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Degeneration

Time alone, I mean truly alone, even for me that is hard to come by. Thoughts of other people are enough to break the spell of solitude.

But I have had a taste of pure solitude, two days, and found myself, oh the horror of it all, found myself degenerating into... adolescence. Heaven forbid! Those days should be long over.

My mind went into overdrive, thinking of all the worst and greatest moments in my life. I don't enjoy this in the least. The past belongs where it is. And all the would-have-beens and could-have-beens that plague me are the stuff of fantasies that should never be read.

Silly thing, the human brain, it only half-cares what you think but is more interested on working on its own solutions. Perhaps these thoughts are always whirring at a subconcious level, looking for peace, for an answer to why certain events went as they did. Quiet brings them to the surface, where I can't shut them up.

Perhaps if I started watching television, I might get the peace back.

ROW Goals

I have to set my aim high. Not as high as NaNoWriMo, but I've tried being reasonable and meeting my goals. Strangely, it feels too easy and pointless when I can tick off each day as done. So to push myself that little bit extra without being unreasonable, I'm going to set my goal at 900 words minimum.
Good luck to anyone else doing ROW!

Sex and Violence

"The human gene pool has largely been spread through violence, not love and peace and understanding. We fight. We love it. 

  Whoever got anywhere through compassion? It is alien to us.

  We are upstanding apes, more violent than our simian cousins."

Entropy ~ Bonnie Greer

Normal School Lit Mag and Reality Hunger

I've been having a good old browse of online literary mags and came across The Normal School, a strange name but the following essay on their website looks mighty interesting:

Here's the PDF for our Reality Hunger, by David Shields

Having read the above, I must say he starts off making several good points and highlights the merits of memoirs and how they don't necessarily belong as non-fiction, being more literature.
But then he starts bashing the escapism and "cogs" of the fiction, calling "Great art...clear thinking about mixed feelings."
I had to stop reading from that.
It was good until that point, however.

Unlimited Plot Prompts

Not necessarily anything you'd write about but it does help get you thinking when your well runs dry. I personally wouldn't write a story about a feathery eagle that needs to get to the opera after escaping outer space alive.

But you might. What do I know? Anyway, here's the link.

http://www.gkbledsoe.com/articles/process/writing_prompt_generator.html

Eagles in space... maybe there's something to that.

The Obsession of Ownership

Why are we obsessed with collecting, buying more and more when we have enough? Shops are crowded, full of pushy people and long queues with hot and bothered shop assistants serving you with zombie self-loathing.

Ok, I exaggerate. Sometimes shopping with friends can be fun, just for the experience. But the must-have objects are the problem. I've been so busy filling my flat up with beanbags and books that when I cut myself yesterday and it wouldn't stop bleeding, I realised that I didn't own a first aid kit. Isn't that just the height of arrogance? To think that I need beanbags more than bandages? I improvised with duct tape and some cotton swabs (painful peeling off later, I can tell you).

Everyone, though, should stop and consider how much they have, and what they really need in life, before they drool over the latest fad.

We don't live long. I don't want to spend all my time shopping for a future I might not have.

The Stuff of Revolution

Like anything worth thought, I have mixed feelings about Mr Fry, but in this instance I stand beside him 100%. Ideas, not grammar, are the stuff of revolution.

Writing Exercise 4: Splitting Yourself Up

Forget your limbs for a moment, your fingers your arms and elbows. Your toes and legs, they fade away into nonexistence. Forget you posses the body of a human being, an upright bipedal.

All you are now is a cloud of consciousness, a series of thoughts, of conversations with yourself. What voices are clearest in your mind? Which two voices assert their character the most? Your supposed devil and angel? Your ego or libido?

Take the two strongest personalities that live inside you. Don't give them bodies, put them on an infinite plane with nothing but talk to fill the void.

What will they say to each other now that they are not the same person? How will they come to terms with themselves and each other? Kill the other? 'Walk' away? Befriend? Or something better.

These thought beings that live within you need their own voices from time to time. Give it to them in spades.


Door of consciousness by ~AndreyBobir on deviantART

Writing Comic

All Write! Webcomic: Genre Boxes (click to see the comic)

Love it! Who says genre fiction can be seperated from great literature?

One Word and My New Writing Regime

My new morning writing exercise! It's free. It's harmless. And you have so little time to write that you can't be critical of yourself. The principal is that you have one word and sixty seconds to write about it. That's it.

So my new writing regime starts first thing in the morning with oneword.com as I sip my tea, followed by an exercise from the Write Brain Workbook, possibly followed by a 3 a.m. Epiphany exercise (depending on how reluctant I am to get back to work on my book - these exercises take some considerable thought) and finally, the serious work on my novel.

As an aside, I am loving this new book I'm reading, Entropy, but unfortunately my copy turned out to be signed. I can't enjoy cracking the spine as I work my way through because I'm so concerned about the condition it's in.
And another thing: I hate novels about novelists and writers (Entropy has hints of this but has enough merits to outweigh it). It really grates at me. Write about someone other than yourself. That's what imagination and research are for.

What to Do After NaNoWriMo

First came relief, sweet relief. My novel's finished! Some parts are good, most are bad, but I have a book and it's mine.

Then came horror, just for myself, as my keyboard became completely broken and I had to write by pen. Most unpleasant.Then followed ecstasy, as the IT man brought life back to my laptop.

But this... this is what I suspect others have been feeling for a while now: an ability to write, wasted by a lack of metaphorical wind in the sails. So what next? Another WriMo? No. This time quality comes first.

And that's why I thought I'd mention http://aroundofwordsin80days.wordpress.com/

Writing Exercise 3: Characters are their own story (if they're interesting enough)

I've just finished reading the Book of Other People, short stories, each about characters and all were strangely fascinating. The plot wasn't important, the people were and so that is what this prompt is centred on: write about a character.
You may already have a character in mind, someone waiting for a plot but doesn't really need one. Use them. Otherwise I've added two pictures to inspire thoughts of distinctive characteristcs.

Other things to include:
1) a precious object - choose from a knitting needle, an amber paperweight, a shoestring, a feather or a lock of hair



Silent Night I by ~kandieis on deviantART


We're All Stars. by =t0x1c-d0LLy on deviantART

Writing Exercise 2: Picture Prompt

Here are two random pictures to choose from and if they inspire any kind of conventional story, I will be amazed.

Two choices for your prompt:
1) Write something crazy. It's bizarro fiction, haven't you heard of it?
or 2) Use connective thinking to find some kind of inspiration for the normal style of story you're used to writing.

(I'd personally go for the monster and make it a horror style story. Another time, however... Much to do and whatnot!)

The Party Hat by ~noakrank on deviantART

The Toe Monster Print Version by ~noakrank on deviantART

The Next One

Loving writing again already! This time the plot is raw but well-thought-out, unlike laying eggs, which will take more editing than I care to do.

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