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.
Showing posts with label land of fog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label land of fog. Show all posts
Friday, 29 October 2010
Wednesday, 27 October 2010
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!
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!
Friday, 8 October 2010
Short Stories
Been a while huh?
Summer holidays, the getting-back-to-work period where everything seems to happen at once.
Then more holidays. More work. Friends staying over...
(no excuses though...)
so. What have been up to more recently? (my memory doesn't go all the way back to almost two months ago...)
Good question!
Well, several things.
I've written a short piece for an art exhibit I went whilst in Lisbon this last July. It's for an artist called João Palla and I'm just waiting for his reply to a few questions of mine before I sent it to him.
I've also written a relatively long text to a good friend of mine, Joana Bértholo. She's a writer (published!) and she's participating in THIS.
She sent me questions 2, 15, 18, 21, 22, 23 and 24 and I wrote anything that I felt might be relevant to her debate.
And, because of question 24 (about genetic manipulation, human beings and artificial life) I might be doing a book for this year's NaNoWriMo around this theme, an idea that's been in my head for probably some ten years now...
(if it doesn't let go it's because it needs to be written...)
I've written three short stories (from 2000 to 3000 words each) with death as the main theme. I'm planning on sending them to a few friends just for fun - but I've been lazy to compile the mailing list...
I'd really like to send at least one thing a month but... knowing my rhythms, this is probably another chimera of mine...
In any case, the first story is about a guy addicted to running. The other is about a being that knows the entirety of his life (echoes of Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five...). The final one is, of the three, the one closest to what I ultimately want to offer a glimpse at, which is the realisation of death. But, of the three is the one that still needs more work - even though I do like the structure. There's an ongoing narration of an event with sudden flashbacks. Somehow these devices seem to work pretty well. For me at least...
Land Of Fog Revision continues! Of course. What do we care about deadlines?!
To be perfectly honest, I thought that this third (or is it fourth?!) draft would be easier. But, it seems to me that until I get to a fourth draft it's never gonna be easy...
For a good while I was incredibly frustrated with this. Which in turn caused revision to slow down (that and the fact that I was somewhat jaded with the material...). But I'm accepting the slowness of this process and trying not to worry too much about it. It'd be nice to have it ready before November but, if it doesn't happen, I'll just plunge head on to NaNoWriMo and think about it later.
My only question is if I should write the second part (of three) of the Fog trilogy. It's to be called Land Of Mists. I've already written quite a few ideas for it and I know exactly where it must end.
The advantage of doing this is that the setting and where I want to take this story is very present in me.
The downside is that I want to leave it behind for a while.
But, in fact, writing this down has made me think that the first option is better than the second. I can hold on for another couple of months. Unavoidably in January (if I do go to my meditation retreat) I'll have to leave all these stories behind so... might as well take advantage of having the story so clear in my head. Hopefully the new storyline and the new characters will refresh the whole thing.
I've also written some other short stories that I'm compiling for my little cousins. They're falling under the umbrella of BBT (I don't want to give out the title should they be reading this by some chance...) and they're more or less playful adventure stories with some twists and weird stuff thrown into the mix. My initial idea was to have a story per little cousin (that'd be five...) in which each of them would get to play the hero and be the main character. The tough thing was to find something that echoed their personality - which was a hard thing to do for I tend to play with them more than anything. I don't really know that much about their personal tastes and dreams - we meet only rarely. But I think I've got things that they'll identify with and enjoy.
And I was very happy when my oldest cousin suggested to me the setting that I was already envisioning in my head!
Right now I must have some seven or eight stories. A couple I've written beginning to end, either dialogue or plot. But most are still in an embryonic stage. There's also stuff written down on paper, scattered around... However I try to organise, inspiration comes when it pleases and not always I have a keyboard close by... Probably some five or ten thousand words by now - which I think will be enough to work into a small book (thirty to forty thousand). There is no end in sight. In fact what I wanted the most was to create a setting for stories for them.
At least that I have got. Now it's time.
And work!
Peace.
Summer holidays, the getting-back-to-work period where everything seems to happen at once.
Then more holidays. More work. Friends staying over...
(no excuses though...)
so. What have been up to more recently? (my memory doesn't go all the way back to almost two months ago...)
Good question!
Well, several things.
I've written a short piece for an art exhibit I went whilst in Lisbon this last July. It's for an artist called João Palla and I'm just waiting for his reply to a few questions of mine before I sent it to him.
I've also written a relatively long text to a good friend of mine, Joana Bértholo. She's a writer (published!) and she's participating in THIS.
She sent me questions 2, 15, 18, 21, 22, 23 and 24 and I wrote anything that I felt might be relevant to her debate.
And, because of question 24 (about genetic manipulation, human beings and artificial life) I might be doing a book for this year's NaNoWriMo around this theme, an idea that's been in my head for probably some ten years now...
(if it doesn't let go it's because it needs to be written...)
I've written three short stories (from 2000 to 3000 words each) with death as the main theme. I'm planning on sending them to a few friends just for fun - but I've been lazy to compile the mailing list...
I'd really like to send at least one thing a month but... knowing my rhythms, this is probably another chimera of mine...
In any case, the first story is about a guy addicted to running. The other is about a being that knows the entirety of his life (echoes of Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five...). The final one is, of the three, the one closest to what I ultimately want to offer a glimpse at, which is the realisation of death. But, of the three is the one that still needs more work - even though I do like the structure. There's an ongoing narration of an event with sudden flashbacks. Somehow these devices seem to work pretty well. For me at least...
Land Of Fog Revision continues! Of course. What do we care about deadlines?!
To be perfectly honest, I thought that this third (or is it fourth?!) draft would be easier. But, it seems to me that until I get to a fourth draft it's never gonna be easy...
For a good while I was incredibly frustrated with this. Which in turn caused revision to slow down (that and the fact that I was somewhat jaded with the material...). But I'm accepting the slowness of this process and trying not to worry too much about it. It'd be nice to have it ready before November but, if it doesn't happen, I'll just plunge head on to NaNoWriMo and think about it later.
My only question is if I should write the second part (of three) of the Fog trilogy. It's to be called Land Of Mists. I've already written quite a few ideas for it and I know exactly where it must end.
The advantage of doing this is that the setting and where I want to take this story is very present in me.
The downside is that I want to leave it behind for a while.
But, in fact, writing this down has made me think that the first option is better than the second. I can hold on for another couple of months. Unavoidably in January (if I do go to my meditation retreat) I'll have to leave all these stories behind so... might as well take advantage of having the story so clear in my head. Hopefully the new storyline and the new characters will refresh the whole thing.
I've also written some other short stories that I'm compiling for my little cousins. They're falling under the umbrella of BBT (I don't want to give out the title should they be reading this by some chance...) and they're more or less playful adventure stories with some twists and weird stuff thrown into the mix. My initial idea was to have a story per little cousin (that'd be five...) in which each of them would get to play the hero and be the main character. The tough thing was to find something that echoed their personality - which was a hard thing to do for I tend to play with them more than anything. I don't really know that much about their personal tastes and dreams - we meet only rarely. But I think I've got things that they'll identify with and enjoy.
And I was very happy when my oldest cousin suggested to me the setting that I was already envisioning in my head!
Right now I must have some seven or eight stories. A couple I've written beginning to end, either dialogue or plot. But most are still in an embryonic stage. There's also stuff written down on paper, scattered around... However I try to organise, inspiration comes when it pleases and not always I have a keyboard close by... Probably some five or ten thousand words by now - which I think will be enough to work into a small book (thirty to forty thousand). There is no end in sight. In fact what I wanted the most was to create a setting for stories for them.
At least that I have got. Now it's time.
And work!
Peace.
Saturday, 21 August 2010
In The Land Of Fog Notes
Well, the pages keep on being added, albeit more slowly than what I'd like. Patience, patience... I'm on page 34 of my first draft (96 long, A4). I managed to do 11 pages yesterday. I was hoping to do even more today but I'm still on page 4...
Ah well... the night is still young...
peace!
Ah well... the night is still young...
peace!
Thursday, 19 August 2010
Land Of Fog Update
It's been ages, I know.
But here's a quick recap of what's been happening for the last couple of months...
I managed to finish the first full revision of the original text some 5 minutes before I landed in Lisbon on the 21st of July. That felt really good since I really wanted to start my holidays without having that thing incompleted, roaming around my head...
Until the 5th of August I was in Portugal on holidays. Still I made my objective to type 10 pages a day of the revision notes I'd compiled.
There were 249 pages.
I more or less stuck to the schedule (it takes so long to type... it just tires me...) and on the 14th of August, last saturday, I finished the typing. Dead on schedule...
I more or less took sunday off. I let the book rest.
But on monday I started weaving the revision notes into the body of the original text, thus slowly compiling the second draft. My aim is to have this second phase ready by the end of the month. Which means some 7 pages a day...
I've been a bit behind schedule. But yesterday I started to catch up and today I'm also more or less on track. I'm off until next monday so... I have to be ahead of the game by then - particularly because a couple of friends are staying over for a week, starting on monday...
Having said this, I have also started to type up notes that I compiled during the re-write for books two and three (now tentatively named Lands Of Mist and Tide)
As soon as all the text is ready I'm gonna read it all out loud (flatmates watch out!) and make a few corrections along the way. Don't know if I'll print out the whole thing (the second draft) or not. I guess I'll decide as soon as the text is ready...
