The hardest thing about writing is actually writing. I know some authors, good and awful, who can crank out material non-stop, but I know a greater number that have to push themselves to stick with it every day.
For me, it's tough because I'm always playing around in so many different mediums. Sometimes, I'm working on my music, sometimes I'm programming for long stretches (like the last 10 months or so), but lately, I've been itching like hell to finally squeeze my 10-year old first novel out.
I'm not self-conscious about shit, but I really feel like putting this novel out would be the equivalent of exposing every vulnerability I have to every person out there who was kind enough to read it.
I need to get over that, and I will, but I'm still struggling with the book's cover, since it's something I don't really know a lot about, but when I see concepts in front of me, I know I don't love any of them. I want something minimalist, but haunting.
I need to finish the final edit before anything else, though. I've been tweaking and refining this thing for literally 10 years, and at some point, I'm just gonna snap and go completely mad.
I've been considering posting the first chapter on here, to give people an idea of where I'm coming from, but we'll see. I'll probably wait until it's ready to be printed before I do that. Don't know. Just don't know. Not sure.
ANYWAY...
...I feel like blogging can be a way to keep your writing skills sharp, but you really have to push yourself for that to be the case. My writing has degraded sharply over the last couple years, mainly from the lack of an editorial process. I used to hate having an editor, and now I see why it's a good idea. I write like shit now, and I used to be really good at it. That's actually one of the points of this new blog.
I'm trying to use this blog as a platform to improve my writing. I'm actually applying an editorial standard with this blog, something I didn't do with my 1UP blog.
One thing that's been really interesting is editing this old book. It's been edited a few times over the years, but now, it's actually going through a bit of an overhaul, as there are ideas that have been cooking for a few years that I was going to put into future books that actually fit wonderfully in this book, so they've been implemented in this edit.
A particular point that's been added is a character that acts as a "distorted mirror" for the main character, a foil that embodies what the main character could have become had key choices in the past been made differently. Once I added that, it kind of unlocked everything that had been bothering me about the book. Good times.
Something about writing fiction that I love is playing with characters and seeing how they'll react to various stimuli. If I can surprise myself, it's working.
Anyway, I'll post more on the book here as things progress. I've got class and work 'til 5/13, and then I'm only working part time for a few months after that so that I can focus on writing and coding all summer. There will be nothing to announce about the book until at least June, and then depending on what I do in regards to E3, it may get pushed to late June. I'm not sure.
Etcetera
Kubuntu I've been running Kubuntu on my desktop PC for the last week or so, and I'm done with it. I love Ubuntu, and have been a very happy Ubuntu user for almost three years now, and only use Windows for gaming and 360 streaming.
Kubuntu is a variation on Ubuntu that uses KDE instead of Gnome for a desktop environment.
I had never user KDE before, but I love playing around with new interfaces, so I was excited to try something new in terms of desktop environment.
I gotta say that I understand why KDE is the way to go for some folks, namely people that inexplicably like the Mac approach to interface, but are too smart to plunk down twice the amount of money that they should for a computer that is so insulting to the user, it only comes with one mouse button.
The thing I don't like about KDE is the same thing I don't like about Mac, which is the click-click-click-click-click-click that goes on to access something simple. It's also not as easily customizable as Ubuntu, which is a big no-no for me. Ubuntu is a dream for those that want to make their OS work for them, whereas I feel like I'm fighting the OS at all times with Mac, Kubuntu, and Windows, because they want to dictate to me how my computing experience should be.
So, yeah, tonight, I'll be reloading Ubuntu onto my main desktop, and then installing OpenSolaris on my secondary desktop to start getting more practice managing a Unix server. The goal is to use it as a means to work on my own site before uploading the new site version, and maybe use it to run my own email. We'll see.
So, what do you do for a creative outlet? Are any of your creative projects technical in nature? How's your creative project(s) going?
Peace out.
-Blaine
