Be the bird

Do you think this guy spends all day worried if the world will hate his creations? No, he just pulls the trigger. And what do you know, he's famous on the internet!

Watch this, now.

My Bad! :)

Also, I do what I waaaaant.  (you should hear that in Celine's voice)  Sorry about the lack of posting.  Yes, I have been sick, but you have two kids and a house to run so which of us has a better excuse for not keeping up on this?  Still me I think ;)

I've been going over and over and over and over what I've managed to get down of my story (see the post I just did on  http://randomlettersandnumbers.blogspot.com/) and beating my head against a brick wall in the process which I guess explains the headaches.  But I haven't spent much of that time (any since Tuesday night really) on the blog(s).  So yes, I've been neglectful and I don't really have any good reason to be.  But I'm better now and I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, I'm fat enough, and doggonit, people seem indifferent towards me.  So here is some of what I promised you on Wednesday.

1.  The Names:

  Main Character - Jayden Harris (aka Dark Spectre)
  The Father - Curtis Matthew Harris  (aka ?)  He goes by Matthew cause he hates his first name.  Not sure he should get an alias since he has no "powers" but is just a kick-ass martial artist.
  The Mother - May Harris-Morgan  (aka Shadow Slayer)  Deceased
  The Brother -   Issac Harris (aka Livewire)  Deceased
  The Sister - Megan Harris (aka Seraphim)  Deceased
  The Boyfriend - John Howard Brooks  (aka "The Scientist in flaskbacks since his face was covered when he and Dark Spectre first met)  Also, middle name was given because his parents were Howard the Duck fans.
  The Friend - Renly Sizemore (Therapist by day, dominatrix by night)

2. - 4.  These items pertained to the story itself.  See my blog post, this is slow going.

5.  Minor Antagonist:

Among the myriad of thugs, I intend to introduce a character with similar abilities to that of Bullseye from the Daredevil movie.  But I'm having a tough time coming up with a catchy alias for him (not planning on revealing his real name).  Here are some ideas that should convey his abilities so you can vote or offer up suggestions.  1.  Sharpshooter  2.  Dead Eye  3.  Snipe  or Sniper

Okay, so YAY!  That's where I'm at.  And thank you for posting the ideas for getting and keeping the creative juices flowing (which sounds really disgusting now that I've written it out...what a terrible expression).  Are we getting together today?

Dude

Are you trying to make me give up on you?

Writing Practice

Hi Aunty Romey!

 Just a quick list of writing exercises that you can employ when you feel stuck. If you can't write anything on one of your projects, try one of these to keep things going.

One Word - Where you get one minute to write in response to a word prompt of the day

100 words - Write a story, essay, whatever, 100 words a day for a month

Daily Writing Tips - Exercises - a list of 10 exercises.

Keep On Keeping On

I posted, Aunty Romey! Twice, just this week.

I'm excited because that clears out a couple of posts that I've had lingering unpublished in my archives for a year or so and now I only have to publish a One Hundred Word Wednesday post tomorrow to keep up some momentum.

I'm petrified because now I've cleared out two more posts that I'd had in the bank and after tomorrow's One Hundred Word Wednesday, I have to find some way to keep up momentum.

But for now, I've written. And posted. And I'm calling it a win.

Just a Reminder

Here it is.  My proclamation to the world.  Here is what I owe you on Wednesday.  And it's all here in print so I can't worm my way out of it.

1.  Figure out Dark Spectre's real name and settle on the names of his family and boyfriend.
2.  Write the scene where he stumbles in on Renly's dominatrix session.
3.  Expand on the intro by writing at least 3 pages of story (the intro may take three pages so I'll continue at least another 3 pages after the intro)
4.  Create the character bios I promised you like 2 weeks ago (although to be fair, this may not be entirely ready on Wednesday
5.  Finally, come up with a minor antagonist for our hero to battle with as he works up to the big fish.  No, he's not literally going to be fighting tuna, but you know the big bad guy(s).

So there it is.  I have a list, I have a deadline, and I know you'll kill me if I fail.  Everything's in place to get my off my lazy ass and onto my lazy ass so I can write and create.

Creatively Constipated

Ugh!  I haven't been able to write anything for a week.  I didn't even draw in my little sketch book (which I'm worried I might have left at my parent's house cause I'm having a hard time finding it).  I haven't slept or created in over a week now.  I've been reading, but that's not very creative of me.  They really ought to make some kind of mind laxative that let's you poo thoughts all over a page.  We definately need to get together this week cause there are some things I need to talk though and some stuff I need to talk about and some mind pooing to do.  And I feel even worse looking at how productive you've been.  I feel like such a slacker!  Who knew that not working was going to entail some sort of effort on my part!?  Ok, I'm gonna do something I hate doing.  I'm gonna exercise my mind and I hate exercise in all it's forms, so if that's not commitment to my work, I don't know what is.  Tomorrow?  Same bat time, same bat place?  Or how about your house at noon?

Banners, Badges and Bears, oh my!

Okay, so maybe not bears.

But I was thinking that we need to work on a look for the site. The simple layout we have is awesome, but what I really want is a button that I can grab and put on http://www.runningnekkid.com/ to show my semi talented pride.  (See this tutorial to know what I'm talking about.)

I opened my Open Office drawing app and made like the quickest little block of text on colored background I could, just to give an example. 

