"Making It"

For the last few days I've been talking about my excitement concerning the imminent self-publication of a novel I wrote in November.  From the way I've been talking, it might almost seem as if I believe that I have "made it" as a writer.

So I guess I want to talk about that today.  For one thing, the review was finished this morning, but I'm not satisfied with how the formatting turned out, so I've spent the majority of my morning re-formatting the manuscript to fix the issues I found in my digital proof.  Then, when I get my second review back positive, I'm gonna need to front a bit of cash for a physical proof to make sure the book can be read as it is.  So there's still some time before I can even have my five free copies for friends and family.

Even then I haven't "made it," because it's only one book I'm publishing myself, and the sales will be based on word of mouth more than anything else.  I can't expect to make a living like this, and I suppose that's one metric I'd consider for "making it" as a writer.  I want to live off of my writing.

I don't expect to start off my professional life with a bang.  Not in the slightest.  I'm looking for a starter job and I'm planning on going for my Master's in about a year.  I have connections to build.  So I'm not anywhere, really.

At the same time, this is the closest I've been to having my writing really out there for more than just close friends and family.  I'm still really excited, but I know it doesn't mean that much.

Even if I get to the point where I'm working a writing job, and getting books published, and have a following, I think I still won't have made it.  I don't ever want to get complacent.  I want to push upwards and onwards until my mind can't put word and word together.

This is just a beginning.

Book in the Works

I have just one thing to talk about today—I think.  Today I took great strides to get a novel ready for publication.  I signed up, set it up, formatted it, and finally submitted it for review.  Now I'm waiting for that review to come back so I can order a proof.

I'm super excited, and looking forward to what this means for the future.  There is another thing I'm excited for.  There's a wedding on Sunday.  I'm quite happy for the bride and groom.

Unfortunately, I don't have much else to say.  I'll reserve more of the information about the novel for when there's something you can do about it.  Just know that it's in the works and I'm ecstatic.

Late Night Reckoning

Woops, I haven't posted yet today.

Do I hear a demand for explanation?  Well, this morning I bade farewell to my brother and his family.  Then there was the pool and other duties.

We had a fledgling robin leave the nest around our pool today.  It hung out near the door for a while, but its parents were still feeding it, so that was good.  My wife nicknamed it Icheb (after a character from Voyager).  Birds are super cute.  Also, they poop everywhere.

My cousin came over today and we went over his notes on the manuscript.  A few more revisions and it's ready to go out, and that's super exciting.

Then my family came home, and I watched the Disney movie Radio Rebel (with a decent take on a shy person's troubles, but not particularly accurate) and then hung around until here I am, writing this blog post to you guys.

So yeah, I didn't do too much today, but what I did do was worth it.

God bless you, wherever you are.

Parties

This is the last full day of house sitting for Rachael and I.  There's a pool party just starting around us, complete with copious amounts of pizza.  I'm not a very social person, so a bunch of people in a pool isn't my idea of a great time.  I might join them, I might not.  Eh.

There was mini-golf earlier.  That was fun.  There was also butter pecan ice cream, which is like the most delicious thing.  Maybe I'll tell you the story of how I discovered butter pecan as a delicious flavor of ice cream some time.  Maybe there will be a post when the topic is ice cream and I discuss all the different ways it wins at life.

That is not this post.

Also, the Lord of the Rings is a thing.  A big thing.  As in, if you haven't read it or at least watched  the movies, get outta my life.  I'm only partially joking.  It's that huge a thing in my life.

Well, I'm gonna go be slightly less anti-social.  Maybe.

-shrugs-

Plugs of a Shameless Nature

For starters, my Mac has been much less of a diva today.  That's really all there is to say on the matter.  Now go read/play/consume Homestuck.  Unless you're squeamish about certain content, in which case don't.  Play a tower defense game instead.

Speaking of that, I spent a while yesterday and today playing a game called Kingdom Rush.  It's a tower defense game, and the best animated and most entertaining one I've played (though I'm not exactly an expert in the field of tower defensology).  I used to play Bloons, and that was fun, but Kingdom Rush has a story mode, universal upgrades, challenge modes, and a fantasy motif.  You just....  You just can't beat that.

If you'll excuse me, my wife and I are going to eat chicken strips and fries while we watch an episode of Voyager.

