Okay this may seem like a deliberate set up or an experiment, but truthfully I've ended a day without writing and setting myself up with even more to complete before the end of the month.
I managed to get seven thousand words on one story last night, my last night technically to those of you out in the common time stream it would have been wedensday night. Even when I'm not deep in the altered time frame of creation mode I don't live in the regular time mode of most of the world.
Anyway I then proceeded to do no writing today (again that would be your thursday and technically my today). I try to justify it by saying I'll make up for it by distributing the word load to tomorrow and saturday and sunday. I've go to write 23 thousand words to make my goal and over three days that is only seven thousand each day. I did that each day this past four day weekend.
I also try to see it as just a natural reaction to having gone a long way over the last day and working seventy seven thousand words in ... checking calander... goodness, are you serious i've only been working on this for two weeks.
I'm nuts. when all is said and done I'll hopefully look back on two and a half weeks wherein I completed one hundred thousand dollars. No wait that should be one hundred thousand words, I wish that there was a dollar for every word I produced in the two and a half weeks (was a typo but it brings up a very interesting point). So why do I do it to myself, why do I challenge myself to this sort of crazy brain melting stretch of writing? What is the reward?
I like to think being part of the act of creation is reward in and of itself. Artists and dreamers and teachers and parents are involved in such acts of creation. Boy that sounds hokey but it's part of how I feel about my creative ventures these days.
They are my way of creating something, manifesting it from within myself.
Here is the big revelation though, I spent so many years of my life thinking that these things were simply intresting ideas and then trying to not waste my time on them while I should be doing other things. When I look back at that now and marvel that I'm so obtuse.
I've discovered that I'm a creative person who spent too much time trying to figure out that he was a creative person.
So That is why I do these things that I do now, but even creative people cannot go at full speed all the time. And So days like today happen but it doesn't make it feel any less like a betrayal of that creativity I've embraced recently.
It's a little jumbled and confused and a bit tired, and that's about how I feel when I do not ... write like a nut or otherwise saddle up and ride with my muses (yes plural, apparently I was gifted with more then one).
I've gotta see about doing something tonight and then working like crazy tomorrow.
I'll get back to you on monday, and let you all know how it turned out.
Take care of yourselves,
Roving Jack
Friday, November 28, 2008
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
How it feels to write like a nut
Well I''l say that I'm something of a newby when it comes to the writing challenges that are out there. Hard to imagine it's not even been two years yet and by months end I should have a rough draft of no less the four novels, four scripts and twenty odd short stories. With a bit of editing and redrafting I can't imagine I would be completely unable to find a home on bookshelves in peoples home for at least one of the lot.
But One of the things I find about the writing is what it does to you. There are times, though they happen more rarely these days where I can sit and work so hard trying to get the story out of me while the ideas are fresh and flowing. It really does feel like you have cut a vein and are spilling it on the paper, with suitable fatigue and degrading mental function the more you do it in a short period of time. But there is also an energy boost like nothing else to be standing stiffly on my feet at the end of the night bleary eyed and realise, I wrote eight thousand words tonight, and though editing will doubtlessly be required it's making it's way to being a completed work.
It reminds me of a quote from the novelisation of the Princess bride. I'd likely butcher it but Lets just say that a certain spaniard turns to a certain turkish giant and says something to the effect of: We are having an adventure Fezik and few people in the world are so lucky.
During the four day binge I recently did I discovered something interesting. I've got the ability to get a long vacation whenever I need it.
I went in to work Yesterday and it really and truely felt as if I'd been gone for a month. That readjusting to the same routine and seeing people you haven't seen in a while. It had only been four days but I'd been on an adventure, and so much had happened in the worlds I had visited and nearly every moment of those days was counted out that it truely made it seem as if time had passed differantly for me.
Now I'm not so delusional as to think that there won't be a bit of what I call time dilation as the rest of the world catches up to me. I fully expect that I will blink when this is over and New Years day will be behind me by some weeks.
Sigh, I'll write more about this in a day, right now I've got an important task I've to attend to.
Take Care of yourselves,
Roving Jack
But One of the things I find about the writing is what it does to you. There are times, though they happen more rarely these days where I can sit and work so hard trying to get the story out of me while the ideas are fresh and flowing. It really does feel like you have cut a vein and are spilling it on the paper, with suitable fatigue and degrading mental function the more you do it in a short period of time. But there is also an energy boost like nothing else to be standing stiffly on my feet at the end of the night bleary eyed and realise, I wrote eight thousand words tonight, and though editing will doubtlessly be required it's making it's way to being a completed work.
It reminds me of a quote from the novelisation of the Princess bride. I'd likely butcher it but Lets just say that a certain spaniard turns to a certain turkish giant and says something to the effect of: We are having an adventure Fezik and few people in the world are so lucky.
During the four day binge I recently did I discovered something interesting. I've got the ability to get a long vacation whenever I need it.
I went in to work Yesterday and it really and truely felt as if I'd been gone for a month. That readjusting to the same routine and seeing people you haven't seen in a while. It had only been four days but I'd been on an adventure, and so much had happened in the worlds I had visited and nearly every moment of those days was counted out that it truely made it seem as if time had passed differantly for me.
Now I'm not so delusional as to think that there won't be a bit of what I call time dilation as the rest of the world catches up to me. I fully expect that I will blink when this is over and New Years day will be behind me by some weeks.
Sigh, I'll write more about this in a day, right now I've got an important task I've to attend to.
Take Care of yourselves,
Roving Jack
Monday, November 24, 2008
Wow, what a weekend
Well it's me again, back out of the dungeons. It feels like ages since I've been here has it really only been less then a week.
Well I have made as much of every minute count as I could stand. I managed to get about 33,000 words written between 4pm thursday and midnight yesterday. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. And provided I can average 6 thousand a day for the remains of the week and I will have met my goal of one hundred thousand words, on two novels even with my late start on the twelvth.
But you want to know the sickest part of the whole thing? I actually found myself standing in the kitchen the other day doing the math. 33,000 in four sessions of 8hrs. Now If I could extend that kind of productivity to the length of the whole month, spread it over four stories.... hmmm next year I might be able to do Two Hundred Thousand words for a Nano times four.
Madness, madness I tell you. I think my museses are trying to do me in.
But sitting down each night and pushing down deep for those 8k was awing and rewarding. It makes me realise that I am truely happy with the creative directions my life has taken in the last year or so.
It also makes me realise that there are some other things I need to work on that have been sort of sqelched while I did my novel writing this month. I'm coming up on the deadline for the map making challenge at the guild, and I haven't even started that yet. I've sort of disappeard from some of my other communities while buckling down on this so I need to check in to let people know I am not dead.
I'll Share some stories of the writing process in my next post which shoul be tomorrow.
Take care of yourselves,
Roving Jack
Well I have made as much of every minute count as I could stand. I managed to get about 33,000 words written between 4pm thursday and midnight yesterday. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. And provided I can average 6 thousand a day for the remains of the week and I will have met my goal of one hundred thousand words, on two novels even with my late start on the twelvth.