Hopefully the second draft will be concluded by first week in september. And, before the end of the month I'll be able to revise the whole text a couple times more (I'm betting it won't take long, just re-reading and making a change here and there... keeping my fingers crossed....)
And start sending the thing out (at least the first few chapters to publishers - their requirements do vary...) in october. Beginning of the month, preferably...
Peace!
But here's a quick recap of what's been happening for the last couple of months...
I managed to finish the first full revision of the original text some 5 minutes before I landed in Lisbon on the 21st of July. That felt really good since I really wanted to start my holidays without having that thing incompleted, roaming around my head...
Until the 5th of August I was in Portugal on holidays. Still I made my objective to type 10 pages a day of the revision notes I'd compiled.
There were 249 pages.
I more or less stuck to the schedule (it takes so long to type... it just tires me...) and on the 14th of August, last saturday, I finished the typing. Dead on schedule...
I more or less took sunday off. I let the book rest.
But on monday I started weaving the revision notes into the body of the original text, thus slowly compiling the second draft. My aim is to have this second phase ready by the end of the month. Which means some 7 pages a day...
I've been a bit behind schedule. But yesterday I started to catch up and today I'm also more or less on track. I'm off until next monday so... I have to be ahead of the game by then - particularly because a couple of friends are staying over for a week, starting on monday...
Having said this, I have also started to type up notes that I compiled during the re-write for books two and three (now tentatively named Lands Of Mist and Tide)
As soon as all the text is ready I'm gonna read it all out loud (flatmates watch out!) and make a few corrections along the way. Don't know if I'll print out the whole thing (the second draft) or not. I guess I'll decide as soon as the text is ready...
Hopefully the second draft will be concluded by first week in september. And, before the end of the month I'll be able to revise the whole text a couple times more (I'm betting it won't take long, just re-reading and making a change here and there... keeping my fingers crossed....)
And start sending the thing out (at least the first few chapters to publishers - their requirements do vary...) in october. Beginning of the month, preferably...
Peace!
Friday, 18 June 2010
Land Of Fog Revision
Well today was an ups and downs day with this whole revising business.
I woke up relatively late (9.30am) and proceeded to revise another Invincible volume (7). I also read part of another graphic novel: Criminal Macabre by Steve Niles (a great, promising intro but that didn't deliver all that much for me in the end) and Ben Templesmith (really dig his art but sometimes I just can't understand what the heck's happening...)
Then I started revising.
And it was going well.
Until people started wanting my attention.
Which was fine.
For the first three hours.
Then I started getting somewhat upset at it because I couldn't focus for more than 5 minutes at a time...
So I did what I thought was best. I listened until I found that there was nothing else that I needed to listen, until there was nothing else left to be said.
And I excused myself.
Amidst all this I finished that Niles/Templesmith comic, the Invincible review, started another, read a bit of Scalped: The Gravel In Your Guts (now that's a GREAT comic - toes and thumbs up).
I began to revise...
And it felt good.
I really need these moments where I can focus at will and my mind just wanders.
You see, one of the reasons I started getting angry was because today really felt one of those GOOD REVISION days. And there aren't that many of them. I'd kept my momentum going as soon as my attention started being sapped and, after a while I couldn't stop but think at the great opportunity I was missing.
I still revised a couple of short chapters today. And I did finish yesterday's.
I'm on day six. Afternoon.
And tomorrow is a new revision day... well... until 2pm it is...
peace!
I woke up relatively late (9.30am) and proceeded to revise another Invincible volume (7). I also read part of another graphic novel: Criminal Macabre by Steve Niles (a great, promising intro but that didn't deliver all that much for me in the end) and Ben Templesmith (really dig his art but sometimes I just can't understand what the heck's happening...)
Then I started revising.
And it was going well.
Until people started wanting my attention.
Which was fine.
For the first three hours.
Then I started getting somewhat upset at it because I couldn't focus for more than 5 minutes at a time...
So I did what I thought was best. I listened until I found that there was nothing else that I needed to listen, until there was nothing else left to be said.
And I excused myself.
Amidst all this I finished that Niles/Templesmith comic, the Invincible review, started another, read a bit of Scalped: The Gravel In Your Guts (now that's a GREAT comic - toes and thumbs up).
I began to revise...
And it felt good.
I really need these moments where I can focus at will and my mind just wanders.
You see, one of the reasons I started getting angry was because today really felt one of those GOOD REVISION days. And there aren't that many of them. I'd kept my momentum going as soon as my attention started being sapped and, after a while I couldn't stop but think at the great opportunity I was missing.
I still revised a couple of short chapters today. And I did finish yesterday's.
I'm on day six. Afternoon.
And tomorrow is a new revision day... well... until 2pm it is...
peace!
Monday, 14 June 2010
Land Of Fog Revision
Hey there!
Well, I'm back from holiday (and I didn't do much while I was away... that I must admit...) and I'm back on good old revising...
I'm on page 30 (A4, single spaced...) of my manuscript and I already have 57 pages of notes... (longhand)
I've been thinking about the structure a bit and I do think I'm going to go for a less obvious one than the chronological. I think this will enable me to start with greater momentum and create more drama.
The book takes place throughout 13 days and I'm on the evening of day five. I'm expecting things to go a bit easier from now on, not only because I've gained some momentum but also because I've managed to sort out some of the slower/plot-holes in the story.
There are still two extra chapters that i have to write but I'll do those after I've revised the whole body of text. These two chapters need to introduce clues and hints to things that will happen in this book and on the following two so... I want to be as ready as possible for that to happen.
The revision has been going slowly but steadily. I think that it's probably quite difficult to have a "fast" first revision. This is where all the big things surface and it has always meant major re-writing for me so... I guess this is as good as it gets!
At least for now!
peace.
Well, I'm back from holiday (and I didn't do much while I was away... that I must admit...) and I'm back on good old revising...
I'm on page 30 (A4, single spaced...) of my manuscript and I already have 57 pages of notes... (longhand)
I've been thinking about the structure a bit and I do think I'm going to go for a less obvious one than the chronological. I think this will enable me to start with greater momentum and create more drama.
The book takes place throughout 13 days and I'm on the evening of day five. I'm expecting things to go a bit easier from now on, not only because I've gained some momentum but also because I've managed to sort out some of the slower/plot-holes in the story.
There are still two extra chapters that i have to write but I'll do those after I've revised the whole body of text. These two chapters need to introduce clues and hints to things that will happen in this book and on the following two so... I want to be as ready as possible for that to happen.
The revision has been going slowly but steadily. I think that it's probably quite difficult to have a "fast" first revision. This is where all the big things surface and it has always meant major re-writing for me so... I guess this is as good as it gets!
At least for now!
peace.
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Book Competition
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
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
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
Saturday, 28 February 2009
More View For The Mountain
Two and a half weeks gone past in a flash.
Went to portugal for 7 days and, thus, the writing more or less stopped.
Going back to my diary I can see that I worked a bit on RIGOR MORTIS and LAST RITES before I went but also in various other things. Mainly transferring the ideas I had in Myanmar from longhand to word files...
Even before I went I managed to do that analogue copy paste thing and assembled all the files and began mixing things a bit but it soon became too convoluted for me to pursue it. So what I did was make some sort of little cards with the name of the file, page, scene, characters and brief synopsis of content and then shuffled it all around on the wall.
Today I manage to do all the copy pasting on a word file that is now 205 pages long. The comic itself is probably closer to 250... seems way too long but it may well work this way. I'm not interested in making it smaller just for the sake of it. I suppose this is one of the benefices of non comissioned work. I can just do whatever the heck I please!
But I've been very good with A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN. I've been working on it everyday and it hasn't left my mind a day since I came back from Myanmar.
I also finished polishing up the second draft for LAND OF FOG. Mainly cosmetics in relation to the first (spelling, phrase construction, you know...) and two new chapters. I think they round the story a bit more.
And now I only have to figure out what I'm going to do with all the other ideas that I had in Burma... I don't really feel like doing a sequel. But perhaps a few short stories. Or a long short story would be in order.
(not again!!!)
I've been reading a few of Gene Wolfe's amazing short stories and I'm trying attain a greater depth in my storytelling. The man is quite clearly a god of writing and he teaches his mastery at every phrase, at each page and word. There is much I still need to learn. Everything flows so well with him. There never seems to be any rush to get anywhere and, yet, the story is always there. It's always present, taking care of the reader.
I'd like to be able to write like this.
But I'll continue writing even if I don't!
Today I'm hoping I'll start patching the huge scenes quilt that I have managed to weave today. There are bits missing and I want simply to start at the beginning and start filling the gaps. Missing panels and missing links between certain scenes.
After that I'm going to go through my extensive list of notes and tick all the "objectives" for this story. All the themes/subjects that I wanted to cover.
Then I think I'll print it out and read it all over again, make whatever changes I feel necessary and, finally, deem it a first draft!
(I'm very curious about how many pages the comic will actually have... the is the biggest story I've attempted to write yet!)
peace.
Went to portugal for 7 days and, thus, the writing more or less stopped.
Going back to my diary I can see that I worked a bit on RIGOR MORTIS and LAST RITES before I went but also in various other things. Mainly transferring the ideas I had in Myanmar from longhand to word files...
Even before I went I managed to do that analogue copy paste thing and assembled all the files and began mixing things a bit but it soon became too convoluted for me to pursue it. So what I did was make some sort of little cards with the name of the file, page, scene, characters and brief synopsis of content and then shuffled it all around on the wall.
