Fan fiction might be beneficial for your craft

It is my solid opinion that fan fiction is in fact good for beginning writers. Why? Because the essence of it comes from someone else’s mind. It comes to a writer through a movie or a book, fully formed and preferably done by someone with experience. It is easy to get immersed into a well-formed universe and become a part of it. Fan fiction can come easier than original fiction precisely because it already has a visual sense, whereas your own setting/plot is pure abstract; it only exists in your mind, therefore it is not fully formed until you put it on paper.

Fan fiction is a great way to practice. Some people stick with it forever and don’t write original fiction at all. Most of us, though, start to crave to invest our effort and time into something that we can call our own. That is where original fiction comes from.

Play to learn. Learn to master. Master to succeed.

Time waisted

Today I woke up and realized I’m 29 years old. No, my birthday was four months ago but today my brain finally processed it. As soon as I knew it, a part of me started to despair because I’ve missed the best part of my life.

Why? Because I didn’t get hammered every weekend? Because I spent most of my days sitting behind a desk, typing down letters and words? True, a lot of that time also went into playing games and watching movies. It’s strange how all of that used to mean so much to me.

So I’ve changed. I know exactly when I’ve changed. I know why I’ve changed too. I was busy getting my own mind under control. If I’d lived anywhere else, I imagine I would have spent my youth on one pill or another. Now that’s a scary thought.

So this is not really a rant about how I missed my twenties and didn’t do what I really wanted to do. No, I did exactly what I wanted to do. It’s just that I don’t like to do that anymore. Not because it was meaningless but because I’m a different person now. Hell, I’m about to be 30. About time I’m a different person.

I know what I want. And I’m going to get it. At least I will know to appreciate it. Twenties gave me that. Is that waisted time?

Made a colossal botch of Clockworks Warrior

I just found a very elementary mistake in my novella Clockworks Warrior. Bad news is I can’t take it out because it would make the entire story fall apart.

So here’s the problem: a certain character in Clockworks appears very unexpectedly and pretty much saves the day even though I think he still had a hard time and could never do it without help. Some readers complained that this character was too “deus ex machina” and I was surprised that I didn’t see it that way even when it was pointed out to me.

Now I know why I didn’t see it the same way.

Because I created the story for my WIP novel Arena first and Clockworks second.

Arena is happening two years after Clockworks, but it is paramount to read the Arena first and Clockworks second. Even though Arena happens later in the timelane, it’s a much bigger story and it introduces new characters, some of which also appear in Clockworks. If one reads just Clockworks without Arena, those characters are brand new and therefore strangers. But if one reads Arena first and Clockworks later, the reader would go “Hey, I know these guys!” and create the impact I was going for.

The catch is that Arena is still unfinished while Clockworks has been published for more than a year, since April 2012, so I’m really the only schmuck who found those characters familiar.

Good news is that I don’t have to repair it at all. All I have to do is publish (finish first) Arena and tell people that they should read it first, Clockworks later.

Such a rookie mistake. My apologies to people who read Clockworks and found the Arena characters confusing.

————————TIMELINE————————>
CLOCKWORKS WARRIOR                               ARENA
<——————–ORDER OF READING—–———-

So much dust

I’m not blogging lately, mainly because my focus is on my Master’s and second because I lack the energy to write my own stories, let alone to come up with an interesting blog post. At the moment, my primary concern is to finish a Master’s and finally get a decent job. My secondary concern is to improve my social life because being in a foreign country means lack of true friendships – you only realize how important they are when you have none to speak of. Way down in the third place is where I have writing at the moment. At this time, writing is one of the excuses why I’m not outside, looking for interesting people to hang out with.

Time to dust this blog and get it back in active mode, neh?

Wrestling with my brain. Brain winning.

I’ve been trying my hand at lucid dreaming again. Trying to access that spring of productivity to increase my visualisation skills.

And you know what? I think my brain is fighting back. It’s like I’m encroaching on a piece of territory that I was never suppose to step in. I’m being harassed by my subconscience for trying to tap resources that are in fact on holy ground.

In the middle of a dream, especially if I’m succeeding in controlling it, without warning I will get these truly gruesome images which make me go “Blech!” and can be enough to jar me out of that dream and I have to start over. No problem except that these dreams tire me and I get up not as rested as I could be. Since I’m working on my research thesis, I think I will give it a rest tonight, get my subconscience a chance to recuperate and repair its ego.

Talk about a drama queen!

Saw Looper. Scared me to death.

Hm. It’s been a while since I last made any post. I’ve put writing aside for a while, been busy with other career oportunities. Bristol is taking a lot of my time and honestly I didn’t have anything that I would write. I’m not a person who writes about their daily lives, about going for coffee. I don’t really understand Facebook and the people’s insatiable desire to dazzle others. I guess it comes from watching TV. Oh, who am I kidding! Who watches TV anymore? It’s all Internet now, isn’t it?

So I will write about something I came across in the new Bruce Willis movie. It had some flaws but Looper was a very interesting film with some good twists. A great time-travel brain teaser. I’m sure there will be people who will criticize it just because there are some decisions taken in a certain way. It needs abit of suspended belief but other than that the movie is great.

(minor spoilers ahead)

The movie that scared me to death

The movie does contain a certain scene that shook me to the core. One of the assassins is sent back through time and is supposed to be killed by his younger self. The younger version freezes and lets the older version get away, something the organization cannot afford. So how do they resolve the situation? They grab the younger version and cut a message into his arm. The older version (on the run) suddenly has a message written in scars on his arm. The message was “Be [designated place] at [designated time].” The older version continues to run until he tries to climb a fence and realizes he’s missing a finger on his hand. In a moment two fingers are missing, then three. Next moment he has no nose. It really doesn’t take a genius to figure out what is hapenning with the younger version. The older version jumps into a car, drives like crazy to the location specified. Suddenly the foot that is pushing on the pedal is missing. And on and on…
This was the single most horrifying scene I’ve ever seen in a movie. No slasher could compare with it for one simple reason. If a person gets eviscerated in a slasher, the person would be in physical and mental shock but there wouldn’t be any time to realize the change to the body image. The victim is likely dead before being able to have an emotional crisis.
In the Looper scene, there was no pain, no trauma, simply body parts disappearing. It plays on an entirely different emotional string. The fact is we own our bodies. We relate to our body; we are conscious of our appearance. Our bond with our body is as deep as is crucial to our every day activity. To suddenly not have your body there as it was is a most profound trauma.
Our conscience does not float. It is attached to our body. We are our bodies. Our body image is a fundemental part of our self-awareness. What’s left of that man at the end of that scene… Well, you’ll just have to watch it. Or maybe I’ve done my job and scared you to death.

Happy thoughts.

Transport complete…

I haven’t written any posts lately, mainly because settling in the UK takes most of my time and attention. I did some minor work on ‘Arena’, mostly trying to see how all the chapters stick together. After the latest word count, I can once more say I’ve gone over the line.

One or two chapters need work and then the first version of the novel will be complete. That means all chapters contain comments of the possible changes. As soon as I’m done with version one, I’m making version two by cutting out all the comments and connecting the chapters. This will probably reduce the word count somewhat but the added text for chapter connecting might compensate that.