Our friends at The Black Campbell reviewed Things Don’t Go Smooth, a 238 page GM-facing supplement for the Firefly Role Playing Game. The review is available here and this supplement is now available!
On the Importance of New Experiences
As I mentioned last week, I’m going to talk about the process of writing a bit more in the coming months. Specifically, though, this is about my process and how I view writing as a lifestyle or vocation–which does make me a little uncomfortable. Soap boxes are supposed to be used for soap and, per the whole reason why I started 365 Days of Squee, my ranting is best channeled into more productive activities like attacking the treadmill, baking cookies for other people, and drinking whiskey on occasion.
As anyone who’s talked to me knows, I’m not a huge fan of one-true-wayisms in life, the universe, love, or anything. I may be a force of nature, but I believe this with every ounce of my icy, black heart: do what works for you. Because of that, I tend to shy away from sharing what I do or think because my goal is not to be a self-help guru for writers. (I’m a helluva lot more Poe than Emerson, to be sure.) However, I think that some amount of prodding on this has done me some good, in the sense that I feel like I’m finding some balance between “what I know” and “how to share” this stuff. Or, in other words, there’s a few of you (e.g. the reader) out there who give a flying piece of bacon about my work.
Thus, I commence the first post!
So what is today’s creed? This might sound totally stupid, but there’s something I feel that’s crucial to being a writer: new and/or random experiences. Having a routine is useful for discipline, but too often this can lead to being comfortable, which can turn into laziness. When it (being lazy) happens to me, it’s because I’m apathetic or desensitized to who (or what) is around me. The days melt into one another, Saturday is no different from Wednesday, and I peer at the ground instead of at the sky. (Now mind you, winter exacerbates this issue because of SAD, and I feel that solutions to developing good habits originate out of being able to identify what’s wrong. So far, so good. Mostly.)
However, having a routine isn’t everything to me as a writer. It’s important, sure, but it can lead to a lot of disillusionment as well, because routines can be a part of unreasonable expectations. I’ve done “x” amount of projects or words like a good, little writer. Why hasn’t “y” happened? Why are there no ticker tape parades? I’ve done 100 sit-ups. Where are my washboard abs that I was promised? To me, being a writer isn’t about levels or tiers on a pyramid; nobody knows what the future holds when you’re a writer.
It’s partly for this reason, the: “Oh crap, do I need to read tarot cards to predict my career path?” that I feel it’s crucial to seek out the random and the new, to fold in new experiences and try different things. That little bit of chaos helps me survive, deal with my big question mark future and–BONUS–gives me more fuel to draw from when I am writing. It could be little things like picking up a book in a genre I normally don’t read, learning a new language, or a bigger thing like planning a trip or scheduling a writer’s retreat. Either way, some amount of new and random is healthy, overall, and can be quite addicting–especially if I’ve fallen into routine for too many days/weeks/months at a time.
Mind you, dealing with the new isn’t the same as conversing with my fellow humans (and possibly some cyborg/alien types), but it can help with social anxiety/shyness, too. As much as I’d like my own private sushi chef, for example, I still need to interact with people to get such culinary fish-ness as I am a lowly writer.
In summary, I feel that new experiences are necessary to maintain my writer’s brain. Not only do they fuel my creativity, they also help make me more resilient as well.
- Mood: Sage writer is sage
Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: Surprisingly too many
Work-Out Minutes Logged Yesterday: 30 on the elliptical
In My Ears: “Shrunken Heads” by Wolfgang Gartner (Joey Youngman)
Game Last Played: Brain Age 2
Book Last Read: The Drunken Botanist
Movie Last Viewed: The Hogfather
Latest Artistic Project: B-B-B-Beading
Latest Fiction/Comic Release: Last
Latest Game Release: Things Don’t Go Smooth
What I’m Working On: Primarily tie-in games work, original comics, and novels.
Talking Genre TV over at SF Signal
What’s the end of a year without a few wrap-up posts? At SF Signal, I join the likes of Steven M. Long, Lisa Taylor, Paul Cornell, Gillian Philip, and a few other writers and bloggers to talk about our favorite TV shows for 2015.
Take a peek and click through to read MIND MELD: Our Favorite Genre TV Shows of 2014.
Last Squees for the Year
Been a busy past couple of days, and I’m just now starting to get caught up on year-end chores and holiday-making activities. Yep, I’m behind. Which means half my cards haven’t been sent out yet and there’s cookie dough still sitting in the fridge–three kinds! Thankfully, my cards say: “Happy whichever holiday you celebrate.” So technically if I get them done before New Year’s… Yes, I’m terrible I know.
I’m glad we went to California and very grateful for the time I spent there. It was a whirlwind of a trip, what with deadlines packed on top of travel, but totally needed. I have pictures (of course) but they’ll take a while to sort through and upload. Joy of joys!
