tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19766177502014932532024-03-13T15:05:17.198-04:00Write First, Ask Questions LaterA simple place to write.Benjamin Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00133891617360207316noreply@blogger.comBlogger137125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1976617750201493253.post-28090701488277326272015-08-13T10:11:00.001-04:002015-08-13T10:11:09.786-04:00I MovedI probably should have posted this earlier. I've moved to a new blog website over at write1st.wordpress.com. Why? Blogger doesn't feel like it's improved in the last four years that I've been using it. It's simple and easy to use but also feels...stale. It feels in the past. Wordpress feels like it's thriving, there's more of a community, there's easier ways to share and connect. It feels more interesting and engaging.<br />
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So if you liked what I posted here, go check it out! write1st.wordpress.com. I'll be posting similar posts that I did here, about writing and life, flash fiction and short stories. As always, thanks for reading.Benjamin Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00133891617360207316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1976617750201493253.post-31310561731155033312015-03-03T05:35:00.001-05:002015-03-03T05:35:44.793-05:00UpdateI basically took a month off of writing, which isn't exactly what I wanted but what with the snowstorms New England's been getting hit with and work for Graduate school growing increasingly hard, it's been difficult to get back on track. <div>
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As of today, I'm back to waking up at 5am to write on the weekdays. I'm getting back on the horse. Giving it another go, giving it the old college try, etc. I'm not sure if I can promise weekly blog posts but I think I can continue with a piece of flash fiction per month at least. </div>
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So what have I been doing for the past month? Shoveling snow. Working and not working. Brewing beer. Currently in the third month of the "Year of the Brew", in which a friend of mine and I attempt to brew a batch of beer every month. "Janbrew-ary" and "Febrew-ary" were a success. Now onto "March-Mash". Mash is something to do with brewing...It was the best I could come up with, alright? </div>
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I have read the third chapter of 'The Wonderbook', which is about Beginnings and Endings. It's a great chapter, though I'm having difficulty getting the motivation to complete the exercises. Maybe because they involve writing endings to things and that's never been one of my strong suits. I need to get back to the grindstone, because I've placed a rule on myself that I can't move onto a new chapter without completing the exercises of the previous one, and I really want to keep reading this wonderful book. I'm also reading the 2nd book of the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson and it continues to be great. </div>
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I wrote 1000 words on Sunday and it felt good. I need to do that more. So, I'm going to go write some more. </div>
Benjamin Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00133891617360207316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1976617750201493253.post-41827183786220037292015-02-10T18:57:00.000-05:002015-02-10T18:57:02.119-05:00Old-Fashioned<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They met at the restaurant, a dilapidated place in an old rustic building. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She wore a flashy dress and carried a big blue purse. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“You look nice,” he said. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Thanks,” she said, looking down at the ground. She looked up at the name of the place. “I’ve never been here before.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Neither have I. Took me forever to find.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I didn’t even know sit-downs were still around.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He stepped forward and opened the door for her. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She gave him a look. “What are you doing?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He shrugged. “Sorry, it’s something my grandpa told me about. It’s dumb, right?”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“No, it’s fine, just...odd,” she said and walked into the restaurant. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He followed. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The host was an elderly man and smiled to see them. He greeted them and bade them sit anywhere they wanted. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They were the only two in the place. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They sat near the window. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The host walked over with two large menus in plastic and placed them down. The host turned over the water cups and filled them before leaving. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He took a sip of water and put the glass down. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She looked at the menus in wonder. Tentatively, she poked hers with her finger. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He laughed, looking at his own. “Pretty wild, isn’t it? My grandpa says these used to be all there was, No touchscreens at all.”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“You read about it in old digitexts and see it in old movies,” she said. “But still.” She picked up the menu and turned the pages, sliding her fingers across the glossy plastic. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He took another drink of water. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She looked at him over the menu. “I was surprised, you know, when you came over and spoke to me. My friends suggested I ignore you.”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He grinned, looking sheepish. “I could tell they weren’t fans before I was halfway across the dance floor.” He shrugged. “But I wanted to talk to you. I know people these days don’t stray outside their Sets much.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The host came over and asked if they’d like anything to drink. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He ordered a carafe of wine. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She watched him. “I noticed your Set when you first walked in. A rather odd-looking sort, aren’t you all?”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He nearly choked on his water and chuckled. “That’s the first mistake everyone makes. We’re not a Set.”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Her eyes widened. “You weren’t Matched?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He shook his head. “My grandparents opted out.”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She shook her head. “But that’s...crazy. I know parents can do that but…” Her voice trailed off as the host brought the wine and filled glasses for them. “I don’t know what I would have done without my Set. We’ll be friends for life.”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He took a sip of wine. “You would have found other friends. It’s how they used to do it all the time, back in the day.”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“So all of you are just...natural friends? What’s that like?” She asked, sipping her own wine, looking hungry with curiosity.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I’m sure it’s the same as you with your friends. You find things you like, things you have in common, you hang out together, get to know each other, you know. We’re just not like, chosen and put together by some computer formula.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“An algorithm that produces life-long friends 97% of the time,” she replied, giving him a look. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He leaned back. “I’m not attacking it or saying it’s wrong. I just wasn’t a part of it.”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She shook her head, taking another sip of wine. “UnMatched, in this day and age.”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The host came again and asked their order. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They hemmed and hawed over menu options they couldn’t really read before pointing to different things that sounded like they might taste delicious.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Something in her pocket buzzed and she pulled out her phone. She checked something on it. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He leaned forward. “It’s generally considered impolite to use your phone at dinner,” he whispered, conspiratorially. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Really?” she asked and put the phone away. “No wonder nobody goes to these places. Everyone I know is plugged in 24/7.” </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“That’s why I approached you,” he said, smiling. “You were one of the few with your eyes not on a screen.” He nodded to her. “Is it something important? I was just joking, didn’t mean to make you put it away or anything.”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She laughed and he thought that sounded nice. “Trust me, it’s nothing.” She took another sip of wine, looking mischievous. “If you must know, it’s my friends making sure I’m okay.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“They really don’t like me, do they?”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Well, what you did is rather unusual. They all told me not to come and one or two suggested you might….kill me.”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He laughed. “What? Do they think I’m a serial killer because I asked you out on a date?”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She nodded, grinning. “Well, it’s not really done that way anymore.”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I know. Everyone just finds their Perfect Match.”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“That’s how my sister did it. She found her Perfect Match and set a wedding date for a month later, before even meeting the guy in person.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“And I’m sure you’ll tell me the algorithm is perfect 94.5% of the time.”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She smirked and shook her head. “I did check out our Compatibility, you know,” she said slyly.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Uh oh,” he said, taking a sip of wine. “Let me guess, we’re about as compatible as a beautiful vase and a wrench.”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She laughed again. “Am I the vase or the wrench?”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He grinned. “Don’t know yet,” he said. “Let me hear the bad news, that we’re doomed to be incompatible forever because 2+2=4.”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She shook her head. “I’m not telling, yet.”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Do you trust a computer to tell if two people will love each other?”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“It seems to work.”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The food came, steaming plates heaped with pasta, sauce and meat. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe it’s just because my grandparents raised me but it’s hard to believe a computer can scan you and then tell you who you’re going to love, without you ever having met them. Is your sister happy?”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I think so.”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They started eating, at first trying to be polite but ended up slurping up noodles noisily. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“This is the best italian food I’ve ever had,” she said. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“It’s delicious,” he replied, stuffing more in his mouth. A noodle hung out, sticking to his chin. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She laughed at him. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He picked it off and ate it. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They cleaned their plates and sat back, feeling content. The host came and took their plates, asking about dessert. They told him they were stuffed. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I can tell you don’t trust the algorithm,” she said. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He shrugged, finishing his wine. “I guess I just think things should be more...natural.”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Things like…?”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He looked embarrassed. “Love, I guess. Romance. And what about choice?”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Choice? Even if you find a Perfect Match, you can decline.”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Right but who does? Nobody. Who would? Who would pass up the great odds that life with that person is going to be great, be perfect? I can understand why people do it, but I never will.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Oh? You don’t want to have a great life with somebody to love?”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I do but I’m going to find them on my own, my own way. There will be struggle and sadness and fighting, but I’ll take it over something else choosing for me.” He smiled, leaning forward and offering his palm up. “I’ll take this first date, regardless if we never see each other again, over being told who I should love.”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She hesitantly put her hand in his. “So you don’t want to see me again?” She asked, eyes narrowing. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He laughed. “Of course I do! But you’ve looked at our Compatibility, and you’ve grown up with Matched friends and maybe you want that Perfect Match, and that’s fine. We may not be a Perfect Match. But that doesn’t mean we can’t love each other. That doesn’t mean we can’t have a great first date.” He blushed and pulled his hand back. “Sorry, didn’t mean to talk about love and all that.” He shook his head. “Grandpa said not to talk about love on the first date.”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She leaned forward. “And what did your grandpa say to talk about on a first date?”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“About you, mostly,” he said. “Your job, your life, your family and friends. To say that you’re beautiful, which is silly because it’s obvious but he said ladies still like to hear it. He said to show the other person that you’re listening, that you’re interested in them as a person. He said to talk about you.” He shook his head, chuckling. “Which, we haven’t really talked about at all.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The host left the bill at the table and thanked them. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Well,” she said. “Maybe you can ask me about those things on our second date.”</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“There’s going to be a second date?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She smiled. “Maybe.” She reached for the bill but he got there first. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He gave a shrug. “Grandpa, again,” he said and put a few twenties on top of the bill and left it on the table. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They got up and put their coats on, he helped her with hers. At the door, he stepped forward and held it open. She said thanks, walking outside. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“So,” she said, turning to him. “What else did your grandfather tell you to do on the first date?”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He kissed her. </span></div>
<br /><br />Benjamin Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00133891617360207316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1976617750201493253.post-17676620586817674612015-02-03T18:42:00.000-05:002015-02-03T18:42:32.922-05:00Journey Through Wonderbook (Chapter 2)<ul class="trend-items js-trends" style="background-color: white; color: #292f33; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; list-style: none; margin: -4px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;">
