Oh, so 4chan is populated by middle schoolers. That explains it.

Now my major story has exceeded nine thousand words; my initial projection of twelve thousand turned out to be way off. I now think that this thing will turn out to be a novella, or a very long short story. I wonder sometimes if I am writing too much, if I am spending too much time on any given detail. That will come out when I re-read, I suppose. At this point I refuse to read back over it while I'm in the writing of it. I don't want to throw myself into agony over this or that word or sentence or scene, not until I've got the whole story down on paper.

I started another work also. Nothing major, but I need a break from my main piece some days, but I don't want to not write at all.

Tags: writing
Current Music: Stars of the Lid - Articulate Silences, Pt. 2

recipe:

1 packet of ramen, less the flavour packet
2 eggs
a drop of soy milk (about a tablespoon)
neutral vegetable oil, like canola
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
freshly ground pepper
oregano
soy sauce
sriracha


put ramen in cold water on the stove. maybe break it in half. turn on stove. when water comes to a rolling boil, drain ramen.
warm oil with garlic in a pan.
when hot throw in ramen. turn to med-high.
add pepper, oregano, soy sauce
cook
beat eggs with milk.
add eggs to pot
stir
turn
fold
add sriracha
eat.

this is actually really good and can be made in ten minutes or less. the oregano might sound weird but it is goood!
if anyone has any suggestions of what they'd add, let me know.

Current Music: Mogwai - I Know You Are But What Am I?

"I'll agree as well that the narrative is what makes the game magic...I've played a lot of Power Grid over the years, and never heard someone say "That was so awesome when you bought all that coal" after the game."

Possibly the greatest review of the greatest boardgame I've ever played, here.

Current Music: Bedhead - Half-thought

School is closed today for the second day in a row.

My current hard limit (H) is 300 words. This is my daily word count. Very modest. Let's make it into a game, shall we? It will be an RPG and I will try to level up.

Each day I must write H. People usually say that the writer should stop immediately on reaching H, even in the middle of a sentence if necessary. But I will institue a soft limit, or S. S is always equal to H plus fifty. This gives me a little bit of wiggle room and an extra, bonus goal to reach each day. (Today I cheated--I wrote four hundred thirty-four words, but it was an accident.)

Here's how I level up: H is increased by fifty if I have met H fourteen days in a row. So far, every day that I write, I meet H, but there have been missed days. But right now I'm level one, 300H. Soon I will be level two and have to write 350H. If I miss day then I'm automatically knocked down one level. So, in the future, when I'm level five and writing five hundred words a day, and I miss a day, then I'm knocked down to level four and will be writing a mimimum of 450 and a maximum of 500.

I have to reign myself in. If I try to spend all day Saturday and Sunday writing a thousand, immo two thousand words, I'll overextend myself. And the stories need their own time and space to grow and develop and live as they are written.

For when a story has been completed, then it is dead.

Current Music: Bedhead - Left Behind

Man!
I just downloaded the RITES OF SPRING album. Rites of Spring were an early (perhaps the first) emo band from '85. They were one of my favourite bands when I was 16. I remember sitting in my room, in bed or on the floor, listening to the album and their 7" over and over again with the lyric sheet splayed out in front of me.

I related SO MUCH to their lyrics! And the wild chaotic music, the screaming, the excited rush! My god, I'm listening to "End on End" right now for the first time in years and years and it is everything I remember.

A lot of the songs deal with lonliness. Solitude. The unbridgeable gulf between you and I, in spite of our physical proximity. The danger and hurt of words. And so on! RAAAAAWWWWRRR!!!!

Some lyrics:
( Read more... )

Current Music: Rites of Spring - End On End

Life is o.k.
I'm happy to report that I'm going well with my resolutions for the year. Especially the one that goes "write every day." After fooling around with what works best for me, I've set the goal to write 300 words a day. This is modest as hell but reachable, and since I set this as my daily work goal I've only missed one day. Some days I do more, but typically I stop at 300, even leaving sentences unfinished (which gives me something immediate to get into when I start again).

Since I meet my goal every day, I feel accomplished all the time and optimistic, etc. I might bump it up to 400 or 500, but not much more. I'm exhausted on weekdays still, even with the re-tooled schedule which leaves me with more energy. Today I went to the store after work then crashed on the bed in all my clothes until 6:30, then headed to the coffee shop (where I am now) and wrote 300 words together with vegging out on the internet.

Another thing that is helping me write is that I don't worry about word choice or editing as I write. Only rarely do I restructure a sentence or stop and think about the unfolding of the narrative. I have a plot outline and I'm going with that. This isn't to say that I don't make new discoveries about the characters or the narrative as I go--I've learned a lot as I write, ideas often come in a rush--but I work them in in the heat of the moment, or else make a note somewhere of my discovery. But if I did worry about clause structure and rhythm and accidental rhymes as I went then I'd never get anything done. That used to be my problem when I wrote fiction in the past, and why I never finished anything. I'd break into a sweat and agonize over every line, every word and whimper that this was just too hard and could not be done.

When I've gotten to the end, that is when I will go back to edit. Then and only then.

I have one well-plotted story right now, 4,100 words are written of a projected 12,000. Another semi-plotted (mostly in my head) adventure/sword & sorcery story, about 3,700 words written and I have no idea how long that one will be. That's actually kind of pathetic, I should have more completed than this, but it has only been recently, since the new semester actually that I've been writing really in earnest, every day.

I'm also interested in the possibility of writing a narrative completely in the second person. How often has that been accomplished?

I'm also interested in the idea of writing collaboratively, writing and dropping the thread to have someone else pick it up and take it somewhere. Maybe a group blog.

Tags: life in general, writing
Current Music: Red Sparowes - Alone and Unaware, the Landscape was transformed in Front of Our Eyes

1. One of my students looks almost exactly like rinku. And I don't mean a young Rinku. I mean Rinku.

2. I was reviewing an old inventory list from last summer when I started the 100 thing challenge. I was able to erase a LOT of stuff. I got rid of all of my CDs. I got rid of all of my video games (sorry Rinku and jijnasa, but it was easier to find someone local to give them to and not worry about postage/packing etc.). I still have 552 books, though and I imagine that I'll probably always have a lot of books. I can't think of what look without a lot of books around me would be like. (I made a new year's resolution concerning my books--I'll post my new year's resolutions below).

Some New Year's Resolutions

New year's resolutions, in order to be fulfillable, must also be actionable and follow a plan. Here are some easy ones:

1. I would like my wargames unplayed/wargames* owned ratio to equal zero by December 31, 2009. I will accomplish this by (1) playing the games I do own and (2) getting rid of the games I don't play. This might be tough to accomplish, but not if I really stick to the selling off of games also. For the purpose of this resolution I'm not going to count expansions and the like.

2. I currently have an unread/read books ratio of nearly 40%. I'd like to get that down to 30%. This would entail reading or getting rid of 55 books. That's do-able.

3. Publish a short story by the end of the year.

4. Write every day. Write something. But write. I'm getting a lot better on this. I'm not up to everyday, but I'm close. The thing I should be content with is the fact that I'm just not going to write on the same story every day. Even if I don't have the inspiration to work on some particular thing, still write. Spend time out in public, in coffeeshops, more often. It's good to gather sketches of people.

5. Publish in my new blog every Sunday and Thursday.


*I'm talking about analog, board wargames. They look like this:

Current Music: The Magnetic Fields - Washington, D.C.

Eddard Stark was a MORON.

Current Music: Magyar Posse - Track 1

He has to say something.

Current Music: Stars of the Lid - The Daughters of Quiet Minds