Posts Tagged ‘Writing’

AKA – A long post about what I’ve been up to lately…

Due to unforeseen circumstances, it looks as though I may not complete NaNoWriMo again this year.

I say “may” because there is still time left, and if I were to write just over 5000 words per day for the next week I might finish… Though a daily word target like that is highly unlikely to be hit around here. I haven’t even finished cleaning my place yet.

But I have come up with a list of ways to NOT get it finished. Here is the top ten things to do if you don’t want to finish NaNoWriMo this year.

Number Ten – Procrastinate.

…Obviously. Putting things off is a great way to not get things done and there are so many ways in which to do this.

A few personal favourites include watching Tv, cleaning, twittering, or even just going for a walk. All of these are a great way to push work away for a good chunk of time.

When all else fails, I like to use coffee as an excuse to put things off for a few minutes. This works well as I love my coffee and it sounds quite reasonable to say “I’ll get started right after a coffee”

Number Nine – Quit your job.

This sounds like a good idea, and in most ways it is.

But it won’t help you if you’re looking for more time to write. With so much extra time there is no longer any urgency to get any of it done. There is always time to do things later, you have all day tomorrow to catch up and next week you can work extra hard all week to make up for what you didn’t do this week.

I quit my job a few weeks ago. For other reasons, not to make time for writing, but I did think that with all that extra time and with a little tenacity I might be able to get a lot done.

That was until I…

Number Eight – Burn your hand

A great way to keep yourself from writing is to incapacitate yourself. And what could be more laborious and slow than typing with one hand? I mean apart from typing with no hands.

Nothing. Exactly.

So that’s what I did.

This happened to me one night while saving a box of kittens from a burning building, I was set upon by a group of ninjas and robots… and robot ninjas. They were all packing microwave meals, overcooked and only seconds out of the microwave. They demanded the box of kittens and when I didn’t comply they began throwing the meals at me. I managed to dodge most of them except one, which gave me second degree burns on the fingers and palm of my left hand.

I swear all that is true… Except the building, the kittens, the ninjas, the robots and the robot ninjas.

Number Seven – Watch Television.

I know I put this under number ten as a form of procrastination but there are two reasons that it needs it’s own spot.

For one, Television is the enemy of creativity. It really is.

Just by having it on you’re slowing yourself down, but added to that it dulls the creative process. I’ve always found that days in which I watch less television, I get alot more (and better) work done. Unfortunately television works much like any addiction in that unless you cut yourself off from it completely, including all access to it, then it will slowly and inevitably creep back into your life.

And I’m not ready to do that just yet.

Maybe after this season of Dollhouse has finished…

And the second reason this got it’s own entry – I accidentally miscounted and when I realised I didn’t have something for seven this was the first thing I came up with.

Number Six – Get Tattoed

A great way to spend a sunday afternoon, having needles stuck in your arm and/or leg and leaving deposits of ink there. Ah, good times.

Got two done myself last week… After six years since my last tattoo, I finally got around to getting some new ones.

And if you wanted to waste a little more time you can do what I did and walk to the tattoo parlor. Then, once the tattooing is done, you can find out that you’re in some backwards place that doesn’t have eftpos and so you’ll need to spend some more time walking to the shopping centre down the road. All in all, I spent about an hour and a half walking that day.

** A haircut could be substituted here if you prefer not to get tattooed… Or you can do what I did and get a haircut aswell.

Number Five – Buy a new computer

Who doesn’t like a new toy? Especially a nice big-ass super-expensive one like this –

This is my spanky new bitchin’ all-in-one touchscreen multimedia high definition yada yada computer. Ain’t she sweet? The touch screen is fun to play with. It’s heaps big monitor-wise and it’s all new and pretty.

The best thing about new toys like this?

You can spend all day just setting it up. Installing all your favourite programs and getting all the settings to how you like them and so on. I’m still not finished doing all that.

Number Four – Have a personal life

I’ve been trying this out lately. Doesn’t seem to be working for me. I’ve learned that there is nothing better to get in the way of writing than to have a personal life. Especially one as disasterous as mine.

People lie, people betray, people confuse and humiliate, people leave voids and people leave sorrow.

And you can’t control them or understand them like you do the characters you’re writing.

Bastards.

Number Three – Work on plot

Stop and think about your plot. Are things flowing as you want them too? Is the right information revealed at the right stage? Which scene goes next? Is the story moving to slow? Or too fast? And so on…

This is a great wait to slow down your writing. And if you really think about it, it may stop you altogether.

I did this. I decided to do a bit of plot planning, starting with listing all the scenes/elements that I wanted in my story. I came up with a list of 105 things, and it’s still growing… much more slowly now but still it’s growing.

Here’s a wordle of the list -

(because I haven’t posted a wordle in a while)

Anyway, working on the plot always seems to lead to –

Number Two – Starting from scratch.

