Last week I realized the reason why I kept on losing my writing work. I’m a big fan of running libre software on my desktop. While I can’t do so comfortably at work, but at home I run Linux desktop exclusively. (Except to play the occasional Windows-only video game.) So I use OpenOffice for my word processing and hence writing. And I’m a big fan of using Open Document Formats. However working on ODTs (essentially ZIP archives with ODF XML files inside) from a USB flash drive is not the way to go. I guess the amount of saving and writing to disk, doesn’t help with prolonging the life of the flash memory. So I had to change my workflow to use Dropbox instead. I don’t want to wrangle with corrupt ODT files. To make a long story short, I had to do some lengthy rewrites which didn’t help with moving forward in my novel. However that has all been resolved, and I can say that I’m making good progress on the first chapter.
Category Archives: Writing
Of Journals and Juggling
I’ve found myself recently writing considerable amounts in my diary. I’ve had many a thought, that I felt compelled to write down. But such thoughts were fairly private in nature, so I will discuss or hint about them here. One of thought that I would like to share, is my temporary withdrawl from daily blogging. I’m trying to concentrate on writing my novel, A Collection of Shards. And I’m concentrating on reviving the comatose justCheckers project. Post daily updates to my blog just add more overhead to my day. And I’ve so precious little time and so many tasks to complete… So I’m going to take a break, and update this blog when I feel like it.
We Are Away
And so it begins. Yesterday I finished writing the notes for my novel, A Collection of Shards. I mapped out the basic plot, main characters and setting in those notes. I am impressed with how the idea for the novel is coming together. The novel will have a tight plot with lots of action. I plan on putting a lot of attention to details. The story will feel visceral at times, dreamy at others. I based my characters on real people, should they should feel alive. On top of that I plan on narrating the story in a weaving manner, to make it feel layered. And thanks to the real locations and technology, I can attempt to write a story based on an “altered reality”, similar to that of Strugatsky’s The Roadside Picnic.
With the novel already well planned, I’ve started writing the first chapter. I changed the beginning to a totally new scene that I’ve not worked with before. Still I’m excited about writing this novel. It make turn out as the next science fiction epic.
Morning Light
Golden rays of sunlight pour into the office. The yellowish light illuminates the grey, black and beige of the office in light patches. The rest of the office remains in the dark. Only the sound of the noisy ventilation system and the mechanical rebound of the laptop keys greet my ears. I sit and type. The morning already light up the parking and park outdoors. But like the few cars on the empty parking lot, my thoughts are few.
I sit and I type. I write down every fleeting idea on this digital tablet. I hope that some spark of an idea will form. I hope that I’ll wake up sometime. The fog in my mind refuses to clear. It dissipates slowly with every character and word that appears on the screen. An excruciating glacial process it remains. However I would not enjoy any other way of awaken, other than writing. Already I feel the mental machinery groaning and moaning. Each thought warms the tired mind. Each thought like a spark ignites the weary imagination.
A quick glance on my carefully scribbled todo lists bound by paperclip and unbound in breadth, reveals how much the day holds work for me. So as the morning light filters into the silent office building, I take up my craft, my burden and my joy.
Crazy Busy
I’m going to have to keep these next upcoming posts short. I am a bit overwhelmed at the moment, with the sheer amount of things going on at the same time. I still want to try to keep going forward on the projects already in progress. But I will not add anything new to my plate for the next few weeks. I’m seriously planning a trip to Europe this year. Planning this trip will take quite some effort. Still a short update is in order.
I got meet up my university friend Rob yesterday. Have not talked to him in ages. I did spend a long time with him. But it was great to talk to him again, and I needed someone in a similar position to my own to bounce ideas off of.
I started to compile some notes for my novel. I wrote down most of the background of the novel. Now I plan on completing my notes and sketching out the plot. Then the serious work writing can begin. As for programming, I’m working on a PHP powered website for justCheckers. Also I am slowly reading through a book on coding C++ and Qt, along with a silly application I plan on writing to learn the Qt framework.
Kicking Tires
This week, I’ve started working on my delayed projects again. I feel exhausted from the week. But I also can not wait to play around with my projects.
Learning Qt
I’ve always admired the KDE and Qt developers. They make some of the most innovative and interesting technology in the consumer-desktop-mobile land. I’ve decided to pick up learning Qt and C++. So far I’ve read the beginning of C++ GUI Programming with Qt 4 (1st ed). I need to play around with C++, which I plan on doing it while using Qt Creator. One of my first major Qt experiments might be getting the TEA text editor working on my Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. I know that Nokia just released the tech preview of Qt 4 for S60 devices. But I’ll give it a shot. Hopefully the GUI will port over nicely.
Completing justCheckers
Yes, the project that I left for dead still lives. I want to work on it, as portfolio material. I first plan on building a website in PHP (or maybe JSP?) that renders beautiful CSS and XHTML. And then I need to give the project much love. But I owe it to myself to finish this application. I won’t build any crazy game servers. But I want to make something totally configurable and fun. And in the process I want to create something that proves that I am a strong Java developer.
Writing A Collection of Shards
I am going back to writing. Unfortunately I need to start almost from scratch, since many of my written sections simply will not work. The ideas are there. I just need to get them down on paper.