But you want to know the sickest part of the whole thing? I actually found myself standing in the kitchen the other day doing the math. 33,000 in four sessions of 8hrs. Now If I could extend that kind of productivity to the length of the whole month, spread it over four stories.... hmmm next year I might be able to do Two Hundred Thousand words for a Nano times four.
Madness, madness I tell you. I think my museses are trying to do me in.
But sitting down each night and pushing down deep for those 8k was awing and rewarding. It makes me realise that I am truely happy with the creative directions my life has taken in the last year or so.
It also makes me realise that there are some other things I need to work on that have been sort of sqelched while I did my novel writing this month. I'm coming up on the deadline for the map making challenge at the guild, and I haven't even started that yet. I've sort of disappeard from some of my other communities while buckling down on this so I need to check in to let people know I am not dead.
I'll Share some stories of the writing process in my next post which shoul be tomorrow.
Take care of yourselves,
Roving Jack
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Wonder of wonders
On impulse here i've decided to write about one of my weaknesses in writing... um besides unconventional grammar and ye olde spelling stylles :)
Namely my love of wonderous new ideas and creations. I have to be a bit careful in some of my stories to watch out for this tendancy to have a new device or an interesting plot idea become the focus of the story.
You may have noticed this trend in some science fiction writing. I tend to think of it as the Captain Kirk problem. Wait for it, before trekkers and trekkies get in an uproar. That's not a dig at the sacred Trek. I'm simply trying to point out that in some of those episodes the entire story was a big set up for one idea.
The idea of a Mafia controled world, Or the Yankee verses Viet Cong. Those episodes were fine, it's just not a strong basis for an entire written universe.
The discovery of the ultimate powersource should be about the people and the struggles and the triumph not the technical specifics of the power source itself. Though that is another story idea I wanted to play around with, sort of a home shoppers catalog of future tech.
At any rate my advice is if you are writing a story with a gadget or moral to the story that's fine, as long as when you sum up the story you talk only about the characters. You don't want the wheel to be the main character of your cave man fantasy, you want the cave men and the development of their culture and the effects of tech change and revolution to be the story and the invention of the wheel to be the mechanism through which it is expressed.
Check your work to see if you could replace the main item with some other gadget or event and still have the story be relatively unchanged. Then you know you've done a good job at showing the people and the story and not doing something cheap and preachy.
I'm going under ground for a bit now as I'm likely to just barely make it to the one third point in my novel writing venture today. Meaning I have some serious work to do to get myself to a good enough place to finish the task I've set myself. You may hear from me again by Monday night. Check back On Tuesday for sure. I'll let you know at least when to expect me to reimerge from my writing binges.
Take Care of yourselves.
Roving Jack
Namely my love of wonderous new ideas and creations. I have to be a bit careful in some of my stories to watch out for this tendancy to have a new device or an interesting plot idea become the focus of the story.
You may have noticed this trend in some science fiction writing. I tend to think of it as the Captain Kirk problem. Wait for it, before trekkers and trekkies get in an uproar. That's not a dig at the sacred Trek. I'm simply trying to point out that in some of those episodes the entire story was a big set up for one idea.
The idea of a Mafia controled world, Or the Yankee verses Viet Cong. Those episodes were fine, it's just not a strong basis for an entire written universe.
The discovery of the ultimate powersource should be about the people and the struggles and the triumph not the technical specifics of the power source itself. Though that is another story idea I wanted to play around with, sort of a home shoppers catalog of future tech.
At any rate my advice is if you are writing a story with a gadget or moral to the story that's fine, as long as when you sum up the story you talk only about the characters. You don't want the wheel to be the main character of your cave man fantasy, you want the cave men and the development of their culture and the effects of tech change and revolution to be the story and the invention of the wheel to be the mechanism through which it is expressed.
Check your work to see if you could replace the main item with some other gadget or event and still have the story be relatively unchanged. Then you know you've done a good job at showing the people and the story and not doing something cheap and preachy.
I'm going under ground for a bit now as I'm likely to just barely make it to the one third point in my novel writing venture today. Meaning I have some serious work to do to get myself to a good enough place to finish the task I've set myself. You may hear from me again by Monday night. Check back On Tuesday for sure. I'll let you know at least when to expect me to reimerge from my writing binges.
Take Care of yourselves.
Roving Jack
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Be unreasonable
One of the biggest problems I had when I first began writing stories way back when was that my characters never did anything that didn't make perfect sense. They were always perfectly reasonable and their actions justified, one would think that this prevented conflict and so the villian must have been unreasonable. That's not really the case or the point. Two reasonable ideas can be opposing and you get great stories from some of those ideas...
But the real world is messier than that and nobody is perfectly reasoned at all times.
I sort of covered some of this with my flawed character discussion in an earlier post but this deserves it's own area because we as thinkers and feelers are a tangled mess, and your characters should be too.
I the story I am writing right now, Attir sees himself giving up any pretense at being civilised like the city dwellers that tried to hunt him down, he decided to only care about himself. That's not really the best answer, but it works for his current reasoning. But Then why does he go to the rescue of another character, especially at gret risk to himself?
Because as much as he has reasoned out that he seeks to be alone and only cares about himself he must react realisticly to the peril of another. And what's more is the one he rescues has sought to put herself in deaths way. Very unreasonable, and Attir who is determined to not care about anybody but himself tries to tell her never to do that again and to stop he running off to whatever fate she wishes to inflict on herself.
All this seems so very unreasonable, they have made their choices and have reasoned out why they have done so, yet time and again they act against their own reason. Why?
Because as people we don't always know exactly what we want, and sometimes we try to impose a differant set of reason and behaviours over our own true selves. It leads to difficulty and struggle, which deepens a character both in the real world and in a story.
So look for the unreasonable things and ask what they tell you about you and your characters. It's clear to me that Attir was hurt and fleeing the risk of such betrayal again but Also that he is deep down heroic even if he wants to be left alone.
I'll Try to get you another post tomorrow and then I'm going to be working extra hard to make my word goals so it may be a little while between posts.
Take Care of yourselves.
Roving Jack.
But the real world is messier than that and nobody is perfectly reasoned at all times.
I sort of covered some of this with my flawed character discussion in an earlier post but this deserves it's own area because we as thinkers and feelers are a tangled mess, and your characters should be too.
I the story I am writing right now, Attir sees himself giving up any pretense at being civilised like the city dwellers that tried to hunt him down, he decided to only care about himself. That's not really the best answer, but it works for his current reasoning. But Then why does he go to the rescue of another character, especially at gret risk to himself?
Because as much as he has reasoned out that he seeks to be alone and only cares about himself he must react realisticly to the peril of another. And what's more is the one he rescues has sought to put herself in deaths way. Very unreasonable, and Attir who is determined to not care about anybody but himself tries to tell her never to do that again and to stop he running off to whatever fate she wishes to inflict on herself.
