Sunday Scoop (Week 73)

Aside from a core desire to do absolutely nothing the past few days, I’ve inched forward just a bit on the third draft, done some more school work, and came through all my work days as largely productive. All in all, not bad for someone too lazy to see the harsh sunlight for two days straight, neglect to do the laundry I desperately need to do, and dodge getting a haircut ever since I left the states. But...baby steps.

Here’s some fun stuff coming down the pipeline: Finishing up some of these classes A trip to Japan? My last few months of this job Going home for good Starting school full time Getting a part time job (need good suggestions) An answer to the age-old question of whether or not I’ll ever finish this manuscript

All this and more coming soon. Hard to say when, but my motivation is slowly returning. The very least I have to do is try every day.

Keep on writing, folks!

Sunday Scoop (Week 72)

Been one hell of a weekend. Despite pandemonium at work, I managed to reserve enough energy to get a little writing done. Not much, but net positive is still good all things considered.

As one tired human being, I’ve only got about one more hour in me tonight. So I’m gonna go be productive.

Keep on writing, folks!

Sunday Scoop (Week 71)

Better late than never. While I didn’t get around to blogging on Sunday, I did get quite a bit of writing done. Had to pick one, otherwise I’d have lost my steam.

That steam won’t be as plentiful here soon. I’m taking some classes that are gonna eat up time and energy. It’s alright. The more I do now, the less I’ll have piled on when I start real school in a year. Plus I can take these more or less at my leisure.

So what else have I been doing this week? Well, other than writing.

As I’ve said before, I take the science part of science fiction rather seriously. That means I have to justify half the shit rampant in the genre with facts, figures, and (mostly) math. And sometimes that means a little bit of hand-waving. To satisfy my unhealthy desire to make the shit make sense, that hand-waving has to happen at the math level. 

I spent 4 straight days working the same problem. The Faster Than Light problem. A massive problem in the genre. It’s over now, I think. But there’s more work to be done in other topics.

I’ll undoubtedly be much smarter after reading more about optical storage, lasers, plasma physics, human augmentation, quantum entanglement, nuclear fusion, in vitro gametogenesis, and so on.

As an added bonus, reading all these science articles and listening to minds behind them, it has helped me to more accurately create the voices for the scientists in the story. Even though it does take up a chunk of writing time, its necessary to do for realistic voices. Anyways...

Keep on writing, folks!

Sunday Scoop (Week 70)

Good work this week. Been tied up at work, but I’ve been able to sit down and type everyday. Small victories here and there.

Having trouble really solidifying a little thing called character voice. Linguistically, it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever tried to master, as it calls upon everything I’ve ever learned about the language, speaking, and writing itself. I have quite a hard time trying to make everyone’s dialogue sound distinguishable from the others, but it seems to end up that every spoken word comes from my own mind. Doesn’t exactly leave much room for diverse linguistics.

Been listening to a lot of speakers and celebrities in order to dissect the subtle speech differences but have come up short so far. Maybe I’ve gleaned a few details, but it’s a lot harder than I gave it credit for.

Could be I’m putting too much thought towards it, but then I am one to overthinking things.

At any rate...

Keep on writing, folks!

Sunday Scoop (Week 69)

A few thousand more words this week. Not my 10k goal. Not even close. Any progress is good progress though. So I’ll take that much in stride.

I’ve been pretty good about sitting down for at least an hour a day to write, which means I’m getting it to be a habit again. Admittedly, doing so is super difficult after a 12-hour shift. It’s just gotta be done if I ever hope to get back to where I used to be.

Then again, the sitting down part is hardly difficult. Actually generating words is what’s got me. But the latter doesn’t happen without the prior, so I’ll eventually be able to focus long enough to get the lead out.

Hm. What else is new this week? Not a whole hell of a lot, really.

Keep writing, folks!

Sunday Scoop (Week 68)

After another long week, I’m happy to say I met my 10k quota. Maybe it wasn’t all on the same project, but hey, I got there. The way the past months have gone, that’s a miracle. Finally, I’m back in a routine.

