Writing has been okay this week, this is the first day of the month that I haven’t written. I’m very close to 4500 words for the month so far, which I’m super happy with. I’m aiming to keep this momentum going.
I’m going to try and achieve this by seeing to it I write a little bit each day. I remember Paul E. Cooley saying that’s daily target was (not sure if it still is) 250 words a day. This is because writing 250 words is relatively easy. Even if I’m not in the mood, I can get the words out. Even if I hate them and rework them the next day, it’s still words written. But what if those 250 words are passed and you’re at 1000 before you realise it? I don’t know about other writers, but there have been days where I was only going to write the 250 words, but I’ve got into a flow and I’ve knock out 1000 plus words before I know what’s going on.
So the hope is I’ll do more of the later than the former.
Good evening folks, I’ve written a total of 1120 words today on two different projects. 758 on War Child, and 362 on a new short story.
I wish I could tap this energy I’ve got at the moment better. over 3500 words in two days? That should be a regular occurrence, not just when I’ve got butt in gear. It needs to become a habit, but defeating my own brain is a war that is still ongoing. I’m winning battles, using the lessons from each one to better fight the next.
I was lurking on Armand Rosamilia’s Twitch livestream yesterday and he was working on a short story and it struck me that I have worked on one short story in the last few months. An idea popped into my head and I started it last night and am currently at 510 words on it. I’m not expecting it to be a long story, and I already know how it’s going to end. I am a little worried the ending will be a bit predictable but I’ll see how it goes.
It’s a good start to the month, I’m going to try and keep it up.
I have written 2241 words today. I started about 9am and finished a little after midday. A damn good start to the month.
I didn’t deliberately take a break from blogging the last week or so, it’s just been busy away from writing. I had other areas of life where i had to prioritise so writing at those times takes a step back. Today, very much back on track though. I’ve generally been working towards getting back in the habit of writing before work and during my break, which I’ll be focussing some energy on continuing. This has worked well for me in the past and I’d like to build on that, mainly getting more consistent with it. Then the plan his to come home and knock out more words. I know I can do it, but I need to get that consistency. That, I think, is the difference between someone just playing around and someone who wants to make something of their passion.
One of my big faults when it comes to writing is how I’ll back off when other areas of my life are taking more energy than normal. There are times when I don’t write and I’m happy not to be writing, when I have my little for example. Then my focus is on her and it’s one of the few times when I don’t think about writing at all. But those times aren’t like when I’ve got a lot on my plate. Last week for example my Dad was in hospital (he’s home now), so that’s where I put my attention. But even around visiting etcetera I still had plenty of time where I could have written more than I did. I’ve got myself into a mindset where I think I haven’t got the energy, but that’s bollocks quite simply. It’s giving my self-doubt an out. Which I hate because it’s letting doubt win. And bollocks to that as well.
Writing is therapy for me. It helps my mental health in all the good ways, and my self-doubts know that. So it’s trying to stop me from helping myself in more than just making fiction. I need to get that reaffirmed in my head and get back on track again. Today is the start I needed. Tomorrow I’m at work, but I’ll have time after work. I set myself a goal at the start of the year of writing no less than twenty-five days a month, and for at least half an hour. I should be doing that easily! So Peter, you doughnut, get it done!
I finished playing this first game in the series the other day and just wanted to share some thoughts on it.
First of all, the remaster was beautifully done and I loved the fact you could hit a button and play the original version of you wanted.
Replying the story was great, most of it I remembered and some of it I recalled once I’d got stuck in. Other elements came as somewhat of a surprise as I had genuinely forgotten them. Things like how hadn’t hard the Flood are to kill. What a pain in the arse the Warthogs can be to drive at times.
I didn’t even bother keeping count of how many times I died! I was playing on normal and damn, that was challenging at times.
I’m so glad I finally got into this again and I’m looking forward to diving into the second game next week!
Good morning folks. Just a quick little post to get the day off and running.
Monday I wrote a little over 1400 words and yesterday I wrote just over 800 words. All of which were on War Child.
