A Year in Review, A Year in Preview
Posted on 5 January 2012 | No responses
Tis the season for people to reflect on the things they havent done and start to make a list of things that they feel they need to do. Obviously, with the beginning/end of a cycle, we look back at things that have worked and didn’t. So, aknowledging that this is the season where people make obnoxious lists of things, I think I’ll put out some stuff that I want to be looking back on as accomplished come January 2013.
First, I want to be finished with the first story of Last Mage. That is, the confrontation of the mage and Rhiannon.
Second, I want to have some scripts done and sent out for staffing in Hollywood. Successful or not, I just want to do that.
Third, I want to start working out on a regular basis. I have a weight goal thing that I’ll be following up with weekly on my google+. If I can figure out how to put a link to my profile here, Ill do that as well.
And then I have a number of other projects that I want to get off the ground…
So yeah. This is a quick post to keep posting.
Why I live-write
Posted on 17 August 2011 | No responses
I think I touched on these themes in previous posts, but I do want to take the time to explain why I live-write. To those unfamiliar with the term, live-writing refers to the act of writing, well, live. That is to say that an author will sit down and either broadcast as she’s writing or take what they’ve just written and put it up for all to see.
More than anything, it’s freeing
I love editing and if I had my way I would edit a page of writing to such a degree that the resulting finished product will have no resemblance to the original. Live writing gives me the permission to put what I’ve just written on display without having to worry about the intricacies of editing. Now, that isn’t to say that I don’t edit at all. I try to do a swift grammar check and spell check, but I don’t always catch it all.
And that’s okay.
Because what’s important is that the story is out and live and available for people to read. It allows the reader to pierce the veil of the perfectly-polished page and peer into the raw creativity in my head. It’s a personal, visceral feeling of sharing and the sensation is phenomenal.
Because I am always writing
That’s misleading. On any given day during any given moment, I’m writing in my head. I think of story, plot and characters. I think of worlds and emotions and dialogue. I think of music and images and vistas. I think of the big reveals and the tiny details. They swirl around in my head like a thick, glimmering fog. But I can’t always set these things down on a page while I’m working or walking or doing other things.
And so once I sit down to actually set these things down onto a page, it comes out in a rush. I won’t compare it to regurgitation because, well, that’s gross. But I will compare it to a sort of explosive release – the sort that happens when you shake up a soda bottle (not the other one, perverts :p). I can do this to such a degree that in a given afternoon, without distraction, I can hammer out seven thousand words.
It keeps me honest
If I don’t get a post out on time I don’t just disappoint myself, I disappoint my readers and I value their enjoyment over my own. Putting out a post is something to celebrate regularly and, given how my life is, I can use all the celebration I can get. Every Tuesday I know that I need to have something up and available for people to read to follow the continuing story of the Mage. I know that it is no one else’s responsibility but my own.
I know there are some published and successful authors out there who do not agree that anything should be put up without ‘proper editing.’ For the most part, I agree. But if I was presented with the opportunity to look into the creative mind of a writer as they wrote, I would jump at the chance. I hope that there are more readers out there who feel the same.
p.s. Because I have a ‘head start’ apparently I’ll have to buy Justin Diehl the DLC for Deus Ex should he win. You know, I bet I could win this fair and square. Since the inception of the competition I’ve written 19k words, more than Diehl. My personal challenge is to do the full 100k, regardless of the competition. That’s 135k words.
Brain Unload
Posted on 5 August 2011 | 2 responses
Here’s the thing: I don’t believe in writer’s block. What I do believe in is fatigue and disinterest. Over the past four months I’ve been battling more of the former than the latter, coupled with a measure of depression. That said, I’m fairly confident I’ll be working on Last Mage until it’s completion sometime during the winter in time to start another project. It will have been two years since I began this iteration of Last Mage and several years since I first had the idea.
But I digress here. The true reason for this post is for me to work out what exactly it is that I want to start working on in general. Lucky you, right? You have the opportunity to peek into my tiny little mind and see exactly what it is that’s going on in there. Well that and see a bit of the behind-the-scenes.
As it stands I have some ten projects that I want to work on and get off the ground. Let me list them for ya:
imagechaos, the podcast
imagechaos.tv, the webcast
alorium.com, the production studio
LastMage, the ebook
LastMage, the podcast/audioboo
LastMage, the book trailer
Dark Sky, Bright Prince, the website
Heller, Darkly, the serial
One World Emperor, the serial
The Extraordinary Adventures of Travis and Dean, the audiodrama
So, on any given night, these things are all floating around my head. Floating and floating, but never really finding a solid perch on the vast expanse of laziness that I like to call my brain.
But this is not at all to say that I don’t want to do any of these things, it’s just that I’ve been spending my time doing other things. Watching movies (I probably see about five a month in the theatre and who knows how much Netflix and Hulu…), playing video games, (see my post on my anticipated games of the next year), and in general just messing about on the internet not being particularly productive.
So, I’ve decided to make some changes.
First, I’m going to start working out. I know that sounds odd, but t do some of my best thinking while moving. Indeed, I once wrote over five-hundred words while I walked from the Metro to my home – a 10 minute walk. More than just the creative impetus for this is the fact that I really need to get healthy. I constantly deal with health issues and the like and I think it might help a bit with depression.
Second, instead of going straight home each evening, I will stop by either the café, the library or the Garden Room and spend an hour writing. It doesn’t particularly matter what it is that I write, just that I do so. I’ve never been one to particularly care all that much about editing during first passes, so that’s not a huge concern to me.
Third, cut down video-game time in favor of research and project time. These things that I listed above are things that I’m really interested in! So it should be simple to simply supplement gaming with this. The problem, though, is that gaming offers immediate gratification. I can sit down and level in an hour. I can’t sit down and create an entire production studio in an hour. And I know what it is that you’ll say regarding long term projects, they feel awesome oce you finally finish them. And I get that, I really do. I get that the sense of accomplishment that comes from a project well done is so much better than simply leveling up, but damn it if sometimes I just need that fix.
Fourth, get out more. For those of you who follow my twitter and my various presences online, you’ll understand that I pretty much hate humanity. Not in a species sense, but in a human condition sense. That is to say, I don’t understand why people always want to go out drinking or do drugs or don’t communicate between each other. It’s tiring being around folks for any length of time, which I find hilarious because I find human interaction fascinating. Still, I want to make it a point to go out and meet people more often than the never I do so now.
Welp, my train is almost at the station (literally), so I’ll sign off.
Cheers and stay tuned,
Eckhart
P.S. My good friend and fellow writer Justin Diehl has issued me a challenge: Write a full 100k word novel by the end of September. If he beats me, I’ll have to buy him a copy of the new Elder Scrolls game. If I win, he’ll have to do the same for me. Hmm… could this be the motivation I needed?
Locomotion and Plans
Posted on 12 July 2011 | No responses
I am working on a couple of different things nowadays. Writing, podcasting, blogging, web development and now video development. More information as it becomes available. But stay tuned for more information!