Sunday, January 23, 2011

X-Men


New Year's is going well so far. I think Tuesdays and Thursdday will be good days for writing, because my schedule was changed so I just have the one class, then can go home. It gives me time to rest a bit, maybe eat something and still write and do work.

Moving on the real subject, however brief, I've been reading a lot of X-Men comics. I've always been a fan, but never bought the comics myself (my sister had when I was younger, or I'd read the library copies), because it just added up to too much money. I bought Elfquest instead. :)

I don't know if others have this problem, but when I do something for a long time, or put a lot of focus on one thing--rubic's cube, a particular computer game, heavy workload--I close my eyes and still see it. My mind will create its own gameboard and run through the game or I'll see myself teachign a class or trying to explain something to a student. I think it's a bit of the way my brain processes information, but it means that reading over a dozen X-men graphic novels leaves images of mutants running, falling, flying, fighting. Sometimes they're actual characters, sometimes they're amalgamations or original creations of my brain.

Maybe I'm just weird.

I wish I had the skill to draw some of what I see. But I was wondering what it might say for my writing process. Maybe this is unrelated, but once some critiquers said my writing wrote like I played a lot of RPGs or RPG videogames, which left me very confused because I don't. I wonder if that comment was tied to writing visually, though. Thinking too much about how everything looks, as if it's a movie playing in your head, but my head is so full of stuff, any movie I "wrote" in it would be jumpy and haphazard.

I'm still noodling over those thoughts. Just figured I'd share for now. I'm off to do the usual Sunday morning routine then meet up with a friend for a movie and bookshopping (the same friend lending me his vast collection).

Happy writing.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Happy New Year--2011 edition

Happy New Year, Everyone!


After midnight, after finshing a comic (X-Men graphic novel featuring Mystique, Rogue and Nightcrawler), after a shower and bed, after waking up multiple times because of phone calls and finally staying up, and after getting some coffee, it is New Year's Day. I am reading blogs.

One was written by Owl, and it got me thinking about who I am and how I define myself, how I define "happy," whether I am happy and if not, how to get there. I've only just begun to think about it, so I don't want to offer you readers a muddled, rambly mess. I know that's my mood right now.

Instead, I'll share what I originally planned to, not my resolutions (I haven't decided on those yet), but my plans for today.

I decided to start a new tradition for myself, that on the first day of the new year, I will take some time to do a little bit of everything I love or want to improve on in this year. For instance:

1. Blog (clearly need to improve that)
2. Write some new pages on Clockwork Seams (I want to finish the first draft)
3. Rewrite/revise Hounds (I have some ideas for rewriting the beginning so it doesn't jump around and to fix some other ideas, now I need to do it)
4. Clean (I have a finite space, but ever-increasing amounts of clothes, books, and paper, not good)
5. Day job stuff (I need better time-management, so a little work today is a good start)
6. Some crafting (make a necklace or sew something, I have the materials and my sewing machine is still out, why not use it?)
7. Take a walk around the neighborhood (structured exercise is exceptionally hard to me to maintain, but healthy habits are good)
8. Read a book (I haven't been in the mood for a while, but the urge is building and once I start, I probably won't be able to stop)
9. Draw (the ideas are on the top of my brain)
10. Eat some french toast (I got a hankering for it this morning, found an easy recipe and tried it out--it was okay, too much cinnamon, and I was worried about the eggs being underdone, but I cooked something I'd never made before, yay new experiences!)

So as of right now, 1 and 10 are complete, 2, 3, and 5 will probably occur later in the day, and 4 is looking like my next step. I don't plan to spend a huge amount of time on all of them, but enough to feel accomplished, I think.

Feeling productive at the end of the day is always good, in my opinion, and as I said to a friend, I think this is a good way to start the new year on a high point.

Whish leads to me ask, what are your plans for today, readers and friends?
~Sabrina