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The Office of the Dead: News, Updates, and Extras |
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Dirige, Domine, Deus meus, in conspectu tuo viam meam.Direct, O Lord, My God, my way in Thy Sight?Caption above the doors of the Office of the Dead
Disclaimer This novel is quite innocently meant as religious satire; it's greatest purpose is to make you laugh. I have NOT done extensive research on Christianity, however I have done what I feel is sufficant for the story. Feel free to point out any mistakes, however, I probably won't listen to them. I personally believe that even God, who ever He/She/It is, has a sense of humor, and it is my experiance that humor is among the great goods of the universe. Jephthah, Ed (aka Epraphroditios), Trias, and all accountable Grimm are copyright Stephanie Sargent, aka me. Heaven, Hell, Earth, Purgatory, cheese, all accountable platapi, the universe, and you are copyright God. Any attempt to copy yourself will result in smiting.
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.::JOURNAL::. ~|{}|~
2.12.06 Mood: neutral Here it is, the actual 'journal entry' portion of this journal entry. I started TOotD (orgionally titled simply 'Dirges') the first week of Januaray after quiting my job at Vons. The idea to do the story of Dirges came from the song The Day the Music Died, specificly a lyric that goes "And we sang dirges in the dark." At the time I had no idea what a dirge was or why people would sing them, so I looked it up on Dictionary.com. Here is what I found:
Quote: The history of the word dirge illustrates how a word with neutral connotations, such as direct, can become emotionally charged because of a specialized use. The Latin word drige is a form of the verb drigere, ?to direct, guide,? that is used in uttering commands. In the Office of the Dead drige is the first word in the opening of the antiphon for the first nocturn of Matins: ?Dirige, Domine, Deus meus, in conspectu tuo viam meam,? ?Direct, O Lord, my God, my way in thy sight.? The part of the Office of the Dead that begins with this antiphon was named Drige in Ecclesiastical Latin. This word with this meaning was borrowed into English as dirige, first recorded in a work possibly written before 1200. Dirige was then extended to refer to the chanting or reading of the Office of the Dead as part of a funeral or memorial service. In Middle English the word was shortened to dirge, although it was pronounced as two syllables. After the Middle Ages the word took on its more general senses of ?a funeral hymn or lament? and ?a mournful poem or musical composition,? and developed its one-syllable pronunciation. As soon as I saw those words I thought back to my old job tossing out meat to crowds of drooling single moms and thought to myself, "Hey, I wonder what it would be like doing customer service in Hell?" The rest came about pretty spontainously and less than an hour later I was putting down the first chapter of TOotD, which is the chapter you see at the beginning of the story.
Jephthah's orgional name was Jasper, although I'm not sure why I went with Jasper or why all the other characters in the story had normal names in place of their angelic ones, but eventually I did away with the idea because I realized I actually liked their angel names best. Except for Ed. After about the fourth or fifth time I wrote down Epraphroditios I was sick of the name. Besides I think Ed fits him better anyway. The whole point of Ed's name was to be a gag. At first the story was all in first person limited with Jephthah as the main character, but by around chapter seven I really started to dislike him. I'm still not sure what everybody sees in Jephthah, but if he's really such a great character I guess I'll get it eventually.
Trias is actually the newest character in the story. After growing angry with Jephthah for his constant pessimisium (which used to be much more rampant than in the version I have posted in the 111 guild) I decided I wanted to spend more time with Ed, and that meant getting aquainted with his demonic benofactor, Trias. Trias is one of those characters that seem to come up at random in a story and somehow manage to pull everything together. I'm extreamly happy to have him in my story, he's got a lot to offer.
Currently I'm less than 500 words from hitting the 15k mark. This novella is breaking records in my own writing, and I am extreamly satisfied with the way everything has turned out so far. I hope to finish it by mid-March or maybe the end of March, but considering I'll be going back to work soon and with school starting up again I might not finish it until April! Oh well, one can only hope.
2.16.06. Mood: cool I've learned something today. I can't keep posting and reposting update dates that I'm not gonna follow through with. From now on, I only post update dates when I know for a fact that the chapter will be up in a matter of hours. Or, hell, maybe not at all. Nobody visits this journal anyway.
TOotD is going smoothly, otherwise. I'm extreamly pleased with the way things have turned out thus far, and we are so freaking close to the first kick in the a**! I can't wait. ^_^
3.6.06. Mood: gonk I think it was a dumb idea to join the EleventyCollab, an even dumber one to make the thread. And dumber still to put myself on the list of possible captains. It looks like Riddle is going to take the cake, and that is good, but I may still have the tread to worry about. Tomarrow I'll talk to Riddle about how she'd feel maning the thread from now on. I still hope to partisipate in the collab, but I have TOotD on my plate and have to think of Jephthah, Ed, and Trias first. I hope we have fun.
3.16.06. - Happy 10k Eleventyone! Mood: sweatdrop Jeebus that was a scary two weeks. I think I came close to giving up on TOotD for a while. Nay, she lives!
4.2.06. - The Plot Sucks Mood: xd And I'm not just talking about the Gaia plot, although that did make me laugh. I can't keep this bottled up anymore. I have to say it.
The plot for The Office of the Dead... SUCKS. Honestly it just does. I wouldn't go so far as to call it pure stinking garbage, but TOotD makes a first rate vaccume cleaner.
But there's good news! I just saved a bunch of money on car insurace by switching to-- The characters *kisses her fingers* magnificent! We've got a fine cast on TOotD--Jephthah, Ed, Raziel, Trias, Lucifer, oh, how I love them all. And the humor? Top notch! (Well, at any rate, the jokes make me laugh.) Okay so it took a little while for the action to get in gear, but it seems to move along at a brisk enough pace. Heck I even like the story. A bunch of guys who hate their job get together and try to find their true selves, yada yada yada, details, details. But the plot--oy! I wish I'd done better on that one. Save it for the next draft.
10.2.06. - Return of the Dirge Mood: smile
Revisited The Office of the Dead today. All in all I wrote 1,041 words and, although it didn't expand on the plot, I felt glad to finally be reunited with the characters after five months. This is the thread that inspired it. Somehow I think they've grown in my absense. Jephthah is more haughty, but not as obediant as he once was, Ed has all the charm and intellegence of of a wise old Buddhist (or perhaps Hethanist), and Trias is more loud mouthed and pusedo-cool than ever. I feel a new draft beginning.
The roles may switch a bit and the plot may be slightly different, but the first draft was merely conceptual. Even the layout of the Office of the Dead has changed since then. I learned a lot from writing the first draft and I plan to use those lessons to enhance the second, so there are no regrets. They say that inexperianced authors go through about ten drafts for each large project before they reach their final, and I don't expect TOotD to be any different.
Here's to you TOotD gang, may we meet again soon at NaNo EdMo. heart
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Sergeant Sargent · Sat Feb 04, 2006 @ 11:21pm · 0 Comments |
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