It’s been a much better week. I’m feeling much more well-rested and interested in projects again, which is a great sign.
Writer
Writing23 (out of 66) scenes complete – structural/continuity revision
It’s been a difficult writing week. I’m struggling with the current scene – it was originally part of the previous scene and needed heavy structural reshaping. Then my characters wouldn’t play ball and each little part I fixed seemed to break something. However, in the last couple of days I seem to have made a breakthrough and it’s all coming together now.
Reading“Accelerando” by Charles Stross
Still reading this! The underlying story is good, but I find him a very dense writer and I have to pay lots of attention to follow the plot. Not always good for bedtime reading when feeling a little sleepy!
“The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Verbal Self-defense” by Lillian Glass
I’ve chosen a non-fiction book to alternate with “Accelerando” and this was a great choice. It takes a look at speech patterns/situational awareness/body language to give you cues on when you’re ‘under attack’ and how to most effectively defend yourself in those situations. It blends quite nicely with the situational awareness I’m learning for Krav – being able to use verbal early warning signs is an essential skill and good to have in the self-defense tool-kit.
Fighter
Kettlebell: 8kg
I’ve been looking at the final move in my arsenal of basic kettlebell exercises, the military press:
I’m now focusing on three different beginner routines with different emphases: cardio fitness, body shaping and power/strength. I’m keeping the reps small (only half the recommended, this week) to make sure my form is correct while I’m learning the routine and not going to do myself any damage.
Geek
I’m feeling decidedly (and shockingly) ungeeky recently. Probably because I’m between games and I’ve been too tired/busy to find anything else that holds my interest.
So what are you playing? Anything you’d recommend?
I have posted recently about my general lack of energy and poor mood, and how I’ve tried to give myself a bit of a mind/body MOT to fix them (Sleep is the Key). The first thing I tackled was my apparent allergy to an early bedtime and have been moderately successful this week. I am now much less sleep-deprived.
Unfortunately, I don’t seem to have tapped into a boundless well of energy as a result. So I am attempting further life-hacks in the hope of tracking down the mojo-sucking culprit.
Next on the interrogation list: exercise. Ironically, this is something I’d felt I’d already sussed. I have a decent fitness program in place which includes kettlebell workouts, a Wii-based cardio program and Krav training. Certainly, well over the 30 minutes of moderate exercise, five days a week that the NHS recommend.
Taking a closer look, though, I realised two things. Firstly, pretty much everything I did was indoors. Secondly, I’d really drifted away from being active for fun. All my exercise was geared around various training goals rather than enjoyment. I was well overdue picking an activity just for the hell of it.
As it wasn’t actually raining this morning (a miraculous event in itself) I thought “sod this”, ditched my normal routine and dug my bike out from the back of the shed. Time for some fresh air and a vitamin D top up. I didn’t go for anything particularly challenging – just a fun half-hour route around local woodland.
It was fabulous – a great way to blow away the cobwebs and relax. I found myself sailing up hills that had previously had me out of breath and reaching for lower gears. Wow, I had made some improvements to my fitness over the last year after all! My quick mood and energy boost had turned into a morale boost along the way.
Did bunking off my normal exercise routine and getting outside make a huge difference to my energy levels? Probably not. But I’m definitely going to make more room for active play in future.
Some writer-related links – collected over several weeks but never quite made an actual dedicated blog post:
The Periodic Table of Storytelling – an inspired organisation of tropes into story elements. Funny at first glance but worth your time for a closer look.
Making Light: A digression on literary categories – possibly the clearest explanation of literary genres I’ve ever seen. I also had a lightbulb moment reading it – my story isn’t near-future sci fi, I think it’s more of a techno-thriller.
It’s just a picture of a tartan ribbon and may seem unremarkable, yet it marks a crucial moment in the development of colour photography and forms the basis of the photographs we take today.
The photograph was first seen at King’s College London during a Royal Institution lecture on colour theory by the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell on the 17 May 1861 and the college is marking the 150th anniversary of that demonstration with an evening of talks celebrating his scientific discoveries.
The first permanent colour photograph was taken by Thomas Sutton who was working with Clerk Maxwell and is a composite of three black and white pictures, each one taken through a red, green or blue filter. The resulting slides were then projected through three similarly filtered lenses resulting in a colour photograph
The technology has come on a little way since then. Perhaps we should all dig our cameras out this evening in commemoration. I wonder if I have any tartan ribbon knocking about…
I’ve been finding my fighting inspiration this week by discovering some amazing interviews with top level martial artists.
