Category: Blog Of Writing +1

The Ideathon: My Imaginary Adventures

This has been a busy week and I have neglected many things. My lawn for one will require a machete to cut soon, as well as a whip and brown fedora. Hopefully there are no Nazi’s in there too! As I neglect my lawn, and occasionally my dishes (I still rinse!) I find myself sleeping, writing, eating or working. Yes, I do have a girlfriend, but I try and give her all of the time we have together. That choices leaves me with plenty of writing time still, but I just feel guilty about not writing, you know what I mean?

This past week saw me come up with another story idea which is fresh off another story idea I am already working on. As I beat out solely the plot points, I find myself with easily 40 points to focus on and loads of conspiracies to have fun with. The story in one sentence is: A man grows from nobody to martyr to unify the world against an alien threat. (Next up, on FOX.) Wow, that one line had actually no spoilers and sums it up quite nicely. Not bad, not bad at all. The idea may sound a bit dull, but with the 40 plot points I’ve jotted down just this morning, the conspiracies and twists run deep. Still, it’s not my main idea so off to the back burner it goes.

That being said, one of my friends really enjoyed the story of the Mediocre Assassin. They suggested I run with that, and even after rereading what I wrote, I can’t tell you why. Do I think that it was fantastic? I did! Now do I? I really feel as though my writing has improved significantly since I wrote that story, and that was not that long ago. I think I should do old Sherman a favour and revisit his story, give it more tact, more sarcasm, more… awesome. Even as the ideas jump around in my head, I already feel guilty enough not focusing on my main idea which for now is named “Fabled”.

“Fabled” is currently my baby, and it has not been given the attention it deserves. As I hash out the details, I find myself immersing in lore and even figuring out religion in my world and how it works. Magic? Rare. Relics of the Gods? Few and far between. Secret orders? Many, and varied. Even as I type this I consider myself to be leaving the story to fend for itself. In part, I almost believe I have so many ideas because I am terrified to finish one. What if it’s not good enough? What if that other idea is better? Why write story when I can blog about writing?

The Ideathon will be happening this week. What is the Ideathon you ask?! Well, this week I will not write a single word in any story. I am going to attempt to drain my imagination of all of its ideas. Yes, this laptop is about to become extremely overwhelmed with text and excel documents. I am doing this so that I will not be tempted to follow any single line of thought. I frequently get ideas and inspired by other things I read, write and experience. This will be an attempt to see if I actually can just get the creativity out so I can focus on the story at hand. My muse has “inceptioned” their muse and I find myself always imagining things, running away with ideas and never able to focus. If gluttony is one of the cardinal sins, then I have sinned in the gluttony of ideas… I just can never get enough. My punishment is never being able to complete the task.

I will post some of the crazy one sentence story ideas here in the following week, so if you need some inspiration, feel free to hit me up for a few ideas! For now I am off to sleep, I have many social commitments this weekend and the routine begins on monday! Until then!

Free Writing Short Story: A Whisper Amid The Willows

(Today’s story is a quick practice in free writing, it generally works for short stories and I plan for this one to be very short!)

Horse hooves drone almost in unison, driving dust into the clammy midnight air. In the moonlight, the horses are ridden by a group of hunters. One stops and dismounts, surveying the area to the side of the path. He turns and shouts back to his group. “Aye! It crossed ‘ere.” His gruff voice sends some birds fluttering out of a tree, startled from their perch. The man ties his horse to a nearby tree as the others dismount. Another man, taller yet slimmer in build, wonders over to the side of the path. “Well I’ll be damned, that bloke was tellin’ the truth!” As the group of five gathers around, the full moon glimmers in the small puddle that has formed within a large paw print.

The first man, having tied his horse up, returns to the paw print and kneels beside it. “She said the damn thing was as big as a bear.” The others laugh nervously at the notion, but their confidence is high. After all, five men can take down a bear, what is to stop them from killing a wolf? As the men scatter to tie up their horses, the man kneeling calls out and waves the taller man over. “Aye Christoph, this ‘ere be no normal wolf.” Christoph laughs, his voice cracking slightly, hinting at fear. “What are you sayin’ Papa? You believin’ in werewolves?” His father shakes his head. “No. This ‘ere’s a silvermane paw print.” He stands holding a small bit of shimmering silver fur, and he takes a deep breath. “I wish it were a werewolf.”

As  father and son take point, the other three cover them from behind. “Clay, what do ya think a silvermane looks like?” A man looking as if he’s seen many hunts in his day turns to face the young man who questioned him. “A silvermane, boy?” He chuckles to himself at the boy’s startled reaction. “A silvermane ain’t no ordinary dog, nor is it a wolf. No. The silvermane is a rare magical creature. Its fur shimmers in the moonlight, but that is only if it wants ya ta see it.” He judges the boy’s reaction and turns to the other man taking up the rear. “Tell me, Sharn, ya ever seen a silvermane?” Sharn looks sternly at Clay and shakes his head. “No Clay, I can’t say I’ve ever seen one. But I think you shouldn’t fill Dayden’s head with stories. He’s more nervous than a hen in a fox den.” They both turn to Dayden and notice he is visibly shaken. Clay nods to Sharn. “Aye, but that’s all they are. Just stories.”

