Home

Advertisement

Customize
About this Journal
Current Month
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031
Jul. 21st, 2007 @ 09:05 am Can't Stop The Beat
Current Mood: thirsty
Current Music: Metallica -Wherever I May Roam
So I saw HAIRSPRAY in theaters yesterday with my fiance' and my brother. My brother is a huge musical fan, my fiance' is the polar opposite, and I'm somewhere in the middle. I enjoy musicals, but I won't go out of my way to see one on the stage or the big screen. and as far as mucials in film go, HAIRSPRAY was enjoyable. The cast played their roles well (especially John Travolta as Edna Turnblad), the music was great, and the racism was nausea-inducing, as it should be. Racism and its negative effects play a huge role in my novel, definitely moreso than what was protrayed in HAIRSPRAY. But it is a musical - so only so much drama can be expected.

Hopefully I'll get to pick up Pullman's THE GOLDEN COMPASS today. The more I read about the DARK MATERIALS trilogy, the more compelled I am to check it out. There are trailers for the film left and right, so i'd at least like to now the story before going into the theater to see how faithful they were to the novel.

My coffee should be done now.
About this Entry
Leave a comment
Permanent Link
Jul. 14th, 2007 @ 05:50 am Bastardization
Current Location: The Circle of The Heavens; the seeds of war are planted . .
Current Music: Mudvayne: The Patient Mental
If there is anyone reading this journal, then I'm sure you've noticed that I have not posted anything in a good while. I don't seem to be getting a lot of feedback for my effort here, and so it seems pointless to update something everyday that no one is going to read. I don't mean that in a bitter way; it just doesn't make a lot of sense to me. If there is anyone that has been reading this LJ and has been inspired by it, then that just kicks ass. If anyone IS reading it, leave a post every once in a while. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Like every other aspiring writer, I am making progress. A LOT of progress. I'm approximately four chapters away from finishing the first draft of my book. That's exciting, but also a little scary. In a good way, of course. It will be my first time completing even a rough draft of a book (besides my bastardized attempt at writing a fan fiction Star Wars novel). Of course, when all is said and done, I will have to go back and rewrite, but unlike many aspiring writers I know, I enjoy rewriting. I'm especially looking forward to fleshing out the seven-thousand year backhistory of the novel. One thing I love about fantasy novels is the backhistory, especially when they're so intensely worked out like in George Martin's ICE & FIRE books.

Checking my word count, I find myself at 141,000 words. I know I'm obsessive about the word count, but that comes with the territory of being minorly OCD.

The sun is coming up, and I'll need to be off to bed soon. I have gotten most of my stuff moved into my apartment, and I have the place to myself for the weekend. The missus is visiting her parents, and my folks will be visiting tomorrow in order to bring some more of my acquired crap (mostly Star Wars toys). Hopefully that will be as exciting as it sounds.
About this Entry
1 comment
Leave a comment
Permanent Link
Apr. 18th, 2007 @ 06:46 pm Don't Drown
Current Location: The Ascean Sea; the middle of nowhere
Current Music: DJ Tiesto - A Tear In The Open
One of my favorite aspects of writing this book so far has been the opportunity to research Ancient World civilizations such as the Greeks, whom I base one of the central societies of this book on. While trying to give the hint that the Ashanoins are based heavily on the ancient Greeks, I am also trying to maintain their identity as a unique society, with quirks and traits of their own, though they wear togas, worship a pantheon of gods, and are composed of city-states (somewhat). At long last, my religious warriors and their dragon mounts are on a ship, a trireme, sailing across the Ascean Sea to an important destination. Writing about the 'black fleet' and the structure of the ships and the history of their crews was fun. makes me want to hop aboard a real world old world ship, and walk its wooden deck and see the water dancing like ghosts upon glass.

Speaking of water, I've taken up swimming at the local gym. I'm a hardcore fitness enthusiast, and when I bought a new pair of running shoes, they did not do me the favor of breaking in quickly, and I developed a rather gnarly blister on my little toe. Given the choice between lifting weights and swimming (or doing nothing at all, which is out of the question), I chose swimming, because lifting keeps me awake. As I'm sure I've mentioned, I work the graveyard shift at a factory and sleep when I come home at 7:00 A.M.

Swimming is wonderful exercise. My lungs and muscles burn and ache after a good ten laps, and I'm really feeling the effects of it. But one cannot get too addicted to one form of exercise: switching is up is the key to success when it comes to staying in shape.

One last note: John Marco has me listed as one of his favorite blogs on his official site, which is also his blog. Let me tell you, in no uncertain terms, that that tickles me pink. John Marco has quickly become one of my favorite fantasy authors. His work has inspired me to tell the stories I want to tell, and not the stories that are easiest to advertise. But I think I've got a damn good one to tell so far, and maybe one day others will be listening.
About this Entry
1 comment
Leave a comment
Permanent Link
Apr. 2nd, 2007 @ 10:50 am Sleep Eludes; Inspiration Soars
Current Location: The Imperial Square; night
Current Mood: creative
I hate writing outlines.

Eldon Thompson, of THE LEGEND OF ASAHIEL fame, does, too, opting instead to write blind so his stories have a fluid nature to them, unfolding with the uncertainty of actual events. But, as I get older, I find it more important to start writing these things down. I'm not the young man I used to be. Even at twenty-four, working a third shift job will do that to you. I like to think of working third shift as "living vamp" - sleeping when the sun comes up, working hard when it goes down.

Except for today. On weekends, I tend to get more sleep than at any other time, and yesterday was no exception. Having slept ALL day yesterday, I find myself wired today. Which I hate. and I'm also, as we speak, writing an outline. Which I hate.

But damn if I ain't making progress.

