cash, money orders, Paypal, and/or a promise of a high-ranking position once you’ve completed your world-domination accepted; but the clock’s ticking, Nature Boy, the clock’s ticking