Yeah, I’ve started to do this…

Well, I will when I’ve finished with everything else on this list. I’m still working on the plot a bit more. I’m going to put all of the elements/scenes that I listed in order and then write more on each one… and all the rest of it. You know how plotting is.

Writing is like eating soup with a fork, only you keep missing the bowl and stabbing yourself in the forehead.

Number One –

Instead of writing the story, write a top ten list about how to fail at writing the story.

To be fair, it’s not exactly a top ten list. It’s more of a ‘first ten things I thought of that I’ve been doing lately instead of working on NaNoWriMo’ list…

There are probably more that I could think of but I have some writing to do… So I’m going for a nap now.

So… Guess whose been getting some work done lately

Guess whose rewrote an old short story

Guess who has gotten a fair chunk done of his novel in the past fortnight and thus far shows barely any signs of slowing

And guess who has just gotten bored with this whole ‘guess’ theme and is giving it up right now…

That’s right – Me.

Yours truly.

Here’s a little wordcount doovey to display my progress thus far –

10 percent bitches! Suck on that!

but that’s not all, Over the weekend I rewrote one of my short stories – This one. And have plans to keep doing that to the other ones I feel need some work. Which is probably most of them.

I’m quite pleased with myself. It seems I’m getting out of this slump and getting things done. More than that, I’ve been having fun doing it too. That’s something that you forget all too often, isn’t it?, always too busy trying to get everything perfect and it just slips your mind that it’s fun.

There have been other things too. Some secret, some I’m just not remembering right now, and some I just can’t be bothered talking about right now because I want to finish this post and go get a coffee.

Coffee it up with me muthafukkas!!

Just a quick update because I feel like it.

Been having a relaxing time today, sitting out back and reading my new book that Amazon delivered just the other day. It’s Gun, with Occasional Music. I’m only a few chapters in so far and I’d already highly recommend it to anyone.

Been working on some stuff for Evil Ninja Penguins. I missed the monday time though. I got a bit stuck on the climax of what I was writing. That one may have to wait till friday, or even next week. In the mean time I’ve finished a small and… uhh… Odd… piece called The Button.

A short piece that was inspired by this sign –

Because it took all my will power to not pull it.

And buttons are even worse.

And by that I don’t mean I can’t concentrate, I mean where the hell are my glasses?

And also,

I just can’t seem to concentrate.

The year is almost half over already and I’ve gotten absolutely nowhere.

I know what the problem has been though. Those damned Evil Ninja Penguins. Those bastards have been hounding my day in and day out. I can’t get a lick of work done because of them. I sit down, all ready to work and boom an Evil Ninja Penguin shows up and hits me with his nun chucks. I manage to fight them off each time, but by the time I have I’ve lost my train of thought and am unable to work.

That and other distractions.

Truth be told, I have some ideas floating around in that big black void between my ears but I just haven’t been able to make myself sit down at the computer long enough to do anything but make a quick note about it. One of the reasons for this is I sit down at the computer and immediately check if she is online… he says hinting at an underlying story which we won’t get into right now…

unfortunately she is the only thing I’m able to focus on at the moment. Which is leaving me in a downer of a mood not conducive to my creative efforts.

I don’t necessarily believe blonde jokes… though I did giggle. But it makes a point about futility. I really think I should just try and forget about… she…. and try to get back to what is achievable… probably…

Writing that novel which future reviewers will call Pure Genius and Amazingly Brilliant.

A Masterpiece.

Not that I’m setting my goals too high or anything.

But it’s time to stop thinking about… unachievable goals… such as she.

Starting… NOW

Okay… now

Now

…

So, that’s the gist of my current dilemma… Too much procrastinating. Too much worrying about the wrong things. Too little sitting down at the computer to actually get work done…. And so on.

There are so many ideas, some absolutely brilliant and exciting ideas but I just haven’t been able to get it together.

I have two current works at the forefront of my mind. One, which I’m sure I’ve mentioned quite a bit in previous entries, my apocalypse. I attempted to complete it at last years NaNoWriMo, but as I reached the 25,000 word mark (Or there-abouts) I realised that it would be much better told in first person than in third omnipotent as I was doing. So I threw it aside to begin again… which I haven’t really done anything about yet.

The other story is a somewhat futuristic/alien world type story about a man whom everyone believes saved the universe and had since died. But he didn’t and he hasn’t. What a twist! At least that’s how it’s looking at the moment. I’m not exactly sure what will happen when I get into it. I really only have plans for the first few chapters thus far.

There are plenty of other ideas all muddled up in there. Some stuff I’ve abandoned for a time, others which are still processing. Some I’m just collecting ideas on. A world or two that have been created but are still looking for a story to tell.

Work work work work. So much time, so little to do. Wait, reverse that.

It’s feeling good to actually be thinking about the work again.

