It’s incredibly difficult, given that I’m used to writing from a character’s PoV. I usually spend a fair amount of time in a character’s mind. I expect this will cut out about one-third of my usual narration. It’s an interesting exercise, but I wonder if what I complete will be any good.

We shall see.

I was writing on my computer. That is how I have written since university. At my job, I write a lot of reports, and doing that, I have found it is easier to compose my ideas with pen and paper, than type that in. It’s almost like an initial proofread, as during the data entry I catch grammar and logic errors, as well as realizing something isn’t flowing right.

I’m sure you can figure out what I did.

Switching to pen and paper allowed me to get the words out on the page. It was dialogue, a final exchange, and I was able to get that dialogue out and on the page. During data entry, I added actions and descriptions, rounding out the scene. Something that had foiled me for three nights in a row was sorted in a single night.

All this to say that if you’re hitting some kind of wall, be it writer’s block or finding the words on the page aren’t the words you had in your head, switch your tool. For me, it was moving from the computer to pen and paper. For you, it might be moving from pen and paper to speaking into a voice recorder (or trying to compose on the computer).

And, honestly, if you are someone who hasn’t faced this situation that really won’t make much

Look for the story “The Crane Horror.” As you can see, lots of competition, but read Bruce’s story and let that help guide your voting.

You can find the poll here.

You can find the story for which Bruce is nominated here.

I’m not presenting this as a rule, but for me I need discipline when I write. That used to be choosing a time of day and setting that aside for writing. I cannot, unfortunately, do that with two kids and lots of chores around the house. I write when my other responsibilities have been met.

What I can do, and I have done, is sit my butt down and bull through the stories when I have the time to do so. With kids in bed and dishes done by 8:30 PM, if I ignore everything else – emails, my RSS feeds, Twitter, Google+ – I can get an hour of writing. I still need to “spool up,” get into the voice of the story, remind myself how the story was to move forward, get into gear. That can sometimes take 15 minutes as I read a few paragraphs and check notes. Most nights, I don’t get an hour, so sometimes by the time I’ve “spooled up,” it’s 15 or 20 minutes before bed.

And bed is important. It’s important that I get enough sleep so I can be patient and involved with my kids, helpful and interested for my wife, on the ball and in focus at work, and – importantly for this post – so that I can be creative in those minutes I get to actually write.

Listen, you might be different, but unless I get as close to eight hours of sleep as possible*, the bulling through is going to produce little of value. It still has to be done. It has to be done because once I’m out of practice, it’s that much harder to maintain discipline. Take a few nights to read Google+ or catch up with really interesting posts found through “The Browser,” and I won’t have the discipline to keep sitting down and writing. Too many nights giving writing a pass was what got me to the place where I have all these unfinished stories just lying around.

Too many night giving writing a pass and I stop calling myself a writer.

*preferably more, but that doesn’t really matter, because I’ve been told we never really ‘catch up’ when we have a massive sleep deficit

You can find “The Browser” here, but be prepared to lose time to lots of interesting articles.

So I made a donation.

If you use Wikipedia as much as I do, you might want to consider doing the same.

You can donate to Wikipedia here.

I will preface this by saying that I enjoyed and own all previous three M:I movies on DVD, though I only saw MI2 (the one directed by John Woo) in the theatre.

If you are a fan of the M:I franchise, you will enjoy MIGP. Brad Bird proves he can totally handle live action, and lively action as well. There are some great action set-pieces, some wonderful fight scenes, and a couple of outstanding visuals. This is a movie that should be seen on the big screen. I will still be getting it and watching it on our widescreen at home, but this movie was undoubtedly built for the theatre.

The team assembled – which of course includes Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, but also includes Jeremy “mother-fuckin’ Hawkeye, bitches!” Renner, Simon “how many more awesome movies can I be in?” Pegg, and Paula “I have no idea who she is but she’s hot and kicks ass, so welcome!” Patton. As you may have already surmised from the trailers, the IMF has been shut down, the team are acting without support, and the Jeremy Renner character may, in fact, be the Avenger known as Hawkeye.

That last one is totally untrue, but the character isn’t exactly what he says he is, so there’s that tension as well.

Everyone delivers solid performances. As my wife and I agreed, Tom Cruise may be a total nutjob, but he can really deliver in the right role. We also recently saw him in Bryan Singer’s Valkyrie, in which he also totally delivered the goods.

There’s really nothing negative to say about the movie. I’m sure there are plot holes, but the action was moving along so nicely, I wasn’t tuned in to note them. There’s nothing ground-breaking in this movie. It’s not going to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards (but, then again, the average vote for prom queen is less fraught with social dynamics than the Oscars), but it is a really great actioner.

I’ll say it again, if you dig on M:I, Ghost Protocol will likely feed you what you crave. I give it 4.5 self-destructing messages out of 5.

Find more info on the movie at it’s IMDB Page or at Wikipedia.

