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Co-Writing and Getting into Character

Co-Writing and getting into Character

I used to write as though I would implode if I didn't. Then I let life get in the way. Now I wear a mouth guard when I sleep and every waking moment needs to be filled with radio or podcasts. There can't be silence, because if there is, I'd hear how quiet my muse has gotten. 

It's time to get back to it. Bust out the pen and paper and the innumerable notebooks I've accumulated over the years. I've dug out my meager collection of writing aids. Kinda like a sex aid for the brain, but really I just need to deal with the fact that practice and patience make perfect. Reading has gotten back on track. 

Time to get back, let the ink flow. Let the head run as it did. Make the pen bleed like it did…

So on Sunday I piddled away at 700 ish words, hoping to flesh something out and hand it off to my friend. Even if nothing is done together, at least we can spur each other on. Did I say together?

Oh yes, well my friend and I are trying to write something together. Co-write. It'll be even harder when I head overseas. Not harder really, as we're far apart enough now that the majority of our conversations are over messenger. 

The above books, by the by, are my first few ones, given or purchased by me before 2013. Well into the heat of my writing. I have a few more now. 

Notice: I'll be posting from now on Tuesdays and Friday. God help me, I've got a schedule.

Tea, taxes and My Fitness Level

Tea is starting to taste poorly so I believe I am about to get the illnesses. 

Taxes. Gods... there will always be taxes. If only someone had told me... Make sure you pay your taxes, and let the government tax money earned in other countries as well. 

Fitness level.

That sucks. I've not been in great shape since my university days. Every other day I would do 6 flights of 20 floors. Between that, I'd do tea bo, the old 80s ones and find myself in a small measure of physical balance. Now I do 45 push up and try to touch my toes before slinking into bed feeling ashamed. 

There is a cardio element I want to bring in. As well as a more yoga element. By yoga I mean stretching. Perhaps meditation. I crave noise, but really, I probably need the silence to filter my thoughts and focus more on the things I love. 

The stretching is big though. Both my mother and mother's mother have a history of poor backs and I really don't want that to set the standard for my adult life. Of course I've not aided it by falling off horses and lifting boxes of books far to big for me. So stretching needs to be part of a routine. 

Will, who used to be a fitness instructor and is far more flexible then I, says stretching is best done in the morning. Despite this I am tempted by the night. My muscles are warm from hauling chicklit and god knows what other literary trash about, so its easy to touch my toes. Its moving beyond touching toes and seeing the places I have neglected. 

Earlier mornings for writing and stretching, I think are in order. Just a thought. 

Reading Report: Anthony Bourdain.

Second follow up report.... Reading an Article Inspired by the fella, not actually by him written by him. 

Fuck that guy for saying I shouldn't meditate! Don't follow, just do your thing! Should I have a joint and bottle of liquor hanging of me to give myself that hazy writer look? 

Should I put on the Beetles white album, rock the freshest vintage look and talk about my periods for the entertainment of the masses? 

Should I? Is that what the world wants? For me to be a millennial? Does that make me the rock star? The individual? No!

Me doing my own damn thing is what makes me stand out. I wear my t-shirts and the same jeans for the last five years (except for those new ones from December) because I like them. Because they fit and I look awesome in them. 

I don't contour my face because I think my skin is awesome. I don't put on nail polish cause I chew it all off. The only thing I wear is eyeliner because I want you to see the whites of my eyes when I've got something to say. 

Night is when the wolves come out? I am the wolf, and I sleep when I please. 

Man... Where did that come from?

Watership Down

I found Watership Down to very poignant story in my life. Whether it was in movie form, or by text, it crept into points of my life, startling me.

What a great book, is the thing I always say when I find someone reading or contemplating its pages. Its really the best I can offer. Usually when I follow up with "Its a story about rabbits." the critical eye appears under skeptical brows and they look once more at the rabbit on the cover and wonder if the book really is for them.

A shame to miss a story like this. Is adventure inspired countless authors there after to branch out beyond the confides of the human mind, and yet the tale in the story is so utterly human. Be it politics or in our own day to day living, it inspires us not to fall under the dullness of false security, to look at the ground work before us and wonder if we should step away and try for something that could be so much better.

It brings us back to the earth and ook upon the footprints we make and wonder if we can be as thoughtful as a Hazel, devoted as a Big Wig, clever as a Blackberry or weary as a Fiver.

To a great writer, inspiring countless.

"My heart has joined the Thousand, for my friend stopped running today.” - Richard Adams 

Adventure!

 By golly it’s a new year. By golly I plan to grab it and take it. My patience is my best virtue of the previous year. This year I plan to sink my teeth in. Don't care where I work. No pride is going to trip me up and no moment of silence is going to be filled with less than nothing.

Blank spaces in the day get to be filled with books or reading, or writing.

Plans. I have actual plans, not just verbage. Signing up for a writing course was the first order of business. Getting my visa in the next month and a half and moving to Scotland. I want some work, whatever it takes to get me through to March, were Will and I are going to deak off to some warmer climates, for a quasi honeymoon. The drinks in the damn sun! I can't wait to feel the fire in my blood.

Not enough for you? Amsterdam is hosting Vidcon. Vidcon! I am a big consumer of Youtube, particularly characters like the vlogbrothers, Good Mythical Morning, Hello Internet and a fist full of gaming channels. Imagine my delight to find out they'll be in Europe?!

In April! Its been hinted we might make a little trip there. I've never done the meet celebrity thing, but I like these people. They've worked hard to use a different tool and done something exceptional with it.  Hank and John Green are role models to me and it would be so cool to meet just one of them, or see them in person.

Anyway, just a breath of the winds to come.

Happy New Year to Everyone

Thank You Friends

Lonely.

There in lies a quiet thought, snow whirling by my window. It haunted me like a specter, all day. 

It is a shade of emotion I know intimately. It comes with absence. Often, it is done by myself. I am so much with people and yet not with one person. I crave solitude, though it is not the healthiest medicine. 

An opiate. A distilled liquid to make time slip through my fingers. 

It is so quiet on the snowy road. Passing through flashes of snow flake, I can hear the long howl of my heart. 

But everyone is a help when I let them in. They hold me in my hard moments and help me through. Thank you friends.