Tag: Blogging

Self-Censorship is VERY Real

Man with both hands covering his mouth.
Image Source: https://source.wustl.edu/2020/08/free-speech-nearly-half-of-americans-self-censor-study-finds/

The Spring semester ended about a week ago for me. I thought that I would knock out blog post after blog post and really try to catch up with the blog, but several factors have happened that have kept me from writing (blog or creative writing). While some factors are external, such as issues with my house that I’m struggling to figure out how to fix, or the fact that my eyesight is blurrier than it used to be after an eye infection that appears to be gone now, some of them are internal and that’s what I want to talk about in this post.

PhDs, the “Job Market,” and the Blog

So, even though I am still in the beginning stages of writing my dissertation (currently working on the Introduction), I found out that I should be working on my “job materials” (CV, Teaching Philosophy, basic Cover Letter, etc.) over the summer and that I should probably start sending things out to prospect schools and job listings in the fall. While this is, obviously, another set of “things” to do even while trying to writing the dissertation (including reading for the dissertation, creative writing, trying to write and craft a conference presentation, etc.), there’s one more thing that I should be worried about as well: the Blog.

Not a “Professional” Blog

I know that this blog isn’t professional–i.e., I don’t generally deal with rhetorical ideas/concepts here nor do I apply those theories to popular culture (such as TV shows, movies, or games, although I could). I don’t do the same for film criticism, or any number of academic topics such as critical thinking, interdisciplinary disciplines, or multiculturalism, even though all of these are topics which are, if not specific foci for me, are areas where my academic work/studies have at least touched on over the years. However, because the Blog is considered “social media,” it now lies in that uncomfortable area that makes it something that prospective jobs/search committees might use to qualify/disqualify me for the job.

This is a “Personal” Blog

I’m not really sure how I feel about that. Actually, I do know how I feel . . . I’m just too polite to say it. This Blog is simply a way for me to get better at writing by actually writing. When I started OtherWorlds, blogs had come and gone as a social media tool–the new “hotness” was Facebook and Twitter (without going into politics, we Americans now see that these two platforms–while greatly increasing connectedness among far-flung friends/family/acquaintances also carries some serious downsides). While originally being a simple report on my semi-pro writing career as it developed, it has become a sounding board for me on various topics, most notably popular culture topics that are of interest to me: science fiction, fantasy, and video games.

The Cost of Self-Censoring

As this is a personal blog, there are things that I do here that I probably wouldn’t do in a more professional setting. First off, I don’t generally “edit” (other than a cursory pass before I hit post). I value timeliness over “correctness” with this blog. As such, small grammatical errors (usually homophones) often slip through. Normally, I would obsess over the small details and make sure that errors are at the minimum, but I’d rather work on the blog for an hour or so, make sure there are no major glaring errors, and then hit “publish.”

Secondly, there are topics that I find myself not covering because the whole “self-censorship” issue. For example, to write this blog entry, I stopped working on another post that was half-way finished on Social Media and Critical Thinking (or the lack thereof). I have 26 drafts in my Drafts folder here on WordPress, as noted before, which are in various states of completion that will either be finished or deleted, but they haven’t been worked on because of self-censorship.

Blogging Through the Summer

So, what does all this mean for the Blog? Basically, nothing. I don’t really think that it is fair that my future “professional” job chances will be based on a “personal” blog. I’m using my blog to do what we ask our students to do: to write about writing. While I do other things here besides writing, I’m still using the written word to reflect, to investigate, and to think critically about subjects that are interesting and important to me. I shouldn’t be required to go through 600+ blog posts to make them “perfect” just because someone might see a misuse of they’re/their/there (which I do frequently, not because I don’t know the rules, but because my time is limited and in the heat of drafting, I might make the mistake, but not have enough time to really do a detailed examination of the text to find it and fix it).

One of the issues that affects me is trying to split writing a post over multiple days. This post, which is at 1.5 hours in drafting form, is going to be finished today and posted in about 15 minutes from the time I’m writing these very words. So, finish in about 5 minutes, spend 5-10 minutes finding an image and putting in the Signature, and then a cursory look over of the text, and then post this blog. That is my plan for the summer–to just write and complete blog entries. Some will be longer, some will be shorter, depending on time. Some will do traditional topics (writing, popular culture and the like), but there are going to be other topics that I feel need to be discussed (like Microsoft and the American culture that enables the company’s most egregious tendencies–upcoming blog post).

When I joined the Chattanooga Public Library, I wasn’t writing a Blog, but I was writing creatively and I asked the Assistant Director at the time about their policies on creative writing and I’m going to paraphrase his answer: “your writing is your own.” To all potential job search committee members and others who have hiring power, I challenge you to take his response into account if you look over this Blog to get a sense of who I am (the gracious response) or to see if I’m a trouble-maker who indiscriminately posts things for everyone to see (the non-gracious response).

I’m a writer and a writer writes, so that’s what I’m doing here: writing. This is who I am and what I want to do and is consistent with someone who loves the written word.

Sidney

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

Currently Working On (May 2021):

  • Unhallowed (Weird Western Story)
    2021 Revision: Completed; Out to Market
  • Starlight, Starbright (Science Fiction Story)
    2021 Revision: Completed; Out to Market.
  • The Independent (Science Fiction Story)
    2021 Revision: In Progress
  • To Dance the Sea of Storms (Fantasy Story)
    Prewrite: Completed, Plan & Outline: Completed, Write a first draft: Completed, Revision: In Progres

Back to Basics: AKA Back to Blogging

Moving image: Keanu Reeves in John Wick mouthing the dialogue from a scene in the movie that is below his mouth in white lettering: "Yea, I'm thinking I'm back."
Image Source: https://imgur.com/gallery/nD2LWjO

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for being gone for so long and not blogging consistently for at least the last 4-5 months. This blog post will be both an explanation of what happened and what I’ve learned over this period.

