It's been a long time since I last wrote here...
Can't really tell why. I just seem to go through these periods where every little thing that happens needs to be blogged and periods where I just can't be asked. I mean, I think about it but...
Well, you probably know how it is.
As soon as I returned from Portugal I jumped straight into work with a Cory Doctorow talk that I organised. It left me wanting to write and try and publish more.
Soon after that I realised that there was a big competition closing by the end of the month that I could actually enter with my 130 000+ manuscript.
And thus my troubles began...
I've been meaning to post about this for a while and maybe I will post the solutions separately. Here I'll just blog the problems...
Say you have a book with almost 120 chapters. Say you want to format it to A5. Say you want to print it out in a way that saves paper, ink and some time (preferably...).
Say you've never done it before.
Then I'll say this: give yourself some time.
I spent ages just trying to sort out the numbering on the pages. Then it was the formatting of the text itself.
Let me make this very clear, if you're fiddling with margins - even if it's to do something equivalent to what you already have - you'll have to checke the whole thing again... and, if you're like me, that STILL doesn't know how to create a proper chapter list (either than manually that is... now I need to start learning some word... well... some more word...) you'll not only have to format the whole text again, but also check chapter pages...
Two days into it and I more or less lost track of what I was doing.
Well, kind off.
I picked up a few things as I went along.
As soon as I go the whole thing worked out I did another version of the text in Royal format (somewhere between A4 and A5). The objective with this was to then send the book to lulu.com, self-publish and then send the two needed copies to enter the competition.
But I was running out of time and, for about a week I didn't really want to go through the whole thing again, a couple of times more, create a cover, add the cover, make sure that the cover was larger than what I needed... and etc...
During that time I just revised Land Of Fog and wrote some reviews, read some comics and generally tried to chill.
Obviously I started to run out of time.
No problem, right? I can still print it out myself. It won't go a perfectly bound copy but it will be good enough.
So I did.
And thus my troubles began.
Or, rather, continued...
I had printed the whole manuscript once in A5 sheets that I myself had cut.
It wasn't a pleasant experience. I had to print out a very low number of pages at a time, pages kept getting jammed and I kept having to go back and repeat printings and ended up monitoring the whole thing through.
Which was what I was trying to avoid in the first place...
Well, how hard could it be to grab my A5 formatted book, print it in A4 - 2 A5 pages per each A4 side - and then chop it and bind it?
Surely it's not hard.
Well. It wasn't initially.
My first surprise was this.
Just because you've formatted your book in A5, doesn't mean you can just say,
Hey, it's two of these per one of that
and the formatting will still be hunky dory...
That did not happen with me, let me tell you...
(don't know why - it's one of those things that common sense tells you is completely crazy to happen but, there you go...)
So what did happen was me having to format the whole thing again.
Now that I could see that everything should print out nicely surely it was easy to just print it out, right?
I guess that by now you'll know the answer to this...
Just try and google, how to print A5 booklet on A4 paper or any equivalent.
You'll get lots and lots of pages with people complaining at how hard it is to do it.
I don't think it's actually that hard - but it can be quite frustrating if you don't get a decent page with some good tips.
My life saviour was actually a Microsoft Office/Word help page.
Believe it or not this is the truth. Clear, concise and to the point. It wasn't ideal in terms of the information I needed but it sure was the best one.
(Thanks for that guys and gals!)
I'll post this info later on at some point. There were a couple of things that I picked up along the way that I think might be useful for other people but I also want to keep a record of it so that I can refer to it at a later stage. Probably when the time comes for me to print out the next one...
(I'll probably have forgotten most of this by then...)
So I managed to print out two copies of the book.
Boy, was I happy!
I chopped the pages, no problem, bound them in my own special way, no problem, even found a little webpage that tells you how to build your own little binding press (easy and simple, you just need some hard wood and some screws), something that I may even do at some point.
It was done.
Great stuff.
Now, you ask,
Alright, what went wrong then?!
Well, nothing much.
I just happened to go to the publishers website to pick up all the details that I needed in relation to the competition and realised that they needed the manuscript in A4 format...
Then I looked at my ink levels.
Below half.
And I'd spent more or less half to print the two copies.
This was last wednesday. And I had to send it at best on saturday since monday was bank holiday...
Well... start from the beginning, right?!
Format the whole thing in A4 format. Compact the text in order to save paper and reduce shipping weight (being stressed has this wonderful perk of just allowing you to plough through things without worrying too much that things aren't perfect... I made full usage of this). And start printing the whole thing again.
I did it.
Two copies with a couple of warning low, very low, ink levels. And I still managed to print the cover letter and everything...
I burned the CD with all these multiple versions, instructions, cover letter, personal data, etc. I packed the whole thing as best as I could, to their specifications and sent all of it in one big beautiful bundle.
I felt relieved.
Later that day (or the day after, I can't really remember) I started to read the book to a friend. I read some forty pages (of one of my A5 copies... which I now am going to give out to friends).
Two things came across clearly.
I still need to do some minor revision on the first 20 pages (dammit!)
The writing is actually quite pleasant to read and engaging.
I think I would like to read this book...
Well, I had made my peace with all possible results and outcomes. I'm just happy that I got to send it. I'm just happy that the book is out there. I'm sure that it's going to be published. Of this I am certain. Don't ask me why (in truth I have no certain proof of this) but I just know it. In my gut. Despite all the little things that could do with some revising.
Perhaps because, despite all the little things, that story still stands. I think it's bigger than what contains it. And if I've managed to do that, then I've achieved my goal.
I more or less took a couple of days off. I still kept revising Land Of Fog but I wasn't that inspired. I was tired. I wanted to watch some films. Not having to think about anything in particular.
I more or less did that.
But I still revised a bit...
That's what I've been doing since.
It was a slow weekend. I had planned to do lots. But I only managed to revise 2 or 3 A4 pages of this other book a day.
That's the downside.
The upside is that I've been gaining momentum on that, that the beginning is much better than it was, that I discovered (and solved!) more problems than both of my friends (that had read that initial draft) had pointed out to me, that I now know how to give the book a better structure, that it's beginning to feel more rounded, that I know where it's going, that I already have the plot for most of the third and final book in the series, that it's getting bigger and better and more truthful to the spirit I had initially envisioned.
Or, in short,
I'm excited about it and working on things pays off...
The book is getting longer and I am still to add some two, perhaps three new chapters (that I'm hoping will be short).
I think it will be quite readable and eerie and gripping by then. It has a kind of Twilight Zone feel to it that I really want to keep and explore and make as cohesive as possible.
I'm throwing a lot of little things that will be explored more and more in subsequent stories.
Just yesterday, for example, I was re-writing a part where the main character chats with this elderly lady that ends up explaining (partially...) what the heck is happening. But before she does that, she tells him a part of her story or, to be more precise, the story of the place where they're sitting.
It's a nice piece, but I just leave it at that.
However... I just happen to know that we will be learning more about it in book three...
I'm going to portugal this coming thursday.
I'm taking all these notes and print outs with me and hopefully will work some more on my manuscript.
I read the submission guidelines to a publishing house a few days ago and I'm eager to send this one out!
I won't worry about Morto for the time being since the results from the competition will be announced towards the end of this year. I'll give out those two copies to two friends (and I already know who...) and wait for some more feedback. Probably read out aloud the whole thing again, polish those few lines where word repetition occurs (you can do it in english - but you really can't do it in portuguese...), get a decent cover for it at some point, send the whole thing to lulu.com and print out some twenty copies to distribute.
Anyway, enough chatting for now!
peace
Showing posts with label morto. Show all posts
Showing posts with label morto. Show all posts
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Friday, 7 May 2010
New Challenges
My last few days in Portugal were spent visiting friends, talking, walking, going to the beach, buying books, phoning, texting, buying food, travelling and more ings than I care to remember.
I did think about writing.
And I did write a bit.
Or, to be more precise, I typed. I typed half of the changes (so far) that I'd done on the fourth draft of my book: Morto Árvore Besta.
And I spoke with Alexandra about a variety of projects. The short stories I had written to the New Scientist Competition came about. And so did a short script for MONO and another short piece for The City. And so did a not-so-short children's story about a Giant.
