10 Minute Rule

I spent the last two days helping students world build for Video Game development and Comic Book development projects. That has my mind on world building overall. I’m constantly world building. Every time I listen to a book I’m listening for how these great authors unfurl their worlds. I gotta say, I am constantly awed by the creation. I am presently developing a fantasy world and have designs on a futuristic world that I may consider beginning next year–so long as I get some prime production on the fantasy world. I’ve developed a great deal of it with the visual help of Azagaar’s fantasy map generator and World Anvil, though the later serves as a repository I’ve yet to develop enough content to use.

The key, however, is understanding what it means to truly build a world. I believe you need to deep dive and consider the terrain, the history of that terrain itself (natural phenomena that shaped it), what it means for the cultures that dwell there and so on. My tip to all writers is to examine human history–like really look and don’t just dive directly for the Roman and British stuff. In truth that stuff is going to lead you terribly astray. I also think a key point is to write down every idea, because putting it on paper makes it real and frees your brain up to test those ideas against others and change and edit them–this happens far less when you are doing it in your head.

Low energy day. I am working through a lot of things and my brain is slowed by the effort. Mostly I am trying to figure out the physical stuff that is haunting me, but the work stuff is a serious drag on my mental energies right now. I need to engage in the way needed in order to simply write full time and make the sort of money that would allow teaching to be the secondary job situation. That would be quite nice. In the meanwhile, I gotta get this body back in some kind of shape so I can actually stay alive. It seems to not be functioning up to age-based standards. The weight is a big part of that.

Some Thoughts:

1. It occurs to me that in Academia, once you’ve hit the moment where you are teaching everything you love and doing all of the things you find to be the best for you, it is exactly the time when all of it falls apart. That is generally how Academia feels like it works. People see you get where you want to be and then they start asking questions about why you get to be there. Such is the way…

I wish to begin by stating that I have officially given up on the Fast Franchise. The Rock had me hanging on, but the brotha is surely done, and as such I too remain done. I mention this because that preview was utterly trash and so beyond unbelievable–even as a Vin Diesel Vehicle (no pun intended) that I simply cannot abide. Meanwhile, I abide the AntMan and the Wasp series purely because of Paul Rudd. That man carries. The problem with this specific film is that it is not actually about him or his (truly badly scripted and acted) relationship with the Wasp. This is about the Quantumverse and about introducing story and helping us to understand the ‘Idea’ of Kang. Sadly, Kathryn Newton (who plays a very standard version of every high school girl lead ever in this one) gets the lead treatment and we lose many other characters in search of the father-daughter bond. It doesn’t work for me. They do a good job of setting up the next Young Avenger (we’ve already seen Hulk’s kid, New Hawkeye, and IronHeart but we’ve seen no men–I guess Guardians III might get us the guy but I’m really hoping for Miles Morales).

Marvel burned this one in order to set up other stuff. I knew that going in, but without the chemistry of Rudd to carry, the movie simply fails. The introductions were not even on point, because we met Kang in Loki, and unless you watched Loki you will not get this film the way they intend for you to get it.

Some Thoughts:

1. The Rock and Jason Statham are 50 and 55 years respectively. They look younger and more virile than I, who is younger than they… Dang

Rule #2: Have a moral compass/believe in something.

Life is, well, a mystery. We don’t know what caused the universe to come into being or even if it does actually exist. At some point there was nothing…. Now there is something. Weird. Now what made that happen? I don’t know, but I believe that there are certain principles that have to govern reality and thusly certain principles should govern our individual being. This I refer to as a Moral Compass. No, I’m not a religious man and I’m not what all would even consider a good man, but I have the things I see as right and wrong and they are clear to me and not to be overlooked. This matters. It matters so much that it is engrained in my way. So, I believe it ought to be engrained in every way. I find beauty in such things. It is why in the Hogwarts game I choose to believe in being a particular house and following the way of that house as opposed to simply doing whatever.

A Moral Compass is a set of guidelines, and I believe we all should have that. Belief in something greater than yourself is a similar philosophy. One is about the guidelines and the other is about the creator of said guidelines. Both can be useful in developing your own way.

Some Thoughts:

1. I do not know why it is important to me to publish these thoughts, yet I persevere.
2. I think I must believe in doing something till you know why you are doing it. I think that is why I miss coaching, because I don’t think I ever entirely completed the ‘what I was supposed to do’ in that. There is an entire part of personal learning and execution that was missing.
3. I’m tired of being ill/heart issues. I want to be right.

I am still in stream of consciousness mode, and all of the words that fall here are a reflection of the ten minutes I’ve given myself over to the typing. Listening to the Midnight Miracle on the way home from Cali I heard Dave Chapelle reflecting on the idea that when he is writing he isn’t really doing the hard work, but when he is thinking–dreaming and puzzling through his ideas, that is when he is doing the work–when he mustn’t be disturbed. I found that really interesting as a point of comparison to where i’ve been as a writer as of late. I’ve been neglecting that thinking part. I write and I shape the words to sound good, but the deeper thinking and meaning has legitimately been less of late. That is likely why my novel is #6,793 in Cyberpunk Science Fiction (Books). That’s trash. I know I can do better once I actually do better.