All this seems so very unreasonable, they have made their choices and have reasoned out why they have done so, yet time and again they act against their own reason. Why?
Because as people we don't always know exactly what we want, and sometimes we try to impose a differant set of reason and behaviours over our own true selves. It leads to difficulty and struggle, which deepens a character both in the real world and in a story.
So look for the unreasonable things and ask what they tell you about you and your characters. It's clear to me that Attir was hurt and fleeing the risk of such betrayal again but Also that he is deep down heroic even if he wants to be left alone.
I'll Try to get you another post tomorrow and then I'm going to be working extra hard to make my word goals so it may be a little while between posts.
Take Care of yourselves.
Roving Jack.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Expect the unexpected
Such as me posting earlier then usual. I'm trying some schedual adjustments to see haow to better optimise my time.
But This is also about writing as well.
One of the things that many new writeres and most nonwriteres don't realise is that no matter how much or little you think you know about where the story will go, it will go whereever it likes.
A good example is the insect fantasy story I'm working on right now. I had not bothered to fully outline the story because I learned that lesson before. But I did have an idea of some basic events and characters. Yesterday The main character should have encountered one character who was sort of the childlike playful adventurer, and they together would encounter at some later time the hard but honorable amazon like character and the quest would slowly come into focus shortly after and culminate in a battle against a great threatening beast that is but one of many making appearances in the changing world.
Instead the first supporting character he encounters is the female character who is found by following a sorrowful song to where she is stuck in a spiders web about to die. And When he frees her it becomes apparent that she willingly went to that web to die.
That was not the way things were supposed to go and many new writers would fight this change to try to bring it back on track. Instead I recommend examining why the 'woman would seek such a fate and how does that mentality change and develope in the story as she is now bound to the main character. It's no longer just about his finding his place and she is a tough supporting character it is about two characters without a common place to fit them into the world and how such things are the makings of a heroic journey.
When something changes unexpectedly in my stories I view them as opportunities to take a fresh and interesting new perspective. After all there is a reason my mind came up with the redirect, and in most cases it's to make the story more intresting.
Never throw that away simply because it wasn't planned. Sometimes unplanned things are are best things in life, and in your stories.
Right I've got some writing to do before work and then after work some more writing and a few things to take care of, I'll have another post up for tomorrow and one on Wedns.
Take care of yourselves.
roving jack
But This is also about writing as well.
One of the things that many new writeres and most nonwriteres don't realise is that no matter how much or little you think you know about where the story will go, it will go whereever it likes.
A good example is the insect fantasy story I'm working on right now. I had not bothered to fully outline the story because I learned that lesson before. But I did have an idea of some basic events and characters. Yesterday The main character should have encountered one character who was sort of the childlike playful adventurer, and they together would encounter at some later time the hard but honorable amazon like character and the quest would slowly come into focus shortly after and culminate in a battle against a great threatening beast that is but one of many making appearances in the changing world.
Instead the first supporting character he encounters is the female character who is found by following a sorrowful song to where she is stuck in a spiders web about to die. And When he frees her it becomes apparent that she willingly went to that web to die.
That was not the way things were supposed to go and many new writers would fight this change to try to bring it back on track. Instead I recommend examining why the 'woman would seek such a fate and how does that mentality change and develope in the story as she is now bound to the main character. It's no longer just about his finding his place and she is a tough supporting character it is about two characters without a common place to fit them into the world and how such things are the makings of a heroic journey.
When something changes unexpectedly in my stories I view them as opportunities to take a fresh and interesting new perspective. After all there is a reason my mind came up with the redirect, and in most cases it's to make the story more intresting.
Never throw that away simply because it wasn't planned. Sometimes unplanned things are are best things in life, and in your stories.
Right I've got some writing to do before work and then after work some more writing and a few things to take care of, I'll have another post up for tomorrow and one on Wedns.
Take care of yourselves.
roving jack
Friday, November 14, 2008
To what level are you commited
I'm going to sort of depart a bit from the where creativity comes from line of thought and take a slight detour into the care and feeding of creativity.
Put simply, I've noticed that any time I set myself to persue my goals and create my worlds, the world will toss me the simple question: How serious about this are you?
It seems cruel sometimes, to wind myself up and get excited about some idea and challenge myself to take this type of creativity as far as I can, only to have family fall very seriously ill. Or Maybe a relative you've not seen in a long time and who you are unlikely to see again for a long time, comes up for a visit (it makes it even more important when you consider that of all my other family members she and I think about many of the same things, and in some of the same ways). Or an online purchase that was supposed to help you has turned into a nightmare of things to sort out and fix and return and worry about, that could also end up costing me half as much again over what I budgeted for and I might still end up with nothing.
I've had to bump activities with friends, and some of those I was really looking forward to.
It's really absurd. I mean non of this stuff seems to make a showing when I've the time free. Only when I seek to do these projects.
I tell you there are moments when I look up at the sky and marvel at what ever devinties might have been responsable for it all and then wonder how the same force could have such an absurdly wicked sense of humor.
Well I haven't a towel and I'm disenclined to throw one in if I did, but I do think perhaps that this gauntlet might be worth a throw down.
Lets just see were I can make this crazy contraption we call life go.
Don't look for much from me Until maybe mondaynight/ tuesday morning.
Take care of yourselves.
Roving Jack
Put simply, I've noticed that any time I set myself to persue my goals and create my worlds, the world will toss me the simple question: How serious about this are you?
It seems cruel sometimes, to wind myself up and get excited about some idea and challenge myself to take this type of creativity as far as I can, only to have family fall very seriously ill. Or Maybe a relative you've not seen in a long time and who you are unlikely to see again for a long time, comes up for a visit (it makes it even more important when you consider that of all my other family members she and I think about many of the same things, and in some of the same ways). Or an online purchase that was supposed to help you has turned into a nightmare of things to sort out and fix and return and worry about, that could also end up costing me half as much again over what I budgeted for and I might still end up with nothing.
I've had to bump activities with friends, and some of those I was really looking forward to.
It's really absurd. I mean non of this stuff seems to make a showing when I've the time free. Only when I seek to do these projects.
I tell you there are moments when I look up at the sky and marvel at what ever devinties might have been responsable for it all and then wonder how the same force could have such an absurdly wicked sense of humor.
Well I haven't a towel and I'm disenclined to throw one in if I did, but I do think perhaps that this gauntlet might be worth a throw down.
Lets just see were I can make this crazy contraption we call life go.
Don't look for much from me Until maybe mondaynight/ tuesday morning.
Take care of yourselves.
Roving Jack
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Ti Esrever
One of the greatest things I learned from my adoptive parents is how to learn, and by association how to be creative.
I have my learning disabilities (in the area of grammer and spelling, don't cha know) but I also know that the mind is a playground and the world is a toybox full of wonderous toys. This is the most important thing about learning I know, it's fun.
