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“Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering.” Winnie the Pooh

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“Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering.” Winnie the Pooh

Day 04: Ideas

Short post today, guys, who is basically just me Haha. I don’t’ mind talking to myself on a blog, its not like I don’t do it enough in real life. Anyway,, huge physiology test Wednesday, so I spent a lot of time studding. I still managed to write 1170, is it bad that took me an hour? I thought it was ten, so I was not going to do a post today, but then I took a Tardis and realized I still had a half hour before bedtime.

So, ugh….what am I supposed to talk about now? Oh yes, what the freak, I’ll talk about ugh…..I do have a question.

What does it mean to “Write what you Know”? Seriously, I can’t answer this question, its bothering me. It lets me wander…where do ideas come from?

Its Odd because J.R.R Tolkien didn’t exactly live a life like Lord of the Rings. He lived rather normal life in the suburbs, with a wife and kids. This is not to say he was not one of the most brilliant men of the 20th century, but he did not write about what he knew, in theory., because this is secret…elves, and dwarfs are not real. Jo Rowling also had a pretty average life as an English teacher.

If we all wrote what we knew, we’d be all be writing about how go to and from work, a and work, as Beatnik Turtle would call it in a “Cube farm”.

The worst question to ask is “Where did you get the idea for this project?” To me, I get ideas from other ideas. I just sit there, without thinking or knowing…although cone, I specially recall having another idea for a story I want to work on one day…while I was sitting on the Toilet.

“There are no original ideas,” what a bunch of crap. That is an excuse for laziness, an excuse to just tell another cop show, or another medical drama. If you ask me, good art scan imitate great art, but greater art recreates great art.

Sure, your story will fit a formula. Most of the time, it will have a hero, a villain, a rising action, a falling action, a climax and a resolution. But, I believe if your story has nothing new to bring to the table, you should not bring it (I’m looking at you Grey’s Adenoma)

You want to know the hardest idea about making something original? The hardest you try to make it original, the more unoriginal it is. In another story I have put up on the shelf for a time, I found myself trying to hard to change characters to be original, the thing was, the more I tried to be original, the more unoriginal it became. You now have hundreds of writers trying to hard to be original, so they all poof out the same stuff.

The one piece of advice I can offer myself, or others is this. To be original, take risks. This is a major flaw of heroes. Heroes could have let he virus out on the world. Do something no one expects. Maybe it won’t turn out well, but its better the just doing nothing, and at least you can say you tried. And if it doesn’t work…that’s why we have second and third drafts, people!

Secondly, do not press the reset button. Let every action count, let every conflict matter. Let it move along the story. Don’t just have some guy wake up and make it all a dream. Once you go down a path that will take your story to a new level, don’t hold back. Go the whole way!

Make sure every action ahs a consequence and don’t hold back. Take risks, you can always go back and change it. Going all the way will keep you original because the story is real, and it feels real.

Day 03: I love You Cause I’m Drunk

Happy to say today I can say ire ached my goal of a daily 1000 words. I wrote 1220 words, although I started to get tired at about 700. I was going to talk about how this story ahs to many characters, but I’ll save that for another day, perhaps when I get done with my first draft.

So, just a bit of background. A character by the name of Jason, discovers that he is a murderer, and even tried to rape and kill one of my other characters (both of which could hit the cutting room floor) Jason wants to die, so he shuts himself down from the world. Alex, who finds/eventually finds that she was his accomplices stops by to tell him to stop wallowing in his own self pity> Now, of course, their is a reason why their here, there was a very important piece of revelation that serves the scene, but that’s a major plot element. Today, I just want to talk bout the romantic element between Alex and Jason.

Alex is supposed to start out hating Jason, and yet pitying him. This is the real first part we’re I need to start a friendship between the two characters. But how do you writ ea good romance? How does it stay realistic, without bogging down the story?

Take for example Lost. The main problem with the first six episodes of lost was that it was all about who Kate would choose. Do I care? No, I really do not care. The problem with Kate in the third season is that she is just a device to have romance in the story. It seemed an attempt to drag in the Grey’s crowd, or the fan girl crowd. I don’t care who she hooks up with. I care about if Jack will betray Sawyer and Kate; I care about how John Locke basically broke Sawyer. I care about John Locke and Jacob.

The lesion? Don’t let the romance bog the plot. Make it impotent, and make it matter. Make the romance matter to the plot; don’t just add it so certain characters have something to do.

Then there is the fatal flaw of the new Doctor who. In series three, Martha spends every episode saying, “The doctor will figure it all out,” or “I love him, and I don’t even know whim.” I can not begin to tell you how annoying this potently good character got. It was unrealistic. It was nothing more then a school girl drawling after a rock star.

I hate it when characters set their eyes on someone and are in love. There can be an attraction, I get that, but it’s a problem when it becomes a soup opera. TH either thing w can learn from this is that Davis is trying to hard to create a romantic flare between the doctor and Martha. You only got to say “He is amazing,” once, we get it!

