Set the stage! I partied like a cheesy romantic rockstar Friday night, didn’t sleep, and then hung out with my family at the mall all day yesterday. My mother loves Old Navy, and I love the clothes I’m wearing now. Thanks, Mom.
We went to see Wreck-it Ralph, which I can now say hands down that it’s the best movie I’ve seen all year. I cried three times. (Did I mention I barely slept?) The Disney intro “The Paperman” let the waterworks flow. If my tear-ducts were a sink, that movie-short bashed them in with a wrench. “I’m gonna wreck it!”
The arcade cameos, PSAs from Sonic, the music (and Skrillex cameo), the characters, the story, all of it caught me WAY off guard. I f*ckin’ loved it. If you like dubstep, check out the song he did for the HD arcade game Hero’s Duty, called Bug Hunt.
As for my writing, I haven’t. I have another blog post due later tonight, on top of writing a couple thousand words for the stories.
In preparation (and because I spent the night at home), I picked up some creative necessities. If I’m to write some short fiction cliffhangers, Stephen King’s Green Mile has been sitting on my shelf since I found it in my grandma’s basement this summer. I’ll glean everything I can from the tiny tomes over the next few weeks. I also picked up Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 for motivation. What I’ve learned in writing is that the tool-kit is never the same. It can change from week to week, or even day to day. Whatever works, works.
I have a whole shelf full of writing self-help books, though, and I won’t be touching those. They are for reading weeks/months ahead of the time you actually start writing. Those books are pre-pre-planning books. Whenever I read them in the middle of the project, it crashes and burns. (Keep in mind I’m synthesizing each wreckage into something better this month, but I wanted to warn you anyway.) Instead of reading self-help to help you out, get a finished product. Have high hopes for your work for the end of November, but don’t get stressed when it looks far worse. These published works had to look like crap at some point in time before being great.
However, (WARNING: Author Plug Imminent) there is one author I enjoy that keeps it real and doesn’t make the writing thing feel clinical. AND, for the month of November (for charity), check out the Penmonkey Chalupa Supreme for Charity at TerribleMinds. He’s written:
Confessions Of A Freelance Penmonkey
Revenge Of The Freelance Penmonkey
250 Things You Should Know About Writing
500 Ways To Be A Better Writer
500 More Ways To Be A Better Writer
500 Ways To Tell A Better Story
and you get get all of them from anywhere between $5 and (Um, Holy Crap) $100 TOTAL. They’re usually 2.99 on Amazon each, but you can get them straight from him (for charity) for the remainder of November. From the source:
Thus, all profits from those books sold during November via direct sales (i.e. sold through this website using PayPal) will go to — drum roll please — charity. (And no, Charity is not some stripper I knocked up in Tulsa.) I will split the charity money: half to the Red Cross for hurricane relief, half for prostate cancer (ala Movember), as prostate cancer is what robbed me of my father and I know many who have suffered from it.
There you have it, folks. Like I said, they’re fantastic books that supercede my “No Self-Help November” rule/guideline, and for a good cause. You guys and gals keep on writing, and don’t get too far behind. I know I have.
This is @Shellington92, signing off.
Stay Classy, Bitches.