It wasn’t without its challenges, though. Had to go to the clinic the other day for some...stuff I’d rather not go into. And I’ll probably be going back sometime soon. It did keep me in all weekend, though. Any time I have an excuse not to go out, I have to milk it for all it’s worth.

On the bright side, my twin just got engaged to her boyfriend of five years. Which is awesome! And about fuckin’ time, I say. He’s a good dude. Always good to see good things happen to those you’re close to, and I couldn’t be happier for them.

For this week: another 10k words. All on the same project this time.

Keep on writing, folks!

Sunday Scoop (Week 67)

Another week hard at work. Got a few more scenes taken care of in draft three. Also did a little idea-dumping for some other projects to clear the ol’ noggin. My work schedule just flip-flopped so my sleep is immensely fucked, but I’m making the most of it with a little writing.

The goal for this week is to push through and start hitting 10K word markers on this draft. It’s been a crawl for a few days, but it’s time I buckle down and just get through it.

Hardest thing for me right now is focus. I get really distracted and end up wasting a few hours on pure nonsense. Never had too much of an issue with this before, but it’s getting to be a big problem.

Anywho, I’m gonna try to not be distracted by Tumblr too much and wrap this up.

Keep on writing, folks!

Get to Know the Writer Tag

Wanna thank @jmhwriterblog for the tag. These things are always really neat to read so here we go.

Rules: Answer the questions and tag 20 people.

Name: [Insert pseudonym I have yet to choose here]

Gender: Male. Damn there goes my cultural anonymity.

Height: 5′9″

Hogwarts House: Gotta be a Ravenclaw. Overly-analytical about everything.

Favorite Animal: Ravens. The birds are sharp-witted and can imitate human speech. Plus me and my twin have raven tattoos on our arms so I may be just a little biased.

Average Hours of Sleep: I’ll get at least seven. Preferably eight. I work 12-hours shifts most of the week so I gotta stay up on sleep.

Cats or Dogs: You know, I really appreciate the self sufficiency of cats. And honestly, who doesn’t love a good cat video? I’m a dog kinda guy. I have zero rationale to back it up, but I dunno. There’s just something about a good doggo.

Dream Trip: Tough one. I’d say Germany. Lot of good things to see there. Cool castles. Historic sites. The Black Forest. And beer. Yeah, it’s gotta be Germany.

Dream Job: Writing for a living, of course. But I will be going to school next year for teaching. It’ll be leagues better than what I do now and I’ll actually enjoy it.

What do you write? Science fiction is my zone right now, though I do have plans for a fantasy novel. Horror was what actually got me into writing and I’ll revisit the genre every once in a while for a short story.

When did you make this Tumblr? I guess it was right about a year and a half ago. The weekly updates only account for 66 weeks, but I’ve had it for just a little longer than that.

I may not meet my quota for 20, but I’ll do my best. @rivendell-writes @moonypleasewrite @dreamvevo @outsidethelinesproductions @booksaremymeth @fragrant-stars @halfbloodlycan @pen-and-sword-writing @necwrites @wchwriter

Welp. That’s 10. Only half, but hopefully I got some folks that haven’t been tagged yet.

Keep on writing!

Sunday Scoop (Week 66)

Settled back in Korea. It’s gonna be a tough year knowing that the journey I started five years ago is coming to a close. A lot of good times. A few bad ones. Ultimately, the takeaway for me is the fact that this job is what propelled me into writing. Silver lines and such.

If there was ever something that could make me stay, it has long passed. I’ve had it up to my eyes in the bullshit this job brings. Toxic workplaces. Extreme stress (which tends to ping off my anxiety). Irreversible strain on my body. Hollow friendships (juxtaposed only by the rare good ones). Being away from home so much. And the worst part: having to leave home so many times. It takes something out of me. Like a little piece of my spirit being shed off. I’ve had about all I can take.

As I said, only one more year. I can manage.

I have a manuscript to revise. That’ll keep my mind occupied. Speaking of which, I’ve finally moved beyond the dreaded first chapter. Took me long enough. I just hope the others don’t give me four months of grief a piece.

Once again, the prologue is on my blog. It’ll be under the subject As Promised. Give it a read and let me know your thoughts.

Keep on writing.

