Waiting For The Monsters To Die

On the Smoke and Mirrors Podcast.

Part 1

Part 2

This story was written as an after thought to wonder what aliens might think of some of the less empathetic members of our society. Our hero, being a hero, took sympathy with those that I might not necessarily take myself. It was accepted by Dennis Miller of the Smoke and Mirrors podcast and lead to a collaborative effort between him and myself on another story.

Progress with I, Fenris

Finally. I have made some progress on I, Fenris. It is not as grand in scope, scale or skill as I, Odysseus but then again nothing I do may top that. But I have passed the half way mark and the final frames and themes are coming together. It will be done soon but this one must be refined more than most to work properly. Progress is still good. Very good.

Off Again And On Again

Making slow progress on I, Fenris though I had to start over. Its rather slow. Did some good writing for minor scriptlets for the pushpush class. However, on the whole, writing wise it has been a pretty slow month. Goal wise, I'm fine as long as I finish the Unfood script by the end of the year, which I plan to start tomorrow.

Writing Plan

Given the choice between doing it fast or doing it right, I now choose to do it right. Which means throwing out everything I've done on I, Fenris and starting over from scratch. And it means hand writing it, just like I did I, Odysseus.

Another Plan, Another Dollar

So, I'd say what's the point of writing another plan except, that's honestly kind of the whole point of this blog.

I think the counsel I received about doing too much was a good thing but doing too little won't do either...so I'm going to focus on one project at a time, but try to work very hard on it while I'm working on it.

Long term, that's not a healthy writing career, but whatever I do now has to shine. *I* have to be proud of it even if or when no one else cares about it, to get my rhythm back if nothing else.

Oh...and no more writing workshops. It was an opportunity to network, but didn't work. I got valuable feedback, but I also got way too much emotional tsunami as well. At this point, I need to be responsible for both creating, promoting and perfecting my craft, because no one else is going to do it for me.

I might have some help along the way, and I certainly have had some help along the way, but they can't do the writing for me.

Writing Plan

So I have been told that one should write to a particular reader....in this case, I think it should be the person who has still been following this blog...I speak, of course, to you MetaBlogStats.....whatever the hell you are. Unless, of course, one's ideal reader is one's self, but somehow that seems...masturbatory or something...

So where was I? So, the writing....I am nearly 40, so I figure that the amount of time its going to take me to not write Vogon Poetry/Michael Bay level soul melting (not in a good way) prose is probably 2-3 years. I mean, when you have to second guess yourself every paragraph as to whether or not you suck, I really think you shouldn't be sending things to editors...

But time waits for no man, so I'm going to be focusing on poetry which is according to others between average and somewhat actually good, which makes the improving into "making me money and renown so I can conqueror the world" level talent more likely. So I'm going to be working on I, Fenris for Jan....

I'm also going to begin working on the script for Unfood, whilst still reading books and working on the Writer Jail product. So far I have type 3000 out of 5000 non sucky prose.

We'll see as things go from there :)

Writer Jail

So the same mechanism that I've been using to progress my production of crap, is also usable to measure my skill improvement. Specifically, one of the tangible suggestions from the Crushing was typing out the words from decent non sucktacular stories. So instead of producing more gallons of crap, I can just type 1000 words a day from stories that aren't. Right now I'm using the Hugo package. In the interest of being kind to myself, I'm giving myself a reboot.

1000.

I need to do 1000 more today.

There is a small chance out of jail early, I'm rewriting Unfood a third time trying to use merely the things they pointed out, though I'm writing it from scratch. It looks pretty good, but then again so did the second version (also written from scratch.) I may not be able to detect crap.

Oh and if this seems negative, its because I like to be able to record the truth and thanks to the lovely stat counter, I know that no one but a blog counting bot actually pays attention to this, so I don't have to conveniently leave some things out like I do on my family blog. :)

Truth for posterity that won't give a shit and all that. :)

Go to Jail. Do Not Pass Go.

So, word count doesn't matter much if you're producing reams and reams of crap. Better 10 words that actually matter than 10000 that don't.

I'd noticed the phenomena before, but thought it was what I was largely writing ABOUT not the way I was writing or thought I just needed to spell check or grammar check more (I still do) but the reason I wear through readers like you might wear down teeth is because I suck. :) Yes. I said it, I'm an awful writer, especially given how long I've been doing this.

Bradbury said that it took a million words before you became a professional, and here I am at probably what...700000 and I bore people to tears?

Well I'm not giving it up but its back to basics first, writing in a way people find more comprehensible.

I'll keep this up but it will likely be boring for a while, grammar and such. I am going to rewrite Unfood because the idea is too good to let linger, but it will likely be more 'Oops, they rejected it.'

Might start putting rejection letters here though, that might be amusing to look back at if I ever do write something non-abominable...:)

The Sunday Slot

So originally I was thinking that they had given me the Sunday morning slot in the writer's track because I had asked for a slot open because of the movie that Jay and I submitted. Then I thought it might be a 'save the best for last' type of thing. Now I think it is so that they can politely say, "You suck" or at least, "Your story sucks" without awkwardly having to run into me for the rest of the con....

We'll see, but in retrospect it makes sense.

Ah well. If such is the case do I keep writing? Yeah sure, but whatever feeble delusions I have of trying to sell it go out the window...

