So let me just start by saying that I am currently waiting for both Coffee and my computer to restart. With that out of the way, let me also just add that I haven't really written anything in the story since then. Is it out of my mind. Not really. I've just been either stressed, busy, or just not in the mood to write. Worse yet is that I kind of feel like putting down that book and going back to my previous one, RED, and restarting it. Why? Because I have all these ideas on how to do it better and more correctly than before that will allow me to not get stuck and actually finish it.
On that note let me describe how RED current was working out to be. There was a main character who had an interesting (no, really!) past and for some reason decided to spend his life as a detective. He gets a call out from the middle of nowhere and they ask him to find their daughter. Blah blah blah blah, more characters, and next thing you know I was in a hole.
Another important part to RED was that all the characters were based around two scenarios. The first one was that they would all be considered a "color" and as such that would turn into both their name and a bit of their personality. T he second personality was based around a dance of some sort (very subtle in the story, but one could notice it if they were looking). Although I liked the characters that this created, it did not create any seen friction that could continue into a full blown story of amazing proportions. That is a skill that I can only think I have currently been able to develop. And yes, Plots are hard to make and even more complicated to make great.
So what do I want to do to RED that changes it completely and makes it possible to complete? Well, for starters, I want to base characters and the scenes they are in off of colors. In this way I can get a much more dramatic scene (as will be seen in the re-write) as well as a possible self style to the story. I'm even considering taking it to the next level and using it in the text a bit (though most likely I wont on the first version) just to really have some fun with it. The second thing I want to do is add a little bit of LA Noir. Okay, enough of RED, that's actually not even started and I just wanted to give my friends who had read what was written an idea of why I might want to restart. Trust me, its better.
Now back to the update of my life. Lets see, went back to school for my Masters of Science in Civil Engineering and a focus in Structural Engineering. I couldn't get a job without a masters because of the economy, so I went back as I promised my parents. Had my birthday back in January, it wasn't very good. Did not do much but study and work for more of February. Had a lousy Valentines Day (expected). March came around and things finally started to get better. I got out and got to hike, which caused sore legs for a few days but I think was more than worth it. I finally got a "haircut." I put that in quotes because I donated every last inch of it. 10 inches went to Locks of Love and then what remained was shaved off for St Baldrick's Day. If you'd like to see a few of the pictures or donate towards my cause, you can find them here on the St Baldrick's Day website. I'll be adding more soon. Also, the total length was 10.5 inches and I'm glad to be rid of it. It was too long.
And finally on my update, yesterday I got stood up by all of my friends to go drinking (except Wyatt, who I accidentally stood up because I was so tired I passed out, sorry!). Today I got stood up to go hiking. Sad end of the first half of the school year, but it happens. Now on to Spring Break and then to finish up my first semester as a grad student. Never thought I'd go through so much school (cause I hate it...).
Showing posts with label Insomnia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Insomnia. Show all posts
Friday, March 18, 2011
Thursday, December 2, 2010
December...
The final month of the year and I have several important announcements to start it.
First, I finally bought Microsoft Word 2010 and will now be able to actually write something more. I tried using 2003 and the Mac version of 2008 and 2011, but those versions all altered the text and got me off task. So really I needed to get 2010 just to keep writing and not get stuck on details like all the text being screwed up after I specifically worked on it a certain way. So there’s a plus towards me finishing it.
Second, I feel the need to write! I have ideas flowing through me again and I get up right before I’m asleep to jot down little things I’m afraid I might forget. This is a wonderful piece of news, which basically means I’m once again thinking and ready to make more ideas. So there is another plus...
...except I’ve been quickly jotting down ideas not on the story I’ve been working on, but another one from the past. I suddenly had this brainstorm about the other book my friend said she would kill me if I didn’t finish it and so now I really want to start rewriting it. That’s right happy campers (who aren’t actually that happy), I’ve been thinking about R.E.D. again and I’ve been coming up with a plot-line for the entire thing to include what I want. Amazingly, the plot is really twisted and good and the descriptions I would be heading for would be easy to do because of how well I can envision each scene. So this is kind of a plus and a minus.
