New Year’s Resolution

Thanks to Christmas I am enjoying my afternoon at my local Barnes and Noble at someone else's expense.

It is rather enjoyable, I must admit, to sit here guilt free. The book is complete so there is no pressure to crunch it out before this year's end. If there was to be any guilt today it would be that I have not blogged nearly as often as I should.

So maybe as a New Year's resolution I'll make a pact with myself and those who read this that I will blog more often. Okay, maybe that is not realistic given the number of 'honey-do' items I have listed on the paper hanging on the refrigerator. How about this then? What if I instead make a promise to complete the next book of the Protect the Risen series by this time next year? Can we all live with that? I hope so. In fact, I would like to shoot for a novel a year, maybe more if I can. Again though, let us stay in the real world and just consider one a year.

Have you made your resolution? Is it achievable? Does it make sense to you and can you work towards it all year long. I find so many people this time of year ask of themselves such difficult and oft times unachievable things. I believe I have not done that; I truly think I can knock out another novel this year. So again what is your resolution? Did you pick one that challenges you? I hope so and I wish you well with it.

Good luck and happy New Year.

Timing and Editing

Timing is everything, or so it has always been told to me.  Therefore it should come as no surprise that on the particular day I'm dreading putting pen to paper I come across a nice blog post that nearly mirrors my thoughts.  Okay, maybe dread was a bit harsh just then, never the less, I'd rather not tackle my manuscript today.

The book I've been working on for the past year is finally complete, content wise, so the long trek of editing now begins.  I'm faced with reading and rereading the same words over and over again, a task I submit to you is quite daunting.  Heck to be honest it is can be darn right boring, working day after day tweaking ideas that have been floating around your head for so long.  Now don't get me wrong I'm happy overall with what I've composed, so it is mostly just the repetitive nature of this beast I’m dealing with.  


There are days where I will read something and go what was I thinking right there.  Then others where Word will nearly explode trying to figure out what I'm trying to spell.  However the fun days are the ones where I'm looking up the phone number for Webster's letting them know I'm creating a new word and can not believe they don't already have it listed.  Like the word 'dumblify' it should definitely have its place in our literary world.  It would mean the act of lowering someone's intelligence by someone or something else.  For example, have you ever sat at a table with someone and realize the longer they speak to you the dumber you feel, almost like they are bringing you down to their level.  Yeah its kinda like that.  hey wait your not thinking this post is dumblifying you is it.  Dang, sorry about that.     


Back to being serious again though, I do run across the other days with my book.  Those rare gem of days where, believe it or not, I get a single tear roll down my face as I read.  I'm so overjoyed with happiness and pride for what I have created.  Then  I can simply bawl when I get caught up in a character’s story too.  So it is those days quite possibly that help me roll passed the boredom and the dread.     

     

Coincidentally, like I said, I'm not alone in my dread or ‘hate’ for hitting the manuscript during this truly important phase of creating a story. I discovered over at Rants and Rablings many others who have gone through this as well.  

I plan on pushing through it using the time off from work I have coming up and the cold weather blowing in from Ole Mr. Winter to snuggle up to my work and just 'get r done.'  Thankfully, along with my inner editor, who slows me down and doubts what the heck I’m doing; I also have an inner work ethic to help push me through till it is ready for the public.  A day I'm really looking forward to, a day when the words ‘complete’ and ‘done’ will hold treasured meaning for me. 

Eerie Dream

So I guess the message for the day is 'careful what you listen to before heading off to bed.'  As a writer one of our basic natures is to have a creative and oft times environmentally susceptible mind.  Meaning we take what we know and what we experience and use them to fuel our storytelling.  Quite intuitive, nothing new I suspect is learned from that being said.  As it turns out this tool though is hard to turn off or so I'm coming to discover.  With practice I hope to at least learn to throttle it better.

If your thinking of writing a novel, or any length story I would suggest a dip in the research waters on the actual art of storytelling.  Myself I'm doing it backwards, my story is complete and I'm going back now and making sure I've including all the important stuff, with the hope of not having to rewrite to much of it.  We'll see, so far I'm doing okay.  At any rate, one particular lecture I have recently watched was called Creative Writing Story Structure, broken into 12 parts posted on youtube by architectus777.  

In the lecture he describes the basic elements of crafting a good story.  I had listened to the first three parts before drifting off to never never land.  During those three episodes he covered such things as plot, opponents, themes, and goals and in doing so a nice little story of his own was beginning to form.  In it the main character seeks out his sister's rapist and wants revenge, along the way he has a revelation and decided killing the bad guy wouldn't do any good.  