“Papa, why are we hunting this animal if it is so rare?” Christoph looks to his father’s eyes for the answer. “It’s become a man-eater and once they get the taste for flesh, they continue to hunt it.” As they come to a slight overhang, they wait for the rest of the group to catch up. Christoph clears his throat. “Do you think we’ll find it?” His father turns to him and grins wildly. “I think we’re on the right track.” His eyes dart to Christoph’s feet where more fur can be seen shimmering in the moonlight. As Clay and crew catch up he glances between the boy and his father. “Why’ve we stopped Mandarus?” Christoph looks to his father, astonished by the fact someone used his full name. Mandarus looks between the members of the group. “Because, we’re catching up. So I want you blokes to be ready for it.”

As the men descend the steep hill near the overhang, they trees seem to have grown closer together. Mandarus readies an arrow and looks to his son. The silent nod gives Christoph a vote of confidence in his father. Clay begins to travel wide, and Sharn and Dayden go wide away from him to the right. A slight snapping of a twig sends everyone’s head spinning, and the group sees a small pheasant rushing through the brush. Mandarus easily pins the bird to a tree, and the group stifles a laugh. “Damn bird nearly scared the piss outta me!” Christoph shakes his head to his father’s grin. Mandarus turns to Sharn and Dayden and they shake their heads. As he turns to get the approval of Clay, he finds him out of sight. “Clay?” Mandarus whispers in anger. “Clay, where’d ya go?” As they walk over near where he was, a small tuft of silver fur shimmers in the moonlight. As the group tightens their formation, a breeze blows the scent of wet dog into the air.

Meanwhile on the path, a group of travelling monks come across a group of horses tied to some trees. One monk turns to another and grins. “My prayers have been answered!” As he rushes over to the nearest horse, the other monk shakes his head. “I doubt that, I believe these horses are here for a reason! They are most likely a group of hunter’s horses.” As the two pause to consider that fact a slight breeze carries the scent of wet dog and a slight murmur. “Did you say something?” The monk by the horses turns sharply toward the other. “No… did you hear something?” As the two monks stand staring at each other, it comes again. “…Hellllp…” Suddenly the small group of monks flock to the horses and tear off into the night. The horse hooves drone almost in unison, driving dust into the clammy midnight air.

Yet Another Sporadic Post: The Writing Process

First off, anyone who has not watched a single episode of Game of Thrones should run out and do so now. The show is shot so beautifully and is extremely well adapted from the novels. This leads me to my next mission: I am currently hammering out my world, my characters and my story. As I do so much research into the process behind writing and organization I realize there is still so much I don’t even know about my own world. I once started a story Wiki in hopes I could get all the information laid out in one spot. What I found there was as you write, you rewrite more in your wiki than you do anywhere else. The idea was fantastic, the execution, not so much.

As I have said in prior articles, I used to “free write” if you would. I would sit at a computer or a notepad and just write. Let the ideas pour onto the page. As I tried to be four steps ahead of myself I found I was finishing less and less, and my writing was actually suffering. In fact, even as I write this article, I am simply free writing. It is one thing that is extremely easy to do, yet also completely and utterly useless. I have planned only a few articles, and they shine above all of my others. One of them almost became published, until they realized that I had already posted the work online. They wanted completely original works. So be careful what you post online, it’s already out there and many people aren’t interested what they can already see for free.

Free writing is the parkour of the writing world, and it is a tough monster to master. It is not for the clumsy, just like parkour! What I mean is having a structure, a plan, a method to the madness is a damn good way to make your writing better. I ramble on and on sometimes about god knows what and it seems like I may even know what I’m talking about. Perhaps I do, and perhaps I don’t, but the one thing that I am sure about is that my structured writing is always much better than my free writing. Why is that? I’m glad you asked!

Structure allows for you to maintain the correct motion for your story or article. As you proceed forward your writing can always look back upon itself, but you must still have a purpose for that. I have been known to occasionally write myself into circles. A story that seems like it is going somewhere is not as good as a story that is going somewhere. Also, keep people’s interest. Two of the most popular fantasy series to date are among the most descriptive stories ever written. I’m talking about Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. Both of these writers knew their worlds inside and out, and I will bet that George R.R. Martin remembers virtually every bit of dialogue from his novels. But in both of these stories there are tremendous amounts of purpose and direction. In Lord of the Rings we have the one ring getting ever closer to its eventual end and in Game of Thrones we have many factions fighting for the throne. In Game of Thrones it is harder to see the progression, but the easiest example to point out is that of Daenerys Targaryen. She is someone who, without spoiling too much, has travelled a long way and has experienced much on the path to obtaining her main goal.