I hope you are experiencing a similar sort of bliss.

shrug off

Fan Flipping the Freak Out

Whelp, my computer is totally freaking out, so I'm backing up the important stuff before it crashes or something.  Also, I'm blogging, so that that's done.

My mac has done this before.  I think it thinks it's overheating (which it's not, after a good long break of twenty minutes or more).  This is certainly uncool, and solidifies my desire to get a desktop computer that doesn't get its fan obstructed by sitting on a bench.  If you don't hear anything else from me for a couple days, you'll know why.

For now?  -shrugs-

Not Much to Report

There was no family today, and not a lot of creative work.  Instead, Rachael and I have been house-sitting.  It's been nice, but my wife gets a little stir-crazy without people around.

Much of the day that wasn't spent taking care of the pool or watering the plants we spent hanging around, watching Voyager or Legend of Korra, or reading Homestuck.  There were also root beer floats, which have not stopped being delicious.

I'm not sure what else to say about today.  So I guess I won't say anything else.  Talk to you tomorrow.

Grindin' XP

Moving right on through the revision process for the Hearthstead novel.  Incidentally, I don't quite have a name for it yet.  I'll probably need to confer with my cousin for a while to brainstorm one out.  Then once I'm done with that, I can move on to other projects like song-lyric poems, scene-writing for a friend's game, and starting the overhaul/revision process for Talas Ke.

Simultaneously job searching, of course.

I know it sounds like I'm ambition, but I guarantee you it usually just seems like I'm really lazy.  I don't know how that works, but it does.

I'm feeling more normal about the whole "graduated" thing.  It's still not exactly old news, but things are settling around me.

You know what's weird?  I've been getting up in the mornings (7:30ish) with the express purpose of working on my projects.  Never did that in college.  Now that I have all this time to spare (not really, but bear with me) I can actually get around to ordering it in a fashion that makes sense to me.

That's the way I like it.  Maybe it's a short-sighted thing, but I've always felt like I'm much more capable of improving when the pressure's off and I have time to grind my skills.  Maybe that's why I feel that way.  I must have a JRPG mentality towards self-improvement.

Didn't I warn you that I'm an incorrigible nerd?

Well that's that.  I'll check in tomorrow with an update.

Peace.

Don't Tell Anyone, But I Used a Church's WiFi to Publish This Post

Had Culver's tonight.  That was yummy.  Also had conversations about faith and life and country music with a good friend.  These are marks of a good life.

I don't really have a topic for today's blog post.  I'm writing it as I wait to pick up my little sister from youth group.  These are all trappings of an older life, tinged at the edges with slivers of surrealism.  As I've mentioned, my sister's a teenager now, and acting like it.  Yes, I remember changing her diapers.  Not like yesterday, but still.

I'm getting ready to read an obscure book written in the 1870s.  I'm kind of super-excited about it.  It's a sequel.  Think Dickens in America, and you'll be close.

I also reached about half-way through my revision of the Hearthstead novel.  Once I get through it (or maybe before) I can incorporate the suggestions of my co-world builder and submit it to NaNoWriMo to get a hold of five copies.  At least three of those are already accounted for, so if you're interested and you aren't direct family or a close friend of our family, you'll have to first-come first-serve.  If there's enough demand I'm open to selling self-published copies, though I'll need to be compensated before publishing.  I'll probably have more to say about that in about a month, after I've finished the revision process.  If you're really interested now, though, definitely get a hold of me.

God bless you tonight, tomorrow, and till He comes.

On Sahara and Songwriting

I'm sure you all know that I'm super excited about Guild Wars 2, but that's not the only thing coming out this year that I'm giddy over.

Have you ever heard of Relient K?  They're my favorite band, and I grew up on them.  They've improved their sound with every album.  Now, I believe, they're recording their latest album, and I'm (quietly) off the wall about it.  What I feel like doing today is posting the lyrics to one of my favorite songs by RK, and maybe commenting a bit.  Bear with me, then, because this is going to be a long blog post.


Sahara
(lyrics by Matthew Thiessen)

Lying on my side knowing of thirst is how I'll die
Chalk on my tongue
Relying on the night
Beneath the dunes is where I lie to block the sun

Trying to ignite
Some sort of passion from inside to overcome
This feeling of desertion
Can't be worse than never having anyone

So I'll ask one thing
Just one thing
Of you
Don't ever turn me loose
Even when I turn my back

A lion on his side was it the lying
Or his pride which brought him down?
Once the king of beasts but
Now they feast on the thoughts beneath his vacant crown.

Trying to decide was it the lying
Or the pride which brought it down.
To be alone
To be dethroned
Believe me I know all about it now

So I'll ask one thing
Just one thing
Of you
Don't ever turn me loose
Even when I turn my back

I never told you then that I'd be easy to love
Supposedly I'm a man but I felt like a cub
I wandered into the plains further and farther away
Not ever knowing that I'd never come back the same

As my organs gave way I swear I felt something burst;
It's been thirteen days and now I'm dying of thirst
As for the birds of prey I pray that
Someone else will get here first

I am not alone
I'll be all right
Just take these bones
And breath them back to life

So I'll ask one thing
Just one thing
Of you
Don't ever turn me loose
So I'll ask one thing
Just one thing
Of you
Don't ever turn me loose (so I'll ask)
Don't ever turn me loose (one thing)
Don't ever turn me loose (one thing)
Even when I turn my back.


Why is this my favorite Relient K song?  Well, if you haven't heard it, then you don't know the part where the music itself is excellent, but I might explain some of the more writing-oriented reasons why I think this song reigns.

It starts with context.  The lead singer/front man and the writer of all (or almost all) of Relient K's songs, Matt Thiessen, went through a harsh break-up only a little while before they were going to get married.  The album Forget and Not Slow Down which this song is from is a true artist's response to this event in his life.

Throughout his career as a songwriter Thiessen has used clever wordplay to make his songs catch, and Sahara doesn't shy away from this.  Several times in the song he starts a phrase with one idea and melts that into another.  For example, the phrase "this feeling of desertion" in the first verse functions as both the object he is trying to "overcome" with a "passion from inside" and the subject of the final statement in the verse, which asserts that this same "desertion" (which is where the title comes from, I suspect) he suffers from is still better than not knowing love.  He relays both of these ideas (the muster of his passions to fight his pain and his assertion of the value of the thing which brought him pain) without repeating himself, and in a matter of moments.  In this way the writing is condensed and he came move on to the other ideas in the song.

Thiessen also uses the metaphor (which he references in a later song, something I adore in cohesive albums like this) of a lion (also "on his side") to ponder with some detachment what mistake brought him to where he is during this song.  He demonstrates, however, that his detachment isn't as strong as he pretends, when he repeats the question (lying, or pride?) before coming down again on his intimate knowledge of what it means to be desolate.

And then the bridge, which I geek about all over everything every time I hear it.  But it's one of those geek-outs where you're singing along at the top of your lungs after cranking up the music as high as you dare.  Incidentally, Thiessen brought in at least two guest singers (from outside the band) for this song, and their voices can be heard most distinctly in the bridge.  One of them happens to be his father (as far as I know).  The bridge begins as a retrospective about the relationship he had been in (not "easy to love"), and how he felt not "like a man" but "a cub"—which reinforces the metaphor of Thiessen as a lion—who wandered into the wilderness to be irrevocably changed.  It returns to the image of desolation and dying, as organs give way and scavengers are already approaching his body.  Then the bridge ends with Thiessen bringing home the truth of his faith.  He is not alone, and he'll be all right so long as Someone restores him.  This is even better in the contexts of prior songs on the album like Therapy which establish his plea for help.

Yeah, there's a few text walls in this post.  I, uh, don't like Thiessen's songwriting at all.  I don't know what you're talking about!

I think that's all for today.  Go take a break or something.

-shrugs-

Brawl, Job Searches, and Hearthstead

So I said I played Brawl yesterday.  Do I really have to explain to you how it's a good game?  It is.  Especially when played with friends.  Though it is pretty boring to play alone.  But I've got other games for that.

It's been a little over a week since I graduated, and I've had my time to recover.  Now I get to start ramping up my job search until something clicks.  I've never felt good about job searches, mostly because I'm a socially awkward penguin.  Pray for me.  I'll need it.

The other thing I need to do is get a good habit going of spending specific times writing, both so I can avoid having to punch myself in front of a camera and so I can have that time set aside to work on my various writing projects—one of which is on a deadline.