I didn’t intend to stop blogging on a (mostly) daily basis, but it is something that just happened as I was teaching during Covid. Every post took longer and longer to write and more and more time was taken by the requirements of school. I found that the more I wrote, the less time I had for grading and preparing for the next week’s lesson. So, while I tried to continue to blog, it just made my life harder and harder, so I finally had to stop. It doesn’t mean that I didn’t have topics to blog about (oh, boy did I have topics), but instead of helping me by allowing me to coalesce my thoughts, it hindered me from getting my work (school or otherwise) done in a timely manner.

However, here are the biggest factors/reasons that I stepped away from blogging at the end of 2020.

School (Online)

So the biggest issue was school. Now, most of you are aware that I’m a graduate student working on my PhD. Generally speaking, school is my largest time-sink in that, even though I’m finished with my course work, I often have to teach in order to stay in school. Well, with Covid this year, most classes were held online. I had two sections of an English Literature class (English 2020: Themes in Literature) and I chose to do Science Fiction. This is a course I’d not taught myself before (even though I’d been mentored in another professor’s class), so I had to choose my own assignments, books, etc. for the class. Even though we had weekly Zoom meetings, I still had to set up the online class distribution platform (for us, it is Desire 2 Learn or D2L), upload any additional videos/PDFs, read the books for the class and make notes on them and then teach them–for 14 weeks straight. This was in addition to prepping my own Prospectus (outline of a dissertation) and then defending it towards the end of the semester. And all this doesn’t include the absolutely MASSIVE amount of email that I had to answer as we did classes remotely. Questions that might normally have been answered before or after class or in the Graduate Student Office, now had to be handled via email, so instead of answering 1-2 student emails per week, I was average 1-2 student emails per day/every other day. Multiply that times 2 (x2) as I was teaching two sections of the course–and well, now you see where the overwhelming majority of my time was spent each week.

As you can see–what would normally be a fairly average semester in-person ballooned to a massive amount of work to make sure everything was ready for class and I still ran into quite a few hitches along the way.

I’ve learned 2 things from this area: 1) try to get as much done and in place before school starts, so that most everything is ready and posted and all I have to do is make “course corrections” along the way. Technically, MTSU is closed this week for the holidays, but I’m already working on my syllabus and planning my schedule and assignments (while reading sources for my dissertation) with the goal of having 95% (or more) of the class uploaded to D2L by the time class starts, and 2) working on things in small increments. I’ve already done a blog post on this earlier this year, but will do another one again as I “re-learned” the lesson again during school.

Computer Keyboard

Thanks to Covid, I had to get a new computer this semester. It wasn’t that I wanted to, but that I had to. My first day of class was an absolute disaster as my Chromebook completely crashed trying to host my first class of the semester via Zoom. It was laggy and unplayable for the students and I had to end the session after about 11 minutes of trying to get students to hear me/see me. It was so bad that I had to use my phone for the 2nd class. I went looking for a computer that could handle Zoom and finally found one powerful enough to host a 20+ person Zoom call (which isn’t easy on a computer, btw).

However, this computer (that I will also be using for my dissertation), was a necessary expense between Zoom and my dissertation, but it’s keyboard isn’t the greatest. The key travel on it is a bit too shallow for the way I type and surprisingly enough, the Chromebook keyboard feels–if not better–at least lest “hard” when I hit the keys too hard. So, it is pretty hard to type on for extended periods of time–or at least it was. I now get a case for all my electronics and this was no different. With the case came an unexpected bonus–a keyboard cover that is has a soft “gell”-like coating. While the key travel is still “harsh,” the cover softens (most) of my keystrokes and I don’t feel the hardness of the keyboard with every keypress. However, the cover has its own problems: I can’t feel the keys the way I’d like and I end up with many more miskeys than I used to make, so I end up mis-typing something quite frequently and have to go back and erase it and then correct it, so my words-per-minute have gone WAAY down. And I was already a fairly slow typist to begin with. Also, because the “gell” doesn’t feel natural, I have to hold my fingers differently (high off the keyboard) and I find that my hands tire pretty quickly in this (unnatural) position.

What I’ve learned is that I work best on this computer when I limit myself to short sessions (for heavy typing sessions, at least–normal web-browsing tasks and other non-typing tasks are a dream). This is where working on things in small increments daily is going to pay dividends as it will allow me to get the things I need to do done, but without the dread of having long painful and fatiguing stints at the keyboard, typing until my fingers cramp up. This problem may be endemic to me as I have fairly long fingers, but I can tell you from experience (typing in feedback to 40 odd students’ papers) that if the keyboard doesn’t feel perfect for me, then any amount of typing that I need to do will be met with a certain amount of mental resistance on my part–I just can’t help it. Good keyboard travel is essential to a happy Sidney.

Conclusion

There are also other reasons why I didn’t blog, but I’m going to stop here. One of those reasons is the internal need that I have for a 5 paragraph essay structure (An introduction, 3 body paragraphs/topics/, and a conclusion). However, I’ve already been writing this blog post for an hour (1) and a 3 point would take at least another 15-20 minutes of drafting at my current typing speed. So, no, I’m stopping here (without the 3rd body paragraph/topic–although you’ve just gotten a preview of what it would have been).