Now I just need to refocus all my energy into writing again and then write. I think if I can pull myself out of this rut, finish the book, and move on to redoing R.E.D., well then most of my readers who follow this will actually be very much pleased. To them, sorry I didn’t actually get anywhere with R.E.D. or continue it for something of like 5 years now...
Off to think of working!
On another note, before I go that is, My granddad fell down again and I’ve been having serious insomnia. Woohoo!
First, I finally bought Microsoft Word 2010 and will now be able to actually write something more. I tried using 2003 and the Mac version of 2008 and 2011, but those versions all altered the text and got me off task. So really I needed to get 2010 just to keep writing and not get stuck on details like all the text being screwed up after I specifically worked on it a certain way. So there’s a plus towards me finishing it.
Second, I feel the need to write! I have ideas flowing through me again and I get up right before I’m asleep to jot down little things I’m afraid I might forget. This is a wonderful piece of news, which basically means I’m once again thinking and ready to make more ideas. So there is another plus...
...except I’ve been quickly jotting down ideas not on the story I’ve been working on, but another one from the past. I suddenly had this brainstorm about the other book my friend said she would kill me if I didn’t finish it and so now I really want to start rewriting it. That’s right happy campers (who aren’t actually that happy), I’ve been thinking about R.E.D. again and I’ve been coming up with a plot-line for the entire thing to include what I want. Amazingly, the plot is really twisted and good and the descriptions I would be heading for would be easy to do because of how well I can envision each scene. So this is kind of a plus and a minus.
Now I just need to refocus all my energy into writing again and then write. I think if I can pull myself out of this rut, finish the book, and move on to redoing R.E.D., well then most of my readers who follow this will actually be very much pleased. To them, sorry I didn’t actually get anywhere with R.E.D. or continue it for something of like 5 years now...
Off to think of working!
On another note, before I go that is, My granddad fell down again and I’ve been having serious insomnia. Woohoo!
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
A New Story Now Named
So I know this is not the greatest of ways to start a new story, but it is a start. I have come to the conclusion on what the name of my story will be along with how the entire thing will be written (which is, of course, different than anything I have done before). As promised this is a comedy, though maybe darker than originally planned. At any rate, here is the name of my story for the NaNoWriMo.
The Deathly Letters of Collin Millstone
That’s right, its a book that of course has death involved. Because I plan to make this strangely legible yet easily findable on any aspect to the book, I’ve decided to throw in a “Index of Chapters” (also known as a table of contents). In this way the people that want to read my book will be able to quickly see when a new letter will appear along with what chapter it will appear in. All done by word of course (because I am lazy).
So its a small, short, very slow start, but it is a start. Also please note that I’ve changed the statistic from Total Chapters, which is very vague and hard to understand as to what I might mean to total chapters completed, which gives me a much more easy value to place there. As I finish them I will say so there (of which I currently have not done even one). It’s a start as I keep repeating.
Words for the Novel: 195 / 50,000
Total Chapters Completed: 0
The Deathly Letters of Collin Millstone
That’s right, its a book that of course has death involved. Because I plan to make this strangely legible yet easily findable on any aspect to the book, I’ve decided to throw in a “Index of Chapters” (also known as a table of contents). In this way the people that want to read my book will be able to quickly see when a new letter will appear along with what chapter it will appear in. All done by word of course (because I am lazy).
So its a small, short, very slow start, but it is a start. Also please note that I’ve changed the statistic from Total Chapters, which is very vague and hard to understand as to what I might mean to total chapters completed, which gives me a much more easy value to place there. As I finish them I will say so there (of which I currently have not done even one). It’s a start as I keep repeating.
Words for the Novel: 195 / 50,000
Total Chapters Completed: 0
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Sorry for the Lack of Updates
Life has not been too great the past few days and as such I've gotten almost nothing done. I'm actually really upset with this because I really do want to get another 40,000 words out. So let me explain a bit.
My Dad has been putting stress on my back because he doesn't like that my Mom and I have such a great relationship. As such, he makes me upset and completely destroys my mood to write. This in turn has affected how much I've been able to get done on a daily basis (which explains why I am already falling far behind). I need to get caught up now, I don't want to stop something that I enjoy, but at the same time I need him to stop pressuring me for no reason.