The world of Hearthstead was created by my cousin and me, and I have a passion for the telling of its stories.  The comic I'm working on, the novel I'm revising, and a number of other side projects are related to that universe, but I don't want to fully expose it to the world until it's ready.

Hopefully my audience can wait until then.

Shrug off.

FACEPUNCHxFACEPALM COMBO!

I was too busy playing Brawl with family to blog yesterday.  Oops.

Here.

Anybody Want a Peanut?

It's been a few years since I watched the Princess Bride.  It's a good movie.  It's a great movie.  It's a classic.  I just started four sentences in a row with the contraction "it's," one of which had a different tense than the others.

Watching it this time, I observed things a little differently.  I can tell that the writing isn't magnificent screen-writing, unless we're talking about magnificent parody of bad, low-budget films. I also recognized the actor who plays Inigo Montoya from other media, which was interesting.

I guess what I chiefly want to say is that as my writing has matured I think my appreciation of the Princess Bride—and other works like it—has deepened.  It's still hard to say why it's good, or what parts of it aren't good writing (and why that doesn't matter).  In order to explain all that in detail I would need to write a paper.  I can just tell now how it falls under the category of "so bad it's good."

That's it for now.  -shrugs-

Just an Update, I Guess

Helped my Grandpa with a lot of stuff today.  That was good.  Then I hung out with my family.  That was also good.  Now I'm eating dinner with my family.  This, too, is good.  My life is good right now.  Praise the Lord.

I've done a great deal of driving in the week since my graduation, and I haven't quite stopped being emotionally tired.  I think I will, eventually.  I hope so.  Or at least I'll get used to it.  We'll see.  At the moment I'm happy but things feel off.

Part of this is I haven't quite felt an opening to crack into my writing projects (of which, as I've mentioned, I have copious amounts).  I guess I could get into that while the family's together watching something, or some such, but I prefer to work in the quiet (or sheathed in a musical barrier).  I'm hoping that changes, too, because I really want to work on my writing.  We'll see.  I guess that's my phrase for today.

-shrugs-

Third Time is Still Awesome

I'm gonna go see Avengers for the third time tonight.  It's not too many times.  I'm still super excited about it.  Also, chicken fries.  And good friends I haven't seen much of for the last four years.  Summer is getting exciting in all the right ways.

No, I'm not gonna think about job applications and resumés and writing projects right now.  Still capitalizing on my break.  For now.

-shrugs-

Interdining Bloggery

I'm eating pizza with my in-laws.  Today consisted of not very much, though I do need to finish up a resumé for job applications.  Need to reference how these things are put together.

Yeah, I didn't practice resumé writing very well in college.

That comic I was working on yesterday?  I lost all the figures I had drawn at one point and had to redo all of them.  So much work.  But I think it's worth it.

After-college life is weird.  Maybe it wouldn't be so weird if Rachael and I were all moved into our own place, but then again that would be pretty weird in and of itself.  These are the first days of the rest of my life, as it were, and it's kinda messing with me.

I'm not buying Diablo III.  If someone wants to get the game for me, I'd be "eternally grateful," but otherwise I'm not gonna be playing that game for quite a while, if at all.  But that's okay, I've got Guild Wars 2 to look forward to.

So freaking worth it.

Things

Do you mind if I just tell you what I've been doing all day?  That kinda seems to be a thing I'm doing with this blog.  Things are good.  They're helpful for... things.

So today I loaded a trailer and got some money in the bank and RSVP'd for my cousin's wedding and e-mailed a guy about a job.  I did things today.  I think I might have my title for this blog post.

Once all those things were out of the way, I set about doing some other things.  I killed time in Cupcake Corner (making strawberry sundaes) while watching a couple episodes of Missing with my mom.  This is kind of spoilery, but it appears to be one of those rare stories where Sean Bean is not cast as a villain—though that appears to be a point of contention for some time.  So maybe it's the same sort of role the guy always plays (and does so well).  Heck, he might even be killed off tragically later in the show's run.  That hasn't happened yet, though.

After I mastered strawberry sundaes (finally), I spent a little time outside with my sisters, doing athletic things because there was no pressure behind doing so—and talking about life.  My sis is cool, man.  She's cool.  She's also thirteen!