Going forth, I will try to do better with the blog and blogging, but until Covid is much less of a thing (which I’m hoping will be true in 2021), I can’t make any promises. I’ve put other things in front of school before and payed the price. School has to be my primary goal–and if it sucks all the oxygen out of the air for other things that I want to do, then until I graduate, that’s just the price that I have to pay.

Thanks for listening!

Sidney

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

Currently Working On (11/2020):

  • Unhallowed (Weird Western Story)
    Out to Market
  • Starlight, Starbright (Science Fiction Story)
    Out to Market
  • The Independent (Science Fiction Story)
    Out to Market
  • A Spell in the Machine (Science Fantasy Story)
    Rewrite (Planning): In Progress 
  • Project Seas (Fantasy Story)
    Planning: Completed, Rough Draft: Completed, First Draft: In Progress
  • KnightWatch Graphic Novel (Fantasy Graphic Novel)
    Planning: In Progress

Missing Days

Please Stand By We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties on a background with a multi-color test pattern behind it.
Image Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/146437425360773322/

So, on Monday I missed blogging, and while I’ve been doing better for most of the summer, April and May were very sporadic for me. Most of the time (I’d estimate about 75%-80% of the time), I actually do have a draft in progress, but for various reasons, it just doesn’t get posted. Often times, it is time–there’s not enough time to finish it before the day is over.

However, sometimes there’s something that goes wrong with the draft. I then change my mind and I usually don’t have time to switch and write a different post, so the day usually gets missed.

Drafts that I Don’t Publish: The Zuckerberg Example

So, I actually still have this draft, but it will probably never see the light of day. I took issue with Zuckerberg’s alleged resistance to the boycotts happening against Facebook, especially in light of allegations by former staffers about the company’s lack of diversity. However, I didn’t want to be another “angry” voice on the internet. And boycotts don’t work well unless they are 1) sustained and 2) large numbers have to come together, so the boycotts aren’t going to work anyway–Facebook is too ingrained in keeping up with family and friends. So, after nearly 1200 -1500 words, I decided to just not publish this post.

Movies Reviews

I sometimes watch movies that I try to write movie reviews for as they are strong story telling narrative. The problem is, not every movie is interesting enough to spend 800-1200 words on. However, I never know that until I sit down and start writing it. Sometimes the writing goes great, but sometimes I sit down and it doesn’t flow. Sometimes it does flow and it just is too long to do justice to in a short amount of words/time. The movie review for The Dark Knight was written in 3 long bursts–so three writing sessions for one blog post.

If I’ve missed a blog post, especially on Mondays (or pro tip: if the movie review pops up on Tuesday or Wednesday), the writing either didn’t go well, (or also a pro tip: it went very well and it took longer than I anticipated to get it all down).

Time

And sometimes, time just gets a way. I’ve complained about time before, and it isn’t that I have poor time management skills, but because I’m a perfectionist, time just gets away (I could have, and probably should have, stopped this entry at movies, but because I like the power of “3,” I’m writing this 3rd topic now–and this blog entry is already 4-5 hours late). See, that previous sentence hints at what happens. I have level of quality in mind and I (mostly/most of the time) refuse to drop the level of quality to match the time required to do a good job. As such, I tend to run out of time or roar past deadlines, even when something is “good enough.”

So, like today, I almost missed posting because of time. I got up late, I had to work, and I’m only now getting a chance to write (finish) the blog that I’d intended on finishing when I got up this morning. So missing days to blog, while not fun, is an unfortunate side effect of not having enough entries already “banked” and ready to go on days where the writing doesn’t go correctly, or where it takes me longer than usual to get the words down.

Editing could be its own subheading. It generally takes me 15 minutes to edit (get images, tags, alt text, etc.) the blog entry ready to go. I try to one last pass where I look for grammatical errors in the text before I post it, but sometimes errors slip through, especially when I’m in a rush to post. So, any grammatical errors you might read are also attributable to a lack of time.

Well, that’s all I have time for today–have a good one!

Sidney

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

Currently Working On (7/2020):

  • “Project Wall” (Science Fiction Story)
    Drafting: First Draft
  • Unhallowed (Weird Western Story)
    Drafting: 2nd Draft (Working Draft)
    
  • Childe Roland Graphic Novel 
    Up Next: Rough Draft (Story)
    
  • I, Mage (Urban Fantasy Story)
    Drafting: 1st Revision

Blogging My Way to a Novel

A book cover showing a writer using a pen in a notebook/journal. The book's title is How Blogging can help you Write Your Novel.
Image Search: https://www.eadeverell.com/blogging-can-help-write-novel/

One of the things that I noticed when I was looking over the stats for my blog posts is the amount of words that I’ve been averaging. I’m actually down overall in terms of words from the past couple of years because I’m not publishing posts as regularly even though the actual word count for the posts has gone way up.

However, when I looked at the word count for the year, I was astounded. Taking the overall yearly word count just for the blog into account, I’ve written enough words to have written a novel every year since 2016!

Yup, you read that right–just doing what I’ve been doing for the blog would have been enough for a novel for the past four years!

60,000 Words (2016)

So, NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) which happens in November has a goal of 50,000 words. In theory, while there is no set amount of words for a novel, 60,000 words has generally become the accepted length in practice–although some would argue that NaNoWriMo’s 50,000 word length could also be considered novel length.

