Feedback, Films and Falcons

The word of the week is garrulous.

May 12 - Thanks!

Today was all about research.

Some of it was directed towards my escalating desire to find an agent for my novel, which is a minefield unto itself but definitely worth the tippy-toeing. There's lots to know and I am learning new things daily which will help me in understanding the business side of being a writer, which isn't glamorous but definitely something I consider absolutely necessary to becoming a success in the field.

The other research I did today was on smells and scents.

Tonight was another of my presentations for the local writing group that I co-run and the topic was 'Scents for Success' which covered the use of smell in writing. Like the other presentations I've done over the last few years, I gathered as much relevant material as I could and organized the best of it to present to my fellow writers. I spend a fair number of hours researching my topics when I do presentations and each time I do the work, I can feel my skills improving in sorting the gems from the dross. In addition, the presentations have allowed me to become comfortable with speaking in front of a group, albeit one of only several dozen people but that's still a lot more than I was used to even three years ago.

The best part is, I'm apparently doing a decent job of it.

I don't do things for validation( ie. to 'win' the approval of people )but instead I'm looking to help them as well as myself become better at what we do. All the same, it's extremely gratifying to know that I'm doing a good job and the feedback I received tonight had me glowing:

Thanks, Peter. As always, a marvellous presentation, meticulously researched (despite the dearth of information available on the subject) and thoroughly entertainingly presented. I always look forward to your presentations. You've given me some interesting things to pay more attention to. -Cl

 and:

I didn't think that tonight's topic would be all that interesting but I came anyway because I knew you were presenting. All I have to say is that I'll never look at the sense of smell in my work the same way again and I'm eager to get home to start incorporating it into my writing immediately. Thanks! -Ch

It's feedback like this that fuels me, as I'm sure anyone in any field feels the same: when you're doing a good job you like to know it and that keeps you going. Nobody likes to work in a vacuum and I feel extraordinarily lucky that I'm helping to run a writers group with such talented and wonderful people, who keep showing up every other week to help each other improve their craft.

What higher praise could I ask for? 

May 13 - Spiderman2

Not a bad day overall, with a movie at the end of it.

Some lovely weather to enjoy outside and lots of time to myself is always a good combination. It's shirtsleeve weather here now in Victoria and I wore shorts outside for the first time this year, which seems a little strange: since I usually bike to work there's a need for long pants due to wind chill, so shorts haven't been in the cards, until now.

In the evening, I caught the late show of Spiderman2.

Now, I have to say that I'm a lifelong Spiderman fan, despite not having collected the comics. I've always been able to identify with Spiderman as a character who has difficulties thrust upon him and has to deal with them as best he can while still trying to have a 'normal' life.

Unfortunately, the film treatment this time around was not as good as it could have been, in my opinion. Without spoiling anything, I thought that the story was uneven and that's being kind; RottenTomatoes panned the film. The director didn't manage to engage the audience - or at least me - in caring about many of the characters, including the titular hero, Peter Parker. I thought the romance was flat, the villains underdeveloped and the overall story forgettable, which is sad as Spiderman has a long and glorious comic book history.

The best part of the film however, was definitely the CGI. The studio definitely improved by leaps and bounds( web-swings? )from the first film and it shows. They even released a clip highlighting how much better Spiderman was animated in this film and it's truly amazing to watch:

May 14 - Visual Thinker?

Thinking visually seems to be my forte`.

The apparently-rare skill definitely helped me in writing my novel and I may have described the process to a few of you already, but in essence I see the scenes in my head and flesh them out with a description as an observer. Being able to imagine a fully-realized book in my head scene by scene isn't easy and requires a lot of imagination married with skill at words, both of which I admit I'm still refining as I go along.

The funny thing is, I've never really thought of myself as a 'visual thinker' mainly because I didn't know the term existed as a concept. Which I just stumbled across this week in this neat video below, courtesy of Twisted Sifter:

I possess many of the points mentioned in the video and so I can say with some conviction that I am indeed a visual thinker. It's actually been rather helpful to give me a perspective on how my creative process works and a little more confidence that I'm using a methodology that's a solid fit for my abilities.

Now if I could just find something that explains why I'm so terrible at math…

May 15 - Um, what did you just ask?

Seeing as I'll be working only one or two days a week in retail for the next long while, I've been thinking about the things I'll miss about the job. There's more than a few, the main ones being the people that I'm working with, plus the many times that I'm able to really help people expand their understanding of technology as well as get them exactly what they need.