These stories are exceptional pieces of fiction, the same goes for The Hunger Games and Harry Potter.  Do you think any of these stories had no planning involved? Absolutely not. My writing process thus far has been pretty simple and I would say, start with these.

  • Read, Watch, Play, Learn – The more you know, the richer your stories become.
The next questions are actually from Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail.
  • What is your name? – Writing a character you know makes the writing more powerful, but it is easy to make up a character and know them. After all, you did create them!
  • What is your quest? – Do you seek the Holy Grail? Perhaps a shrubbery? You must know what the main storyline is. The character and the plot are what move the story. Is it possible to have more than one point of view? Of course! Does that make it a million times harder? Yes, of course it does. Stick with one point of view until you feel comfortable switching. One of the best parts of a book is being given that bit of information or insight into a character’s mind that may tell you more about them than their actions ever could.
  • What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow? This question seems irrelevant, but that was its point. Keep focused on your story. If something seems out of place, then it probably is. Cut it. Yes it is hard to cut something, especially whole chapters or even characters, but sometimes things just don’t fit in. You must reread your work. Be fruitful with your ideas, harsh with your criticisms and trim the fat.

So you’ve got your character, your plot and a bunch of notes scribbled haphazardly across a page. Fantastic, you’re a writer. There are a few million exactly like you. Now how do you get better? Repeat those steps above, repeatedly. How do you get published? I am still trying to figure that one out myself. You can self publish, especially with eBooks these days. But hopefully you will be able to hone your writing skills a little better with these suggestions.

Also in my previous post, I tossed out a template for keeping track of story information. I have expanded from just two sheets, to a hefty five, and could easily add a creatures sheet as well. I have my Plot Line sheet, and then four mimicking the Character tracking sheet. Those four are Characters, Places, Items and Lore. I hope that if this idea makes it from here to publication, people will be able to read the exact way that I worked it out as I wrote because that is the one thing I cannot find online.

So many writers have a “How To Write” blog, book, app, class or video… but how many of those writers are successful? I swear there is some kind of writer’s guild that forbids successful writers from making useful and helpful tutorials into their writing success. If anyone finds a great one, please feel free to pass it on to me. After reading this I am sure you probably think I need just as much help as you may need!

That is it for now, until this canuck-amuck’s next sporadic update, farewell and feel free to email me or comment below!

How To Plan Out Your Story: The TJ Edwards Way

It’s 3 AM and my mind is elsewhere. After just watching Star Wars IV, I have found myself thinking about what a great side story would be. As I ponder the events behind the scenes of Luke Skywalker’s eventual secret apprentice, I also wonder how many people don’t know where to start writing. Am I a master wordsmith? Do I forge a scene with only the greatest of words? Hardly. In fact, I am just like most who have taken up writing: A hobbyist. Does that mean you can’t be organized? No! In fact organization is key to being able to continue on with your writing. Trust me, I’ve tried many kinds of writing and thus far organized is the best. Why? Well I’m glad you asked!

If you travel back through the posts on this blog you will find some articles, some posts and some works of short fiction or as I penned it, episodic fiction. I hated the idea of knowing where my story was going to end up, so the episodic content was fantastic for keeping me entertained as a writer. This kind of writing is very enjoyable but the issue is without knowing where you’re going, you simply cannot tie it all together.

For Example: In some of the best books, there is a lot of foreshadowing. This makes for even more realistic worlds and also it makes you think back to earlier times in that same world. This makes the story more engaging and through clever uses, very potent. For example if you’ve read the Harry Potter series (If you haven’t, shame on you) then the entire sequence of events involving Hermoine and her Time Turner pendant is the greatest and most fun example. The events were set up with certain things in mind, and then later on relived through the other view point. JK Rowling is a fantastic author and the Harry Potter series is a fantastic example for any budding writer, no matter what genre you write for.

Rowling-Planning
This may get the ball “Rowling” but she already knew where the story was going by this point. It didn’t work for me!

Now, how did JK Rowling plan that out? There is a good question. I’ve been searching online for answers and I swear that will be the only question I ask her when I meet her… eventually. But I have seen one of her cryptic note sheets for Order of the Phoenix and what I have gathered was her penmanship was terrible for that page, and she is also very organized. She did set herself time goals as this was a later book, but by this time she was already experienced. I’m putting this out there because it may help one of you out there get organized. What I really want to see is how she organized straight from “Who is Harry Potter” to Philosopher’s Stone publication.

That aside, I really believe her writing to be a great tool for any budding writer. But we’re not here to talk about how she managed to organize herself. You still have to get organized! Even when I did my episodic fiction, I had an idea of what was going to happen at least in the next episode. I have managed to write hundreds of pages, I’ve even written seven chapters of a story I’ll never finish, but the hardest part has been completing a single novel. It’s no simple task. Even finishing the planning phase weeds out many wannabe writers.