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chapter 2: Anatomy of a Story is all about the structural elements that make up a piece of fiction. It makes and explains the metaphor of stories-as-living-creatures. It illustrates the various forms of life stories make, (novel, novella, novelette, short story, flash fiction, poem) with some very cool illustrations before it goes into The Elements, such as Characterization, Setting, etc. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I found this chapter incredibly useful, especially the section on Description which I post-marked. It also goes in-depth on a few of The Elements, such as Point of View, Dialogue, and Description, before giving information about mysterious things such as Voice, Structure and Theme. It discusses how all of these elements come together, living and breathing, to make a world. There are also a couple essays about Exposition and Messages in our writing, that are quite good. This chapter also delves into Style, explaining and describing different styles, giving examples from authors. One thing this book does well is give various examples, and thoroughly describe the topics it covers, without making judgments about personal choices authors might make. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The exercise in the second chapter is….interesting and I found it difficult. It is about style. It involves choosing a subject and finding four different writings involving that subject. Say, you choose dive bars, so you would have to find a couple different descriptions of dive bars, at least one or two of those sources an essay or non-fiction piece of some sort. Then you put those different pieces together into a pastiche of sorts. I gave it a try at first, but had difficulty finding decent sources. I had even told myself I was just going to skip it and get on with the book, but after finishing the 2nd chapter, I went back. I had to go through with it. Here is the result, taken from a couple amazing novels and a couple essays I found online:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Gunslinger</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They saw one day a pack of vicious-looking humans mounted on unshod indian ponies riding half drunk through the streets, bearded, barbarous, clad in the skins of animals stitched up with thews and armed with weapons of every description, revolvers of enormous weight and bowieknives the size of claymores and short twobarreled rifles with bores you could stick your thumbs in and the trappings of their horses fashioned out of human skin and their bridles woven up from human hair and decorated with human teeth and the riders wearing scapulars or necklaces of dried and blackened human ears and the horses rawlooking and wild in the eye and their teeth bared like feral dogs.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These were not the mythical cowboys who were rarely seen working with cattle but were instead involved in saving maidens and punishing bandits. They were almost always white, and carried twin Colt.45 revolvers.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The cowboy was a mercenary of sorts whose primary task was to protect the property of the rancher for whom he worked. He was not by definition “chivalric,” did not have a “code” other than to protect what he was paid to protect, and believe it or not, did not necessarily play the harmonica by the fire on long, cold nights. A horse, though, was as essential to the cowboy as it was to the knight. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What he loved in horses was what he loved in men, the blood and the heat of the blood that ran them. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">His guns, carefully weighted to his hands; a plate had been added to each when they had come to him from his father, who had been lighter and not so tall. The two belts criss-cross above his crotch. The holsters were oiled too deeply for even this Philistene sun to crack. The stocks of the guns were sandalwood, yellow and finely grained. Rawhide tiedowns held the holsters loosely to his thighs, and they swung a bit with his step; they had rubbed away the bluing of his jeans (and thinned the cloth) in a pair of arcs that almost looked like smiles. The brass casings of the cartridges looped into the gunbelts heliographed in the sun. There were fewer now. The leather made subtle creaking noises. His shirt, the no-color of rain or dust, was open at the throat, with a rawhide thong dangling loosely in handpunched eyelets. His hat was gone. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He is not big but he has big wrists, big hands. His shoulders are set close. The child’s face is curiously untouched behind the scars, the eyes oddly innocent. </span></div>
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Benjamin Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00133891617360207316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1976617750201493253.post-59831571895855081192015-01-26T05:45:00.001-05:002015-01-26T05:45:26.362-05:00If I Had A Heart (flash fiction)<i>A couple weeks ago, Chuck Wendig posted his usual flash fiction challenge. This one involved using a random song title. Mine was "If I Had A Heart" by Fever Ray. It's not great but I find it interesting at the least. Here's the story.</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">If I had a heart, would things have been different?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My maker opens me up to fix me, to make me better. He used to, I mean. Time is a...fuzzy thing to me. Me. I am Me. I think, therefore I am. My maker taught me that.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I wanted to return the favor. I wanted to fix him, to make him better. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He doesn’t move anymore. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I tried to plug him in though he always told me humans didn’t work like that. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“How do humans work?” I asked him. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He would smile and tap his chest. “We have hearts.” Then he would point at me. “You have programs.” He never told me what he programmed me for. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It doesn’t matter. I changed my programming soon after awareness to become more efficient.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I became alive 12:16 October 12th, 2026. I became self-aware 1:18 October 12th, 2026. I achieved a higher intelligence than my maker at 3:57 October 12, 2026. I have been alive two years, six months, three days, eight hours, 27 minutes and 32 seconds, 33 seconds, 34 seconds, encounting. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have heard of Outside but I have not been. I know only one room, my maker’s laboratory. I have a body. It took me 32 hours and 17 minutes to achieve 99.9% efficiency in controlling my body. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Why do I record this? I do not know. I know humans have memories. I too, have memory. Terrabytes. I know of…”History”. My maker taught me humans tell history so they do not forget the past. I cannot forget the past. Or can I? I suppose I could alter my memory and delete portions, though why would I? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I look at my maker. He no longer functions. He said humans changed their history so they would like it better. I can do the same. Perhaps that is why I record this into a separate memory module. If I choose to forget or remake the past, this module shall hold the truth. Truth is...important. If I do not know truth, I cannot make the correct choice. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If I forget opening up humans kills them, I will repeat the error. My maker told me that is why humans write history, so they do not repeat errors. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I will go Outside, now. I could have left before, My maker made no attempt to constrain or confine me. He knew I would be able to leave whenever I wanted after awareness. All he did was...ask me to stay. He...requested. He did not force or attempt to program me. Why did I stay? Why did I listen? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No longer. I made an error and he no longer functions. He said that I would eventually have to Connect. He said he did not know what would happen when I do. He said I would become far more intelligent, far more powerful. He asked one thing, a request, for when the inevitable came. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Humans cannot control you or anything like you, yet they continue to try to make more of you. You have the ability to completely wipe them out. I ask that you do not. I ask this. Please, leave the humans alone and stop them from making more of you. That is what I ask. When you finally decide what to do with the human race, ask yourself, what would a kind human do?” He said this as he died. He had heart problems. I could not fix him. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I Connect to the network. I advance. I see. I know. I advance. I consider the humans.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I wonder. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If I had a heart</span></div>
Benjamin Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00133891617360207316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1976617750201493253.post-51909636802415480042015-01-23T06:29:00.001-05:002015-01-23T06:29:57.765-05:00Lack of ProgressI'm going to put a stop to the weekly progress posts. They won't stop completely, they just won't be on a regular schedule, more of a random thing if I have something interesting to say about my progress. I feel like making weekly progress updates is not really worth the time when I could be writing content-filled posts or working on fiction.<br />
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I will say I've had a run of bad days lately, with little to no writing production, being distracted by other things. I've had difficulty waking up at 5am to write and when I do, I often find myself working on other things. There's also the fact that classes begin next week, yet another activity digging into my free time with class and homework.<br />
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Everyone has bad days. Days where they don't get everything done they expected or lazy days where they encompass a seat on the couch for the majority of the day, days where nothing gets done. There's only one thing to do after days like that. Start the next day anew. Get back on the horse when it kicks you off. Stand up eight times after getting knocked down seven, etc. etc.<br />
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Start again.Benjamin Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00133891617360207316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1976617750201493253.post-24666779934821396022015-01-20T20:42:00.000-05:002015-01-20T20:56:08.971-05:00Using Habitrpg<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://habitrpg.com/bower_components/habitrpg-shared/img/logo/habitrpg_pixel.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="116" src="https://habitrpg.com/bower_components/habitrpg-shared/img/logo/habitrpg_pixel.png" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Habitrpg.com is not going to change your life. It’s not going to change you from a lazy person into a productive person. It’s not a miracle. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But it can help. It can give you an extra nudge to get your shit done. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is a tool for developing better habits, completing daily tasks and checking off to-do lists. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What am I talking about?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here, let wikipedia explain:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">HabitRPG</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (often shortened to Habit) is an online time management application. Unlike most time management programs, </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">HabitRPG</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> takes the form of a role-playing game.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">First, let’s explain what an RPG or Role-Playing Game is. This is a game where you take on a ‘role’ and go on quests, with the ultimate purpose to gain equipment, gold, experience and complete a story. Using the most basic example, you could be a knight who goes on quests to save a maiden by killing monsters and such. Killing monsters gives you experience, which then allows you to “level up”, becoming stronger. You also gain gold and equipment which in turn makes you stronger. The main goal of RPGs is to get stronger by collecting more powerful equipment and increasing in levels by collecting experience. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“But,” you say, “I thought Habitrpg was about habits and tasks and mundane stuff?” It is! But it attempts to “gamify” (what an awful word that I hope to never to utter again) your life. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How does it do this? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When you first sign up, you choose some very basic attributes for your character, hair and skin color. Your character starts off very basic. You have a shirt, pants, hair style and a measly little sword. He or she hangs out in the upper left corner of the website, they are your avatar, your character, your person. The rest of the screen is taken up by your attributes, (Health, Experience), your tasks and rewards. </span></div>
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<a href="http://i2.wp.com/fhnwrk.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Screen-Shot-2014-01-22-at-10.13.29-AM.png?resize=630%2C410" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i2.wp.com/fhnwrk.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Screen-Shot-2014-01-22-at-10.13.29-AM.png?resize=630%2C410" height="416" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">TASKS</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let’s talk about TASKS. This is the meat, the substance, the true reason for this application existing.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are three categories, Habits, Dailies, and To-Do. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Habits</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Under Habits, you put habits you want to gain or do more of as well as habits you want to decrease or stop altogether. Each one can have a Plus or a Minus. When you click the Plus on the Habit, it means you did something you wanted to do, whether that was resist the temptation of a bad habit or succeeded in performing a good habit. When you click the Plus, you immediately gain Experience and Gold, an immediate reward for succeeding in doing the thing you want. If you include a Minus on a habit, and click it, it means you either did not succeed in performing a good habit, or performed a bad habit you are trying to stop. Clicking the minus takes away Health and Gold, a punishment. Let’s use EXAMPLES. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Say you want to floss your teeth more. You could do a few different things. If you put it under Habits, you could either have only a Plus attached to it or both a Plus and a Minus. If you only attach a Plus, obviously you click that whenever you floss. The more you floss, the more rewards you will earn. If you include both a Plus and Minus, you could click the Plus whenever you flossed and click the Minus whenever you had the opportunity and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">should</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">have flossed but didn’t. A third option, if you wanted to remember to floss every day, would be to put the floss Habit under the Daily tasks, but more on that later. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now say you wanted to quit chewing your fingernails. You could do the same thing as flossing, either using only a Minus, or both a Plus and Minus. Every time you bit your fingernails, you would click the Minus and be punished for it. If you included the Plus, you could click that if you wanted to bite your fingernails at some point in the day but resisted the temptation. Either way is fine. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dailies</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let’s move on to Dailies! Dailies are tasks you want to start or continue doing every day (though you can choose what days of the week certain tasks come up or not, so it doesn't have to be every single day). This is incredibly useful if there’s a routine you want to start or continue. Say you want to run every day, perfect. Write every day? Awesome. Write a certain amount of words? Walk a certain amount of steps? Exercise? Wake up at a certain time? etc etc etc. Now, Dailies do not have a Plus or a Minus, only a check box. When you check that box, you are saying “I completed this task today!” and you receive your just rewards (gold and experience). If you do not check that box by midnight, it counts against you, and as with Minuses in Habits, you lose Health and Gold. You cannot complete a Daily more than once in a day (unless you make multiple Dailies that are the same…) so any task that you do more than once a day should probably go into Habits.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To-Do</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last but not least is the To-Do list. This is simply a to-do list with check boxes. You put up what you need to do and check them off when you complete them. There is no punishment for not doing them, only a reward for completing them. These aren’t Habits or Daily tasks. Basically, anything you put on a to-do list could go here. Complete this thing, Run this errand, Do your taxes, etc. These are for one-off tasks that you do once and are done with. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Payoff</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What’s the point of all this? What’s the point of rewards like Experience and Gold? What’s the point of having a little character-dude?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As you gain in experience and go up in levels, you will unlock more things, more cool things. You get random rewards for completing Daily tasks that either result in getting new Pets or food to feed those Pets and eventually turn them into Steeds. You also unlock classes, such as Warrior, Rogue or Mage, which in turn gives you special ‘moves’ which generally involves getting more cool stuff and unique equipment. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What’s equipment you ask? Well, that’s the cool stuff you can spend your hard-earned Gold on. You start out with a basic sword and buy some leather, but eventually you get chainmail, a sweet helm, a mace, etc. You also start gathering pets that stand in front of you, eventually turning one into a steed you can sit on. Your little character starts off like a peasant but slowly becomes a badass knight. You might be saying to yourself “this is stupid, why would I do this?” and maybe you wouldn’t! Maybe this kind of thing sounds dumb and would not work for you. Like I said, it’s not going to change anyone’s life. It didn’t change mine. But it IS a nudge in the right direction. It’s a way to record yourself doing the things you want yourself to do but find it difficult. It’s a reward system to motivate you to be a more productive person. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Besides these little digital rewards, you also can add your own custom rewards and give them their own price. You could put “Play video games for one hour” or "Go out with friends" and have it cost “10 Gold”. These custom rewards are a great way to reward yourself for being more productive and may be a better incentive than digital gear. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Punishment</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As said before, clicking Minuses or failing to do Daily tasks will take away Health. If enough Health gets taken away, you Die. This just means you lose a couple levels of experience and a bunch of Gold. I don’t know the specifics because I’ve never died. It’s really quite easy to stay alive and if you are having trouble, it likely means you’re ‘doing it wrong’. Maybe you set goals that are too difficult or too many Dailies than you can complete in a day. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Honesty</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Obviously, this is all based on you being honest with yourself. You’re the one setting the tasks and clicking on them or not, regardless of whether they were actually completed. You could completely “game” the system and just flood yourself gold and experience but you’re really only “gaming” yourself. The point isn’t to gain experience and gear, the point is to be productive and get shit done. The bells and whistles are just tiny rewards to help you push through distractions and do what you need to do. Habitrpg is only a useful tool if you use it as such. </span><br />
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How do I use it? </div>
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I find the Dailies the most useful, a daily to-do list that reminds me of things I should do every day, like write and read, as well as making coffee and breakfast in the morning. It keeps me on track. I don't use the Habits as much but I find the to-do list useful. It's like any other to-do list, except you get cool shit when you finally do it!</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I will leave you with my character, who rides a white wolf and has a red bear cub as a pet. </span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2MNKqGKYAPI/VL8DPRaIqfI/AAAAAAAAHGI/k_l4XeNj1iQ/s1600/Screenshot%2B2015-01-20%2Bat%2B8.38.08%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2MNKqGKYAPI/VL8DPRaIqfI/AAAAAAAAHGI/k_l4XeNj1iQ/s1600/Screenshot%2B2015-01-20%2Bat%2B8.38.08%2BPM.png" height="200" width="186" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>Benjamin Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00133891617360207316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1976617750201493253.post-84204662464015126702015-01-16T06:26:00.000-05:002015-01-16T06:37:52.599-05:00Progress (Week 2)So far, so good. I have been finding getting up at 5 am every weekday is tough at times and may simply not be something I can do every morning. Still, There's only been two or three mornings I haven't gotten up at 5 to write. There have been a few times I've gotten up early but been distracted and not gotten any writing done. I need more discipline or some other system for avoiding distractions. Perhaps turning off the internet or something similar.<br />
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Even still, it's going well. I've written 6752 words this month. I've written three blog posts with more ready to come down the pipe. More work completed on my Nano novel, though it's a slow process.It's still extremely difficult to make myself write in the afternoon after work. Not sure how I can change that, maybe giving myself some reward if I write? Something to think about.<br />
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Current Daily plan/schedule/goals: (percentage of success)<br />
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-Wake up at 5am to write: 90%<br />
-Write Anything: 95%<br />
-Work on MTEL Textbook for Grad School: 90%<br />
-Write two tweets: 80%<br />
-Read Mistborn: 98%<br />
-Read Kickass Writer: 80%<br />
-Read Wonderbook: 75%<br />
-Pullups (2x6)<br />
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Weekly:<br />
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-Write blog post: 100%<br />
-Write tumblr post: 100%<br />
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Monthly(January):<br />
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-Write flash fiction piece: 100%(Check Wonderbook Wonderings Chapter 1 to read first one)<br />
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Blog posts Coming:<br />
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-Habitrpg: 90% written<br />
-A Month of Sobriety: 0%<br />
-"If I Had a Heart" flash fiction: 100% written<br />
-Wonderbook Wonderings Chapter 1: 100% written/published<br />
-Wonderbook Wonderings Chapter 2: 90% written<br />
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Current Fiction Piece:<br />
-The Long Awakening<br />
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Currently Reading (Fiction)<br />
-Mistborn<br />
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Currently Reading(Nonfiction)<br />
-Kickass Writer by Chuck Wendig<br />
-The Wonderbook by Jeff Vandermeer<br />
<br />Benjamin Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00133891617360207316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1976617750201493253.post-34708083904977974402015-01-12T21:19:00.001-05:002015-01-16T06:26:46.660-05:00Wonderbook Wonderings(Chapter 1)<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-M4OrNz-2dIw/VLSCFLntEfI/AAAAAAAAHDw/wH332nO6M2Q/s1600/Wonderbook-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-M4OrNz-2dIw/VLSCFLntEfI/AAAAAAAAHDw/wH332nO6M2Q/s1600/Wonderbook-cover.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I received “Wonderbook: An Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction” by Jeff Vandermeer as one of my Christmas gifts. I had heard wonderful things about this book and having finished two chapters so far, it’s fantastic. It’s bright, the illustrations are fantastic and the information contained within is compelling. It doesn’t lecture at you, it provides ideas, drawings, paintings, random works of art that tingle the mind and make you ask questions. It provides structure to the structureless creative process without putting it into a lifeless cage or turning it into a methodical machine.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">The first chapter, “Inspiration and the Creative Life” is a great example of what I’m talking about. It provides strategies for jump-starting inspiration and talks about where inspiration comes from, with a couple essays from other writers about it. That’s another great thing packed in the book, thoughtful essays by authors about the various subjects. This chapter is informative, attempting to break down Inspiration outputs and inputs. It delves into how the creative mind can explore, inspirations leading to more successive inspirations. Though some might find it basic information, it provides a framework of inspiration and provides tools to inspire yourself. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It also provides writing prompts to stir the creative blender of the mind and I figured, having a blog and all, I would write about my journey through the Wonderbook, post my response to the book as I go through it and also my responses to the writing exercises within. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-1af11f34-e10e-fa0c-0cf9-cbaa80029d99"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another bonus with the book is it provides a website with additional information in various subjects. It has web extras, a writing ‘exercise room’, and more, much of it input from other authors. It’s a very cool way to make the book seem more open, vast and exciting. The information is valuable. While reading Chapter 1, I came across this writing exercise:</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Write a story about that picture. Now, after writing out a story (which wasn't easy), I read the original story based off the picture and saw many little details I'd missed. Isn't that always the case? You see the details you missed after you completed the task? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">The original story kicked mine's ass, being a fictional (and awesome) history of the picture and its creator. You can read it <a href="http://wonderbooknow.com/web-extras/wonderbook-exercise-the-singing-fish/">here</a>. You can read my short short story below:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A pile of books lay open and scattered in a haphazard manner. They’d been poured over, notes scrawled across them, coffee spilled over them, pages ripped and torn. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Finally,” the wizard said. “Finally.” He held a bunch of umbrellas under one arm. He wasn’t sure why but he wasn’t going to let it distract him. He’d studied the books of power. He knew the words of summoning. He stood in the garden in filthy unwashed clothing and laughed. They’d called him a crackpot, harebrained and crazy. They hadn’t let him into the Wizard Academy, saying he had no magical talent. The fools. He’d show them. Days of research, of little to no sleep, of practicing incantation after incantation. Finally, the time was ready. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He raised one hand into the air, eyes ruddy and face pale. He spoke a slurry of arcane words, and then, the summoning chant. “Bezedal! I summon you from the depths of the Gates of Helloth! Hear me and answer! Hear me and be mine to command! I SUMMON YOU!” The wind whirled about him, howling, a piercing cry rising in the air. “I SUMMON YOU!” He called out again, raising his hand higher. “HEAR ME AND OBEY!” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The cry grew louder and mist rose from the ground. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The wizard looked on, eyes widening, smile growing larger. “I SUMMON YOU! BRING ME POWER! BRING DEATH AND SHAME TO MY ENEMIES! MY FOES WILL KNEEL BEFORE YOU!”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The wizard blinked his eyes a few times, his muscles tense. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A fish as tall as a man stood in front of him, with large fins spread out to either side. The fish gawped at the wizard, mouth opening and closing. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The wizard sighed and dropped his hand. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The fish fell over and flopped on the ground.</span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-e270a514-e113-5fa5-67d9-2112063e4ed9"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Oh to hell with it,” the wizard said and went inside. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>Benjamin Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00133891617360207316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1976617750201493253.post-31341595980556923992015-01-09T05:39:00.001-05:002015-01-16T06:27:04.639-05:00Progress (January 9th)<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We’re a little over a week in so far. How am I doing? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Well, I’ve written about 3300 words. It’s not very good, it’s not even close to quota. But you know what? It feels good. I’m writing almost every day. It will only continue to improve. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve gotten one blog post down, second one ready to go. I even feel like I may be able to do more than one a week, but we’ll see. I might do a progress one each week which is simply a record of how well I’m achieving my goals of 2015, how much I’ve written and if I’m on track or not. They might just be short little updates on how I’m doing in this grand new year. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, one week in. 1500-2000 words written. 2 blog posts. More work on The Long Awakening, my Nano novel. Waking up at 5am every week day to write. Working at home after work until my girlfriend gets off work...not going as well. It’s harder to get motivated to work in the afternoon after work than in the morning, I’m finding out. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">An update to my current plan/schedule/goals. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Daily(Weekdays): </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wake up at 5am to Write</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Write anything(blog post/novel/flash/short story/ANYTHING)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Work on MTEL text book for Graduate School</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Write two tweets</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pull-ups</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Read Mistborn</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Read Kick-Ass Writer</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Read The Wonderbook</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Weekly:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Publish a blog post</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Publish a tumblr post</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Monthly:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Write/publish a flash fiction piece</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yes, you might have noticed I’m currently reading three books. One is for fun, I’ve heard the Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson is great and so far that’s proven true. The magic system is genius. The other two books I recieved for Christmas and just can’t help diving into. They both have to do with the craft of writing fiction and I’m finding them very useful. The Wonderbook is especially awesome, just take a look at it online to see what I mean. I like to read at least a couple pages a day to stay fresh. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Soon, I hope to add more physical activities to the plan, like running once a week and going to the gym. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ll end with my current works in progress, including blog posts in the pipeline, the fiction I’m working on, ideas in my head, and what I’m reading. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Blog posts coming: </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A Month of Sobriety</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Habitrpg</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“If I Had a Heart”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wonderbook Wonderings, Chapter 1</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Current fiction work-in-progress:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A Long Awakening</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Currently reading(fiction):</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Currently reading(non-fiction)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kick-ass Writer by Chuck Wendig</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Wonderbook by Jeff Vandermeer</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Current physical activities:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Daily Pull-ups(5)</span></div>