She will let me know at some point which story she wants to work on and I'll try and adapt/translate it for her.
My objective right now is to finish Morto and then find a cheap online printers, enter a few competitions and send it to a few publishers...
Gotta start sending some copies out the door my friends...
Peace!
I did think about writing.
And I did write a bit.
Or, to be more precise, I typed. I typed half of the changes (so far) that I'd done on the fourth draft of my book: Morto Árvore Besta.
And I spoke with Alexandra about a variety of projects. The short stories I had written to the New Scientist Competition came about. And so did a short script for MONO and another short piece for The City. And so did a not-so-short children's story about a Giant.
She will let me know at some point which story she wants to work on and I'll try and adapt/translate it for her.
My objective right now is to finish Morto and then find a cheap online printers, enter a few competitions and send it to a few publishers...
Gotta start sending some copies out the door my friends...
Peace!
Friday, 30 April 2010
Script Frenzy Day 30
This was the last day and, like every last day, you get the much helpful stress of running out of time...
I had more or less forty pages to write. And the problem with this script is that quite a few of the scenes need a lot of detail in terms of body language and what the characters are actually doing... (and I shall say no more...)
Since I still had quite a bit of plot to go through, scenes started to become naturally shorter. They had reached the summit of their happiness and things started coming down, relatively fast.
This was a curious writing day because not only new chartacters came alive but some of the scenes were quite powerful as well. At least one of the crucial scenes didn't work out as well as I wanted - the dialogue needs some fine tuning - but the more improptu ones came out quite well. Especially towards the end - which I wanted to be deep and moving. I was suprised by how well Ayoola's final words fitted the whole story. I think they added weight and momentum to the whole thing.
Despite all my difficulties this was a very visual script. Perhaps more so than The Softness Of Memory. The two main characters were very much alive and interactive. And I did feel that they were close and intimate thorughout the story. That was the main objective anyway. To convey that feel to the reader. And I think, even on a sometimes erratic first draft, I think I managed to do that.
In any case, this script is much closer to completion than The Softness Of Memory. And that's because it always moves forward in time. It's structure is much simpler than TSOM - not that TSOM's is that complicated but, you know how it goes, a few flashbacks here and there and you start getting confused on where you should go next... Perhaps that's simply because my idea for Ayoola was much clearer initially (and throughout) than the one for TSOM.
In fact that's one of the big differences between the two scripts. Ayoola is all about self expression and physicality. A clear and explicit sense of intimacy.
In TSOM everything is hidden and hinted more than revealed.
Actually, now that I think of it, it kind of makes sense to write these two scripts side by side. They do mirror one another in quite a few ways...
Perhaps my unconscious knew what it was doing all along... it only took me a month to catch up...
And now... onwards to typing away all those Morto Árvore Besta scribbled notes... (but perhaps some reading first... there's a Cory Doctorow book that I want to finish...)
peace!
I had more or less forty pages to write. And the problem with this script is that quite a few of the scenes need a lot of detail in terms of body language and what the characters are actually doing... (and I shall say no more...)
Since I still had quite a bit of plot to go through, scenes started to become naturally shorter. They had reached the summit of their happiness and things started coming down, relatively fast.
This was a curious writing day because not only new chartacters came alive but some of the scenes were quite powerful as well. At least one of the crucial scenes didn't work out as well as I wanted - the dialogue needs some fine tuning - but the more improptu ones came out quite well. Especially towards the end - which I wanted to be deep and moving. I was suprised by how well Ayoola's final words fitted the whole story. I think they added weight and momentum to the whole thing.
Despite all my difficulties this was a very visual script. Perhaps more so than The Softness Of Memory. The two main characters were very much alive and interactive. And I did feel that they were close and intimate thorughout the story. That was the main objective anyway. To convey that feel to the reader. And I think, even on a sometimes erratic first draft, I think I managed to do that.
In any case, this script is much closer to completion than The Softness Of Memory. And that's because it always moves forward in time. It's structure is much simpler than TSOM - not that TSOM's is that complicated but, you know how it goes, a few flashbacks here and there and you start getting confused on where you should go next... Perhaps that's simply because my idea for Ayoola was much clearer initially (and throughout) than the one for TSOM.
In fact that's one of the big differences between the two scripts. Ayoola is all about self expression and physicality. A clear and explicit sense of intimacy.
In TSOM everything is hidden and hinted more than revealed.
Actually, now that I think of it, it kind of makes sense to write these two scripts side by side. They do mirror one another in quite a few ways...
Perhaps my unconscious knew what it was doing all along... it only took me a month to catch up...
And now... onwards to typing away all those Morto Árvore Besta scribbled notes... (but perhaps some reading first... there's a Cory Doctorow book that I want to finish...)
peace!
Friday, 9 April 2010
MORTO ÁRVORE BESTA draft04
It's been ages since I've written anything in this place...
But these last couple of months have been crazy. Not with work - I've never had so much free time in my life before! - but with writing.
It feels that the more free time I have the more writing I get done. And the more writing I do, the more lost into it I get...
Days just fly by...
In any case, since my last post I did another revision of the whole thing - while one of my flatmates was reading it actually - but I still haven't typed it up. I still have 300 A4 pages with some scribbles, quite a few deleted words, some stuff to cut and a new page to add.
I don't think I've saved that much space but I think it will make the reading flow a lot better. Plus, I realised one of the chapters wasn't properly tied and I nudged it back in the right direction...
But, since I'm writing something else for ScriptFrenzy... I don't know when I'll have the time to type everything up!
Hope you are well!
peace!
But these last couple of months have been crazy. Not with work - I've never had so much free time in my life before! - but with writing.
It feels that the more free time I have the more writing I get done. And the more writing I do, the more lost into it I get...
Days just fly by...
In any case, since my last post I did another revision of the whole thing - while one of my flatmates was reading it actually - but I still haven't typed it up. I still have 300 A4 pages with some scribbles, quite a few deleted words, some stuff to cut and a new page to add.
I don't think I've saved that much space but I think it will make the reading flow a lot better. Plus, I realised one of the chapters wasn't properly tied and I nudged it back in the right direction...
But, since I'm writing something else for ScriptFrenzy... I don't know when I'll have the time to type everything up!
Hope you are well!
peace!
Saturday, 20 March 2010
MORTO ÁRVORE BESTA
Is finished...
It's now 0.43am, Saturday barely started and my book is finally finished.
Well, as finished as these things get...
But it's 119 chapters strong, 302 pages long (A4), totalling 136145 words.
And enough stats!
Next phase is to actually read the whole thing again and see if this crazy structure I've given it makes any sense.
Probably chop a chapter or two along the way...
Just happy that this big project has reached some sort of conclusion. Now I want to start to look into competitions and sourcing out a few publishers... Send out a few copies to some friends and see what they think...
But, one thing I can tell you now: my next project is going to be completely different from this one. I want an adventure story, probably SF, something that will be easy to map out...
(I've got just the thing...)
Anyway just to say hello.
I'm back!
Hope you are well!
peace.
It's now 0.43am, Saturday barely started and my book is finally finished.
Well, as finished as these things get...
But it's 119 chapters strong, 302 pages long (A4), totalling 136145 words.
And enough stats!
Next phase is to actually read the whole thing again and see if this crazy structure I've given it makes any sense.
Probably chop a chapter or two along the way...
Just happy that this big project has reached some sort of conclusion. Now I want to start to look into competitions and sourcing out a few publishers... Send out a few copies to some friends and see what they think...
But, one thing I can tell you now: my next project is going to be completely different from this one. I want an adventure story, probably SF, something that will be easy to map out...
(I've got just the thing...)
Anyway just to say hello.
I'm back!
Hope you are well!
peace.
Monday, 28 December 2009
These Days
I don't know why but during the last few days I've been thinking a lot about a story I began to write some 3 or 4 years ago. It's called The Time Dolls Of Stephen Tempus. It was one of those projects that was supposed to be finished in a jiffy and that, as soon as I started working on it, it just kept growing more and more, out of my control but also getting better and better.
