Last week, I stepped hard on the gas with developmental editing for my current writing project. What is developmental editing? Here’s the rough guide. You check if everything’s fine and consistent with your dramatic structure, theme and motifs, and, if applicable, genre expectations. Then you check if your first page, first scene, escalation dynamics, and final scene are top-notch. Finally, you grind through your scenes one by one to check if each is doing what it’s supposed to be doing: external & internal goal, setting, entry & exit hook, change, payoff, foreshadowing, and balanced pacing & word count. There’s more, but these are the most important aspects. The next steps after that will be line editing and copy editing. Maybe more on that next week.

In between, I uploaded a new album on Flickr, Beijing III: Sanlitun (15 images), and finished another Singapore album, Singapore VI: CBD Neighborhoods (ditto). 

Now, giant cats! Three clips for your feline entertainment on Twitter! A giant 3D kitty that is featured between broadcasts in Shinjuku right now; this same giant 3D kitty waking up at 7AM (on the Twitter website, you might have to scroll down two tweets); and a real giant kitty featured between broadcasts at home. Enjoy!

This week’s game recommendation is When the Darkness Comes by Sirhaian, once recommended to me by a student. I remember I paid something for it, but it’s free now. (And—sadly—without an option to donate a few bucks.) Playtime’s about an hour, but there are caveats. You should either use the itch installer or put the app in a folder with user read/write access. Then, if you’re susceptible to seizures, migraines, and the like, be careful; it features some stroboscopic effects. Finally, the themes are pretty dark—depression, anxiety, meaninglessness—and the game itself is very “meta.” (Think David Wreden’s more recent The Beginner’s Guide.) Thus, player discretion advised!

Now back to work.
J.