The Scribbler

The big "But"

What keeps you from writing?

Let me put that another way…what do you do instead of writing?

I want to write every night. Hell, I INTEND to write every night. But, there is always the but. You know what I mean…”I meant to write tonight, but the game was on” (I am so good at that one) Or, “I meant to write tonight, but the wife wanted us to spend time together” (That one is genius, because we blame someone else for our own failure to carry out our intentions.

It all boils down to a bullshit excuse, no matter how we cut it. Looking at it from that view, then it really doesn’t matter what your excuse is, any excuse will do. Just pick one, use it, and never write your novel.

So, what do you do instead of writing? Send me a comment…let me know. We may compile one hell of a list and then we will exorcize our demons together!

Me…I

•     Play Xbox

•     Watch Football

•     Play computer games online till the wee hours

•     Rearrange my family room

•     Read books (nothing wrong with reading, but should it exclude everything else)

•     Drink heavily as pass out feeling sorry for myself

•     Download inappropriate internet content

•     Take a nap

•     Play with the kids (nothing wrong with this either, but we should keep our hobbies alive as well. Your sanity, and your kids, will appreciate it in the long term).

•     Doodle on a sketch pad

•     Plan other stories that I want to write (and then don’t write them)

Revenge of the Unknown Author

Wow,

What a position to be in. This story blows me away.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/books/04/05/books.starwars.ap/index.html

I would like to trade places with this cat! I just bought his book yesterday. I’ll post a review when I get through it. Right now, I am enthralled with the world of Brian Lumley http://www.brianlumley.com 

(a relatively new discovery for me)

Halfway there

Well, today has marked the mid-point of re-writing Return To Glory. For those who don’t know, Return To Glory is a novel due out in 2005, but the publisher, Mundania, had some suggestions to really strengthen the story. Unfortunately, the further we got into the corrections, the more re-writing had to be done. So, I am halfway finished now and can see the light at the end of the tunnel. As usual, life has interfered with writing far more than I would have desired, but c’est la vie.

The experience has caused me to delve into the world of busy writers who balance life and writing. There is a good link on the subject…

http://www.writing-world.com/basics/excuses.shtml

Just Plain Cool Site

So this blog is actually moving to a different url, but this link is still active. This is just a great example of blogging. It is funny and conversational and the story, while a bit odd at times, is just funny and odd enough to keep one reading on…and on and on (much to the chagrin of my erstwhile employer).

http://blubberybastard.tripod.com/blog/

Oh yeah! Check out some of the sketches on the site. They are really nice.

Inspiration

So, for the last week, I sank out of the ranks of the inspired and I couldn’t seem to make myself write a single thing. A good friend had a great suggestion. He reminded me of authors that we used to read that were always inspiring. David Gemmel, Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman, Ed Greenwood, Brian Lumley. He then went on to gently remind me that those authors had written books that I had not read. I picked up a few of those books, and I rented some good escapist movies (Aliens Vs. Predator and Dawn of the Dead) and rather than beating myself up for not writing, I reveled in my lack of productivity and inundated myself with media that I enjoy. The result? A wonderfully inspired Sunday in which I completed one chapter, started another and feel back on the motivation train again. Maybe being a lazy sloth is okay every now and again (of course cerveza always helps as well)

JG

Ode to the Western

Why would a self-described fantasy author write about westerns? I think fantasy novels and movies really resemble the almighty western (that and I watched a few westerns this weekend and was reminded of the similarities). Both usually have interesting ensemble casts. Both fantasy novels and westerns often involve “the quest” to get somewhere or get something. There is magic in both. Westerns can have Native American mysticism and ancient curses and things like that. Finally, both are pure escapism with some similarities to a historical period, but not so much similarity that we don’t feel immersed in a different world. Having said all of that, here is a list of what I think are the best westerns. Why not a list of fantasy movies? Maybe for another post…

1) Magnificent Seven (Any western list I make has this one at the top)

2) The Outlaw Josey Wales

3) The Professionals (I do think you would dig this one)

4) High Plains Drifter

5) Pale Rider

6) The Long Riders

7) The Last Hard Men

8) One-eyed jacks

9) The Wild Bunch

10) the Searchers

11) Hondo

12) Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid

Fanfilms

Just stumbled across the world of fanfilms! Cool site here. www.fanfilms.net.

Some of these are surprisingly good, like Batman:Dead End and the to GI Joe movies. It probably seems CRAZY to some to drop a load of cash and make a film that canot be sold due to copyright infringement, but to me it looks like a blast. There is one called Star Trek: Exeter where they have just created their own little Star Trek ship and crew. Most of these are viewable online. Talk about devotion to their art! Some of these had to cost a pretty penny and take tons of time. I'm impressed!

JG

Cool book/movie site

I try not to write a blog where I just point to other blogs, but I don't have much to talk about today. Still sick as hell, but I did wander across this blog by L.L. Soares. I'll admit that I had not heard of him, but I read through his thoughts on books, movies, writing and the horror genre in general. It's interesting stuff, especially for those of us who enjoy genres not considered "mainstream". (Ah, what's normal anyway).

http://llsoares.blogspot.com/

Speaking of "What's Normal", I watched "Trekkies" and "Trekkies2" over the weekend. I definitely saw myself in a few of those eccentric characters.

JG

Musing

Well, I've hit a sort of lull in my creativity. Whether that is due to a head cold I am suffering, or a sort of spring fever (it is beautiful outside today), I really can't say. I have been working on the editorial rewrite of (shameless plug) Return To Glory (Mundania Press, April/May 2005). It has been exciting as it renewed a story that I thought long gone, but the last couple of days have seen me flopped on the couch like a pile of rags (that eats popcorn). Maybe it is because football season is over. In any event, I have given myself permission to take a couple of days off writing RTG and to just journal some ideas I have kicked around for some time (still writing something. That's important, I think...write, write, write.)

JG

The last writing advice you'll ever need! (sort of)

  Well, here it is! The answer at last for those of us struggling to write the next fantasy novel! I have often said that fantasy writing was formulaic, and for the same reason westerns are...the formula works. For good description of all that's needed, check out this link!

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~imcfadyen/notthenet/fantasy.htm