Friday, October 21, 2011

The stamps are pasted, the envelope sealed tight and on it's way a week before the deadline. My entry for the Canadian Writer's Guild is away! The suspence! The mystery! I'm quite proud of my entry as it's actually one of the few stories I've been able to close (appart from my Piper Sorrow's shorts) This has no prospect of a sequal, it is a one shot, another soemthing that I rarely do. The premise is something that I fear may come to pass: as the world population increases, and as technology increases, a viable solution may be for those that can to retreat into a virtual world, effectively creating warehouses for bodies and decreasing the need for food as the body would need minimum substance to maintain health. In these virtual worlds, people coul have access to unimaginable and fantastic simulations... they could, potentially, have godlike powers within a fake world. How would that effect the human mind? Man was not made for godhood... I suggest it would not end well.

November is only days away now and my next project will be for NaNoWriMo. I skipped last year since I was working on Mynfield Mysteries, a story that has taught me a great deal about the epic. It will continue to teach me for years I imagine... but I see it as manageable and so will eventually finish it. This year, however, I see no reason not to stall Mynfield Mysteries for a month in order to put effort into another project : Mirror Mirror.

This concept was originally suggested to me by an aquaintance and I've toyed with the idea for quite a few years, going so far as working on it with an artist (for just a moment) to see if it was a viable comic idea. Time, anyones enemy, put teh project on hold. But man do I have notes, and ideas and scenes and characters and... well everything that one would normally dump into a story. I've got a good idea where I want the story to go and thanks to MM I've gotten better at making critical decisions that make plots move.

The premise is this : there is a world parallel to ours called Temple, and the inhabitants are created from elements of this world. Courage and valour birth heroes, villiany and malice spawn monsters. Enter the Lost Soul, a being that has been fated to be reencarnated in different beings until it was time to be brought forth once again into Temple. Until that time it would slumber, passive. Wishing to help fate along, the Librarians use a powerful artifact to awaken the Lost Soul early making the life of Dawn, the current vessel of the Lost Soul on earth, very difficult. Drawn into the world of Temple against her will, she must fight to find and save her friends while being hunted at every turn by those that wish different things of the Lost Soul, a power she doesn't understand.

I like the idea of prophesy and doing weird things with it. I'll post the prologue sometime November 1st, since I should be done it by then.

until then, Cheers!

John, the Writer.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

I have a wonderful acquaitance who has led me to beleive in seasons. Not the literal seasons, but more the seasons of the soul, seasons of life. Literally it is Autumn in all it's dying blaze glory, trees lit like torches in the last furious days of heat before winter awakes to embrace us. I think life wise I am Autumn as well, preparing to weather the winter that is inevitable. This is where my writing is as well.

Mynfield Mysteries is continual, but with my additional course load this semester, progress has slowed. Who knew an English class would have so much writing and reading invovled. I'm nearly a quarter way through the first draft, with planning finished on significantly more. A little a day, it'll get done, but as always my goal of a 100,000 first draft by December will fall short.

I've, then, turned my goals to the slightly less ambitious. There is a short prose contest held annually by the Canadaian Writers Guild with the aim of flushing out those hidden writers among my countrymen. The bait : 2000 and consideration from several magazines. Their yearly catch is varied and skilled. I aim to be among their number this year. I already have a first draft; I'm not one for math but 2500 words sounds smaller than 100,000.

NaNo is coming speedily as well and I think I will attempt it. I have a fun idea. I'll post about it when I have more time.

sadly this post is largely just to keep this blog current. To those that care, I will attempt to post more frequently, as things come to head, so to speak.

Oh I hope they come to head.

John, The Writer.

Wednesday, June 01, 2011

Much has happened, and much continues to happen, though things seem to stay much the same. Curious, isn't it? Last night I was tired from life and all the things I WANT to do and all the things I'm REQUIRED to do through my assumed responsibilities and had the thought that the mundane was crushing the wonder in my life. Human beings, wether they know it or not, are wonder starved. So many amazing things surround and premeate our existance on this world that we're lost perspective on wonder itself.

This morning I was more rested, and while biking to work in the glory of a bright new day, I remembered that. Perspective is the only thing separating you from your personal wonder.

I digress.

I wanted to write here because I have not in a long while. It is now the 1st of June of the NEXT year to my last post. Not a full year absent, but half a year. This is what has happened with my writing.

The Prachette contest I missed, though intentionally and I have not given up. I realized teh first draft, or even a second or third revision of the story that was in my hands I was not happy with. I'm using bits of the original, parts and ideas, growing it into something that is actually mystery instead of an attempt at one. I'm trying something new, building the story in an outline first, and then editing the outline until the ideas themselves flow. I've always held that pacing is one of the most important aspects of story telling. Balance and speed. This process I think is helping me become more focused and allowing me to write this larger work without getting disorganized. Some writers, I know, just write. and then revise. and write more. I think I should not allow myself to do that, at least with these larger works.

I won't post here until I'm happy with how the story is unfolding, but I will post updates. By December 31st I hope to have a 100000+ word first draft. I think this is realistic for length of the story I'm hoping to tell. I'm happy with the new begining I've laid out, and I'm happy with the final scene that is in my outline, I'm only missing certain parts in between. I'm following the classic 'mystery' rules of suspects, red herrings and whatnot, though these things I don't have much practice with. It's a learning expierence, to say the least. One that I'll share here, to any and all who care.

John.