Tuesday 28 July 2009

Bits 'n Pieces

I have a proper blog post on the go, but I want to take my time on it, which means that it'll probably take a few days. In the meantime then, here are a few random thoughts plucked from my brain:

- The 600th issue of Amazing Spider-Man hit last week, and it's a perfect example of why the series is so good. 104 pages with the only adverts on either side of the covers, it features a 60-page lead story and more backups than you can shake a stick at. Plus it has a reference to the Family Guy 'everybody gets one' joke, and a one-page bit with Spider-Man saying 'Open fire, men! Open fire on those awful hippies! They're destroying our values!' What more do you want? :D

- It's slightly depressing how little TV I watch these days. The only thing I make a point of watching on the actual TV is You Have Been Watching, ironically a program about what else is on TV. Other than that and The Daily Show (which I really should watch more), there's really nothing that pulls me. There's a few American shows which I keep meaning to catch up on (House, Chuck, 24, erm... some stuff that slips my mind), but where's all the good British stuff? Surely there's some good homegrown stuff out there amid all the reality TV and lowest common denominator shit?

- Moving to a new room and relocating all of my books has made it clear just how many comics I've bought in the past three years. It's a lot. I've slowed down on buying collected editions, but that's been compensated for by an increase in single issues. My collection is at the size now that I should be able to sort through it and find some stuff that I could get rid of, but all that accomplishes is making me want to read it all again. If I ever go missing, just look under the massive pile of X-Men comics. I'll be there, choking on issue 38 of X-Factor.

- If you want to have some idea of what it's like to be me right now (and who wouldn't? :P), imagine this in your right ear constantly, blocking out anything else: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Fun, huh?

Monday 13 July 2009

Previously on 'Random Thought Experiments'...

Blog: I'm fed up of you forgetting me for weeks at a time! It's like you don't care about me!
Skoot: I'm sorry. I've been a twat. I do care about you, honest. Let me make it up to you. I'll start posting at least once a week again.
Blog: *sniff* You... you mean it?
Skoot: I promise.
Blog. Well... okay then.

Skoot: So from today onwards I will write 1,000 words a day without fail.
Audience: Yeah, right...

Jen: *poke* Write a blog entry.
Skoot: Ow! In a bit.
Jen: *poke* Now.
Skoot: I've nothing to write about.
Jen: *poke* Now!
Skoot: Ow! Alright!

Tyler: We've only got fifteen seconds before the bomb blows up!
Skoot: Okay, okay, let's relax. We need to cut a wire.
Tyler: How do you know that?
Skoot: That's how it's done on TV, and TV never lies, right?
Tyler: It lies constantly! Don't you remember...
Skoot: There's no time to remember things! I'm cutting the red wire...

Yeah... as you might have guessed, I suck, and am made of fail. I did do the whole thousand word thing for a couple of days, honest, but then something happened which threw me off track. I won't go into details here, particularly as most of the people reading this will already know, but this has officially become a pattern with me. Stuff Happens, and I respond by downing tools and not doing anything for a few days. With the frequency that Stuff Happens, this isn't the most ideal thing, and I really need to sort myself out so that I can get back in the game.

I'm not going to do another one of those posts where I moan about my writing (or lack thereof) for ages though. I'm beginning to get sick of myself doing that, and if I feel that way I can't imagine what you're thinking. Instead I'm going to take stock of everything I've got going on at the moment.

Running To Stand Still
The novel. It's all a bit stop and start at the moment. I've written at least something on it most nights recently, even if that's not much. It hasn't helped that I've been stuck on how to do a fairly pivotal scene. Now that's out of the way I'm looking to get into a rhythm with writing this thing, with a view to finishing it by November at the latest. But first...

Untitled Pirate Detectives story
The Pirate Detectives is an idea I had about a year or so ago, and dismissed at the time for being just too ludicrous (why on earth would pirates choose to be detectives?). It popped back into my head a week or so ago with a new case for them to solve, and after figuring out a way around the madness inherent in the concept, I figured I'd give it a shot. It's relatively light and fluffy (especially compared to the other stuff I write), it should end up fairly short, and it'll help me get back into the swing of things. I'll finish off writing this before I plunge back into the novel full-time.

Crescent Rising
The thing I haven't talked about on here yet. This is a collaborative project I've started with some friends. It's all gone a bit quiet, which I blame myself for a fair bit as I pretty much disappeared from it, but I'm still interested in picking it up. There are some very interesting ideas going around, and I've love to jump into the world we're creating and have a good play around. That said, it'll probably be a short while before I pick this up, as I'll need to know how it'll fit in with everything else I'm doing.

Random Thought Experiments
This blog. I've been neglecting her a fair bit, and I'm going to turn that around. I'll do my best to post at least once a week from now on. This probably means that as I run out of things to say around writing, I'll move on to other stuff - I have been told that I should try doing some reviews online, though whether that's because people like my rants or they're sick of me forcing them on them I don't know ;).

That's pretty much it. There are a few other things bouncing around my head (like the story that I'll probably end up doing for this year's NaNo), but they're not really big enough to be anything much more than distractions from the more important things. It's certainly enough to be getting on with, now I just need to devote the time to actually getting on with it. Wish me luck!