Anyway, I think that’s about it for now. There’s probably more but this was mostly just for ramble and blah-blah-blah’s. So, I’m going to go now. I have plotting to do and a little editing, some attempts at first sentences to get started on… and…

And this made me snigger -

hrmm… Did I say Productive? I meant… Lazy.

I got up late, watched a movie or two, napped on the couch, read a comic, watched Tv… That was my day.

*Stretch and Yawn*

But, as promised (to myself and to all those who don’t read this blog), I’m coming up a ToDo list for this month and planning on sticking to it. This means work everyday and marginally less napping…

Without further ado…

My ToDo list for November –

1. Write everyday… Sounds familiar, right? It’s always been on my todo list and always will. It’s just easier somedays, other days the blank page (or even the next paragraph) just seems too daunting, an impossible to overcome obstacle that stops me from even opening up the file… and those days seem to come more often. But, I’ll be writing everyday now. 1500 words minimum to be exact.
2. Write another Short Story… I’ve been thinking about what to write next. I was thinking about writing a vampire story. Sort of a companion piece to Where Wolf. Maybe.
3. Think of something for Number Three…
4. Write a Doug Update. Or maybe two. I have some plans on the next one but nothing’s written in stone… or at all…
5. I was thinking of recording a reading of one of my stories to put up on the site. I found a little plugin to do it… (although not for the sidebar like I wanted) So, I’ll add that to the list.
6. Win a million dollars on the lotto and lose it again through a combined gambling/drug/alcohol/hobo killing addiction.
7. Learn to play the piano… You don’t need to have one to learn do you?
8. (Late Addition) – Work out what I’m going to write for NaNoWriMo. Do a little plotting and Outlining…

Well, that’s about it. Check back at the end of the month to see which ones I kept to.

And remember Bruce is…

I have no reason for putting that in. I just felt like it.

It seems like such a nice day.

It’s a little colder than it has been the last week or so, perfect weather for a nice hot coffee any time of the day. In fact, I’m having one now… Mmmm Coffee…

I slept in today. After four days in a row of getting up at 3 am it’s pretty sweet to roll out of bed after nine. I got up and had a coffee while I read a bit of American Gods. I had a bit of a ride on my stationary bike and then settled in on the couch to watch some Tv while I read some blog updates.

Aaaah…

Then I remembered I had to do some work today as well.

Especially since I’ve barely written two thousand words in the last eight days.

Urgh!

I have done a couple of things, though. You may’ve noticed a spanky new static front page to my site. Internet high five!

Okay, that’s about it. Just one thing.

I’m supposed to be starting my novel but alas, find myself as unmotivated as a post-coital praying mantis. Tired, drained and headless.

Every so often I try looking for a better way of working. Some way that keeps me going. Something that flips a switch in my brain and makes me crazy productive and nutty creative.

I’ve read about how several authors, Neil Gaiman for example (since I’m reading some of his work at the moment), write long hand pen on paper style for their first draft. And I’m considering trying that again.

I’m also wondering If I’m focusing on the right project. So I move from one to the other to the other again. I have one project that I know how it begins, unless I change something, but I still have no idea what the story is. I was hoping I could write a sentence or two and it’d show me itself but no. It’s to lazy to do that.

I have another project that I’m just not into working on at the moment. I think I made a wrong turn somewhere a while back, and I’ll have to go back and do something about it.

Then there’s another project that I know the whole story (I’ve mentioned this one a lot before – Project Apocalypse) but I don’t know how to write it. I’m starting to think I just don’t have the skills to write it yet. Also – I think there’s something missing. One tiny element. Not sure what, yet.

Mostly I think I’m just looking for a reason why I can’t get past the first page.

So, What’s your excuse?

If you check the little drop down menu under Works, or check the page itself, you’ll notice there is a few more titles there.

Not one, or two but Three new titles.

at the top of the list is Counting Sheep. It’s a short story about fifteen hundred words long. You may remember me talking about it a few posts ago. It’s the one based on a short story that an opening scene from a novel I planned is also based on… kinda sorta.

It’s pretty much done now, A little different than I had originally planned but it turned out pretty sweet anyway.

The next on is Where Wolf? . This is my favourite piece I’ve written so far. It was one of those pieces that just flow so easily and readily that it seems to write itself. And it turned out awesome.

It began a year or so ago as an Idea for a novel. But I never got started on it and finally it moved from my idle folder down to my archived ideas folder. It was almost completely forgotten about until I did some spring cleaning on my computer files a few months back and I realised it would work well as a short story.

And I was right.

And if you want to argue about it, I’ll poke you in the eye.

The final addition is Out of Reach.

This one began as a scene that ironically isn’t in the story. The scene was from another story I wrote a while back that I didn’t think to much of. (Though I may still use it for something).

