..:: Written .:. Off ::..

Ive been asked to be a guest blogger at Heavy Metal Time Machine, while Mark is on vacation.

If you are wondering why a 37-year old man still listens to heavy metal, read my guest post here.

The other day, I posted about writers who feel the drive to write but have no idea what to write about. I mentioned that I’m on the opposite end of the spectrum. I often have a whole slew of ideas rolling around my head. I get new ideas every single day. What I’ve learned over the years is put these ideas away into storage and not act on them right away. I do this because most of my ideas tend to be…how should I say it…half-baked.

The good thing about having dozens of half-baked ideas is that with some proper thought, I can take a group of ideas and roll them into something that’s usuable. Most of the work that I’m most proud of are ideas that I’ve had for a long time.

A good example of this is, The Eater, which is the first flash fiction story that I ever wrote. I had this idea in some shape or form for a long time; a character is on a spaceship that is about to be swallowed by a black hole. He is frantically trying to save himself, when he is suprised to find himself in awe of the blackhole’s beauty. I was going to make this the end of science fiction novel that I would write some day, but then one night, I just wrote it out as a flash piece. This story will now become the centerpiece of a much larger work based around the character Jaxx.

There are times, when I rush and create stories from ideas that are not well thought out. You can read my story Mechanical Creatures and Killed By Death to see examples of what happens when I rush an idea. I wrote both of those to meet blog carnival deadlines and forced myself to come up with something to write about.

One good thing that can come out of writing out a half-baked idea is that it may morph into something that works. Either way, you will probably learn something along the way. I believe that if you do write a story that you don’t think cuts it, you should probably hold off sending it out to every magazine or publication that you can find. Posting crap stories at my blog is one thing (since all of you are very kind) but I don’t want to be the guy who causes “rolled eyes” every time an editor gets one of my stories.

“Not this guy again!” I can hear them saying.

To read more about ideas, follow this link to Holly Lisle’s site and read her article:

Ideas: A Hundred for a Dollar 

Copyrights

I sent my novel off to the copyright office so today is the first day that I’m officially copyrighted! I’m excited about this for some reason. It has something to do with feeling like I’m moving forward with this project and not backwards, like usual.

Copyrighting my work was much easier than I expected. I was able to fill out a short form, write out a check for $45 dollars and send it off. My novel is considered registered the day it is received by the Copyright office.

For more information on Copyrights in the US, check out http://copyright.gov

Slayer on The Henry Rollins Show this Weekend!

If you are a fan of the metal band Slayer, you won’t want to miss them on the Henry Rollins Show, this Saturday night at 10:00pm EST on IFC where they will be performing their new song Cult. You can also check out a web exclusive performance of Slayer by going to IFC and clicking on the link to the Henry Rollins show.

I love to go to the bookstore. One of those big ‘ole Barnes and Noble stores is located only a few blocks from my work. We even have a Borders Bookseller within walking distance. I usually hit the bookstore at lease once a week, even if I have no plans to buy anything. I make sure to stop by the Writing section during my trips. You can find books on every aspect of writing. They even have, “I Ching For Writers” which looked so involved that one would have to wonder how anyone using this method would even find time to write.

Of all of the variety of books out there, the one that I’m most intrigued about are those geared toward writers who want to write but lack ideas. Not having any ideas of what to write about is an alien concept to me. I always have ideas, boatloads of them. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have the nagging urge to write but not know what to write about.

Maybe I can relate to this concept in different way. For years, I spent my time in a band. I was the chief songwriter behind each band that I was in. As time wore on, I began to lack ideas for songs. I would want to play music but found myself with nothing to say lyrically. The ideas that I did have were way to complex to fit into songs, which is reason I gave up music and turned to writing. I think that my lack of lyrical inspiration was directly caused by my waning interest in being in a band.

So, while I can relate to wanting to write and not knowing what to write about to an extent, I think that it would be maddening to be in that predicament. Would this even be considered “Writer’s Block”? I usually equate writers block as being temporary.

So what do you think?

