This exercise is to write a fragment of a story (500 words) written entirely in imperative commands. Source: 3 AM Epiphany
Here we go: Read more
Archive for Writing
Quick Hits
1. Bike stuff is going so-so. Framebuilding class is awesome. Pre-season training has been spotty. Going to get back at that tonight.
2. Writing exercises are going okay, I suppose. A few per week seems reasonable, and I’m still plugging away at #3, which has really weird POV issues.
3. I’ll be posting some more stuff re: my professional life here — specifically ideas and insights surrounding interactive marketing. My first piece is about email marketing, and has been in-progress for a few days now.
4. I’ve got a new geek project that has a very original temporary name — Project X. It’s a whole new way to socially network. I’m laying out the framework in Rails, and may have to find some people who understand the large-scale stuff better than I do to join me in this endeavor. I hope to have a basic, working site in a month or so.
5. Been thinking about the Fontosaurus site some more. New template? New payment processing engine? New business model? Yes to all.
Exercise 2
This exercise is to write a 600 word short story from the first person POV, using a personal pronoun only twice. Source: 3 AM Epiphany
Here’s my take: Read more
Exercise 1
So I’m counting this as a writing exercise since I blew it out in about 10 minutes. BoingBoing is having a 100-word fiction contest. The theme is “Found in Space.” My first draft was 122 words. I really had to work to get it down to 100. Here’s my results:
The machine moved, Scott followed. We attach meaning to moments in our lives when the chemicals in our brain make us “happy.” Scott hit the jackpot on a business trip, blew a few grand on a call girl, never told his wife. His happiness became the roll of that one machine and its wheels. From Vegas to Atlantic City to a reservation, Scott followed. The house always won, Scott lost everything. Eventually, both were on a long fall Sunward with the detritus of a multibillion population. They nudged, entangled and for a Planck moment, the dessicated meat was happy.
Not brilliant, but okay.
A Minor Epiphany
I’ve been thinking about writing lately, and how my productivity has basically tanked since I departed college for the RealWorld™. There is a litany of contributing factors to that, and I think that with this post, I’ll be scratching the surface of that set.
First and foremost, it’s because I am not regularly in the habit of writing fiction. In college, I was forced to sit down and put electrons to storage medium on a regular basis. Whether that was straight-up writing of fiction, or doing any number of writing exercises, I was still hammering out words on a regular basis.
Secondly, my filter was more flimsy than it is now. As I write now, I second-guess everything I put to paper. I’m uncertain as to exactly why that is, but I suspect that a contributing factor is that I don’t have anyone else’s work to server as a benchmark for my own. In college, I would frequently look at the works of my peers and be absolutely aghast at the notion that some of these people thought that they were going to become writers. It was good for my ego. And as a result, I wrote more.
The trick now, of course, is going to be finding a way to replicate those conditions in such a way that I can maintain my relationship with my fianceé, my job, and my other time commitments without any sort of negative impact.
Right now there’s too much going on to expect to be able to crank out 2000 words or more per day, but I can commit to doing a writing exercise per day and 250-500 words before leaving for the office (or during lunch). I’ve got 3 AM Epiphany and The Write-Brain Workbook, both ready for use.
I’ve got to start somewhere. Eventually, I’ve got to find myself a writers’ group, too.
Things, Stuff, and Other Things
Once again, no real clear-cut plan exists for a blog post. I’m feeling somewhat guilty for not having updated lately. So here, again, is a list of bullet points about what’s goin’ on (I hear Marvin Gaye every time I type that). Some of this is heavy, some light, and I’m guessing that most of it is transient stuff that I won’t remember a year from now.
• First and foremost, I’ve been trying to pay more attention to the happy things in life and less attention to the negative crap. No, this isn’t some loonball attempt to follow the wishful-thinking bullshit espoused by The Secret. It’s more of an attempt to just be more happy and to see the good in the rest of the world. It’s been hard to do, though. I’m very influenced by the moods of the people I’m closest to, and as a result, I have the occasional bad day.
• Framebuilding is going well. I’ve been honing my brazing skills and am starting to feel pretty comfortable with them. I’ve also finished a few joints with hand-filing and power tools, which has served to illuminate the need for a quality filling of the joint after it’s been tinned. My next session is in two weeks and we’re going to go over TIG welding — and as part of that, I’ll be using 3″ square tubing to build a welding stand, which will become part of my arsenal of tools. Once built, I’ll need to get it powder-coated and buy a few small fixtures (repairs stand clamp, casters, bolts, etc.) to get the thing put together. I’ve also blueprinted the 29′er frame and the cyclocross frames using BikeCAD.