The lecturer also through the course teaches that a spectacular ending can really make or break a story and gave a good example of how Sixth Sense achieved its success from having such surprise ending.  The Sixth Sense had a so-so beginning and end but it was really the ending that drove it into another realm.  On a side note, I was thinking of another good one that has a great ending, The Scent of a Woman.  When Pacino delivers that address at the end to the school disciplinary committee I was in awe (goosebumps), and have remembered the story to this day.

So off I go to bed with bad guys and surprise endings on my mind.  The dream I had, which unfortunately I remembered when I woke, began all nice and sweet.  The main character was a guy who had moved into an uppity condo/apartment complex.  Shortly after his arrival he discovers an attraction for the neighbor lady.  They go on a date and when he attempts a second is snubbed, she's just not interested.  We then seen him walking the streets passing by schools, houses and ball parks.  He is alone and depressed with ahead hung low and eyes darkened under the brim of a hat.  A short time later we get a news flash that a man was caught by the police a suspect in a homicide and rape spree he had committed.  Scene then pans back to his apartment and on his bed face down is the neighbor lady obviously the victim of a viscous murder her back soiled with blood stains.  The news flash then switches back to the police car, and inside is the feller again.  he's the bad guy, eek!

Now I realize it doesn't feel like a surprise ending the way I described it above, but trust me it felt that way in the dream state I was in.  The guy had seemed so unassuming throughout the entire dream, no malicious nature about him at all, then wham he's the bad guy.  Go figure?  Needless to say I woke up in an eerie state of mind, but at least I had something to chat about today.    

  

Winners Annouced

The results of the writing contest are in over at Confessions from Suite 500.  Congratulations on the winning entry by Alex.  Yours truly was nominated for best character names.  Heh, well it's a start; I'm happy to even be mentioned amongst such talented folks.  On another personal note worth mentioning, I believe I'm only one chapter away from completion of the first book in the Protect the Risen series.  Then of course the long process of tweeking, editing and clipping begins.  I'm hoping to have a working manuscipt by the holidays end.

Words and Phrases

There is a terrific post over at Rants and Ramblings about writing habits during the holidays. Her blog post for nov 23^rd suggest we as writers should make a 'holiday plan.' This is a superb idea and not only for the holidays but for all year. However let us stick to the theme she started and only address this busy and festive time of year.

With all the extra activities pulling our attention away from our writing it is easy to lose the drive, the desire, and the momentum of writing. I offer a simple method to combat this through this time of year. Real quick rummage through that desk of yours and grab a small notebook, or heck a blank sheet of paper will work too. Now stick it in the back pocket of your jeans or into a purse whichever is appropriate for you. Oh and don't forget a pen, you'll of course need it.

Okay now the next part is a bit trickier. I want you to tuck back into the desk your ability to write complete sentences. I want you for the next couple of weeks to become more of an observer than a writer. The caveat of course is that I don't want you to completely forget your work in progress, as if you could anyways.

Pay close attention to what you see over the holidays, the scenes, the smells, the colors, etc. More importantly take a moment to really take a close look at people, because let's face it our books are pretty much about how people interact with one another. Even if you are working on a period or fantastical piece where the characters are nothing like the humans in the here and now, one very important fact remains true. The people around you at the mall, the in-laws house, the gas station and the subway are all your potential audience. They will need to feel the connection to the relationships and scenes you depict in a way that they can relate to. Good observation skills can definitely help you. What better time than during the holidays will you have at watching the behaviors of folks you normally don't interact with on a daily basis. You are out of your norm and so are they.

Remember I told you to forego the writer in you, that person inside of you that fights to be an artist. Stop it, just let go and stop trying so darn hard to be poetic with your usage of our incredible language. Instead listen and watch the world around you. Now jot down a single word or phrase to remind you later what it is you are experiencing. Like I said though keep it relevant to you WIP so that when the busy part of the year is over and you get back into the grind, you have some material to work with and help you get back into the swing of things smoothly and easily.

Tough I know, but let me give you an example from my work (Chances Are - Chap 20.)

"The cracks continued to grow and rippled outward from the walls and more Leesermen were tossed off of their feet. The keep, upon a pillar of soil and rock, was then lifted skyward. Upwards it climbed with all of its contents and occupants; dirt spewed forth and stones fell from the cliff face that was being created."

Now this isn't too bad but we can definitely add to it. I'm riding along the rural road out near Jackson GA on my way to a horse show with my wife and I look out the window. The angle of the sun and curvature of the road have aligned themselves just perfectly to make it appear as though the shadow of the horse trailer we are pulling is actually out pacing our truck. It struck me then that the excerpt above is lacking one key detail that would be obvious to the Leesermen army if they were observing the rise of the keep upon the pillar of stone. In my notebook I simply wrote. "Shadow of the keep."

(Be nice on my handwriting, I was in a truck going down the road, lots of bumps.)