Clerks II is a movie that I have been looking forward to since Kevin Smith said that he was going to make. In his usual self-depreciating manner, he said that he was doing what everyone in Hollywood was expecting him to do after the commercial failure of Jersey Girl; going back to the “well”.

The original Clerks remains a classic slacker film, loved by 20-somethings everywhere. I remember seeing this movie with a friend and then proceeding to drag everyone that I knew to see it the next week.

Clerks II catches up with our old friends, Dante, Randell, Jay and Silent Bob over ten years after the original. Dante and Randell haven’t changed. They still work behind the counter of the Quick Stop. The movie opens with Dante finding that the Quick Stop has burned down to the ground because Randall left the coffee machine on. Instead of pursuing more lucrative careers, the pair take jobs at the local fast food joint (Moobys).

I won’t tell you anymore except that the movie was hysterical and has heart to it. There are some funny cameos and the suprising us of King Diamonds music adds to the fun. There was one particularly funny part where a new character begins discussing something called “pillow pants”. My wife was laughing so hard during this part that I thought she was going pass out.

The thing that makes these movies so enjoyable is the characters and the dialogue. Smith’s characters remind you of your best friends and all of those people that you went to school with who you have some fond and not so fond memories of.

Fans of Smiths movies will love Clerks II. If you need a good laugh and don’t mind a load of vulgarity, I suggest you head out the theater and check it out!

I have a really low tolerance for other people. I’m not a mean person or someone who is hard to get along with, it’s just that I expect the rest of the human race to treat each other with courtesy. I know that I’m a dreamer, but is it really hard for people just to be a bit courteous to one another?

Yesterday, my wife and I took the day off and went to the movies to see Clerks II. The show that we attended was a matinee which cost us $14.50. We headed to the (junk) food counter and dropped another $20 for 1 tray of nachos, 1 bag of popcorn and 2 sodas. I’m sorry, when it costs you $35 for people to go to a matinee, something is wrong (but that’s another post).

We sit down in a relatively empty theater just as the previews begin. A moment later, a group of 4-5 guys come in an sit down right behind us. They begin talking like they are watching a movie in their house. And even more annoying, they start ripping on the trailer and snickering whenever someone on the screen says something. I glance back at them, getting more and more annoyed, and confirm what I had suspected all along, I was sitting in front of a group of Fanboys. Fanboys are not your run of the mill annoying people who talk though a movie. Fanboys are a cynical group of elitists who are fanatical about certain movies, directors or other form of entertainment while heaping piles of scorn on things that they dislike or consider uncool.

As the trailer played on and the comments and snickering continued, I was gripped with the urge to stand up and ask them if they could please show me the movie that they made, that is so much better than every trailer that we were seeing. But there is no movie or screenplay or book to show. The Fanboys are too insecure and would rather just rip apart someone elses work then produce something of their own. Maybe I’m sensitive to this kind of stuff, since I’m a writer myself and know that I would have to deal with these types if I ever sold a book.

Instead of making a scene or moving seats, I relaxed and comforted myself with this thought; “Maybe these guys are huge Kevin Smith/Clerks fans and will shut the f**k up during the movie.” I was right, I didn’t hear a peep out of the Fanboys for most of the movie, except when one of them was commenting on how gross he thought the lovely Rosario Dawson was.

Hey buddy, I’m sure she would have the same reaction looking at you. Now go get your shinebox*.

*Gratuitous Goodfellas reference

Last night, I was flipping through the 10,000 cable channels and noticed how many reality shows are on. Everyone has a show these days. There’s Dog the Bounty Hunter, The Lisa Loeb Show, Super Nanny, Wife Swap (which isn’t nearly as provocative as it should be), Rockstar, Big Brother and so on.

