Experimental – Project Tempor
While work on Bohr’s Bathos continues at a the opposite of a glacial pace (as in it keeps growing unlike our current glaciers), I have chosen to add a couple of additional projects to my plate to give myself a reprieve. All, but a few, are short stories. One in particular, is what this post is about – Project Tempor. For some time, I have wanted to pursue a project that was designed around the concept of mixing a certain medium. There are some pieces where I have mixed artistic pursuits and tried to translate them into writing, but there is a big difference here, I wanted to take it from a structural foundation and move it into a short story.
My normal process is to move from a question, to a narration choice, to a loosely fitting structure which attempts to answer the question. Here, and to challenge myself, I have decided to build a structure that I will adhere to, then choose a narration style, and finally apply a question I want to answer (this goes against my fundamental philosophy for writing fiction). It is out of my comfort zone, which, I don’t like to do because it tends to lead to poor pieces I don’t want to fix. However, I really enjoy the concept and have been mulling it over enough that I think I can make it work. The question I have to ask myself is simple: did I translate the medium, that I decided to focus on, properly? If I do that right, then it should be an interesting piece – at least for me. Will it be my normal style, probably not, but I am a stubborn man and will probably cheat and end up bending it into what I want it to be.
Answering my own Questions
“Why do you write?” I’ve heard this question more than I would like to admit. “How are you going to earn a living from writing?” This has also been directed at me regularly. “I don’t read.” That’s the most depressing one. Luckily, I know that the odds of me making money from my writing is slim to none. I don’t count on it as system to provide me with funds to survive in a capitalistic society. I look at it as a fundamental need. An addiction that can only be solved by writing more and growing my skill to better help me achieve the reason I write.
For I write for a very selfish reason. I don’t care about publishing (I try to publish so I can get paid to write more). When I sit down or decide to write a manuscript, my goal is to take a complex problem and solve it. Like a mathematician looking for the answer to a formula, I too am seeking answers. Instead of using math, I use language and sentence structure. I place a large question at the center of my manuscript, I pull off related concepts, and then I research. Once I have a base of knowledge and what I want to know, I create humans and set them in my world to see what would happen. Often, things I never expect transpire and I learn. I grow through the creation of my characters and their interactions. How they handle the world that I have placed them in, helps me understand the world we live within. I write to understand and answer what I deem are important questions.
So I write for myself. I do it to make sense of the world and understand all the aspects that interact in on our planet. If you ever read my work, hopefully it will help answer questions you have, but more likely and what I want, it will cause you to get new questions. Each book has spawned another book, and that’s why I need to publish, I have too many questions and I keep getting more.
Corruption
There is only one thing I hate about writing a new manuscript: corruption. One of the things a writer must do, to be good and grow, is read other peoples writing. Now, I read non-fiction regularly as it tends to expand my work and give me new outlooks on life. It is a wonderful growth technique and I don’t stop reading non-fiction no matter what I am working on at that time. With my pledge to write essays, the odds are I will have to cease reading non-fiction when working on those non-fiction pieces – until I saw a painting. As of right now, I am solely a fiction writer, which means, I stop reading fiction when I am working on a manuscript, short story, or an outline – sometimes I read fiction during the writing process but it is rare.
The reason for this lack of reading is simple. I caught, during editing, that my narrators voice was absorbing the narrator from fiction I was reading at that time. Also, formatting can change when I see something that is more clear when formatted in a certain way. A great example is Nabokov’s use of the ‘ ‘ for internal thoughts instead of italics. I tend to use bolding, italics, or underlining to denote specific “realms” of the piece. For example, in Three Pills, I utilize all three to denote the different time periods that are taking place. This allows the reader to associate the setting with a specific type face. Back in the day, it was harder to use these formatting details. Yet, I found it easier to use the ‘ ‘ to denote thoughts in the newest manuscript because it was a simpler keystroke. However, I have the bulk of thoughts written as italics. Which means, by reading Nabokov, I have corrupted the manuscript and will have to change ‘ ‘ to italics or vice versa.
