Scribbled Down Stuff

Yesterday I was looking for an old file for a concept I half-wrote down, and needed to get back to. I didn't find it on the computer. Only after I decided to leave the computer alone, and use my notepad did I see the notes scribbled down. I typed the notes, and made a file. I'm reminded I need to back up the file as planned. For that matter, I need to organize a lot of my concepts I do have files for, then back them up.

Simple and Sweet

I need to get writing, and one of the first paths to writing today shall be this warm-up blog post.  I have a schedule to put together, then I can get to reviewing some notes, and adding more to it.  Also I have other projects I'd like to tackle or address in some form.  Sometimes I wonder if I can get this stuff done, however I feel that I'm on the right path, so there shall be no losses, only gains.

Found some notes I typed and some files on the laptop I'd like to address soon.  I however need to take on the three projects in front of me. Two is pushing my limits, and the third one is on my mind, so I'd like to put what I'm thinking down on paper.  Some stuff is simply too good not to pay attention to. Here's to putting more effort to the things I want out of life. This is difficult, but at the same time, not impossible.

National Novel Writing Month

Well five days into November and I'm participating in NaNoWriMo. It's quite the challenge to write daily, and leave the material be, and keep moving onto the next parts.  I can tell you it's very disjointed, and I feel like it's a mess.  it reminds me of when I drew or painted something how it looks so far away and incomplete.  Finally it takes form after hours of work. In this case after a month what I'll have a HUGE mess, and  will have to leave it be to cool down and revise afterwards.  But what I will have is a novel.

It may mean nothing at all, it may never go anywhere, but it will have one draft done. It's got a science fiction and fantasy vibe, but it also has this surreal and psychedelic aspects. I kinda think it shall have some horror aspects, but its early in the game.

Unemployment Sucks Part 33: Creativity and Chores

Some more job hunting is on the agenda today, and I forgot to make my morning tea. That irks me only slightly.  I've been at this laptop for a hot moment, and I kinda need a break.  Also I was playing on Facebook a little. Peeps and myself been posting images and I loved the meme about politics and how posting political opinion doesn't change people's minds. Sometimes it simply doesn't, and that all good. I, however will continue to post my cat "politics" cause LOLcats rule everything.

Been writing some stuff down, and working on stories and cinema posts, as well as some laundry, so I guess I'm being productive.  Being very indecisive about writing some more than I was, but perhaps I'm doing too much at one time.  Still, gotta get lost in the material or not do it at all.

Dusted off an old short story to properly format it, and found myself elaborating on the text.  I liked that I did more to push the ideas forward.  I got to a point where I was getting "fussy" so I made a pause in writing.  I hate when I take myself away from the story.  This story so needs a "FTS" (fuck this story) mood so I will write whatever.  All I can say is it was supposed to be a goofy story, and got heavy.  Why do I put myself through the torture of creativity, and  it always "zings" me when I don't want to? I don't think I could give up on writing even if I had to work at a crawl.    Well, fuck this story.  I'm a break it down like an old school love song.  The part where the vocalist really sells thew pain and vocal skills.

Erotic Fiction

Today is the day I say to myself, "I should or could try my hand more at writing erotic fiction." You can judge me, I don't mind. It wouldn't be the first or last time in my life. I am curious if I have what it takes to push myself in this direction. Writing in itself is rewarding, and I'm combining some things I like such as fiction, creativity, and sex.

I'm not pretending to be some great literary sage with the keys to the kingdom. Far from it. I need to push myself out of my comfort zone. I went out the gate running.

I'm being overly self-conscious about this topic. I worry too much over nothing. At the same time if I don't over-think the writing process too deeply, I will write stores, and all concerns (the angel in the room) will back off and stories get done (do not pardon the pun).  It seems every time I write/create naughty stories, good things tend to happen.  People read the material, and I get feedback. Am I onto something?  Can't think about it, just know my taboo themes work.  I'm curious if the goofy me will let the sensual me, take a drive at the wheel.  Curiosity, naughtiness, and straight up daffy humor.  It just sells itself, doesn't it?

So this is me stopping with excuses and writing more.  Who knows where this experiment will go.  Not 100% concerned with that. This is a challenge.  It may also be a fantastic flop on my part.

Bruised But Not Broken

This is the song of the day.  Listening to Joss Stone and this is my favorite song from Introducing Joss Stone. It represents all the struggles a person can go through, and watch them dust themselves and get back into the swing of things.