So stress is basically killing this right now and I'm sorry there haven't been as many updates as I would have preferred. However, I struck it a little lucky tonight because I woke up from some noise early on. unable to get back to sleep, I've started writing. Hopefully this puts out a few more words, but no promises. I think I also need a new television show to watch between ever thousand, that seems to help me get more done. Maybe I'll just watch a show I love again.
Words for the Month: 1,749 / 40,000
Total Words: 41,792
My Dad has been putting stress on my back because he doesn't like that my Mom and I have such a great relationship. As such, he makes me upset and completely destroys my mood to write. This in turn has affected how much I've been able to get done on a daily basis (which explains why I am already falling far behind). I need to get caught up now, I don't want to stop something that I enjoy, but at the same time I need him to stop pressuring me for no reason.
So stress is basically killing this right now and I'm sorry there haven't been as many updates as I would have preferred. However, I struck it a little lucky tonight because I woke up from some noise early on. unable to get back to sleep, I've started writing. Hopefully this puts out a few more words, but no promises. I think I also need a new television show to watch between ever thousand, that seems to help me get more done. Maybe I'll just watch a show I love again.
Words for the Month: 1,749 / 40,000
Total Words: 41,792
Sunday, August 1, 2010
And the New Month Begins!
So here I start on month 2 of the big idea of how I can write a book. It feels weird looking at the work I've done and thinking that I've made it so far only to have to try and do it again, but on the other side it feels great. I really know I can do it now, where as in the past I kind of flaunted around with trying to write this many words. At least I have some ideas where the story is going to go, I know what is going to at least happen all the way to the end of the chapter, and it sounds like so far my readers are enjoying the conflicts that are arising in the main character.
On other news, I've discovered that I'm really messed up as far as sleep now. For the past few weeks, to get into the writing spirit I've had to wait until 10PM or later because there was too much noise in the house. Well, I stayed up later by taking naps from 7 to 9 and now I can't seem to sleep a whole night anymore. On the bright side, I'm going to have a lot of time for writing. On the bad side, I can't sleep at night and that leaves me feeling a little messed up inside. Its like taking depression pills and I don't know why.
Other than that, I strangely felt weird not writing also. Its like somewhere in my head I want to just start talking about stuff and typing and telling stories, but I took the day off and didn't have an outlet. I didn't expect that to happen... Also, I wrote like three paragraphs or so just to feel like I had officially started this new month. Zero just sounded bad...
Words for the Month: 268 / 40,000
Total Words: 40,311
On other news, I've discovered that I'm really messed up as far as sleep now. For the past few weeks, to get into the writing spirit I've had to wait until 10PM or later because there was too much noise in the house. Well, I stayed up later by taking naps from 7 to 9 and now I can't seem to sleep a whole night anymore. On the bright side, I'm going to have a lot of time for writing. On the bad side, I can't sleep at night and that leaves me feeling a little messed up inside. Its like taking depression pills and I don't know why.
Other than that, I strangely felt weird not writing also. Its like somewhere in my head I want to just start talking about stuff and typing and telling stories, but I took the day off and didn't have an outlet. I didn't expect that to happen... Also, I wrote like three paragraphs or so just to feel like I had officially started this new month. Zero just sounded bad...
Words for the Month: 268 / 40,000
Total Words: 40,311
Monday, July 26, 2010
Weird Dream
So today I woke up at eight in the morning and tried typing some more for my story, but found that rather difficult with my little brother near. He won't stop talking to me. I decided that the best course of action was to go back to sleep.
I did, and I had possibly one of the strangest dreams to date. It started off simple enough, because I was in Illinois helping my parents take care of my grandparents. It was for the most part cleaning stuff and making sure their house was secure. Well, my Dad was there and he dropped the key to their house on the ground, so I picked it up and called him to tell him he did that. He told me to keep it and that it was no problem, which I thought was weird.
Then my mom finally arrived in Illinois, oddly a day after my Dad had been there. She brought a cat with her to my Grandparent's house and we were all talking while the cat played at our feet. My Mom saw I had been working on keeping the house clean and also locked-up tight, especially after I told her what my Dad had did, so apparently the Cat was my reward. That and I would have to wash all of my Grandma's cloths, which is something I never want to do.
Instead I ended up finding out a piece of information that my older brother was at a hearing by the Colorado State Courts today to solve some great mystery. Being the awesome brother that I am I did not want to go, but my Mom said it would probably be for the better if I went. So I did.