Today I manage to do all the copy pasting on a word file that is now 205 pages long. The comic itself is probably closer to 250... seems way too long but it may well work this way. I'm not interested in making it smaller just for the sake of it. I suppose this is one of the benefices of non comissioned work. I can just do whatever the heck I please!
But I've been very good with A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN. I've been working on it everyday and it hasn't left my mind a day since I came back from Myanmar.
I also finished polishing up the second draft for LAND OF FOG. Mainly cosmetics in relation to the first (spelling, phrase construction, you know...) and two new chapters. I think they round the story a bit more.
And now I only have to figure out what I'm going to do with all the other ideas that I had in Burma... I don't really feel like doing a sequel. But perhaps a few short stories. Or a long short story would be in order.
(not again!!!)
I've been reading a few of Gene Wolfe's amazing short stories and I'm trying attain a greater depth in my storytelling. The man is quite clearly a god of writing and he teaches his mastery at every phrase, at each page and word. There is much I still need to learn. Everything flows so well with him. There never seems to be any rush to get anywhere and, yet, the story is always there. It's always present, taking care of the reader.
I'd like to be able to write like this.
But I'll continue writing even if I don't!
Today I'm hoping I'll start patching the huge scenes quilt that I have managed to weave today. There are bits missing and I want simply to start at the beginning and start filling the gaps. Missing panels and missing links between certain scenes.
After that I'm going to go through my extensive list of notes and tick all the "objectives" for this story. All the themes/subjects that I wanted to cover.
Then I think I'll print it out and read it all over again, make whatever changes I feel necessary and, finally, deem it a first draft!
(I'm very curious about how many pages the comic will actually have... the is the biggest story I've attempted to write yet!)
peace.
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
Writing A Retreat Away
Even though my daily, early morning, meditation practice hasn't been the best lately, I have been complying to the type-up-your-retreat-stuff-quickly-so-that-you-can-move-to-do-other-stuff everyday.
But I already have 8 LIFE INSIDE MIND short comics (usually one or two pages long), 9 MINDFUL vs MINDLESS cartoon strips (four panels each, typically) and added some more stuff to LAND OF FOG, LOVE RITES, RIGOR MORTIS and LAST RITES among other things.
I'm typing everything up. Even the things I now feel don't work as well as when I felt them inside of me there and then. And I'm then creating the panel descriptions where needed. This is actually why it has taken me so long with some of the things. Most times, when I'm writing comics scripts, I simply focus on the dialogue with the odd note to the setting here and there. From all the stuff that I wrote in Myanmar, most is simply dialogue with a brief description of the general idea behind it - if needed.
Today I have also been planning the next few sessions for the Graphic Novels Reading Group and this idea I had about giving out wacky awards to our favourite comics creators.
If you're interested in finding out more about the group this is the place to go:
http://community.livejournal.com/lambeth_comics/
Tomorrow and friday I'm off so my plan is to type up and finish as much of the stuff that I did in Myanmar as possible and make a start on A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN. I have three print outs that I need to stitch together and then chop up and then combine... it's going to be a good arts and crafts day...
Apart from this another brief revision of LAND OF FOG seems to be in order. Maybe I'll do this before I leave today... after all it's only the last three chapters that I really need to look into...
peace.
But I already have 8 LIFE INSIDE MIND short comics (usually one or two pages long), 9 MINDFUL vs MINDLESS cartoon strips (four panels each, typically) and added some more stuff to LAND OF FOG, LOVE RITES, RIGOR MORTIS and LAST RITES among other things.
I'm typing everything up. Even the things I now feel don't work as well as when I felt them inside of me there and then. And I'm then creating the panel descriptions where needed. This is actually why it has taken me so long with some of the things. Most times, when I'm writing comics scripts, I simply focus on the dialogue with the odd note to the setting here and there. From all the stuff that I wrote in Myanmar, most is simply dialogue with a brief description of the general idea behind it - if needed.
Today I have also been planning the next few sessions for the Graphic Novels Reading Group and this idea I had about giving out wacky awards to our favourite comics creators.
If you're interested in finding out more about the group this is the place to go:
http://community.livejournal.com/lambeth_comics/
Tomorrow and friday I'm off so my plan is to type up and finish as much of the stuff that I did in Myanmar as possible and make a start on A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN. I have three print outs that I need to stitch together and then chop up and then combine... it's going to be a good arts and crafts day...
Apart from this another brief revision of LAND OF FOG seems to be in order. Maybe I'll do this before I leave today... after all it's only the last three chapters that I really need to look into...
peace.
Monday, 9 February 2009
Back From Old Burma
Yes, well, all things must change and thus, here I am, finding myself in a strangely familiar situation.
The myanmar meditation retreat was excellent. As always. Lots of ups and downs and remembering things I had forgotten, re-learning things that I still remembered and finding new things altogether.
So much so that a part of me wants to type up the journey and publish it online.
Perhaps even adding stuff from my previous retreat.
But I must be realistic and say - not for now! It's more important that I actually focus on that book about it rather than in creating more work. The important thing is the content and that book really has all the key things. My hope is that it will reflect not only my experiences - only important because they serve as examples for the practice - but also the deep relevance of the practice.
You'll be hearing about it soon...
Obviously, as I meditated I had a bunch of ideas...
Some of these are cartoons about the practice (which I have called Mindfull Versus Mindless) and are quite comical.
But some of the other stuff contains not only ideas for stories that I had already been working on but also a couple of new things. A series of one page comics called Life Inside Mind and yet another, more lenghtier series called either Rigor Mortis or Shunted Light... I still haven't got my head around it.
In any case I think I have learned a few valuable lessons this time. Part of me really wants to share them but I don't know if this is really the space. What I will do is write an email, both in english and in portuguese and send that out to some friends.
Maybe I'll post it here.
Maybe.
I had some new ideas for LAND OF FOG and so, now the book has two more chapters.
(3 or 4 pages more)
And there are also a couple of ideas for a couple of short stories that take place after the events in LAND OF FOG.
And they end up tying in with another book I started writing last year but that won't see the light of day anytime soon. This is probably the conceptually most daring thing I've ever considered doing and I want to be more mature in order to make it all that I think it can be. A deep exercise in creativity. I think it will write itself through the upcoming years.
So. I've been polishing a new draft for LAND OF FOG but also some letters that I wrote to friends while away. Also a series of comedy sketches in portuguese... and, of course, RIGOR MORTIS that simply just doesn't get out of my head. I'd like it to be a 60 or 70 page comic but I feel that the potential is really for an ongoing series. At the same time I think doing a series is just milking it a bit. It needs to be dense and powerdul. Actually it could also work as a feature film. Quite well I would say. The only problem is the ending. For the time being it's an open ending. There's really no punchline. Or, the punchline is, things are as they are: we merely choose when faced with them. And the journey is ongoing.
Things to do for the next few days;
Get back on track with A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN, finish LAND OF FOG and write up a first draft for MS, a children's book.
And a bit more on RIGOR MORTIS.
And finish those comedy sketches...
Hope you are all well!
peace
The myanmar meditation retreat was excellent. As always. Lots of ups and downs and remembering things I had forgotten, re-learning things that I still remembered and finding new things altogether.
So much so that a part of me wants to type up the journey and publish it online.
Perhaps even adding stuff from my previous retreat.
But I must be realistic and say - not for now! It's more important that I actually focus on that book about it rather than in creating more work. The important thing is the content and that book really has all the key things. My hope is that it will reflect not only my experiences - only important because they serve as examples for the practice - but also the deep relevance of the practice.
You'll be hearing about it soon...
Obviously, as I meditated I had a bunch of ideas...
Some of these are cartoons about the practice (which I have called Mindfull Versus Mindless) and are quite comical.
But some of the other stuff contains not only ideas for stories that I had already been working on but also a couple of new things. A series of one page comics called Life Inside Mind and yet another, more lenghtier series called either Rigor Mortis or Shunted Light... I still haven't got my head around it.
In any case I think I have learned a few valuable lessons this time. Part of me really wants to share them but I don't know if this is really the space. What I will do is write an email, both in english and in portuguese and send that out to some friends.
Maybe I'll post it here.
Maybe.
I had some new ideas for LAND OF FOG and so, now the book has two more chapters.
(3 or 4 pages more)
And there are also a couple of ideas for a couple of short stories that take place after the events in LAND OF FOG.
And they end up tying in with another book I started writing last year but that won't see the light of day anytime soon. This is probably the conceptually most daring thing I've ever considered doing and I want to be more mature in order to make it all that I think it can be. A deep exercise in creativity. I think it will write itself through the upcoming years.
So. I've been polishing a new draft for LAND OF FOG but also some letters that I wrote to friends while away. Also a series of comedy sketches in portuguese... and, of course, RIGOR MORTIS that simply just doesn't get out of my head. I'd like it to be a 60 or 70 page comic but I feel that the potential is really for an ongoing series. At the same time I think doing a series is just milking it a bit. It needs to be dense and powerdul. Actually it could also work as a feature film. Quite well I would say. The only problem is the ending. For the time being it's an open ending. There's really no punchline. Or, the punchline is, things are as they are: we merely choose when faced with them. And the journey is ongoing.
Things to do for the next few days;
Get back on track with A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN, finish LAND OF FOG and write up a first draft for MS, a children's book.
And a bit more on RIGOR MORTIS.
And finish those comedy sketches...
Hope you are all well!
peace
Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Off To Meditatabout
The New Year has arrived.
I don't know what all of you have been up to but let me tell you that I spent most of my time during the holidays either playing Nintendo Wii with my little cousins or sleeping or seeing films or (yes, even a bit of that) writing.
So, how are things looking writs wise?
Well, I'm about to complete the first draft of my fourth book called LAND OF FOG.
(just give me an hour or so and you'll have another post in here with the first chapter)
And I managed to more or less type up everything with A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN.
But...
(the catch is...)
Tomorrow I'm off to Myanmar for a meditation retreat at Panditarama Forest Monastery!
http://www.saddhamma.org/index.html
Hopefully this will clear my head a bit more!
I'll be back in early february to continue with the writings. So, apologies if you try to get in touch with me in the meantime and I don't reply: I'll be without internet connection for a month.
And no mobiles either.
Or letters.
Thus giving plenty of room for contemplation.
Hope you all had a lovely holiday and that you are well and happy!
Always!
peace
I don't know what all of you have been up to but let me tell you that I spent most of my time during the holidays either playing Nintendo Wii with my little cousins or sleeping or seeing films or (yes, even a bit of that) writing.
So, how are things looking writs wise?
Well, I'm about to complete the first draft of my fourth book called LAND OF FOG.
(just give me an hour or so and you'll have another post in here with the first chapter)
And I managed to more or less type up everything with A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN.
But...
(the catch is...)
Tomorrow I'm off to Myanmar for a meditation retreat at Panditarama Forest Monastery!
http://www.saddhamma.org/index.html
Hopefully this will clear my head a bit more!
I'll be back in early february to continue with the writings. So, apologies if you try to get in touch with me in the meantime and I don't reply: I'll be without internet connection for a month.
And no mobiles either.
Or letters.
Thus giving plenty of room for contemplation.
Hope you all had a lovely holiday and that you are well and happy!
Always!
peace
Saturday, 13 December 2008
Through the Fog, up the Mountain
The last few days hve been full of surprises, of various flavours and forms.
On thursday I went to a conference which helped me substantially with one of my projects where I made quite a few interesting contacts and learned some very interesting facts. And where a few ideas became clearer.
On wednesday I had found out that my gran had died in one of the strangest ways ever. While having some soup she choked on it, some of the soup went into her lungs, the firemen and the ambulance fortunately came in time and managed to keep her alive with oxygen, enough to take to hospital but, due to yet another stroke (probably her 6th or 7th major one) she was rendered very weak and, after a few hours, she passed away.
I was sad but perhaps not as much as I'd expected. After all, she'd been bed ridden for quite a few years and it was clear that she was never going to recover and that she was slowly drifting away from life.
So, on friday, early morning, i was on my way to luton, heading to Lisbon and then to Sao Martinho do Porto where the funeral was being held.
I started writing a short story on my way there that I finished on my way back. It mixed some of the elements of the situation and some lessons that sometimes I feel people could use with really learning.
The strangest thing happened while waiting in line to get into the airplane. Someone collapsed while waiting in line and, to date, i do not know if the person made it or not. I mean, there i was, going to my gran's funeral and, suddenly it seems that the subject of death comes "alive" somewhere ahead of me.
I was instantly consumed by the fear and the pain and the powerlessness of the situation. Even thinking about it now still bringsthat intensity somewhat back.
This whole situation helped clarify what I actually feel about death.
Inside me there is still some fear and quite a lot of resistance to the prospect. But, at the same time, there is also a core certainty of the beauty of the moment - if we are given time to contemplate. And this, I know it within my heart, transcends and overwhelms all the fear that I could possibly feel.
I've had some weird experiences in the past and they have all led me to the conclusion that death can be an amazing experience. In fact, that death can be (as Neil Gaiman so brilliantly put it) The Time Of Our Life. When the whole of our system knows that this is it, suddenly all the boundaries that have been in place to "keep us safe", can be discarded and the world's of experience can really be opened up. I firmly believe that in those last few moments we can live more than we ever thought possible. I don't think any experience whatsoever could possibly compare to it.
In any case, there I was, waiting in line, powerless as somebody fought for life. Hearing the despair, surprised at the inefficiency of response services within the airport. It felt as if it was more important to to keep up appearances than actually help the person (for a while people were crying out for a doctor or nurse amidst the passengers and, yet, there was no information on the speakers - or, rather, the speakers continued to blare the usual stuff about flights and delays).
What I felt was that it was the being in that moment, sharing that transition, and especially the fear and concern and pain and support that people were demonstrating with their body language, that really affected me.
I say this because when I was looking to my gran, lying in her coffin, I couldn't feel much. It was clear to me that she wasn't there. That that body wasn't her. That she was gone. It was so clear that I couldn't do anything about it that no attachment was present.
My relation with my family and with my own feelings has always been somewhat complicated. So many contradictions that sometimes I am lost amidst them.
This time I was so absorbed in being there that I didn't really notice the usual "they cry for themselves rather than the dead".
What I observed that really turned me inside out a bit, anger boiling alongside a somewhat cool contemplation of it, was with me listening to the priest saying the mass. This was the first time that I heard most of it. And I felt completely betrayed. I couldn't stop seeing and feling the deception being played.
(I'm not saying that it was, just that that was how it felt to me)
i understand everybody's need to come to terms with that indefatigable event taht no one seems to be able to dodge, but the way the priest was performing that service just felt, ultimately, as an act of subtle cruelty.
The key to all this was the tone of voice. So artificial and rehearsed that I felt at points like choking the guy.
I guess people prefer to listen to what they wish they could believe than in what they actually feel. I guess that, when confronted with death, we all need a supporting parent. But seeing someone taking advantage of that vulnerability was becoming unbearable. Feeling and knowing what I was feeling, both enhanced my ability to control my emotions and to more fully express them inside myself.
This is my issue of course. My inability to accept when people do not talk from their hearts or even from their minds but from something they simply have been told to believe.
So why am i enraged at everybody else's relinquishing of their inner freedom to find their own truth?
Partially beacuse I know that I am afraid of being exactly like them, only in a different way. Instead of having a seemingly solid external system to back me up, I have a, perhaps steam like interior system backing me up.
Also because I quite obviously and egotistically believe that my beliefs are better than other people's.
In sum, because i, like most people, have a warped vision of reality. This being caused by the existence of an ego, to a great extent. If there is an I, if there is something that recognises itself as being separate from the rest, then this I will tend to see itself as most important than the rest purely as a survival mechanism.
Why am I writing this?
I honestly don't know. For many reasons I guess. Probably all the ones you can think about are probably true to one extent or another. It doesn't really matter.
Partially I wanted to give a background for these last few days writing and to record in some way the transformation of my perception.
This probably has to do with a sensation/thought that I had on the 436 going back to lewisham this afternoon. I had the clear impression that after (or before) the funeral of my other gran, almost 3 years ago, that I had had a vision or a dream or something that i was at the funeral of this gran that died a few days ago. It was a deja vu, of course, but this one had a memory attached to it of actually having written down this sensation all this time ago.
Obviously I don't have the faintest idea where I wrote this.
In any case, it was simple. I had the feeling I had dreamt or foresaw the whole situation around having to rush back to portugal for my gran's funeral after having been only a week ago.
i know that deja vu feelings are simply a way of dealing with our pain, with a situation that we feel we cannot resolve. But this one clearly felt different from the usual ones.
Anyway...
On wednesday I reviewed a bit more of LAND OF FOG. I had felt that I was spending so much time lately with A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN and not so much with this project (that I still want to have a first draft ready before the year ends - actually, before x-mas comes....). Not much and quite slowly. I spent more time playing the guitar (and recording various tracks) than reviewing. Sometimes it's just the way it goes. I didn't feel like I should force myself too much on that day. And so I played thinking of my dead grandparents and let what I felt out in my own way. Turning the emotion into some sort of grandeur. Death should not be small and squandered. It should be celebrated and be able to lift us up even closer to life. Those tracks were a bit a bout that. Starting with simple structures of half a dozen notes, repeating themselves in loops but with some rhythmic variances that gave them fluidity and vertigo. And then, at some point, thinking of The Go-Betweens, i shifted the scale and made them all happier and lighter. In some i returned to the beginning riff, in order i did not. Above all I just wanted to use that liberating energy that i was feeling and captured it somehow so that perhaps one day I can share it and help others reach that state. maybe telling them the story of how those songs came to be and then playing them so that we can all participate in an experience of communion and some degree of truth.
Today I finished typing up the rest of the stuff for A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN. There are still some more panels to write up but I think I can do them all in a day. Maybe this coming wednesday. It would be nice if, by the end of this weekend, I could have both first drafts finished. It's quite possible, but I have to be more focussed than I have been in the last week or so.
And this is how things are at the moment.
Hope you are well and happy.
Always.
Peace
On thursday I went to a conference which helped me substantially with one of my projects where I made quite a few interesting contacts and learned some very interesting facts. And where a few ideas became clearer.
On wednesday I had found out that my gran had died in one of the strangest ways ever. While having some soup she choked on it, some of the soup went into her lungs, the firemen and the ambulance fortunately came in time and managed to keep her alive with oxygen, enough to take to hospital but, due to yet another stroke (probably her 6th or 7th major one) she was rendered very weak and, after a few hours, she passed away.
I was sad but perhaps not as much as I'd expected. After all, she'd been bed ridden for quite a few years and it was clear that she was never going to recover and that she was slowly drifting away from life.
So, on friday, early morning, i was on my way to luton, heading to Lisbon and then to Sao Martinho do Porto where the funeral was being held.