I have particularly enjoyed this interview/montage with Jamaican karate master, Al Hewitt, who manages to blend toughness with an effortless grace and wisdom.
Also worth listening to are the Martial Secrets archives which have a wonderful collection of interviews from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines.
Each of the martial arts masters I’ve listened to have such a different perspective and it’s been a joy to listen to their methods of training, mental conditioning and the pivotal moments in their martial arts journey.
This time last year, I had just finished the first draft of my book. It was 75,000 words long and had taken my just over six months to write. Back then, I thought that the hard part was over – all I needed to do was polish it – perhaps another six months to a year’s worth of work? (Cue hollow laughter)
A year later, I’m only a third of the way through the first revision pass – with at least three further passes to do after I’ve finished this. It still has massive flaws, despite being an exponential improvement on the previous draft. I won’t be showing it to anyone quite yet.
I could try to devote more time to writing, I suppose. Reorganise my life to prioritise the book. I suspect that would become a quick road to misery. Most of my best progress has been using the “little and often” approach, frequently chipping away and allowing myself the mental space to figure things out. Also, I need a balance in my life with other interests in order to stay sane and have worthwhile experiences to bring to the page. It’s all too easy to dismiss the work that goes on away from the keyboard as insignificant.
I won’t deny that it feels like a blow. I expected to be much further along by this point. I’ve invested a lot of time into this with very little to show for it. In addition, I’m feeling very unmotivated about my writing as a whole.
But then I realise that it’s this year I’ve learned the most. Nowhere near enough, but a lot. I still love the underlying story and I really want to learn how to make the narrative shine and gain its own life, outside of my imagination.
These weekly posts are always so much easier to write when the week has gone well. Unlike this one. I’m still battling low energy and apathy, although I’ve felt a bit brighter in the last couple of days.
Writer
Writing23 (out of 66) scenes complete – structural/continuity revision
Managed to put in some good effort on the latest scene, but annoyingly found that it needed to be split into two separate ones – the goalposts have moved back a little further.
Reading“Accelerando” by Charles Stross
Have neglected reading along with everything else.
Same place as I was last week. Maintaining rather than progressing.
Geek
The high point in the week was meeting up with the Worcester Flickr Group at menickstephensorg‘s garage studio. I’m very rusty with my camera (I’ve got into point/shoot/fix later bad habits) but it was great to experiment with different lighting and have fun in the process.
I’m posting this in particular for my audioboo friends – we’ve been having a discussion about kids, the internet and how much supervision/freedom is appropriate for their age.
This talk by Cory Doctorow regarding social media and privacy is very relevant to that conversation and is also bloody good. Highly recommended!
I have not been in a good head-space over the last week or so. No real reason for it. Minor life stresses, sinus and allergy problems, tiredness, dreary weather, other trivial frictions – nothing that I could really point to and say, “There – that’s the problem. Fix that and everything else will fall into place”.
The last few days it’s started to affect the way I exercise and train. I usually exercise last thing in the afternoon before picking the kids up from school, so it’s easy to drop it or only do halfheartedly if I’m not feeling 100% or am just running behind. I skipped training this week, primarily because of the rumblings of a sinus headache that threatened but never really kicked off. Allergies do seem to be worse recently and are getting me down, but if I’m honest with myself I could have worked through it if I didn’t feel so exhausted and without spark.
So, for the next few weeks I’m going to be putting energy (or lack thereof) as my priority. There’s other things I need to work through too, but if I’m too tired or disinterested to care then it’s not going to happen. Sleep patterns, diet and the way I exercise will all be coming under the microscope – sort of a mind/body MOT.
Sleep is the most obvious starting point. After the chain of bank holidays, bad habits have crept in with later bedtimes and lighter mornings have meant that the kids are waking us up earlier. Over time, the amount of sleep we’ve been getting has been squeezed into a smaller and smaller time slot – not by much, but accumulatively I have become seriously sleep deprived.
Last night, I forced myself to switch off the lights at 11pm, but just could not get to sleep. My brain (that had helpfully been too tired to function all day) was suddenly wide awake and unable to switch off. I had a restless night followed by painfully bright and bouncy children this morning. I think I feel more shit today than I have done for the whole of last week.
“A muse is a fickle creature. She’ll promise to stop by, then decide to go to her violin lesson instead. Meanwhile, you just opened your laptop and…nothing. She knew this was your only available writing time! And when did she start playing the violin, anyway?”