Looking at the blog’s stats–I reached 60,000 words (and change) in 2016. I was fairly committed to blogging–but I didn’t do it every day. If you were to use the calendar function on an old 2016 post, you would see that there were long gaps in posting, although I did post routinely at 5-6 days out of the month (yes, I think there may be some 3-4 days in their, but I generally average 5-6, maybe more). As you can see, while not consistent, I at least wrote something on monthly basis, even if it wasn’t a lot (or daily).

Had I done the exact same with my creative writing as I did with my blog posts, I would have had enough for a (depending on the font choice) 200 – 225 page manuscript and would have completed my first novel.

117,000 Words (2018)

My high water mark (so far) for the blog came in 2018, where somewhere around April/May, I hit my stride and blogged pretty much consistently for rest of the year. I blogged much like I’m trying to get back to now and what works best for me: Mondays-Fridays, 5 days a week. I actually usually do one or two blog posts on the weekend (maybe 3, but usually not more than 3) and then fill out the rest of the week with blog posts either written on that day (or at most, a day earlier).

I managed 117,000 words (and change) that year. Enough for 2 full novels or 1 door-stopper epic fantasy novel. This is the stat that really floored me and set me thinking about my writing, my writing process, and that helped to inspire this post. Just think of all that could have been accomplished had I taken the time to do with my creative writing that I managed with my blog.

Lessons Learned

I’ve learned two lessons from looking at my stats for the blog over the previous years of blogging:

  1. I need to be more consistent in my writing process if I want success. Even if I can’t find the “time,” I need to always be moving forward and to make sure I find time to write at least 5-6 days monthly. If I can also find a way to write daily (Monday-Friday) along with my blog, great–and that will put me in better stead–but at the bare minimum, I must be more consistent about writing.
  2. I should try to use the format of my blog to help me draft my longer works. This format works well for me–Introduction, 2-3 headings, and a paragraph or two for each heading. This is how I’m hoping to help myself become a better and more productive writer without “breaking my process.” That’s the key and I’m hoping that because I like this format–it will work for me.

Well, that’s all I have for today–nothing earth-shattering. Just a realization that I have the capabilities within me to make my dreams come true–if I can just find the consistency (and willpower) to get it done. And of course, not let it interfere with my dissertation for school.

Sidney

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

  • The Independent  (Sci-Fi Short-Story)–
    Editing Draft
  • Ship of Shadows Graphic Novel 
    Finished: Script, Issue #1
    Next: Script, Issue #2
  • “Project Arizona” (Weird Western Story)
    Finished: Rough Draft
    Next: First Draft

Fixing What Isn’t Broken

Picture of Obi-Wan Kenobi from 3rd Star Wars Prequel film (Revenge of the Sith) with white lettering that reads: "You don't fix what isn't broken!"
Image Source: Meme Generator

This will mark my first blog that I’ve published in about 4 weeks. Why? Well, there’s a short answer to that and a long one. The post today will lay out my reasons for the longer answer, but the shorter answer is simple: I fixed what wasn’t broken and now it’s broken. It’s that simple. I don’t mean technology broke, or even society (with the Covid-19 virus and the global Pandemic and subsequent “shut-down” and shelter in place status) going on.

No. I simply mean that I tried to fix my writing process (of which the blog is a part) and I fouled everything up. It has taken this long to untangle myself and work to get back to where writing is an enjoyable process and where I feel that I can create (no matter if it is for work, school, or play).

21st Draft

Yup, that’s right. This is draft number 21 and it (hopefully) will be the first post that I publish in a while. I have 20 other drafts in my drafts folder for this blog that are in various states that I need to either finish or delete since the first of March.

Now to be fair, about 8 or 9 of those pre-dated March 5, when I went to the conference in Boston, but I’ve tried multiple times over the past three weeks to get an entry out, but each time I’d either start it and not finish, or get some of it written, or (in one case) write the whole bleeping thing and then have the computer not save it to the WordPress server.

THIS is why it is so dangerous for me to get out of my routine/comfort zone. Not only do I not produce work that is up to (what I believe) are my standards, but I then go on long unproductive stretches where I can’t complete the things that I need to complete.

EDIT: And this post is an example of this–I started this post last Monday (March 30, 2020) and I’m just now publishing it on April 6, 2020 (assuming WordPress allows me to do so–it will let a draft sit in the compose window for only so long before it stops allowing updating. They really want you to close out the window and let it sit in the “drafts” folder.

Sidney

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

  • The Independent  (Sci-Fi Short-Story)–
    3rd Draft of 3 Drafts 
    Revising Section 1 (of 3)
    Deadline = February 29, 2020
  • Project Arizona (Fantasy Short Story–Weird West))
    Finished: Story Outline
    Next: Character Sketch
  • I, Mage (Fantasy Short Story)
    Mythic Mag. Deadline = July 31, 2020
  • Ship of Shadows Graphic Novel 
    Finished: Script, Issue #1
    Next: Script, Issue #2
  • Ship of Shadows: Screenplay
    Finished: Script Outline (Rough Draft)
    Next: Script Outline (1st Draft)

Blogging is Dead . . . Long Live Blogging.