The place where the hearing was being held was a few stories up from the ground, all standing on massive steel poles. I took an elevator in the middle of the poles up to the top of the stadium thing and started wandering down rows of seats to try and find my brother. I spotted him sitting in the very first row (which was scary because we were several stories up from the ground) and he was just looking out. Now, as a reminder there were hundreds of people filling the seats behind him. So I started to wander through the crowd trying to find a seat for myself when I suddenly spotted several friends from several different parts of my life. Just to throw some names out there: Wyatt, Vicki, Kara, and then there were two other people but I can't remember who they were.
So I went over to Wyatt, Vicki, and Kara and they all had these blow-up dolls that looked slightly different from one another, but also looked very similar to me. So I started whispering to Wyatt and Vicki and they showed me a CD case big package for the blow-up doll that said Average Angry Stand-up Comedian. I laughed a little at this.
Then something happened that made me want to get closer to my brother so I could talk to him. I ended up flipping over the seats and snapping the head off of Kara's blow-up me and went down to one of the other people I know. Kara, wanting revenge decided she also wanted to get closer. Well I started to talk to this friend about Kara and my brother's relationship and then how Kara was married. It was also very weird. Then a person sitting behind us yelled at us for making a racket. Also, at the same time Vicki had plugged in an old vinyl record (plugged in by putting it on a record player attached to the seat... don't ask cause I don't know) and she had it on speaker by accident. So that started play loudly and everyone was yelling at her to turn it off, so she gave me this look that said OH MY GOD and at the same time she plugged in her headphones and switched it to personal.
Then the jury decided without a doubt that by proof of my older brother's responses that I had been telling the truth and they decided we were both A.D.D. kids that should not be contacted by the courts. So now we're on the do-not-call list for courts because we were listed for Attention Deficit Disorder.
Then I woke up. Weird dream, right?
Anyway, life gets more complicated and I'm trying to catch-up still. Hopefully I do catch-up because I feel so close to actually succeeding. Maybe start making a checklist of months I've done successfully after this?
Words for the Month: 28,580 / 40,000
Total Words: 28,580
I did, and I had possibly one of the strangest dreams to date. It started off simple enough, because I was in Illinois helping my parents take care of my grandparents. It was for the most part cleaning stuff and making sure their house was secure. Well, my Dad was there and he dropped the key to their house on the ground, so I picked it up and called him to tell him he did that. He told me to keep it and that it was no problem, which I thought was weird.
Then my mom finally arrived in Illinois, oddly a day after my Dad had been there. She brought a cat with her to my Grandparent's house and we were all talking while the cat played at our feet. My Mom saw I had been working on keeping the house clean and also locked-up tight, especially after I told her what my Dad had did, so apparently the Cat was my reward. That and I would have to wash all of my Grandma's cloths, which is something I never want to do.
Instead I ended up finding out a piece of information that my older brother was at a hearing by the Colorado State Courts today to solve some great mystery. Being the awesome brother that I am I did not want to go, but my Mom said it would probably be for the better if I went. So I did.
The place where the hearing was being held was a few stories up from the ground, all standing on massive steel poles. I took an elevator in the middle of the poles up to the top of the stadium thing and started wandering down rows of seats to try and find my brother. I spotted him sitting in the very first row (which was scary because we were several stories up from the ground) and he was just looking out. Now, as a reminder there were hundreds of people filling the seats behind him. So I started to wander through the crowd trying to find a seat for myself when I suddenly spotted several friends from several different parts of my life. Just to throw some names out there: Wyatt, Vicki, Kara, and then there were two other people but I can't remember who they were.
So I went over to Wyatt, Vicki, and Kara and they all had these blow-up dolls that looked slightly different from one another, but also looked very similar to me. So I started whispering to Wyatt and Vicki and they showed me a CD case big package for the blow-up doll that said Average Angry Stand-up Comedian. I laughed a little at this.
