The Longer Path

Blog Post No. 507

Back when Adventure Worlds was just a blog for some want-to-be writers to post stories as we practiced our writing, the original group was about on the same footing. Christian probably written the most up to that point on a separate blog, but none of us had anything published, self pub or otherwise. That was back in 2013, nearly a decade ago.

How Much is too Much?

Blog No. 135

The other night, after a wedding rehearsal (not mine) and a lovely dinner with the family and friends from that event, I came home rather late and decided to catch up on a few shows. There was no reason for me to do it. It was already 10:30 (or nearly there) and I strive to get to bed before midnight. Besides, I am perpetually behind on my writing and spend far too much time watching TV shows. That evening though, I was tired and didn’t think I could muster the focus to get any work done. Along with being a lazy bum, I was down to the last one or two episodes of the shows I watch, so I was anxious, and I know other people in the house had seen them, so I wanted to avoid spoilers. One of the shows was Silicon Valley, a fun, tense show by Mike Judge, and the other was Game of Thrones, which is probably know and watched by everyone reading this blog. For the sake of those readers, I will do my best to avoid spoilers, but likely something is going to slip out, so brace yourself, or just skip this one for later.

Novel Update 002

Blog No. 131

I know I’ve said it before, but out of high school I went into electrical engineering. I intended to get a good paying job and spend my free time writing. I had only finished one or two short stories at that time, but I was sure that all I needed to do was secure my future and the rest would fall into place. That didn’t happen and after a year and a half I was struggling to pass most of my classes. I spoke with a few classmates who were in the same boat and looking to jump ship and realized I didn’t have to go down with the ship either. I finished the semester (barely passing) and after a terrifying conversation with my parents, I went over to journalism. That venture also ended in disappointment, but through both failures I learned a lot (and made a few friends that, if I were able to do it differently, I would probably stay the course in fear of losing them). I failed on my first novel too, and like those programs, I learned a lot, even if I didn’t get out of it what I hoped.

The Three Ways to Read

Blog No. 121

When I was a child, my parents read to me nightly. I was surrounded by books, got books as presents, and went to the library regularly. Despite their best efforts, I wasn’t much of a reader. I had to read a book in the summers and school usually had a book report or two that I would muddle through, but it wasn’t until high school that I started to read on my own. It was then that I found the type of books that resonated with me. Sci-Fi, mostly Philip K. Dick and his contemporaries, amazed me. I started devouring books at a speed that, while tame next to avid readers, felt lightning quick, jumping from one book to the next. I fell in love with short storied during that time. The ideas were forefront and I would get hit over the head with them rapidly, three to twenty pages at a time. I entered the first stage of reading and was transported. It was around that time that I started playing with writing my own stories too. 

Sympathy for Others

Blog No. 99

Sometimes life is hard and unfair.  This is all you get this week.

Ben

Behind the Writing: The Fifth Monday – Part Three

Blog No. 98

Sometime, in the early part of the year, Christian had an interesting idea. It’s not strange for that to happen, most writers are writers because of interesting ideas, but this one wasn’t a story. It was technically a story, but it was also more. Since we, at Adventure Worlds, post our stories on Mondays, and some months end up with five Mondays, Christian thought that we should do something special on those odd months. He decided to start a story, but leave it for another one of us to continue, and so on. He even started the thing off with the event happening on a fifth Monday (which is what I call dedication). The reigns were handed over to Alanna, who took it in a totally different direction, then passed it on to me.

Doing Nothing

Blog No. 97

For anyone who is a fan of Office Space, the idea of doing nothing isn’t a new one. In the movie the main character says that when he was asked by his guidance councilor what he would do if he had a million dollars, the answer was – nothing. That’s a statement I can agree with. If I had more money that I could ever spend, I would probably end up doing nothing but nothing for the rest of my life. I know this because with all the things I have to do (and want to do) I still end up spending most of my days off wasting time and goofing off. It’s not something I’m proud of, or even alone in doing. A lot of people I know suffer from the some problem. Sometimes it’s over prepping for a task, or wanting to catch up on something less important, or even just getting in a quick show before getting started and ending up spending the day watching netflix.

Crash!

Blog No. 93

A few nights ago, Christian and I were diligently working on some writing and editing. Admittedly we did spend an hour or so chatting, discussing, and planning, as we are wont to do. It’s a regular routine that we manage a few days a week. Sometimes we manage more writing and less talking, sometimes we slip into an entire wasted evening of conversation. (Not that all our discussions are wasted. Our topics are usually writing, Adventure Worlds, and our upcoming books. Sometimes it’s just superheroes and cinema though). The evening in question, we had just finished a lively discussion about the future of our website and how we want to progress before realizing we had wasted a whole hour of talking. With so much work to do (all the time, it never ends) we refocused and got started. At the end of the evening (we usually wrap up around nine) I went to check a couple of words in an online dictionary before saving and poof!

MacGyver was a Really Good Show

Blog No. 82

Last year (I’m not exactly sure when) I was working a late night shift and the topic of old TV shows and their theme songs came up. I was probably the person who broached the subject, but I mentioned MacGyver and I couldn’t remember how the theme song went. It bugged me all night and somewhere around one in the morning I remembered how the song started, with what was an 80s electronic melody. From there it was only a mater of time before I connected it to the rest of the song that, after a few bars, burst into the orchestral perfection that was 80s TV theme songs. The song was of course accompanied with scenes from the show, depicting Mac himself diffusing bombs with gum wrappers, and foiling criminals with rubber bands, paperclips and a pen cap. The opening to the show was great, but the show itself was amazing. I have the first four or five seasons on DVD and I’ve rewatched them a few times of the years, so I know what I’m talking about.

Busy, Busy

Blog No. 81

I’m writing this on Wednesday night (which I sometimes do) because I am going to be away from Thursday to Sunday. I’m calling it a writing retreat but it’s really just a trip to Wheatley with the members of Adventure Worlds. We rented a house on the lake and are going to spend as much of the time as we can, writing and doing writing related things. (I’m not sure what those things are right now, but it’s all about the writing). The main idea (for me) is to have the full Friday and Saturday to see if I have it in me to do an eight-hour-day of writing – to see if I can treat it like a job. I expect to have to take a break or two, but I want to have a steady stream of words on the page and a steady amount of time spent doing it. I have a lot of little goals, finish the story I’ve been working on, get another small one done, sort out some novel and novella stuff, but as long as I’m writing, I’ll be content.