Battling The Eraser

It is the pencil that puts words on a page.  However, a small part of the pencil, the eraser, hides those words from intrigued eyes.  In my quest to write, I have succeeded in devising a story--two now, actually--that I am proud of.  I have all the words in my head.  Though some of those words have safely reached the page, others have been stopped by my own personal eraser.  This is not the pink menace that threatens to rid the world of all printed language.  No, my enemy is much worse; laziness.  The very act of not acting delays my motivation and my accomplishment.  I fear that, as time passes, I will no longer be able to finish my work, whether I lose interest or forget where I wanted the story to be taken.  It is an inner battle of wits between me and my eraser, to see who will perish first: me, the eraser, shaven completely and scattered across New England, or me, the pencil, too short to hold and create the words that I desperately wish to reveal to the public.  My determination is strong, but my longing for academic success and social interaction distorts my drive for completion.

The victor is yet to be seen.

Inspiration VS Infringement [EXPLICIT]

Let me be clear: My intent is never to take an idea from someone. I research every one of my ideas to see if they have been done before. I take extra care to make sure that I'm as original as possible. But let's face it. There are aspects of certain stories that I like. Not necessarily a specific idea, but more of a general concept or style. Of course, this argument won't help me in a court battle. And that's the thing about being original: either it's been done or it's copyright infringement. All the aspiring writers out there just want to make a living doing what they love, and then some greedy SOB (son of a billionaire) wants more dough. So, rather than publish the writer's works, they sue his ass for all it's worth. And trust me, a writer's ass is worth a lot. We sit on it for so damn long typing away at our keyboards. So, the writer is so poor that he or she would do anything for money, even get a job putting fringes on scarves. And I know for a fact that I am even less willing to infringe a scarf. So please, to all you publishing companies, TV stations, production companies, and, hell, scarf makers out there: how about instead of falsely accusing us of stealing your ideas, you either let us live our lives, strike a deal to publish our work, or af least appreciate that you've inspired us to express our creativity in 350-or-so pages.

Bookception

You can never have too many Inception references. Now, for those of you who have been reading from the start (which is basically the two people that will read this), I have finally decided what the central theme of my blog should be on: writing. Yes, I'm writing about writing, whether it be my writing, someone else's writing, or just writing in general. And I'll occasionally throw in a random story about something that's frustrating me (which could also fall under the category of "the way the world works") or about life in general. Except being a college guy, it won't be that general because I'll probabaly just end up writing about a girl. You'll see.

On the subject of bookception, keep in mind that I'm also writing about a writer who writes about a writer. Really interesting stuff.

The Jungle Book Is Now A Jungle Of Books

I am taking a creative writing class at school, and what I didn't realize is that there are so many people my age who at least like to write. Not only that, but I also learned that almost everyone (in my class, anyway) is majoring in something other than English. I'm hoping we all write best sellers so I have plenty of friends in the industry and less hostile competition. (Does that even exist in an author's world?) I also hope that in the jungle of books out there, people will see mine as the giant tree to rondesvous (did I spell that right? dang French) at.

The Broken Record of Improvements

The one thing that I don't like about writing: revising.  I am always so eager to progress the story that I rush events to the point where the plot could end within three pages.  When I try to resist the temptation of continuation, I suffer through revision after revision until I decide that I'm sick of reading the same lines over again.  That's usually the point in my projects where I abandon it entirely.  Otherwise, the writing would seem forced.  If I were to ignore the need for changes and carry on with the plot, however, my gut would eat me alive.  Currently I am at the same crossroads.  Luckily, I know that this is the project I want to finish.

Should I Feel Embarrassed, Or Embarrassed For Feeling Embarrassed?

These past few weeks, I have been focusing on the "hero" genre.  I, for one, have never read a DC or Marvel comic (with the exception of one issue about Raven years ago), and for some awful reason I've looked down on comic geeks.  If anything, it's the style of the drawing: really jacked guys with a lot of use of shadows on everything, no eyes drawn on anyone, just masks, and all of the females are skinny, muscular, and have exaggerated... "other" features.  But I must say, the creative genius the writers put in to their work is quite impressive.  They create elaborate environments, planets, stories, villains, heroes, powers, and plot-lines that cannot be matched easily.  And unlike most stories with a beginning and an end, the creation of a universe is continuous, with endless possibilities.  You want some guy to come back from the dead?  So be it.  Add another hero?  One was just born.  The story is so endless, so involving to the reader, that the stories never end until either a company or a writer casts it aside.  Even then, another writer can think of something else to add to the story.  To the reader, without a writer to continue a work that "ended", the job of creator falls into their heads.  They recreate the missing pieces into something that makes sense, so they will always continue it in their head.  Problem is, only a few record their ideas.

My ideas were mostly recorded, but unfortunately, they would not be legal to publish.

On a related note, I have a confession to make, especially to my family and close friends (because you're the only ones who read this other than the Russians sending me ads to shorten the domain name).  I won't tell you this in person, but I actually love this stuff.  I was obsessed with the show Teen Titans as a kid, but I was unsure if I saw all the episodes.  So, this summer, I re-watched all 67 of them. Yup.  Then re-watched most of them again.  Then, to finally put it in my past, I watched Young Justice because it had some similar characters and was meant for the same age group.  (Yes, I realize 18 is probably not included in that group).

Of course, I'll never admit to watching those shows to people I actually know, because it's a little embarrassing.

...Okay, very embarrassing.

It was after watching Teen Titans that I decided I wanted to create my own hero.  Hell, at one point I even looked up internships on the DC website.  If my obsession continues, I'll apply for one in Boston. At first, the hero thing went great, until I came to a roadblock.  I then started watching Young Justice and discovered that I like the group hero thing better than the solo characters.  So guess what I did: I created 5 (yes, five) new heroes (God I feel so nerdy) and came up with a setting.  I never would have guessed that my next writing project would be a comic book series or graphic novel.

Just one problem: I can write, not draw.  A hero novel cannot be written.  Fight scenes would basically be, "She punched him, he punched her back."  The only logical method would be to write either a comic or a graphic novel.  Oh, and I may have failed to mention, I CAN'T DRAW!  That means I either have to learn (as of now, I barely have the patience to even finish one drawing. I tried.), or a more logical answer, I find someone who can draw for me.  Oh, and, I don't have money to hire someone.  Maybe I'll find a cartooning student at school who will agree to translate my words into colorful drawings.

Moving At The Speed Of Time

I apologize, it's been a while since my last insanely weird thought...but I just had another one.  What if time was not a concept, as we know it to be, but a constantly moving energy?  Light and sound are energies because we can sense them.  Well, we also can sense time because we know time is passing.  And here's where the weird comes in.  What if time is not just passing, but is passing us?  Light, passes us much faster than sound, but even sound passes us.  Light, in fact, is the fastest thing known to man.  But is it possible that time is just an energy that moves even faster than light?  Moving faster than sound creates a sonic boom; moving faster than light, from what I've heard in sci-fi movies, brings one into "warp speed" or something.  So, to move faster than time itself would mean that time is no longer passing you; you are passing time.  In essence, moving faster than time would allow one to travel into the future.  So, my final question: How fast is time?

Note: neither this nor any other strange post (likely all of them) were inspired by drugs, alcohol, or inhalants.  Lack of sleep may have been a factor, though.