Tag: exhaustion

Exercise, The Bane Of My Food Loving World + Update!

With NaNoWriMo fast approaching (What? It’s only four days away?!) my final October evenings have been spent trying to prepare for writing a novel in thirty days. As I squeeze lore from the lemon that is my mind right now, I stare at the screen hoping for more loreonade. My mind is putty because today I pushed my body to do things it doesn’t enjoy. Heavy lifting. Manual labor. Cleaning (No, wait… that is deeply satisfying). As someone who eats fast food more than anyone should, I’m a bit out of shape (despite a circle being considered in that group). After gaining some weight during my travels back home, an additional ten percent to put it into perspective, I have been making strides to eat healthier. Today was a different beast entirely.

The backroom at work has been somewhat of a nightmare for a borderline OCD guy like myself. I like order and when things make sense. Safety is also always a good thing. So after speaking with my manager we decided to tear down the backroom and rebuild it. I got to plan, design and execute my idea! Oh how delicious gratification is! However when we began to move stuff around today, as good as it was feeling to have everything in order and tidy, my body disagreed with the methods at play. So after about eight hours of continuous lifting and moving, muscles I didn’t know I used began to groan under the most basic movements. Crouching? Agony. Sneeze? Searing pain. The end result was worth it… for now. Order has been chiseled from chaos and beauty born of insanity.

Fast forward five hours.

Present Me hates Past Me for not worrying about Future Me. Future Me is currently excited for bed, while Present Me is trying to be productive. Damn Past Me has destroyed Present Me’s productivity by overworking us all. In short: Working hard all day keeps the night time productivity at bay. However, that being said I think I know where my story is going to start. Unless it changes, the beginning will introduce one of the antagonists and one of the protagonists as well as two forms of magic, set the kingdom and initiate the plans for a coming war. In my mind, I can already see the battles ahead between two factions! Necromancy in my world is classified as a Forbidden Magic. Forbidden magic simply means you are tapping into an energy that is not your own which changes you through the Magician’s Curse (actually from Jefferson’s story at the top right). Necromancy in particular is cruel in the sense that unlike other forbidden magics that can cause insanity, the caster remains clear of mind while their body decays. In short, you waste away until you are classified as a Lich (skeletal magician). The other form of magic early on is Sacrificial. In order to give life, a life must be taken. These two magics won’t be pitted against each other just yet, but I’m excited for the development!

So many things! Four days! Oh man, this is getting crazy! So many consequences to using magic! So little time! Okay, well I open my store in the morning and still have a ton of things to clean up and move there so I should probably sleep. As for you ladies and gents beyond the screen, are you ready? Have you started early? I am considering also trying to do a blog post (short or long, doesn’t matter) after every NaNoWriMo writing session. Not sure how wise that is, but it’ll be nice I think to touch base with the others out there and help celebrate the wins of Team NaNo! Talk to you soon and remember, FOUR DAYS!!!

Ramblings On A Thursday

Hello, my name is Timothy John Edwards. I have a writing problem.

As in, I haven’t done much today.

Or… in the past few days.

Okay… so maybe I have a procrastination problem!

I have exactly nine minutes before I feed the dogs and then I’ll have some time to work on my story after that. Such is my life as of late! Having pets has been a dramatic change of pace for me, I suppose I figured a smart guy like me would find this easy and these pups would be completely trained in a few days. The reality is, I’m trained and they (while being quite well behaved for two puppies just over two months old) are toying with me. We’ve been putting their collars on to get them used to it (for future walks) but it has been much harder on my body actually than anything else. I feel older than I am, but also I have a strong allergy to dogs that my body is currently trying to build an immunity to. My chest constantly feels heavy and my eyes are beyond itchy. My energy levels have dropped and I can sleep at any point in time. Would I change it? Hell no, I love these pups.

But because of these allergies my focus has been destroyed as of late. I am the kind of person who can put their mind to just about anything and achieve it. However between work and home I have been achieving next to nothing. But my mind is working overtime on the few stories in my head. Let’s give you a creative update!