I’m not going to get into LitRPG in this post, but I will get back to that discussion at a later date. Honestly, the truth of my writing woes have more to do with the work I put in than anything else on the market. I have the stories. I know I can dive deep and make them worth the read. I’m going to be diving into one (that is not contracted) next and seeing what I will do with it after. It is about the writing now and turning that into what it was always meant to be, because I haven’t told my stories yet and I’m nearing 50 years of crawling around this hot blue planet.

It is high time I started saying stuff that matters.

Some Thoughts:

1. Shorter than the last one, and yet the words are coming out a drip drip drip. I believe that drip will eventually become a flood that becomes a wave that becomes a way.

Revving the engine in the creative sense. I’m trying to move back into writer mode and be productive on a daily basis once again. I fell out of it for any number of reasons (video games come to mind), and I need to fall back into this mode of writing at length every day in order to be productive. So, I’m starting with a SoC blog, which is a fairly useless acronym for Stream of Consciousness writing. The point of it is to keep typing nonstop for ten minutes. This was the original form of the ten minute rule before I became bogged down by thinking (and short posts as a result). Instead I’m going to let whatever is in my brain flow through my fingers for ten minutes and that will be the warmup.

The warmup is oft overlooked by writers. They (WE) don’t see ourselves in the same light as athletes who, at the professional level, recognize the need and value of the warm up. Our bodies get tight. Likewise, our minds get overwhelmed or distracted. If we don’t get loose then we lose the ability to hone in on what we need or are trying to accomplish. Shake out the cobwebs or smack aside all the stray thoughts, or whatever clever phrasing you choose for the activity.

Right now I’m worrying over money. I know, I ought to be thinking about the worlds I’m populating with my words, but instead I’m on the finance tip and that is problematic. This is where the SoC comes in handy, because I can get this finance stuff out of my head–I can stop thinking about paying these four to seven bills off and whether or not that requires a dip into the savings, because I am working that out on paper (yeah, I gotta dip in but I can replace the cash fairly quickly–thus is the cost of travel and spending).

So, with these mental hiccups resolved to the best of your ability you can move forward with your day and get more good words on the page. I know I certainly benefit from more writing and less thinking–this is the most words I’ve put out in one of these blogs in several weeks. This is what a mind simply flowing looks like. This is how Stephen King or even Steven Eriksen looks when he’s writing about all those worlds and all those troubles just a shadow’s throw away. Having so much on paper gives you much to work with when it comes time to filter out the bad from the good…

Talislegger rules. I mentioned once upon a time how fond I was of how the idea of a Way. As I said, the Mandalorian has a Way. I sometimes know what it is and mostly what it isn’t. I don’t know my own particular way as of yet, but I am learning a set of rules to live by. On occasion I’ll share these with you all in hopes of putting them down on ‘paper’ hoping to nail them down in my mind.

Here’s a rule: Do what matters most to you. No matter what. I’m living that rule on a daily basis. I’m presently in California on a weekend beach retreat, because I wanted to do that with my partner. So here we are. We work hard, and we deserve to benefit from that whenever we want. This is part of the way. There is more. That comes later.

I actually want a break from football. I’m debating whether that includes casual Madden play. I don’t want to be reading football news or writing about the sport. I want to disconnect or surface if you will. I want to be able to take a break and feel like its something fresh and new and not just a ton of talk about what could happen. I’m bout that action, boss.

However, the high school stuff is still a mess and has me wondering about next steps. So, you’ll see one more post coming through here once that sorts itself out. Until then.. Waiver Wednesday is going into hibernation. I think it is time for a Writer’s Wednesday reboot.

Some Thoughts:

1. Sick.

Watching the wind blow across the water of my backyard pool and the grey clouds swirl in the sky, I am given to powerful feelings of romance. It is Valentine’s day and, after all, this is what we are meant to feel at a time like this. There is a lot to be said against Valentine’s day, but history is written by the winners, so we shall revel in the moment of what it means to us. Beyond the commercial I find it a touchstone for showing love to my partner. It is a reminder that I do need to be mindful of making my partner feel loved everyday and not just a handful of touchstone days a year, so moments like this feel like a way to check in and see how I’ve been behaving as a partner and I think about them as a way to do just that–reflect the love.

Love is a gift. I’ve been graced with loving and having been/being loved and I believe it is important to honor that.

Some Thoughts:

1. Random, but my macbook battery drains fast.

Take one look at my office and you’ll see a tale of two lives. One is the neat and beautiful accoutrement of my partner. To the right is my desk filled with piles of stuff I’ll get to. The concept of ‘I’ll get to’ is poison in my veins. All of these things I am supposed to be getting to I don’t ever fully finish. I learned of this sad reality in the Minecraft world I built where I have (at least) three versions of the same basic castle design and not one is fully done. There is a chance that there is a done one in some other realm, but in this realm the answer is a resounding nope. I get distracted. I do other things. This is a core issue in my life. As of now, finishing is a core priority.

Some Thoughts:

1. I set aside $100 bucks to gamble on the Super Bowl. I got back $25. The issue was the moneyline. On several of the bets I thought I won I missed the moneyline… which I didn’t recognize was even there. So, I am a bad gambler. I am a non-attentive gambler to be specific, and that means I should not be placing bets. My birth dad ran an OTB, which means I ought to know a thing or two from the year+ of my life spent in the man’s company. I don’t. As such, I’m not going to do anything beyond this yearly one shot and, of course my yearly pilgramage to the slots where I find pleasure in the oompa loompa gaming experience.