So, yesterday, after working a while on Morto, I decided to appease my mind and heart and pulled out the dossier and started browsing through the sheets of paper.
Now it was clear why this was still a mess.
It started coming back to me...
When I dropped it I still hadn't worked out a structure that did it for me and there were still a few scenes left to be written.
But boy, does this story appeal to me. And I know why. It ticks some very old boxes of mine, it takes me to themes that I've grappled with or have grappled with for years now. Like every story is as much about me as it is about what I think is important to be said.
So I took the easy way out. I reached a compromise. I pulled out the folder containing a short essay I had written within the larger framework of the story and began revising it.
It was interesting to see that it wasn't as ridiculous as I expected. It still made sense. More, I could see the holes more clearly now.
And there were things I wanted to add. I loved the feel of being hinted something greater.
So that's what I did. That's what I spent most of last night doing. I even ended up not seeing the film that I had wanted to watch...
I didn't finish the revision up until an hour ago or so.
It's strange but I just want to finish this story. And, I'll be honest with you, I feel really tempted to just drop Morto and do it...
But I won't.
I'll strike another deal with myself.
I'll keep working on Morto. The Time Dolls will have to come into play in my "spare time".
Let's see where this takes me...
Peace!
So, yesterday, after working a while on Morto, I decided to appease my mind and heart and pulled out the dossier and started browsing through the sheets of paper.
Now it was clear why this was still a mess.
It started coming back to me...
When I dropped it I still hadn't worked out a structure that did it for me and there were still a few scenes left to be written.
But boy, does this story appeal to me. And I know why. It ticks some very old boxes of mine, it takes me to themes that I've grappled with or have grappled with for years now. Like every story is as much about me as it is about what I think is important to be said.
So I took the easy way out. I reached a compromise. I pulled out the folder containing a short essay I had written within the larger framework of the story and began revising it.
It was interesting to see that it wasn't as ridiculous as I expected. It still made sense. More, I could see the holes more clearly now.
And there were things I wanted to add. I loved the feel of being hinted something greater.
So that's what I did. That's what I spent most of last night doing. I even ended up not seeing the film that I had wanted to watch...
I didn't finish the revision up until an hour ago or so.
It's strange but I just want to finish this story. And, I'll be honest with you, I feel really tempted to just drop Morto and do it...
But I won't.
I'll strike another deal with myself.
I'll keep working on Morto. The Time Dolls will have to come into play in my "spare time".
Let's see where this takes me...
Peace!
Thursday, 29 October 2009
The Last Few Days
The last few days (I tricked you didn't I?! You thought that the title was the title of something I'd been writing but you were wrong, right?) I have spent typing up some more stuff on Morto. I finalised the revision of the penultimate section of the book and have also prepared the writing of the last one.
I have also bought a cinema projector and have been watching some Battlestar Galactica episodes... the new series, obviously...
And even before I started watching I had already started plotting a whole new series...
I don't know why I do these things, but the fact is that the ideas started surfacing and I just went along for the ride...
Well, I do know why I do these things. I do them because they are related to themes that I'm very hooked on. Artificial Inteligence. Consciousness. Epic feel. Messianic Complex. You name it. It's probably there...
I have also been writing stuff down for The Lost Years.
On sunday, on my way to see my cousins in Billericay, I had quite a few ideas about this story. Some that I had had the previous day or two but that I had still not had time to note down. However my TI Voyage 200 (the granny of those palms or whatever they're called these days...) had no battery and so I had to keep them thoughts rolling around in my head...
I only wrote them that night but still, there were some pretty interesting ideas there that I'm hoping I will be able to explore. And that will make sense to those reading them. There's just so many books I'd love to write!
(and I know that this is an attachment... I'm just not too worried about it because I also know how to get rid of it if it gets to dangerous levels...)
Anyway, that's it for now!
I think I'm gonna write another post somewhere else... I'm in the mood it seems...
Peace
I have also bought a cinema projector and have been watching some Battlestar Galactica episodes... the new series, obviously...
And even before I started watching I had already started plotting a whole new series...
I don't know why I do these things, but the fact is that the ideas started surfacing and I just went along for the ride...
Well, I do know why I do these things. I do them because they are related to themes that I'm very hooked on. Artificial Inteligence. Consciousness. Epic feel. Messianic Complex. You name it. It's probably there...
I have also been writing stuff down for The Lost Years.
On sunday, on my way to see my cousins in Billericay, I had quite a few ideas about this story. Some that I had had the previous day or two but that I had still not had time to note down. However my TI Voyage 200 (the granny of those palms or whatever they're called these days...) had no battery and so I had to keep them thoughts rolling around in my head...
I only wrote them that night but still, there were some pretty interesting ideas there that I'm hoping I will be able to explore. And that will make sense to those reading them. There's just so many books I'd love to write!
(and I know that this is an attachment... I'm just not too worried about it because I also know how to get rid of it if it gets to dangerous levels...)
Anyway, that's it for now!
I think I'm gonna write another post somewhere else... I'm in the mood it seems...
Peace
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Death And Homecoming
During the last few days I've been revising the Friends section in my book. It has taken me quite a while because when I initially wrote it I didn't have the characters defined at all. I defined them while writing about them and, obviously, now there's a lot of stuff that no longer makes sense or is contradictory.
But I am close to the finish line! I can see it looming in the horizon!
I've realised as well that some of the stuff here actually belongs to another section but that's something easily solved.
Today I was focussing on quite a few of the friends.
Paula and her relationship with his parents, coming to life via what her parents have to say about the situation.
Rita's relationship with her mom, also steming from her reaction to a chat she's had with Cristina (just returned from the funeral).
How the news of his death are released onto the group of friends.
And finally, a broad view of the various parents and their children while uncovering Cristina's feelings about the whole ordeal.
All of these chapters focus much more on dialogue (with minimal visual description) than in internalized monologue, heavy on description.
I still need to finish Cristina's chapter. I don't think I'm gonna write (or re-write, rather) a long chapter for João. I think I'll stick to the one page one that I did today. We'll find out more about what he feels later on anyway.
Maybe I'll do a kind of a meddley chapter for Tomás, Rui and António.
maybe.
But, if so, it will be a short one as well. Maybe a paragraph for Tomás and a page for each of the other two.
And maybe I'll end it (or do another one, also a page, page and a half long) with a brief description of what every one of his friends does in that first night after knowing that he is dead.
Maybe... I've just looked at what I had written and there's some stuff there that I enjoy so...~
Still have another chapter, this one about Paulo, but I don't know if I'm gonna use it or not. It's quite strong but I don't really know if it's necessary at this point or not...
Anyway, that's all for today!
peace.
But I am close to the finish line! I can see it looming in the horizon!
I've realised as well that some of the stuff here actually belongs to another section but that's something easily solved.
Today I was focussing on quite a few of the friends.
Paula and her relationship with his parents, coming to life via what her parents have to say about the situation.
Rita's relationship with her mom, also steming from her reaction to a chat she's had with Cristina (just returned from the funeral).
How the news of his death are released onto the group of friends.
And finally, a broad view of the various parents and their children while uncovering Cristina's feelings about the whole ordeal.
All of these chapters focus much more on dialogue (with minimal visual description) than in internalized monologue, heavy on description.
I still need to finish Cristina's chapter. I don't think I'm gonna write (or re-write, rather) a long chapter for João. I think I'll stick to the one page one that I did today. We'll find out more about what he feels later on anyway.
Maybe I'll do a kind of a meddley chapter for Tomás, Rui and António.
maybe.
But, if so, it will be a short one as well. Maybe a paragraph for Tomás and a page for each of the other two.
And maybe I'll end it (or do another one, also a page, page and a half long) with a brief description of what every one of his friends does in that first night after knowing that he is dead.
Maybe... I've just looked at what I had written and there's some stuff there that I enjoy so...~
Still have another chapter, this one about Paulo, but I don't know if I'm gonna use it or not. It's quite strong but I don't really know if it's necessary at this point or not...
Anyway, that's all for today!
peace.