With that last, here are the fifteen remaining squees for the year. This’ll take me up through December 31st!
1.) The Hogfather: It’s an annual tradition for the holidays!
2.) The Muppets’ Christmas Carol: On Netflix! WOO!
3.) Finding out that baking recipes are supposed to be conducted with unsalted butter. Thanks to my friend Suzanne for helping me figure out my cookie fu!
4.) Seeing the redwoods. How beautiful!
5.) Figuring out what was wrong with my netbook. So, HILARIOUSLY, my memory was borked because I had synced all of my cloud storage to that device instead of just the one folder. Nice, eh?
6.) The suggestion that I revisit talking about the process of writing as opposed to the YOU MUST DO THIS NOW kind of writing advice. Hard to find a niche when so many others are already blogging about the how to’s of writing. This is definitely a jumpstart to my brainpan.
7.) A really kick-ass draft of [redacted], which will be shared in 2015!
8.) A Kickstarter for [redacted], which will likely launch in January!
9.) A skull spoon, for tea. Want!
10.) And on that last… Sugar cube skulls!
11.) Possibly cheesy, but I figured out what to do with the tombstone cookie cutters I have. For sugar cookies, I can decorate them with RIP 2014! HAH!
12.) Party went well and I figured out logistics for next time despite brain space issues. Thinking this’ll turn into a monthly event.
13.) I’m back on the workout train and my chemistry is starting to normalize. It really is disturbing how easy it is to get one’s body out of whack, but inactivity–especially for writers like myself who get sucked into a cycle of caffeine, carbs, and whiskey whilst on deadline–is pretty damn detrimental and hard on the body. Don’t get me wrong: I don’t drink to get drunk, but the triumvirate of sitting for hours at a time plus too much coffee plus an apertif made me crankier than I expected it to. I didn’t realize how much it screwed me up mood-wise, but there it is.
14.) A book I picked up in California is The Drunken Botanist. FIVE STARS!!! This is GREAT for writing research and general knowledge about planets and such. Plus, the cocktail recipes are pretty awesome…which brings me to a moment of serendipity. I had the Aviation at The Alembic, and lo! and behold! the original recipe is in that book.
15.) As the story goes, I’m baking gingerbread for the first time. (Zombies and skeletons, mostly.) However, my paltry attempt is nowhere near as awesome as Martha Stewart’s Downton Abbey made out of gingerbread.
121/365
- Mood: Getting caught up
Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: managed
Work-Out Minutes Logged Yesterday: 30 on the elliptical
In My Ears: The Hogfather
Game Last Played: Brain Age 2
Book Last Read: Gah! It’s on my nightstand!
Movie Last Viewed: The Hogfather
Latest Artistic Project: Beading!
Latest Fiction/Comic Release: Last
Latest Game Release: Things Don’t Go Smooth
What I’m Working On: Primarily tie-in games work, original comics, and novels.
The Skinny on Downtime
Trying to wrap up a few last-minute posts before a glorious weekend of holiday parties and revisions, but I thought I’d drop in to share a touch more on NaNoNetMo by way of this article. I get a lot of funny looks sometimes, about how I need to make it a “thing” to disconnect.
Enter this article from Slate.com. 2014: The Year of Outrage.
This is why. Because even if you log in every other day you’re bound to come across some outrage-inducing kerfuffle at some point or another, and when people are riled up? It’s next to impossible to get past the signal-to-noise ratio unless you are boosting the signal or commenting on it. That emotion isn’t contained; it’s like fire and it spreads quickly. Heck, in some cases this translates to the dissection of happy posts when someone’s trying to be positive to turn it into something else.
For me, the current state of the internet means downtime to renew my resilience to the anger over nothings and avoid getting caught up in faux outrage, so I don’t get desensitized when something truly bad happens and I’m able to think more clearly. That, plus the time sink… Well, a writer needs to be disciplined, and every once in a while I need my offline moments to get back to center.
I’m hoping that one year this same article will be 365 things that made us happy, one for each day. Imagine how powerful that would be!
- Mood: Deadlines will eat me.
Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: Working out equals less caffeine. WHO KNEW?
Work-Out Minutes Logged Yesterday: 30 with various
In My Ears: White noise. Zzzzz…
Game Last Played: Brain Age II
Book Last Read: Erm… Can’t remember! And it was just yesterday!
Movie Last Viewed: Not sure. I’ve been re-watching the Doctor Who Christmas specials, though.
Latest Artistic Project: Beading! Cookies!
Latest Fiction/Comic Release: Last
Latest Game Release: Things Don’t Go Smooth
What I’m Working On: Primarily tie-in games work, original comics, and novels.