Tag: Writing

January? More Like Janu-Where-Are-You?

I imagine this is what sobering up must feel like.

Here it is, a week into February and I have written less than one thousand words this year total. It’s embarrassing. It’s shocking. It’s down right revolting. I haven’t blogged since… No… That can’t be right.

December Eleventh?

Oh dear. This won’t do at all.

I’ve managed to lose a whole month to the Post Retail Christmas Traumatic Stress Disorder. It’s a thing… look it up. I’ve only recently started to sleep like a normal person, aside from the fact that I’m a twenty nine year old man with a Pokemon addiction. Sometimes that creeps into my sleep time. Okay, it creeps in there a lot.

In November I was both a jerk and focused. I smashed out those fifty thousand words and laughed in the face of NaNoWriMo- “Ha ha ha ha haaaaa.” I told friends and family that I would not be going to their functions. Words flowed freely and I was exceptionally happy with my progress and the story.

I know what you’re thinking. “Well TJ… Tell me. Tell me what happened.” As I lay on the metaphorical psychologist’s couch before you, allow me to explain the blur that was December and January.

December came and my store was busier than I’ve experienced for this shop. As we were the little store that could, we struggled but managed to smash targets with lower wages than any other store in our area. I’ve said in retail before that the numbers simply don’t lie when we’re doing a good job, and we did a damn fine one.

After Christmas is followed by two weeks of sales and returns. Customers overjoyed with the deals and others who are absolutely pissed that our Christmas casual with two hours of training sold them the wrong thing and they opened it on Christmas. Yet another year I ruined at least half a dozen Christmases. That’s fine, fix it now and move on.

Then January comes where we begin clean up and sending out things that didn’t sell over Christmas. For the Christmas Period, I live and breathe the store, and when I’m not there, I’m thinking about it. Enter Pokemon. As a January Retail Zombie, lumbering along looking for brains, I needed something to jump start my brain. Anything besides work related things. I picked up the latest copy of Pokemon and decided that for the first time in a long time… I would catch them all.

At first it was a joke. Catch them all. PFFT. There’s literally a bajillion. (Note: Sarcasm)

Now? I’ve caught over four hundred legitimate Pokemon… with still a rough three hundred to go. *Cue Pokemon Theme Song*

So I did end up replacing work in my mind… with Pokemon. Now while I’m at work, I’m counting down the minutes until I can get home, crack open the DS and discover a few new Pokemon I’ve never seen before. Judge me. I don’t care. I love it like a fat kid loves cake.

Or just me… I love cake… a lot!

So now, oh now. Here we are and Past TJ has literally done absolutely nothing to help us on the journey to becoming a Pokemon Master Published Author. Future TJ seems to have some promise, but Future TJ is more concerned with turning the big Three Zero this year and what hole to hide in until people stop reminding him of it.

Meanwhile present TJ is here writing this blog, staring at the golden DS wherein lies untold amounts of Pokemon for capturing. Present TJ doesn’t seem too focused either but at least this poor guy is trying.

How are you fellow writers faring in this new year? Are you the broken little soldier that I am? Or are you already doing the book signings while us mere mortals look up inspirational writing quotes from our favorite authors? One of my friends has published her book. Another friend is actively seeking out publishers for her story. Congrats to those two! Let me know how you’re going in the comments, I’d love to hear from all of you! Until then… Gotta Catch Em All!

Uhh… I mean… write them… the words… Gotta Write Them All… Yes.

Side Note: Has anyone given any thought to a whole world where to gain a friend you pummel them to within an inch of their demise only to throw balls at them until they are forced to come along with you? The premise for Pokemon is weird.

In Transit: Free Writing Time!

Hello airport. Hello internet. I’d like to say it’s been too long, but…

I sit here in Toronto staring out at the tiny people on the tarmac, as they rush around like ants trying desperately to keep the machine that is the airport well oiled and moving. It is here that I finally realise I have a few hours, might as well write something.

It has been awhile since I blogged, or written for that matter, and it feels good to pound on this keyboard of the thousand dollar machine I had hoped would help me write more often and be more organised. I had brought it along for this entire two week trip, and I turned it on for roughly ten minutes at my mother’s house to show her how cool technology is. Now though, I am excited about one fact and one fact alone. Forced writing time.

When I was visiting my best friend in Edmonton, we came to the conclusion we are both absolutely terrible at finishing things. Even if we do, we move on as if we ran it over in a Ferrari. I finished my novel and my lovely girlfriend is still working on the edit. I started the second book, but have finished a single chapter. I have probably planned more of book three than of book two. This aside, he and I discussed the very problem we have and came to a conclusion: We have a problem and we need to fix it. Then we went our separate ways. Now I am emailing him almost every second day bouncing ideas off him and stirring his creative pot. The problem is even with my trilogy a third of the way to completion, I have begun building a new world around the collection of all of my ideas. Not one. Not two. But all!

The concept had come to me awhile ago when I began to get fed up with coming up with new ideas. New stories would present themselves, new characters would interrupt dialogue and new worlds would stand at the end of a pier waiting to be explored. Now, to counteract this rampant idea generation, I’ve begun changing my science fiction ideas into a fantasy setting. I have intertwined stories into lore. Characters have begun interacting with each other instead of existing in totally separate worlds. Now I have a world that gets richer every time I have a new idea. Not only that, but I have managed to tie it into my current trilogy. What this means however, is despite the world being similar to ours, now it is becoming a monster in its own right. Jefferson and crew are now building lore into the world that has apparently been brewing in my head for years. It finally feels like everything is coming home.