Been writing a lot of late. Need  to keep up the momentum because writing gives me a lot of joy and I have some new fiction and non-fiction I'm trying to complete.  I gotta keep dedicating time and energy to my craft. If I don't get it right now, I will work on it tomorrow.  I'm that person.  I'm bruised but not broke.

Need breakfast now.    

Writing Again

SO today I had one of my usual awakenings where I simply play on Facebook till I fully decided I should be out of bed.  What I spotted on FB today caught my eye.  A link from one of my fan pages to  a writing contest.  What's so special about that?  Well I've been in a creative slump, and I thought it might be fun to explore the concept.  So I got up, checked out more details on the laptop and began writing.  The contest has  a 2,500 word cap so I'm working with that.  It's finished for step one which is the rough draft.

It's time for a cooing off period and then I'll edit later. It's really nice to be fun an excited about a project.  For a brief time I was so caught up in the story I forgot about any woes and hardships I'm under. I really want to see if I could make of this story/concept.  It needs a lot of work but I still have time.    

Working It Out

Today I'm determined to write something new.  Laundry is in the final stages, the floors are mopped, and I need to clean a little more as I mellow out to some songs.  Well I know I gotta make dinner today.  I have yet to eat breakfast.  I'd like some tea to mellow out with and then look at what's on my writing plate.

Last night I scribbled down some ideas, and woke up with some more ideas.  I how I hate that feeling that all of its there and in the vapors of my mind.  I will work it out.    

The Short Story Part 5: Tips

Before the editing process began I got some good feedback from friends on this short story.  As I stated before, I never gave up on revisions to the text. I learned  more about  writing  since I penned this story, and I believe that I can make a good story better. The ultimate goal is to make the story publishable.

The feedback I received concerned issues with tenses (I mixed past and present), conflict resolution with the characters/narrative, and trimming/adding parts of the story.  All of which is both necessary to address and daunting.  The plot itself does not need to be made over, and will remain intact for the most part.    Still when I have a day to myself, I will commence to properly rewriting.

The Short Story Part 4: Theme

This morning I woke up to thinking about the theme of my short story.  I jotted down some notes this morning before I dozed back off into dreamland.  I'm glad I did.  When I have more time I will jot down more notes.

In regards to theme.  Themes are embodied in the desires of our protagonists, therefore I have several questions I need to ask myself:

• What does my protagonist want?
• What does my protagonist need?
• What stands in the way of the protagonist getting what he wants/needs?
• What happens if he doesn't get what he wants or needs (the stakes)?  

These questions will help me shape the theme, and know the character a little better.  Also every story needs some risks, or stakes.  If they don't have them, we won't care for the characters or outcome.

The Short Story Part 3: Small Victories

Yesterday was a discombobulated mess, however, I did managed to get a few things done-story wise.  Not bad.  Don’t want to take these moments for granted.  They are small victories and I appreciate them.  Now I need to keep my momentum going.   

Another aspect of the story I wish to try and that’s some research.   For this I need to go look up a few things.

Did some free association with some scenes and dialogue.  Wondering if it fits or not.  Willing to take it further to get it into shape.   Not afraid at this moment.   It’s rather rewarding.   Also looking at the genre of the story.  I would classify it as a literary story, but I wonder where does this story fit in with what I want to read.  If there were other literary elements I did like, say, black humor, would I still like it?  

Trying a few new elements with the descriptions.  I hope this pays off, as I rather like what I read.   If need be, I will cut it loose.  Will save it for something else. 

Did go back and observe some tense structures.  I am switching between past and present.   I should try the story in the present.  Keep it that way. 

Wrote out some dialog exchanges between the characters.  Will have to cut it.  It’s too long.  I know this because the characters are essentially talking heads.  I did need to write it out in order to get to the heart of the story.  At least I lost my fear of cutting things.   

The Short Story Part 2: Editing

Let me say thank you to some awesome people who gave me some feedback on this story.   Feedback from others is crucial at some point to allow us to see another angle to any idea or story.   

I did some light editing last night.  I looked for typos and formatting errors.  Also cut out a few pages.  I'm going to duplicate the file ("save as") and revise from there.    This is but a simple step.

This morning I had a few ideas for the intro paragraph, and that meant writing a few paragraphs out and leaving them for a later date.  Also some ideas for a couple of dialogue adjustments and scenes came to mind.  Jotted them down on a separate document to possibly add later.  

When I make another sweep at editing, I will definitely look at the characters' voices.  There are two distinct characters and four who speak in this story.  Each needs to feel like they have a specific voice.  I need to make sure I'm able to give them their due.  

