Thor, Hounded, and the Wonderful World of Distractions!

So, I didn't make this Blog so I could do book or movie reviews. I used to think that I would make a pretty good Film Critic(Ego much?) and have toyed with the idea of doing Blog or Youtube reviews for fun, but that isn't my intention today by any means. Instead, I'm using this opportunity to share my opinions while simultaneously explaining WHY my "Current Progress" meter has been at a stand still. And no, that isn't an error, it's just me sucking.

So... Thor. I liked Thor. I thought the acting was really good in general, though there were quite a few "cheesy" moments that... I dunno. Lots of people like that stuff, and admittedly so did I at one point. But nowadays, it's just not my thing. I thought there were too few action sequences involving Thor as a hero on Earth, and in general, despite the fact that they were traveling across the galaxy, the whole movie felt... confined. In my opinion, the best part of this film was Tom Hiddleston as Loki. No idea who the dude is, but he blew my socks off. All in all, Thor was a decent distraction.

I've needed distractions lately. I got to a point with my book where things were at a grinding halt. Are still, kind of. I'll explain later. But anyway, because of this I've been sinking myself into movies and books to try and... inspire myself. So in everything I've seen and read over the past two weeks, I've tried to draw lessons and ideas. In Thor, I decided that I shouldn't smash the book full of quipping one-liners, which I hadn't at all yet but still... once you introduce a funny character, which I have plans to do, it becomes a risk and a worry.

Now let's talk about my other distraction... Hounded. This book was an awesome distraction. After just finishing it, I thought it was really good, but since then I've upgraded it to awesome, because a day hasn't passed since I finished it that I didn't think about it. It's nothing at all like my book, but it's 9 different levels of awesome. AND, strangely, it has a bit in common with the movie Thor. I'm not going to spoil the connections, but yeah. If you'd like to know more about the book, feel free to hop over to my GoodReads page and read my short review of it. Like I said, I'm no critic, no reviewer, but I felt a sort of kindred need to support this guy, Kevin Hearne. This is his first book published, and he's an excellent example for me to follow. Hopefully someday I can meet the guy in a Death Star, and have one of those "Now I am the master" moments.

If this seems disjointed at all, it's because I'm at work writing it, and work has been... well, busy. Really busy. BUT, they hired the new dispatcher and he's in here training as we speak. So my life is going to change very soon, and I'll finally be out of the quicksand. Once I'm working my new shift, I know in my heart of hearts that this book thing is going to be back on the move big time. My most motivated period of the day to write is when I wake up. My problem has been that WORK then KILLS my brain. Well, one of my problems anyway. I also decided today that there is a portion of my book that I want to re-write. See, I told myself that I should just jot down any new ideas and refrain from backtracking, because I would never finish. Well, I've discovered that while that idea is all well and good, once something is in my head, it blocks everything else unless I indulge it and get it out. This morning I decided to allow myself to start to work on the portion and the ideas I have for it, and everything started flowing again.

So I take this as a valuable lesson learned. I have been thinking about starting a side-project though, as suggested by my friend Rhianna, and so as a conclusion to this post I'd like to pose a bit of a poll of sorts to you peoples. In your opinions, what would be more cooler: A story that was basically Terminator Salvation meets Lord of the Rings (cybernetic Elves with laser bows) or a Dystopian Babes in Toyland (Present day teens dropped into a desolate Toyland run by the evil, electronic toys)? I've got ideas for both, but I'm curious to see what normal people think. Not that anyone who reads what I write is normal.

Take that as a compliment. Anyway, that's all for now. Until next time...


Dream Big,
Ian

May the Fourth Be With You!

It's been a bit longer than usual since I last checked in, and I decided that today being Star Wars day made a perfect occasion. I am a Star Wars fanatic in the worst possible way, so despite so much crazy crap going on here at work, I'm a happy little worker bee, day dreaming as I have millions of times about being a Jedi, dueling with my lightsaber and being one with the Force. I'll be watching "A New Hope" when I get home today, because it is my favorite film because I am a Star Wars purist/elitist/snob. I'm also currently reading the second book in the Legacy of the Force Saga entitled Omen, which is the first real novel that deals with the up and coming Sith Empire that is going to be emerging in the EU updated timeline. None of these books are exceptionally long, but man... I love them. I could read Star Wars books all day every day.

I've been reading a lot lately, mostly because I've been having trouble writing. I've written and deleted and written and deleted the same 5 pages of story like 4 times over the past week and a half, and I just got to the point where I had to step back and take a few days off from it. I'm probably the worst sort of person to set out on a book writing endeavor because I'm constantly hounded by doubt in everything I do, but it becomes exceptionally hard to handle when writing a book. But alas, I digress. I know I'll get through this, it's just going to take some time. Unfortunately, the person who I talked to and ultimately brainstormed and tossed my ideas at, I've clipped out of my life for unrelated reasons, and I've found it quite difficult to move forward in a story like this without someone to bounce ideas off of. Just the act of talking about the book alone gets me motivated to write, and lately I have pretty much no one to do this with.

In the past, though, I always found that reading other stuff helped me to write, and so I've got 2 books I'm bouncing back and forth between. I'm also going to see Thor this Saturday, which will be really good for me. I need to be able to watch something fantastical that I've never seen before, and attack my brain with new and exciting ideas and images. I've been paying a lot of attention to the NBA Finals and the Los Angeles Lakers, and that kind of stuff doesn't spark anything. It is relaxing, though, and after a crappy day at work (which they all seem to be, lately) it's good to relax the brain. Speaking of work, they hired a new graveyard guy, so I'm looking at 3 weeks at the latest before I'm moved into my new shift. I'm really, really excited. Finally, I'll get to catch up on the 3 years of sleep I've been missing out on. I'll be able to wake up and feed all of my energy into my writing and into going out and being active and I'm just ready for it. It's a big reason my job has felt so BLAH lately. I've been dying for this change, and the longer I wait, the worse my current shift feels.

I know, you totally empathize. Anyway, what else is new? Osama is dead. That was a big one. Lots of Drama there. I also found out that my old Hometown of Jacksonville has been flooded with overpasses. Weird news which most of you won't understand, but it totally throws me off. I'm thinking I'll be trying to make a trek back there sometime in 2012 before the world ends.

So expect my little word tracker to start moving again here soon. Send your positive energy in my direction so that I can get these wrackspurts out of my head. Until next time...


Dream Big,
Ian