To start, I decided I needed to figure out how I could organize and what made sense to me. I searched for timeline creators online and eventually broke down and made my own excel timeline with character sheet. It’s not pretty, but I’ll be damned if it hasn’t done well in organizing my thoughts. As with all the information here, these are just tools. This may work for you, this may not. But what I hope these do is give you an excellent idea or inspire you to your own crazy “Rowling-style” sheet. Also, I would seriously recommend even using another spreadsheet on there to make family trees. It may seem ridiculous at first but the more you know about your world, even if it seems irrelevant at the time, the more control and the richer your story becomes.

Plot and Character Template (This is a very rough template, its in Excel!)

The hard part! This is important. SCOPE, SCOPE, SCOPE! Do not get lost in the side stories and there will be plenty. Try and limit yourself to going too far off topic. I have the most trouble in this area. I have been writing a story and get caught up in someone’s back story that suddenly I am writing a story within a story. “Inception-ing” my own story doesn’t keep me productive. Yes, if I eventually ever make it back to my main story it will be very story rich, but if something seems more interesting it is hard to go back to the main idea. For families go back only one level or two farther than you have to, or else you could draw up the very lineage of all of your families. Not that all that information wouldn’t come in handy, but it will steal your attention from the main idea.

Plot focus first. As you sit down decide who your main character is, what their goal is and plot their path. Do the following for every plot point: Push the story forward, ensure relevance, add any new characters into the tracker, feel free to add any cities or items into the tracker as well. Any relevant information should be recorded and put forward.

Okay, well for now that is where I am up to. As I continue to write I will post some progress on here and feel free to give me feedback or let me know if you’re using the template. If you make any additions to it let me know and please do me a favour and point people back to this website! I could use all the traffic I can get! I’ll write again soon!

The Perpetual Roundabout

Imagine that you are on a featureless road, exits don’t come often but when they do, you’ll need to be sure it’s the right one. The road leads through Primary School if you’re lucky, heads on through Secondary if you wish and the road I’ve taken has lead me to a place where I find myself caught in a roundabout. For those of you who know me or have been keeping up with any of my blogs, any of my writings, or even my Facebook; you realize I’ve been here for awhile and have no idea what exit to take.

I am indeed a writer at heart, or even more so, a daydreamer. I am constantly imagining things, ranging from stories to events, and some are so vivid they could have been a dream, or memories, or truly real. However I am also very mathematical and analytical which has lead me down many other paths. I also love business, and the dream of being my own boss and seeing my own personal success is something I have also dreamed of. After Secondary, or High School, I jumped straight from there into Computer Science. I belittled the career aspect of being a professional creative writer myself and discarded even the remote possibility that it was an option. You must be extremely talented and lucky to gain notice in the field of writing. Just ask JK Rowling how hard it was to get Harry Potter taken seriously and then published. She kept on with it and if I ever meet her, no matter where I stand personally in the world, I will ask her how she planned those books.

For the moment I am circling at forty kilometres an hour trying to decide if I will exit or try and wear a firm circle through the asphalt beneath my tires (or tyres if you’re Australian). I guess I could also hit the accelerator and try to generate a tornado. Sadly, these are the choices I feel like I have in the meantime. My love for instant gratification finds the business side of me fulfilled and while I maintain an upward motion in the retail world, my business side grins like the Cheshire cat. But then my creative side lashes out and makes me feel absolutely guilty about ignoring it. So I force myself to sit here, in front of this computer screen, and I write. Sometimes meaningless things: “Star Wars, Episode Seven: Prophesy of the Force – Luke orders his secret apprentice to guard and train his niece while staying back to fight the new Sith Order. Meanwhile, Luke’s nephew is taken from his mother to become the newest Sith apprentice.” Sometimes meaningful things: “The Mediocre Assassin – A man trying to break into the top ten assassins in the world, finds his eleventh place standing lacking in pay and perks as he struggles to perform hits as well as maintain a family.”

So creativity is fun, it’s two in the morning and I constantly think about what next? The hardest part of writing a story is I know the beginning, the climax and the end… but being able to join them together becomes impossible. My mind jumps from idea to idea and inspiration cracks like a whip, snapping my attention from what I was focused on. No matter how hard I try and force myself to continue on, sometimes the more interesting story keeps my attention… until the next. I am a writing “slut” (if you’ll pardon the language) I’ll write for anything, but at the end of the day, nothing holds my attention long enough for me to finish it. Now maybe “slut” is a bit harsh, but you get the idea.

The roundabout continues on toward my analytical and mathematical side where I want to create using computers. I love the concepts and ideas behind artificial intelligence. I would love to go and be the first person to somehow program understanding. We are all trying so hard to make computers learn, that we ourselves cannot figure out why they don’t understand. Is it because they’re a machine? Perhaps. But I think even with how intelligent people are today, we cannot overcome our own limits. Do we understand how we understand? No, therefore, we cannot program understanding. No matter how deep that sounds, I’m no philosophy major. In fact the only degree I finished was a diploma and that was in animation.