Blogging is dead . . . long live blogging! So, over the past two months, Sony has released information about its newest generation console–the PS5. They’ve done so, not on their blog (more on this in a moment), but through a couple of exclusive interviews with Wired magazine–a once venerable tech magazine whose fortunes have crumbled with the fall of print and the move to online platforms. And yet . . . Wired like blogging still remains relevant in the digital sphere. I mention Wired, Sony, and the PS5, not because I want the readers of the blog to love games & gaming as much as I do–it actually seems to turn off many of the readers of the blog by the numbers–but rather because Sony also blogs. The Playstation Blog is one of the most informative, insightful, and artfully arranged blogs out there–and they do a FAR better job than I do of keeping their blog up-to-date with entries on regular basis (oh, sick burn on myself!). Yes, their blog is mostly designed to sell their products and services, but wealth of information that you can find in some of the interviews and developer posts simply can’t be replicated in one minute, twenty-seven second trailer (1:27) of the latest hot game. Through their posts, you can truly take the “pulse” of the gaming community (at least, for Sony’s platform anyway).

And yet . . . I can’t tell you how many pundits and video game journalists who have sneered (and that’s the only word that can be used) at Sony’s strategy, of both using Wired to disseminate and for using a “lowly blog” to communicate with its players, fans, and customers. I’ve heard the phrase, “Come on Sony, it’s 2019, get with the times” bandied about more times than I can count as if blogs are not still relevant and can’t compete with the “old” hotness of Facebook & Twitter and the “new” hotness of Instagram.

Well, as a blogger, I SAY THEE NAY!

Blogs ARE Still Relevant . . . If You Know How To Use Them

Part of the problem, both in the video game community and the larger social media sphere, is that blogs are still more binary than interactive. Blogging & bloggers, by design, still generate posts. Readers can then read them or choose not to read them and then respond. Bloggers who allow comments can either let the comments go up or not and can then choose to respond or not.

What blogging (for me) allows is to share ideas with a larger public–an audience, if you will. I’m always aware that there is another person at a screen somewhere who will read these words and will engage with them on some level. However, I’m also very aware that “interaction” may be limited. I allow comments and so far, with the exception of spam comments, I have allowed EVERY comment made by readers to go up, even if I have not always had the time/inclination to respond to them. However, Facebook and Instagram (and even Twitter) to a lesser degree relies on interaction. Very few people on those platforms just read Status Updates or just look at the pictures, or don’t retweet/use hashtags for various things that interest them.

Interactivity, however, is NOT a prerequisite for Social Media–speaking to an audience/having audience awareness is. And just because everyone else seems to be in the thrawl of interactivity, doesn’t mean that everyone should be or wants to be. This why Sony is getting so much blow-back. People seem to want to interact with Sony (and the comments section of their blog posts, especially the ones on their “free” games line-up on their Playstation Plus program seems to bear this out). Some of us just want to express some idea, some thought, some sort of expression into the general public. Maybe that is frustration (like how I’m frustrated over having to take a test tomorrow that I feel is too overly broad and doesn’t play to my strengths as a writer who makes “connections), or maybe that is wonder (at seeing my story make the cover of a magazine which is vindication for the long hard nights of me writing the story all by myself), or maybe it is disgust (at the fact news outlets are being given information about the next new “hotness” that is the PS5, but are too busy sneering at the way the information is presented rather than doing a deep dive on the information). An aside: I guarantee if Microsoft (M$) was releasing the information in that vein, it would be okay because: sing it with me now, </sarcasm> Microsoft is an “American” company and so, obviously, Microsoft can do NO wrong </Sarcasm off>.

Interactivity is NOT always the name of the game nor the end all/be all of Social Media. Sometimes, information and/or expression is also necessary–and that’s why blogs exist, to put ideas, expressions, and content into context (filtered through the blogger) and to provide perspective (again, filtered through the blog–but in this case, through the blogger and the readers of the blog).

And to all those who think blogging is old and dead or a useless endeavor–blogging is very much ALIVE, and continues to be a valid source of expression, be they opinions, information, or emotive outpourings of the various writers who see blogging as useful and necessary. Just because you don’t see the relevance of blogs and blogging doesn’t mean there isn’t any.

Long live blogs and blogging (and bloggers).

Sidney

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

  • The Independent  (Sci-Fi Short-Story)–
    3rd Draft of 3 Drafts 
    Drafting Section 2 (of 3)
    Mythic Mag. Deadline = January 31, 2020
  • I, Mage (Fantasy Short Story)
    Pre-Production Phase (Planning)
    Pre-Writing on Rough Draft & Character Sketch
    Mythic Mag. Deadline = July 31, 2020
  • Current Longer Work-in-Progress: Ship of Shadows Graphic Novel 
    (Sci-Fi) Issue # 2, Currently on Script Page 32
    Personal Deadline = December 30, 2019

1% Inspiration, 99% Perspiration

Image Source: https://meshgh.com/2015/10/18/weekly-quote-genius-is-1-percent-inspiration-99-percent-perspiration-thomas-edison/

Before I start today’s blog, I just wanted to say thank you to the many readers who read and responded (and “Liked”) yesterday’s blog entry. It was really gratifying to see that others responded to what I was trying to express. Thanks again, everyone!

Today, I just want to take a moment to talk about what makes writing (this blog & creative writing) so much fun for me. And it comes down to a simple quote that was attributed to Thomas Edison, an American inventor who, famously, invented the light bulb. I basically follow this particular formula for every major project that I work on.