No not that silly memorise by reciting garbage that is force fed to us in the school systembut actual learning. The way we did it naturally when we wanted to know why the sky was blue... and then imagined a world where it wasn't.
Do kids on distant planets ask, why is the sky fusia?
Ask questions, come up with interesting ideas about the answers, hunt down answers like a game of scavenger hunt, and then think about it backwards (hence the title).
It really breaks down into two simply things. Why? and What if? Both questions, because you should question things to understand them better, otherwise you don't know it, you just believe it.
This is what I do with many of my story ideas, take a question and find an answer, or take something I already know, and then reverse it. History is written by the winners... how can it be possable for that to be wrong? Is there a case in history or can we come up with a scenario in which the losers wrote history? Now run and play with this new toy. Be it stories or what happens if I randomly write color names on index cards and start a painting, When it comes time to paint some other color I pick a color at random. What differance does it make if water is violet and sky is green? What if I randomised my color palette?
Why do we hear about sock monkeies but no sock squirrels? What would a sock squirle eat if it came to life.
As you can see having a good sense of the absurd is also a gift of mine. and I may go into that a bit more for my next post on Friday night/saturday morning.
Take care of yourselves.
Roving Jack
I have my learning disabilities (in the area of grammer and spelling, don't cha know) but I also know that the mind is a playground and the world is a toybox full of wonderous toys. This is the most important thing about learning I know, it's fun.
No not that silly memorise by reciting garbage that is force fed to us in the school systembut actual learning. The way we did it naturally when we wanted to know why the sky was blue... and then imagined a world where it wasn't.
Do kids on distant planets ask, why is the sky fusia?
Ask questions, come up with interesting ideas about the answers, hunt down answers like a game of scavenger hunt, and then think about it backwards (hence the title).
It really breaks down into two simply things. Why? and What if? Both questions, because you should question things to understand them better, otherwise you don't know it, you just believe it.
This is what I do with many of my story ideas, take a question and find an answer, or take something I already know, and then reverse it. History is written by the winners... how can it be possable for that to be wrong? Is there a case in history or can we come up with a scenario in which the losers wrote history? Now run and play with this new toy. Be it stories or what happens if I randomly write color names on index cards and start a painting, When it comes time to paint some other color I pick a color at random. What differance does it make if water is violet and sky is green? What if I randomised my color palette?
Why do we hear about sock monkeies but no sock squirrels? What would a sock squirle eat if it came to life.
As you can see having a good sense of the absurd is also a gift of mine. and I may go into that a bit more for my next post on Friday night/saturday morning.
Take care of yourselves.
Roving Jack
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Have notebook will travel
Here I will introduce you to one of my greatest treasures (and eventually I will take some pics and show off the actual things I talk about but for now...). My notebooks. I carry one with me at the least everywhere.
They are used not only for rcording things of note in the world around me but also for reserch and project ideas and more in line with the topic today and of the last few days, story ideas.
Now I havn't always been the whirlwind of projects and activities that I've come to be lately, infact much of my younger days I spent trapped in the back of my own head. You might look in on me and see that I haven't moved in hours but my mind was gone off among ideas and other worlds.
Sadly many of those ideas and stories and adventures are lost in the mists of ages past. They disappeared forever. and thankfully I recognised it as a sad fact. Because that inspired me to change. I got notebooks to record these gems in. I review them from time to time but most often writing it down helps integrate it in my brain somehow that allows me to keep the oddest little bits around like legos or some other modular component. When a new idea occurs to me or somebody remarks something like "blankets where the ultimate sheild from mosters when you were a kid." My brain can link to that idea way back when, -frail man battles dark hordes using a forgotten technique and mystic cloth-.
Suddenly connecting those two things and working through some of my other techniques of making the character more realistic by having him grow and confront his flaws as the villain, suddenly you can have a story building itself.
That is a truely beautiful thing to have. Because once a story rippens to the point where all you have to do is write what you know about the story so far, and it speaks to you, it will tell you where the story goes from there.
The notebooks I have at time tried to seperate into catagories, such as day to day museings, and story ideas, and philosophy. But I've noticed that my philosophy tends to bend into story ideas and storyies come from daya to day events altered and played through a lens of philosophy. The ability to even figure out which location it belongs to anymore becomes something lost to me.
But the important thing is to record them, no matter how weird (santa useing vampires instead of elves because they congregate in the land of long nights) because even if you never even use the idea it gets it out of your head and makes room for more, as well as gets you used to recording ideas. Who knows, maybe I will make a filler or alternative story arc for a web comic that involves vampire labor at the north pole.
So there is my best advice right now, employ vampire labor... I mean write down your ideas. They are something you create and that in itself can make them wonderful to look at again weeks or years later. I'm fairly certain I'll never empty my journals of ideas to make stories from before I die, but it's going to be intresting to try.
Another post on the morrow.
Until then Take care of yourselves,
Roving Jack
They are used not only for rcording things of note in the world around me but also for reserch and project ideas and more in line with the topic today and of the last few days, story ideas.
Now I havn't always been the whirlwind of projects and activities that I've come to be lately, infact much of my younger days I spent trapped in the back of my own head. You might look in on me and see that I haven't moved in hours but my mind was gone off among ideas and other worlds.
Sadly many of those ideas and stories and adventures are lost in the mists of ages past. They disappeared forever. and thankfully I recognised it as a sad fact. Because that inspired me to change. I got notebooks to record these gems in. I review them from time to time but most often writing it down helps integrate it in my brain somehow that allows me to keep the oddest little bits around like legos or some other modular component. When a new idea occurs to me or somebody remarks something like "blankets where the ultimate sheild from mosters when you were a kid." My brain can link to that idea way back when, -frail man battles dark hordes using a forgotten technique and mystic cloth-.
Suddenly connecting those two things and working through some of my other techniques of making the character more realistic by having him grow and confront his flaws as the villain, suddenly you can have a story building itself.
That is a truely beautiful thing to have. Because once a story rippens to the point where all you have to do is write what you know about the story so far, and it speaks to you, it will tell you where the story goes from there.
The notebooks I have at time tried to seperate into catagories, such as day to day museings, and story ideas, and philosophy. But I've noticed that my philosophy tends to bend into story ideas and storyies come from daya to day events altered and played through a lens of philosophy. The ability to even figure out which location it belongs to anymore becomes something lost to me.
But the important thing is to record them, no matter how weird (santa useing vampires instead of elves because they congregate in the land of long nights) because even if you never even use the idea it gets it out of your head and makes room for more, as well as gets you used to recording ideas. Who knows, maybe I will make a filler or alternative story arc for a web comic that involves vampire labor at the north pole.
So there is my best advice right now, employ vampire labor... I mean write down your ideas. They are something you create and that in itself can make them wonderful to look at again weeks or years later. I'm fairly certain I'll never empty my journals of ideas to make stories from before I die, but it's going to be intresting to try.