Anyway, what do you think? We should get together this week and put something together. My banner / button / freak flag block on runningnekkid.com is lonely, dude. I have buttons for Faces of Loss and for Nerdfighters, but not for our own project. This needs to change!

 C

The Little Engine That Could (Well,sometimes anyway)

For one week, I did a great job posting to my website. Six posts in seven days; not too shabby. (Did you notice my modest understatement there?) But I haven't posted since Wednesday and while I have a few things I'd been working on from my last go-round of writing, I can't pick one to just...effin'...work on. Do I want to finish the piece about Jonas becoming a  teenager or do I want to work on the piece about Natalie Portman's 2011 movie where her newborn baby dies?

The answer is that I'd like to do both, of course. I'd like to have both of those pieces done and queued up so that I can take the rest of the day off and enjoy this beautiful day. I mean, I'm probably going to take the rest of the day off anyway because it really is fricking beautiful out there. But cake, eating it, and all that jazz.

Anyway, the point I guess is that it doesn't matter how much I want to write as a career. It's still hard work. Settling down and digging deep to effectively communicate is a skill that needs to be honed just like sculpting or singing or artistic gardening. It doesn't just happen automagically. Man, it sucks, but I guess that's why I need to find ways to maintain motivation. More than a schedule or a routine, I require both the inspiration and perspiration necessary to create something I can feel proud of sharing. But these things take time, and since the baby wants to enjoy the sunshine even more than I do, time to sit around and write isn't something that I have much of this week.

Maybe tonight. We'll see. We'll hope, anyway.

C

Happy Birthday Aunty Jeremy!

Bear In Mind...

Even if you have to get a shitty job to make ends meet, having a creative outlet will help you maintain your sense of self. It will give you a sense of self to maintain.

Also, I wish you were in town this week. Glad you're spending time with the family and all that, but hey. I need  you too!

Tripping Out

Today has been filled with those mundane tasks we all have to complete from time to time.  Since I'm leaving for Yakima tomorrow that involved getting an emissions test for my car and getting the tabs squared away.  Not to mention doing some shopping, and running a couple of errands I don't want to put off until I get back next week.

Now, since I have little will power, if I have time I'll scan some of the drawings I have later this evening once all my other tasks are complete.  If you're interested I might even post a little character bio so you'll get to know our hero from the shadows... Dark Spectre.  Otherwise you'll have to wait until next week. :P

DO IT

Damn you, just start posting. Don't get yourself all worked up by trying to make everything perfect. Or even better. Show me the raw goodness of the creative process. Barf on me. 

Oh and you totally should be reading this: Hyperbole and a Half

Hard Work Pays Off...or something

I thought you would appreciate this.

Now upload some drawings, dammit!

Snot Burglar

Okay, so I know I said I would be posting last night, but we've already established my proclivity towards laziness, so...yeah.


Prepare for itemized update:

1.  I love the new site, it looks awesome.  Simple, clean, and drama free.  All the things one would look for in a posting on the man4man section of Craigslist.

2.  So, as I've said before, I've spent my last week sick and in bed, or on the couch (as was the case most of the time).  In between the extended periods of unconsciousness a miracle occurred:  I actually worked on stuff *insert choir voices and bright light from above*  For further details regarding the work please continue reading.

3.  The first thing I worked on was trying to get my characters figured out for the comic book.  I've got my main characters pretty well figured out and I've got my main hero's abilities and the mythology around his powers all worked out as well.  I'm working on refining the main story arch and trying to work through our hero's back-story.  All in all, my inability to focus on one portion of this project has proven to be... oh shiny.

4.  I've also been working on an admittedly piss poor attempt to sketch some of my main characters.  They really are quite horrible and no you can't see them yet.  I want to get them just right before the big reveal.  :P

5.  There has been significantly less time spent on that show I wanted to create about Egypt.  With only a cursory search on the main characters of that era (Akhenaten), it struck me yesterday that there is still so much work to be done on this... and the comic is much more fun than reading countless articles and reconstructing the existence of and ancient Egyptian in my head to attempt to write a somewhat convincing pilot that might hopefully convince some crazed, whacked out studio executive who just took a boat load of Ambien to even give the show a shot.  ...  ... ... ... So I'm just gonna focus on the comic for the immediate future.

Now that I'm on the mend from my terrible brush with a cold, I'm free to get distracted again by things like going outside or getting off my couch.  I'm a little worried I'll fall back into that old familiar pattern of sitting around, pretending to look for a job, and trying to motivate myself to loose weight over a Jack's Spicy Chicken Sandwich (#11).  Or even worse, I might actually get a job.

So keep my motivated Celeste!

~ Romey

Week Two: Going Live?

Romey, I did it!

Okay, so it's not exactly ready ready, as in the kind of ready that I wanted to be before it went live. But on Monday night I said screw it and had Ian flip the switch to swap the development site with the old crappy one that I'd left publicly abandoned.  So without further ado, please visit me at:
 

Like I said, I've got a lot that I still want to implement. An integrated twitter feed. More taxonomy to categorize my content properly. Related content displayed at the bottom of each post to keep my theoretical visitors around and reading. But since the worst thing I have written is still better than the best thing I haven't, let's go with what exists. Shit or get off the pot, or so they say.

Well I guess I just took a major shit.

Romey, why haven't YOU taken a shit yet? This blog is sorely lacking your voice, dude. Please make it at least LOOK like I'm not just talking to myself.

C