I also completed Halo:Combat Evolved yesterday as well. Damn that was a lot harder than I remembered. I’ve not played Halo since it first come out and it was so much fun! The way they remastered it all is beautiful. I’ll post some pictures comparing the two versions soon, because you could play the remastered one with the original graphics.
Right, I’m about to start my day job. Have an awesome day, folks!
This movie tells the story of two couples; Lacey and Dennis (referred by his surname Farrell) They’re on the run from the law (played by Shea Whigham and Rachel Kerbs) and the other couple, Seth Belzer and Polly Watt, who have attempted to camp out fo their anniversary but due to a tent disaster they decide to find a motel (Paulo Costanzo and Jill Wagner). Along the way they stop as a distressed woman appears, who’s boyfriend then pulls a gun on them and kidnap them. They run over an animal and have to change a tire, but the radiator is also damaged and they have to stop at a petrol station. Then the shit hits the fan!
I liked the pace it had and the conflict between the two couples was really good, but so was the conflict within each of the couples. There is some really good gore in the film, but it’s not slapped in your face. The effects are fantastic, and really freaky! Between the practical effects, camera work, lighting and so on they make this creature scary, but you add in its behaviour then it brings it altogether very nicely.
There are moments where I literally said out loud ‘don’t do that’
The acting is pretty darn good, with each of the main actors pulling you in and making you feel for them. Even Farrell, you see what his aim is. Shea Whigham makes you dislike his character, but when you watch the film you see there’s a depth to him that I didn’t expect.
Rachel Kerbs as Lacey clicks well with Whigham and I thought she gave a moving performance, and you believed her and Farrell’s affections to each other.
One element I like in this movie is how Farrell is different to Seth. Dennis Farrell is a hardened criminal, while Seth is more academic. Pretty much the opposite of Farrell. Polly is shown to be more handy than Seth quite early on. The derision that Farrell has for Seth because of this works really well, and Costanzo shows how his jibs hit.
Costanzo’s Seth and Jill Wagner’s Polly make a believable couple, especially in the early scenes when they are at the plot of land where they’re planning to camp out. They’re relationship is tested, and there was a few times where I wasn’t sure how things between them were going to go.
I liked how the film was brought to its conclusion, it’s not really something I’ve seen recently and made a nice change of pace from other films and TV shows I’ve seen recently.
It’s well worth a watch and one I’m seriously thinking about adding to my physical movie library.
Good evening, Ive written 1439 words on War Child today and edited a short story today.
What I wrote feels a little messy but its progressing the story well, building up character and atmosphere.
After I wrote I played a little GTAO and then got stuck into Halo again. I’m so glad I’m replaying this game. The vibe it has, the story telling as well as the game play is filling me with an excitement for a game I’ve not felt in a long time. GTAO is okay, but it’s easy. I’m nearing level 500 now and have pretty much everything in the game possible. So playing a game that I’m having to think hard about is firing some neurones that haven’t been been lit for a while.
Right, I’m off to wind down for the night. Have an awesome one, folks!
I wrote 980 words today on War Child. I’ve come to realise I’m essentially working on a second draft. Not quite writing it from scratch but I have rewritten the first couple of scenes. It’s a case of it being easier to do this than it is to add in the details I need to. Starting War Child during last years NaNoWriMo was a good idea as it got the story off the ground, but it has also hampered it. Where I was writing a bit here and a bit there a lot of the time I wasn’t able to be as deep with it as it needs to be. At the moment it feels like NaNo served as an in-depth outline for the story. It helped me get an idea of the story I want to tell, and how broad it is turning out to be. I think I’ve said in previous posts that I was loosely planning three books, a trilogy that would tell this story. Well, where book one was originally meant to end is a long, long ways off. At the moment I think this is going to be a good five book series, which I think I got overwhelmed by. Even now I feel like the scale of this is too big for me to get my head around. I think this has led to me not working on it too much since the start of the year, but that time has given me time to process what I need to do to get this first book done.