Jefferson and the Magician’s Curse will happen centuries before the story I will set in the created world. This has lead me to consider abandoning Jefferson (for now) in the hope that I can use the points I am aware of now to build the lore for the new world. Jefferson and Gabriel will live on as some of the first magic users (especially powerful ones) which opened up the doors for cults, schools, and the whole basis for magic in the future. Not only this but there are ramifications from their actions that still reverberate centuries later, without people realising it. Also the way that magic works in my world has distinct consequences in the Jefferson trilogy that will be branched out upon as newer forms of magic and different schools come into light. In case you didn’t notice, I’m a bit excited!

I often wonder how long it took to build consistent worlds like those experienced in Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter and how long I should work on my own before writing the story in it. I suppose as with anything it will be finished when it is finished, much to my dismay. For the meantime, I will get back into it so that I can smash that NaNoWriMo target. I am unsure as to which story to contribute to or which lore to write exactly. Something tells me if I start working on that world, fifty thousand words will be achieved within the time frame. The thing will be, forcing myself to make the time.

Until next time lovely ladies and gents! Happy writing!

Also touch base guys! Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year? What are you working on? Are you in the same boat as me? Anyone want to get back in touch for some writing updates!? I did enjoy keeping up with those of you who were interested! Talk to you soon!

A Moment In Time

Work is an odd place.

I work in retail and today, for a small moment, I found myself extremely proud to be there. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job, but I’ve always introduced the fact I work retail in a depressed sort of light. When people ask where my partner works, I’ve always been proud of the fact that she’s a teacher. She teaches the future generations kindness, patience and knowledge. These gifts are incredible and unparalleled. Then people turn to me. I feel the sweat begin to form beneath my arms. I get nervous. Then they ask the question I fear, “And where you do work?”

Back in Canada, retail has a stigma. Maybe it’s everywhere, I don’t know. Retail is looked at as that place where people who couldn’t get a career settle in. Upon my arrival in Australia, I knew retail was my best hope. I had next to no professional experience in programming and less than zero experience in animation. I did have plenty of experience in management though, so I relied on it. I had managed to get one retail job and managed to get two promotions there within a year. Then I moved across to my current company and managed a similar feat. Despite these accomplishments, I still avoided eye contact when people asked where I worked. I’d say things like, “I only work retail.” or “I’m just a manager.”

In reality, work is where I sometimes feel happiest. I’m not saying my home life is terrible and I’m not saying I’d change a thing. But everyday I feel that sense of accomplishment of getting something done or rallying the team to overcome a challenge. I not only enjoy it, I savour it. Perhaps it is due to my hobby of writing near accomplishing nothing. Maybe the path is too vague. At work the path is clear and the numbers don’t lie. When you’re doing well, you know it, and so do the sales. It’s nice to know that once I have finished something there is a result.

I felt extremely accomplished the moment I wrote the final words to Jefferson & The Magician’s Curse. I reread it and enjoyed it immensely. I passed it onto my partner who had many questions and comments. In fact, she’s still working on her edit. Now that it’s done, it’s almost like… what now? I recently read a story posted by one of the people I have met during my blogging escapades. It was so rich with detail I felt as though I’d been there. Her characters seemed like old friends. I finished the story and almost clapped it was that well done. Then I read her next blog post about how she’s still having trouble finding a publisher. The story was so good, I’d pay for it. Yet here I was, standing in the shadow of her talents, hoping to find my own success. Doom is about as close a word to the true feeling for my poor story.

At work today we rejoiced in the sales of last week, being up over a quarter of our target above the budget. We contributed to many of the goals and targets our region is tracking and we celebrated with the team. I had a load of fun joking around and despite the terrible weather outside and the lack of customers, I found myself just enjoying the day. My boss came off the conference call grinning and I asked him how it had gone. It had gone better than expected and apparently the bosses were happy. Everything has been going exceptionally well. Are there things to work on? Of course. But at the end of the day, this is the best job I’ve ever had. Today, for the first time in my life, I felt extremely proud of what I do for a living. But of course tomorrow is a new day, but for now, I feel like some sort of retail rockstar… so I’ll just ride the high while I can.

As for writing, I’m hoping to find that sense of accomplishment again sometime soon. I’ve also been trying to get up the courage to enter a local writing competition, or submit a short story for publication. It’s only taken a decade for me to be confident in retail… seems I just need some more time and some more completed stories to get there.

As for those of you out there who use Scrivener, do you make separate files for each different idea or do you have all your ideas in one place and have each idea in its own folder? This question relates very closely to the original reason I started using a wiki (which I may try to go back to at some point) as ideas and the such can be outlined for characters easier and story ideas can be worked on without switching screens. At the moment, all of my ideas are in their own “.scriv” files and when I’m working on one idea if I get inspiration into another, it’s very jarring to close one and load another. I’m open to suggestions!

Although I’ve heard plenty about the writings of the people beyond the screen, but what do you do to pay the bills? Who is the daytime author really?