Skip to main content

The Sabbatical: An Unexpected Journey

As I mentioned earlier, I want to use the discipline I've generated by writing daily posts (almost) without fail to become involved in NaNoWriMo. While I'm not sure how well I'll handle this stress in my life, I'm excited to put forth the effort. Since it's only 1,667 words a day, and I can slam out about 1,200 in an hour, it is more time at the keyboard than I'm used to. However, due to certain circumstances and the way that my broken brain works, I've finally decided to upgrade from an "It's okay, I guess" machine to something that (I hope) runs better, longer.

With a new toy tool at my disposal, I'm hoping that will put additional incentive to really focus on my writing. For years, I've argued that I needed a Muse to write well. That may still be true, since my blog posts aren't necessarily sterling wordcrafting. However, to simply write I need a space and some time. The first one is taken care of, thanks to my personal office. (It's Halloween night, so I'm kind of bragging a little by having the lights on and blinds up. That way, trick-or-treaters can see in at some of the decor. It isn't a lot, but, yeah--I'm kind of proud of my room.) The second one is what I'm working with now. Starting tomorrow, I'll be putting this daily exercise toward more creative endeavors.

This year, I'm thinking of pursuing a steampunk story that has been percolating for a week or so. Normally, I plot out farther in advance, but it's only been in the last little bit that my wife and I have figured out why our steampunk costumes weren't as exciting as a lot of the other ones that she has made. It boils down to the fact that there's no story for our costumes. They look kind of steampunk--they have gears and the wild west/Victorian era aesthetic--and that's about it. There isn't any backstory or information about the costumes that informs them--or us--of why we're dressed that way. My hope is to write a novella on a couple of characters, a wife and husband team of cloudfarmers, that will give us ideas for details in the costume department.

In a lot of ways, I'm taking a sabbatical from my non-fiction writing in order to pursue a journey that will be enjoyable for me and my wife.

Here's hoping that it works.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Rage Against the Video Game Machine?

NOTE: If you haven't read the ' Foregrounding ' blog post or the one entitled ' Rough Draft ', please do that first. They're both short, but they matter a lot for what you're about to read. Okay. Done. Enjoy. Zach de la Rocha: "On truth devoured/Silent play in the shadow of power/A spectacle monopolized/The cameras eyes on choice disguised." Rage Against the Machine's single "Guerilla Radio" from their Battle of Los Angeles album is a reaction against the political circus and faux-choice presentations during the 2000 elections. The quote is not in full context (it is much more political than theoretical) here, but it provides a powerful starting block. A little bit of re-punctuation will help to clarify the thrust: "On truth devoured, silent play in the shadow of power [is] a spectacle [that] monopolized the cameras' eyes-on choice disguised." Line by line, we see parallels between how video games are perceived outside o...

Dark Necessities

The second of my "music video essays", I'm exploring the single from Red Hot Chili Peppers' newest album, The Getaway , "Dark Necessities". As I did before, I'm posting the video and the lyrics here on the essay, and encourage you to watch and read along. In the case of the Peppers, it's always a good idea to have the lyrics handy, as the lead singer, Anthony Kiedis, has a tendency of mumbling and/or pronouncing words uniquely to create a particular effect--or he's super high, either possibility is there.  The Set Up Here's the video: And here are the lyrics : Coming out to the light of day We got many moons than a deeper place So I keep an eye on the shadow's smile To see what it has to say You and I both know Everything must go away Ah, what do you say? Spinning off, head is on my heart It's like a bit of light and a touch of dark You got sneak attacked from the zodiac But I see your eyes spark Keep the breeze and go Blow...

On Violence

NOTE: This is a long one. It's also a lot more theoretical than conversational. If you have a question, please feel free to post so that I can try to be more clear. There is little debate on what the greatest debate is when it comes to video games: Does the imaginary violence of the game translate into violent behavior in the real world? It seems to be very much a 'depends on your point of view' type of argument. Not only does it depend on one's point of view, but also the particular study itself, what it focuses on, and how well it's managed. It is also important to note the rhetorical tricks of the debate*, since most of the data are coming from second or third sources. But I am no statistician, so numbers do nothing to help me to understand the issue. In fact, numbers about this argument are superfluous, since the entire point of gaming (whether the gamer/designer/critic is aware of it or not) is the individual as the ideal. Let's look at violence, then, shal...