Now comes the tricky part and why I may change my model. Philosophically, I believe that manuscripts are living organisms with their own needs and wants. As weird as this sounds, I believe that I am a partial medium and I am helping write the book but the manuscript is also helping write itself. This is a Kantian belief. However, it is one I have experience when writing where I find myself deviating from the prescribed plan, and I cannot explain why I must go down this new path that has arisen from the ether. Those tangents lead to problems as the manuscript begins to shape itself and grow larger. With the Bohr’s Bathos, I am watching my piece expand daily. In my most recent chapter, I have written two thousand words on a tangent that came from a simple concept. I love that about writing, because I treat writing not as a job but as a solution to my mind’s need to solve problems. The original final word count for Bohr’s Bathos was estimated at somewhere between 70,000 and 80,000. At the current trajectory, I am looking at 100,000 due to all the new tangents and the constraints of the narration style.
This line of questioning and change began when I was visiting a friend. As we drove through a city, I came face to face with a mural. The mural was clear, it was beautiful, it was mesmerizing. It didn’t bash me over the head with a concept or idea, but it struck me as out of place and insanely compelling. It was at that point that I realized that I had been doing a disservice to Bohr’s Bathos when describing artwork. That single piece of art corrupted Bohr’s Bathos, but in doing so, it expanded the piece to be more encompassing and flesh out a previously muted point of the manuscript. It added tons of work to my docket, but it is important that it did this because I now have a superior version. So is this corruption or expansion? At this point, I have changed my thoughts and believe that expansion is what happened. But, if I keep expanding myself with additional inputs during the writing process, will I ever truly finish a piece? The first chapter of a book is fundamentally lacking compared to the last chapter, because, your writing grows as you write the manuscript. With each keystroke you grow, and in doing so, corrupt yourself in a good and healthy way.
Essays
I am beginning the process how to format an essay. What I actually should say is this: “I’ve never written non-fiction for a magazine or website, and I am not sure how to format it without it being a rambling mess.” Have I completed one? No. Do I have five on my docket to write? Yes. Will I write them? Yes. When will I write them? When I don’t have chapters available or outlined in Bohr’s Bathos for my daily writing.
As some may know, I only like to write when I have detailed outlines available to me. I have a completed master outline available, with the themes, character development, and major events. However, I keep that over arching outline at a high level so I have the flexibility to change the novel as I it choose to change over time. Which, in every manuscript I have written, has allowed the manuscript to become very organic. So, when I write the current block of chapters I have outlined, I have nothing to do until I can outline the next five. That time lapse, has led me to not writing anything for extended periods of time, and therefore, I have decided to use that lull to write essays. Yes, I should read, but I don’t like to read when I am writing as I see it as a possible infection in the tone and voice of the book currently being written.
Progress
Over the last couple of weeks, I have begun a new process for writing. In the past, I had trained myself to sit and work for multiple hours a writing stint in order to produce hyper cohesive work without reviewing what I previously had written. However, since I work forty hours a week for a company, I have had to invest in a new process. That process is waking up at 5:15 in the morning so I can get an hour of writing in before I go to work (sometimes an hour and a half depending how quick I finish my obligations so I arrive at work looking like a respectable human being). So, my morning is the following: cook second breakfast (the food I eat when I arrive to work), eat an apple, make a cup of coffee, drink cup of coffee and watch sunrise (if the sun is rising at that time, which its no longer doing), shower, gel hair, write, get dressed, drive to work.
After work, I work for 2-4 hours on my manuscript. And that brings us to the important aspect of this post: Progress. I have been using this system for sometime (with regular readings of previous content before each writing session) and that has led to a high level of production on my newest manuscript: Bohr’s Bathos. This piece follows, Death by Comedy (or better known as its working title: Six Stalks, even though I haven’t discussed it much on this site), but it is important to note that Bohr’s Bathos follows Death by Comedy only in my bibliography and not timeline or content. Both are standalone pieces, as I try to do with all my work, and their worlds are fundamentally different.