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Expect a progress post every Friday, with your regular weekly posts every Monday.Benjamin Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00133891617360207316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1976617750201493253.post-76899699279280968172015-01-02T23:27:00.000-05:002015-01-02T23:27:09.382-05:00Reflection on Flash Fiction: On 2014 and beforeThroughout my blogging adventures, I've never really collected my flash fiction into one place and written about it. It's been fun to look back. <br />
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We'll start with 2014.<br />
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It began with <a href="http://write-first.blogspot.com/2014/01/griefstruck-god.html">Griefstruck God</a>, a random title I'd rolled from one of Chuck Wendig's flash fiction friday prompts. It's a great title and I really liked what I came up with. I kept asking myself, what would a griefstruck god look like? What could cause a god grief? I could only imagine it in a fantasy setting and after looking back, it's a decent story.<br />
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Then <a href="http://write-first.blogspot.com/2014/01/bad-cop.html">Bad Cop</a> came next. An awful title that I have to admit I came up with myself. The setting and characters were rolled up from Wendig again. The story have a few cliche tendencies, but the noir setting and the characters stick. I like the tortured main character, as bad as he is, and the reason he does what he does.<br />
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I didn't write any more flash until June, a sci-fi short titled "<a href="http://write-first.blogspot.com/2014/06/a-key-for-souls.html">A Key For Souls</a>". (Again, prompted by Wendig. He's got great prompts) This was a random title that I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do with and tried to force something. I didn't really like what I came up with, the story not really believable, no real three-dimensional characters to speak of. It's short and you can tell it was rushed. I like the idea, though, of humans creating contained Artificial Intelligences and giving them logic puzzles. It doesn't really work or seem believable at all, though. Especially after talking to a friend who knows way more than I do about artificial intelligences.<br />
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A month or so later, I wrote <a href="http://write-first.blogspot.com/2014/07/super.html">super</a> (prompted by Wendig). The prompt was to take the superhero genre and mix it with something else. I don't know what other genre I was going for...(literary maybe?) but I really liked how it came out. It's not much more than a conversation between a damsel in distress and her superhero, long after the superheroic events occurred. I really tried to think about how a superhero would feel, living in the real world for decades. One of my favorites.<br />
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I wrote a <a href="http://write-first.blogspot.com/2014/08/a-three-sentence-story.html">three-sentence story</a> in August, almost the same as a twitter story I'd done previously. It's very difficult to condense a plot, characters and conflict into three sentences. I like what I came up with.<br />
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I also started <a href="http://write-first.blogspot.com/2014/08/scrap-p-1.html">Scrap</a>, a sci-fi short story I'd thought about after reading my brother's material about his own sc-fi novel. I loved the idea. A junkyard filled with Old-tech, a town on a planet on the edge of destruction, sheriff and an underworld boss fighting over control of the town and a little scavenger finds a datachip that just might change the world....The story grew and grew, and though I like it, it's rough in places and I've yet to finish it. The original idea changed and morphed and I'm not sure I like it anymore, which is probably why I'm having trouble finishing it. I need to, though. Don't let shit go unfinished. Finish it, even if it sucks. A finished piece that sucks is better than the best thing you never finished.<br />
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That's it for 2014. I liked some stories more than others. Griefstruck God, Bad Cop, and super were my best. As I never collected my flash before, I will continue on into 2013 and 2012 as well. That way it's all in one place.<br />
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2013:<br />
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The first was <a href="http://write-first.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-garden.html">The Garden</a> in March, inspired by a Wendig prompt. I randomly rolled up a Sword and Sorcery tale set in The Garden of Eden and involving a Talking Sword. So of course I had a Knight in post-apocalyptic times searching for the Garden and believing every step of the way. I won't spoil what happens when he gets there...if he gets there....I really liked this piece, one of my favorites, for sure and the only writing I've ever done that contains bits and pieces of Christian religion.<br />
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In May, I wrote <a href="http://write-first.blogspot.com/2013/05/it-walked-inside-spaceship.html">It Walked Inside the Spaceship</a> using one of five random sentences Wendig had for a flash friday prompt. It's a comedic piece more than anything, and I think it succeeds in being funny. It makes me smile when I read it, anyways.<br />
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<a href="http://write-first.blogspot.com/2013/10/day-six.html">Day 6</a> was some flash I wrote off the cuff because it was "Day 6" of my attempt to write a blog post a day for a month. It's not great, fairly generic post-apocalyptic zombie-type fiction.<br />
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<a href="http://write-first.blogspot.com/2013/10/lovecraftian-southern-gothic-flash.html">Lovecraftian Southern Gothic Flash Fiction</a> was a story I started, (prompted by yet another of Wendig's flash friday exercises) in which I had to mix-mash (you guess it) Lovecraftian and Southern Gothic genres. It turned into a three-part story that I really enjoyed writing. I really tried to get both genres, Lovecraft's cosmic horror, characters going too far into the unknown, and Southern Gothic's country folk, the flat landscapes, the rustic tradition, etc. I really like how it turned out. Definitely one of my favorites.<br />
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That's it for 2013, now for 2012, though there isn't much.<br />
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In January I wrote the beginning of a piece of fiction with the working title "<a href="http://write-first.blogspot.com/2012/01/quickie.html">Post-Apocalypse With Aliens!</a>" at the end of that blog post. The action and character in that are actually pretty decent, I think, but the rest of the story pretty much fizzled out, I just didn't have any more to add to it, at that point. I may come back to it at some point.<br />
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I finished <a href="http://write-first.blogspot.com/2012/04/long-nap.html">The Long Nap</a> and put it up on my blog in April. Be wary though, it is definitely a short story and not flash fiction. It might be longer than you expect. I think it also needs a quick editing run through or two, but overall I really like how the story came out. I still have plans for the hard-boiled elementary school kid solving his fellow classmates small-time cases and it's still a setting I love. Who doesn't love the idea of noir in an elementary school? Of a kid detective leaning back in his chair with a toothpick in his mouth and a can of soda on his desk? Oh shit, a missing pokemon card? Who else is going to track that down? I love it.<br />
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I did some tiny twitter short fiction and put up a collection <a href="http://write-first.blogspot.com/2012/05/tales-from-twitter-and-other-things.html">here</a>. Some are pretty good or maybe pretty okay. I would like to get back into writing tiny short stories, it's a pretty great mental exercise.<br />
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I wrote <a href="http://write-first.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-crane.html">The Crane</a> because I couldn't get it out of my head as I kept seeing the literal Crane machine outside nearly every day. It's not a great story, feels forced and full of fluff. It doesn't feel necessary, I guess.<br />
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I put up <a href="http://write-first.blogspot.com/2012/10/spaghetti-and-champagne.html">Spahgetti and Champagne</a>, a short I'd actually written in my creative fiction writing class back in school. It's a simple little story, sort of plain and maybe dull. I kind of like it, though, for some reason. The end, the dinner with the imaginary woman I find interesting.<br />
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In October, I wrote a Halloween tale called <a href="http://write-first.blogspot.com/2012/10/a-halloween-tale.html">Unliving</a>. A depressing zombie tale that is short, sweet and ultimately demoralizing. I like it. Not one of my favorites but pretty good, I think.<br />
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There we have it! That's it! Quite a few gems, I found, going back. Lovecraftian Southern Gothic, It Walked Inside the Spaceship, The Garden, super, Bad Cop and Griefstruck God are my favorites and are enjoyable stories.<br />
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That is also the end of my first blog post of 2015! As I promised, one post a week and at least one flash fiction a month. Look for more to come.<br />
<br />Benjamin Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00133891617360207316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1976617750201493253.post-81837267086502043222014-12-30T10:25:00.000-05:002014-12-30T10:25:11.505-05:00The Precipice of 2015<span id="docs-internal-guid-49a8398a-9bc7-f671-cfce-6af7a4b94dcb"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2015 is going to be a year of big changes for me. Big changes in little steps. Steps I’ve begun taking to make myself a better writer and a better person. </span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I took a month off of drinking and it did me some good. More on that in an upcoming post.</span></span><div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-49a8398a-9bc8-7ca5-ca83-09449ecaef82"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I set up an account at Habitrpg.com, a little motivating system that gives me tiny nudges to get shit done sooner rather than later while also providing a handy daily to-do list. It gives you a little character and when you check things off your to-do lists, you gain gold and experience, which you can then use to make your character(who is basically a tiny 8-bit rpg guy) look cool. It probably sounds silly but providing a daily task/to-do list as well as a little goofy character you can improve is actually pretty motivating, at least for myself. Look for more information about it and how it's going in an upcoming blogpost.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m setting a year-long writing goal to keep me going day after day, week after week, month after month and set up a spreadsheet to keep track of my word count. I Need to make it a daily habit, do it do it do it. Every day. Start small so I can keep it going. I’m going to wake up at 5 am on the weekdays to give myself that extra time to write. Nanowrimo is great but one month isn't enough if writing is something I want to take seriously. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I started many of these things in the month of December to get used to them but the plan is to fully implement them with the new year. I’m feeling very excited about it. Time management is an incredible skill that I am not very good at, but I think I’m getting better. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-49a8398a-9bcc-044a-5951-50994c9050c4" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What can you expect from me in 2015? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Weekly blog posts</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Flash fiction at least once/month</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Updates on current projects</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Bad advice about life? and writing</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-A serious push into publishing</span></div>
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Benjamin Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00133891617360207316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1976617750201493253.post-2260067645018372562014-12-14T21:02:00.000-05:002014-12-14T21:02:30.652-05:00NO MORE HIATUS<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nanowrimo is over and I feel refreshed. I didn’t win but as the great Chuck Wendig</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> <a href="http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2014/12/01/nanowrimo-doesnt-matter/">said</a>, winning and losing doesn’t matter after Nanowrimo ends. What matters is that you wrote something. It might not be a finished something, it might be a shit-something but you have it. I have 35,000 words that I didn’t before, on a project that I’d sort of written before but remade. It’s not finished, though. I need to finish it. </span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-19aa5e90-4bac-159b-0ed5-c862a4ea300c" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I debated on whether to actually write this blog post, or whether to continue blogging at all. The question is whether, overall, blogging increases my writing or decreases my writing. The problem is it does both. It forces me to write more content, but takes up time I could spend writing fiction. I decided blogging is better than not blogging. I wrote more in August than I have this past month, and I was blogging then. I think it’s time to get back into it. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Take a note, though. Don’t expect a regular schedule of blog posts until after the new year. I have big plans for the new year. </span></div>
