Two of my increasing number of Moleskine notebooks. The red one on the left, complete with Moleskine pen, contains all of my notes for Joshua’s Nightmares so far.
The purple one on the right? That information will have to wait until Monday. I’d like to say I picked a purple Moleskine because it seemed like a mysterious color, but it was actually just a whim decision.
Anyway, Monday’s big reveal. Big news. Good news. Hopefully, and I mean very hopefully, it will result in good progress as well.
This is one of those big, crazy, confusing, and amazing times of tremendous change in my life, where I’m transitioning from one job–the very first job I’ve ever had–to a new job, and I’ve only got two days left there. It’s bittersweet and all, but I’m more focused on how it’s a huge change in my life. One of those “oh-shit-am-I-really-sure-I-know-what-I’m-doing?” changes. So naturally, it’s pretty daunting and my creative thinking processes seem to have handled it in the most appropriate fashion possible by completely shutting down. Those lazy, good-for-nothings. (On a related note, however, I do have a short horror story idea that needs writing once I figure out just what the hell I’m going to do with it.)
As a teaser of sorts, I’d like to say this much (and only this much), and I’ll leave the rest for next Monday: I start my new job next week, and I feel like something new should accompany that. Something new in terms of writing. Ooh, mysterious.
Still doing an absolute ton of world-building for “Joshua’s Nightmares”, and I think I’ve reached the point where if I were to lose my red Moleskine notebook I would also actually lose my mind.
Lastly, given the way last week went, I hope anyone who reads this, their families, friends, and so on, are all safe, happy, and healthy. There’s enough bad shit in the world as it is, so do remember to take care.
With an alternate title of “I wanted to at least do a little writing tonight, and I actually have no drive to do anything beyond blogging (so deal with it)”, but titles like that are irresponsibly wordy.
I made my very first origami crane today, and I’m probably far more proud of it than I should be. I say this in the sense I’m proud I managed to complete it on my first try, without tearing it in half or lighting it on fire, but it looks like its head went a few rounds with a brick wall.
Pictured: my sad little crane, sitting on my fancy, blue laptop.
What I learned from this creative endeavor includes, but may not be limited to, the following:
Eventually, I hope, I’ll be able to share some less battered paper cranes. Or, should my skill only get worse with practice, an extremely detailed paper rock or two.
A while ago, a good friend of mine (who I’ll refer to for the sake of this post, as I refer to him in general, as Doc Martin) posted the video I’ve attached (shared? stuck to my blog so you’ve got to at least notice it if you read this post?) below to Facebook, and it really resonated with something inside me. Probably because I was still at a point where paying back student loans seemed like figuring out some long-dead, alien language never meant to be grasped by humans, looking for jobs was still a terrifying prospect, and I was fairly certain I would never figure my life out.
Much of the above remains true, and the song still resonates with me.
Sort of like the logic that goes into “no news is good news”, except I have some very intense doubts this line of reasoning could hold up to…well, any scrutiny at all.
I’m about one third of the way done drafting Chapter 2, which certainly is news at least. It’s sort of news of a good nature, but not really in the sense that I need to get back to writing it before the ideas trickle out of my soft, porous brain-meat and flee into the dark, dangerous real world where they’ll likely be swooped down upon by large, thought-eating birds of prey.
On the plus side, things are indeed looking up for me and I may have celebrated as much with a jolly little holiday to Hollidaysburg (read as: I spent the weekend with my lovely, ever-patient girlfriend when I should have probably been using some of that time to write).
Tomorrow is a short day of work at my real job, which means I have a good chunk of time to devote to Joshua’s Nightmares. And maybe, hopefully, I’ll turn at least one of the six or seven drafts lurking about on the Admin end of my blog that (I’m very thankful) none of you can see presently. The rest of tonight can be dedicated to sleeping off the lingering effects of Sheetz feasts, lazing about, and a twelve-hour marathon of Doctor Who.
Quick addendum, and one probably unworthy of bold and italics but so what: when I posted this, I switched tabs quickly because I’m juggling too many conversations. In that moment, I briefly read my own blog title as “Phil’s Mother****ing Adventures in Fiction”. While I’d never stoop to such vulgarity (or at least I wouldn’t admit to as much), I must admit it has a bit of a nice ring to it.