With each day of writing, I watch it unravel in a good way. The story grows richer, and I realize, I don’t care about publishing. If it happens, so be it, but I am just happy to see my creations come to light. I love writing, and I write for myself, but I wish you could all experience my long form creations. Who knows, one day, it may happen. Until then, I will keep writing and sharing what I can with you. Thank you for following me and believing in me.
5:15, Here I Come
The next five chapters have been outlined (17-21 (if you think that number is wrong, count it on your hand)). That means, I cannot postpone waking up tomorrow morning, and I’ll have to arise from my slumber at 5:15 to begin work on these next chapters. Then, after I go to work, I will continue to work on them before my social obligations. Not to mention, I have to edit/write important environmental factors into previous chapters of the new manuscript due to a recent trip where I saw a piece of artwork that forced me to re-evaluate how I was writing certain things. I know, this post is coming off as ambiguous and lacks necessary variables, but I do that so that the manuscript remains a mystery. Just know artwork did what it is supposed to do and that is to affected the viewer. I am glad; if I ignored the feelings that were inspired by this piece of art, I would be a poor writer as I wouldn’t let the manuscript grow with my own experiences… even if it is a pain to go back and retrofit already written chapters. What are you to do when you believe in the Kantian creation of an aesthetical piece of work.
Safe Mode – Hyper Specific Work
Ever run your computer in safe mode? Safe Mode is wondrous, it cuts out all the other processes that run on your computer and leaves only the core functionalities. I am running in Safe Mode. What does that mean? It means, I don’t care about anything frivolous in my writing career. I only care about writing, editing, and outlining fiction. Why have I chosen this striped down version of existence? Simple, I work full-time for a fortune fifty company and need to prioritize creating more than informing my audience. That’s why these posts stopped.
Some people would argue I should post no matter the conditions. I disagree; I believe that posts should only come with substance. I just figured I would inform everyone that there are short stories out with magazines, I am working on Bohr’s Bathos, and prepping essays for the first time (non-fiction). With all of that happening, it is important to note that I took a 5 week lull.
Why the lull? Simple, except I won’t explain that here as it can impact my future. Nothing illegal or improper, just an opinion and I have decided to keep to myself. Expect more here shortly, and hopefully someone will pick up my drunken wizard story… it is fantastic.
Attack on the Server
My server is currently experience a DOS or DDOS attack (roughly a day now). Luckily, I have some things in place to keep these from affecting the service. However, some of the attempts are getting through and it is leading to some performance degradation. It has slowed since I began blacklisting IP addresses. Please, use anti-virus software, otherwise you could be assisting malicious people.
Similarities
It is about time that I focused on another short story. This time, I have chosen Similarities. Similarities is a piece that was designed around trying to write two separate narrators in a single piece. What I wanted was two points of view that were third person and describing two separate events. The experiment here would eventually go on and be fully fleshed out in Death by Comedy – my fifth manuscript – where I use five narrators to tell a story. While the voices in this piece are very similar, Death by Comedy experiences five unique voices with five completely different backgrounds. In this piece, there is also an underlying criticism which is explained below.
Redirect
Today, I will be highlighting Redirect. I remember working on this piece because the piece just didn’t seem possible. It took three rewrites to get it to where it is on the website, and I am not even sure if it truly does what it needs to do for the reader. Personally, after rereading it, I think it hit home more than I originally thought. Sometimes, my shorty work appears preachy to me, and I wanted this to be more subtle – I don’t think I hit the subtle parts very well. However, there is some throwbacks to other works and naming styles. For more info on the piece, continue reading but it will be semi full of spoilers. I suggest you read the piece then check out the explanation: Click me for Redirect.