So I see my choices: Analytical/Mathmatical, Creative, Business. I also shouldn’t forget the things I’ve been considering which go hand in hand with many of the skills I have and want to have, one of which is the ability to teach. When asked to write a list of the top fifty things I wanted to accomplish in my life, my biggest goal in life was to run my own school. This caught me by complete and utter surprise! But now that I am circling the roundabout of my future, I realize so many reasons why running my own school is perfect. It satisfies my business side fully as using the profit from the school would allow me to invest in a school run media business for game development, computer animation production and other various computer media opportunities. I could also invest in independent ventures and help start-ups as well as support indie developers and issue some grants to support creativity. Also maintaining a school would be an extremely rewarding and challenging opportunity that would give me an infinite amount of problems to solve while giving me a personal base for research and development for my creative side, while satiating my analytical side.

The problems with that are all the worlds, beings and stories I imagine never coming to light. I find myself frustrated with the idea that these worlds live and die with me. I almost feel it is my obligation to help the beings in my stories live and to see this passion through. Once again, I make another pass in the roundabout. From applying to school again, to writing again, to choosing career over all else. I feel the seasons coming before they do now.

The choice to go back to school is the hardest one to make. Do I take a computer engineering degree and turn it into an education degree? Or do I do the same thing with a business degree instead? Can my ten years in management, in diverse roles and positions be enough to get me past the hurdles in business? Or will career be the winner overall as it is always the most patient and most consistent. A safe promotion is guaranteed a return unlike taking a chance on school. But the only way to earn more money, is to use more money.

“You need to go to school, to get a job, to make more money, to pay for more school, to get you a better job, to pay off the debts you gathered while attending school.”

“You need money, to make money.”

For me I cannot tell if I am impatient and the lack of instant gratification in these choices makes it even harder, but I know I want to own a profitable school so I am able to invest it back into the future of the students as well as creative ventures. Just how to get there, and maybe I should just publish myself shamelessly and do the marketing myself. I’ll bet many authors have found some success in it! If anyone out there has an opinion, helpful words of wisdom or just want to say hi, please feel free to email me or leave a comment. Thanks for listening to the rantings of a madman, I do appreciate it!

How Much I Dislike Social Media: Irony

Before you say it, I know. I am writing a blog post… about hating social media. Will this probably come back to bite me in the face at some point? Probably. But I’ll let future TJ worry about that. For now I just really need to write something and my gaming blog post just didn’t fulfil the craving.

I have been a firm believer that social media is a fantastic wonderful thing. Blogs, Chat systems, messaging services, facebook, tweets, and the list goes on. But as I realize the affects that these systems have had on my life and those around me, I really begin to question if finally this wonderful new toy has finally become tainted and corrupted… or was it always that way?

Personally I used to check facebook more than once a day. It was too easy on my iPhone to just see what other people were up to whenever I was bored. As time goes on, I am sick of people sharing stupid photos of sayings and trying to request me to play some silly game with them. Maybe I’m just a hater, but even just now I saw four of my friends share the same picture, all from different sources and all four of them from different parts of the world. The things that I would never have seen are now painted all over my facebook news feed as if it were really news. Meanwhile in the streets of Australia, bikies are shooting each other up, and elsewhere even worse things are happening such as death and oppression. News feed? Please.

Of course, everyone says if I don’t like it, then don’t use it. Fair enough. But these days, we all seem to have some unspoken social obligation to “keep in touch” and Facebook has managed to make stalking or being stalked socially acceptable. People have asked to add me who were never my friends, or people who just want to chat and even worse, people I never wanted to hear from again. Yay. 

But Twitter has actually brought news to a new level, I can get updates as they happen faster than any newspaper and most of the time, faster than the television news channels. The problem is Twitter is all about freedom of speech. Yeah, now I sound crazy don’t I? But freedom of speech is a great thing, when used in the right contexts. When Twitter was used to organise riots in England, I seriously believe that instead of saying “We are just a soapbox for people to stand on, the message is theirs.” I think they should have stepped up and helped the police, not guard their criminal users. 

Also social media has begun to show skewed views of events, such as arrests. Any video shot from a certain moment can paint anyone in a terrible light. The latest news article being about police brutality. A video of a cop pulling a guy from a car and punching him while making the arrest went viral. People were mad because of the police brutality. People have apparently forgotten that the driver was 14, there were 5-6 people in the car (I can’t remember the exact number, but it was definitely at capacity), people were drunk and or high in the vehicle, the car was stolen, the car was evading the police, the driver hit two pedestrians… but man, the police shot at the car, and punched a guy. Damn. I thought the lesson would be don’t break the f@&king law, but in today’s world the people protecting us are the bad guys. 

