Wow! I knew when I restarted this blog that I wasn't going to be writing every day, but I wrote much less in November than I imagined I would.
It's not that there isn't anything to write about. Just yesterday, in fact, there were the firings of Matt Lauer and Garrison Keillor, more ICBM tests from North Korea, a President who decries fake news tweeting three untrue, racist videos, a Republican plan to cut taxes (and simultaneously increase the national debt), and the ongoing net neutrality battle. That's fodder for a week's worth of blog posts right there!
No, it's not that I'm lacking anything to write about; it's that I planned to use this blog as a sort of writing practice or a warm up before working on my novel, and so far that hasn't really been an issue. I'm only writing today, in fact, because I said last month that I'd write an update on the last day of each month.
This time last month I was still in the pre-writing phase, frustrated that I was stuck on a year 2017-2073 timeline, which I originally thought would be a page and have maybe 12-15 bulleted items on it, but on October 31 had 43 bulleted items and still had a long way to go. I guessed that I'd finish it by November 7 and then take another week to write an outline, hoping to start actually writing the novel by November 15.
In the end, though, I didn't finish the timeline itself until mid-November, and my 12-15 bulleted item list ended up being 187 bulleted items, each dated to the day. The total document is 22 single spaced pages and just short of 12,000 words long. I'm not complaining, though. The process was absolutely essential, and some of the plot points that were hazy in my head have gelled now thanks to this process. Probably more than half of what is mentioned in that document will never make it in to the novel, but that's okay: If the novel ever actually gets published and becomes successful, there's material there for two or three prequel novels.
I then created an outline for the events in the novel. As expected, that took me about a week, and it is much briefer than the timeline. The outline is four pages total, and it's only about 1,800 words. It's not even in complete sentences.
I started actually writing the novel on November 21. My goal is to write six days a week and to write at a pace of at least 1,000 words per day. I have managed to do that, and yesterday I finished chapter two of the novel, which I'm guessing--based on my outline--will be 26 chapters in length (though I may, in the end, find a chapter much longer than I was anticipating and need to split it, or I might find a need to combine two chapters). In any event, with two chapters written at about 4,500 words each, the novel should end up about 117,000 words in length. Which is--I've read--close to the maximum length a first time author's novel should be. A 117,000 word novel is about 390 pages in length. I may have some cutting to do.
Anyway, that's where I am.
Thursday, November 30, 2017
Wednesday, November 15, 2017
Harvey Weinstein and Music
I was thinking about Harvey Weinstein, Roy Moore, Kevin Spacey, Louis C.K., and all of the other people who've been accused of sexual harassment or assault the other day, and it occurred to me that there's maybe one person in the world who's really happy about all of these recent allegations: Roman Polanski. I'm sure he's in Europe somewhere, pointing at the TV screen and saying to his friends, "You See! I'm not so bad! I'm just like all the rest!"
I'm trying to be funny, I guess, with that, and maybe I shouldn't. