Personal Log: Rick Clogston

Do you want to know why I like Frontier Fleet?

Whaddaya mean, no? Aw, c'mon, indulge me here! If you don't, I'll write a love scene between X'ok and your character.

There, I knew you wanted to know. I like it because this gets me back to writing fiction. I hadn't done that in a long time. In spite of the fact that I've never really done it for money, I consider myself a writer. But, I also consider myself a performer.

Y'see, I'm a musician. Guitar. Have been for over hmmmbzzz years. And, I like a lot of different kinds of music. I'm not particularly fond of hip-hop and all its offshoots. And, I never got into disco. And, I can only take so much opera. Just about everything else, I'm down with. I don't even care if it has guitar in it.

The thing is, as many different kinds of music as I like, and play, I derive the most satisfaction out of playing music that I wrote myself. Not to say that I'm some musical genius or something, but nothing says "me" like I do.

Writing fiction, on the other hand, takes me out of myself and allows me to be somebody else. It's kind of like being an actor, but I get to write my own lines.

I am fascinated with the mechanics of performance. I actually like practicing on the guitar, for instance. When I have time, and am able to concentrate, I love dissecting a piece of music, or just a scale or chord, and seeing what can be done with it. I love watching a TV show like "From The Actor's Studio" on Bravo, and hearing accomplished actors talking about how they do what they do. Acting is much more than just pretending to be a character, just like playing music is much more than getting the notes right.

The problem with being an actor (I studied theater for a while in my younger days) is that somebody else writes your part, and somebody else gets to choose which part you will play. IF you hang in there, and are very good, and impress the right people, you get better and better parts to play. If not, you spend your life being in ketchup commercials or screaming "No, don't!" on a soap opera.

When you write fiction, you get to act out the scene in your mind. You get to be that person. You get to do things that you wouldn't dream of doing yourself. Plus, you get to play characters you can't even possibly act in real life. In writing fiction, if I decide I want to be a 19-year-old five-foot-four flamboyantly gay psychopathic murderer, it's as close as my keyboard.

In a nutshell, I'm having fun with X'ok and the people he hangs out with. I'm concentrating on him for now. I may create other characters later, but I want to see what I can do with him first. I'm in the middle of composing his Rite Of Ascension, with a Vulcan twist. And, of course, no piece of creative writing is complete without feedback, so feel free to tell me it's complete tripe. Hell, I didn't quit my day job to do this. Go ahead, slash it up.

And, of course, I am also interested in your thoughts on what you do. What sort of things are you seeking to accomplish here? Are you using FF as an escape from your regular routine, or are you honing your craft? As I've said before, I've seen plenty of really good writing here. Some of it is pretty raw, but there are no end of the stories, and without a story, you have nothing to say. How much of yourself is there in your character? How much of the self you wish you could be? What does your character do that you wish you dared to? Are you interested in the characters you interact with, and the people who write them, or are the rest of us here to help you express yourself?