There are even fake reality TV shows like Reno 911 and Dog Bites Man. The impact that reality TV has had on the television industry is amazing. These show cost so little to produce since you don’t have to pay actors. Just pay a camera crew to follow around a bunch of idiots and people will watch. These shows are so tired to me. I can barely even make it through an episode of Supernova, which is something that I should be interested in since it is about rock. The worst show that I’ve ever seen is this Celebrity Fit Club. I watched about 10 minutes of it yesterday while waiting for Star Trek to come on. They get these burnt out “has-beens” to go through this boot camp to lose weight. These actors will do anything to be on TV, even climb onto a giant scale at the end of the show to see who lost the most weight!
The funny thing about Reality TV is that most people that I talk to hate these kind of shows so I often wonder who is watching them. Do you? What do you think?

My birthday was going relatively normal last night. My good friends were over and we were hanging out chatting about how old and whithered I am. We didn’t notice the sky outside getting darker and darker. By 8:00pm there were gusty winds throttling the trees and debris flying everywhere. We heard a boom and saw a flash as lightning struck somewhere in my backyard. A few minutes later, what looked like tree branch hit my kitchen window. We looked out of some other window and found that it was not a branch that fell but poplar tree about 3 stories high. It just missed the house. The lights went out an after about a half hour, the storm passed. When we went outside to examine the tree, we found that it had been uprooted by the wind! Even more distressing was the tree next to it that looked like another gust of wind would take it down right onto the house.
I called six emergency tree services (there is such a thing) and a guy came out to look at it. The bill that he handed me almost made me pass out. There was nothing that I could do but have both trees removed since another round of storms are coming this week and while I like trees, I don’t think that I want one in my family room.

Thanks Mother Nature.

Fred Charles.

For my birthday post, I stole an idea from Orright. I went to Wikipedia and did a search on my birthdate which is July 18th. Here a a list of some cool and not-so-cool events that happened on my birthday throughout the ages:

390 BC - Battle of the Allia: A Roman army is defeated by raiding Gauls, leading to the subsequent sacking of Rome.

64 - Great fire of Rome: A fire begins to burn in the merchant area of Rome and soon burns completely out of control while Emperor Nero reportedly plays his lyre and sings while watching the blaze from a safe distance.

1863 - American Civil War: The first formal African American military unit, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, unsuccessfully assaults Confederate-held Fort Wagner but their valiant fighting still proves the worth of African American soldiers during the war.

1925 - Adolf Hitler publishes his personal manifesto Mein Kampf. Great…this is the only writing event that I share my birthday with…Not So Cool.

1966 - Gemini 10 launched.

1968 - Intel incorporated.

1969 - Apollo 11 makes preparations for landing on the Moon.

1984 - McDonald’s massacre in San Ysidro, California: In a fast-food restaurant, James Oliver Huberty kills 21 people and injures 19 others before being shot dead by police.

2003 - Kobe Bryant is charged with sexually assaulting a 19-year old girl.

After reviewing this list several times…I may move to have July 18th banished from the calender.

I decided to finally take the plunge and hire an editor to work with me on my book. My plan is to do final edit on each chapter and then send it off to the editor to fix anything that I missed.

The method that I’m using to edit the novel can be found here at Holly Lisle’s website. I was directed to her website by a few of my fellow bloggers (Angela and Julia). Holly’s website has lots of good information about all things writing. If you haven’t visited it already, please check it out!

The mystery woman who will be editing my novel is Michele. She offered to edit my novel a few months ago. I gave her one of my short stories to edit as a test run and she did a fantastic job! I read my version and the edited version side by side and was very pleased with the edits. She also wrote me up a quick document outlining what she thought needed to be fleshed out as well as suggestions concerning dialogue. You can check out Michele’s services here.

Other resources that I’m using as I edit my novel are as follows:

1. The Chicago Manual of Style (15th Edition) A heavy and detailed book. If anything, I can use this book to hit myself in the head with as I ponder why I got myself involved in writing.

2. Self-Editng for Fiction Writers by Renni Brown and David King. This book is indespensible and a great addition to any writer’s library.

3. Woe Is I by Patricia T. O’Conner - A nice quick reference guide to Grammer.

4. The Elements of Style - By Strunk and White

5. Gallons of Green Tea.

5. Decibels of inspirational music.