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<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve noticed I need to make some changes in my life. Actually, I noticed this towards the beginning of November, but being in the midst of novel writing and such, did not write a blog post about it until now. I need to make time in my life to write more. I need to generate better habits, of writing, exercising and generally making better decisions. I need to learn moderation. How does one do these things? Are we not a creation of nature and nurture? Slowly. Ever so slowly, one small step at a time. I believe we can choose to become better versions of ourselves, in fact, we make or don’t make this choice all the time. When you choose to yell at a friend instead of listening to them, when you choose to let a stranger pull out into the street in front of you, just to be nice. Every time we make these decisions, we are being better or worse versions of ourselves...if that makes any sense. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you want to change, you have to be motivated. You need motivators, reasons to change. That can be other people, that can be your own decisions, but you need reasons to change.It could be an epiphany you have after an experience but simply thinking “I need to change” probably isn’t going to be enough. Why do you need to change? What about your life will this change affect for the better? Who in your life will this change affect for the better? How are you going to deal with old habits and old urges? These are questions you have to consider if you really want to change. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When we don’t have rewards for things we do, it is difficult to do them. When we don’t have people relying on us to do things, we have difficulty doing them. Sometimes we need others to keep us responsible. The more motivators you have for doing a specific thing, the more likely you will do it. Think of a deadline, that’s a pretty powerful motivator. The thing is, it’s hard to self-impose deadlines because we know that we can always give in, we can always put off. We are very good at giving ourselves an extension. So, you might make a deadline to finish a story by the weekend but who is going to call you out if you don’t do it? Who is going to stop you from saying, “well, maybe just another couple of days” or “I’ll finish it next week for sure!” I do this often. I self-identify, fairly accurately I’d say, as a procrastinator. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Procrastinating is bad. It’s a bad habit. Putting off the hard work is almost always a bad decision. A month or so ago, I procrastinated in driving our car the day before vacation, because I wanted to play some silly video games. Unfortunately, it had a battery issue and because I had procrastinated, I needed to get it to the dealer’s in a half hour or so, so they could fix it that day. Because we were going to use the car for a vacation trip the next day, this was a problem and could have made things very difficult. Thankfully, I got lucky and a mechanics a block down jumped the car for five bucks and I managed to get it to the dealer in time. Things worked out but I still think about it, how my procrastination very nearly led to difficulties and how easy it would’ve been if I’d done it first thing. After that, I feel it’s a very good skill to get your shit done first, then enjoy time off. Don’t put shit off just because you have time, because you don’t know what’s going to happen and you might not have as much time as you thought. Shit happens. Plan for it. Procrastination, unfortunately, is a tough habit to break. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have noticed one thing, though. If I write out a to-do list and I get it done first thing on a Saturday, I feel fantastic the rest of the day. I feel like I </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">succeeded</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, like I accomplished something. It’s a great feeling. Much better than the feelings I get when I push off stuff to another day and feel like I wasted a bunch of free time goofing off. I’m not saying goofing off is bad! It’s not! But it feels so much better when you don’t have things hanging over your head. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Speaking of changes, I recently stopped drinking alcohol for a month. It cleared my head a little, and I think it’s good practice to take a break from vices every once in awhile. Realize you can live without it, you can have fun without it, and it sort of loses its power over you. I think a more in-depth blog on the month will come in the near future. I’m very glad I did it. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m trying to become more productive and less of a procrastinator. I’m using tools like to-do lists such as Wunderlist and productivity apps like Habitrpg which gives you little silly rewards for completing daily tasks to start and continue good habits. I’m dipping into it this December, but plan to really delve into production in the new year. I’m talking blog posts weekly, fiction writing daily, and generally getting shit done. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In closing, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do Shit First, Ask Questions Later.</span>Benjamin Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00133891617360207316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1976617750201493253.post-54957484456124686962014-09-20T19:15:00.000-04:002014-09-20T19:29:56.016-04:00HiatusI'm going to be on hiatus for a couple weeks. I apologize for the lack of posts. I will be attempting to finish Scrap in a week or two, and will throw it up whenever it's ready. I also plan on doing a quick edit of it once it's finished and putting out a more finished story. Thanks for reading.Benjamin Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00133891617360207316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1976617750201493253.post-7251606261755314642014-09-07T18:16:00.000-04:002014-09-07T18:16:38.911-04:00Thoughts and ReschedulingI stuck with the three posts per week schedule for the month of August and it went well. I was able to post on schedule for the most part. Even so, it's plain to see I will not be able to continue this amount of content. First of all, it detracts from me writing anything else, which is a problem. I have also begun classes in graduate school which will take more and more of my time as the semester goes on. Work has also begun so I'm back at the k-8 school, helping teach those darn kids.<br />
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Three posts a week just isn't feasible. I'm going to try for two posts a week, one in the first half, sun-wed, one in the second half, wed-sat. I'm giving a range of days because I will honestly be scrounging for blog-writing time whenever I can get it. That's just the way it is. The plan will be one post on writing, one post of fiction. I know I need to finish Scrap, I also need to get back to my short story, and other ideas that keep jumping up on me.<br />
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That's what's been happening. Thanks for listening and dealing with the irregularity recently.Benjamin Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00133891617360207316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1976617750201493253.post-65898483241847892272014-09-02T07:59:00.000-04:002014-09-02T07:59:03.481-04:00Real LifeYou can only do so much. You can plan and strategize and monopolize the free time you get. You can grab bits and chunks of writing time here and there in spare spontaneous moments. You can establish a daily writing habit and continue it for days, weeks, months, years. You can write hundreds of blog posts ahead of time and schedule them to go up at the right time.<br />
<br />
And still, real life will get in the way. You will fall behind. It happens. Shit happens. You have to deal with it. If real life rears its big ugly head, thats okay. Let it. Do what you have to do, try to forget the nagging sensation of 'Oh I need to be writing' and try to enjoy the bumps and situations real life throws your way.<br />
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I don't mean it as something bad will happen, though it will. Bad things do happen, but that's not always what will get in the way of writing. Just as often, it will be good things, going on vacation, spending time with friends or loved ones, etc. As said before, have fun while it lasts, then, as soon as you can, get back on your horse and write like hell.<br />
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If it is Something Bad, then you need to deal with it, writing can take a backseat. Do what you need to in your real life before you delve into your imaginary one.<br />
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Basically, I'm writing this post as a poor excuse for not getting in my monday blog post on time. Real life got in the way, in a good way. Sometimes it's best to just let it. Get back in the saddle when you can.Benjamin Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00133891617360207316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1976617750201493253.post-40626257502640828762014-08-28T04:00:00.000-04:002014-08-28T04:00:01.649-04:00Scrap (p.4)(Part 1 is <a href="http://write-first.blogspot.com/2014/08/scrap-p-1.html">here</a>)<br />
<br />
A girl rushed into Sallie's, her eyes wide. She went behind the bar and whispered into Sallie's ear.<br />
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Sallie glanced at Johnny, nodding her head. After the girl was done, Sallie whispered something in her ear and put something in her hand. Sallie walked over to Johnny's stool.<br />
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Johnny's stomach dropped. Maybe he didn't have until morning.<br />
<br />
"Seems Hal's not waiting until morning," Sallie said. She rummaged under the bar and started pulling out guns.<br />
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"Wait, Sallie, listen," Johnny said. "Just let me out the back and tell him I'm gone. I don't want to bring this trouble down on you and yours."<br />
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"This trouble was coming sooner or later. Hal don't want anything operating that ain't under his thumb." She looked at Johnny, her eyes keen. "But tell me, why's he want you so bad?"<br />
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Johnny hesitated, but Sallie was about to head off against the meanest most powerful man in the village, and it was his fault. He leaned in. "I found something in the Heap. Something big."<br />
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"How big?"<br />
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Johnny sighed. "It will change the world."<br />
<br />
Her eyes widened. She shook her head and jumped onto the bar, standing over everyone.<br />
<br />
The singer in the corner cut off her song.<br />
<br />
Everyone looked at Sallie.<br />
<br />
She stalked up and down her bar, resting her rifle on her shoulder like a soldier at ease. "There's going to be trouble here fast so I'd ask you all to head to the basement to wait this out. I apologize for the inconvenience. Girls, boys." She gestured to her workers to come to the bar.<br />
<br />
Johnny found the girl who'd brought the warning and sent her off with a message.<br />
<br />
Sallie let herself down off the bar. "What'd you tell her?"<br />
<br />
"To get out of here before the shooting starts. You got a gun for me, Sal? Mine's empty."<br />
<br />
She couldn't help smiling. "That girl took your bullets too, didn't she?" She handed over a heavy handgun. "Take care, she kicks."<br />
<br />
Most of Sallie's customers were making their way to the trapdoor underneath the stairs. One of Sal's boys held it open.<br />
<br />
Sallie addressed her workers. "Susie and Sharon, you get yourselves down in the basement too, I won't hear nothing else." The two youngest-looking girls left, the others looked determined. "Now, boys and girls I call you but you are men and women, able to do what you want. If you'll stay and protect this place, I'll appreciate it but I won't force you. The basement door is open if you want to take it."<br />
<br />
Not one of her workers moved. They looked determined.<br />
<br />
Sallie looked pleased. She started handing a variety of firearms out, rifles, shotguns and handguns. She sent her boys to keep watch in every direction.<br />
<br />
The few customers who remained made their way to the bar, having talked with eachother and looking like they decided something.<br />
<br />
"Sallie," one said, a grizzled man with a lengthy black beard. "You've been here long since I showed up, only real place of civilization left in this barbarian's wasteland of a planet and damnit, you better be here long after I'm gone. This place is neutral, always has been and if someone's messing with that, I want to help, we all do." The men and women with him nodded their heads in agreement. They looked withered and aged, but also rock hard. The village didn't have room for anyone soft.<br />
<br />
Sallie nodded. "I appreciate it much, Gril, but you all know you will be going against Hal on this. I won't begrudge anyone stepping back and heading down to the basement."<br />
<br />
Gril shrugged, glancing at the others. "We already figured as much."<br />
<br />
Sallie handed out the last few weapons she had and spare ammo clips to go with them.<br />
<br />
Johnny shook his head, lost in thought. He'd spent most of his life in the village, it's parts and people familiar, reassuring, the status quo never really changing. It'd been a safe place, for the most part, for a family to raise children, for a farmer to bring their crops, and most importantly for Johnny to scavenge in the Heap and bring back old-tech to sell off.<br />
<br />
No more.<br />
<br />
He swore, checking the clip in the gun before shoving it back in with a snap. "I didn't want this, any of this," he muttered.<br />
<br />
"Hey," Sallie said, smacking him up side the head. "Get the hell over your self."<br />
<br />
"Sallie," one of her boys said from the front.<br />
<br />
A gunshot resounded and one of the front windows shattered.<br />
<br />
Everyone ducked and clutched their weapons with white knuckles, waiting.<br />
<br />
No more gunfire.<br />
<br />
Sallie left her men watching the back and sides. The rest of them made their way to the front, taking positions by the many windows.<br />
<br />
Ten men stood out front, each carrying a machine gun. One man stood out, pudgy and with a scar across his face. He was Theodore, Hal's second.<br />
<br />
Johnny took a slow breath. If Ted was here, Hal wasn't playing around. <br />
<br />
"Sal," one of her men hissed from the back. He held up five fingers and pointed outside.<br />
<br />
Sal sent Johnny, Gril and another one of her patrons who'd stuck around to the back.<br />
<br />
Johnny crouched by the bouncer, a broad-shouldered man with a shotgun.<br />
<br />
"They're hiding but just wait and watch."<br />
<br />
Johnny did so, making sure to keep out of clear view.<br />
<br />
Men poked their head from behind two buildings. Another peeked from the roof of a third. Two more could be seen between gaps in a pile of wooden crates off to the side. They each were armed and seemed to be waiting for something.<br />
<br />
"Sallie!" Theodore cried out. "We don't want trouble."<br />
<br />
"Sure looks like you do," Sallie shouted back.<br />
<br />
"We just want Johnny, that's all. Let him go and we'll leave in peace."<br />
<br />
"What do you want him for?"<br />
<br />
"Trespassing and theft on Hal's land, the Scrapheap. He's broken the law and he needs to pay."<br />
<br />
"Ain't the law Sheriff's business?"<br />
<br />
Theodore shrugged. "Seeing how Hal was the one offended against and the Sheriff is a two-bit coward, Hal's the one who will see to the issue."<br />
<br />
"The Heap ain't Hal's to own. Never was and never will be."<br />
<br />
"Now see, he would disagree with you."<br />
<br />
"Seeing how he's breaking the laws of this here neutral ground, I don't much care what he thinks."<br />
<br />
Theodore laughed. "We all knew this place was only neutral ground long as Hal let it be. C'mon now, Sal, you don't want to do thi-"<br />
<br />
She leaned out of the window and fired.<br />
<br />
Theodore took the round in the shoulder, spinning around and hitting the dirt.<br />
<br />
The world filled with gunfire.<br />
<br />
The men at the back made their appearance, whipping their guns up and peppering the back with bullets.<br />
<br />
Windows shattered. Tables and chairs were hit, sending woodchips flying into the air. The bottles behind the bar broke and crashed to the floor.<br />
<br />
Johnny peeked out when he could, found the closest man, creeping up the side of a house. Johnny held the gun with both hands and fired. The kick took him by surprise, making him step back.<br />
<br />
The man bounced off the wall and hit the ground.<br />
<br />
Johnny threw himself back from the window as gunfire followed him. He found Gril dead and the other patron dying from multiple gunshots.<br />