I started writing a short story on my way there that I finished on my way back. It mixed some of the elements of the situation and some lessons that sometimes I feel people could use with really learning.
The strangest thing happened while waiting in line to get into the airplane. Someone collapsed while waiting in line and, to date, i do not know if the person made it or not. I mean, there i was, going to my gran's funeral and, suddenly it seems that the subject of death comes "alive" somewhere ahead of me.
I was instantly consumed by the fear and the pain and the powerlessness of the situation. Even thinking about it now still bringsthat intensity somewhat back.
This whole situation helped clarify what I actually feel about death.
Inside me there is still some fear and quite a lot of resistance to the prospect. But, at the same time, there is also a core certainty of the beauty of the moment - if we are given time to contemplate. And this, I know it within my heart, transcends and overwhelms all the fear that I could possibly feel.
I've had some weird experiences in the past and they have all led me to the conclusion that death can be an amazing experience. In fact, that death can be (as Neil Gaiman so brilliantly put it) The Time Of Our Life. When the whole of our system knows that this is it, suddenly all the boundaries that have been in place to "keep us safe", can be discarded and the world's of experience can really be opened up. I firmly believe that in those last few moments we can live more than we ever thought possible. I don't think any experience whatsoever could possibly compare to it.
In any case, there I was, waiting in line, powerless as somebody fought for life. Hearing the despair, surprised at the inefficiency of response services within the airport. It felt as if it was more important to to keep up appearances than actually help the person (for a while people were crying out for a doctor or nurse amidst the passengers and, yet, there was no information on the speakers - or, rather, the speakers continued to blare the usual stuff about flights and delays).
What I felt was that it was the being in that moment, sharing that transition, and especially the fear and concern and pain and support that people were demonstrating with their body language, that really affected me.
I say this because when I was looking to my gran, lying in her coffin, I couldn't feel much. It was clear to me that she wasn't there. That that body wasn't her. That she was gone. It was so clear that I couldn't do anything about it that no attachment was present.
My relation with my family and with my own feelings has always been somewhat complicated. So many contradictions that sometimes I am lost amidst them.
This time I was so absorbed in being there that I didn't really notice the usual "they cry for themselves rather than the dead".
What I observed that really turned me inside out a bit, anger boiling alongside a somewhat cool contemplation of it, was with me listening to the priest saying the mass. This was the first time that I heard most of it. And I felt completely betrayed. I couldn't stop seeing and feling the deception being played.
(I'm not saying that it was, just that that was how it felt to me)
i understand everybody's need to come to terms with that indefatigable event taht no one seems to be able to dodge, but the way the priest was performing that service just felt, ultimately, as an act of subtle cruelty.
The key to all this was the tone of voice. So artificial and rehearsed that I felt at points like choking the guy.
I guess people prefer to listen to what they wish they could believe than in what they actually feel. I guess that, when confronted with death, we all need a supporting parent. But seeing someone taking advantage of that vulnerability was becoming unbearable. Feeling and knowing what I was feeling, both enhanced my ability to control my emotions and to more fully express them inside myself.
This is my issue of course. My inability to accept when people do not talk from their hearts or even from their minds but from something they simply have been told to believe.
So why am i enraged at everybody else's relinquishing of their inner freedom to find their own truth?
Partially beacuse I know that I am afraid of being exactly like them, only in a different way. Instead of having a seemingly solid external system to back me up, I have a, perhaps steam like interior system backing me up.
Also because I quite obviously and egotistically believe that my beliefs are better than other people's.
In sum, because i, like most people, have a warped vision of reality. This being caused by the existence of an ego, to a great extent. If there is an I, if there is something that recognises itself as being separate from the rest, then this I will tend to see itself as most important than the rest purely as a survival mechanism.
Why am I writing this?
I honestly don't know. For many reasons I guess. Probably all the ones you can think about are probably true to one extent or another. It doesn't really matter.
Partially I wanted to give a background for these last few days writing and to record in some way the transformation of my perception.
This probably has to do with a sensation/thought that I had on the 436 going back to lewisham this afternoon. I had the clear impression that after (or before) the funeral of my other gran, almost 3 years ago, that I had had a vision or a dream or something that i was at the funeral of this gran that died a few days ago. It was a deja vu, of course, but this one had a memory attached to it of actually having written down this sensation all this time ago.
Obviously I don't have the faintest idea where I wrote this.
In any case, it was simple. I had the feeling I had dreamt or foresaw the whole situation around having to rush back to portugal for my gran's funeral after having been only a week ago.
i know that deja vu feelings are simply a way of dealing with our pain, with a situation that we feel we cannot resolve. But this one clearly felt different from the usual ones.
Anyway...
On wednesday I reviewed a bit more of LAND OF FOG. I had felt that I was spending so much time lately with A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN and not so much with this project (that I still want to have a first draft ready before the year ends - actually, before x-mas comes....). Not much and quite slowly. I spent more time playing the guitar (and recording various tracks) than reviewing. Sometimes it's just the way it goes. I didn't feel like I should force myself too much on that day. And so I played thinking of my dead grandparents and let what I felt out in my own way. Turning the emotion into some sort of grandeur. Death should not be small and squandered. It should be celebrated and be able to lift us up even closer to life. Those tracks were a bit a bout that. Starting with simple structures of half a dozen notes, repeating themselves in loops but with some rhythmic variances that gave them fluidity and vertigo. And then, at some point, thinking of The Go-Betweens, i shifted the scale and made them all happier and lighter. In some i returned to the beginning riff, in order i did not. Above all I just wanted to use that liberating energy that i was feeling and captured it somehow so that perhaps one day I can share it and help others reach that state. maybe telling them the story of how those songs came to be and then playing them so that we can all participate in an experience of communion and some degree of truth.
Today I finished typing up the rest of the stuff for A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN. There are still some more panels to write up but I think I can do them all in a day. Maybe this coming wednesday. It would be nice if, by the end of this weekend, I could have both first drafts finished. It's quite possible, but I have to be more focussed than I have been in the last week or so.
And this is how things are at the moment.
Hope you are well and happy.
Always.
Peace
Tuesday, 9 December 2008
A View Of The Mountain update
December is already rolling away fast and I'm simply trying to keep up!
I guess the more you do, the less time you've got to actually pay any attention to time itself... that's why we feel time is moving fast.
Perhaps time doesn't care if it's moving fast or slow. But we do. And our perception is always relative.
Always?
That's an interesting question and, thinking more about it would quite certainly take me to the fuzzy bordering regions between Buddhism and Hinduism.
(We are not the Dharma Initiative. We are not the Dharma Initiative. We are not th-)
(sorry... too much LOST viewing the last couple of weeks...)
Simply because the concepts of Buddhism and Hinduism are quite different. One defines the Void as the Absolute. The other, a god like presence that exists beyond this void...
I think it really is a question of words rather than of experience.
But various mystics have pointed out that enlightened beings seem to have access to a reality that isn't relative/observer dependent anymore...
Not food for thought, but more of subject matter to be experienced via spiritual practice.
Anyway...
This week I've been mostly writing...
(and yes, the Fast Show was one of the best british comedy show's ever!)
A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN
and
LAND OF FOG
I have kept to my commitment's...
The plan is to have readable first draft ready for the two scripts.
Don't really know about A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN since this script has been a journey in itself. But I'm confident that this will be the time of wordy deliverance!
I've got about 80-85% of all the panels. I just need to type up a few more pages. I'll probably end up with 200 pages of comics or something...
And that will mean a good revising.
In any case, as soon as all the sequences are ready I'll start assembling them with my famous cut and paste routine with scissors and tape.
It's the only way to do it...
(trust me, I know)
That will take me to a mock structure for the whole thing. Hopefully I'll be able to do the cut and pasting in just a day. Then it will be revising time. Which means reading the whole thing and figuring out what was left out, what isn't working, what is how, who is which, you know, etc...
With LAND OF FOG things seem to be going more slowly but with great determination!
I feel so relaxed about it that I'm not even too bothered editing it...
(the problems of over confidence...)
Actually I lost some good pages that I had revised.
You know, one of those things when the computer just decides to switch itself off...
But I found the file, managed to retrieve it and convert it, even gave it a new label and everything.
AND THEN ERASED IT WHEN I FORMATED MY COMPUTER A COUPLE OF DAYS AGO
This is how my brain works.
Can you see now why I have to write this stuff down?!
Even when I do, I forget!
(but if I didn't... god help us...)
I mean I spent a couple of hours trying to figure out how I could save that file, etc, etc, searching for it, etc, etc, and then, after doing it, after doing everything right, I FORGOT TO SEND IT TO A DIFFERENT DRIVE
or simply save it on my pen drive.
BAM!
Lost.
And now, definitely nowhere to be found.
Lesson learned.
(hopefully... please work brain, please! I'm begging me here!)
This probably means, in our Great Cosmic Plan, that that revision wasn't that good.
I'm quite sure of it.
Maybe...
Peace
I guess the more you do, the less time you've got to actually pay any attention to time itself... that's why we feel time is moving fast.
Perhaps time doesn't care if it's moving fast or slow. But we do. And our perception is always relative.
Always?
That's an interesting question and, thinking more about it would quite certainly take me to the fuzzy bordering regions between Buddhism and Hinduism.
(We are not the Dharma Initiative. We are not the Dharma Initiative. We are not th-)
(sorry... too much LOST viewing the last couple of weeks...)