I feel old.

I spent about three hours today drawing for a comic that may or may not end up happening at some point.  I'll only know once I've spent more time on it.  Now that college is over, I just might get that chance.  Depends on my job search and how much any potential job takes out of me.

No, I won't show you the comic.  I'm not done.  Like I said, it needs a lot more work before I'm ready to do more than mention I'm working on it.  I will tell you that it's set in the world my cousin and I hashed out together throughout our high school years (and beyond), and as always I'm really excited to dig into it.

Well, that's it for today.

Shrug out.

Home

Yestarday, I packed all day and drove all night.

Today, I drove the rest of the way to Allegan and then played Guild Wars 2.  Now I'm sitting in the living room writing a blog post about nothing.  My mom's watching some weird theatre show.  I don't feel quite ready to adjust to new life.  I guess that's just gonna have to come with time.  Well anyway, I've got stuff to do.  See you around.

Yeah, I'm not gonna do a face-punch video for yesterday.  At least not right away.

-shrugs-

Dear Houghton Friends

I have tried to find you all and wish you well.  If I did not find you, I am sorry.  It's not for lack of trying.

Last night after Senior SPOT I wandered across campus, looking for any of you.  I discovered a quiet desolation.

It may seem strange for this quiet, surly kid you've known for four years to say he's broken up about the end of the age, but I am.

I am an introvert.  When I first meet someone I am loathe to speak, and slow to be friendly.  But as time goes by and I become familiar with people, I come to the point where I will fight for them with tooth and nail.  What I mean to say is that friendship for me runs deep.

What surprised me last night, as I wandered around the quad, was how widely it runs.  I realized that I love you all.  For all my scoffing eyebrows and grimaces of distaste, you are all dearer to me than I can say to your faces.  I am—after all and as I said before—an introvert.

As I climbed the hill back to my apartment, I found myself wishing I could give you each something to commemorate this bond I feel to you.  A piece of my soul as a brand of light, or something similarly Romantic and abstract.

I don't have a physical representation to present to you, except perhaps the pixels on the screen you're using to read this.  All I have, I suppose, is my word.

So here it is:

God bless you, dear friends.  You have meant more to me than I know or could turn in a phrase. I look forward to our next meeting, and pray it is sooner than I fear.  You have become brothers and sisters to me, and I would not have traded the last four years for all the riches or glory or any other joy life has to offer.  You have been God's light on my path as well as my traveling companions.  I know that as you go on you will light the paths of others, and make new dear friends to travel with.  I will not forget you.  I ask you to share my diligence.

Go on and stand tall, knowing I have your back, even if we are a world away.

Go Outside

This is probably the last chance I'll get to blog.  There's too much going on these days for me to have much to say.

Let this suffice:  my world is rapidly changing, for better or for worse.

As a side note, Letchworth Park continues to be an exceedingly beautiful place.  If you're in New York State, visit it.  It's worth your time.

Godspeed.

Last-second Evasion

Been packing/spending time with family all day.
Spent time with friends yesterday.
Rehearsal/baccalaureate tomorrow.
Commencement Saturday.
Heading home Sunday.
Oh dear oh dear oh dear.
So I don't really have that much to talk about.  Sorry.

Ciao.  -shrugs-

Gotta Go

I'm about to go on a class trip for the seniors, and I'm not going to be back in time to blog.  I'm blogging real quick now so I don't have to torture myself in front of a camera again tomorrow.

Packing was the name of the game today.  And it will be tomorrow.

Third Time is Not a Charm

I didn't blog yesterday.  Now I need to punish myself.  Face-punch, or something new?  I really don't know.  I guess face punches haven't quite gotten old yet.  Maybe?

Regardless, here's a video in which I say nothing and receive punishment for my sins against bloggery.  It also contains a tired me who isn't much for acting, so the physical comedy is really just awkward.  Why do you guys watch these anyways?

Addendum

I guess as a follow up to that last blog, I'm only lightly considering this Newbie Blogger Initiative myself, partly because I'm not sure I'm ready to start outright GW2 blogging.  I can be a misleading little codfish now and then.

Sometimes, my metaphors?  They don't dance well.