By the way did I mention that writing is rewriting?  If I haven't, now you know.   

The Short Story Part 1

I wrote a short story a while back.  It was after I took all these creative writing classes in my undergrad days so the skill set to complete it was there.   The problem was, of course, was the story needed more fine tuning.   Well that time is now.

This is a post about me revising this short story to be a better story because it deserves enrichment, and demands completion.   This is a step toward completion.

Inspired In the Morning

Woke up this morning with an idea for a prose short story.  It dawned on me that this felt like a part of an older story I wrote.  It was like I have an open door here.  I've thought about this story more and more.  Found the original, and I realized how unfinished this story must be.  I have more to add and cut.  I do believe it is worth telling and must commit to it being completed.   If I do not I feel I have not given this story what it needs to be a whole story.  

Now that I have new skills to enhance my writing, I should take full advantage of them now to make what I wrote sing.   Writing can have a metaphysical aspect to it.  I like that it does.

Four Stories Project

I have a new project that will be fun tonight.   I will write out the first paragraph out to four stories.   They don't have to be correct, but I want at bare minimum five sentences written down about each plot.  Tomorrow I will add five more sentences, and so forth.  The goal is to have a specific vision of each story.  The concepts may not pan out, but instead of thinking of what could happen, I will have something concrete I can edit for the sake of clarity.     

The Warm Up

I have to keep writing.  I have this paper due and its twelve to fifteen pages.  Needless to say I need to get off my duff and put the time and energy into serving up this paper proper.  The way to start is to write.  I need to put at least five sentences into this entry, and more if possible.   I hope to post several warm ups.  yeah they're filler, but they are writings. 

The music playlist is very ecletic today.    Everything from Mariah Carey's "Can't Let Go," to Meshelle N'Degeocello's "Bitter."  It drowns out the outside world some, allowing me to focus on the task onhand.  

M is for Micro-Managed

This goes out to my angel in the room.  he tends to make things sweet and lovely.  he wants me to think about how my writing would be better if people didn't think I was a bit offbeeat.  Also proper people don't think left of center.  They fit in.  They belong with the rest of the crowd.  Am i the weed in the patch of roses?  

I look at this and I think that I am not a weed.  If the color is red, then I'd be blue.  Why?  I am me, and I should not make excuses for myself.  I should take risks that are good for my craft.  Can't play it safe when I know the unique voice is the one the angel hates.  So the angel does me a favor, and I read him wrong.  He questions my true impulses because he wants me to know they stand out.   He puts out the list of contraditory thoughts not so I can be normal, but so I know that it's unique.   

I is for Incorporate & Infuse!

It occured to me that in order to give myself and my writing a better vision, I must incoproate elements of myself into my work.  I must infuse my stories from my life and culture.  I must think of the things that make my experience uniquely my own.   I need to get bet beter at respecting my thoughts and ideas as a solid whole aspect of me.  By extention, my writing is me.  There can be no more holding back.  To dare leave out the things that make me, hurts me.  it suggests that I don't like who I am, and this cannot be.  I love myslef and my life.  I will improve.  I will get better.   In order to take things to the next level, I MUST incoproate aspects of my life in my creativity.

Don't Give A Damn

It's how I feel now when I explore my thoughts/ideas that are quirky, like me. There was a time when I would reject such ideas. They weren't mainstream. I felt that they were (sometimes) vulgar, and it mattered to me 100% what people thought about me. I so wanted to belong. I killed my individuality. That angel in the room got a lot of millage out of this.

Now that I don't fear approach or that someone labels me odd for having offbeat thoughts I feel free to explore my mind. Go to the corners I felt embarrassed to visit. Pull out the ideas that stand out in my mind as worth doing. perverting any idea I may have used in the past that's not working for me. I need to have my works produced and published. If people get pissed or offended. Fine. part of writing is rejection. part of me doesn't want to know fame, but notoriety.

One day my quirky stories will become mainstream. It will be time to pass the torch.

Don't get me wrong. Not all I write will be fit for print/production, but to get to the good ideas, I have to love me, and not allow outside sources to shape my thoughts.

Writing Results

It's been a rather smooth day. people are being cool, and the day has a rather ok vibe to it. Taking my break to post, and noticing that I should post something other than art. Like some text. LOL The writing exercise at the RAG workshop is going good. proud of Shisho for her contributions because I know she wanted her story finished. Now she has a first draft. Promised her a view of an old script so I better get that done while I'm on break.