It was actually a very productive weekend. I worked on some story critiques and cleanup stuff. I also wrote just over ten thousand words on the two commissions, so I feel like I'm actually a writer again. We'll see if the trend continues in the next week, but it feels good to really get into a story and just... write.

One of the problems with writing on commission is that you don't always write what you like to write. Sometimes, the requests are just slightly different than what you prefer. A good example is one person once asked me to keep the descriptions to a minimum, which is nearly impossible for me which is why I turned down the commission. But others are doable on the surface, but when I get into writing it, sometimes they just don't click with me and I find myself struggling. One of the commissions was like that; it didn't quite mesh with my various interests and quirks and I just couldn't get myself into it. It was like talking to someone who just doesn't agree with me.

Wrapping your head around another's imagination is sometimes very difficult.

I saw that on Saturday, actually. I went to visit the kitties and ended up watching a football game. I have no clue why, I'm really not fond of it, but it started with a conversation with FiL about random things. At one point, the announcer used a really wrong word--"semantic maneuver" instead of "technical maneuver". It a common mistake with people who use thesauruses in school but happens in speech too. At that, FiL declared that the announcer obviously was illiterate and basically incapable of reading over a fifth grade level. I highly suspect since the announcer was black factored into this, but it really annoyed me. Its hard to be a professional announcer for anything without being able to read. The fact they were also a coach in their prior job, and a graduate of college both imply at least a bit better than fifth grade reading. But, it was "obvious" to FiL from the announcer's word choice (also the use of "hes has" which I call an accent/dialect, not a sign of literacy).

That event, which was probably one of the few times I almost walked out on him, really rammed home a point: you stick to like minded people. I don't hang around people who assume that all black people are uneducated, and social burdens. And calls them niggers to make that point. I also don't think the same about Mexicans but FiL does. If it wasn't for my cats being there, or the months because of the flood, I really wouldn't make a point of visiting him. He is too politically, socially, and religiously different from me and his assumptions are just one reason.

Interacting with him is a good thing. While he is so different than me, it also forces me to see another point of view. I don't agree with it, at all, but I also know he is a good person. Its just the little things I can't comprehend, like bigotry and intolerance.

It also means that when everything is done with the Master Plan, I probably won't visit nearly as much. The same thing that makes him interesting also make me want to avoid him. I don't want to interact with people who different from me, who don't share the same values as me or even the same religion.

I'm also trying to see how to put this into my characters. I like this conflict on an intellectual level, just not in person. It is a good thing to write about though, I just haven't really figured out how to be intolerant in-character.