My idea for one story has now evolved into four books originating from the main story idea. The main story was to be about a trio of characters all linked by destiny to come together and fight a common enemy. Now, I have the concept of a novel for each of the three to solidify their importance and build the backstory to enrich the main story idea of the three of them anyway. A Quadrilogy? There goes my writing life for the next year easily. In the individual stories there will be some similarities and cross overs as I explore the whole threads of fate concept between them.

Jefferson has been patient and I am roughly seven thousand or so words away from hitting the one hundred thousand. It will probably run just over that as they deal with the epic aftermath and sort through the fragments of what their lives used to be. Mwa. Ha. Ha. Probably within the final five thousand if I can get the pups settled fast enough.

My mind keeps revisiting a story concept set in a post apocalyptic world where the angels guarding hell are forced to retreat back to the realm of men. Together the two races are left to fend off the demonic hordes as Heaven wants no part in the matter. The concept stems from my idea that perhaps heaven and hell aren’t as we expect them to be and perhaps Lucifer is actually still the Lord’s General and lead fighter against the demons of hell in an eternal struggle. As Lucifer takes any who are not worthy of heaven into battle, he needs the vicious and the murderous alike to keep the demons at bay. When Lucifer and his forces are beaten back to the realm of men, Gabriel strips him of his rank for failing his duty, leaving him immortal but no longer an angel. This leads Lucifer to help lead the remainder of his army and the lands of men in their battle for survival as Heaven on high watches idly by.

And not bad for ten minutes, but have to run and feed the pups and get into Jefferson before I head to work! Take care ladies and gents and hopefully you’re done your christmas shopping or are enjoying the holidays either way!

The Quick Post & Poem

So today work reached a new high in disrupting my writing. Get up early I say. Write before work I say. Today had me falling out of bed after six or so hours of sleep and landing into pants. As I wrestled with the little energy I had, I mentally prepared for the three hour drive ahead of me.

Today was a training day three hours away and then three hours back. We left at six in the morning and arrived at our destination shortly after nine. The day was full of useful information and I learned a ton. Then we drove three hours back home, dodging kangaroos, and finally after arriving home I barely had enough energy to reply to emails and comments.

This being said I do have the next two days off, so I’m going to try and smash out some editing and a few posts for the old blog here! Also I am going to try and silk cover a book I have here and see if I can custom make my own cover. I’ve been considering that if I do get my novel published I am going to hand make around ten copies with hand made silk covers as presents for my loved ones! I’ve got some ideas on how I can achieve what I want and the only thing I may have trouble with is somehow cutting an oval cleanly out of silk.

Other things I’m working on my days off: Editing Jefferson & The Magician’s Curse, Rewrite of The Journey Part Two, Pick Up New Zelda 3DS Console with Game, Look into getting automatic garage door opener, weed front and back garden, laundry, clean the house, and catch up on sleep.

Also, I promised you a poem so here you go ladies and gents.

The Fallout

A lake, seemingly frozen in time,
Serene the scene, with calm, cool glaze,
Not so much as a ripple, simply sublime,
Invoking emotions, in mystic haze.
Extinction for those, who ruled the world last,
Beauty unbound, at the end of days,
With no memory, of times that passed,
A sunrise, sets, against nature’s ways.

Sadly tonight I am fighting to stay awake so I think that is all my poor brain can muster. I promise, I’ll get back to some more meaningful posts very shortly but for now, this will have to tide you over! Also if you haven’t read Circle of Vengeance, I would love any and all feedback whether or not you think I’d like it or not. I want to get published so I’ll take the harsh critics and the kind ones. Either way, I think I just typed “snrahdl;s” for one of the above words so I’m off to bed! The Journey Part Two, live tomorrow!

Also, a number of the people I’ve been hassling or supporting have made it just above the forty thousand mark for NaNoWriMo and I can’t explain how proud I am that they’re still plugging along! I’m the kind of guy who always strives for more and challenges myself! Anyway, until tomorrow!

Me Fail NaNoWriMo? That's Unpossible!

Oh Ralph Wiggum of Simpsons fame, you slay me!

So as NaNoWriMo comes to a close, the number of sad posts about failure, quitting, excuses, blame and procrastination are admittedly on the rise. I’ve said it a million times and I’ll say it again, just because NaNoWriMo designates who wins by word target, I believe any writing would be worth celebrating in this day and age of distractions. But there are indeed some failures.