1% Inspiration

This is my favorite part of the writing process. For me, getting that initial idea is one of the best feelings that I can experience. When I’m figuring out plot, characters, themes, emotions, and the story world is both invigorating and fun all at the same time. I love coming up with ideas in my writing and I love seeing how wild and outlandish I push the concepts that I write. For example, in 20s I used want to be a Role-Playing Game designer. Every summer, I would sit outside in the scorching 90+ degree (Fahrenheit) heat and just work on a section of the RPG that I’d come up with that year (I also did the same with short stories–this is how The Ghost and the Shadow was written). Obviously, I never did anything with these RPGs, but that wasn’t the point–I was more than happy to just work on the “cool” concepts that I’d come up with for the games. Even now, I have folder after folder of concepts that I want to create stories, novels, comics, movies, etc. from because I absolutely enjoy sitting down and coming up with the ideas and the world and all the things that make the story world so exciting. This feeling lasts (for me) all through the concept phase, the creation phase, and even into the “rough draft” phase–where I put a simple version down on paper. This even applies to blog entries–I currently have 14 “drafts” in my drafts folder in various stages of completion (more than enough to have put together enough to have put out during the previous two weeks) So, what happened, where does the writing process go “wrong” for me? That (of course) is the next phase.

99% Perspiration

Okay, once I get to this stage, the enjoyment of the project wears off quite a bit. I guess, for me, its because at this stage that I realize that the project is never going to reach the actual “potential” that I have in my mind for it. No, that’s not true. Reflecting back, I think that it is more that now I have to continually “shape” the work in order to get it to match the potential that I think it had when I created it and I that “refinement” process isn’t nearly as easy and as “fun” as it was during the inspiration phase. In the inspiration phase, ideas seem to flow, like water from a fountain, and my pen/pencil, or my computer can barely move fast enough to get the ideas out. However, once we move to the perspiration phase, then its really like work, trying to “dig” ideas out and get them to work correctly. For the most part, I push though this phase, but it is hard. This one isn’t nearly as fun nor as enervating as the inspiration phase. For example, Dragonhawk was based on a book cover that I’d had since childhood and I had the idea for ages. However, I did a lot of work for that story: I wrote multiple outlines for it, I “built” it from the ground up (sentences to paragraphs to sections, meaning that the outlines went from bare sentences, to more elaborate paragraphs, to still more elaborate sections), I wrote character sketches for the two main protagonists, I revised it heavily to get its word count down, I stuck with it even when there were sections that didn’t seem to be working well and fixed those before sending it out, etc. (all which speaks to the quality discussion of yesterday’s blog). I remain convinced that it is the only story that I’ve ever had accepted on the 1st try because of the work that I put into making it into the story that I’d envisioned in the inspiration phase (and tangentially because I actually took the time to write out my characters and created a character sketch for them). This happens in my blogs as well–I don’t just treat these like “tweets” and quickly throw them up on the site just to get them done, but craft them like mini-essays. While necessary in order to get anything done and not be a “dreamer” like I was in the days of my (many) failed RPGs, this phase is simply work and isn’t as much fun as the other phase.

1% Catharsis

So, yes I know, this now adds up to 101%, but (for me) this is also a necessary step that Edison didn’t articulate, but probably should have. This is the phase when the project is complete and has been published (or turned in or posted). The sense of catharsis that I feel is akin to the euphoria that I feel when I originally began the project. The release of tension and the successful completion of the project is something that a writer is always trying to capture. I can only say that it is probably akin to the “runner’s high” that marathon runners experience as well. I felt this after my first publication of The Ghost and the Shadow and I’ve always trying to recreate this experience. I will say that it never quite reaches the level of when I first start a project–I suppose because of the tedium that I go through to actually get the project written in the first place, but still, this final phase is an important part of why I chose to write in the first place. The euphoria of beginning a project and the euphoria of finishing a project help to give me a buffer to get through all of the hard times actually working on the project. Without the inspiration and catharsis phases, I doubt I enjoy writing nearly as much as I do.

My goal now is to take what I’ve learned over these past two years and to apply them to longer and longer works so as to move into the realms of novels and books and become the writer that I always dreamed I might become. Crossing my fingers that it happens, but I’m also putting in the 99% perspiration to try to actually make it happen as well.

Hope you have a great day!

Sidney

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

  • The Independent  (Sci-Fi Short-Story)–
    3rd Draft of 3 Drafts 
    Drafting Section 1 (of 3)
    Mythic Mag. Deadline = January 31, 2020
  • I, Mage (Fantasy Short Story)
    Pre-Production Phase (Planning)
    Pre-Writing on Rough Draft & Character Sketch
    Mythic Mag. Deadline = July 31, 2020
  • Current Longer Work-in-Progress: Ship of Shadows Graphic Novel 
    (Sci-Fi) Issue # 2, Currently on Script Page 32
    Personal Deadline = September 30, 2019
  • HawkeMoon (upcoming) = Edits turned in to editor 5/31/19

Unintended Vacation

Image Source: https://me.me/i/when-youre-overworked-broke-with-no-social-life-and-someone-3cb5624d1d1b41ef8a97ec1e8d5378c7

Sorry for the last two weeks. I haven’t actually been on vacation–far from it. I’ve actually been simply overworked in the last two weeks of the Summer semester. I’m great (no false modesty here folks), but I’m slow. I’ve discovered that when I blog, I essentially must do one of two things: 1) set aside an hour every day in which to blog (not ideal, but the way the blog mostly gets written) or 2) write the blog entries over the weekend and set them to “pop up” on a daily basis (ideal, but at an hour an entry that usually means 5 hours out of my weekend–which after a rough week like last week, is hard to do).