Also, Facebook builds self esteem as well as breaks it. Many friends and a good following on Facebook make you seemingly more popular than you are, giving people a narcissistic personality. They can now do no wrong (trust me, you still can). On the flip side, cyber bullying is more prevalent than ever as rumours spread faster than wildfire and with texting and facebook, young children are probably more at risk esteem wise than ever before. I went from the popular crowd to the unpopular crowd during my youth and I can tell you now that I’m damn lucky I made it through. It wasn’t easy and I can definitely understand the pressures kids will go through with these wonderful advancements in technology.

Is social media bad? No, in fact I believe quite the opposite. Social media is an incredible tool. Look at fundraising on Facebook or even Kickstarter. Kickstarter is an incredible use of not only social media but the internet. People can now privately invest in other people, one of the greatest uses of the internet I have found to date. This does a lot to keep my faith locked for the future, but if not governed correctly, social media could eventually run the risk of doing more harm than good.

Well that is the end of my rant for this fine Sunday, I would love to hear your comments either on here or via email, facebook or twitter (Ironic I know… *hangs head in shame*) Thanks for reading!

Exciting Rhymes to Stressful Times

In my last post I talked about a business idea that I was going to look into and I seriously think would take off. Sadly, as a Canadian living in Australia… they really won’t give me funding as a non-permanent resident. I guess I can understand that! Anyway with that aside I’ve been working lots, visiting friends and family and trying to stay out of trouble. Of course it’s not hard to stay away from that when you’re busy, but I’ve decided my New Year’s Resolution will be to write AT LEAST one blog post everyday and write a single page every day for a fantasy story I’ve been working on behind the scenes. That being said, these first two months are going to be stressful.

So for the moment I’ll be doing my story until it’s going public. Here is my inspiration and concept however just as a mild teaser to what I’ll be working on.

Inspiration!

They say a creative writer can be inspired by just about anything, and I am starting to believe whoever said that. I decided to give personalities to the 54 cards in a deck and manage a story among them. I’ve included the two jokers as well and ever suit has their thirteen titles and people filling them. Of course not every suit will have all places filled, but the suits represent the four kingdoms on the continent: Esmeran (Spades), Farlamir (Clubs), Sharlesson (Diamonds) and Lavoria (Hearts).

The first story I will be writing will be about the King of Spades, Victor Desmarin, who is a brilliant strategist and charismatic leader among the poor districts south of the capitol kingdom of Lavoria. In a short time Victor unites the poor districts of the south to form the Kingdom of Esmeran (House of Spades) and fights hard and long to unite the other working districts of the east under a singular banner. The first story will be his and he will be the main character.

Lavoria is at the heart of the continent, maintaining peace and negotiating most trade between the rich northern kingdom of Sharlesson and the working villages and cities before their unification amid the east and southern shores. Lavoria has the greatest benefit from farmland to the west and being the only route both south and east as mountains block the paths either way forcing them into the trade hub position that they are in.  Lavoria has always been the charismatic kingdom, and their saying is “Karma favours the kind and the just”.

As Victor struggles with the war in the south and the east the two kingdoms north of him, Lavoria and Sharlesson, form an uneasy alliance. As Sharlesson is in the ore rich mountains, they have always been responsible for the currency of the kingdoms. They have always controlled the wealth but Lavoria has always controlled the people. As much as Sharlesson wants to be the capitol of the continent and control the wealth and the power, for them it is near impossible to sway the minds of the people. Lavoria has always presented well and fair and have the unyielding respect from beggar to lord alike.

So as the story comes closer to fruition, I may post excerpts from it. For now it is a wiki and doc file on a call of duty USB drive. For now you’ll just have to wait and see what happens while I sort out my visa. Judging by how many words can fit on one full page, the first story may reach as many as 250,000 words. Although that doesn’t mean the story will be that long, that includes wiki entries, notes, research and the story itself. The hardest part for me is knowing when a story is complete. I enjoy cliffhangers far too much! I hope that you’ll follow my progress and enjoy the rantings and ravings of a loony Canadian!

Exciting Times!

For the moment I have fallen behind in my writing on this poor site, but do not feel as though these efforts are in vain. First I’d like to thank everyone who comes here and continues to follow along on my almost daily posting. It has been an honour to write for everyone out there and despite the lack of feedback I feel like I didn’t do too badly! All that aside something new, shiny and dreamy awaits me on the horizon. A dream I have had for many many years. I may soon become my own boss!

It is going to take a lot of research and execution, however I believe I have an idea that will take off like wild fire… well, at least I hope so! I’ve been trying to get in the games industry for so long that even if this is as close as I get, it will make me extremely happy. First to find some people interested in funding me and secondly to figure out how exactly a Canadian can start up a business in Australia. I found a niche that is extremely popular and needs filling, Internationally.

Anyway wish me luck as for now I am placing both of my blogs on hiatus so I can fully research this incredible opportunity. Thanks again for your support!