Friday, 16 October 2009
The Resonance Of Silence
Believe it or not, I've been working on my book...
These last few weeks have been crazy and I've been far from any sort of serious commitments to anything really...
Still, last saturday afternoon I managed to go to my friend Dickon's Zine Picnic held outside, on the Royal Festival Hall balcony!
Met some interesting chaps and basically talked the whole time... just scribbled a couple of ideas I had on my way there on a sheet of paper and that was it.
But I think the last week or so has been productive. I managed to finish 7 stories for the New Scientist competition.
I sent one today.
Not the one I had told people I was going to, but rather the one people kept mentioning.
So, Collapse, rather than Legacy.
What I'm planning on doing is posting here these stories one after another.
And I'm gonna leave Collapse and Legacy to the end...
Not all of the stories met the 350 word maximum that the competition hailed but, there you go... you got to let your ideas breathe!
So, without any other delay...
THE RESONANCE OF SILENCE
(491 word count)
The sun shone on the beach and, apart from the man that stood reading by the edge of the water, there was no one in sight.
Taking a deep breath he closed the book he held in his hands and looked around, observing the long deserted beach, the line of trees whispering in the wind and the rhythmic crash of the waves. And he found himself incredibly close to everything.
He shivered.
“Daddy! Daddy!” He heard his daughter call out behind him. “Mommy wants you!”
“Does she now?” He said. “And what is it this time?”
“It’s a surprise!” said the little girl, grabbing his hand, pulling him away from his reveries.
He smiled and began to follow up the pebbled path.
“How frail is memory”, he mused. “And how frail are we…”
The irregular trail led to an old asphalt road, gnawed away by the seasons.
“Gaia has proven quite resilient… to be expected I suppose...”
His daughter picked a red and blue flower from a crack in the pavement. Then she started to dance and swirl around with it, singing a melody that kept changing, including whatever sounds fancied her attention.
“-though we naturally tend to assume that simply because we have intelligence this somehow enables us to escape consequences.” He looked at the small child, taking in more than what his eyes could see.“I think we can say in all probability that, in fact, it’s the other way around. We create more consequence rather than escape it. Still… not all outcomes are bad…” He gave a short run and picked up the girl. She giggled in delight. Kissing her, he placed her on his shoulders.
“Honey, daddy is getting old.” He said. “And you’re getting heavy!”
She looked at him in childlike seriousness.
“I don’t feel heavy. Plus I exercise plenty.”
He smiled but said nothing.
“Daddy?”
“Hmm?”
“How was it like when you were growing up? Was it very different?”
He looked up, not knowing what to say. She peered down, grinning widely.
“Nah… I suppose it was more or less the same. Only with more people. And less water… But, people will be people. And water hasn’t changed that much either.” He looked up at her, smiling.
“So why are you always thinking?” she said.
“I don’t know. It’s not like I can change anything. But sometimes… sometimes I wonder if there truly ever was a choice.” He said. “Knowing ourselves as we do… perhaps this was what had to happen.”
“I don’t think that’s it.” She said, trying to stare at him from above.
“Really? What is it then?!”
“Mommy says it’s the silence. That’s what you really like.”
“Aah… maybe.” He said. “Maybe you’re right. It’s deeper and richer now. The silence is the only thing we didn’t leave behind.” He took another deep breath, gazing at the empty highway, stretching endlessly into the horizon. “The silence is our true legacy to the future…”
END
peace
These last few weeks have been crazy and I've been far from any sort of serious commitments to anything really...
Still, last saturday afternoon I managed to go to my friend Dickon's Zine Picnic held outside, on the Royal Festival Hall balcony!
Met some interesting chaps and basically talked the whole time... just scribbled a couple of ideas I had on my way there on a sheet of paper and that was it.
But I think the last week or so has been productive. I managed to finish 7 stories for the New Scientist competition.
I sent one today.
Not the one I had told people I was going to, but rather the one people kept mentioning.
So, Collapse, rather than Legacy.
What I'm planning on doing is posting here these stories one after another.
And I'm gonna leave Collapse and Legacy to the end...
Not all of the stories met the 350 word maximum that the competition hailed but, there you go... you got to let your ideas breathe!
So, without any other delay...
THE RESONANCE OF SILENCE
(491 word count)
The sun shone on the beach and, apart from the man that stood reading by the edge of the water, there was no one in sight.
Taking a deep breath he closed the book he held in his hands and looked around, observing the long deserted beach, the line of trees whispering in the wind and the rhythmic crash of the waves. And he found himself incredibly close to everything.
He shivered.
“Daddy! Daddy!” He heard his daughter call out behind him. “Mommy wants you!”
“Does she now?” He said. “And what is it this time?”
“It’s a surprise!” said the little girl, grabbing his hand, pulling him away from his reveries.
He smiled and began to follow up the pebbled path.
“How frail is memory”, he mused. “And how frail are we…”
The irregular trail led to an old asphalt road, gnawed away by the seasons.
“Gaia has proven quite resilient… to be expected I suppose...”
His daughter picked a red and blue flower from a crack in the pavement. Then she started to dance and swirl around with it, singing a melody that kept changing, including whatever sounds fancied her attention.
“-though we naturally tend to assume that simply because we have intelligence this somehow enables us to escape consequences.” He looked at the small child, taking in more than what his eyes could see.“I think we can say in all probability that, in fact, it’s the other way around. We create more consequence rather than escape it. Still… not all outcomes are bad…” He gave a short run and picked up the girl. She giggled in delight. Kissing her, he placed her on his shoulders.
“Honey, daddy is getting old.” He said. “And you’re getting heavy!”
She looked at him in childlike seriousness.
“I don’t feel heavy. Plus I exercise plenty.”
He smiled but said nothing.
“Daddy?”
“Hmm?”
“How was it like when you were growing up? Was it very different?”
He looked up, not knowing what to say. She peered down, grinning widely.
“Nah… I suppose it was more or less the same. Only with more people. And less water… But, people will be people. And water hasn’t changed that much either.” He looked up at her, smiling.
“So why are you always thinking?” she said.
“I don’t know. It’s not like I can change anything. But sometimes… sometimes I wonder if there truly ever was a choice.” He said. “Knowing ourselves as we do… perhaps this was what had to happen.”
“I don’t think that’s it.” She said, trying to stare at him from above.
“Really? What is it then?!”
“Mommy says it’s the silence. That’s what you really like.”
“Aah… maybe.” He said. “Maybe you’re right. It’s deeper and richer now. The silence is the only thing we didn’t leave behind.” He took another deep breath, gazing at the empty highway, stretching endlessly into the horizon. “The silence is our true legacy to the future…”
END
peace
Saturday, 3 October 2009
God in all His ways
I've just finished revising the last two chapters of this section. One was about a priest and another about an old neighbour. I knew I couldn't keep them in the way they were structure and so this felt more like remixing than plain, straight forward revising.
Once again I had some pleasant surprises with the way the chapters unfolded. Writing does seem to take on a life of its own, especially when you start to believe in it even more than you think you could (or should...)
Today, while at work, I told a colleague of mine that the book was going to be more than 400 pages long. He said, cut it down... but, perhaps for the first time, I didn't really withdraw inside and worry about the possibility of doing it all wrong. It was more like, this is how this book is.
And that's what really matters.
That's why I started to write it.
I didn't write it thinking of a particular format, thinking of how it should be in formal terms. I just wanted to say something, to say it well and, above all, to actually let these things speak for themselves.
I want this book to feel alive.
And this is what I've been feeling sometimes. Through the hours where I'd rather be watching a film or reading someone else's book. Seeing time go by and this path ahead of me which, if I refuse to walk it, will never take me anywhere.
So I wrote today again amazed at the magic that sometimes happens on the page. In all honesty, I don't really feel that I'm doing it. I feel I'm the scribe more than the author. It's like looking at a puzzle. With time the pieces start to fit and make sense. But did you create it?
Anyway, two chapters that didn't seem to have much going for them have turned into something deeply interwoven into the book.
(and if I ever get an editor for this book I'm gonna have a tough time to cut stuff out...)
Besides this I read vols. 26 and 27 of Takehiko Inoue's Vagabond.