There was a great scene that I particularly wanted to use, so I decided to combine it with an opening scene from another idea that I never got going on.

I worked on it for several months, slowly tapping out the words. But it’s finally finished enough that I can throw up my arms and cry DONE!!. It’s not the greatest it could be but I’m just sick of writing it now. I almost didn’t post it but I thought Three new stories sounds better than Two.

And if you don’t like it, I have one thing to say about that – “Read ‘Where Wolf?’ instead, it’s real cool!”

Okay, I’m bashing it a little too much. It’s not as bad as all that. I swear.

Well that’s all for now, I might post more later because I’m suddenly at a loss as to what to work on now. I have a couple of ideas but I don’t know if I’m ready to begin the novel yet…

Go on, talk about it.

Okay, I’ll go first.

Today, I got a lot of work done… at work!

I’m serious!

On the weekends I get to work at around quarter past five. I set up everything for when I open and then I sit down for a coffee and a cigarette or two. Then, at six a.m., I open the store. It’s always very quiet for the first hour and a half to two hours, sometimes even a bit longer.

First off I make my way through all the paperwork that needs doing but that still leaves me with a whole lot of time before it gets any busier than a customer every twenty minutes or so.

Sometimes I use the time to do some cleaning around the store and sometimes I spend the time reading…

(If my boss is reading this – I swear these are all lies! ALL LIES!)

But today I decided to get some writing done. I keep all of my writing files synched to my treo 650, so I can write or make notes wherever I am.

I’ve been working on a short story for several months now, (not because I was working very hard on it but because I kept pushing it aside for other things but always kept it on top of my work list.) and yesterday I picked it up again and got a few hundred words done… see yesterday’s entry, I think I remember mentioning it.

But, anyway, At work this morning I picked up my Treo 650 and the words start flowing out of me and I tap out over a thousand words on that little keyboard.

Over a thousand!

So, I actually got a whole lot of work done at work.

Oh, the irony!

Then, once I was home, I had a bit of lunch. Then a nap. (hey, I was up at 3 a.m.!!) and then finally finished off the story. And gave myself a pat on the back. Good boy! Good boy!!

It’s called Out of Reach. It’s about a family heading out on holiday… in outer space!… and they run into trouble….

- insert suspenseful music here.

I’m really happy with the way it turned out but it’s kinda funny. Not ha ha funny but weird funny. I began writing this story because there was a scene in an old crappy short story that I wanted to keep, so I started writing this story to fit it in.

Then I didn’t write it in.

I know what you’re thinking – Osh me gosh! are these things probable?

Yes, Yes they are.

Bye now.

I’ve been very busy the last couple of days, the amount of work I’ve done could almost fill up a half hour lunch break. If you got back to work a little late and then got a warning by the boss because you are always late, you lazy bastard!…

Anyway… I’ve almost finished a new short story, called Counting Sheep, it just needs a bit more editing and it’ll be good to go. It’s not so much a new story as it is a rewrite of an old short story that I’d already rewritten before.

It was once a chapter in a novel of interrelated stories I was writing, it was one of my favourites that came so easily it seemed to write itself. Then, when the book I was writing changed to a more linear plotline, it became the opening scene. I rewrote it then and it turned out great.

Even though it turned out great, there were differences in the story that I lost but I wanted to keep. So, for a couple of months now it was sitting in my To be written folder.

But now, it’s finished. It turned out pretty great, I don’t know if it still has the effect of the original, I’ll have to wait till it’s not so fresh in my mind to see.

Also in the things I’ve been up to category, I came across this article today at Tor.com about The Weirdest Book in the World. I haven’t read the books they talk about there but still, as I read it, I seemed to take it as a personal challenge.

I had one of those revelations that always seem to motivate me to create a good plot followed by a couple of chapters that I delete for being crap soon afterwards.

So, those books can have the title of weirdest book in the world if they want… for now. But someday I shall be published and you’ll see just how weird a book can be bitches!

damn straight!

In the previous entry I was talking about the lack of places to buy cult graphic novels and such. While this is true for the most part (in fact there was a couple of years there where I didn’t even have a local bookstore), I got a pleasant surprise yesterday when I wandered into my local Angus’s.

I not only found a copy of Volume One of The Sandman – Preludes and Nocturnes, I found it in the 50% off box. Score!

Also missing from my previous entry, which has been pointed out to me with a vengeance (and a belief that this blog reaches more than two people), I am working on plans for a comic/graphic novel of my own. I can’t tell you much about it just yet, as I’ve only come up with a backstory for the main character and a few faint ideas for plot so far, but I can tell you this – It will be awesome and everyone will be wanting a copy, so get in early and order it now… years before it’ll be ready!

I will be doing the writing and… (what was her name? the one that pointed out this was missing from my blog? Oh, I can’t remember… Let’s just call her – Franky Neener) will be doing the artwork.