Envy is a universal thing, and I would go so far as to say if you are a conscious, sentient being of any sort (I wouldn’t dare discriminate against self-aware computer systems, alien lifeforms, and anything else along those lines), you have experienced some form of envy at one point or another. I mean, you’re welcome to disagree to your heart’s content. You know, in the same way I can point at you disagreeing and laugh derisively.
However, these are the seven deadly sins of writing and not the seven deadly sins applied to everything, ever, in the history of ever (because while that would give me loads of blogging potential, it would get tired and I would get tired and, frankly, no one would enjoy that; free torture for all?). Just to get this out of the way: I actually dreaded writing this particular entry, because it’s one of the bigger ones (let’s be honest, here; writing Lust is going to make me want to jump off a bridge, too), and there’s so much Envy entails it’ll take a good bit of writing to begin with. And then possibly self-immolation. Who knows? This will take a look at how writers can be envious of other writers’ success, their writing, their following (hoo boy), and so on.
I am very excited to say, especially with how today went so horribly at work, I have completed the first draft of Chapter 1 of “Joshua’s Nightmares”. Despite feeling very-much drained after an exciting 7-to-3 drag at work, I found some inspiration in a good dinner, and a bottle of Pennsylvania Dutch Birch Beer (I suspect the secret ingredient is pure, undiluted happiness), and wrote away.
There are a few points I’m a little iffy on with the chapter already, but I’m letting it have at least one day of peace before I even consider doing major edits.
My biggest problem at this point is wanting to get to certain characters who aren’t quite important to the plot just yet, because I love me some good, ol’-fashioned, truly bad-to-the-bone villains.
This progress is especially nice as it follows the news of my final interview for the new job I’ve been working towards, and so this week will end with even more craziness for me.
What this means is more writing to happen soon, more energy towards this work, and hopefully some pieces I can share on here eventually, perhaps, as means of stealing further interest in this fledgling novel.
PS: I’m also happy to be back to posting under the Joshua’s Nightmare Updates category, even if it’s no longer accurate with the working title (but, really, I’m not about to split hairs; huzzah for progress!).
That frustrating moment when:
And so, the plan from this point is as follows:
Hopefully this will pan out, but I’ve also come to realize most of the time when I make plans, the Universe tends to throw a curveball my way. All I can really say is onwards to creativity.
First and foremost, I hope everyone had a happy, healthy Easter. I certainly had a happy one, though I look back and consider the quantities of food (with a specific nod to food of the junkier nature) and booze and can’t help but doubt this weekend had any merit in terms of my overall health. Really, I’m almost certain if I got cut right now I’d bleed a horrible, vile mix of ham and the stuff in Cadbury Creme Eggs. Sorry, too gross?
Naturally, between feasting, entertaining/verbally abusing guests, and having taken several steps in interviewing for a new job (nothing more will really be said other than I’m knocking on all the wood with my fingers crossed, all while covered in rabbits’ feet and four leaf clovers I made out of construction paper, because this could be a good thing should it work out), I’ve been somewhat comatose.
Of course, today is April Fool’s Day. I considered making an April Fool’s joke about how I got into an esteemed graduate program in writing, or that I’m now a published writer with some level of success, but both of those joke ideas left me wanting to set myself on fire so I’ll just go ahead and congratulate anyone who managed to go all day without being pranked, fooled, tricked, or generally pissed off by the antics of their questionable friends and family.
Tomorrow, once I fully emerge from my Easter feasting-induced hibernation, I plan on wrapping up the Seven Deadly Sins applied to writing line of posts, get back to All The King’s…etc, and start sending things back out for publication consideration again. Probably writing a BioShock Infinite review, which is something I am not even a little sorry for.
And so, if anyone needs me, it’s still laze o’clock until Tuesday morning gets here.
In celebration of Misadventures in Fiction reaching, and breaking, 500 views (the counter was sitting at 525 when I last checked, but it’s probably at some less-convenient, non-milestone number, like 528), have some flowers brought by an adorable pika. Sure, it has nothing to do with writing, or snarky observations, but it’s adorable. Would you want to deny adorableness like that? Damn right, you wouldn’t. I realize 500 isn’t necessarily a HUGE milestone, but it’s enough of one to merit this by my standards. You know, the ones that matter in regards to the content of this blog. Lastly, for more pikas with flowers, there’s always this page, courtesy of Brianne (girlfriend and professional mood-improver).
Picture taken from Google Images, from Tumblr, where it was probably taken from another web site. More importantly: d’awwww look how cute it is.
Phil's Misadventures In Fiction 