I saw The Great Gatsby this week and I did not like it. I was, however, the only person in the room who felt that way but, like the good Christian boy I am, I did not let that stop me from crop-dusting my opinions all over the weeds of their happiness.
No, other people’s joy, you’re getting hit with neurotoxins of John logic.
Or “whatever it is that plants use for brains”-hyphen-toxins.
Hiatuses are not as fun as you might think they are.
The first thought that might pop into your mind could be: “Who wouldn’t want time off from work?” Or perhaps that a hiatus, by its very nature, is a temporary reprieve from work, meaning that neither is it permanent nor is it complete; that work doesn’t go away forever, it just goes into hibernation.
Except those two statements are built off of a painful assumption: that work must be done.
This are reasons, let me tell you that.
The reason is that I am polishing my manuscript (again; yes, again) for submission at a contest. That said, if you have a manuscript you want to maybe win some money and a publishing deal, check this link out.
But, as does not need to be said, I am very busy with that, among other things, so I’ll be away for a while. Possibly Sunday. Until then, have a ridiculous video I found on Youtube.
Cheers, love.
I didn’t finish a book this week because The Birth of the West is painfully slow going and that hurts me. When I want to spend some of my rare free-time on reading, I don’t want it to be as painful as it has been. I’m still intent on finishing it…but later.
Right now, I’ve got a movie to kvetch about.
Seriously. Reading this book is like reading Harvest Moon: The Book or, How To Start A Farm (And Bore Your Readers To Death) In 9th Century Europe.
So if you were expecting anything other than a few “hurr durr wood for sheep” jokes (jokes on you: they would never trade sheep for wood)…you’d be right. Weirdly, strangely, and not necessarily pleasantly right.
And yes, I am reading it as fast as I can. It’s thick, but I’ll try to have it done for Sunday.
Which I now rename “Funday”.
For those of you who don’t know what that is, it is a Settlers of Catan book.
Yes. A book.
I’m editing my second draft and recently hit a rough patch with some new material. I wasn’t really able to apply myself because every time I did, I would stumble up against the fact I needed to actually make material instead of juggling pre-existing stuff around. Needless to say, when I finally did work today and busted through the rough patch, it was a lot of effort for little gain (around 1k words).
In any case, a discussion with my friend got me thinking: is that a lot? If I only did 1000 words a day, that would translate to a new book (~100,000 words) every hundred days, or three a year with a little time left over to edit. If I could keep the 1,000 words an hour rate up and write full-time (roughly 7 hours a day), I could have one done in 14 days.
Those stats are bonkers because, frankly, 1,000 doesn’t seem like that much when it’s laid on a blank page, and it seems like even less when it’s laid out against 203 other pages. But on the other hand: three books a year, and possibly twenty-six. For comparison this post, as of right this word, is 180 words. I’d need a thousand more of them to make a book (god forbid I make a book of blog posts), but it took me less than twenty minutes to get this far. Not a lot of time at all. It just seems like magic when you ladle a bit on, and then a bit more, and then a bit more, and then, oh my, you’re done.
But work is never done, and so I have a query for anyone in or near Toronto who is, themselves, a writer, or interested in being one. I’m starting a writing group and if you would be interested, then please email me, comment, tweet, whatever you need to do to get in touch with me. The more the merrier! And if you don’t live in Toronto but would be interested, then still contact me. The internet is a powerful, magical place at times, and you often get the results you need.
As per my request last week, I was asked to write a rap song. So here it is. I used this beat as the canvas upon which I busted my fat rhymes.
Disclaimer: I am not a rapper. You have been warned.
Let’s start by saying this: I actually had some fun reading Plugged, but I went into this knowing that I don’t like just about everything about this book.
I don’t normally post links here, but I feel that this one is worth it.
This article is a scholarly look at what the future of the publishing industry just might be, as well as an excellent look at the state of the industry today. I read it all and I want to go back and read it again (although, to make my own point about it, I really do look forward to producing a product that can be sold, even if that doesn’t end the life cycle of it).
Also, I nearly burned down my kitchen. No, seriously, I had a pot full of fire, and now a scorched fan hood and two less fingerprints.
It was so cool.
Now reading: The Hero's Guide To Storming Your Castle, by Christopher Healy