Stepping back from the unfolding events from a chapter and looking at it from a crow's-eye view gives me a chance to see a character as if they were a mosaic of sorts, a web of interwoven traits and flaws. Stepping away from their immediate personal space, I see them as Mace Windu might, through the Force: a series of shatterpoints.

Take my priestess, for example. Having been abused by her narcissistic mother, and tired of the limp threats from her father to her mother, she has taken a pacifist stance in life, and having run away from home at almost twenty years of age, leaving behind wealth, has been given a chance to live as a priestess, performing the duties of renewal through flame for the god of fire as the counterpart to the clergy, the warrior priests (who have a much cooler name than that), perform the destruction aspect of flame for that same god of fire. Living in such close proximity to 'warmongers,' her feelings on violence are threatened and challenged as her ineptitude to protect her charges becomes both immediate and obvious. Where I am now, she is about to get into an important argument with a man that MAY mean more to her than she realizes on this very topic.

*shudder*

This is why I want to write.
About this Entry
Leave a comment
Permanent Link
Apr. 1st, 2007 @ 02:36 am The Strangest Things
Saturdays are a day for movies. I find movies inspiring, and even while I let myself go in the plot and acting of any given film, my head reels with the possibilities of what I can do in terms of my own stories with the ideas I get from films. Sometimes, it's the smaller movies that provide the largest amount of inspiration. On today's case, that movie was Stranger Than Fiction.

I also bought The Producers, and rented Talladega Nights and Borat. I consider myself something of a comedy nut, and you can almost never go wrong with Will Ferrell (sp?). Borat was hilarious, and having seen Talladega Nights dozens of times already, I knew what to expect. Stranger Than Fiction, though, was a surprise.

In this movie Will Ferrell (again, sp?) plays a character whose life is directly influenced by a reclusive author, whose books always end with a character dying. If you can suspend your disbelief for this plot device, you'll have an incredible gem on your hands. There are lessons on life, love and death, and finding beauty in the monotony that sometimes envelopes our existence. It's the little things we love and depend that really save our lives. The actors and actresses play their roles phenomenally, and I can do little else but recommend the film.

On the topic of films, the reactions to Frank Miller's 300, as expected, have been wildly varied, and it's been fun reading the various blogs and web journals out there and seeing what other people think. Can't wait for the DVD!
About this Entry
Leave a comment
Permanent Link
Mar. 31st, 2007 @ 03:20 am The Hammer
Current Location: The Imperial Square
Current Mood: relaxed
As a lover of words, both of reading them and writing them, certain phrases are dear to me and others not so dear. Language is a fascinating tool, and one of my favorite aspects of language is the terminology we create to describe how we feel about something. Two of these terms come to mind as I stare at the screen now and attempt to move forward in my novel, having entered the fourth section of it. I am at 103,000 words, shooting for 120-150,000 words. I have to keep reminding myself of this goal, otherwise this thing will be even bigger than I intended.

One of the terms that comes to mind is: Throwing The Hammer.

I use this term to describe my general feeling toward writing sometimes, especially when encountering a part that I know will be difficult. I might be speaking to my fiance, and will say, "Well, honey, I'm gonna go throw the hammer now." Imagine an angry man trying to a washing machine. Having reached the end of his rope, he can only throw a hammer at the washing machine in the hopes of getting it up and running again. John Marco in his blog describes the feeling of writing a difficult part as plodding. His advice is to PLOW through your book. I like that advice. Throwing the hammer is a similar exercise. Just keep picking it up and throwing it until something cracks.

Another term that comes to mind is, "I will cross that bridge when I get to it." One of my most hated parts of trying to finish my novel is the knowledge that, at some point, I will have to send it out and recieve rejection letter after rejection letter. I have heard as much from other aspiring writers, and researching sending out my novel fills me with such a sense of dread that I nearly want to stop and give up. So, I can only tell myself to cross that bridge when I reach it. What else is there to do? And when I get there, like now, I can only throw the hammer at it until it works.
About this Entry
1 comment
Leave a comment
Permanent Link
Sep. 24th, 2006 @ 06:10 am (no subject)
Well, didn't accomplish much more writing this week. What I did get done was solid. The week came and went, and the weekend came and went, and money was spent. On ice cream and gasoline and The Eyes of God. It will be a cold day in Hell when Book-A-Million has any John Marco besides The Sword of Angels in stock, but Barnes & Nobles had more than ONE of these doorstoppers on hand. So far, I'm liking it even more than The Jackal of Nar. Having said all that, I'd like to finish Eragon before the movie comes out. Eragon is definitely lightweight fantasy in comparison with the cat mentioned above, but that's okay. It's about a boy and his dragon: what were you expecting?
About this Entry
1 comment
Leave a comment
Permanent Link
Sep. 17th, 2006 @ 10:06 am (no subject)
Current Mood: geeky
Current Music: "Moving For The Sake of Motion" Under0ath
Well . . . here it is. My first entry. And let me start off by saying, three cheers for starting over and finding out where you belonged the whole time.

It wasn't until 'Troy,' y'know, the one with Brad Pitt, that I realized just how much I loved the epic wars and tales of ancient Greece. I've been trying to do the whole 'mid-evil' Europe thing, and while I may do that later, I'm having much more fun with an ancient Greece setting.

Of course, I'm taking the spirit of that point in history and making it my own, doing with it what I will, and throwing dragons into the mix.

As I trek forward in my attempts to join the ranks of fantasy writers, each new tale will tackle an aspect of traditional fantasy. In this case, dragons. I almost threw Elves in there.

Yeah, I know, way too much.

So, onward it is, with loincloth and breastplame and plumed helm. Until noon; then I can sleep.
About this Entry
Leave a comment
Permanent Link

Advertisement

Customize