Writing...it's Tough! And so is Transposing Music. A Review as Well

I have been working on my novel for about two months...and I've only completely finished four chapters. I have about 40 chapters outlined, so this is a pretty slow start. I guess I have been thinking about it too much, seeing as I think about my characters and plot in most of my spare time at the moment. Science fiction is a fun yet tough genre to write in. Imagination is the limit, yet within those certain limits are grounds that need to be followed. You cannot assume that your readers are stupid [at least I hope to God my readers aren't dumb], and therefore you have to do intensive research. I don't want to give away too much, but it is tough describing all the races.

Inspiration is a bonus though. I'd say that my story is inspired from [oh goodness so many to list...]: Titan A.E., Star Trek, Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell, Full Metal Alchemist, Angels and Demons, The Seven Suns Saga, and probably many others. I think that inspirations are a good thing--I'm not directly pulling from these, I'm just using certain points and changing them around a lot. For some reason people think that you should disapprove of this, yet authors like Dean Koontz, Stephen King, and J.K. Rowling have writing inspirations throughout their lives.

And while I'm rambling about books, there is one that I just finished reading recently that I enjoyed greatly. The Warrior Heir is pretty good. I wouldn't say that it is a huge masterpiece, but the plot was entertaining, had surprises, and had great propulsion to the end. The characters were a tad flat for my tastes, but still three-dimensional. The syntax and vocab were simple, with short words and barely any compound-complex sentences. That's not a bad thing either, as long as it's not Ernest Hemmingway then I am pleased. The next book in this series is called The Wizard Heir, which I will pick up ASAP--

--oh crap....this isn't my book. I borrowed it from a friend in March or April....of 2008. Now she's at a completely different university...well. Um, oops. I guess she forgot about it, otherwise she would have told me last time I spoke with her. It's like my copy of Twilight I lent to my friend two years ago. I really don't want that back, so she can keep it as long as she wants. XD

Ah great, now I feel very guilty.

Anyway, I started transposing some OST sheet music from violin to alto saxophone. Transposing music to another key is such a pain in the butt. At least violin is in C, so it isn't too hard. E-flat is such an awkward key. I'd love to learn to play the violin, but it's way too late now. Plus, transitioning from woodwind instruments to string would be rather awkward. Going to a brass instrument is hard enough.

Anyway, speaking of instruments I just printed out my marching band's first show for the fall. [I'm in a university marching band]. It's hard...Gah, a Latin/Spanish show is always a big pain with the 170 tempos...It's going to be exhausting moving from spot to spot, feet moving at 100 mph...