Sometime later I came back and added this to the above passage:

"The cracks continued to grow and rippled outward from the walls and more Leesermen were tossed off of their feet. The keep, upon a pillar of soil and rock, was then lifted skyward. Upwards it climbed with all of its contents and occupants; dirt spewed forth and stones fell from the cliff face that was being created.

Dust bellowed out and rolled towards all that stood on ground level. A great shadow was cast downward and grew larger as the keep rose higher and higher. The Leesermen cried out and began to pray as the darkness fell on top of them. The sun was eclipsed and they feared their god's wrath was behind this cataclysmic event."

So yes please set a goal for yourself during the holidays and throughout the year, it is a crucial step to writing in my opinion. You should also certainly reward yourself for reaching those goals, but also make sure to include the tools you'll need to make the goals possible when life gets busy. So you are at a holiday dinner party and have no access to a computer, whip out your tiny notebook and joy down that cool word or phrase that will later add levels of details to to your work to help make it shine.

Also if you are looking for other great holiday advice, check out this blog post over at Confessions from Suite 500 and get some tips on your query.

Madscientist

Today, I wanted to share where I got the nickname Madscientist254. The nickname consist of two parts with vary different origins. So give me a few moments of your time and I'll divulge its conception in great detail. Probably more detail than anyone actually wants, but hey I need a topic to talk.

The first part, madscientist, originated from my best friend Eric. If you have read my bio you'll known that I graduated with a B.S. in Life Sciences, which is basically a biologist. So when I obtained my first job as a researcher my buddy gave me a name placard to put on my desk. I suspect he got it at a place like Things Remembered in the mall. For anyone not familiar with that store it has a selection of nice nick-nac items that you can get engravings put onto. Long story short, he got the word Madscientist put on the placard and gave it to me as a gift. I kept it on display throughout my time at the research facility and now it sits in a nice predominant spot on my desk at home. This was the year of 1998 and I was just getting into needing a internet presence and therefore required a login name for things. What better name to pick than that which sat in my line of sight while sitting at my desk. Yeah I know, real original huh?

On a side note, in case you were doing the math, yes I was on the internet before 98 but not under the name of Madscientist254. I'd guess I was on the net somewhere in my early college years of 92 or 93. You know back when color pictures had not really hit email yet. Folks were still using green screen cmos and unix based systems to transmit messages back and forth to one another. At any rate, originally I had been using the name Cokeman. That name was directly related with my last name. All through college and even to some extent my career folks have just called me by my last name, Koch. The correct pronunciation of which is "coke", like the soda brand. So naturally my nickname evolved into Cokeman from that.

Okay the text part of the name is out of the way, so where did the number part come from? As many folks have come to understand picking an internet ID is a fun challenge, especially when the name you choose is a common name, which apparently Madscientist is. So to understand the number we have to travel back to my college years again. The last few years of university life for me was spent not only deep in the books but also deeply searching for funds. I was fortunate enough to have some terrific friends and roommates that helped me get on-board at the campus police station. It was a pretty swell job too. I helped them with campus events, parking, building patrols, and even some dispatching for the police officers.

As you can imagine communication is very vital organization to a police department. So to keep confusion to a minimal each member of a police department, even the student security officers, were given a number designation. Our department was small and therefore we used three digit numbers to represent us. Mine was 254 and I'd use it for all of my radio transmitting with the base. For several years this number became a part of my daily lingo to identify myself to others I worked with. Naturally it was easy enough for me to remember and truly dear to my heart. So when yahoo told me Madscientist was taken (Dang-it) and that I needed to pick another name I just combined the two and thus Madscientist plus254 were united forever into internet infamy.

Some folks have been amazed at just how quickly I can type the ID of After a decade of using it though, I'd have to say my fingers know where the keys are quicker than my mind is registering. Maybe its the other way around, I don't know but basically it is a subconscience thing at this point. Especially when you take into consideration that I really don't know how to type very well. My fingers don't rest on the home keys, rather they hover over the keyboard like a vulture on the side of the road picking away at the latest roadkill. If I had to figure out what my natural home keys were ...hmmm... let's see... left hand w-d-f-v and right hand n-j-k-p. Oh, and yes I do have to stare down at the keyboard as I type, so I make sure to do a lot of proofreading before I hit the submit key. Gee-sh, I wish everyone did more proofreading, but that is a story for another day.Well I guess we learned a couple things about me today, my name and my typing oddities hope you enjoyed my little diatribe today.
Oh one last thing, the avatar of mr. bunsen. Yeah guess I geeked it whenever I chose that one. Madscientist when typed into the search engine like google returns with lots of odd stuff, one of which is good ole mr. bunsen. Now please don't date yourselves by asking who he is or isn't. Let's just say he's a great character whose adventures with his pal beaker will live on well past their time.

Hobbit 2012

Some other fun news for fans of the Tolkien series:

see this article
also this page