Why So Slow

In a word: QUALITY. That’s the one thing that my friends (those who know me) can’t understand about me. I like to take my time with things in order to make sure that I get them right. Yes, I’m an American, but you wouldn’t know it. This is going to seem like a slam on my nation, but it’s true: Americans prefer speed over quality. Shhhh, don’t tell anyone, but it’s true. If Americans can get both, then they will, obviously, but as someone who’s dealt with the public for 17 years, I can say that many (obviously not all) prefer the quick answer to the right answer. Americans hate wasting time and are always rushing hither and thither and they hate to be slowed down by anything, even (in some cases, by the truth/correct answer). Sure, if the quick answer is wrong and costs them money, then most of my countrymen and women will be angry, but just as likely, if there’s no money involved, then they’ll take the wrong answer just because its quick.

That’s just not me.

Advantages and Disadvantages

So, in American society, there are distinct advantages and disadvantages to being slow (or preferring quality over quickness). The advantages is that I tend, over time, to be as good, if not better than others in whatever I put my time into. Doesn’t mean that I’m automatically (automagically) going to be better, but because I take my time, start from the ground up, learn deeply, take the “hits”/”mistakes”/disappointments, and then keep going, I usually have a better average than others. Of my circle, I’m the only one who is technically a “professional” writer. Sure, others have publications or who have written full novels, but none have actually faced rejection upon rejection, revised their stories, or dealt with the realities of the publishing world, over and over again until their work sells. They dismiss the level of difficulty of what I do because, since I’m so slow, they never actually see all of the hard work and the stages that it takes to get things done. For instance, I have to teach an English class in about 2 weeks; first day of class is the 26th. However, my final paper is also due on the 26th as the professor wanted a paper that would be great and one that we could use to present at a conference. So, instead of doing 1 thing like my contemporaries, I have to do 2 things. There are some who have already finished their one thing (prepping for school or finished their paper). I, on the other hand, am in the middle of working on both of them. They will be ready on time and will be at a high level, but I’m sure there are others who would look at me and think that I’m not capable of doing the work–everyone else is already finished, they would argue, why aren’t you? Nevermind that I have a blog, a short story, reading (personal and school), yard work, housework, a weekly 4 hour commute, church, errands, and any number of other commitments in addition to trying to rest and recover from the work week–and that doesn’t even cover the work I’ve done to get set up in my school’s brand new class Doctoral Readings (which could be its own blog entry).

The Price of Quality

There is a price to be paid for quality, though. It means that there is never enough time to do everything that you want to do, in the manner that you want to do it.

The editor of Storyhack sent a link to the proofs in a dropbox file about 2 weeks ago–just before my inadvertent vacation from blogging. I glanced over them and told myself I’d get back to them as soon as I could, but wasn’t able to do so. I’ll look and see if they’re still available to edit (I doubt it mightily, but I just didn’t have the time to do it properly until now), so if it gets published, it probably won’t be the way I wanted it. Again, this is a source of frustration–why couldn’t it have been sent earlier in the summer when time wasn’t at so much of a premium? I don’t know, but I do know that it came in at exactly the wrong time for me to give it my full attention, so I’ll just have to shrug and have it printed not like I wanted.

Still, there’s not a whole lot that could be done. If I’d done the edits on time, then I wouldn’t have completed my Annotated Bibliography (which earned an A, btw) or the Final Exam (haven’t gotten the grade back yet), so I have to prioritize. And if that ticks people off, well, then I’m sorry, but that’s simply the way my life works. I’m still working on the Work, School, Life Balance and maybe one day, I’ll get it figured out.

Well, I’d better wrap this up. I’ve been writing now for almost an hour and a half (this one is as long as 2 normal blog entries), but I thought I should explain my absence. To be honest, it will probably happen again sometime around Aug. 26th or so, but hopefully it won’t be as long this time.

Have a good day!

Sidney

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

  • The Independent  (Sci-Fi Short-Story)–
    3rd Draft of 3 Drafts 
    Drafting Section 1 (of 3)
    Mythic Mag. Deadline = January 31, 2020
  • I, Mage (Fantasy Short Story)
    Pre-Production Phase (Planning)
    Pre-Writing on Rough Draft & Character Sketch
    Mythic Mag. Deadline = July 31, 2020
  • Current Longer Work-in-Progress: Ship of Shadows Graphic Novel 
    (Sci-Fi) Issue # 2, Currently on Script Page 32
    Personal Deadline = September 30, 2019
  • HawkeMoon (upcoming) = Edits turned in to editor 5/31/19

I’ll Let You in on a Little Secret . . . About the Blog

A table set with several dishes of food on a blue and white tablecloth.
Image Source: https://researchinsiders.blog/2017/07/06/moving-beyond-binge-vs-snack-writing/

So, just like the title implies, I’m going to let you in on a little secret in regards to this blog. You know how last week I was able to release 5 blog entries without fail and all of them released at about 8:00 am EST? Yeah well, I did them all on that Sat./Sun. before the week. That’s right, all 5 entries last week were written mostly on those two days (actually, the vast majority of them were written in a single day). I found the process to be actually be kind of enjoyable, especially when I finished the 4th one and I knew that I was going to finish the 5th one in fairly short order.

