CosmicDog's Awareness

Words Fail Me

Quick Note re: Politics

I don't often talk about politics, mostly because I feel rather disconnected from the system, even I am a Government Employee.  Scott Adams posted this entry today that seems to hit the nail right on the head for me.  His blog entries are usually demonstrative of an acerbic wit, but this one does a fair job of representing how I've felt for years, but did not have the words to express.

Thanks, Scott.

Excuses

Sigh.

I was off to such a good start.

My intent was to blog once a day for at least 30 days.

But...

I was in a car accident yesterday.

I wrote a blog post with pictures and everything, then TypePad went down just as I was tried to publish it.

I lost the whole fucking thing.

So here's a picture of my car.  I will write in more detail tomorrow.

It took me an hour to write, I figured it would take an hour to read

errant: wandering; deviating from an appointed course, or from a direct path; roving.

Courtesy of Dictionary.com Word of the Day

First off, the irony is not lost on me, as a self-proclaimed writer that writes for about two weeks every year, and never finishes a piece. Errant. That's me.

Hmm. I just spent the last 30 minutes writing a short story, without knowing the plot, just riffing. And you know what? It didn't work for me. I deleted it without saving. Brainstorming is fun. Coming up with characters and conflicts is fun. Creating new worlds is fun. But an errant plot is no fun to write, and certainly no fun to read.

I feel that I just gave myself a little object lesson there. Who says that you can't teach yourself? I hope you got something out of this as well.

What else can I learn from this brief experiment? Plot: what happens in the story. I should have at least an idea of what's going to happen before I write it. Now, I'm open to allowing inspiration to come and accept the fact that a scene may turn as I write it. But, without a destination in mind, it's difficult to plot a course.

Ooh, did you see that? “Plot a course.” I totally did not plan that. I can get a handle on that.

I took an Aviation class a few years ago, and a large part of the class was devoted to plotting courses. You pick a starting point and a destination. You look at the terrain and weather conditions, and plan course alterations as necessary. If it's long journey/flight, you also pick several waypoints along the way to help you find your way. I never really looked at writing that way before. I bet if I bought a book on plot development, I would find this, or a similar, analogy. Plot a course, write a plot. It's the same word, yet I never looked at it as the same thing. See what I mean by I need to get a stronger grasp on vocabulary. Well, at least I learned something else tonight, even if it is the most basic of concepts.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: The fact that you're fat, sarcastic and wear glasses doesn't mean that you're smart. (BTW, that's what kinda annoyed me about Chris Sligh. Everyone kept talking about how smart he was. What did he ever say or do that made him look smart, other than being fat, sarcastic, and wearing glasses?)

My internal editor is saying: It's bad when your parenthetical statement is longer than your essential clause.

That's enough for one night.

Words On A Page

He was there, hunched over his laptop, sitting crossed-legged on his bed. All his life seemed to be leading up to this point. He had stayed up late the previous night reading articles from the 2007 Writer's Market and researching agents. It seemed that he was entering into a larger world. He knew he could do it. It's just words on a page. How hard could that be? Maybe he'll write an article for a magazine, perhaps something about Science and Religion or Music or maybe Web Site design. Or maybe he would write a Science Fiction or Fantasy novel. He literally has hundreds of ideas. Then again, there's the screenplay that he's been developing for the last year and a half. It's just words on a page. How hard could that be?

As it turns out, it is incredibly difficult. I guess if it was easy, everybody would be doing it. I'm trying to figure out what my roadblocks are in order to overcome them.

“The harm of words is sometimes we don't quite know exactly what they mean.” - These Ordinary Days , Jars of Clay

I think one of my main faults is a somewhat limited vocabulary. I do not have a college education and though I was AP in English classes in high school, well, that was fifteen years ago. Over time, my vocabulary has diminished to pretty much what I use for my job, some “Christianese” that I use to communicate at church, some techno-babble, and what I hear on TV. I could tell you what affluent means, but not effluent. The good news is that building my vocabulary is not that difficult, my Google home page even has a Dictionary Word of the Day. Maybe I could write a short story or even just a paragraph each day using that word.

It's almost midnight, at which time I will turn into a pumpkin (and not a 'smashing' one), so I must bid you adieu.

To be continued...

Movin' on up!

I sold a screenplay!  I can't freakin' believe it.  The terms are still being worked out, but it is at least six figures.  Woo hoo!

Who would have thought that a coming of age story about a Foul Mouthed, Dope Smoking Muskrat with Syphilis who runs for President would be my first sell?  My agent has advised me to start writing a follow-up, she thinks this could be the start of a franchise.

Of we go.

April Fools! (duh)