Another post on the morrow.
Until then Take care of yourselves,
Roving Jack
Monday, November 10, 2008
Muah-ha-ha!
I have the magic majigger and with it the world is mine to crush and dominate because I just the type of person who is happiest when kittens cry and babies die.
So speaketh generic villians the world round. But not my villians in most cases. In fact sometimes my hero is the villian. No not in the multiple personality way (though that does give me an idea...) or the anti-hero way either. I mean that a good story doesn't need an external person to sabotage a heroic character.
In some ways simple confronting fears and growing as a being are powerful motivators for a story. I have one fantasy story involving insects that has the main character lost from his clan and in a place where his people are viewed as barbarian hordes. How does he find his place, does he have one, and if everyone sees a barbarian then how does that change his interactions with some of the other characters who form the supporting cast.
I'm not saying he doesn't face that worlds version of mosters and demons. But really there is no evil mastermind behind it all. Sometimes life just chucks ... um stuff at you and the truely heroics keep going and maybe even learn to see it as fertaliser for their own growth. It's a lesson I've learned in the real world and it's more then valuble enoungh to share in stories.
But I'm not one to righ a simple life lesson draped in fantasy. I like to have that aspect to my stories, it gives us something about the characters to respect, but it is but one layer of things present in a good story to me.
In the case of the insect story it's a story that takes form from the idea of the diversity of bugs making a great setting full of fantasy races, the way to explore it is through an outsider, our barbarian. What is the place of a barbarian in a civilising culture of eveolving bugs? That is sort of a moral to the story. The interactions of the character and his growth as an individual and his battles with and for companions are the details of the story.
This to me is a wonderful story as is, without Damon Cockroach plotting to use uranium to kill all other bugs because we know only roaches and twinkies will survive... though that might be fun for a comic filler at some future time.
In my steam punk there is a villian of sorts but it's again a no personified (mostly) evil. The idea is the disenchantment of the low people on the totem pole, and an upper reaches society ruleing harshly. But even in some way the cruelty isn't for it's own sake. It will make sense in a fashion. That's the beauty of the punk genres as I see them.
Tech and culture interacting and changing, infact revolutionising. The people of the setting face a love hate relationship with their tech. It makes things easier more efficiant but can also be seen as dehumanising and cold. Think how computers have changed our lives, partly for the better and in some ways not so good. The tech and it's users become both heroic and destructive.
I'm not sure what I will write tomorrow, I'm thinking that another post on ideas and influaces that make my stories, but I'm also facing a fair number of things in my life that could use a good rant. We shall see.
Until then Take care of yourselves.
Roving Jack
So speaketh generic villians the world round. But not my villians in most cases. In fact sometimes my hero is the villian. No not in the multiple personality way (though that does give me an idea...) or the anti-hero way either. I mean that a good story doesn't need an external person to sabotage a heroic character.
In some ways simple confronting fears and growing as a being are powerful motivators for a story. I have one fantasy story involving insects that has the main character lost from his clan and in a place where his people are viewed as barbarian hordes. How does he find his place, does he have one, and if everyone sees a barbarian then how does that change his interactions with some of the other characters who form the supporting cast.
I'm not saying he doesn't face that worlds version of mosters and demons. But really there is no evil mastermind behind it all. Sometimes life just chucks ... um stuff at you and the truely heroics keep going and maybe even learn to see it as fertaliser for their own growth. It's a lesson I've learned in the real world and it's more then valuble enoungh to share in stories.
But I'm not one to righ a simple life lesson draped in fantasy. I like to have that aspect to my stories, it gives us something about the characters to respect, but it is but one layer of things present in a good story to me.
In the case of the insect story it's a story that takes form from the idea of the diversity of bugs making a great setting full of fantasy races, the way to explore it is through an outsider, our barbarian. What is the place of a barbarian in a civilising culture of eveolving bugs? That is sort of a moral to the story. The interactions of the character and his growth as an individual and his battles with and for companions are the details of the story.
This to me is a wonderful story as is, without Damon Cockroach plotting to use uranium to kill all other bugs because we know only roaches and twinkies will survive... though that might be fun for a comic filler at some future time.
In my steam punk there is a villian of sorts but it's again a no personified (mostly) evil. The idea is the disenchantment of the low people on the totem pole, and an upper reaches society ruleing harshly. But even in some way the cruelty isn't for it's own sake. It will make sense in a fashion. That's the beauty of the punk genres as I see them.
Tech and culture interacting and changing, infact revolutionising. The people of the setting face a love hate relationship with their tech. It makes things easier more efficiant but can also be seen as dehumanising and cold. Think how computers have changed our lives, partly for the better and in some ways not so good. The tech and it's users become both heroic and destructive.
I'm not sure what I will write tomorrow, I'm thinking that another post on ideas and influaces that make my stories, but I'm also facing a fair number of things in my life that could use a good rant. We shall see.
Until then Take care of yourselves.
Roving Jack
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Flights of fantasy
I'm not sure how to touch on this without offending some hard core fantasy addict out there but one of the things that wears on me is the lack of variety in the genre these days. I like a good fantasy anf even a cheap fantasy from time to time, but I'd give up net access for a week (well maybe not a whole week) for something that was skillfully differant.
So when my stories start forming in my mind, one of the things that comes up is a barrier to the standard format. Don't get me wrong Tolkien did wonderful things, and I have nothing but respect for his attempt to portray cultural and linguistic interactions that follow actual historical counterparts. Norse/celtic relations and languages are present and add depth to the mythical beings presented as factual entities. It was brilliant and genre changing. But it wasn't an excuse to stop being original.
When somebody walks into a room and says fantasy, it is almost reflexive to think Dwarves, elves and dragons. You might even get Hobbits or halflings mentioned. But they all have origins in regional folk traditions and mythologies.
Where are the centaurs and the Djinn. Honestly the cultures of the world are rich with tales of the mystic and none human.
But that is not all that has become formulaic and exagerated.
Cerce was no Wizard of some color robes. She had power and it was less hand waving and move methodical and subtle. Magic that truely impresses. A simple look at the practices and belief of cultures around the world can point us in the right direction.
If memory serves me, the inspiration for one of my novels in the future is not the traditional races and magic but some greco roman entities. Specifically Gorgons and their decendants and the Dactylois (dog headed beings of greek islands, beholden to either hepheastus or posiedon).
The magic of the gorgons gaze could be seen in the myths as hollywood versions of something that continues to this day. The Mingy (as always to count on the spelling of that). There is a tribe of people in africa who believe that those who master the skills of metal workers and smiths are tainted and live semi outcast lives. Sought and paid for their skill but their gaze is said to bestow a curse that brings death. Also among the mingy beliefs is is that those children born deformed, or who are crippled or imperfect through injuries are abandoned or sacrificed. The Term Miny means bad luck or cursed. This is all a little old info clinging to the inside of my brain so I may have scramble a detale or two, but the idea is what I'm trying to show.