Sincerely,

TJ Edwards

Heroisms: Vengeance

(This is Episode Nine, Just joining in? Find Episode One @ Heroisms: Immortality or the Previous Episode @ Heroisms: Disguise)

Morgan stood off to the side as Alex and Alison joined him. “Who’s Virgil? And who is that guy?” Alex asked, unsure if he wanted to know. Alison stood staring at Brooke, still unsure if it was her or not. Morgan finally answered after a few moments of awkward silence. “That’s Lance. He’s what’s called a truth seer, and if what he said is correct, your girl here is actually a guy.” The three of them all looked back to Lance making Brooke uncomfortable. Alison was visibly getting agitated by Lance’s methods to what was seemingly one of her friends. “So what do we do now and how do we out this Virgil character?” Morgan swallowed hard. “Normal methods include torture. Virgil is a shape shifter. He can manipulate his appearance and is trained to withstand incredible amounts of pain. Last time I heard a story about him, he was being tortured for so long and kept his form that the person holding him actually believed that Virgil was their loved one. They stopped, he performed the assassination despite being captured and he escaped.”

As the group stood by, Lance had begun slapping Brooke and Alison was about to give in. Only Alex held her back. “Give him a minute, Lance knows that Virgil isn’t Brooke and it’s likely that Virgil knows that too. He should give in soon.” Soon turned into eventually, and then eventually turned into later and then Alison couldn’t take it any more. “I know it’s her Alex, maybe they force fed her meat at the jail because they knew she was a vegetarian. Just another form of torture.” Alex shook his head. “I believe these guys, if Lance can really see the truth, then why question it?” Alison spat at his feet in anger. “Why question anything at all then? What if that’s really her, and they torture her to death?” Alex looked over and noticed Lance had pulled out a knife and was sharpening it. “Well, maybe we should talk to them about it.”

Alison made it there long before Alex and she spun Lance to face her. “I don’t care if this is or isn’t her, but no matter what I can’t let you do this just in case it is her.” Lance growled a long angry sigh. “It’s people like you who make me sick, people like you who are weak and let the wrong person in. You can’t give in, that is entirely where his power lies.” Alex was suddenly stepping between them, not where he wanted to be but also probably the safest place for him to be at this point. “Look guys, we just got here. Let’s not fight, put Broo-er… Virgil in lock up and we will figure something out in the morning.” Lance pulled back and put away his knife. “Fine. Your rooms are in block B.” He tossed them a pair of keys and waived some guys over to carry the bench Brooke was on away. Alison leaned in as Brooke passed by. Brooke was almost hysterical, and she screamed accusations at Alison as they passed. “You’re going to let them torture me? You said you’d protect me! You said I was like your little sister!” As Alison burst into tears, Alex threw his arms around her and guided her to their room. As they laid there together in the dark, Alex knew he would get no sleep. Alison was shaking and crying so bad she was convulsing. It was going to be a long hard night.

***

Jason knew that his new get up would attract some attention if he was caught by a camera. Lucky for him, his past provided him all the knowledge and skills necessary to evade and confuse these electronic watchdogs. As he moved silently through the shadows, he came upon his first group of delinquents. A drug deal was going down, and both groups were armed to the teeth. As he laid in wait, he watched as the transaction took place. He finally saw an opening and moved through the shadows behind some of the armed guards patrolling the perimeter. After quickly and silently dispatching them, he began to feel the adrenaline kicking back in. He hadn’t felt this good in a long time! After tying the two men together he made his way inside and tried to manoeuvre himself around the side of one of the cars. Suddenly he found himself in the middle of a stand off and bullets began flying left and right.

He dove out and grabbed a man in a leather jacket and hauled him down. After promptly tying him to the bumper of the car they crashed behind, he knocked him out and proceeded to the next guy in the chaos. As he moved about through the bullets and the shadows, he had never felt more alive! Something about not being government sanctioned was almost too much for him. As he leapt out for the last guy, he felt a slight thud as the man shot him in the chest. Lucky for Jason, he was invulnerable. “Look, I know you want to shoot again, but don’t waste the ammo. Just surrender and no one gets hurt.” The man relaxed a little and grinned. “I must have missed the first time, I won’t miss again.” As he pulled the trigger, the bullet ricocheted back on him off Jason and dropped him to the ground. Jason laughed heartily. “I did try and warn you. But no criminals ever… listen…” He watched as a small oval shaped disk rolled on its edge away from the man’s body. As it struck his foot, he looked at it and immediately knew he had to do more research before his next outing. He fled the scene of the crime and left everything as it was. The disk laid facing the sky, and despite being splattered with blood it clearly showed the undercover officer’s badge in the dim moonlight.

