One Moment Left

Dear ones,

Yesterday was a much shorter writing day that I would've liked.
I had to go to work (and it went well!).
But I still had a schedule...

07-08, 1h - Meditation
08-18, 10h - Work
18-19, 1h - Revise Land Of Fog
19-20, 1h - Eat
20-21, 1h - Revise and send One Moment Left
21-22, 2h - Organise NaNoWriMo
22-24, 2h - FILM (first episode of Caprica and a 10 min short from LOST)
24-01, 1h - Revise Land Of Fog

Well, I had trouble sleeping the previous night and so, after some 3 and half solid hours of sleep, I promptly got up to meditate and sat for about 5 minutes. So that was that...
Work went well even though it was quite busy.
I came back later than I expected (which is what usually happens...) I showered and ate and did a bit of revision. Slow but thorough I believe.

And then I sat and wrote another bit to One Moment Left, something that'd been dangling on my head that day, clarifying a somewhat veiled thing in the story (TREN). I think the story is better because of it.
I did a short revision of those couple of paragraphs and then set out to read and revise the whole thing.
It stands at roughly 4800 words.
Just reading all of that took the better part of an hour...

But I did a few minor changes and went into the Creative Commons website and sorted out the licensing, revised the email about this short that I'd typed out already and clicked SEND.

And away we go...

I'm happy with this story - but not entirely so. There's a lot in it and I think it has a similar problem to what I felt in Morto and Land Of Fog - it doesn't flow smoothly. It goes up and down, loses and gains speed. It still feels a bit pacthy - from my perspective at least.
But, it is a first draft.
And this is as much as I'm willing to spend editing it for now. In any case, the story is partially aimed at being patchy, this will hopefully enhance the feel of how Kharther's perspective on life is.

Now I want to start with the third short... really wanted to do this today but there are a couple of other things I feel I should do before that...

One is these posts. Another is to revise some more of Land Of Fog. Another is to write a reply to a video I partially watched yesterday. A talk given by Ken Wilber about the nature of enlightenment and the direction of spirituality.
That's what I'm gonna do after this and I'm hoping to email/post it straight after.

And then I'm gonna go to work.

So, let's get on with it, shall we?!

Peace!

Revisions Closing In

Dear ones,

It seems like this whole affair of creating a daily schedule does help a bit to keep things going - well, at the very least it reminds me of things I've done during the day, thus enhancing the sense of accomplishment...

Here's my schedule for the 27th:

09-10, 1h - Meditation
10-11, 1h - Eat
11-12, 1h - Revise Land Of Fog
12-13, 1h - Mobile phone/shoppi
13-14, 1h - Revise Short
14-15, 1h - Email friends
15-16, 1h - Eat
16-17, 1h - Revise Land Of Fog
17-19, 2h - Organise NaNoWriMo
19-20, 1h - Eat
20-21, 1h - Revise Land Of Fog
21-22, 1h - Revise Short Story
22-24, 2h - FILM (Ninth Gate)
24-01, 1h - Revise Land Of Fog/Blog Post

Well, a few things got left out (NaNoWriMo and the final revision/blogging....)
All in all it was a productive day. One Moment Left became much closer to completion. I wrote quite a bit - an important scene in Land Of Fog wasn't flowing that well and I realised I needed to change it quite a bit - which I did...

Most of the things I set out to do happened at different times that I'd initially planned but, they were sorted, and that's what matters.

I enjoyed Polanski's film but found it deeply disturbing. The colours, the theme, just sucked me in (as I'm guessing it was supposed to...).

Peace.

The Short And Long Of It

Hey there,

Long time no see! Seems like that's how it's gonna be hey?
Well, it will until it ain't, right?!

So here's the news.

Last week I finished a short called The Running Man, just under 2500 words. It tells the story of man that becomes obsessed with death, all the strategies he comes up to dodge it and the result of all that.

I wanted (and still want!) to send something regularly to friends and family. It's a nice way to keep in touch, to hopefully give them something that they'll enjoy and to help myself finish some shorter stuff. I believe that this also helps in finishing the longer stuff.

I've been revising Land Of Fog, as you know, and this long winded process can be pretty frustrating, especially because, for a long time (in my case at least) you can feel that you're not moving. You spend three or four hours revising a single page and then, when you look to the number of the page, and you realise it's page 21 of 230, it might make you feel like you wanna go do something else. There's that certainty of a whole bunch of three and four hours still to come... you don't even know if you're gonna be alive by then!

With a short things are much simpler in many ways. It's like the short is all nicely packed inside your brain and you can see it all of it in more or less one go. Even if you have to spend ten or twelve hours dabbling with it, it's still much easier than the hundreds or thousands you may spend with a book (and believe you me, these numbers come from experience...)

The other thing I wanted to do with the shorts is send them to competitions.

Which I did do yesterday.

Yesterday was an easier day for writing because of what I did the previous night.
I came up with a schedule.

And the schedule was this:

08-09, 1h - Meditation
09-10, 1h - Eat
10-11, 1h - Revise Land Of Fog
11-12, 1h - Post Office
12-13, 1h - Revise Short
13-14, 1h - Email friends
14-15, 1h - Eat
15-16, 1h - Revise Land Of Fog
16-17, 1h - Sort out mobile phone
17-19, 2h - Organise NaNoWriMo
19-20, 1h - Eat
20-21, 1h - Revise Land Of Fog
21-22, 1h - Submit Short Story
22-24, 2h - LOST
24-01, 1h - Revise Land Of Fog

Well, let me tell you what I didn't do. I didn't organise any of the stuff for this year's NaNoWriMo. I didn't sort out my phone. And I missed one of the Land Of Fog revision times (we watched Lost's final episodes yesterday and we just couldn't stop...
I also swapped a couple of things around but, essentially, I stuck to the plan.
And it worked.
It gave structure to my day.

So I did it again yesterday night and, I'm hoping, I'll do it every night and keep things rolling...

The great thing about this is that it primes your mind so when you actually get to the moments you need, your mind is more pliable to actually do the things it's required, rather than just be thrown in the water and expected to swim.
I don't think minds like surprises for the most part...

Anyway, I shouldn't be here writing this: I should be reading some more of Gene Wolfe's The Wizard Knight (and if you haven't read it you should - it's one of the most beautiful pieces of writing I've come across in recent times - and probably more than that by the time I finish it... he's one of the best writers around, and more!)

(I could easily do another post just about the joys that this book has given me, in particular yesterday but I won't - I really want you to read it THAT BAD!)

I hope you are all well.

Peace.

PS - I forgot to say. The short I'm sending around is called The Running Man. The one I'm working on (and that I hope to finish today) is called One Moment Left.
(yep, I think that's the title that's gonna stay...)
If you want to read The Running Man just post a comment or something and I'll get back in touch with you and email it to you - because I'm sending it to competitions and magazines I can't really publish it here for the time being. A lot of these publications have the caveat that stories can't have been published anywhere else...

Be well!