Here we have a reasonable explanation of majic, cursed medusa and outcast and abandoned children. Ripe material for stories. The magic is subtle and not flash and miraculous, which to me makes it more powerful.
Source material is everywhere.
But if you also notice I have taken a greek idea and matched it to an african belief. These were neighboring cultures and perhaps the belief did come via that path, or they are common threads found in multiple cultures. That is an advantage.
Many cultures have myths that are very much alike, and there are some universal myths. These point to the feel of a story that make them strong and enjoyable. Tolkien did it.
I don't imagine I'm a new Tolkien. But I do want to do something a little more then the usual elf who doesn't fit in and spend his time with a dwarf. Throw in a theif and a wizard and some evil overlord with a magic device bend on world domination.
I think that will be a good place to start tomorrow. Overlords and the magic ...thing to dominate the world.
I'll try not to be so negative and deal more with what I'm trying to do.
Until then Take care of yourselves.
Roving Jack
So when my stories start forming in my mind, one of the things that comes up is a barrier to the standard format. Don't get me wrong Tolkien did wonderful things, and I have nothing but respect for his attempt to portray cultural and linguistic interactions that follow actual historical counterparts. Norse/celtic relations and languages are present and add depth to the mythical beings presented as factual entities. It was brilliant and genre changing. But it wasn't an excuse to stop being original.
When somebody walks into a room and says fantasy, it is almost reflexive to think Dwarves, elves and dragons. You might even get Hobbits or halflings mentioned. But they all have origins in regional folk traditions and mythologies.
Where are the centaurs and the Djinn. Honestly the cultures of the world are rich with tales of the mystic and none human.
But that is not all that has become formulaic and exagerated.
Cerce was no Wizard of some color robes. She had power and it was less hand waving and move methodical and subtle. Magic that truely impresses. A simple look at the practices and belief of cultures around the world can point us in the right direction.
If memory serves me, the inspiration for one of my novels in the future is not the traditional races and magic but some greco roman entities. Specifically Gorgons and their decendants and the Dactylois (dog headed beings of greek islands, beholden to either hepheastus or posiedon).
The magic of the gorgons gaze could be seen in the myths as hollywood versions of something that continues to this day. The Mingy (as always to count on the spelling of that). There is a tribe of people in africa who believe that those who master the skills of metal workers and smiths are tainted and live semi outcast lives. Sought and paid for their skill but their gaze is said to bestow a curse that brings death. Also among the mingy beliefs is is that those children born deformed, or who are crippled or imperfect through injuries are abandoned or sacrificed. The Term Miny means bad luck or cursed. This is all a little old info clinging to the inside of my brain so I may have scramble a detale or two, but the idea is what I'm trying to show.
Here we have a reasonable explanation of majic, cursed medusa and outcast and abandoned children. Ripe material for stories. The magic is subtle and not flash and miraculous, which to me makes it more powerful.
Source material is everywhere.
But if you also notice I have taken a greek idea and matched it to an african belief. These were neighboring cultures and perhaps the belief did come via that path, or they are common threads found in multiple cultures. That is an advantage.
Many cultures have myths that are very much alike, and there are some universal myths. These point to the feel of a story that make them strong and enjoyable. Tolkien did it.
I don't imagine I'm a new Tolkien. But I do want to do something a little more then the usual elf who doesn't fit in and spend his time with a dwarf. Throw in a theif and a wizard and some evil overlord with a magic device bend on world domination.
I think that will be a good place to start tomorrow. Overlords and the magic ...thing to dominate the world.
I'll try not to be so negative and deal more with what I'm trying to do.
Until then Take care of yourselves.
Roving Jack
Friday, November 7, 2008
A journey in writing
If you are intrested in the creative writing process at all and read my post last night you may be thinking that my methodologies are a bit formulaic and dry. Or my approach may seem to rigid and lacking in inspired creativity. I asure you it simply seems that way.
The truth of the matter is it is all really just play to me. My titles are often a matter of word play. One that comes to mind is the idea I had for a story title the other day. I was posting about how I'd started to notice steampunk themes in media that I hadn't noticed before I'd known anything about the genre. I used the simple phrase Allusions of Steam. It struck me right away that that was a perfectly snappy title for a story with subtle steam or burgeoning steam techknowlegy. and from that point little ideas pop into my head as to what type of story meets the qualifications for the title.
This is one of my other ways to come up with story ideas. simply create a snappy phrase or a play on words and then justify it, explain how it could be suitable in describing a world.
Again this sounds dry and almost like paperwork or lab experiments you did in highschool, but the truth is more like abstract painting or blowing bubbles. with simple and consistent chemical mixtures and uniform tools you can make an array of fantasies and ideas more real and the inspiration is the hardest part to explain.
I know a guy who is increadibly dry and logic minded who has actually said to me, in a philisophical discussion on the nature of inspiration, that in many cases inspirational flashes are actually micro seizures in the frontal lobes... there was more but I found the whole idea so amusing I didn't stop to grasp the entirty of the statement.
Whereever it comes from it's a wonder to start out with a word or phrase that eveokes that feeling of importance or ecitment, and challenges you to tell a story that gives it meaning and a home.
I probably won't be using the title above, as others have tobled through in the last few days. that better suit the direction of one of my stories. And who knows I may change the title again before I'm through. It less about that then the start of the train of thought and the world building.
Like I mentioned last time, the world and it's people is how I write. If I'm to tell you a story I want to take you to a place that is not shallow or simply a facade over a preachy point. I want you to relate to people and places that are at once farmiliar in their way and yet exotic and enchanting.
And on the topic of enchantment I hope to post my next entry on my writing about the fantasies that may be written this month or in the near future. I've got a group meeting tomorrow but might be able to make it to the labs in time to post it. If not be sure it will be up by midnight on sunday.
Until then take care of yourselves.
Roving Jack
The truth of the matter is it is all really just play to me. My titles are often a matter of word play. One that comes to mind is the idea I had for a story title the other day. I was posting about how I'd started to notice steampunk themes in media that I hadn't noticed before I'd known anything about the genre. I used the simple phrase Allusions of Steam. It struck me right away that that was a perfectly snappy title for a story with subtle steam or burgeoning steam techknowlegy. and from that point little ideas pop into my head as to what type of story meets the qualifications for the title.
This is one of my other ways to come up with story ideas. simply create a snappy phrase or a play on words and then justify it, explain how it could be suitable in describing a world.
Again this sounds dry and almost like paperwork or lab experiments you did in highschool, but the truth is more like abstract painting or blowing bubbles. with simple and consistent chemical mixtures and uniform tools you can make an array of fantasies and ideas more real and the inspiration is the hardest part to explain.
I know a guy who is increadibly dry and logic minded who has actually said to me, in a philisophical discussion on the nature of inspiration, that in many cases inspirational flashes are actually micro seizures in the frontal lobes... there was more but I found the whole idea so amusing I didn't stop to grasp the entirty of the statement.