No reviews for any of these yet. I love this series so much that I'm not the least worried in doing what would probably prove itself to be a rushed review. I think I'll probably wait until the series ends (within a few years) and, from the vantage point of completion, then discuss it in some length. Suffice to say that this series has taken me through some terrible and yet very beautiful places. It all makes sense. You just gotta let it breathe...
It's past 3am. I should be sleeping. I have to wake up at 7.30am.
I shouldn't be here talking to you.
But I am.
peace.
Once again I had some pleasant surprises with the way the chapters unfolded. Writing does seem to take on a life of its own, especially when you start to believe in it even more than you think you could (or should...)
Today, while at work, I told a colleague of mine that the book was going to be more than 400 pages long. He said, cut it down... but, perhaps for the first time, I didn't really withdraw inside and worry about the possibility of doing it all wrong. It was more like, this is how this book is.
And that's what really matters.
That's why I started to write it.
I didn't write it thinking of a particular format, thinking of how it should be in formal terms. I just wanted to say something, to say it well and, above all, to actually let these things speak for themselves.
I want this book to feel alive.
And this is what I've been feeling sometimes. Through the hours where I'd rather be watching a film or reading someone else's book. Seeing time go by and this path ahead of me which, if I refuse to walk it, will never take me anywhere.
So I wrote today again amazed at the magic that sometimes happens on the page. In all honesty, I don't really feel that I'm doing it. I feel I'm the scribe more than the author. It's like looking at a puzzle. With time the pieces start to fit and make sense. But did you create it?
Anyway, two chapters that didn't seem to have much going for them have turned into something deeply interwoven into the book.
(and if I ever get an editor for this book I'm gonna have a tough time to cut stuff out...)
Besides this I read vols. 26 and 27 of Takehiko Inoue's Vagabond.
No reviews for any of these yet. I love this series so much that I'm not the least worried in doing what would probably prove itself to be a rushed review. I think I'll probably wait until the series ends (within a few years) and, from the vantage point of completion, then discuss it in some length. Suffice to say that this series has taken me through some terrible and yet very beautiful places. It all makes sense. You just gotta let it breathe...
It's past 3am. I should be sleeping. I have to wake up at 7.30am.
I shouldn't be here talking to you.
But I am.
peace.
Friday, 2 October 2009
Two girls, a gravedigger and someone that knows the dead better than the living...
I arrived home later than I expected but eager to get my mittens on those pages...
I didn't do that many pages (only 7) but i still manage to re-write 3 chapters.
The first one was about two friends that chat in Bairro Alto about decisions and the unwillingness of the past to go away.
The second one is about an old lady that spends more time with the dead than with the living. Obviously a chat with a gravedigger is more or less in order...
The third one is about the gravedigger himself, as he fills yet another grave, taking pride in his work - even if the living don't care anymore.
These are short chapters (especially the last two) but I think all of them round up the story more by giving the reader a clearer picture of the characters. I want a feeling of completeness to exude from this book. I think it is important and makes sense in the broader scope i'm aiming this book towards.
Before all this however, I read Grant Morrison's and Klaus Janson's Batman: Gothic.
I think I read it many years ago, when i was 16 or 17, quite possibly in a Brazilian edition bought in Portugal. I remembered the story only vaguely but enough to know that this had been one of those comics that had shifted my perspective about them.
Even after all this time, it was still a very powerful journey.
I wrote a review about it as well. Also to be posted in the near future...
Tomorrow may well be another long day at work but I'm determined to sink my teeth in another chapter or two as soon as I get home...
Until then...
peace
I didn't do that many pages (only 7) but i still manage to re-write 3 chapters.
The first one was about two friends that chat in Bairro Alto about decisions and the unwillingness of the past to go away.
The second one is about an old lady that spends more time with the dead than with the living. Obviously a chat with a gravedigger is more or less in order...
The third one is about the gravedigger himself, as he fills yet another grave, taking pride in his work - even if the living don't care anymore.
These are short chapters (especially the last two) but I think all of them round up the story more by giving the reader a clearer picture of the characters. I want a feeling of completeness to exude from this book. I think it is important and makes sense in the broader scope i'm aiming this book towards.
Before all this however, I read Grant Morrison's and Klaus Janson's Batman: Gothic.
I think I read it many years ago, when i was 16 or 17, quite possibly in a Brazilian edition bought in Portugal. I remembered the story only vaguely but enough to know that this had been one of those comics that had shifted my perspective about them.
Even after all this time, it was still a very powerful journey.
I wrote a review about it as well. Also to be posted in the near future...
Tomorrow may well be another long day at work but I'm determined to sink my teeth in another chapter or two as soon as I get home...
Until then...
peace
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Inside a Car the World Melts
This is what happens inside the first chapter that I was working on today. A boy and a girl, inside a car, facing the sea, in a cold january night. Politics, fueled by isolation and intimacy turn into sensual overflow.
The second chapter of today dealt with another of the main character's friends. Here it's the mood enhancers and the momentum of going for a night out that carries a dialogue of quasi stream of consciousness throughout.
But there's also a girl with golden grey eyes.
Very much in need of affection.
Just like the boy.
There was a chapter in between these two but its content actually did not belong to this section and so I transferred it to the section dubbed Amigos (or Friends)
The final chapter was actually broken in two. The first part also belongs to the Friends section. I reworked it so that it could be easily included there and more or less re-wrote the other part so that it fits inside this section: Campa (or Grave)
I also read another comic. Scalped vol. 1 Indian Country. By Jason Aaron and R. M. Guéra. Quite enjoyed it even though I wasn't really in the mood for a gritty crime story... I also wrote a review for it. Also to be published on the GNRG webpage at some point in the future.
I wrote a couple of posts but one is still on draft mode. It's good to pursue one's intuitions and best intentions but, sometimes, they don't seem to take us anywhere after we jump on them...
I also wrote a first draft for another short story for the New Scientist competition. I called this one Legacy. I really like it. It's told from a time far in the future, looking back at the remnants of the 22nd century. In my head this story was amazingly powerful and clear but, as soon as I started typing it, that feeling seemed to dissolve... I guess that's just how it goes sometimes...
or somedays...
In any case, I hope i will be able to look to it more objectively tomorrow or in a couple of days. This might be a good candidate to be sent...
I had the idea last night, while in bed. I lied there, musing if I should get up and write it down or if I could just see it clearly enough to be able to write it the next day.
Eventually I fell asleep...
But since I managed to remember it today that kind of graduates it to the kind of stories that hook me from the beginning. And those are usually the best.
I also read a bit of a book that I'm using to do research for a potential project to this years NaNoWriMo, in November.
Basically there are two ideas floating about.
One is to be written in English and I don't think I'll have to do any research to write it (though I could afterwards, if only to make some aspects a bit more plausible). I've already planned quite a few scenes for it and there's even a sketch of a structure for it.
I'm calling it NUME for the time being.
The other is to be written in Portuguese and there's quite a bit of research needed. So I was thinking of reading those books during NaNoWriMo and, hopefully, write the two books.
It may sound ambitious but I think that it is possible.
I don't want them to be very long. And, in actual fact, the two books are kind of the mirror image of the other.
At least in my head it makes sense for the two to go together...
The second one is called OS ANOS PERDIDOS (The Lost Years)
And, for now, I won't say anything else about them!
peace.
The second chapter of today dealt with another of the main character's friends. Here it's the mood enhancers and the momentum of going for a night out that carries a dialogue of quasi stream of consciousness throughout.
But there's also a girl with golden grey eyes.
Very much in need of affection.
Just like the boy.
There was a chapter in between these two but its content actually did not belong to this section and so I transferred it to the section dubbed Amigos (or Friends)
The final chapter was actually broken in two. The first part also belongs to the Friends section. I reworked it so that it could be easily included there and more or less re-wrote the other part so that it fits inside this section: Campa (or Grave)
I also read another comic. Scalped vol. 1 Indian Country. By Jason Aaron and R. M. Guéra. Quite enjoyed it even though I wasn't really in the mood for a gritty crime story... I also wrote a review for it. Also to be published on the GNRG webpage at some point in the future.