• I also recently applied for a part-time, work-at-home gig that would have me working as the Online Editor for Cyclocross Magazine. My skill set (English degree, deep experience in interactive, and a love of cyclocross) seemed to be a good match. I did get a pleasant response from them this weekend, and have written back. Just waiting to hear more at this point. Very excited about the potential position.
• Trying to get my shit together on the 2010 training program. I really need to hit that this week.
• Calvin is getting really weird lately. The little guy has taken to standing in the corner of the living room and meowing at the top of his lungs for no particular reason that I can ascertain. We need to get the whole quartet of beasts into the vet for check-ups soon — I think we talked about doing that in January. I’ll keep an eye on him until then.
• Really vexed about what to do with a novel I’ve been writing. Stephen King has a horror novel coming out with a major plot element that’s somewhat similar to what I’d been thinking about — and I nearly just deleted the file. I realized not long after the shock wore off that we both might have gotten the idea from The Simpsons Movie. The problem is, I’m not sure I want to continue with the process of wrangling the book into a shape that could be considered “readable”…or if I should move on to the next idea.
• Wedding planning is coming along nicely. Locales for ceremony and reception are found and reserved. DJ found and reserved. Photographer found and waiting on contract from them. Future wife’s wedding shoes have arrived (and I got to watch her “squee” over them last night, which was fun). Saturday, while she’s trying on dresses, I’m going to go start looking at tuxedos and try and nail down gifts for my groomsmen — I don’t want Kate having all the fun. Also have to have a difficult discussion with one of my groomsmen, which is going to be filed under “ugh”…
• Need to install Ruby on Rails on my Mac tonight. Need to build a simple application that’s going to be part of the Ferocious Cycles website. It’s going to be a nifty little bit of code that will make for some happy customers.
• Need to make some time with my family in the near future. Haven’t seen mom in awhile and I’ve got the Scrabble itch something fierce. Should swing by dad and stepmom’s place, too. And maybe drive out to Detroit for a weekend to visit my bro and my sis-in-law, the latter of whom is undergoing chemo.
So that’s where I’m at, Internet. How are you?
I’m Back
So it’s been awhile since my last post. Partly because I had a short week at the office last week and a normal workload. I got everything done, then blew town for Vegas, which was awesome, as usual.
The first thing you’ll have noticed is that I reverted back to the old theme I’d been using. The garish one was too damn obnoxious for my tastes. The second thing you’ll notice is that I deleted all the accumulated spam in here. (Okay, maybe you didn’t.)
Life: Wedding preparations are starting to roll. We’ve got a location, but it’s going to necessitate two separate lists — one for the ceremony (small) and one for the reception (huge). I want Kate to walk down the aisle to “Brick House” by the Commodores. She’s having nothing of that.
Bike: ‘Cross season starts this weekend and I’m not really ready. But I’m going to hit it anyway. Might as well suffer a bit and use it as training. Worst case scenario is that it becomes training for next year. Framebuilding class is starting soon. Real soon. Oh yeah, and the debacle with my RA’ed mountain bike shoes has been resolved. Got them. Heat treating them tonight.
Writing: I think I’m finally completely burned-out on reading. Vacation’ll do that. To maintain my relationship with the written word, I’ll be trying to wrap-up the rough draft for Bubble over the next few weeks. Hoping to keep it under 130,000 words. Going to be close. After that, I have to start my next novel, which is about humanity’s first (indirect) contact with extraterrestrial intelligence.
Writing Laments
I hate this. For about a year now, I’ve had an awesome idea for a story setting, a situation involving a group of people arriving at that location — but nothing more. No specific characters, no plot. And it’s driving me batty. I even have an awesome title for it.
On the non-fiction side of the house, I think I’m going to pitch an article about my experience learning to build frames to a couple of the various cycling magazines.
So the writing plans for the near-term involve a pitch, and some brainstorming. Not very exciting, I know. But right now, it’s perfect — because my plate is currently pretty full.
Progress
Words written on Bubble this weekend: 0.
Accomplished this weekend: helped Kate clean the entire house from top to bottom, had an awesome housewarming party, attended the Frostbike tradeshow at QBP, and fought with bronchitis.
Sometimes, writing should take a back seat to everything else. Remember that.
Work Ethic and Writing
I’m of the opinion that work ethic is hugely important if you’re going to be a writer. The damn things don’t write themselves, after all.
Over at 43 Things, there’s a great piece with Eric Idle, talking about writing with John Cleese, and the exhaustion factor. Worth watching.