The Middle Class Assassin: The Recruitment Process

(This is only Episode Three, Head to Episode One, Tough Times or the previous episode, A Life Of Routine)

As I walked the kilometre to the front door, I saw water features, swans, and the best for last; A Ferrari. There were many nice cars there, but that one stood out to me. I walked up the the front door and noticed it was open. As I entered people passed by me with delicacies and drinks. After snagging a free glass of wine, I began the search for Dwayne. I moved in and out of the crowd, careful not to disturb anyone, and finally Dwayne spotted me and waved me over. He was talking with a man I had seen through our post office before. He turned to me with a cheeky grin and assessed me through squinted eyes. “Ah you must be Brad? I am quite pleased to meet you.”  As the man shook my hand, a slight grazing of his suit sleeve made my fingers tingle it was so incredibly made. “Yes it’s a pleasure to meet you as well, but your name would be?” He looked to Dwayne and smiled before returning his gaze to me. “I’m Liam Theeson, I’m technically Dwayne’s superior.” Dwayne shrugged and laughed nervously, “Yeah, well except in hand to hand.” Liam laughed confidently and began to make his exit. Before getting too far he called back to me, “And don’t forget to enjoy the party!”

Dwayne watched Liam walk away. He was staring and then snapped back to me. “Listen, I need you to watch my Uncle Larry for a few minutes, if I’m not back in fifteen minutes, he’ll need his medicine. They’re in the bathroom cabinet. Whatever you do, have him sit down before he takes them, he always gets dizzy. Did you get all that?” I look over to Uncle Larry and then nervously back to Dwayne. “Uhh fifteen minutes, medicine, bathroom cabinet, make sure he sits.” Dwayne slapped me on the shoulder so hard I could already feel his hand print swelling on my skin. “Thanks pal.” I noticed him rush back over to Liam and they began chatting again. I began to wonder if Liam would have a job for me. I shrugged it off and decided to go chat up Uncle Larry.

A short stout man with a dirty comb over and a goatee to match, Uncle Larry seemed quite the sleaze. “Hey, look. Check out the bazongas on that one!” As I endured these comments, fifteen minutes went past and even Uncle Larry was starting to get edgy for his medicine. “Hey I saw you talking to Dwayne, did he tell you where he put my stuff?” I nodded politely and helped his fat carcass off the seat he was stuck in. As we made our way upstairs, I waited patiently at the door while he took his pills. “Oh yeah, that’s the stuff…” He stared into the mirror and then looked to me. “Well back to the bazongas?” I shook my head, “Sorry, but Dwayne told me to make sure you sit down because the pills make you dizzy.” Suddenly Uncle Larry became hostile. “What the fuck? Pills make me dizzy? Since when does e make me dizzy?” I stared at him for a moment. “E? As in ecstasy?” Uncle Larry was approaching full blown rage. “Of course ecstasy! What else would make…” His words trailed off for a moment as he looked at me. I grabbed him by the shirt and sat him on the toilet. “Dwayne said this would happen, he said you’d… get…” I felt my own words trail off as I watched Uncle Larry’s eyes roll into his head and a white foam run from his mouth. “Holy shit!” The words had no sooner slipped from my mouth and I had him on the floor and was beating onto his chest for CPR.

Moments felt like years and then suddenly, everything was silent. I was standing over poor dead Uncle Larry, who no matter how sleazy he was didn’t deserve this. I quickly washed my hands and made my way downstairs to find poor Dwayne. On the day of his big party too, jeez. I was officially the worst friend in the world. As I finally found him, I pulled him aside. “Uhh Dwayne, I’ve got some bad news.” Dwayne was smiling and waving at someone else half listening, half hosting. “Yeah, what’s up?” I looked around for the right words, and then I blurted them out. “Larry’s dead.” In a moment of self reflection, I regretted it the moment I said it. He turned to me and grinned. “I hoped you’d say that.” I was shocked to find that Dwayne wasn’t surprised by this. Shock didn’t describe it actually. But as I watched, Dwayne walked forward and tapped a spoon on his glass to get everyone’s attention.

“Ladies and gentlemen, tonight we have a new assassin among us, Mister Flint!” Dwayne spun and pointed to me and I stood there, dazed by the turn of events. Suddenly, he picked up the announcements again. “Also for any of you who were betting I couldn’t pull of a kill through an unknowing recruit, please feel free to leave your bet in the glass vase by the door. One less politician in the world today!” Everyone raised their glasses and clinked glasses with the person next to them. “So that wasn’t Uncle Larry, Dwayne?” I asked amid the laughter and talking. He turned to me and smiled. “Not even close. He was a crooked guy who was blackmailing the soon to be President. In fact, you technically just worked for the government.” I shook my head as Liam put an arm around me. “Son, you’ve got what it takes to be a strong potential. You’re average enough no one will notice you and you’re average enough that you can be trained as a jack of all trades, potential master of none. Now that you’ve been implicated we can ask, would you like to know more?” I shook my head in silent agreement. “Perfect! I’ll see you on Monday. I hate working weekends.” As I walked away Dwayne called to me, “Hey Brad, take the betting vase with you, thanks for the help today!”