I wrote a couple of posts but one is still on draft mode. It's good to pursue one's intuitions and best intentions but, sometimes, they don't seem to take us anywhere after we jump on them...
I also wrote a first draft for another short story for the New Scientist competition. I called this one Legacy. I really like it. It's told from a time far in the future, looking back at the remnants of the 22nd century. In my head this story was amazingly powerful and clear but, as soon as I started typing it, that feeling seemed to dissolve... I guess that's just how it goes sometimes...
or somedays...
In any case, I hope i will be able to look to it more objectively tomorrow or in a couple of days. This might be a good candidate to be sent...
I had the idea last night, while in bed. I lied there, musing if I should get up and write it down or if I could just see it clearly enough to be able to write it the next day.
Eventually I fell asleep...
But since I managed to remember it today that kind of graduates it to the kind of stories that hook me from the beginning. And those are usually the best.
I also read a bit of a book that I'm using to do research for a potential project to this years NaNoWriMo, in November.
Basically there are two ideas floating about.
One is to be written in English and I don't think I'll have to do any research to write it (though I could afterwards, if only to make some aspects a bit more plausible). I've already planned quite a few scenes for it and there's even a sketch of a structure for it.
I'm calling it NUME for the time being.
The other is to be written in Portuguese and there's quite a bit of research needed. So I was thinking of reading those books during NaNoWriMo and, hopefully, write the two books.
It may sound ambitious but I think that it is possible.
I don't want them to be very long. And, in actual fact, the two books are kind of the mirror image of the other.
At least in my head it makes sense for the two to go together...
The second one is called OS ANOS PERDIDOS (The Lost Years)
And, for now, I won't say anything else about them!
peace.
Tuesday, 29 September 2009
Teachers and Friends
Just a quick word on today's writing activities.
Like I said yesterday, I worked on the teacher's chapter. It was a difficult one and I realised I had to alter some of the stuff that I had written yesterday. It wasn't realistic enough.
I was suprised to find some eerie but interesting overtones on the teachers ramblings... still don't know if I should make them clearer or simply leave them that way. Suffice to say that it reminded me a bit of what William Golding does on his sea trilogy. Insinuating rather than revealing and leaving words open to interpretation that depends more upon the reader rather than my personal intentions. This was definitely something that I had not planned but it does make a lot of sense. The clues are there, throughout the story. And that I'll perhaps reinforce from now on...
In any case I moved to a chapter where a friend of his, a girl, is confronted with the second birthday of his death. it's almost like, after his death, they grow closer and, to a certain extent, she starts replacing him.
Or him her.
(i'm really enjoying some of the things that are happening here...)
I managed to finish that one and the next. Which is with another girl that's having a somewhat disturbing dream. Disturbing on what happens but, especially on how that makes her feel.
Amidst all this I also read a graphic novel by Brad Meltzer (writer) and Ed Benes (penciller) called JLA The Tornado's Path. Also did the review for that which I will post in the GNRG community webpage at some point in the future... I enjoyed it somehow but not nearly as much as I had anticipated. It didn't really add anything to either the characters or storytelling. I guess I'm getting too old for covers with lots of people in super tights...
(there's the writing and then the revising... and I still need to finish another series first...)
I think all the chapters with his friends are going to have the theme of sex. And of mirrors when it concerns women. I won't venture any interpretations but there sure are a few out there.
The great thing about this is that at the same that i feel I'm closer than ever to this story, I'm finally beginning to feel more distance between myself and this story. It feels good. Somehow I'm getting there.
I'm on page 32. Still have 35 more before I finish this section. Don't know if I can do it tomorrow, even though I think there will be a chapter or two that I'm simply going to eliminate.
But I also have to more or less re-write a whole chapter. This guy just talks about politics and that's more or less out of the loop now...
Now it's sexuality my friends...
peace.
Like I said yesterday, I worked on the teacher's chapter. It was a difficult one and I realised I had to alter some of the stuff that I had written yesterday. It wasn't realistic enough.
I was suprised to find some eerie but interesting overtones on the teachers ramblings... still don't know if I should make them clearer or simply leave them that way. Suffice to say that it reminded me a bit of what William Golding does on his sea trilogy. Insinuating rather than revealing and leaving words open to interpretation that depends more upon the reader rather than my personal intentions. This was definitely something that I had not planned but it does make a lot of sense. The clues are there, throughout the story. And that I'll perhaps reinforce from now on...
In any case I moved to a chapter where a friend of his, a girl, is confronted with the second birthday of his death. it's almost like, after his death, they grow closer and, to a certain extent, she starts replacing him.
Or him her.
(i'm really enjoying some of the things that are happening here...)
I managed to finish that one and the next. Which is with another girl that's having a somewhat disturbing dream. Disturbing on what happens but, especially on how that makes her feel.
Amidst all this I also read a graphic novel by Brad Meltzer (writer) and Ed Benes (penciller) called JLA The Tornado's Path. Also did the review for that which I will post in the GNRG community webpage at some point in the future... I enjoyed it somehow but not nearly as much as I had anticipated. It didn't really add anything to either the characters or storytelling. I guess I'm getting too old for covers with lots of people in super tights...
(there's the writing and then the revising... and I still need to finish another series first...)
I think all the chapters with his friends are going to have the theme of sex. And of mirrors when it concerns women. I won't venture any interpretations but there sure are a few out there.
The great thing about this is that at the same that i feel I'm closer than ever to this story, I'm finally beginning to feel more distance between myself and this story. It feels good. Somehow I'm getting there.
I'm on page 32. Still have 35 more before I finish this section. Don't know if I can do it tomorrow, even though I think there will be a chapter or two that I'm simply going to eliminate.
But I also have to more or less re-write a whole chapter. This guy just talks about politics and that's more or less out of the loop now...
Now it's sexuality my friends...
peace.
Monday, 28 September 2009
Competitions and Revisions
you know, i really want to return to posting stuff more regularly.
this space is now more than one year old and i think it's time to be here more often.
So...
a few days ago i received my weekly New Scientist email. In it there was news of a flash fiction competition.
You can find out more about it here.
But, basically, if you're interested, you've got to write up to a maximum of 350 words under the theme How the world will be in 100 years?
The deadline is 5pm on the 15th of october 2009 and only one entry per person.
They're going to select one of these short stories to publish on their weekly paper edition and then a few other to be published online.
Do read the terms and conditions. It's quite short and to the point.
I've already written 5 short stories.
Resonance
The Moment
Our Tomorrows
Collapse
CloudSquared
The themes vary but my aim has been to insinuate rather than tell.
You see, I read the eight short stories that were posted online and i wasn't that happy with most of them. I liked the ideas but almost all of them lacked either wit or subtlety, or both.
Well... to be honest, I don't know if I've managed to make that happen with mine but that was the goal!
In any case, these are only the first drafts. I've been trying to work on my book and thus haven't been working on them. I know that, if necessary, if not before, I can do those on the 14th of October at midnight...
Today I spent a good deal of my time reading and revising the chapters relating to the father and the brother visiting the main characters grave.
The father chapter was a bit difficult because i didn't want it to sound too emotionally one sided. I don't know if I succeeded but I think it's a deep one and I think it will easily carry the reader through as well as hint at a very different perspective of the story.
The brother chapter had more or less the same problem. It kind of drifted from one side to the other. Halfway through it I was thinking that maybe this isn't cohesive enough but, on a second thought, perhaps that's just what it needs, that floaty emotionality. I feel it's a kind of flash forwarding kind of chapter. For me the brother starts talking in his early teens but finishes in his adult life.
Now I'm facing the teacher chapter. This is another of the guys visiting the dead guys grave, figuring out his own perspective on life, death and, obviously, the incident.
The problem is that a good deal of the text I've written doesn't really fit in the sense that it's a dialogue between two teachers, only then moving towards the internal, almost merciless monologue that characterises these chapters (they all belong under the work heading Grave).
So here's what I'm thinking of doing (and only because the stuff contained inside the dialogue is actually useful):
I'm gonna separate the dialogue from the monologue and thus create two different chapters. One to be the prologue of the other.
