Monday stuff.

My high school history teacher despised the word “stuff.” He was an intense guy, whose teaching method involved a lot of action and screaming and vein-bulging, but he was also one of the best teachers I ever had.  Never had to study for his tests.  He got it right the first time around.  Anyway, his tests were all essay questions, usually only one or two, and would take the entire class period to finish.  God help you if you ever used the word “stuff.”

And, with all due respect to Mr. Crawford, I must fall from grace for a blog post and subject readers to poor word usage.  I could write “A blog with a number of random links and thoughts found across the vast space of the internet” but it’s too long and wordy, and saying “Monday Stuff” is a lot simpler and a lot more vague (which is intentional!).

I didn’t blog over the weekend because I wanted time away from the computer.  Since I’m at work on my lunch break without much else to do, I decided I’d link to various things from my RSS reader.

The weekend was nice.  Erica and I spent a lot of time together, running errands, cleaning our bedroom and doing laundry.  We also watched a few movies. It was nice not worrying about anything for a chance, whether it be a deadline, my job or a story that just can’t resolve itself.  I think I just need a break from thinking like a writer.  Easier said than done, I know, and I’m not sure what that entails, but I think I’m going to give it a shot.  I’ve found that, in my own experience, motivation usually comes from nowhere and is usually unexpected.  I think I’m going to sit back for a bit and see what comes.  And if it doesn’t, I’ll do what I always do, and that’s whip myself into the work at hand.

I’ll keep blogging, though, if for no other reason than to document my own journey.  You’re welcome to come along, of course.

TK

tags: Monday   random things   stuff   writer things  

April 14, 2008 | Filed Under Blog | 1 Comment 

Pre-existing conditions.

I mentioned a month or so ago that I’d set up my own Wiki to keep track of all the changes I’m making to imagiNATION.  Well, as I’d sadly expected of myself, I fell out of the habit of updating it.  I took a look at it today and realized just how much work I’ve created for myself.

Since I lack the luxury of a Mac and access to what is possibly the greatest piece of writing software ever created, I have to make do somehow.  While I’ve tried Windows programs such as Darkroom and Q10, they don’t really do anything for me.  After using Word for so many years and being reliant on the ability to format anything on the fly, I find them rather useless.  Don’t get me wrong, though—blocking out everything except for the writing space is great and all, but I can do the same thing in Word, and keep my customizing features available at the same time.  However, Word lacks built-in flow chart functionality, as well as a general place to keep names, dates, facts and other details in their own place and interconnected in the right ways.

Enter the Personal Wiki.  I read about this on lifehacker, which is one of my daily obsessions.  I’ve discovered I’m a bit of a DIY kind of person, and the site is a godsend for all sorts of things.  The Wiki is one of them.  I think part of the reason I stopped using the Wiki is because I can only access it from my machine at the moment, which is all thanks to my wonderful hosting company since they don’t use the latest version of PHP for some ungodly reason.  That’s all going to change in a week or so, but for now, I have to make due.  Anyway, I checked out my listing of characters, locations and terminology:

Wiki_shot

The stuff in blue links to their own articles that contain summaries, how they tie in to the rest of the world in the story, their significance to the book, and so on.  The stuff in red has yet to be created.  When clicked on, they go to a blank page that can be edited.  As you can see, I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me, but that’s a good thing.  For the few of you who’ve read the first draft, you might see some familiar names on this list.  Most of it is new or renamed.

Many thanks to the folks who responded to my last post.  I’ve been out of it these last few days, and it was nice to hear from friends.  It was a much-needed kick in the ass.  I do appreciate it.

For now, I’m off.  Have a good evening, folks.

TK

tags: imagiNATION   wiki   writer things   writing process  

April 10, 2008 | Filed Under Blog | Leave a Comment 

Quarter-life crisis.

Work’s slowed to a crawl with The Idea Salesmen.  I think it’s because I’ve got imagiNATION on the brain.  Unfortunately I’ve not started working on the rewrite yet because, frankly, I’ve no motivation.  I’m not in that head space, I guess.  Maybe it’s got something to do with my birthday.  I’m not sure.  In any case, I put The Idea Salesmen on hold for now pending the completion of my novel.  I will return to it, though; it’s just that right now, I only have the patience for one thing at a time, and I can’t write two novels at once (even though I would love to).

As I explained to a friend of mine yesterday, most of my “short” story ideas want to grow up and become novels.  That’s the problem with the “novel effect.” Once you fall into that lengthy creative space, it’s hard to crawl out.  I’d hoped that my excursion into the word of flash fiction would solve the problem, but it only made it worse.  Those stories, for as contained as can be within a 600 word limit, still feel like unfinished sketches to me.

Saturday was my 25th birthday.  I’m not where I thought I’d be at 25.  Isn’t that always the case with things?  At 17, when I started taking this thing seriously, I thought I’d be a millionaire by now.  Funny, that.  I learned early on it’s a tough market, and it’s not going to get any easier.

Erica and I spent the day together doing nothing, really.  I’ve never been one for birthdays.  They stopped being a big deal to me a long time ago.  Still, since it was my 25th, I figured I should at least do something to mark the occasion.  We went to dinner at a nice Thai restaurant, then went to Borders and Gamestop.  Then we came home.  That’s about it.  Nothing spectacular.  No drinking.  Sunday I woke up and didn’t feel any different.  I feel the same.  Maybe that’s the problem with age - you don’t feel any different until one day you look in the mirror and realize it’s been twenty years since the last time you really noticed.

My apologies.  I’m waffling.

There’s really nothing new to report, except that I’ve zero motivation, I have a novel looming over my head and will be a huge weight off my shoulders once it’s finally on its way to completion.  I read an article about Stephen King and how much of an advance he used to get circa 1998.  Now he just gets two million and half the profit of his book sales.  Some day, when I grow up . . .

But first I guess I actually have to finish something.  I swear, sometimes, I hate being a writer.

So that’s about it, folks.  We should be switching to a new host in about another week or so.  The site should be a lot faster after that.  I promise my next post will have something to do with writing, books, publishing, etc.  For now, though, I guess I just needed to reflect, and this is the only writing I feel somewhat motivated to do, so you’ll just have to endure, won’t you?

Until then, I’d like to hear from you.  When you’re in a slump, what do you do to get out of it?  Me, I usually take time off (like so!) and surround myself with other things, like books, movies, video games, housework, and so on.  Feel free to share.

TK

tags: birthdays   doldrums   motivation   writing  

April 9, 2008 | Filed Under Blog | 7 Comments 

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