Okay, so three lesions,

1. Don’t add romance for the sake of romance. Why does the princess always need a prince Charming? And, if your character has nothing else to do, then why are they even there? In other words, make sure the romance adds something to the plot.
2. Make it realistic. Characters can not just meet and fall in love. If this is not a fairy tale, and this woman, like Martha, is a strong, mature person, don’t just have them se their eyes on some dude just because he ca do some cool stuff, like travel back and forward through time.
3. Don’t overdue it. Do not underestimate e the intelligence of tee reader. If you write a romance correctly, we’ll get it.

Again, I’m talking about the scifi/action/susspnece genre. I do not mean fairy tales, or even romantic stories. Although, I believe romances would be a lot better if they were alto more realistic, but some people like that sort of thing.

So I have Alex, slowly open up to Jason. We reveal a side to Jason that we have not seen. I'm trying really hard to follow w these rules, but it’s easier said then done.

Okay, so I kind of stole it from “Dan in Real Life”, where they have the best night of their lives. And drinking is a fantastic plot device; it allows them to open up abit.

I can at least say that their romance is rather important, especially by the end of boo k 2. I think they will continue down his path towards a romance until that point.

Day 01:This First Drafts Major is Sucking

So, I already missed a day and it wasn’t’ even day one yet. Wow, okay, we’ll just pretend that I wrote the day ) on Friday. But, for whatever its worth, I was watching the Sweeny Todd play from 715—1130. I will find an excuse for everything, it makes me feel better.

Okay, excuses aren’t good. I should have written a bit last night, but I didn’t. Instead, I watched lost. But today, I had this incredible resolution. I figured out why writing has been so difficult these last few weeks.

Is it writers block? No, I only get that when I start stories. I know exactly where this Is going. Is it boredom? NO, it surely can not be that. I stayed up for a half hour figuring out how I would introduce characters in different places. Am I scared/ Yes.

The truth is the only reason why II have written even 100 words is because I took the advice that I have heard dozens of times. I stopped editing while writing. I made me get stuff f down.

Take for example a conflict that is bring. A character by the name of Jordan Boomer wants another character named Ryan to steal guns from the Police station. By doing this, Ryan in the end betrays his brother. I wasn’t sure if I was making this believable, though, there wasn’t enough context.. Now, these guns were just discovered a chapter ago. What I want to do is have them discovered in the beginning the book. I want Ryan to feel betrayed by Ralph, who treats him badly through the start of the book . But in order to show that, I will add more scenes with them, and more dialogue between the brothers.

If I were editing while writing, I would stop where I was and change everything, right now. But, then I wander if I should just get it down first. I get discouraged. I start to wander how I even mad ether mistake in the first place.

What if I do edit after edit and it never gets better/ What if no one like sit? What if it sucks?

What if its just not good enough? What if I am just not good enough?

I think I have a fear of not being liked, it something that always scared me as a kid. Although, I am outspend, and rarely change for society, it doesn’t’ really stop the fear of being hated,

I think that is why people do one of two things, or both things,

1. They edit while writing. They keep on editing, and editing until they burn out.
2. They simply stop writing.

Managed fear is not necessarily a bad thing, after all, it can motivate us., and that is not to mention fear is a natural emotion, like anger, or happiness. But, fear, unmanaged, is potentially the worst thing a aspiring writer can ever face.

What I have to tell myself, over and over is that first drafts can suck. It’s a matter of getting it down. It’s okay to write badly, but rewriting is the real thing. After all, you have to start with something, right?

Maybe rewriting won’t work, but I guess one will never know, until they try it. .

Day 00:The MIssion

Its funny, I thought it was hard to begin stories, but apparently its also hard to begin a blog. Sometimes I prefer to start in the middle of a story, but since I don’t know the middle of my blog hats hard. How could I know the middle of my blog, when I don’t know when it ends?

What real sucks is that this blog may never end, well, at least not until we run out of electricity, the ice caps melt, or we are all enslaved by robots. Anyway, thousand of scientists have billions of ways we will all die, but until doomsday, this blog may never end, because, no work is ever finished, it is only stopped.

I am screaming this daily blog to track my progress though m book series. It’s called the Empty City, a book series containing five books. It’ not really fair to call it days….

So far I have about 38000 words into the first draft of my first book. I do not expect anyone really to read this, but I feel this blog will help motivate me into writing.

“The Empty City”, to set up simply, is a story about a group of people who wake up in an empty city, without any idea who they are or where they are. What happens when you find out you attempted suicide, you’re a whore, you were a brilliant young doctor, a murderer, responsible for the deaths of hundreds…or what would happen if you found out everything that was happening was really all your fault? What if one girl had all the answers? What if their were people out there to make you just like them…and what if these people couldn’t die?

That’s a bit overdramatic, but I just wrote it, cut me a break. That’s the simple twist, there is a lot more to it. Maybe it sounds like crap because the story is crap…but here’s the thing…even if it were crap, and it might be, but despite all of that it wouldn’t make a difference. For me, the words must come out. You ant’ stop it…its like holding g in a thrust of rushing wind.

Just a little about me. I am an 18 year old, and this is my first book. I guess I’m a bit of a sci-fi geek, I spend a little to much time watching Lost, Babylon 5, Doctor who, Heroes, and firefly.

This blogs purpose is to simply motivate to me into writing something ever day, I have been slacking for the last few weeks, however, I’m at least half way done at 37680 words. .