Simply because the concepts of Buddhism and Hinduism are quite different. One defines the Void as the Absolute. The other, a god like presence that exists beyond this void...
I think it really is a question of words rather than of experience.
But various mystics have pointed out that enlightened beings seem to have access to a reality that isn't relative/observer dependent anymore...
Not food for thought, but more of subject matter to be experienced via spiritual practice.
Anyway...
This week I've been mostly writing...
(and yes, the Fast Show was one of the best british comedy show's ever!)
A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN
and
LAND OF FOG
I have kept to my commitment's...
The plan is to have readable first draft ready for the two scripts.
Don't really know about A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN since this script has been a journey in itself. But I'm confident that this will be the time of wordy deliverance!
I've got about 80-85% of all the panels. I just need to type up a few more pages. I'll probably end up with 200 pages of comics or something...
And that will mean a good revising.
In any case, as soon as all the sequences are ready I'll start assembling them with my famous cut and paste routine with scissors and tape.
It's the only way to do it...
(trust me, I know)
That will take me to a mock structure for the whole thing. Hopefully I'll be able to do the cut and pasting in just a day. Then it will be revising time. Which means reading the whole thing and figuring out what was left out, what isn't working, what is how, who is which, you know, etc...
With LAND OF FOG things seem to be going more slowly but with great determination!
I feel so relaxed about it that I'm not even too bothered editing it...
(the problems of over confidence...)
Actually I lost some good pages that I had revised.
You know, one of those things when the computer just decides to switch itself off...
But I found the file, managed to retrieve it and convert it, even gave it a new label and everything.
AND THEN ERASED IT WHEN I FORMATED MY COMPUTER A COUPLE OF DAYS AGO
This is how my brain works.
Can you see now why I have to write this stuff down?!
Even when I do, I forget!
(but if I didn't... god help us...)
I mean I spent a couple of hours trying to figure out how I could save that file, etc, etc, searching for it, etc, etc, and then, after doing it, after doing everything right, I FORGOT TO SEND IT TO A DIFFERENT DRIVE
or simply save it on my pen drive.
BAM!
Lost.
And now, definitely nowhere to be found.
Lesson learned.
(hopefully... please work brain, please! I'm begging me here!)
This probably means, in our Great Cosmic Plan, that that revision wasn't that good.
I'm quite sure of it.
Maybe...
Peace
Friday, 5 December 2008
Portuguese Trips
Spent the last 8 days or so in portugal. And, until sunday the 30th of november, I was almost completely absorbed with nanowrimo and ML.
I finished a mostly unreadable first draft over 151 000 words long.
I feel that I am now ready to start writing the book proper but it will have to wait. I need a rest from ML!
I've had a couple of ideas since then, namely one for a short theatre play under the current alias of TRAIN OF THOUGHT.
And a few ideas for a trilogy of films for Marvel starring one of their characters. I started writing the synopsis for the stories (it was only one film in the beginning, but then I got a bit carried away...) still on the airplane and then, whilst riding the 436 to Lewisham, as I wrote some more, it started to become clear where the first film could end and the second one begin.
And, while having some food, round about 1am, already home, already in bed, already glad that I could switch on my computer and use that well known keyboard for as long as I'd like, I added a few more ideas, some more lines, planned very roughly the first two films and finally a third came in. Kind of rounding everything up.
Which is how I like it to be really.
So this is December. The month where christmas happens, either you believe in santa claus or not.
The month where some people buy presents, others expect to receive them and still others, like me, only buy if they really feel like it.
(I prefer to give presents whenever I feel like it, not because of any specific date - call me a present intuitive...)
And, in this month of consumerism and family (and food and tv and many other things) I'm planning on spending most of my time revising LAND OF FOG in order to have a readable draft before the year finishes.
And continue working on A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN.
And probably write some more on a few scripts and odds and ends that my mind will take me to.
Be well,
Peace.
I finished a mostly unreadable first draft over 151 000 words long.
I feel that I am now ready to start writing the book proper but it will have to wait. I need a rest from ML!
I've had a couple of ideas since then, namely one for a short theatre play under the current alias of TRAIN OF THOUGHT.
And a few ideas for a trilogy of films for Marvel starring one of their characters. I started writing the synopsis for the stories (it was only one film in the beginning, but then I got a bit carried away...) still on the airplane and then, whilst riding the 436 to Lewisham, as I wrote some more, it started to become clear where the first film could end and the second one begin.
And, while having some food, round about 1am, already home, already in bed, already glad that I could switch on my computer and use that well known keyboard for as long as I'd like, I added a few more ideas, some more lines, planned very roughly the first two films and finally a third came in. Kind of rounding everything up.
Which is how I like it to be really.
So this is December. The month where christmas happens, either you believe in santa claus or not.
The month where some people buy presents, others expect to receive them and still others, like me, only buy if they really feel like it.
(I prefer to give presents whenever I feel like it, not because of any specific date - call me a present intuitive...)
And, in this month of consumerism and family (and food and tv and many other things) I'm planning on spending most of my time revising LAND OF FOG in order to have a readable draft before the year finishes.
And continue working on A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN.
And probably write some more on a few scripts and odds and ends that my mind will take me to.
Be well,
Peace.
Tuesday, 25 November 2008
Luxembourg Writs
Spent this last weekend in Luxembourg with my good friend Miguel and his lovely family. It snowed quite heavily on saturday (so I had a white morning bus rid on my way to frankfurt-hahn airport on sunday morning) and I went to a concert on friday night (fujya & miyagi, from brighton!)
But the remainder of the time I simply stayed home. Either playing guitar or enjoying some of Miguel's wonderful cooking, watching the kids being kids and taking us all to their level without any problem.
And writing.
I'd wanted to be able to write quite a bit while I was in Luxembourg so I'd still make this year's objective in nanowrimo.
And I did. Perhaps not as much as I'd like, but still a good word count. Not very inspired word count at that. I really feel that my room in Brockley is where the good things happen the most.
Having said that I did tread on some of the rougher waters whilst in Luxembourg. Not that many ideas and, above all, no real want to write.
But I did and ML grew a few thousand words more.
It always amazes me. When I update my file and check its size that it jumps 40 or 50 Kb at each turn. Sometimes even hundreds. The file is almost one megabyte big!
I don't think I will be able to finish the book just like I wanted. But I think I'll have all the pieces I needed to start doing the thing most crucial to the book. ML's story. The one that comes through the eyes and words of 4 different people. With me adding some more confusion on top of that.
But I have also been updating my A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN file. It's going slowly, but it's going. I'm just adding a couple of scenes at a time. And as soon as every single one is done then I will start weacing them all together. Chopping and adding. It's one of my favourite bits because you already feel that the story is there, ready to jump out into the world. I guess it's my favourite bit of editing, even though it can be pretty frustating in the begining if you don't have a structure already in mind...
(which I sort of have in this case... though I don't really know what's gonna happen when I start assembling it...)
And I'm missing LAND OF FOG. As soon as the nanowrimo ends and I finish writing all the bits still left out, I'll start working on this again and see if I can have a first draft ready before x-mas. It's doable but, you never know what may come knocking next at your door...
I keep talking about it and thinking about it every so often, compiling the odd idea, the odd little tidbit that can go into one of those connecting bits between scenes that I still haven't written or that it will need to be re-written. I'm keeping the story alive.
I keep telling it in my mind,
I haven't forgotten about you, I'm just giving you a breather, so you better come out strong next time we meet because I won't let go until you're here beside me...
Peace
But the remainder of the time I simply stayed home. Either playing guitar or enjoying some of Miguel's wonderful cooking, watching the kids being kids and taking us all to their level without any problem.
And writing.
I'd wanted to be able to write quite a bit while I was in Luxembourg so I'd still make this year's objective in nanowrimo.
And I did. Perhaps not as much as I'd like, but still a good word count. Not very inspired word count at that. I really feel that my room in Brockley is where the good things happen the most.
Having said that I did tread on some of the rougher waters whilst in Luxembourg. Not that many ideas and, above all, no real want to write.
But I did and ML grew a few thousand words more.
It always amazes me. When I update my file and check its size that it jumps 40 or 50 Kb at each turn. Sometimes even hundreds. The file is almost one megabyte big!
I don't think I will be able to finish the book just like I wanted. But I think I'll have all the pieces I needed to start doing the thing most crucial to the book. ML's story. The one that comes through the eyes and words of 4 different people. With me adding some more confusion on top of that.
But I have also been updating my A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN file. It's going slowly, but it's going. I'm just adding a couple of scenes at a time. And as soon as every single one is done then I will start weacing them all together. Chopping and adding. It's one of my favourite bits because you already feel that the story is there, ready to jump out into the world. I guess it's my favourite bit of editing, even though it can be pretty frustating in the begining if you don't have a structure already in mind...
(which I sort of have in this case... though I don't really know what's gonna happen when I start assembling it...)
And I'm missing LAND OF FOG. As soon as the nanowrimo ends and I finish writing all the bits still left out, I'll start working on this again and see if I can have a first draft ready before x-mas. It's doable but, you never know what may come knocking next at your door...
I keep talking about it and thinking about it every so often, compiling the odd idea, the odd little tidbit that can go into one of those connecting bits between scenes that I still haven't written or that it will need to be re-written. I'm keeping the story alive.
I keep telling it in my mind,
I haven't forgotten about you, I'm just giving you a breather, so you better come out strong next time we meet because I won't let go until you're here beside me...