The first will be about two teachers talking (still don't know the location) about a third one that will end up going the funeral we've seen on the first chapter of the book.
The second will be about him actually being there, again giving us a new perspective on the main character and his predicaments.
Don't know if I'll have time to finish it today but I still have the next two days off so... to work!
It would REALLY be nice if I could finish revising this section by wednesday night...
peace.
this space is now more than one year old and i think it's time to be here more often.
So...
a few days ago i received my weekly New Scientist email. In it there was news of a flash fiction competition.
You can find out more about it here.
But, basically, if you're interested, you've got to write up to a maximum of 350 words under the theme How the world will be in 100 years?
The deadline is 5pm on the 15th of october 2009 and only one entry per person.
They're going to select one of these short stories to publish on their weekly paper edition and then a few other to be published online.
Do read the terms and conditions. It's quite short and to the point.
I've already written 5 short stories.
Resonance
The Moment
Our Tomorrows
Collapse
CloudSquared
The themes vary but my aim has been to insinuate rather than tell.
You see, I read the eight short stories that were posted online and i wasn't that happy with most of them. I liked the ideas but almost all of them lacked either wit or subtlety, or both.
Well... to be honest, I don't know if I've managed to make that happen with mine but that was the goal!
In any case, these are only the first drafts. I've been trying to work on my book and thus haven't been working on them. I know that, if necessary, if not before, I can do those on the 14th of October at midnight...
Today I spent a good deal of my time reading and revising the chapters relating to the father and the brother visiting the main characters grave.
The father chapter was a bit difficult because i didn't want it to sound too emotionally one sided. I don't know if I succeeded but I think it's a deep one and I think it will easily carry the reader through as well as hint at a very different perspective of the story.
The brother chapter had more or less the same problem. It kind of drifted from one side to the other. Halfway through it I was thinking that maybe this isn't cohesive enough but, on a second thought, perhaps that's just what it needs, that floaty emotionality. I feel it's a kind of flash forwarding kind of chapter. For me the brother starts talking in his early teens but finishes in his adult life.
Now I'm facing the teacher chapter. This is another of the guys visiting the dead guys grave, figuring out his own perspective on life, death and, obviously, the incident.
The problem is that a good deal of the text I've written doesn't really fit in the sense that it's a dialogue between two teachers, only then moving towards the internal, almost merciless monologue that characterises these chapters (they all belong under the work heading Grave).
So here's what I'm thinking of doing (and only because the stuff contained inside the dialogue is actually useful):
I'm gonna separate the dialogue from the monologue and thus create two different chapters. One to be the prologue of the other.
The first will be about two teachers talking (still don't know the location) about a third one that will end up going the funeral we've seen on the first chapter of the book.
The second will be about him actually being there, again giving us a new perspective on the main character and his predicaments.
Don't know if I'll have time to finish it today but I still have the next two days off so... to work!
It would REALLY be nice if I could finish revising this section by wednesday night...
peace.
Friday, 25 September 2009
Book revising and writs and blots
You probably thought that i had fallen through the wishing well, into the black void, out into the unexpected and lost from the land of the gnawing wall.
well I didn't.
(so far...)
In fact i've had a few busy months. Working and revision have taken up a good part of my time and I've just been lazy to tell you about it.
In fact, I spent most of august revising Morto and finding out that I needed to write an entire new section.
The thing just keeps getting bigger.
Fortunately I also feel it's getting better!
There's a lot of stuff put into this book. A lot of which is not entirely visible. There are a few experiments (in fact main storyline of the book is such a thing) in relation to plot devices and character construction that I'm curious to see how they work with the readers.
In august I revised most of the book. two thirds of it probably. I had a good rhythm and some discipline.
September however, it has been a different matter...
you see, I wanted to have it ready by the end of august... but i just couldn't do it. Especially when a new section needed to be added. I've got more than 120 pages of notes that I still need to type and there's probably some 30 or 40 more still to come...
Which is what I've been doing... slowly.
In any case, November is drawing dangerously close and i want to have empty headspace so that I can write something else on that month. Maybe even two new somethings... more on that later...
So, until then the plan is to more or less stick to this one, get it ready (come on! only 120 more pages of text to revise and some 10 or 20 more to write...) and get it out of the way.
As soon as the whole thing is typed and compiled I'm gonna print it out once again, read it again (no major revisions allowed just speelling and the odd sentence) along with whatever I deem necessary corrections, print it again and send it out to whatever book competition is running in portugal - as well as sending it to a few publishers.
So, I've got a month to do all that. Not as much as it seems.
Especially because October is going to be quite demanding work wise...
One of the problems that I've been having is this stifling of creativity that I sometimes feel while revising. I mean, for better or for worse, I jumped from revising Land Of Fog to revising Morto. And I miss writing something simple and short that gets out of the way in just a couple of days...
And I miss writing scripts...
So, yesterday, after a talk i had with a good friend of mine in Colombo's FNAC in Lisbon, I decided to write that Hulk story that can serve as a prequel to a larger series i'd envisioned a while ago.
I've called it Strange Ways and it's simply a chase sequence that will begin setting the stage for the Bruce Banner/Hulk relationship.
I envision the series as being a What If? type of story, ie, set outside the normal continuity.
The Incredible Hulk was probably the very first super-hero that I identified with.
Just a few days ago I was holding and showing a friend of mine the very first super-hero comic I ever bought and, you're right, it was an Incredible Hulk one.
I read it once again a couple of years ago and, even though it create an impact as big as that first time, it still retained all it's importance for me.
This is one of the things I've always enjoyed about comics. The ability to talk about the big themes in a perfectly simple and direct way.
I've read many Hulk stories through the years - and a few good ones - but I'm yet to see a series that really brings the character home.
I've liked Jeph Loeb's stories. The late seventies/early eighties (correct me if i'm wrong!) storyline where the Hulk is trapped in a labyrinthic dimension where each road takes him to a particular world, doomed (for a time at least...) to roam possibilities and strange existences.
This was my favourite time of the comic. Each story had some uniqueness to it and, in all of them, it was that crushing feeling of loneliness, of not belonging, of being an outsider that ran underneath everything. Even the episodic humour or the regular strangeness.
There were also a couple of "psychological type" comics that I enjoyed. Can't really remember which, but that's just me...
There have also been some stories that have tried to endow the series with as much realism as possible and, even though I think this is a good approach i think it doesn't fit the character entirely.
The Incredible Hulk is this wonderful bridge for the scientific mind to reach and make contact with the deeply ingrained emotions. In fact, Bruce Banner is the one who is lost, striving to find and regain his identity via the body which the Hulk so admirably represents. His story is pure hero quest. Only that his goal can only be on the inside.
It's also a story about purity. Purity of the mind. and purity of emotions - in their rawness, as expressed by the Hulk.
There are more things to say, of course, but I just don't want to reveal too much at this point.
In closing, I'd just want to say that, even after so many years and so many stories, I still haven't found one that has really filled and sated me. But I know I could write it.
So, what I did yesterday was to write down this short story, with very little dialogue, in hopes that this Portuguese Marvel penciller will read it and be interested and kind enough to want to know more about it.
Peace.
well I didn't.
(so far...)
In fact i've had a few busy months. Working and revision have taken up a good part of my time and I've just been lazy to tell you about it.
In fact, I spent most of august revising Morto and finding out that I needed to write an entire new section.
The thing just keeps getting bigger.
Fortunately I also feel it's getting better!
There's a lot of stuff put into this book. A lot of which is not entirely visible. There are a few experiments (in fact main storyline of the book is such a thing) in relation to plot devices and character construction that I'm curious to see how they work with the readers.
In august I revised most of the book. two thirds of it probably. I had a good rhythm and some discipline.
September however, it has been a different matter...
you see, I wanted to have it ready by the end of august... but i just couldn't do it. Especially when a new section needed to be added. I've got more than 120 pages of notes that I still need to type and there's probably some 30 or 40 more still to come...
Which is what I've been doing... slowly.