In the Black, finally

Juice: 268
Blogs: 7083
Telesmirk: 1002 (2602)
Catgirl: 2982 (6000)
Unfood Script: 317
Diamonds: 1000
Dark Metal Descriptions: 500
Dark Metal Scene: 1000
(Parenthesis represents new total including this week)

Total: 14152 (44583)
(Parenthesis represent words this week and words total written)

Word Surplus: 2583

Too much of this was from blogs. Blogs are nice, but blogs are (probably) not going to further my career as a writer. Still Catgirl is looking solid. Nobody might buy it given the subject matter (I mean...a Catgirl in Boots...really?) but it sfun. Telesmirk is...getting there. Its about half way. Juice looks @$#@#$ amazing.

Unfood script looks solid but I'm on the first wave and it might be too long. Short film ideally needs to be 10 minutes to be competitive, and its a good plot, but we'll see.

Writing Progress

Catgirl: 1201 (3018)
Telesmirk: 1535 (1600)
Santa Vampire: 839 (4702)
Blogs: 4299

Total: 7874 (22557)

Word Debt: 2500

This is an approximation because I think I counted the eagle as phoenix blog twice but to be sure I'm averaging the average post length out. Good writing amount and glad I'm doing the blogs but not enough progress on the stories. Also starting a script tomorrow. Both stories are coming a long well but tomorrow I'm starting two new stories and the Unfood script.

Status

Catgirl: 1307
Telepathic: 596
Santa Vampire: 651
Blogs: 202
Scene: 1000
Desc: 500

Total: 4246

Previous: 18331

Word Debt: 4423 (Including today)

Pretty hefty word debt. Slow week. Means I need to pick up the pace for the next four days. Catgirl is coming moderately well. Santa is nearly done. Telepathic Smirk is...eh. Its better than the thought robbery piece but its missing...something. Not much blog work either, and I need to do an entry for the game before the next game tonight. Starting script work this week for the short and brainstorming for the long.

Writing Status

Santa: 2992
Telesmirk: 512
Memrobbery: 412
Catgirl in Boots: 510
Direspace: 567
Blogs: 3055
Scene: 1000
Desc: 500

Total Since Last Post: 9548

Previous: 8783

Word Debt=669

I can make that up later today. The Santa Vampire Story is coming along well. I have started three more sci fi stories from the idea list. Once I finish those, I'm starting a short script and then the feature script. They are coming out well though Cat Girl in Boots and the Chesire Smirk are coming along better than the memory theft story but all three are better than the turdlet that direspace ended up being. I quite while I was ahead and shot that story in the head. I think sometimes just ending a story is a good idea. I might come back to it at some point. The blogs go well. Though I am behind in my personal blog but I'm not counting that on my writing quota.

Writing For This Week

Tracking Words:

Scene Run on Dark Metal: 1000 words (Zone of Terror)

Blogs: (Counted: Eagle as Phoenix, I Have an Opinion of Almost Anything, Let Me Tell You About My Character) 2293

Short Stories: Great Zamboninapping 4112 (Completed - First Draft)

Vampire Santa: 363

Any Price: 1012

Total Word Count To Date: 8783

Word Debt: 220

Not bad really. 1000 words a day. A bit unorthodox to include running a written rpg scene and blogs, but the rpg scene forces me to use characters, setting, actions, plot and such which means it is just as good as any writing exercise, and the blogs, while not fiction, are definitely 'finished product' and take as much motivation to write, so I think they count towards writing in general. And since short stories or prose fiction was at least half the count...I think....good so far. We'll see how we do to the end of the year.

Things are Going Well

I just finished Chapter 5 of the Graphic Novel. I've written 2 stories so far, and will write two more this week. That puts me at roughly 12000 words so far this year, which is well behind the goal I have for 75000, but we'll see if I can catch up.

I'm considering starting my next short story in the literary genre, but I haven't exactly figured it out yet. But I recall that the beginning of "The Gunslinger" started with "The Gunslinger Chased Against the Man In Black Across the Desert" or something like that.

So far all I have is this.

"The more cynical part of me says it isn't going to be enough. And there has never been a prison built for me from which I did not escape. And there is no prison more dire than one's own mind."

That speaks more towards something Inception like which is hardly 'literary'....but Metamorphosis is considered such so maybe I'll do something surreal.....

Progress

Well the first of five short stories I mean to finish this year is done. I've also finished Chapter 4 of the graphic novel. I'll be unemployed in a week and a half which will give me more time to write. I'm researching two scripts at the moment and have another good idea for a novel....this will be ACTUAL steampunk...though of a particular subgenre to the point that its probably barely just, but I like it better that way. First story in first draft is 4000 words, but since I'm going to give it an Effects pass it will probably grow by another 500 or so.

Block gone...for now

Getting the fifth novel off my chest is like taking off a ton of bricks. I finally feel creative drive for the first time in MONTHS. I guess some things can't be forced. I'm about 350 words into a new short story. Not the pace I'd prefer but I'm not going to push TOO hard now that I can finally start writing non drek again.

Week 2

0 Written. 2250 words in the whole.

Not a great start to the new year. I have decided to do a different start to N5, but what I don't know.

Ken has sent me his half of the last chapter for N4.