-shrugs-

Not Blogging is Out of the Question

I've started reading more bloggers in the last year or so, and that's really the reason I get hankerings for blogging myself.  If I didn't read the relatively common updates of these other writers on the web, I don't think I'd have the motivation to try my own hand at it.  And in the end I'm digging in because I see potential for connections and other opportunities waiting in the "blogosphere."  

I read just about every post Ravious puts up, and this last one is actually the inspiration for me mentioning this at all today.  If you read it, then you might identify me as one of those "city slickers."  I don't have very many connections, and I'm not all that consistent.  I'm just hitting the trail, in his words.  But his post encourages me to try and reach out, if I can.  Now that school's about done (once again I graduate on Saturday!! D:) and I'm about to crash-land onto the jobs market, scrambling for tidbits amidst the wreckage, I might have more time to devote to blogging and writing in general.  I think it probably defeats the purpose if I don't, considering I'm getting a writing degree and I want to spend my whole life writing about things.

I said early on in this endeavor that I might talk about Guild Wars 2 a lot.  Honestly, I don't think I have.  There's an ambition in the back of my head for writing about the game every day, but what I think stops me (more than avoiding total obsession) is the fear of saying something someone else has already said.  There's already fantastic bloggers out there who are talking about GW2, like Ravious who I mentioned above.  Greibach's not bad either.  There's also huge community forums like Guild Wars 2 Guru, where hundreds to thousands of members gather to exchange news and discuss the finer (or more insipid) points of the game.  I have spent an inordinate amount of my time in the last couple years just reading what everyone else has had to say on the matter.

There are some things I've got in mind that might bloom around GW2's release, and I debate whether to divulge the ideas to get feedback on it or make it a surprise.  Either way, if I'm gonna try and become a sort of GW2 blogger it'll be on my own special snowflake terms.

I don't necessarily want to make Guild Wars 2 the main thing I blog about, either.  I've got maybe a dozen writing ideas dancing around in my head on any given day, and at least a few pertain to blogs.  There's my fiction/poetry blog where I first attempted scheduled updates, and my philosophical blog that I tried to frame entirely in socratic questions, and I'm not entirely shy of the idea of starting more.  For one thing, not everybody's gonna be interested in everything I have to say.  Some of the people who read this blog appreciate my commentary on Kid Icarus more than my discussion of my spiritual life, for example.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I've no intention of giving up anytime soon, and blog posts like Ravious's "Cowboy Up" only serve to fire me up.  Color me ready to ride.

Maybe that means I should try to make my closing statements less noncommital?

-shrugs-

Good Luck Charlie

I'm graduating in six days.  It's kind of intense.  I'm excited.

I really don't know what to talk about for this blog.  Like really, really don't.

I'm watching Good Luck Charlie.  I like it a lot.  Why?  It's funny, it's family, and the girl who plays Charlie is deadly cute.  Seriously.  If you watch any of the weird shows on Disney channel, watch Good Luck Charlie.

Anyway, I don't have much else to say.  There's a thing I like, and a thing I'm thinking about.

-shrugs-

See the Avengers

Apparently I never blogged today.  What did I do?

I saw the Avengers.  It was the best thing.

The best thing.

I really don't have anything else to say.  I loved it to death, and I hope to see it again.  That's really all.

Other than:  go see it.  Seriously.  It's awesome.

Fantasy and My Process

Late this morning I finished (the first draft of) the novel I've been working on for Writer's Workshop.  In case you've missed a few blogs, I've been kinda pumped about it.

Part of what that means is I suddenly have a lot more time on my hands.  Time enough, maybe, to talk about what the novel is just a little bit.

It evolved out of an idea I had to bring together elements from the Iliad and Arthurian legend.  Somewhere along the line Germanic folklore came in and kind of took over.  I can't give too much away, but I will give you the basic premise:

A village in a recently annexed nation has virtually all of its women stolen away in one night.  The townspeople are bereft, but only a handful band together to seek out and rescue them.  These are the main characters of the story, which follows them on their endeavors to bring their women home.  Their adversaries, however, are not who they expect.

That's the general idea, but it gets built upon pretty heavily.  It's not a particularly long book, especially for being fantasy, but there's a lot that goes on.