In any case, November is drawing dangerously close and i want to have empty headspace so that I can write something else on that month. Maybe even two new somethings... more on that later...
So, until then the plan is to more or less stick to this one, get it ready (come on! only 120 more pages of text to revise and some 10 or 20 more to write...) and get it out of the way.
As soon as the whole thing is typed and compiled I'm gonna print it out once again, read it again (no major revisions allowed just speelling and the odd sentence) along with whatever I deem necessary corrections, print it again and send it out to whatever book competition is running in portugal - as well as sending it to a few publishers.
So, I've got a month to do all that. Not as much as it seems.
Especially because October is going to be quite demanding work wise...
One of the problems that I've been having is this stifling of creativity that I sometimes feel while revising. I mean, for better or for worse, I jumped from revising Land Of Fog to revising Morto. And I miss writing something simple and short that gets out of the way in just a couple of days...
And I miss writing scripts...
So, yesterday, after a talk i had with a good friend of mine in Colombo's FNAC in Lisbon, I decided to write that Hulk story that can serve as a prequel to a larger series i'd envisioned a while ago.
I've called it Strange Ways and it's simply a chase sequence that will begin setting the stage for the Bruce Banner/Hulk relationship.
I envision the series as being a What If? type of story, ie, set outside the normal continuity.
The Incredible Hulk was probably the very first super-hero that I identified with.
Just a few days ago I was holding and showing a friend of mine the very first super-hero comic I ever bought and, you're right, it was an Incredible Hulk one.
I read it once again a couple of years ago and, even though it create an impact as big as that first time, it still retained all it's importance for me.
This is one of the things I've always enjoyed about comics. The ability to talk about the big themes in a perfectly simple and direct way.
I've read many Hulk stories through the years - and a few good ones - but I'm yet to see a series that really brings the character home.
I've liked Jeph Loeb's stories. The late seventies/early eighties (correct me if i'm wrong!) storyline where the Hulk is trapped in a labyrinthic dimension where each road takes him to a particular world, doomed (for a time at least...) to roam possibilities and strange existences.
This was my favourite time of the comic. Each story had some uniqueness to it and, in all of them, it was that crushing feeling of loneliness, of not belonging, of being an outsider that ran underneath everything. Even the episodic humour or the regular strangeness.
There were also a couple of "psychological type" comics that I enjoyed. Can't really remember which, but that's just me...
There have also been some stories that have tried to endow the series with as much realism as possible and, even though I think this is a good approach i think it doesn't fit the character entirely.
The Incredible Hulk is this wonderful bridge for the scientific mind to reach and make contact with the deeply ingrained emotions. In fact, Bruce Banner is the one who is lost, striving to find and regain his identity via the body which the Hulk so admirably represents. His story is pure hero quest. Only that his goal can only be on the inside.
It's also a story about purity. Purity of the mind. and purity of emotions - in their rawness, as expressed by the Hulk.
There are more things to say, of course, but I just don't want to reveal too much at this point.
In closing, I'd just want to say that, even after so many years and so many stories, I still haven't found one that has really filled and sated me. But I know I could write it.
So, what I did yesterday was to write down this short story, with very little dialogue, in hopes that this Portuguese Marvel penciller will read it and be interested and kind enough to want to know more about it.
Peace.
Friday, 12 June 2009
Two AM
It's 2am, Friday morning, small hours.
Been spending most of this night around my only manuscript in Portuguese. It's called Morto. And it's giving me more trouble editing than I had anticipated.
I think it's because of some of the characters. They're still not clear in my head. And whilst that doesn't happen, I'll have to struggle some more.
The rest will be easier I'm sure.
But I spent 5 or 6 hours today around a scene in a bar.
Ended up writing a short one, just with 4 characters in order to define them a bit better.
Also realizing that this scene will have to be moved around a bit. I'm in the beginning of this story but this scene will probably be better placed closer to the middle of the story. The reader will need to know some of the characters fairly well before we get to it.
The main problem is that there's 8 people talking. The talk shifts back and forth around this dead guy and the inability of some of dealing with it.
And I still don't know the characters well enough to have them interacting so fully.
Yet, at the same time, I feel I need to do this scene in the order it was placed. I know that when I finish this version of it all the characters will be much clearer in my head and this will help me a lot throughout the rest of the book.
This is what I have been doing during the last few days.
This and some comics reviews.
I want to have a second draft of this book ready before the end of the month so that I can try and send it to a publisher in Portugal. They're called Objectiva and are looking for new writers and ideas.
At least I think that the first chapter is already quite good.
But I want to have the whole thing ready before that.
I want to have a clearer picture of this book and its quality before July comes.
Peace.
Been spending most of this night around my only manuscript in Portuguese. It's called Morto. And it's giving me more trouble editing than I had anticipated.
I think it's because of some of the characters. They're still not clear in my head. And whilst that doesn't happen, I'll have to struggle some more.
The rest will be easier I'm sure.
But I spent 5 or 6 hours today around a scene in a bar.
Ended up writing a short one, just with 4 characters in order to define them a bit better.
Also realizing that this scene will have to be moved around a bit. I'm in the beginning of this story but this scene will probably be better placed closer to the middle of the story. The reader will need to know some of the characters fairly well before we get to it.
The main problem is that there's 8 people talking. The talk shifts back and forth around this dead guy and the inability of some of dealing with it.
And I still don't know the characters well enough to have them interacting so fully.
Yet, at the same time, I feel I need to do this scene in the order it was placed. I know that when I finish this version of it all the characters will be much clearer in my head and this will help me a lot throughout the rest of the book.
This is what I have been doing during the last few days.
This and some comics reviews.
I want to have a second draft of this book ready before the end of the month so that I can try and send it to a publisher in Portugal. They're called Objectiva and are looking for new writers and ideas.
At least I think that the first chapter is already quite good.
But I want to have the whole thing ready before that.
I want to have a clearer picture of this book and its quality before July comes.
Peace.
Friday, 5 June 2009
May Days
May is gone...
And after April's rush it feels like I haven't done anything for a month...
Truth is, I can't even remember what I did. It does seems like I didn't produce a single completed piece of writing.
But I lie.
The only thing I did do throughout this month were a few comics reviews and some poems/lyrics/spoken word for a pet project of mine with my cousin Pietro Casella.
I did scribble down a few more ideas for other projects but nothing more than this. It was work mostly during this month and I have to admit that I kind of got carried away by it (too much to do) putting almost everything else aside.
It had been a while since I had felt that. Getting home and not being able to switch off the mind from what had happened during the day.
Suffice to say that I was quite stressed during most of the time.
And eager for my mini-break in portugal just last week.
I was eager for it because I knew that as soon as I had it, I could step out and come back with a different approach.
Which is what I did.
I read quite a bit while I was away (The Plato Papers by Peter Ackroyd and The Player Of Games by Iain M. Banks) and that really helped me get some focus for what I want to do (mainly) this next month and a half.
Which is to revise Land Of Fog and Morto (dead).
Easy, innit?!
Let's just see how it goes and if I can actually write more than a post a month...
peace
And after April's rush it feels like I haven't done anything for a month...
Truth is, I can't even remember what I did. It does seems like I didn't produce a single completed piece of writing.
But I lie.
The only thing I did do throughout this month were a few comics reviews and some poems/lyrics/spoken word for a pet project of mine with my cousin Pietro Casella.
I did scribble down a few more ideas for other projects but nothing more than this. It was work mostly during this month and I have to admit that I kind of got carried away by it (too much to do) putting almost everything else aside.
It had been a while since I had felt that. Getting home and not being able to switch off the mind from what had happened during the day.
Suffice to say that I was quite stressed during most of the time.
And eager for my mini-break in portugal just last week.
I was eager for it because I knew that as soon as I had it, I could step out and come back with a different approach.
Which is what I did.
I read quite a bit while I was away (The Plato Papers by Peter Ackroyd and The Player Of Games by Iain M. Banks) and that really helped me get some focus for what I want to do (mainly) this next month and a half.
Which is to revise Land Of Fog and Morto (dead).
Easy, innit?!
Let's just see how it goes and if I can actually write more than a post a month...
peace
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