Then something happened that made me want to get closer to my brother so I could talk to him. I ended up flipping over the seats and snapping the head off of Kara's blow-up me and went down to one of the other people I know. Kara, wanting revenge decided she also wanted to get closer. Well I started to talk to this friend about Kara and my brother's relationship and then how Kara was married. It was also very weird. Then a person sitting behind us yelled at us for making a racket. Also, at the same time Vicki had plugged in an old vinyl record (plugged in by putting it on a record player attached to the seat... don't ask cause I don't know) and she had it on speaker by accident. So that started play loudly and everyone was yelling at her to turn it off, so she gave me this look that said OH MY GOD and at the same time she plugged in her headphones and switched it to personal.
Then the jury decided without a doubt that by proof of my older brother's responses that I had been telling the truth and they decided we were both A.D.D. kids that should not be contacted by the courts. So now we're on the do-not-call list for courts because we were listed for Attention Deficit Disorder.
Then I woke up. Weird dream, right?
Anyway, life gets more complicated and I'm trying to catch-up still. Hopefully I do catch-up because I feel so close to actually succeeding. Maybe start making a checklist of months I've done successfully after this?
Words for the Month: 28,580 / 40,000
Total Words: 28,580
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Ah Yes, the Fun of the English Language
Just to be clear on my retarded sleep schedule, I woke up at three in the afternoon today. I have slept every night on time, yet for some reason my special internal clock said that last night I should not go to sleep until after five thirty in the morning. So I didn't. Then I do get some rest and BAM, out forever.
I woke up tired (because sleeping for long periods of time, like lets say ten hours, tends to do that) and wanted to just take a nap. Instead I forced myself to get up and wonder where the hell everyone in my house was. I managed to eat something, then went back to my room and worked on email or something. About four or four thirty I found my brother and called my parents. Made dinner. Fun. Then time passed with me playing my new arcade game. (I recommend it, it's called Limbo and only available on the Xbox. Though it was short, which disappointed me.)
Well, got into the spirit of writing a little bit later (after everyone was asleep and I could focus better) and decided to write because my friend had just gotten online. She was reading the second chapter, unedited and barely finished, and I was started the next chapter. She gave me some advice, to which I gladly too most of it and made some quick changes, and then we talked about the book for a bit. That's what friends are for.
So where am I going with this ridiculous story. Well look at the time now, four in the morning and I am not tired at all. Curse you insomnia for giving me the ability to live in a 28 hour day instead of our 24.
Okay, back to what this completely strange, I-don't-know where it's going sort of blog is going. I'm going along, writing my book, when I suddenly realized that the English Language sucks. Who the hell made words that sound like other words but are spelled differently. Seriously, that stuff pisses me off and we as people should have made them different long ago. Nothing is equal, not even people, so why are words so damn hard to spell. And now I lost sight of what this blog is about.
Lets just talk about the story since I'm going off onto to many random tangents. The plot thickens, people do stuff, things happen, characters are awesome, more characters are weird, even more are evil, and then less actually turn out to be evil. There you go, update for today completed. Now I'm gonna just go back to writing because that world makes sense to me right now, even if my writing doesn't.
Words for the Month: 23,176 / 40,000
Total Words: 23,176
I woke up tired (because sleeping for long periods of time, like lets say ten hours, tends to do that) and wanted to just take a nap. Instead I forced myself to get up and wonder where the hell everyone in my house was. I managed to eat something, then went back to my room and worked on email or something. About four or four thirty I found my brother and called my parents. Made dinner. Fun. Then time passed with me playing my new arcade game. (I recommend it, it's called Limbo and only available on the Xbox. Though it was short, which disappointed me.)
Well, got into the spirit of writing a little bit later (after everyone was asleep and I could focus better) and decided to write because my friend had just gotten online. She was reading the second chapter, unedited and barely finished, and I was started the next chapter. She gave me some advice, to which I gladly too most of it and made some quick changes, and then we talked about the book for a bit. That's what friends are for.
So where am I going with this ridiculous story. Well look at the time now, four in the morning and I am not tired at all. Curse you insomnia for giving me the ability to live in a 28 hour day instead of our 24.
Okay, back to what this completely strange, I-don't-know where it's going sort of blog is going. I'm going along, writing my book, when I suddenly realized that the English Language sucks. Who the hell made words that sound like other words but are spelled differently. Seriously, that stuff pisses me off and we as people should have made them different long ago. Nothing is equal, not even people, so why are words so damn hard to spell. And now I lost sight of what this blog is about.