Peace
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
More Sequential Writs
I've been so busy with NaNoWriMo and the ML project that I really haven't done much in terms of comics scritps.
Land Of Fog is advancing slowly through its first revising stage and I'm doing the odd bits in A View Of The Mountain. Until the 30th of november nothing much will be happening in the other fronts.
My hope is that this rhythm of writing just over 4 000 words per day will be sustained afterwards (a bit difficult when revising comes in...) and I can head back into comics and scripts that are still flying about in my head.
I've had a few more ideas in the meantime but nothing has really been explored much.
Now is simply not the time!
Now it's time to let creativity run loose and be totally unafraid of being completely inconsequent and foolish!
Peace
Land Of Fog is advancing slowly through its first revising stage and I'm doing the odd bits in A View Of The Mountain. Until the 30th of november nothing much will be happening in the other fronts.
My hope is that this rhythm of writing just over 4 000 words per day will be sustained afterwards (a bit difficult when revising comes in...) and I can head back into comics and scripts that are still flying about in my head.
I've had a few more ideas in the meantime but nothing has really been explored much.
Now is simply not the time!
Now it's time to let creativity run loose and be totally unafraid of being completely inconsequent and foolish!
Peace
Tuesday, 4 November 2008
Comics Script - The World As We Know It
I've just realised that's been way over a week since I last posted here.
What the heck happens to time? I mean, where does it go? Does somebody keep it inside their pockets or something? Is there a place filled with so much time no one can actually get there?!
(these could actually be some ideas for a short story...)
In any case, on saturday the 25th I kept my plan and continued writing LAND OF FOG. This has actually been my major project in the intervening days.
On the sunday I kept revising and added some new scenes. Don't really recall which (perhaps I should start making a note of that as well) but I do know that I focussed a lot on the characters of Anubia, Rikar, Terry and Tchan. Some weird stories came through and I think Old Ed's role in the whole shennanigan is now stronger than ever. I've been planting seeds so to speak...
I also started writing a synopsis for another comics series idea that i had and that I think will be quite easy to get some funding to do. But i'll keep it a mystery. For now...
Also wrote a bit more on AYOOLA. Still need quite a bit more of text but at least what's coming through is already somewhat solid. This story will have momentum either I like it or not!
The 27th was about getting a bit more structure into LAND OF FOG (still don't know how I'm going to work this one out, but I may just keep it in chronological order - i think it will work this way and I'm a bit afraid that if I jumble the structure further it will become more difficult to get into without really adding any more to the story... don't know... I'll have to see it as soon as it is all revised). Also did some more panels for A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN.
on tuesday i merely revised a bit more of LAND OF FOG. Revising is really the toughest thing for me to do. But also, towards its end, the most rewarding. Feeling that something is completed or steadily approaching its completion is really good!
On wednesday I had a couple of ideas for scripts. One is called THE DOWSER and is the story of a guy searching for the ideal place to live. It's a short story that i initially wanted to do almost completely silent. Now I think I'll have to think hard in order to keep it as silent as possible...
DEAD ZONE is actually not an idea of mine but of one of my flatmates. Still, he wants me to write it... i don't know if i have time to delve into someone else's dystopia but I suggested a few ideas in order to make it more cohesive. It kind of made sense us to be talking about it after a long chat about Brian Wood's DMZ.
The other idea was THE PIANO TEACHER which is basically a love story between two people 25 years of difference. This has been a theme that I've wanted to touch upon for many years, especially since I read Sam Keith's ZERO GIRL. Which turns out to be quite autobiographical, only in reverse. ZERO GIRL tells the story of a high school girl that falls in love with her teacher. He in turn falls for her but nothing happens apart from the weirdness and solitude she experiences in her head. But it has a happy ending. In any case, the most moving part of the whole book was actually Sam's account of how he met his wife when he was 15 and she 30. How they waited until he was 18 and started living together. Up until then, more than 10 years after. The whole book is a tribute to her, her patience, guidance and love and a genuine testimony that love knows no barriers. It's a somewhat controversial theme, i know but I, for one, am happy that someone has decided to talk about the good things about it, not just the bad ones...
Thursday i was home and so LAND OF FOG became the centre of the day. I also wrote some more on a huge story arc for the INCREDIBLE HULK that I've had in my head for years. To me this is the definitive take on the HULK. I still am to read a HULK story that completely satisfies me and this is definitely the thing that comes the closest to it. There will be plenty of destruction but the majority will be internal...
From friday the 31st to the 2nd of november i was away on a roleplaying game in essex. Due to the intensity of said CTHULHU horror fantasy mystery i did not write anything (apart from the synopsis for a short crime noir story) until sunday evening. I was still more or less in character, tired and spaced out and couldn't write as much as I wanted. Still, since NANOWRIMO is on, i started with MORTIMER LANSKY and started writing the intro and some guidelines to the book and the reader.
But because i was feeling some longing for LAND OF FOG there i went to check up on things and add a few tidbits more...
Monday I had more excuses but wrote some more on MORTIMER LANSKY and revised a bit more on LAND OF FOG.
Also on sunday and monday i revised a few graphic novels. Namely Paul Karasik's and David Mazzucchelli's adaptation of Paul Auster's CITY OF GLASS and Frank Miller's and Geof Darrow's iconic HARD BOILED. These are soon to be posted on the livejournal webpage.
I'm considering if i should start posting them here but i'm not so keen on repeating stuff... we'll see...
Today I'm eager to get home and type some of the crazy ideas i've been having so far for MORTIMER LANSKY and get some more revising done on LAND OF FOG. It would be nice if i could finish the first draft of the prior and complete the latter before this month ends. Especially because I'm going to portugal on the 27th. And to Luxembourg on the 20th...
We all want to keep ahead of the curve anyway...
Peace
What the heck happens to time? I mean, where does it go? Does somebody keep it inside their pockets or something? Is there a place filled with so much time no one can actually get there?!
(these could actually be some ideas for a short story...)
In any case, on saturday the 25th I kept my plan and continued writing LAND OF FOG. This has actually been my major project in the intervening days.
On the sunday I kept revising and added some new scenes. Don't really recall which (perhaps I should start making a note of that as well) but I do know that I focussed a lot on the characters of Anubia, Rikar, Terry and Tchan. Some weird stories came through and I think Old Ed's role in the whole shennanigan is now stronger than ever. I've been planting seeds so to speak...
I also started writing a synopsis for another comics series idea that i had and that I think will be quite easy to get some funding to do. But i'll keep it a mystery. For now...
Also wrote a bit more on AYOOLA. Still need quite a bit more of text but at least what's coming through is already somewhat solid. This story will have momentum either I like it or not!
The 27th was about getting a bit more structure into LAND OF FOG (still don't know how I'm going to work this one out, but I may just keep it in chronological order - i think it will work this way and I'm a bit afraid that if I jumble the structure further it will become more difficult to get into without really adding any more to the story... don't know... I'll have to see it as soon as it is all revised). Also did some more panels for A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN.
on tuesday i merely revised a bit more of LAND OF FOG. Revising is really the toughest thing for me to do. But also, towards its end, the most rewarding. Feeling that something is completed or steadily approaching its completion is really good!
On wednesday I had a couple of ideas for scripts. One is called THE DOWSER and is the story of a guy searching for the ideal place to live. It's a short story that i initially wanted to do almost completely silent. Now I think I'll have to think hard in order to keep it as silent as possible...
DEAD ZONE is actually not an idea of mine but of one of my flatmates. Still, he wants me to write it... i don't know if i have time to delve into someone else's dystopia but I suggested a few ideas in order to make it more cohesive. It kind of made sense us to be talking about it after a long chat about Brian Wood's DMZ.
The other idea was THE PIANO TEACHER which is basically a love story between two people 25 years of difference. This has been a theme that I've wanted to touch upon for many years, especially since I read Sam Keith's ZERO GIRL. Which turns out to be quite autobiographical, only in reverse. ZERO GIRL tells the story of a high school girl that falls in love with her teacher. He in turn falls for her but nothing happens apart from the weirdness and solitude she experiences in her head. But it has a happy ending. In any case, the most moving part of the whole book was actually Sam's account of how he met his wife when he was 15 and she 30. How they waited until he was 18 and started living together. Up until then, more than 10 years after. The whole book is a tribute to her, her patience, guidance and love and a genuine testimony that love knows no barriers. It's a somewhat controversial theme, i know but I, for one, am happy that someone has decided to talk about the good things about it, not just the bad ones...
Thursday i was home and so LAND OF FOG became the centre of the day. I also wrote some more on a huge story arc for the INCREDIBLE HULK that I've had in my head for years. To me this is the definitive take on the HULK. I still am to read a HULK story that completely satisfies me and this is definitely the thing that comes the closest to it. There will be plenty of destruction but the majority will be internal...
From friday the 31st to the 2nd of november i was away on a roleplaying game in essex. Due to the intensity of said CTHULHU horror fantasy mystery i did not write anything (apart from the synopsis for a short crime noir story) until sunday evening. I was still more or less in character, tired and spaced out and couldn't write as much as I wanted. Still, since NANOWRIMO is on, i started with MORTIMER LANSKY and started writing the intro and some guidelines to the book and the reader.
But because i was feeling some longing for LAND OF FOG there i went to check up on things and add a few tidbits more...
Monday I had more excuses but wrote some more on MORTIMER LANSKY and revised a bit more on LAND OF FOG.