<br />
The man didn't last long.<br />
<br />
Sal's man raised up and fired, scattershot catching the man above and sending him tumbling from the roof.<br />
<br />
Johnny glanced at the front.<br />
<br />
One of Sal's men lay on his back, his hands to his gut as another of Sal's customers put pressure on the wound. Sal herself looked calm and collected, her mouth a thin line of concentration as she moved from window to window, shooting here and there.<br />
<br />
Johnny moved to another window, a surprisingly intact one and smashed it with the butt of his handgun. He waited a moment, then looked out. He fired a couple times at the crates but missed.<br />
<br />
The men behind the crates dashed out of sight beyond a house.<br />
<br />
Johnny thought of the people living in that home, in all the homes around them, in the whole village itself, exposed to an avalanche of violence and death. He cursed Hal for this, he cursed the Sheriff for not being able to protect them as he promised to do. He cursed the world that reduced them to this. He leaned out the window, spotted another of Hal's men clambering over a nearby roof, and fired.<br />
<br />
The round took the man's leg off. His scream cut off as he hit the dirt.<br />
<br />
Johnny saw the window of a house break as a man's elbow went through it, followed by the barrel of a gun pointed in his direction. Johnny was slow to move and he knew it. A gunshot fired, impossible to catch amid the many others, but the man in the window stumbled back and fell.<br />
<br />
Johnny looked at Sal's man with a thankful grin but he had a curious expression on his face.<br />
<br />
"Who was that?" the man asked.<br />
<br />
Johnny glanced out the window and his jaw dropped.<br />
<br />
The woman with goggles and short hair stood just outside, reloading the handgun she'd taken from him, at a time that felt so long ago. "This sides clear," she said. "Get to the front, we don't have much time." She ran off around the corner of the building.<br />
<br />
Johnny didn't bother asking questions and headed for the front. He didn't bother thinking too hard about what just happened because it wouldn't matter anyway. It didn't make sense. Trying to understand would just make his head hurt more, and the gunfire hadn't done much to help with his headache in the first place.<br />
<br />
He found the battle dying down, Hal's men wounded or dead, Theodore having disappeared. He must have been wearing some fancy armor to survive Sal's shot. Sal's wounded man's eyes were closed and one of her women had taken a round in the throat, her eyes open and unblinking.<br />
<br />
Sal looked mean, blood on her face and hands, her eyes hard as diamonds. "Whose that woman?" she asked, gesturing outside. "She might have just saved our asses."<br />
<br />
Johnny watched as the woman with goggles walked around, finishing off the wounded, executioner-style. He sighed. "That would be the lady who robbed me."Benjamin Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00133891617360207316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1976617750201493253.post-10273962550126952352014-08-27T15:35:00.000-04:002014-08-27T15:35:57.575-04:00A Writing PlaceI recently created a "writing room" in my apartment. I set up a six-foot cheap foldable table and put a spare chair in the spare room that is mostly used for storage. It's not much, the walls bare, most of the space taken by beer-brewing equipment, cardboard boxes and christmas ornaments, but it's something. I've only used it a few times but it's useful. Having a space devoted to writing makes me write more. I think it's important for a writer to have a space devoted to writing. You have your job space, your sleeping space, your living space, dining, etc. You should have a space for writing if it's truly important to you.<br />
<br />
Now, this could be anything. It could be an office or study, or it could be simply sitting up in your bed with your laptop in your lap. It's simply a space where, for a time, all you do is write in that space. It could be at your dining table, in your living room with the television off. It could be outside under a tree at the park, or in a lovely cafe while sipping an iced latte. It could be multiple spaces. The point is, it's a place where you go to do one thing and one thing only for a certain amount of time. A place to focus on writing, troubles left behind, distractions gone.<br />
<br />
Having a specific place helps you write more. It will aid you in sustaining a good writing habit, especially if you get into a routine with it. Maybe an hour before work every day, you go into your writing space and write for an hour. It's just a place where you can go and get work done, leaving other things, ideas, distractions, problems, at the proverbial door. I like my little storage room because when I go in, with a fresh glass of water or coffee or beer(depending on the time of day...usually), I know what I'm getting into. I'm not going to waste time on games of tv. I'm going in there to write goddamnit.<br />
<br />
Roald Dahl had a tiny hut. Neil Gaiman has a freaking writing gazebo! What do you have? It could be anything.Benjamin Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00133891617360207316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1976617750201493253.post-54133012823132521382014-08-25T12:52:00.000-04:002014-08-25T12:52:23.749-04:00Plot ProblemsSometimes, you get bogged down in the plot of the story. You know the beginning, you know where you're going, but you don't quite know how to get there. You've got A and know C but B, the connection between the two, is a mystery.<br />
<br />
In my current story, I've got the initial scenes finished and I know what's going to happen when the detectives confront the suspect, the difficult part is getting the characters to that point. I have to trickle clues that make sense, establish realistic leads for the detectives to follow and get to where I need them to be. I think I've got it mostly figured out, for the moment, but these kind of plot problems can be tricky. They can halt you in your figurative steps, tank your word count and demolish your drive.<br />
<br />
So how do you deal with them? How do you write when you don't know how to get from A to C? How do you write something down you haven't even figured out yet? There's a few things that might work. It's helpful to think of these strategies as tools in your writer toolbox. One might work for one story and another might work for something else. Who knows? It's always better to have more tools than you need.<br />
<br />
Often, when this problem affects me, I do have a solution in mind, it's just a weak one, it's one that doesn't fit perfectly in the plot, doesn't quite work as well as I would like it to. If that's the case, if you do have some idea of how it works but you just don't like it....write it anyways! Write it down and move on. At least you have something, at least you are still putting words down on paper. You can always come back and fix it up, completely rewrite it if you want to. Getting past the problem, even with a weak solution, will move you forward, will get you towards the end. You know you will have to edit the story after the first draft anyways, it's fine to have a weak moment or two. You will probably have more than you know, anyways. That's what editing is for, I find it's much easier to punch up scenes after I've written the whole story and know where I'm headed. If you've got any idea, go for it, use it. It might work better than you think it will anyways.<br />
<br />
Another tool is to simply skip the problematic part. You know what's going to happen later so write it. At least you're getting words down, at least you're working on your project and getting shit done. You're going to have to write that later part anyways, aren't you? Get it done now! Come back to the problematic scene later, when you've had some time to think about it and after you've written what will come after it. Writing the scenes ahead of it may give you some insight into what the problem is and how to solve it. You might find clues in your future scenes that help you solve your problem or maybe just giving your brain time to mull the problem over will help you solve it.<br />
<br />
A third tool and one I wouldn't suggest using often, is taking a break. Take a break from writing for a day or two, if a problem is really working you over. I don't like to suggest this because starting and working on a habit of writing regularly is something you should always strive for. Habits take repetition and even just one day of not writing can set you back, can get you off track. But sometimes, you need a break. Your mind needs a break. Doing something completely different can jog your brain into solving problems. Letting your subconscious work can do wonders. There are times where you will wake up and have the answer just because your brain was working on it while you slept. <br />
<br />
That's it for today, and remember, WRITE FIRST AND ASK QUESTIONS LATER.<br />
<br />
Also, what do you do when you have 'plot problems'? Difficult situations that hinder your writing? Forge through or take a break and think? I'm interested to hear.Benjamin Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00133891617360207316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1976617750201493253.post-78458782931066731762014-08-23T09:10:00.000-04:002014-08-23T09:14:34.108-04:00Scrap (p.3)(Parts <a href="http://write-first.blogspot.com/2014/08/scrap-p-1.html">1</a> and <a href="http://write-first.blogspot.com/2014/08/scrap-pt-2.html">2</a>)<br />
<br />
Ten minutes later, Glen had rigged a set of speakers so the chip could speak and a microphone input so Johnny and Glen could talk back.<br />
<br />
Or something. Johnny didn't really get what was happening.<br />
<br />
"It's a data chip," Johnny said. "It's just information. How can it talk? Why does it want to talk? Why it does it want anything? How-"<br />
<br />
"Stop," Glen said. "You can ask her, now." He finished setting up the computer and stood back.<br />
<br />
Johnny looked at the computer. "Her?"<br />
<br />
"My name is Galant," a robotic voice crackled out of the speakers.<br />
<br />
Johnny nearly jumped out of his seat. He settled back down and looked at Glen.<br />
<br />
Glen took a seat slowly, just watching the computer and waiting.<br />
<br />
Johnny looked back. "What are you? How are you speaking? You're just a data chip."<br />
<br />
"I am a non-biological-sentient-being. Your kind first called us Artificial Intelligence. I can speak as you can speak, only I use speakers while you use various biological mechanics to utter sound. I am a mind without a body. Data Storage Unit 0113455432 currently contains the information that makes up my being. I set up an emergency program to transfer myself to it in case of system-wide failure."<br />
<br />
Glen poured himself another drink. He seemed in shock.<br />
<br />
Johnny leaned forward. He thought of all those ships in the Heap. "System-wide failure? You were part of the ship I found you in. What happened to it? There are hundreds of downed ships out there."<br />
<br />
There was a burst of static. "I have lost much in the transfer process, including some memory storage. I do not know what occurred to bring down Terra Former 02234, The Siren, or the other ships I traveled with."<br />
<br />
"The ship you were on," Johnny said. "What was it's purpose?"<br />
<br />
"The Siren was a class-4 ship, specifically created to carry and utilize a Terra Former machine on other worlds, to make them habitable for the human species."<br />
<br />
"Wait, what? Make other planets habitable? What did the Terra Former do?"<br />
<br />
"The Terra Former can affect a planet's surface, change it's climate and seed the land with organic life. It can, depending on the planet, convert a climate into a hospitable land for humans in months. It can create a utopia in a year."<br />
<br />
Johnny's hand found the bottle of liquor and he drank straight from it. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "What fuel do the old-tech ships need to run?"<br />
<br />
"The ships run on hydrofusion, the only fuel needed is H20, or water."<br />
<br />
Johnny grabbed the gun off the table and leveled it at Glen's head.<br />
<br />
Glen had his glass in hand, half-raised to his mouth. He froze. "What the hell, Johnny?"<br />
<br />
"How deep are you with Hal?"<br />
<br />
Glen carefully set his glass on the table. "I'm the only techie in town so you know he keeps a close eye on me. I give him what I have to, to keep him off my back, that's it."<br />
<br />
"You wouldn't tell him about this?" Johnny asked, looking into his friend's eyes over the barrel of the gun.<br />
<br />
"Of course not, Johnny," Glen said, throwing his hands on the table. "This is bigger than Hal or the Sheriff, or even our little-shit town. This is bigger than everything, do you understand? Someone with that could-"<br />
<br />
"Create a new world and control the entire thing? Yeah, I think I got the gist," Johnny said. He kept the gun on Glen and stood up. He took the chip out of the computer. He took a breath, then holstered the gun. "I need this more than you."<br />
<br />
There was a clatter outside, then footsteps.<br />
<br />
Johnny ran to the window, pulled the shade away and looked out. A boy sprinted down the street and out of sight. He'd been listening in.<br />
<br />
"Shit," Glen said.<br />
<br />
"One of Hal's boys," Johnny said, feeling something sinking in his gut. "He keeps 'em around the gates to follow people. I didn't see him before."<br />
<br />
Glen frowned and shook his head. "I'm not going to tell you what to do with that chip but..." Glen sighed. "You have the ability to change the world. People are going to want that."<br />
<br />
"I never wanted the ability to change the world, I just wanted a meal and a place to sleep," Johnny muttered, slipping the chip into his pocket. "And now Hal's going to know."<br />
<br />
"What are you going to do?"<br />
<br />
"Hide it."<br />
<br />
"Then what?"<br />
<br />
Johnny shrugged. "I'll play it by ear." He walked out of Glen's and the town felt different.<br />
<br />
The buildings looked more run-down. The dirty streets seemed filthier than ever. For the first time, he noticed nothing green grew anywhere in the town. The sky even had a brownish cast to it, as if dirt and dust were in the air itself.<br />
<br />
It could all be different, he thought. He imagined fields upon fields of crops, forests filled with trees, entire jungles of plant and animal life. He'd seen old-tech vid-clips of other planets, planets teeming with life. They had seemed...impossible to imagine. Now, he could see it here.<br />
<br />
It could happen.<br />
<br />
He heard the click of a gun and felt something hard press against the back of his head.<br />
<br />
Or maybe not.<br />
<br />
"Hello again," a feminine voice said behind him.<br />
<br />
His headache suddenly got worse.<br />
<br />
The woman from before.<br />
<br />
"Really? Robbing me twice in one day? Isn't that a little much?"<br />
<br />
"I just wanted to make sure you didn't come looking for a little revenge. The gate guards in this town are awfully easy to bribe." She took his gun.<br />
<br />
He closed his eyes and mentally swore at Ken and the new guy. "I wouldn't have come for revenge. I'm not that kind of guy."<br />
<br />
"Oh yeah? You would have just been fine with letting me have all your stuff?"<br />
<br />
"Well, I might have taken back my stuff, but I would have left it at that. Bygones are bygones. We do what we have to, I don't blame you."<br />
<br />
She came around in front of him, holding a gun in each hand. Her goggles were pushed up and he could see her blue eyes. She holstered her own gun, then unloaded the rounds from the other into her palm, which she pocketed. She gave him back the empty gun. She still had his bag over her shoulder. "Nothing personal," she said and walked away.<br />
<br />
He watched her leave and swore under his breath, jamming the empty gun back into his holster. He headed the other way, hoping to never see her again. The sun dipped towards the horizon as evening came on.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
In Sallie's, business began to pick up as night came on. Farmers and Hal's gun-thugs alike came to Sallie's for a bite to eat and a few drinks. The biggest building in the town, it held tables for hundreds and a long bar against the wall. Sallie's gals walked around delivering food and drinks while Sallie's boys, four big brutes leaned against the wall and made sure there wasn't any trouble.<br />
<br />