Lets just talk about the story since I'm going off onto to many random tangents. The plot thickens, people do stuff, things happen, characters are awesome, more characters are weird, even more are evil, and then less actually turn out to be evil. There you go, update for today completed. Now I'm gonna just go back to writing because that world makes sense to me right now, even if my writing doesn't.
Words for the Month: 23,176 / 40,000
Total Words: 23,176
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Small Goal Met
So I set a goal that yesterday I would at least get to 10,000 words for today. After re-reading the last few pages I wrote and then writing some more new material, I was able to pass this small point. Unfortunately I am still far behind on getting this story done on time and I now realize that this will not be the first or last of the many catch-up days I will be using to get it done on time.
On another note, I finished the first chapter's rough first writing. Most of it has also received much of the needed editing I had originally wanted for it. I am also happy to say that after re-reading the entire thing from start to most of the way through (I still had not written part of it), it reads very smoothly and gives the reader a sense of flow. The details are all in place and they really help the reader understand the situation, but more importantly I think there are enough to really bring people into wanting to read more of the book. That is usually the goal of the first chapter, so success (hopefully)!
Now moving on to the second chapter. Hopefully I can kick out another ton today, though insomnia is making writing very... interesting...
Words for the Month: 10,061 / 40,000
Total Words: 10,061
On another note, I finished the first chapter's rough first writing. Most of it has also received much of the needed editing I had originally wanted for it. I am also happy to say that after re-reading the entire thing from start to most of the way through (I still had not written part of it), it reads very smoothly and gives the reader a sense of flow. The details are all in place and they really help the reader understand the situation, but more importantly I think there are enough to really bring people into wanting to read more of the book. That is usually the goal of the first chapter, so success (hopefully)!
Now moving on to the second chapter. Hopefully I can kick out another ton today, though insomnia is making writing very... interesting...
Words for the Month: 10,061 / 40,000
Total Words: 10,061
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Going to Spaghetti Sunday
So back while I was in school at Boulder, a group of friends and I started holding a bi-weekly meal meeting where we would go to my friend's how on Sunday and have spaghetti. It's not hard to understand why we would do such a thing, spaghetti is cheap and it was a convenient way for us all to get together and talk about random stuff going on in our lives. Well, since summer has started we've all been busy with our own things and the whole idea of the every other week spaghetti Sunday party has kind of been put on the line. That is, until tomorrow when we've planned to all meet again and have some more food and talk. Just kind of saying I'm just a little excited to finally have someone who's not my family to talk to in person again.
On concerning my writing I've got this to say, I was up late again last night (insomnia I suspect) when my friend started messaging me back. I asked her to be one of the verifiers for when I finish a chapter and ship it off to her and she agreed. We'll probably be seeing her comments soon, seeing as I can already see the perfect place to end the first chapter and start the next one coming up. However, the importance of why I talking to her is relevant to this comes from the fact that I realized that even in getting bored of the original plot-line I will be following there will be other ways to keep me going. Through the use of the random characters the protagonist will meet throughout the story, I am able to tell not one story but rather several. So if I ever get bored telling his story, I can kind of venture off onto one of these other characters and give them more depth.
Which leads to the next thing, if I do something like that then this would be best as a series. I know I could develop several characters in a single novel, but I think it would be better if I could have more space to write out what happens to these people as well. And more importantly, it just gives me more room to continue out and make a cast that are very vivid and interesting in their own aspects. I kind of think of it like this, imagine a 3 hour long movie versus a trilogy. In the trilogy of films you feel like you get to see the different characters grow, but in a movie you really only have that one film to see what changes happen. In my opinion, books will work the same way: where one book feels like the character was meant to make that singular change, but having more than one expresses deeper thought to each person.
As always though, we'll have to see where each month leads me. Not done writing for today, but I just felt like I wanted to get all of that out...
Words for the Month: 5,688 / 40,000
Total Words: 5,688
On concerning my writing I've got this to say, I was up late again last night (insomnia I suspect) when my friend started messaging me back. I asked her to be one of the verifiers for when I finish a chapter and ship it off to her and she agreed. We'll probably be seeing her comments soon, seeing as I can already see the perfect place to end the first chapter and start the next one coming up. However, the importance of why I talking to her is relevant to this comes from the fact that I realized that even in getting bored of the original plot-line I will be following there will be other ways to keep me going. Through the use of the random characters the protagonist will meet throughout the story, I am able to tell not one story but rather several. So if I ever get bored telling his story, I can kind of venture off onto one of these other characters and give them more depth.