Driving License
This one is the ultimate in the tire kicking sense. I plan on getting my driver’s license really soon. Aside from parking, I feel comfortable driving. Once I figure out all this parking stuff, then I’ll be ready. I’m exciting since this will give me a lot more mobility and flexiblity. I’ll be able to solve a lot of problems and have even more time to do things in the day. And I’ll be able to sleep and live in normal time periods.
I’ll Be Right On It
It is a bit early in the morning to come up with material to write about. And I did not get much sleep this night. Today I probably wouldn’t be able to stop yawning. And insane amounts of coffee will only keep me from trying to take a nap on the new office’s couch. All that said, I am on track with my current work: personal, professional and long-term. I’ve even managed to get to those much delayed tasks. Yesterday I restarted my coding projects. Today I will dedicate some time on building a portfolio: in writing, graphics and coding. And I really need to clear the dust off my resume too.
The key statement for expressing the feel of these past few days should be: I’ll be right on it. And I will. Things get done and on time. The only thing missing is sleep, but I’m sure that will return if I keep at it.
As an aside, I played Alpha Centauri this morning. What a difference lower the difficulty a single level makes. At the moment I’m kicking ass and taking names. I can also verify that what they say about state theory is true. It is all about power and domination over a territory. It takes incredible restraint to not exercise aggressive military power, especially when you know you can get away with it. Hmm… that should prove a great uncurrent theme in my novel.
Final aside: I have to rewrite the first chapter of my novel. I can’t adapt any of my previous writing to it, in any real degree. I can use some ideas and elements here and there, but regretably it looks like the first chapter needs a rewrite. The overall plot and characters feel strong. The setting needs some thought, since the terrain in reality does not work a 100% with my idea. Anyways, I plan on just writing the rough drafts first. Then I brace for painful edits later on.
Best Laid Plans
My best laid plans always seem to flow so well together. But give things a bit of time, and then complications arise. And with complications come delays and reschedules.
I planned on being further along with my writing today. Also I planned on having already dealt with a number of tasks. Finally, I planned on moving forward with my summer vacation plans. Instead I slept, and made a long-term investment. All well and good, but not planned for at all. However the inflexible only complain, the flexible reschedule and replan. Thats what I’m doing this morning. I plan on moving forward today, possibly badgering a few idle people in the process. Also I will redo my vacation plans. As for the writing, I think I will find ample time to write in the afternoon. Everything all due to circumstances beyond my control. All I can do is work around the obstacles and work with what I have.
Dawn on an Alien World
Went to a fantastic party hosted by the Huddarts, Friday night. I enjoyed myself throughly. Meet new people, had a few too many drinks, and had a lot of fun. Some of the conversations ended up as discussions about my novel.
I’m at an impasse with my novel. I have to decided the setting of my novel. The setting turns out crucial when developing the plot, since I desire to keep things realistic The novel can either take place on a post-nuclear war Earth in the near future. Or it can occur on the planet Mars about 200 years from now. In both cases, a central element of a swarm of military drones and a covert ops team trying to infiltrate a ruined city works. However the Mars plot called for starships (the original plot). These starships act as vehicles for the plot: one gets shot down, another acts as a carrier to launch fighters and a third acts as a spaceborne heavy weapon. And they play pivotal points in my plot. The last two can be replaced with either a land-based facility or an orbital platform. But I can’t come up with a plot element for the first one. I need a reason why a military group finds itself under fire from a swarm. And said military group has to be far from safety, carry some sort of important mission-critical cargo and needs extraction. Being dropped from a crashed starship explains it all.
Now in the post-nuke Earth starships don’t exist. At least not in any large form. However with a near future plot I can use real life experience, existing technology and current events to make the story more realistic. I also face the danger of offending readers if I make things too realistic or tie my story too close to the current world. And I’m not in the mood to deal with snarky, political vigilantes and their poisonous e-mails. Besides I do want to give the story a sort of a ruined future in the desert feel. The Mars plot nicely abstracts all that away, but I lose realism. The Earth plot bases itself in realism but I’d have to do a balancing act to keep the plot neutral and interesting.
So what should I do? Stick with the easier to write but more space opera Mars plot? Or a realistic, gritty Earth-based plot that needs a good explanations, and realistic equivalents to my Mars plot?
Update: Played a bit of Alpha Centauri, and I would absolutely love to write my novel in such a setting. But a Earth far from Earth comes with its own set of problems.
Tagged, Balanced and Categorized
I think I just hit a new milestone in my organizational efforts. I just finished tagging and categorizing the last of my blog posts. A long effort but finally done. I almost want to take a moment to step back and admire my handiwork. But unfortunately, today I’ll be heading off to party hosted by the Huddarts. So I don’t have time to stop and celebrate, at least not until tonight. 🙂
In addition I finished balancing my accounts and ledgers this morning. This could not of been possible, if I had not yesterday filed away most of my papers. The expanding file idea seems like a stroke of genius now. I can easily find everything, takes up less space and I feel organized. I managed to compress space and create time. And this all thanks to a bit of time, money and effort. My next goal will involve clearing out the junk and clutter I’ve collected over the years. With some effort, time and perhaps a bit of money I’ll finally be able to live neatly in the small room that I own.
Still this week my schedule suffered from my efforts. I have walked around sleep deprived. I put off tasks that need to finish. But at least I can safely say my long term goals and projects seem closer to realization.
OK, moment of reflection over. I need to plan for tonight. And I need to acquire breakfast. Also I need to get to those defered tasks. Maybe I can find time to move my projects forward too.