Dizzy doing what cats do 🙄
Watching the science fiction I have recently has given me a lot of ideas, as has diving back into the Halo video game series. I spent a fair chunk of yesterday afternoon replaying the first game, and boy had I forgotten how good it was. I’m playing the Master Chief collection which is remastered and damn it looks good. Plays fantastic too (I’d forgotten how hard those damn Warthogs are to drive though!). I’d not really played any game aside from GTA for quite some time, so I was worried the different game mechanics would have a negative effect. But thankfully they didn’t and I really got stuck in. It was a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to playing it again in the next few days.
To make sure I don’t get distracted by it, I won’t be gaming until I’m done with any bits and pieces at home I need to do, and I’ve written. I’m going to be starting kind of small with it, a scene a day for example. But I’m hoping that I’ll get into a flow with the story and this will increase each time I sit down to write.
Good evening, folks! I’ve written 476 words on War Child today. First words this month. I was a little disheartened after I accidentally deleted 1200 words from the story last week. My own mistake and one I won’t be repeating.
I feel like I’ve got a decent path to travel at the moment with this story. I can see what needs to be done and hopefully I’m going to be able to get well stuck into it over the next few weeks.
I am getting into some research for War Child. Watching military science-fiction shows and films, and listening to them too. I’m focused on the Halo world at the moment. I’m also about to start a rewatch of Battlestar Galactica. Although I’m taking ideas from these it’s more a vibe I’m hoping I get from them. I feel I’ve got a decent tone for War Child building. So I want to be careful with how I proceed.
Right, I’m off for the night. Have an awesome one, folks!
Clerks III tells the story of Randall and Dante, two men in their forties as Randall deals with the effects of a heart attack, and Dante has to deal Randall as he tries to make his mark on this world.
This is a film by the one and only Kevin Smith, and it has all the trappings of a Kevin Smith movie, but it hit me in a way I’d not have expected from a Kevin Smith film. Yes there are the jokes about drugs and suspect tales of sexual adventures. But there is also a depth to it that I’ve not seen from a Kevin Smith before.
This movie clearly takes even more from Kevin Smith’s personal experiences than his other works. I feel like the Clerks films in general do that, but I felt it more in this one. It’s not that he hits you over the head with it, I don’t really think Kevin Smith does that. It’s knowing a little about his life and him as a person and you can see where that comes into this story.
I don’t know much about Kevin Smith outside of his movies and some of his social media, but it feels like both Dante and Randell are two sides of him. Maybe they’re turned up to eleven, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case.
The story focuses around Randell making a movie which he films at the convenience store that he and Randell own. (there’s some good little nods to the original Clerks film here). Randell does this in a very uniquely Randell way, and Dante has to do all the actual hard work. Around this though is the struggle that Dante is going through due to how his life has changed since the events of Clerks II. This isn’t just Dante waiting for life to hand him something like in previous movies. The struggle he is going through is portrayed by Brian O’Halloran without any filters. You see him pushed to his limits a number of times, and each one you feel. This is one thing that hasn’t really changed, Randell driving Dante up the wall! And Jeff Anderson as Randell just nails it. I’ve heard him on commentary tracks and I don’t think he is anywhere near that annoying, so he really pulls it out of the hat to show how much Randell can get under Dante’s skin.
There are twists and turns, and some very interesting editing choices that I think in lesser hands would have ruined the movie. A few call backs and a plot thread or two that give options for how the movie could end. How Smith builds up the ending is not only a work of art, it’s heartbreaking. I didn’t see it coming, I don’t think I would have figured it out in a million years.
Now, this is a Kevin Smith movie. So there are all the familiar faces. He has his stable of actors who either appear in all his films or come in for a brief scene and that’s it. Smith finds a way to get a lot of these folks in the movie nicely, and in this scene there’s a few faces that I hadn’t seen in a Smith film before. There’s fan service here, but you don’t need to be well versed in Smith’s work to appreciate it.
If you’ve not seen any of these films, I’d recommend checking them out. From a writers point of view they are great to study. There’s a lot that Smith does that I’ve learnt and tried to put into my work.
Clerks III is one of the best films I’ve seen in the last few years.
Peter Germany's World 