Whereever it comes from it's a wonder to start out with a word or phrase that eveokes that feeling of importance or ecitment, and challenges you to tell a story that gives it meaning and a home.
I probably won't be using the title above, as others have tobled through in the last few days. that better suit the direction of one of my stories. And who knows I may change the title again before I'm through. It less about that then the start of the train of thought and the world building.
Like I mentioned last time, the world and it's people is how I write. If I'm to tell you a story I want to take you to a place that is not shallow or simply a facade over a preachy point. I want you to relate to people and places that are at once farmiliar in their way and yet exotic and enchanting.
And on the topic of enchantment I hope to post my next entry on my writing about the fantasies that may be written this month or in the near future. I've got a group meeting tomorrow but might be able to make it to the labs in time to post it. If not be sure it will be up by midnight on sunday.
Until then take care of yourselves.
Roving Jack
Thursday, November 6, 2008
On writing
Well as promised I am here to post on what I am going to be writing about and how these ideas occured to me. I hope it may be of use to fellow aspiring writers or at least of some intrest to you.
Last year at the end of Nanowrimo I was wandering the boards and talking with other writers when an idea came to me for a new story. It was based on the movie disney made Treasure Planet, which in turn was based on treasure island. The art style in particular appealed to me greatly. So I began to thinkk about wooden sailing ships in space with crew on an open deck. It's pure fantasy, and there is nothing wrong with that; but my brain likes to be able to explain things (like how do they breathe in space, how can they walk the deck if there is no down ect...) and the challenge of making it not only work but also adding to the story by useing limits was irresistable.
I talked it over in my head for a while and came to some ideas. Air in space could come form a few things, a good example is larry Nivens Integral Trees, which is the first book of his that I ever read and one that made him one of my favorite authors.
Changes in gravity would have to come into effect to allow for space thrvel and a sense of down in space, both of which I sort of found a solution for in an article about frictionless bearings on molecular levels to be used in Nanotech. They suppose they can make a sort of prism that can alter the dirction and effect of attraction between uncharged particles. It's hard to explain and I can't remember the specific names involved. But at any rate the idea of altering the directions and effects of atomic forces lead me to thinking of something similar on the effects of gravity.
Well I know that seems all technical and rather dry, and that's why stories are great for telling these things.
So now I have a way for wooden ships to take off and sail in space. I have space that is habbitable for the people. What does that mean? If there is air in space then planets like mars which float in space have air too, and ships can get there.
Okay now the basics of my universe are being made. I get to ask questions about the meaning of the interconnections.
Then I find out what points are most important to illustrate.
Like the fact that the tech level is preindustrial, they may be able to alter gravity and sail in space and colonise mars but they don't have computers and even the refridgerator is a ways away for them (though there re sections of space where the wind from the sun is weak and colder). I've got to find a way to explain how the air got into space without just saying it. You, the reader has to discover it.
That brings us to the characters. The best way to have the reader discover something in your setting is to have a character discover it in the story. So naturally I have to design a character that doesn't know anything about the things and ideas I want to convey. Building a character up to fit those needs leads you to see a person with gaps of knowledge and flaws that have reasons and value.
Characters overcome some problems and grow in knowledge and ... well character during a story. So soon I find myself with a character whose personal story becomes more important than all that stuff I thought up before.
My story is now about the character and those they associate with. Makeing them real and making myself feel something about or for them during the course of the story.
That really sums up how far I have gotten into this setting yet. I will be talking about my three other settings in my next few posts. They don't all get discovered in the same way, and yes discovered is the right word. But more on that next time.
I've got to get out of the labs now.
Until tomorrow, Take care of yourselves,
Roving jack.
Last year at the end of Nanowrimo I was wandering the boards and talking with other writers when an idea came to me for a new story. It was based on the movie disney made Treasure Planet, which in turn was based on treasure island. The art style in particular appealed to me greatly. So I began to thinkk about wooden sailing ships in space with crew on an open deck. It's pure fantasy, and there is nothing wrong with that; but my brain likes to be able to explain things (like how do they breathe in space, how can they walk the deck if there is no down ect...) and the challenge of making it not only work but also adding to the story by useing limits was irresistable.
I talked it over in my head for a while and came to some ideas. Air in space could come form a few things, a good example is larry Nivens Integral Trees, which is the first book of his that I ever read and one that made him one of my favorite authors.
Changes in gravity would have to come into effect to allow for space thrvel and a sense of down in space, both of which I sort of found a solution for in an article about frictionless bearings on molecular levels to be used in Nanotech. They suppose they can make a sort of prism that can alter the dirction and effect of attraction between uncharged particles. It's hard to explain and I can't remember the specific names involved. But at any rate the idea of altering the directions and effects of atomic forces lead me to thinking of something similar on the effects of gravity.
Well I know that seems all technical and rather dry, and that's why stories are great for telling these things.
So now I have a way for wooden ships to take off and sail in space. I have space that is habbitable for the people. What does that mean? If there is air in space then planets like mars which float in space have air too, and ships can get there.
Okay now the basics of my universe are being made. I get to ask questions about the meaning of the interconnections.
Then I find out what points are most important to illustrate.
Like the fact that the tech level is preindustrial, they may be able to alter gravity and sail in space and colonise mars but they don't have computers and even the refridgerator is a ways away for them (though there re sections of space where the wind from the sun is weak and colder). I've got to find a way to explain how the air got into space without just saying it. You, the reader has to discover it.
That brings us to the characters. The best way to have the reader discover something in your setting is to have a character discover it in the story. So naturally I have to design a character that doesn't know anything about the things and ideas I want to convey. Building a character up to fit those needs leads you to see a person with gaps of knowledge and flaws that have reasons and value.
Characters overcome some problems and grow in knowledge and ... well character during a story. So soon I find myself with a character whose personal story becomes more important than all that stuff I thought up before.
My story is now about the character and those they associate with. Makeing them real and making myself feel something about or for them during the course of the story.
That really sums up how far I have gotten into this setting yet. I will be talking about my three other settings in my next few posts. They don't all get discovered in the same way, and yes discovered is the right word. But more on that next time.
I've got to get out of the labs now.
Until tomorrow, Take care of yourselves,
Roving jack.
It wasn't so much a lie
It wasn't so much a lie as a failure on my part to anticipate the error that impeded my ability to post tonight.
One of my other projects ran long and then sort of crapped out on my, so then I had to work all through it again and struggle with the silly thing to get a half grassed result. Sigh.
I'm sort of tired of that one anway. I'll slap it together and call it good. The job done if not exactly as I intended is still a job done.
I will be getting back to you tomorrow. I've some errand and hopefully some good news.
Until them take care of yourselves,
Roving Jack.
One of my other projects ran long and then sort of crapped out on my, so then I had to work all through it again and struggle with the silly thing to get a half grassed result. Sigh.