Which leads to the next thing, if I do something like that then this would be best as a series. I know I could develop several characters in a single novel, but I think it would be better if I could have more space to write out what happens to these people as well. And more importantly, it just gives me more room to continue out and make a cast that are very vivid and interesting in their own aspects. I kind of think of it like this, imagine a 3 hour long movie versus a trilogy. In the trilogy of films you feel like you get to see the different characters grow, but in a movie you really only have that one film to see what changes happen. In my opinion, books will work the same way: where one book feels like the character was meant to make that singular change, but having more than one expresses deeper thought to each person.
As always though, we'll have to see where each month leads me. Not done writing for today, but I just felt like I wanted to get all of that out...
Words for the Month: 5,688 / 40,000
Total Words: 5,688
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Insomnia, a great way to start
So every now and again I fall into a small problem where I have insomnia and instead of sleeping I spend the whole night awake. It leaves me tired, bored, and mostly hungry. However, over the past few years I've developed sort of my own way for dealing with the disease. Instead of going to bed and laying there for hours, nothing getting done, I have developed a strange love to actually just stay up and work on stuff. In the end I feel a little bit more accomplished and I don't worry as much the next day when I sleep during the hours I normally would be awake.
So this is how I spent my night, awake and doing the best I can to be productive in some sort of way. For the most part, this was a failed attempt though. I think I spent a total of two hours writing and in that time did not manage to harbor as many words as I would have preferred. Why? Because I can't seem to find the words to describe the event that I want to happen and so I end up sitting there half dead and half asleep.
Ironically, it is usually through a state of insomnia that I find my way through even the hardest portions of a story, finding the clue I needed to get past a point that was trivial and acting against me. This is also what happened tonight, for although early on I have already found a portion of the book where I did not know what to write to persuade my reader into understanding that stuff was happening. Well, the insomnia kicked in and I knew exactly how to write it. It seems to be a combination of tired and bored come together to form the idea of how I should proceed.
Yet there is a catch to me finding my way through the harder parts of the novel if I do it through insomnia. The number of errors that I tend to write while in this half dead state is increase by approximately 50% (and for the most part, it is probably higher... I'm being generous to myself). Well, to counter this entire factor that I am currently out of my mind, I'm going to have to re-read everything I've written just to insure that the error rate drops and more details to really describe but I initially meant by that part are there. Usually this has proven to include complete rephrasing.
So is insomnia (which honestly was not planned for the first night) really a good thing? It is hard to say. Catch you all after some Zs.
Words for the Month: 3,634 / 40,000
Total Words: 3,634
So this is how I spent my night, awake and doing the best I can to be productive in some sort of way. For the most part, this was a failed attempt though. I think I spent a total of two hours writing and in that time did not manage to harbor as many words as I would have preferred. Why? Because I can't seem to find the words to describe the event that I want to happen and so I end up sitting there half dead and half asleep.
Ironically, it is usually through a state of insomnia that I find my way through even the hardest portions of a story, finding the clue I needed to get past a point that was trivial and acting against me. This is also what happened tonight, for although early on I have already found a portion of the book where I did not know what to write to persuade my reader into understanding that stuff was happening. Well, the insomnia kicked in and I knew exactly how to write it. It seems to be a combination of tired and bored come together to form the idea of how I should proceed.
Yet there is a catch to me finding my way through the harder parts of the novel if I do it through insomnia. The number of errors that I tend to write while in this half dead state is increase by approximately 50% (and for the most part, it is probably higher... I'm being generous to myself). Well, to counter this entire factor that I am currently out of my mind, I'm going to have to re-read everything I've written just to insure that the error rate drops and more details to really describe but I initially meant by that part are there. Usually this has proven to include complete rephrasing.
So is insomnia (which honestly was not planned for the first night) really a good thing? It is hard to say. Catch you all after some Zs.
Words for the Month: 3,634 / 40,000
Total Words: 3,634
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