I tend to write organically, building on what I've already established to create subtleties and a natural progression towards the end of a story.  Part of the struggle I run into is that I can go on and on before I get to an ending I feel is right for a story, but for the most part I think it helps me avoid endings that seem contrived.

It's too early for me to tell how this story has turned out.  A few people will read it and give me their feedback, which will help, but I won't really have a feeling I can trust about it until a few months from now when I read it over with fresh eyes.

Why am I talking about all this?  I think, mostly, because the process of writing excites me like very little else does.  I am passionate about telling stories in this way, and I want to share that passion with others.  If you could really care less about writing, I apologize for what might seem like a waste of time.

If you're a writer or an avid reader of fantasy and you want to "beta test" the story I just finished writing, get a hold of me and we'll see what we can arrange.  I can feel that my writing style has changed recently, and I'm curious as to how because I can't see it clearly for myself.

Right, that's enough time spent rambling about the esoteric.  Talk to you tomorrow.

Ciao.

Phineas, Ferb, and Avatar

I'm in the same state as yesterday, only with one exam down and more desperate need to finish my manuscript.  You know what's a good show?  Phineas and Ferb.  I mean, its cartoony goodness doesn't hold a candle to Avatar, whether we're talking the Last Airbender or Legend of Korra.  Not if we're talking theatrical releases.  Merf.

Phineas and Ferb is extremely formulaic.  The same basic story is told in every episode.  But that allows them to make a new song or a new twist that makes for great entertainment.  It sort of proves a concept that you don't have to reinvent the wheel to do something good.  I wouldn't call the cartoon art.  But I think the same applies to that, too.

It's not just people who reinvent the English language who do great work in it.

Those are my thoughts for the day.  Yes, it's another one of those days where I don't talk about much.

-shrugs-

The Oncoming Storm

So there's gonna be a thunderstorm.  I was gonna save this blog for later, after I'd done a good bit of writing, but I might lose my chance if I wait too long.  So here it is:

As of today I know it's over.  The big projects I was worried about are finished.  There's only one thing left to do, and that's writer's workshop.  The part that I love.  I have a story to finish, and I don't know that I'll sleep till it's done.

I keep using language like that, even though I still have two exam periods left.  Honestly it doesn't really matter to me.  What matters is this story, and I want it done.  My vision's tunneling.

I'm a writer.  It's what I am, deeper down than a lot of the things I could say I am.  If I was terrible at it, and could never write anything that meant anything for anyone other than myself, I think I would still write, and profusely.

It's been written into me, so to speak.

What's on my mind is also what's on the mind of most of my friends.  We're graduating in a little over a week.  The thought is enough to drive me bonkers.  I'm terribly excited.  I'm paralyzed with fear.  Job?  The end of general education?  The full weight of responsibility?  Student loans?  Apartment-hunting?  There's an awful lot to worry about.

Which reminds me of the scripture, which tells us not to worry about what we are going to eat or wear or how we will be sheltered, because God is with us.  I guess the best I can do is to trust him.  Not that I'm gonna bury my talent.  I know how stupid that would be.

I really don't want to spend any more time than I already have on writing that isn't related to Fairies and the torment of the sons of Naris, so I'll leave this post where it is.

It's been a ride, guys, and it's only just started.

P.S.:  If you can spot the Doctor Who reference, you win.  Not, like, a prize or anything.  You just win, because Doctor Who.  Yes.

Bread-making and a New Month

Today, Rachael stood on Shakespeare and the Lord of the Rings to make some homemade bread for us, some of which was then converted into delicious grilled cheese sandwiches/paninis.  That's the big event of the day.

In other news, I finished that paper I needed to write, and now I'm just a take-home, a couple of one page essays, and two finals away from finishing school for good (ish).  Except, you know, finishing the story for Writer's Workshop and printing out my portfolio.  Oh good, there's still a lot more for me to do before I'm done.

I apologize for the lack of real content in my blogging as of late.  There hasn't been a whole lot for me to talk about and I haven't had much time to do so with all the work I've needed to be doing.

As it stands, I plan to keep blogging daily through the month of May as I did through April, if I'm able.  Maybe I'll devise a different punishment for myself, just in case videos of face-punches start getting old.  Any of my readers have feedback on what I might do instead?  Go ahead and post a comment.  I'm open for suggestions.

For now, though, I'm off to work.

Shrug out.