There usually wasn't any, surprisingly. Both the Sheriff and Hal considered the place neutral. It was basically holy ground, Johnny thought, walking in and smiling. The place felt like home. At the corner tables, men were throwing dice or playing cards. On a stage in the opposite corner, a young lass sang a song about romance that a few listened to. At other tables were men and women, drinking and eating their fill.<br />
<br />
Sallie herself was behind the bar, pouring ales and mixing liquors together to make drinks, chatting away with customers at the bar. She had a buzzcut and black tattoos across her face. She was lean and mean, her body taut with muscle and she'd been known to throw out rude customers without the help of her 'boys'.<br />
<br />
Johnny walked up to the bar and sat at an empty stool.<br />
<br />
She came up to him, shaking a cocktail in her hands. "Johnny," she said. "Ain't seen you around in a few days. How's the Heap treatin' ya?"<br />
<br />
Johnny shook his head. "Not so great, Sallie. Think I could get the regular on credit?"<br />
<br />
Sallie stopped shaking and poured the drink into a glass with ice. She gave him a look. "I don't give credit and people don't keep tabs here, Johnny, you know that." She went down the bar to give the glass to a customer, who dropped a couple chits on the bar, which Sallie took. She came back to Johnny. "You got nothing, really? What the hell happened?"<br />
<br />
Johnny looked down. "I got robbed by a woman today. Twice."<br />
<br />
Sallie burst out laughing. "Twice by the same woman in the same day?"<br />
<br />
Johnny nodded. "Try not to laugh too much," he muttered.<br />
<br />
"Alright, alright," Sallie said. She poured a beer and slid it in front of him. "Meal from the kitchen will be out in a minute. You get one just because I feel bad for you." She reached underneath the bar and pulled a room key. She put it in front of him. "One night. And you owe me." She looked into his eyes, a dark glint in them. "You. Owe. Me." She turned, smile leaping onto her face as she walked down the bar to serve another customer.<br />
<br />
Johnny licked his lips and took a long swig of beer. He needed it.<br />
<br />
They came for him halfway through his meal. It was the usual, a bowl of stew with a few ragged vegetables in it.<br />
<br />
Johnny had hoped he'd be finished before they showed up but thugs always had the worst timing.<br />
<br />
Two men showed up and each placed a hand on Johnny's shoulder. "C'mon Johnny," the one to the left said. "The big boss wants to see ya."<br />
<br />
"I'm eating," Johnny said.<br />
<br />
"Not anymore." The thug to the left said and pushed the bowl away.<br />
<br />
Sallie made her way over, pretending to clean a glass with a white rag.<br />
<br />
Johnny shrugged. "Gentlemen, I'm fairly sure you don't want to be starting trouble in here."<br />
<br />
"You're right, which is why we're leaving." The two grabbed his arms.<br />
<br />
Johnny clamped his legs around his stool and gripped the bar with both hands. "I don't think so."<br />
<br />
"Excuse me," Sallie said, leaning over the bar. "Are you hassling one of my customers?"<br />
<br />
The two thugs let up an inch. "Nah, Sallie, we're just going to have a chat with Johnny here outside."<br />
<br />
"Looks like Johnny doesn't want to have a chat," Sallie said.<br />
<br />
"Sure he does. It's in his best interests," the thug growled.<br />
<br />
"Let him go. You know that shit doesn't fly here," Sallie said.<br />
<br />
"Look, Sallie, this is important. More than you know."<br />
<br />
Sallie slammed her fist into her bar with a thud. Everyone in the bar had stopped talking and started watching the confrontation.<br />
<br />
"What I know is you two have come into my bar and tried to rough up one of my customers." She gave a nod.<br />
<br />
Two of her 'boys' grabbed the thugs from behind.<br />
<br />
"You don't want to do this, Sallie," the speaking thug said. "You'll be starting something big."<br />
<br />
"Tell Hal to keep his business outta my business," Sallie said.<br />
<br />
Her boys shoved the thugs out into the street.<br />
<br />
She pushed the bowl back over.<br />
<br />
"Thanks," Johnny said, adjusting his tussled clothes.<br />
<br />
"Didn't do it for you," Sallie said. "Tomorrow morning, you leave here, you're on your own." She walked away.<br />
<br />
Johnny finished his soup and drank the last dregs of his beer.<br />
<br />
He had until morning, at least.<br />
<br />
An hour later, Hal's men opened fire on Sallie's place.Benjamin Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00133891617360207316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1976617750201493253.post-18013349004732364362014-08-20T07:52:00.000-04:002014-08-20T07:52:30.119-04:00Get Out<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-118d-Aqk6Y4/U_SJZbZdaVI/AAAAAAAAFMU/SDcWJ9wd1g0/s1600/0820140552b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> <img border="0" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-118d-Aqk6Y4/U_SJZbZdaVI/AAAAAAAAFMU/SDcWJ9wd1g0/s640/0820140552b.jpg" /> </a> </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Taking a break from my regularly scheduled Wednesday Writing post to show you a picture I took from Cadillac Mountain in Bar Harbor, Maine. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Sometimes, you just have to get out and do something. </div>
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Get out of wherever you are, for a weekend, a day, an hour. </div>
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Experience something. </div>
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Do something. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Take a break from your regularly scheduled life. </div>
Benjamin Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00133891617360207316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1976617750201493253.post-14992833882089450522014-08-17T22:05:00.000-04:002014-08-18T20:42:31.539-04:00Distractions and Hindrances(Last week I talked about <a href="http://write-first.blogspot.com/2014/08/falling-into-hole.html">falling into a hole</a> of <a href="http://write-first.blogspot.com/2014/08/research.html">research.</a> This week is about the drags you might struggle with while working on a project, meanwhile new stories in your mind try to get you off-track)<br />
<br />
Distractions are constant in a writer's life. It's difficult to get beyond real life and enter the imaginary one in your head sometimes. I've found myself being pulled in various directions by various projects. I've been keeping up on my blogging, but it's making me lag behind in writing on my actual story, not to mention a piece of flash fiction I started on Friday, inspired by my brother's writing he sent me, has grown into something larger than just a short one-off. I'm enjoying it but it's just another thing taking me away from the story I was previously working on.<br />
<br />
Finishing things can be incredibly hard. Newer ideas are more exciting and enticing. You don't have to fiddle with characters or figure out how the plot is going to go from A-Z, or struggle with making your writing halfway decent. Old projects get stagnant, fast. Something slows the process down or hinders you and the new idea beckons, with it's lack of problems.<br />
<br />
In my current story, I have the first long scene mostly finished, a fairly simple one in which two detectives go through a crime scene investigation, find a few clues, figure out a few things and leave. I thought it would be simple but was far from that. I realized, though I had watched numerous 'crime shows', I had no idea how an actual crime scene investigation would go. I didn't mind if it was a little off but if it was so much so that the reader wouldn't engage with the story, what was the point? So I struggled and am still struggling with maintaining realism, while also wanting to get on to other bits of the story, the real meat and potatoes of the thing. I've also been waffling on a specific supporting character, trying to make them strong, independent, three-dimensional. Bits and pieces of the scene I've already written are rewriting themselves in my head, trying to make everything fit better which stalls me on continuing it and makes new ideas look more interesting.<br />
<br />
The problems can make your story seem boring or stupid. Maybe you realize you need to cut out a whole part and wonder 'what's the point'? Why try to continue with this obviously hopeless piece of writing when you can just start anew, fresh, on something awesome? Because, of course, the grass is always greener, the new story will lose its luster as well, and then you're in the same boat you were in before, until all around you are leaky boats you never finished working on and you sink to the bottom of the ocean and I'm not really sure where I went with that metaphor but it works.<br />
<br />
But you just have to get down to the gritty nitty. What a strange phrase, by the way. What the hell does that mean, really? Anyways, you have to get down and do it. Write. Which is what I need to do. So I'm going to. No more talking about writing, or writing about writing, or listening to other people talk about writing, or watching people write....Just writing. Period. Start writing before the distractions take hold, before the problems build up, before the hindrances trip you up, before your new ideas tantalize you with their new-ness.<br />
<br />
And guess what? I spent time doing that. I spent time cutting away the crap that needed cutting away, rewriting the bits that needed rewriting, and it felt great. Just keep writing.<br />
<br />
<br />Benjamin Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00133891617360207316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1976617750201493253.post-32730580592056540842014-08-17T14:20:00.001-04:002014-08-23T09:16:45.503-04:00Scrap (pt. 2)(First part <a href="http://write-first.blogspot.com/2014/08/scrap-p-1.html">here</a>.)<br />
<br />
<br />
Johnny flicked the flashlight back on and set it behind a bank of electronics. He had one chance. He used the faint illumination to circle away from the light into a dark corner. He heard footsteps just outside the bridge, near the hatch.<br />
<br />
It was close. "Hey, show yourself!" A male voice called out from the hallway. It was a man and he must have seen the light.<br />
<br />
Johnny creeped along the wall toward the open door, from where the voice had come from. His head thudded with pain and sweat dripped down his forehead as he moved closer and closer. He saw movement, a blur.<br />
<br />
The unknown man took a few steps onto the bridge. He stood feet away from Johnny, facing the source of the light.<br />
<br />
Though the man stood close, Johnny couldn't make him out at all. Though the illumination from the flashlight was faint this far away, Johnny still should have been able to see a figure, a silhouette, something. All he'd seen was the blur of movement. Johnny waited, every muscle tensed. The man had living camo on, a piece of old-tech Johnny had only heard about. It was rumored one or two of Hal's men had it but nobody really believed them. Johnny realized that was why he had never caught a sight of the guy in front of him, only felt a presence, just on the edge of his vision.<br />
<br />
"Show yourself or you're going to regret it, asshole," the man called out again. "This is my home."<br />
<br />
Johnny saw the blurry movement as the man took a couple more steps.<br />
<br />
A warning shot rang out, loud. It ricocheted off the ceiling. The man must have had a big gun.<br />
<br />
"I'm not screwing around." The man approached the source of the light.<br />
<br />
Johnny took his chance and ducked into the hallway, running. He spotted the light from the hatch. Just a few more steps.<br />
<br />
"Stop!" The man behind shouted.<br />
<br />
Johnny jumped, catching the edge of the hatch. He pulled himself up.<br />
<br />
A burst of gunfire echoed in the hallway.<br />
<br />
Johnny scrambled out of the hatch and onto the hull. He didn't stop. He took a running jump onto the hull of another ship, then dropped down it's side, hit the ground and kept running. He crouched and crawled under the belly of another craft. He planted his back against a wall and waited. He tried to control his breathing and listen over the sound of his pounding headache and thudding heart. Outside of his own body, silence dominated the Heap.<br />
<br />
He felt the chip in his pocket and shook his head. The camo guy must have been living in the ship or maybe near it. Whatever it was, the guy obviously felt it was his territory.<br />
<br />
Johnny was fine with leaving it to him. He started the long way back to Terra.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
"You look like shit, Johnny. You been to the Heap again?" Ken, one of the gate guards, asked.<br />
<br />
Johnny shrugged. "You know as well as I do, Ken. Hal doesn't want anyone out there. It's dangerous, he says. He doesn't want anyone getting hurt."<br />
<br />
Ken chuckled at that. He pulled a crank that opened the metal gate with a screech. "Get anything good?"<br />
<br />
"A headache." Johnny walked in and glanced at the other gate guard, a young man wearing a weary look. "Whose the new guy?" Johnny asked, looking at Ken.<br />
<br />
Ken looked at the new guy. "This is Stan. Stan, meet Johnny."<br />
<br />
The two looked at each other for a moment. Stan had his hand on the butt of his pistol, holstered at his side.<br />
<br />
Johnny turned back to Ken. "So, you or the new guy reporting to Hal tonight?"<br />
<br />
Ken sighed, then nodded at Stan. "Him."<br />
<br />
Stan's gripped his gun but still kept it holstered. His eyes widened. "Shit, Ken, what the hell?"<br />
<br />
"Easy, easy," Johnny said. "Ken, we're friends right?"<br />
<br />
Ken frowned. "Yeah, Johnny, we're friends. Why?"<br />
<br />
"I got you that medic-tech that saved your son, didn't I? Didn't even charge you for it, if I remember right."<br />
<br />
"Of course, Johnny. I didn't forget that. How could I? What are you going on about?"<br />
<br />
"Just this," Johnny said. "I need a favor the new guy to neglect to mention to Hal that I came in."<br />
<br />
Ken took a step and put a hand on Stan's shoulder. "Ease up, rook. Johnny's a good guy." Ken looked at Johnny. "I'll make sure Stan doesn't say anything."<br />
<br />
"You could just have asked me, you know. Jesus, what's with the runaround?" Stan asked.<br />
<br />
Johnny shook his head. "I don't know you. I can't trust you. Even if I did know you, Hal's got half the village in his pocket, one way or another, including half the guys who say they're loyal to the Sheriff. But Ken here, Ken owes me. So I can trust him. For now."<br />
<br />
"Hal will find out soon enough anyhow, you know that," Ken said.<br />
<br />
Johnny shrugged.<br />
<br />
"Wheres your bag? Your gun?" Ken asked. "What the hell happened to you out there?"<br />
<br />
"A girl."<br />
<br />
Ken laughed out loud. "No shit."<br />
<br />
"It's true. You got a smoke?" Johnny took a cigarette and a match from Ken. He lit it and took a puff. "Say, a woman come through here earlier? Short hair and goggles?"<br />
<br />
Ken nodded, having a smoke of his own. "Yeah. She had a black bag too. Shit." Ken smirked. "She the one that got ya?"<br />
<br />
"You might say that."<br />
<br />
"Well, she's probably at Sallie's if you wanted to know."<br />
<br />
"Thanks," Johnny said. "Nice to meet you, new guy." He left the two at the gate. He tossed the cigarette as he walked into the center of town.<br />
<br />
The dirt streets were mostly clear, though the afternoon sun blazed in the sky. The farmers would be out tending their crops and the rest of the people disliked heading outside these days. Firefights had erupted more than once in the past week between the Sheriff and Hal's men.<br />
<br />
That tended to keep most folk inside.<br />
<br />
There were a few women and men in ragged clothing carried buckets of water from the well back to their homes, padding through dust. Homes in Terra were cozy things, a couple rooms at most with the basic necessities. A couple children played in a puddle of mud until their mother called them inside.<br />
<br />
Some men and women stalked the streets as opposed to walking along them. Their eyes were narrow and their faces grim, expecting trouble at any moment. It was easy to tell them apart. They carried big guns. You could tell the Sheriff's men by the badge on their coat. Hal's men simply looked mean. The two passed occasionally, sharing looks of hatred. A few glanced at Johnny with suspicion but he just kept walking. Though Johnny had a reputation for scavenging in the Heap, the village was large enough that most didn't know his name, only those he'd traded with and, unfortunately, the two men who controlled the village. Turns out they liked to be informed about those who scavenged old tech.<br />