Binge Writing

Okay, so I’m not really a “binge watcher,” (per se). Unless there’s are run of really good episodes all right in a row, I don’t generally binge watch a show that is on streaming. Rather I “consume” 2-5 (sometimes more, sometimes less) episodes at a time and then I stop for a period of time (which depends on how much time I have that week, how much I’m invested in the show, and how much I like the current storyline). The more I like a particular storyline, the more episodes I watch and vice versa. I am literally 4-5 episodes away from finishing Farscape for the first time (I’ve mentioned previously that this is my 3rd time attempting to complete the series–more on that when I give my review of the series). However, the last episodes in the back half of the 4th Season are really dragging for me–I think I know why, but I want to finish before I give my thoughts.

All this to say that I have a fairly strong will (especially when I can create a “routine” and stick to that routine without a whole lot of variation to knock me off my routine). I found that I really like writing all of the blog entries on 1-2 days and then schedule them to “pop-up” on WordPress every day. When I did it this way, I was able to get my all my posts done and then used the week to do creative writing on The Independent and the edits for HawkeMoon. I was much more productive with just a little tweak to my “system.”

So What Happened?

This week, well I’ve missed two days so far. In my defense, one was a holiday, but had I done the same system, I could have had a shorter post ready for it that simply wished everyone a happy holiday.

No, this week that system didn’t happen because I was a bit sick this past weekend–an all too common refrain for this year. While I was able to get up and do things, whatever I had lead to a general sense of lethargy (in addition to a slight runny nose), so I basically was in bed for quite a bit of the holiday weekend.

The posts that you’re getting this week are ones that I being created on the day they are released–and as you can see, I’m much more erratic when I write this way.

This is the same with my creative writing. When I can carve out a substantial amount of time (regularly), then I’m able to make significant progress on my stories. However, when I only have a small amount of time–even if it is regular–it is much harder for me to get into the “ficitive dream state” and much harder for me to create writing in which I’m personally satisfied. The blog from which I used an image (https://researchinsiders.blog/2017/07/06/moving-beyond-binge-vs-snack-writing/) mentions an idea that I’ve used before: “The Flow.” If I don’t have enough time to write, then I don’t enter this flow (the ficitive dream I mentioned above) and the writing is very unsatisfying.

So, for me, it is better for both the blog and my own projects, to have a regular, discrete amount of time (45 mins to hour and a half) for me to truly create something that I’m proud of as a writer. If I don’t have that time, then it is much harder for me to write and to write consistently. So now that I’ve defined the problem, my task is to work on the solution: finding ways to binge-write consistently.

Sidney

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

  • Current Work-in-Progress–February 2019: Project Dog  (Sci-Fi Short-Story – 1st Draft — Character Draft “Finished”)
  • Current Work-in-Progress: Ship of Shadows (Sci-Fi Graphic Novel – Script, Issue # 2, Currently on Script Page 32)

Gone Dark

Image Source: https://www.rhinohub.com/silence-is-golden/

So this is the first post that I’ve made in approximately two weeks (maybe 2 1 /2 – 3 weeks). I’ve attempted several posts (my “Drafts” folder in WordPress is up to 9 drafts–this one is actually up to 10–but after it gets published it will be back down to 9 again). It seems like I’m always apologizing for stepping away from the blog, but that’s just the way that my mind works. I have to have enough time to work on my projects, personal or school related. That’s what I discovered trying to write “piecemeal”; I can do it, but it isn’t very good–it also isn’t (for me) a very rewarding way to write. I also discovered that I need enough time to make the drafts come out the way that I want them. Without both of these elements–time enough to get through a complete section (as I define it), then the work isn’t as good or as fun. That’s why my “drafts” box is filled with partially completed drafts–it isn’t that the ideas behind them weren’t good, but rather, I didn’t have enough time when I started them to get them where I thought they needed to be to publish them to the blog. Now, I look at them, and the idea is still there, but I’ve lost the desire/impetus to actually work on them.

Coming Back to Life

This blog post represents a resurgence in my writing life. Primarily, this summer is a “reading” summer. I have quite a few things I need to do this summer and nearly everything has reading involved. I have a book that I’ve been trying to read for nearly a year and a half (Multimodal Composition: A Critical Sourcebook by Claire Lutkewitte) beside me right now and my goal is to read at least a chapter before I go home for lunch today. This is going to be much of my summer–read, read, read. Of course, writing go back to being a thing. I should be back to my daily blogging routine and I should put time on my writing projects daily. As long as I have enough time to complete some “section” (like the goal of reading one chapter today), I should hopefully find that by the end of summer, I’ve managed to be a successful reader and writer.

Seeing is Believing

I’ve seen quite a bit of media, but one of the most affecting things that I’ve seen is a YouTube video (TedTalk) that I really found powerful and helpful. I will link to it at a later date and create a blog topic about it, but I really thought that the message was one that I could follow as it talked about making marginal improvements in order to make life-altering improvements. This is something that I don’t mind doing–if something is broken, I want to fix it, but making changes for the sake of changes doesn’t really help me (and usually makes things worse in the long run). However, it I “tweak” things, so that the changes are small and meaningful, then things seem to work out better for me, for example, working on characters before I start to seriously draft the story which was a small change that I feel has paid dividends to my writing. This is something I will be working on all summer.

Well, I’ve nattered on for long enough–this chapter isn’t going to read itself. Hope to talk to you all much more this summer and hope not to “go dark” again any time soon.

Sidney

Please consider supporting these fine small press publishers where my work has appeared:

  • Current Work-in-Progress–February 2019: Project Dog  (Sci-Fi Short-Story – 1st Draft — Character Draft “Finished”)
  • Current Work-in-Progress: Ship of Shadows (Sci-Fi Graphic Novel – Script, Issue # 2, Currently on Script Page 32)

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