As promised

So here’s the prologue for The Hands that Built Anubis. Don’t be kind. Don’t be gentle. Feedback in constructive form is appreciated. Comment. Inbox. Whatever. I need all the advice I can get.

Floyd buried his mother that morning. The last of the dirt fell into place upon her grave. With a few pats of his spade, the earth sealed down. His raw, pulsating hands could no longer wield the thing and so it fell. A plume of grey dust kicked up and flowed off in the wind.

Shit...

Yeah I did it again. And in such a short time span...I feel a little guilty. Sure, this blog is really meant to be my way of keeping on track, but it still bugs me that I can’t deliver on that.

Now, in my defense, I’ve been a busy bee. I was in California for a brief stint. Saw some old friends from when I lived there and went to see Primus and Mastodon. Two amazing bands live, by the way. Then I caught some flights back to my humble home in the South. Been hanging out with friends and family I haven’t seen in a while (since October if you remember). I’ve come to terms with a lot of the ills that have been eating away at me and discerned a way through my next long year in South Korea.

Love Korea, by the way. It’s just the knuckleheads I have to work with that have been poisoning every bit of creative inspiration I can draw upon. Beautiful country. Clean cities. Polite people. My workplace is just mega toxic.

Greatest of all from this vacation, I went to go see Coheed and Cambria play live in Nashville. Those dudes... Amazing show. They’ve inspired me so much in so many different ways. To actually go see Claudio and the gang slay it on stage... It really makes you feel like one among the Fence.

Hopefully somebody gets the reference.

Anyhow. Been really busy with other stuff. Got people to see and such. Don’t know that I’ve had much time to breathe while I’ve been home, much less write.

BUT! I’ve made the magic happen. And I gotta say, doing so has been great. I think I might have resolved my problem with THTBA’s beginning. If not, I’ve opened the door to permutations thereof. One of those is gonna strike me as good enough to work with.

In celebration of that and the greatness that has been this entire trip home, I’d like to make a vow to post the prologue to The Hands that Built Anubis on Wednesday. It’s been a long time coming I think. Don’t be kind with the feedback either. If the baby is ugly, call it ugly. I won’t get any better without knowing what to improve on. Besides, I think I’m scrapping the prologue in the final cut. Even though it’s some of the most visceral writing I’ve ever produced. I dunno. If the feedback is good then I can be swayed, neurotic as I am.

Sunday Scoop (Week 61)

As the focus shifts from new material to revision of old material, I find myself in similar circumstances as before. Beginnings, dude... Fuckin’ rough. Still, I’ve held to it and tried making alterations and opening up to possibilities that maybe the scene I was so attached to on the first few drafts maybe wasn’t the right one. Maybe I need to edit that one or make a new one altogether. It’s an improvement from where I was, but still a predicament.

Speaking of beginnings, I think this week I wanna post up what was the prologue to THTBA and is now the first chapter. People tend to skip prologues so it’s just my way of sneaking a critical piece in without giving it a label.

I do want some honest feedback though. If the baby’s ugly, call it ugly. I won’t get any better if I don’t know what to work on.

Keep on writing, folks!

Sunday Scoop (Week 60)

Feels good to be back with fresh eyes and new ideas. Where I was having a lot of problems before, now I’m seeing new possibilities. Not saying a six-week hiatus was all that called for, but at least some good came from it.

About 8 thousand words just this week. Not bad at all. Most of that was revision with some of it even being new material.

Don’t wanna dwell on this post too much. I have some work to get back to. As always,

Keep on writing.

Okay, so...

Yeah. Bit of an unexpected hiatus. Needed to happen, but still I feel a little bad for just dropping everything like that. I was getting burned out. Also, there was more of Korea I needed to see, more things I haven’t done, and more time to focus on work. Not all bad. Not all good, either.

Anyways, I’m back in the chair. Back to staring at this screen for hours on end while I try to pump out a story that lives up to my expectations of what it could be. Back to listening to some tasty jams as I write. Back to...well, you know. The whole writer thing. It feels good to be pecking keys again and imagining the fiction in a way that I think I lost in the effort.

So to all the people that maybe said “Hey, where the hell did argent go?” Sorry for that. Think I’m up to Week 59 now? Count could be off. My updates might be a bit spotty, but just know that I’m back and ready to get some serious work done.