I'm sort of tired of that one anway. I'll slap it together and call it good. The job done if not exactly as I intended is still a job done.
I will be getting back to you tomorrow. I've some errand and hopefully some good news.
Until them take care of yourselves,
Roving Jack.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Well no go, for this show
No luck at the post office. Just a lonely little yellow slip, in an otherwise empty box.
But I've groceries to last me until saturday when I will be in the area for a group meeting. The group meeting will help see to another project I'm working on. And who knows, if things are good enough I might get to take my first photo with my pin hole camera (it's almost done and it's a kit that ends up looking like the old bellowed cameras from way back when).
Once These things are out of the way I should be able to sit down and focus hard on my writing. And with any luck on thursday afternoon I'll get my package and be up and running.
I figure I'm still good to get the 50,000 minimum words in by the end of the month, and if I really try I'll get double that. If I hole up and hide from the rest of my life and spend a weeks worth of days off doing nothing but writing I might squeeze three out. It would be a miracle if All my 4 novel ideas could be made manifest.
Keep watching here and give me some support through the First giving charity site if you like, the charity this time is the nanowrimo parent company that benefits childrens writing and literacy and supports writers of all ages.
I'll keep you posted on the writing. And I should get a picture up of something soon.
I've got to tend to some things tonight, but I'll be back tomorrow with a some basic information of what I plan to write this year and to let you see what Ol' Jack does at the beginning of writing, who knows, it might just inspire you to give it a try.
Take Care of yourselves.
Roving Jack
But I've groceries to last me until saturday when I will be in the area for a group meeting. The group meeting will help see to another project I'm working on. And who knows, if things are good enough I might get to take my first photo with my pin hole camera (it's almost done and it's a kit that ends up looking like the old bellowed cameras from way back when).
Once These things are out of the way I should be able to sit down and focus hard on my writing. And with any luck on thursday afternoon I'll get my package and be up and running.
I figure I'm still good to get the 50,000 minimum words in by the end of the month, and if I really try I'll get double that. If I hole up and hide from the rest of my life and spend a weeks worth of days off doing nothing but writing I might squeeze three out. It would be a miracle if All my 4 novel ideas could be made manifest.
Keep watching here and give me some support through the First giving charity site if you like, the charity this time is the nanowrimo parent company that benefits childrens writing and literacy and supports writers of all ages.
I'll keep you posted on the writing. And I should get a picture up of something soon.
I've got to tend to some things tonight, but I'll be back tomorrow with a some basic information of what I plan to write this year and to let you see what Ol' Jack does at the beginning of writing, who knows, it might just inspire you to give it a try.
Take Care of yourselves.
Roving Jack
Monday, November 3, 2008
Guilt oh guilt
I shall die of shame, that I must struggle and torture myself with a sea of tiny tasks that prevent me thus far from writing anything in any of my Nano novel ideas.
First it's this, then it's that and now I have to get groceries and then I'm away from the computer labs.
Well, tonight I hope the post office has decided to exchange the silly lil yellow strip in my box with the key for the package pick up boxes. Then I can get it without having to go there during open hours, and get the package. Whic could be one of two or three things.
What I am really hoping it is, is the power cord to something that I should be able to use to enable myself to get more writing done with greater ease. That's a fairly big hint but I don't really think I should be announcing anything until we are ready, and are sure it won't fail.
Life like to give me curve balls at times like these.
I'll let you know wether I faced disappointment at the post office in tomorrows post. And Hopefully by then I should be able to report at least some start to my Nano writings.
Until then Take care of yourselves,
Roving Jack
First it's this, then it's that and now I have to get groceries and then I'm away from the computer labs.
Well, tonight I hope the post office has decided to exchange the silly lil yellow strip in my box with the key for the package pick up boxes. Then I can get it without having to go there during open hours, and get the package. Whic could be one of two or three things.
What I am really hoping it is, is the power cord to something that I should be able to use to enable myself to get more writing done with greater ease. That's a fairly big hint but I don't really think I should be announcing anything until we are ready, and are sure it won't fail.
Life like to give me curve balls at times like these.
I'll let you know wether I faced disappointment at the post office in tomorrows post. And Hopefully by then I should be able to report at least some start to my Nano writings.
Until then Take care of yourselves,
Roving Jack
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Nano starts but not I
I've not been able to start my Nanowrimo novel just yet and it may not get started tomorrow either. I'm visiting family tonight and getting together with a group tomorrow. At the group meeting tomorrow I will hopefully be setting free the second of my message in a bottle projects.
This one has been somewhat educational and fun to do, and like all the others I can't tell you what it is, eccept to say it's and art or a craft, and I can't say where it's going. You'll just have to go to http://groups.google.com/group/mess-n-bot and watch and hope with me that they get where they are going and then see what is in them when the opener shares it with everyone.
My pinhole camera kit is taking longer then I hoped but that is okay, as long as I eventually get the chance to use it. Once I have a fully functional pinhole camera that uses 35mm film I can use it for some projects and then take my time making a new one from scratch and tinkering with the design. I had hoped to be able to take a picture of my neice with it on halloween night but I may have to settle for Thanksgiving.
The cuniform is much more difficult to learn then the heiroglyphics are, but I've got a plan of attack that should get me a basic understanding going.
But the big work right now is to manage some of these tasks while doing my Nanowrimos this month.
Needless to say in all likelyhood My posts may be much shorter and a little less frequent or every night and garbled. It depend on how hard I'm working and how much procrasti... um free time I get.
I'll let you know how things are going on Monday night, even if it is just a short post. I'd like to be able to keep readers up with what it's actually like to do nano, so you can see what the appeal is if you haven't already joined.
Take care of yourselves.
Roving Jack
This one has been somewhat educational and fun to do, and like all the others I can't tell you what it is, eccept to say it's and art or a craft, and I can't say where it's going. You'll just have to go to http://groups.google.com/group/mess-n-bot and watch and hope with me that they get where they are going and then see what is in them when the opener shares it with everyone.
My pinhole camera kit is taking longer then I hoped but that is okay, as long as I eventually get the chance to use it. Once I have a fully functional pinhole camera that uses 35mm film I can use it for some projects and then take my time making a new one from scratch and tinkering with the design. I had hoped to be able to take a picture of my neice with it on halloween night but I may have to settle for Thanksgiving.
The cuniform is much more difficult to learn then the heiroglyphics are, but I've got a plan of attack that should get me a basic understanding going.
But the big work right now is to manage some of these tasks while doing my Nanowrimos this month.
Needless to say in all likelyhood My posts may be much shorter and a little less frequent or every night and garbled. It depend on how hard I'm working and how much procrasti... um free time I get.
I'll let you know how things are going on Monday night, even if it is just a short post. I'd like to be able to keep readers up with what it's actually like to do nano, so you can see what the appeal is if you haven't already joined.
Take care of yourselves.
Roving Jack
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