Also on sunday and monday i revised a few graphic novels. Namely Paul Karasik's and David Mazzucchelli's adaptation of Paul Auster's CITY OF GLASS and Frank Miller's and Geof Darrow's iconic HARD BOILED. These are soon to be posted on the livejournal webpage.
I'm considering if i should start posting them here but i'm not so keen on repeating stuff... we'll see...
Today I'm eager to get home and type some of the crazy ideas i've been having so far for MORTIMER LANSKY and get some more revising done on LAND OF FOG. It would be nice if i could finish the first draft of the prior and complete the latter before this month ends. Especially because I'm going to portugal on the 27th. And to Luxembourg on the 20th...
We all want to keep ahead of the curve anyway...
Peace
Saturday, 25 October 2008
Land Of Fog & Other Fuzzy Stories
A lot has happened since the 17th but it has mostly to do with words.
(hey! that's why we're here, right??)
On the 17th I didn't do much more than simply type up some of the stuff for A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN.
The following day, saturday, again it was the story of the Monk and the King but also some more on something that I've been working for a while now but that still hasn't reached these pages. More on that later. Probably in a whole new post.
(i want you to read goddammit!)
sunday I worked so no(t much) writing for the wicked. I printed a fresh copy of THE SHIFT with the few alterations I'd done so far. And also my summary of the stuff I've been doing for the last couple of years so that i can actually let people know what's up my creek. I'll probably post it here at some point - I still haven't revised it and updated it, that's why...
I also finished up typing up all the alterations in A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN and printed the whole thing off. Since then I've been working on the other file, doing the same thing. Coming up with panels for the various sequences, then typing them up. As soon as the two files are ready - in the sense of all the dialogue having panels to go and a rough breakdown in pages/sections - I'll begin that actually quite fun task of copy pasting with scissors and tape. I'll have the three files printed (probably over 200 pages of material), hopefully a decluttered bed and plenty of time.
And I'll start matching bits of script together and create a first version of the full story in two parts. I'll probably need just a whole day to do all that tape&scissors copy pasting and then another to actually do the same thing on the computer. Structures take time. This is something I'm learning every time I do them. The other thing is don't try to do it in one go. Do as much as you can, but if you repeatedly get stuck in the same place (where the heck are these scenes going to go??) the best thing is to wait and do it another day.
On monday the 20th I revised the short comics script for Teatro Do Frio, started a new scritp called AYOOLA, added some more scenes to LAND OF FOG, wrote the synopsis for a roleplaying game character (called Sebastian Lumiere - don't you just love the name??) and worked on another of my special scripts...
(of which Ayoola is also one, by the way...)
And ended up missing the graphic novels reading group meeting having been so engrossed with the writing...
Tuesday I typed a few more pages for the WEIR-D MACHINE, more on AYOOLA, A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN and LAND OF FOG.
Wednesday was also spent with AYOOLA and LAND OF FOG.
Thursday just a bit on LAND OF FOG and some more panels on A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN.
And yesterday, friday, it was just LAND OF FOG the whole day.
You might ask why have i spent so much time with LAND OF FOG lately. And it is a good question. But the answer is simple. I want to finish as much as possible before nanowrimo starts. And I realised that I could actually finish LAND OF FOG but not really A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN.
I'm just over 30 000 words on LAND OF FOG and more or less already have all the crucial scenes. There's 2 or 3 more than I want to add but these are relatively small ones. Then the next step will be to print off the whole thing ('cause today I want to see if I can edit, proof read and correct, if not all, at least most of it) and create a structure for it.
LAND OF FOG tells the story of a traveller that arrives to a strange town and all the scenes far under two general categories. Scenes of him meeting the place and the people. And scenes where weird stories are told or eerie stuff happens to him.
Now one of the ideas I had was to have one of these strands working chronologically forwards and the other backwards. So, let's say, we would start with him leaving the town (and work backwards until we find out what happened on that first day) but using the weird stuff as the basis of the narrative, working thus forward in time since there is a crescendo of intensity in the way the scenes are chronologically placed.
The other idea is simply to have it all working forward in time but having the weird stuff happening before we know how he got there in the first place.
I'm starting to think that this is probably a better solution for it allows us to open up with a strong scene that will hopefully capture the readers attention from then onwards. Besides I think the idea of having the event and then only after seeing someone's expectations as he or she is about to enter it can work. In any case, as soon as I have all the bits and pieces ready it will be easy to come up with a chronological version of the story and then create at least one of these two. Another afternoon of copy pasting with scissors and tape. Which, I'm hoping, will be soon enough. So probably either next wednesday/thursday afternoon. Which are going to be my next days off before we hit nanowrimo head on.
Which means I'll have to have everything written down by tuesday. Which means it would probably be best if I could wrap this thing by today and tomorrow and spend some time on monday/tuesday reviewing the whole thing.
Sounds like a plan, don't it?
That's usually how plans start. They start to sound and, soon enough, they're the ones shouting at you...
Today I'm gonna revise the so called LAND OF FOG short story. If I have time I'll add the new panels to A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN and finish typing up WEIR-D MACHINE (only a couple more pages to go - though there is still plenty to tell with this one... this is one that's gonna stick around for a while I think...)
Well, that's it for now!
Peace
(hey! that's why we're here, right??)
On the 17th I didn't do much more than simply type up some of the stuff for A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN.
The following day, saturday, again it was the story of the Monk and the King but also some more on something that I've been working for a while now but that still hasn't reached these pages. More on that later. Probably in a whole new post.
(i want you to read goddammit!)
sunday I worked so no(t much) writing for the wicked. I printed a fresh copy of THE SHIFT with the few alterations I'd done so far. And also my summary of the stuff I've been doing for the last couple of years so that i can actually let people know what's up my creek. I'll probably post it here at some point - I still haven't revised it and updated it, that's why...
I also finished up typing up all the alterations in A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN and printed the whole thing off. Since then I've been working on the other file, doing the same thing. Coming up with panels for the various sequences, then typing them up. As soon as the two files are ready - in the sense of all the dialogue having panels to go and a rough breakdown in pages/sections - I'll begin that actually quite fun task of copy pasting with scissors and tape. I'll have the three files printed (probably over 200 pages of material), hopefully a decluttered bed and plenty of time.
And I'll start matching bits of script together and create a first version of the full story in two parts. I'll probably need just a whole day to do all that tape&scissors copy pasting and then another to actually do the same thing on the computer. Structures take time. This is something I'm learning every time I do them. The other thing is don't try to do it in one go. Do as much as you can, but if you repeatedly get stuck in the same place (where the heck are these scenes going to go??) the best thing is to wait and do it another day.
On monday the 20th I revised the short comics script for Teatro Do Frio, started a new scritp called AYOOLA, added some more scenes to LAND OF FOG, wrote the synopsis for a roleplaying game character (called Sebastian Lumiere - don't you just love the name??) and worked on another of my special scripts...
(of which Ayoola is also one, by the way...)
And ended up missing the graphic novels reading group meeting having been so engrossed with the writing...
Tuesday I typed a few more pages for the WEIR-D MACHINE, more on AYOOLA, A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN and LAND OF FOG.
Wednesday was also spent with AYOOLA and LAND OF FOG.
Thursday just a bit on LAND OF FOG and some more panels on A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN.
And yesterday, friday, it was just LAND OF FOG the whole day.
You might ask why have i spent so much time with LAND OF FOG lately. And it is a good question. But the answer is simple. I want to finish as much as possible before nanowrimo starts. And I realised that I could actually finish LAND OF FOG but not really A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN.
I'm just over 30 000 words on LAND OF FOG and more or less already have all the crucial scenes. There's 2 or 3 more than I want to add but these are relatively small ones. Then the next step will be to print off the whole thing ('cause today I want to see if I can edit, proof read and correct, if not all, at least most of it) and create a structure for it.
LAND OF FOG tells the story of a traveller that arrives to a strange town and all the scenes far under two general categories. Scenes of him meeting the place and the people. And scenes where weird stories are told or eerie stuff happens to him.
Now one of the ideas I had was to have one of these strands working chronologically forwards and the other backwards. So, let's say, we would start with him leaving the town (and work backwards until we find out what happened on that first day) but using the weird stuff as the basis of the narrative, working thus forward in time since there is a crescendo of intensity in the way the scenes are chronologically placed.
The other idea is simply to have it all working forward in time but having the weird stuff happening before we know how he got there in the first place.
I'm starting to think that this is probably a better solution for it allows us to open up with a strong scene that will hopefully capture the readers attention from then onwards. Besides I think the idea of having the event and then only after seeing someone's expectations as he or she is about to enter it can work. In any case, as soon as I have all the bits and pieces ready it will be easy to come up with a chronological version of the story and then create at least one of these two. Another afternoon of copy pasting with scissors and tape. Which, I'm hoping, will be soon enough. So probably either next wednesday/thursday afternoon. Which are going to be my next days off before we hit nanowrimo head on.
Which means I'll have to have everything written down by tuesday. Which means it would probably be best if I could wrap this thing by today and tomorrow and spend some time on monday/tuesday reviewing the whole thing.
Sounds like a plan, don't it?
That's usually how plans start. They start to sound and, soon enough, they're the ones shouting at you...
Today I'm gonna revise the so called LAND OF FOG short story. If I have time I'll add the new panels to A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAIN and finish typing up WEIR-D MACHINE (only a couple more pages to go - though there is still plenty to tell with this one... this is one that's gonna stick around for a while I think...)
Well, that's it for now!
Peace
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