Sunday Scoop (Week 54)

Beginnings are fuckin’ rough. Seems like I would’ve figured it out by now, but I haven’t. Most drafts I go through I seem to breeze through the first few scenes. This one, on the other hand, has been giving me a lot of grief. As I read over my previous attempts again and again, I get the feeling that it isn’t right. Not the right tone. Not the right questions being posed. All the other scenes are behaving. Just the beginning sucks.

Spent a little time trying to hash it out, hoping the answer just comes to me. It’s not gonna be that easy this time. Everyone says you gotta hook ‘em from the first sentence. Make the first chapter gripping. Make it state the purpose, tone, etc. It’s a lot to ask from a single scene and I feel like the story just won’t allow it.

I get it. I’m the writer. I have to make it work. Not easy to do when you’ve already got an idea stuck in your head from a few rewrites. Seems like there’s only one way to go about it, even with infinite others staring at you. And I’ve changed it on every draft, just hoping this is the one that fits. Never is.

I’m not giving up, though. The right beginning is out there, so long as I dig deep enough. Maybe the best move is to stop reading articles and watching videos on the topic and just meditate.

I know what’s gonna happen. I’ll be in dire need of sleep one night and my brain will have cracked the code. “Hey, I know you want some rest and all, but how about we develop a foolproof way to plug all those plot holes and fix that beginning instead?” What a scumbag.

Anyone else have trouble with this? Anyone figure out how to beat it? You gotta share with the class, yo.

Anyways, keep on writing!

Sunday Scoop (Week 53)

Wait a minute. It’s actually on time? Yes, for the first time in a while. Even though technically it’s Monday in Korea, back in the states it’s still Sunday. And I’m fairly certain most of my followers hail from the states so it still counts, right?

Re-writing sucks. I mean it’s great, but it gives me some bad habits. Like instead of re-writing a scene entirely (and especially scenes that need an overhaul), I’ll look at the older draft, change a few words, copy paste to the new draft and call it good. Then I read back over the new draft and go, “Wait, what the hell? How did that sneak its way into my nice new draft? Be gone with you, script parasite!” I’ll delete it immediately after seeing it, try to write the scene again using the old draft as a reference, and it once again manages to remain intact. It’s legitimately the weirdest thing I do.

Anyways, that’s how the work is going. More re-writes. Also vamping up the ASV outline to get ready to start on that. I could feasibly get a lot done this year so long as I stay on it. But we all know how that goes.

I’m also considering posting some scenes from THTBA. If that sounds even mildly interesting, I’ll make it happen. There was a post earlier this week that’s been making its way around the writeblr community. It’s one of the Gru memes where he’s flipping through cards of his master plan. You know the ones. Felt personally attacked by it, thank you very much. But it did remind me that while this is a writeblr, I’ve never actually put up any of my writing. So I dunno. Still considering it.

Keep on writing, folks.

Week 52: Day 365

A whole year?!

The (mostly) regular updates started just about a year ago today. At the time, I recall, I was fresh out of a really bad bout of writer’s block and decided to do weekly updates to keep the groove going. And it worked for the most part. There was that one month I was in Alaska and didn’t update. Then that month I went on a random hiatus. Then the couple of times I missed it entirely. And now I can’t seem to get in front of a computer on Sundays. BUT, I’ve not been too bad about it on the whole.

Also in that time, I finished my first and second drafts of THTBA, outlined ASV, committed like a month to world building and characterization, and a couple of other writer-ish things. So not a bad year at all in that regard.

Life happens and I work a more-than-full-time job, so there’s a lot more I wanted to get done that just had to take a back seat for a little bit. Gotta make a living somehow. But if that living came from writing, even better. I’ll get there one day. Not that my job is bad. I like what I do. It’s just not something I want to still be doing a few years down the road.

What ought to happen next is I need to sit down and figure out my goals from now until week 104. Things I’d like to get done. Things I need to get done. That sort of thing. I’ll have thought of something by the next update.

Until then, thanks to everyone who has been around from the start and those who have helped me along the way. Keep doing what you do, and as always...

Keep on writing.