Struck Out

Well friends, it seems a third time has come in my experiment where I did not write during the day.  Alas, I think I'm done.  The deep drive to see if writing was something I could do has revealed an appreciation for conversational writing styles, but nothing in the way of ordered writing.  It is beyond me, but I will continue to exercise my wit and humor as best I can through pleasant monologue discourse (I think there is an oxymoron in there, but he's hiding).  

Day IX - Missed Again

Well friends I botched another day.  And this time I don't even have the excuse that I was too busy and not on my computer.  I was simply lazy and forgetful.  I think I've come to the conclusion that I won't be a writer.  It is just not my artistic method.  I'm a musician and therein has always lain my gift of expression.  Sure, I've written a few poems and started or participated in a short story fiasco once or twice, but I enjoy writing the most when I'm just being conversational.  Like right now.  Blogging seems to be such an easier format.  Not being constrained to any formal boundaries of what is and what isn't appropriate form to write in is freeing.  I can talk like I normally do but in words, projecting as best I can the thoughts running rampant in my head.  I will finish the experiment but after that I will return to a normal frequency of blogging.  Thanks for bearing with me in this test.

Day VIII - Blah

I picked a heck of a week to start trying to write.  There is nothing going on here.  I did start working on the story, but I feel weird writing it.  I think I'm trying to get too much back story while simultaneously trying to introduce characters as well.  Of course, a real short story will probably be several pages and it would be silly to post such a thing here in pieces.  I guess I'll keep putzin' away at it in a Word document.

Meanwhile.

Today in my longing for home I came down with an intense craving for relish and onion on top of a ballpark hotdog.  A baseball game along with it was also part of the craving.  So strange.  And that is the order of the craving.  First it was relish, then that made me think of onions with it on top of a dog.  Then of course baseball.  Rachel then mentioned a bagel dog, the cream cheese and grilled onion topped polish dog in a big warm bun.  You get those after the game at the stand on 1st Avenue.  Hoo doggie.  

It's my friend's birthday today.  He is the other person from the physics department at the UW who came with Rachel and I on this exchange program.  He's a lot like me when it comes to birthdays.  We don't really want a big hubbub.  We just want to bond with close friends doing something we all enjoy.  Since I moved to Seattle, my thing has been going out to a brewery with a small group and hanging out.  He's coming to my place now and we're going to have a beer.  Cheers!

Day VII - How to Start?

I'm finding it very difficult to get my thoughts in order for a short story.  Where do people come up with ideas?  Maybe I'm just having an off day, but I can't seem to get it together.  I've gone through half a dozen ways of getting to the end of my story and can't pick one that I like the most.  I've read hundreds of short stories in my life and now that I'm in Germany, away from all my books, I can't even look at them to get an idea for how they're laid out.  I'm not going to give up though.  Some piece of fiction will be written so help me.  I'm afraid this is all I have for today.  

On second thought, it's possible my lethargy, apathy or whatever else my block may be is derived from a feeling of homesickness.  The past couple days have been a little more difficult than normal.  Oh yes.  I am homesick every stinking day.  I'm excited to be abroad, yes, but am most definitely thinking of the Pacific Northwest all the time.  I guess we'll see what things are like tomorrow.

Day VI - Simple Things

It might be one of those days where I don't have much to say and must resort to simplicities.  I'm listening to the soundtrack from The Dark Knight.  I really enjoy how well Zimmer, the composer, not only manipulates his previous themes from Batman Begins into something new but also folds in music from the original movies.  I believe he did the same in the first but more subtly.  My favorite track from the album is "I'm not a hero."  It's long and contains many different motifs.  

It finally stopped snowing here.  It hasn't snowed in at least a day.  Yesterday it was primarily rain but we've had a lot of clear skies finally.  There were even several halos produced on the clouds.  They were so vibrant that the refracted light partially reformed into a second sun if you know what I mean.  It was quite bright.  

I think I've come up with a short story idea.  It's nothing to dramatic or over the top, just a simple story.  In fact, it's more like an excerpt if anything.  I just want to jump right in and get to my climax.  I'm going to use the last week of my 2 week experiment to write the story in parts.  If it doesn't take 7 parts, that's alright.  As a little teaser, my idea takes place on Mars, probably 200 years in the future, give or take.  I have to do a bit of research first to make sure I get a terraforming time frame right.  Or I may just screw it and say humanity created some new technology that allowed terraforming on a much quicker scale.  And like I said, nothing dramatic.  There are no bad guys.  If anything I suppose it's a moral story.  Hope it works.  Starting tomorrow!  

Cheers!

An Experiment

Recently, I read a post that dealt with being a prolific writer of short stories.  I have had an interest in short stories, largely sci-fi, for some time and have wondered it I may have the ability to put ideas to paper.  The post suggests that in order to prolific one should write a complete story every week.  I don't know if I would even be able to start there, but I do have an idea.  Since I already have a blog, I propose to practice writing here first.  Rachel pointed out that like most things in life, to get better at it one must practice.  I am going to try and write something here every day for 2 weeks.  Even if it is merely me describing the music I'm listening too and what is happening outside my window, I will write it down and work on writing.  This post I read also mentioned that most if not all of one's short stories may never be read.  That's fine by me.  So prepare yourselves.