I’m talking about those people who wrote utter crap for fifty thousand words. I’m not talking subject matter either. But basic punctuation, ignoring conciseness for word count and inattention to detail… these stories won’t make it to an editor’s desk at all, because frankly if the postman can’t read where it’s going, then it goes nowhere! Simple things like the uses of there, their and they’re and its and it’s just to name a couple! I would say read more while writing, maybe even do 30 mins of reading, and then of writing. The reason? Autocorrect is terrible at grammar (it can barely spell sometimes).

In any story where you write a huge space, your writing changes, ever so subtly. The people who don’t learn anything from page one to page three hundred aren’t cut out for writing. Let alone winners of some challenge.

Some of my loyal followers here are struggling, but they’ll get there. I have faith in them!

Well, the main purpose of this post is to let you guys know that I’ll be away for the weekend and hopefully my part two of The Journey will pop up as it is scheduled to do tomorrow! I’m quite exhausted as retail had a busy week for me and loads of training. I’ve had a nap every night this week, except tonight… which explains the heavy eyelids!

Although someone asked me about some writing ideas and how I feel about sharing them. Here’s your answer!

  1. Upon drilling into the center of the Earth, scientists find the first man, still alive.
  2. Hell is the final defence for the world against demonkind and is run by a former archangel.
  3. A man attempts to commit suicide, only to find out he is invincible and turns his life around.
  4. A man is released from prison, only to end up on a bank heist with a psychopath. Trying to do the right thing, he tricks the psycho into focusing on him and tries to end the battle quickly.

There’s four ideas I have on the backburner at the moment. If you’re inspired by them or want to use one feel free to just link back to here! Anyway new post should go up tomorrow, and my head is going to hit the pillow like a sack of pennies.

Thanks for putting up with today’s post, hopefully I will make up for it in the next post! Also if you’re doing NaNoWriMo and are close… Monday is coming… and you know what that means! The celebration of the wins and the stugglers on their road to 50k. Ciao and good luck! I leave you with my two images to keep me going and they are widgets on my Dashboard screen along with my post it notes filled with ideas!

You Should Be Writing
The Avengers Assemble, to make sure you’re hitting the target you set for yourself!
Oh Sean Bean, you'll die in my story too... don't worry!
Oh Sean Bean, you’ll die in my story too… don’t worry!

Rantings and Ravings of a Sleep Deprived Retail Worker

The time? Eleven PM. The grumbling? I am still awake.

So this is my sporadic update, to which I will rant and rave like a man wearing a billboard that reads, “THA END IS NAER!”

I have been writing pretty consistently since my last post and am now sitting at the forty percent mark of my lofty one hundred thousand word goal. My writing has improved significantly and I am actually also working on putting together a few short stories to slap together and put out there for free in eBook form. It’s been awhile in the making, but I had set a target of twenty reviews on my Circle of Vengeance short story before I bothered to even look into it. Well, as fate would have it… whoever has been assigned my final review may have passed on, or has abandoned the website altogether.

That doesn’t bother me, I’ll just do more reviews and force some other poor S.O.B. to read my twenty five full page story. Life is great when you don’t have to care who you inconvenience on the internet!

With stocktake on the horizon for my kingdom of employment, that can only mean one thing… interruptions. I will do my best to maintain my current rate of writing, my minimum to hit my August target is six hundred and fifteen words a day. That is easy for the most part, with the occasional day where I force four hundred words, only to completely rewrite them the next day with my goal and a few hundred extra.

Getting up at five in the morning was the best decision I ever made for my productivity. It is a nice quiet time, uninterruptible by most anything.

I will be editing my short stories over my two days off this week in final preparations for eBook publishing with a teaser for Jefferson and the Magician’s Curse. Hopefully all goes well, ideally I’ll get filthy rich off this and then I can drop down to part time at work and focus solely on my writing. Oh the wonderful, wonderful dreams one may have. Anyway, if you are looking for something to do in the meantime, feel free to read my stories at the side titled: The Runner and Circle of Vengeance. Those two stories will be the ones I attempt to publish and I would love to hear any feedback! Anyway for now, it is off to bed as I have to get my taxes done tomorrow before I do anything else!

Keep your fingers crossed for me, and I’ll finish the book for you!