What I won't miss are the dumb people, bless their cognitive eccentricities.

I think it goes without saying that I could write an entire book on the subject of Dumb Questions People Have Asked Me and barely scratch the surface of the topic. The sheer scale of ignorance of the Great Unwashed is actually rather scary, especially when you think about all the products out there with warning labels on them that seem, at least to me, to contain only common sense...

Yahoo!( they're still around )had an article this week bleakly entitled 38 Yahoo! Questions That Will Destroy Your Faith in Humanity, which actually is and all that bad and is very funny, I think. I won't spoil the list for you but I will say that my favorite one involves the Sun … and it's not what you think.

A retail environment is a never-ending source of amusement for the people who work in it.

My favorite recent story is the lady who came up to me and asked if we had any printers that were in boxes? I was a little puzzled until I realized that she had taken one of our display printers and put it in her shopping cart, along with her other items. It was rather difficult for me not to answer in a half choked laugh for a few seconds, as I had visions of her unpacking her groceries at home and wondering why so many of the fruits tasted horribly like wax. It did make me wonder how some people manage to make it through life without a lot of help or an incredible supply of luck. Darwin may have been able to shed some light on this, if he were still around.

Still, retail has given me a vast supply of stories to use of my writing, so there's that.

May 16 - Guess What I Gave You?

What kind of car would you like someone to give you as a birthday gift?

Would it even be a car? Perhaps a boat, or even a small aircraft?

How about the Millennium Falcon? That's exactly what the subject of this extremely geeky video below shows, fulfilling the dreams of many a Star Wars g33k in the process:

I think it's a wonderful little riff on how people's fantasies can be turned into reality with a little CGI magic. Which is all the more magical because people can now do it on their home computers in very little time with very little skill, although the time and skill put into this particular video are definitely well above beginner's skill levels. 

Did I mention I have a birthday coming up…? -hint- -hint-

May 17 - Simply Writing

Guess what software George R.R. Martin writes with?

Seriously, I couldn't believe it when I heard it today: the creator of Game Of Thrones( and many other fine works )uses Wordstar 4.0, a DOS word processor from the 80s to write with.

That's… brilliant.

The great-grandaddy of more modern 'simple' word processors, Wordstar is all about the writing: there's no other distractions on the screen, just the flow of words from the mind into reality. As a bonus, Martin doesn't have to worry about people hacking into his computer, as it's not connected to the Internet. Interestingly, one of the comments on the article at C|net pointed out that Neil Gaiman wrote his incredible story Stardust using only a pen and paper after noticing that his books had been getting thicker and thicker when they were written using an electronic. Sometimes simple is best.

And now: a little about Cosplay.

The growth of the cosplay movement continues to astound me, with all the g33ky talent poured into creating costumes that pay tribute to favorite characters from any media. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of Facebook pages run by cosplayers, founded mostly on the desire to share their creations with other fans. Some of those cosplayers are actually making a living at it and naturally it's the most talented ones who have simply incredible skills when it comes to making costumes:

Me, I just need the spare time and money. And talent. And patience; you get the idea.

May 18 - 48 Hours

Two days until I start my new job.

I think it goes without saying that I'm both excited and nervous. I haven't had all that many jobs in my working life - less than a half-dozen all told - so I'm hoping this one will be a big step in many ways for me towards a better life.

Not the the kind of step that takes me away from my writing, however. Working five days a week on a set schedule means that I can thus right on a set schedule as well, at least five days a week and hopefully more. I'll certainly need to spend many hours a week crafting the initial draft of my second novel if I'm hoping to have it finished by the end of this year; there's only six months to go. Meaning, I have to write anywhere between 600-1,000 words every single day between now and the end of 2014 if I'm to come up with a novel-length first draft.

That means a lot of dedication, preparation and perspiration. All of which I'm ready for… in addition to starting a new job, searching for an agent, working on a few sidelines like voiceover training( more on that next week! ), finishing my IT certificate before my online course ticket runs out, reading a few good books each month, running my writing group, participating in my DnD group, getting out and socializing, enjoying the good weather, seeing my family and getting sleep / downtime somewhere in there when I can.

Did I already mention I'm going to have a busy year?

This particular blog entry took me a little over two hours to complete, with the occasional break for sanity sake and drink of water. Considering that I'll have to write one of these entries every other day for the next six months, it's a good thing that I'm used to my workflow and know how I'll have to go about it. I'm really looking forward to spending the time wisely and well to create my next book... so I can then get to work on the third and final volume in the trilogy. Wish me luck!