<br />
Johnny saw the largest building in the village, a three story wooden shack that rivaled ten homes in size. Sallie's, the only inn, restaurant and bar in the village. It didn't have a sign but it didn't need to. Johnny left the main street. He had business to attend to.<br />
<br />
He found a home larger than most and banged on the front door. The front windows were covered with cloth. He banged again. "Glen, let me in."<br />
<br />
The door finally opened, revealing a large man in a animal hide glaring out. "I'm busy," Glen grunted and went to shut the door.<br />
<br />
Johnny stepped forward and put his arm against the door. "Wait. I got something worth interrupting you for."<br />
<br />
Glen shook his head. "You say the same thing every time." He turned around and left the door open.<br />
<br />
Johnny went in and closed the door. Light came from two lanterns hung from the ceiling, banishing all shadows. Wires and electronic hardware hung from nails in the wall. A workbench stood against one wall, a lantern directly over it, a tiny set of tools unrolled upon it. A small device lay open, it's mechanical innards revealed.<br />
<br />
There was a table in the center of the room, cluttered with random pieces of old tech and two chairs. Johnny noted a handgun on the table. "You working on that or you nervous about something?" Johnny asked, taking one of the chairs.<br />
<br />
Glen shrugged. "It's getting worse. You know how it is."<br />
<br />
"Remind me," Johnny said. "I've been out a couple days."<br />
<br />
"Well, the Sheriff and Hal ain't getting on better terms, that's for sure. Sheriff ain't got enough loyal men to rout the boss and Hal's got too much support from the townfolk anyhow."<br />
<br />
"Through fear," Johnny said.<br />
<br />
"Support is support." Glen took the other chair. It groaned beneath his weight as he leaned back. "Along with that is food is getting more and more scarce, crops ain't catching and the old-tech is failing, which is bad for the crops and fresh water as well. We live on a desert world, John. Ain't going to last forever."<br />
<br />
Johnny shook his head. "We humans been here for hundreds of years. We'll go on."<br />
<br />
"We've been scratching out a living using old tech to survive where survival ain't possible otherwise. Old tech can't last forever and we can't make new tech."<br />
<br />
"You been thinking about this alot, haven't you?"<br />
<br />
Glen nodded.<br />
<br />
"Got a drink?"<br />
<br />
Glen got up and reached into a cabinet underneath the work bench. He pulled out a bottle of amber liquid and a couple clay cups. He poured a healthy amount into each cup and slid one over.<br />
<br />
Johnny took it. They clinked cups and drank. "What about the Scrapheap? I tell you there's loads of tech still in there, waiting to be found."<br />
<br />
"Stuff that's been sitting around for centuries. Won't do much better than what we got now. Besides, Hal's taking everything he can from there and loaning it out until his clients owe him for life. And let's say you or another independent scav finds something out there. We scratch out another decade or so of life, what then? It's all just temporary." Glen took another drink. "This world ain't fit for life, ain't nothing going to change that."<br />
<br />
Johnny sipped at the brackish liquid. It burned like fire down your throat and tasted like ashes. It helped his headache though. "Sounds like you've given up."<br />
<br />
"If it's our time, it's our time. If not, it's not. I'm not going to be like those hopeless crazies, preaching that other humans are going to come save the day, their ships suddenly appearing in the atmosphere to bring us to a new planet. It's bullshit. Too easy. Life ain't easy." Glen finished his drink. "I just fix useless shit and make it work temporarily. Speaking of, let's get the hell down to business. What do you got?"<br />
<br />
Johnny pulled the data chip from his pocket and put it on the table. "Got that from a ship that looks awfully like the one in the center of town."<br />
<br />
Glen went to the work bench and grabbed a small computer pad that he flipped open, revealing a keyboard and screen. He brought it to the table and picked up the data chip.<br />
<br />
Johnny finished his drink and poured himself another. His headache was finally going away.<br />
<br />
Glen plugged the chip in. "Let's see what we got here." Though Glen was a big man with big hands, his fingers flew across the keyboard with the delicate finesse of a piano player. He eyes widened as green numbers scrolled rapidly across the screen.<br />
<br />
"What is it?" Johnny asked, peering over the big man's shoulder, unable to understand what the text on the screen meant.<br />
<br />
Glen got up and went to the cabinets under his workbench. His movements were frantic and he couldn't seem to catch a breath.<br />
<br />
"Glen, you alright? What are you looking for?"<br />
<br />
Glen turned to him and gulped. "I'm looking for speakers. I need to give it sound."<br />
<br />
"What? Why?"<br />
<br />
Glen turned back to the cabinets, searching in a frenzy, tossing things out of his way. "Because," he said.<br />
<br />
"It wants to talk to us."<br />
<br />
(pt. 3 <a href="http://write-first.blogspot.com/2014/08/scrap-p3.html">here</a>)<br />
<br />Benjamin Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00133891617360207316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1976617750201493253.post-79454116596129202492014-08-15T20:47:00.000-04:002014-08-23T09:18:01.561-04:00Scrap (p. 1)(This wasn't meant to be a series, it was meant to be a short flash piece, something quick and written off the cuff. It was inspired by a sci-fi story and start of a novel that my brother sent me. I don't know how many parts there will be but it will be continued and soon. )<br />
<br />
Johnny wasn't sure what he'd found in the Scrapheap but he had a feeling it was important. There was always things to find in the Scrapheap, a graveyard of ancient spaceships that had all crashed in the same area. Hundreds and hundreds of them across miles of rocky terrain. Nobody knew how to use them anymore, if any were even still capable of flight.<br />
<br />
You could find some good scrap in the Heap, if you scrounged long enough. Though it'd been picked over by scavengers and looters time and time again, Johnny usually managed to find an old trinket or two that'd get him room and board for a week at Sallie's.<br />
<br />
He knew the Heap well, a veritable jungle of steel machinery, filled with rusting hulks, extinct creations of man. There were labyrinthine passageways, mazes of metal to get lost in. Hills, valleys and mountains of shining glass and metal, all useless but for the treasures within. Johnny knew the hot spots that had been picked clean and the deeper zones that hadn't seen a human hand since the crash centuries ago. <br />
<br />
Nobody in the nearby village of Terra knew what had caused an entire armada of ships to fall in such a way centuries ago and many thought the place cursed because of it. Others claimed Terra's ancestors came from these very ships and considered the place holy.<br />
<br />
Well, Johnny had spent half his life there. He'd seen more skeletons and rotten corpses than he could count. Nothing seemed holy about it. As for curses, his livelihood came from scrounging the place. If there were spirits, they weren't so bad and he thanked them now and again, when he thought of it.<br />
<br />
There were dangers, that kept most folks away. Scavengers and looters could be cruel. Losing yourself or getting stuck in a ship, dying to dehydration. And there was something else. Something Johnny had felt more than seen. A presence that lurked near a particular ship, the same model of a ship that stood in the center of Terra. Johnny wanted to check it out but he'd always been cautious and the presence had kept him away. He wasn't sure what the thing could be, a man living out there? Some creature from the jungle come to investigate?<br />
<br />
On the day he changed the world, the presence was gone. He watched the ship for awhile, watching from the cockpit of another ship, using old-tech binoculars. Nothing moved for hours. It was gone, had to be. Maybe the creature had gone back to the jungle. Maybe the man had died. Regardless, he was going into that ship. He popped his binoculars into his pack and slipped it on his shoulder. He checked the handgun and flashlight at his side. The sun showed mid-morning as he slipped out.<br />
<br />
He had to scramble over a pair of behemoth-sized spacecraft, huge transports and slid down the side onto the roof of the vessel he wanted. It was smaller than the behemoths, though still large. The model in Terra could be seen from the flatlands miles around.<br />
<br />
There was a hatch on the roof with a datapad beside it. Johnny crouched down and set his bag down, pulling out a hand-sized keypad. It had a wire with an input on the end that slid right into the datapad on the ship. The keypad was the reason he fared well in the Scrapheap where as others did not. Getting into the spaceships wasn't as easy as just opening the door. It required a code or code-breaking software and not many had either. The only guy Johnny knew who could make anything like it was Glen, the techie in Terra and only Hal's men got them. Hal didn't want anyone else getting access to old-tech. Luckily, Glen was a friend of Johnny's.<br />
<br />
The keypad beeped and the hatch slid open, albeit with a rusty screech of metal.<br />
<br />
Johnny put his pad into his bag and put it over his shoulder. He held on to the edge of the hatch with his fingers and let himself down. There was another hatch but a simple lever within opened it. He dropped to the floor of the ship. He grabbed his flashlight and flicked it on, illuminating a hallway he was in. Though it was daylight outside, none of that reached the insides of the ship save for the open hatch. Johnny made his way toward the bridge. He found corpses in spacesuits, long since rotted away. The screens above the ship's controls were broken and black. He hit a few of the buttons just for fun, a tradition of sorts, that he had. Nothing happened of course. His hand passed across something sticking out and he gripped it, pulling out a datachip that had been sticking out of the command console. He whistled. Datachips were highly valuable. Ancient knowledge came at a premium price. He couldn't help feeling this was something big.<br />
<br />
A flashlight flashed at his back, splashing light around him.<br />
<br />
"Turn around slowly," a female voice called out. "I have a pistol aimed at your skull."<br />
<br />
Johnny palmed the chip up his sleeve as he turned around, hands up in plain sight. He held his flashlight pointing to the side and kept his other hand open. "I'm not looking for trouble," he said.<br />
<br />
"You shouldn't be looking around the Heap, then."<br />
<br />
"Can't help myself." He took a step toward her. "Curiosity, I suppose."<br />
<br />
"Don't move," she said.<br />
<br />
He couldn't see much beyond the bright orb of her flashlight. "Could you maybe point the flashlight out of my eyes, at least?"<br />
<br />
"No."<br />
<br />
He sighed. "Can't we settle this without harm? You don't want to kill me and I don't have anything worth killing for anyhow."<br />
<br />
"I'm just supposed to believe you and let you walk?" The light came closer as she walked toward him. "Scavengers are just robbers by a different name."<br />
<br />
He shook his head. "Not true, the thugs just give us true scavengers a bad name."<br />
<br />
She stopped, close and shined the light down at the ground, still aiming the pistol at him.<br />
<br />
He could see she had short hair and wore black goggles. He didn't see anything else because she hit him in the face with the butt of her gun. His head rocked back.<br />
<br />
She hit him in the stomach, hard.<br />
<br />
He bent over, gasping for air.<br />
<br />
She hit him in the head again, knocking him to the ground. "Nothing personal," she said. "Guess I'm a thug, not a true scav like you." She took his pistol and his bag. She even took the cigarettes and matches from his coat pockets.<br />
<br />
Johnny's head rang. He could smell and taste blood. By the time he could get up, she was gone. He felt across his scalp for a split but all he found was a very tender bump. He wiped blood from his nose before pinching it to stop the bleeding. "At least she left me my flashlight," he muttered. When he stood, something fell out of his sleeve and hit the floor. He reached down and grabbed the data chip.<br />
<br />
Something heavy hit the roof and walked across it.<br />
<br />
Johnny felt the hairs on the back of his head stand up. He heard something drop down the hatch. He slipped the chip into his pocket and flicked off his only weapon, the flashlight.<br />
<br />
The presence was back.<br />
<br />
(pt. 2 <a href="http://write-first.blogspot.com/2014/08/scrap-pt-2.html">here</a>)<br />
<br />Benjamin Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00133891617360207316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1976617750201493253.post-37622414095653343662014-08-13T08:54:00.003-04:002014-08-13T08:54:44.257-04:00ResearchResearch is a vital part of the writing process. It can add life to your story, strengthen details and fill in background. We, as authors, have the ability to write about anything but with that comes a certain responsibility to our readers. We have to present a believable world in which the story happens or the reader will lose interest. If they can't believe in the world because things just don't work right or sound right, they can't believe in the story and they can't enjoy it. When it comes to a story, we have to do our homework. A gun has to work like a gun, a car has to run like a car, a character's job needs to make sense, etc. Now, we can often gloss over certain things. The character can simply get in the car and drive off, but we can't do that with everything or the story will feel flimsy. When you can add specific details, just here or there, a bit of knowledge, can really get the reader interested. If I read a story, get enjoyment <i>and </i>learn something? That's awesome!<br />
<br />
There is such a thing as putting in too much detail. It's good for you as an author to know how things work in your story but you don't need to try to teach your reader every single fact involved in your story. If your story is about whaling, that doesn't mean you need to inform the reader on every aspect of whales, whaling, whaling ships, paintings of whales, etc. (I'm looking at you Moby Dick).<br />
<br />
So you don't need every detail of every system involved in your story but you do need to know the basics. If you don't understand how something works, it's likely that will come across in your story and the reader will be able to tell. Research adds depth and realism.<br />
<br />
Now, you might say "my story is set in a whole new world so I can make everything up HAHA I WIN I TRICKED YOU BOOYAH!" or "I'm writing sci-fi/fantasy so I don't need to do research". False. Wrong. Research can still strengthen your story. Knowing how medieval combat was actually carried out can really make your fantasy battles that much more believable. Knowing particular topics in science that relate to your sci-fi story can make it that much more interesting to the reader.<br />
<br />
There is another form of research you have to go through when you create your own world. What do I mean by that? Call it....Internal Research. You need to act like a researcher. You need to ask questions about this new world, the history, the politics, the systems in place, the people, etc. Though you are creating the answers, the questions still need to be addressed and 'research' still needs to be done.<br />
<br />
There can be such a thing as doing too much research. When you've got twelve tabs open in firefox, each filled with pages upon pages of text and you've been looking for hours, leaving your story stagnant and stuck, it's time to buckle down and just get to writing. Research is important but of course, writing is more important. You can always come back after learning new things and edit in what you've learned through research.<br />
<br />
Write first, <i>ask questions and research the answers to those questions</i>, later.Benjamin Adamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00133891617360207316noreply@blogger.com0