The first is a series of books by Daisy Meadows, which Wikipedia reliably informs me is a pseudonym for a cadre of writers. My complaint with these “Rainbow Magic” books is the craft. Not the plotting or the characters – both of which are properly measured for my daughter’s age – but the actual technical craft. Surely, some will say, if it is written for children, craft is not important. To which I reply: but we learn how to speak and how to write based on what we read. If what we read is faulty, we will learn faulty grammar and diction. Now, the books are not particularly poorly written, but I do cringe each time I must read them. This, I know, is the writer in me, the one who has problems not critiquing even material I am reading for enjoyment.

I will say that I have a small complaint regarding the villains, which are seen in the kind of stark black terms Tolkien reserves for orcs. The goblin bad-guys are not evil per se, more mischievous, but seem totally unrepentant and – as a race – lacking in redeeming qualities. It’d be nice to see the main villain, Jack Frost, finally atone for his misdeeds, join the fairy king and queen (Oberon and Titania, no less) and bring a new villain onto the stage. I still dig Tolkien though, so I’m muting that complaint.

Given these complaints, I will continue to buy these books as long as my daughters continue to request them. The two main characters – young girls – are independent, resourceful and willing to take risks. While they sometimes fail, they finally succeed, and they do so because they persevere. They act not out of self-interest, but in order to help the innocent—the fairies – who have been victimized. The girls profit nothing save by gaining friendship, adventure, and experience. These are lessons I want my daughters to internalize. I want my daughters to emulate these characters, sans the fairies.

In contrast, Disney’s Disney Fairies Storybook Collection has a couple of stories in it that make my blood run cold. While the technical skill is far better than in the Rainbow Magic series, the message of the Disney Fairies seems to be “you are born into a role which you can never, and should never escape.” Tinker Bell, in these stories, is mechanically apt, which I was very excited when introduced to the stories (mechanical aptitude is something else I hope my daughter’s will emulate which daddy absolutely does not have). However, when Tinker Bell decides she wants to do something else, she not only cannot succeed at the other “talents” (think of “bending” from Avatar: the Last Air Bender, as each fairy has a particular talent, some with water, or tinkering, or animals, or even light). In the end, she learns to be happy in her place, as a tinker talent.

This reminds me far too much of the Medieval Catholic church – if you are born a peasant, that is what God intended, and it is a sin to strive for more. Do not upset the great chain of being, or chaos will ensue.

You know what? Screw you, Disney. Your damnable princess stories have messed my girls up enough with the constant drumbeat of “you are useless until you find the right man.” Even when you try to be more inclusive, you’re telling them to mind their place and stay under the stairs less the better quality of people be affrighted by their presence.

My hate is hot enough to thaw Walt’s head and then melt it like Todt in Raider’s of the Lost Ark.

Here endeth the lesson.

Wikipedia informs me about Daisy Meadows here.

Encounter the Rainbow Magic for yourself, here.

I refuse to link to Disney. I will, however, link to head melties.

What’s next? A sequel to “For Simple Coin,” which was in On Spec and is included in the eponymous Sword Noir short story collection. What will give it some traction in my creative brain? I’m making it even a little bit more hardboiled by changing it to first person narrative. I know, I know, lots of submission guidelines say “no first person,” and maybe it’s going to make it un-publishable, but it makes sense to me to mimic Raymond Chandler.

Stay tuned for regular submission updates. Fingers crossed I’ll have some good news in 2012.

You can get information on Black Gate # 15 here.

You can find On Spec here.

You can find For Simple Coin here.

Usual “sorry I’ve been away” stuff aside, I wanted to mention my vision of Viking mayhem and adventure, Kiss My Axe: Thirteen Warriors and an Angel of Death is now available in PDF and Print. January of 2012 will see the release of Suffer the Witch, an adventure for Kiss My Axe.

Also? I finished another story somewhat in the Sword Noir vein using the characters from “A Dead Pound of Flesh” (Black Gate #15). After I finish proofing and editing (and getting others to help me do so) it, I’ll start shopping it around. Editors of the world, beware!

You can find Kiss My Axe: Thirteen Warriors and an Angel of Death here.

Other awesome Sword’s Edge Publishing products can be found here.

Get yourself some Black Gate here.

A duellist in a dying city facing a weapon of fiery death, not to mention temptation.

Two fur trappers hunted by a spirit of hate that feeds on the very fear it engenders.

An arrogant apprentice to a vain wizard finds himself in a race to unlock secrets hidden for centuries.

MacBeth, beloved King of the Scots, faces his last day and learns his name will damned.

A cunning sorcerer has decided he will not be a victim, he would rather be a victor.

These are the wizards and warriors that populate Gifts of the Elder Gods. Join them in their adventures, touched by magic and the supernatural, with wits and weapons of mysticism or steel to overcome the snares of diabolical enemies.

Gifts of the Elder Gods is the new short fiction collection from Sword’s Edge Publishing. You can find it at RPG Now and Drive Thru RPG. It is available in PDF, ePub, and mobi formats, with print-on-demand coming soon.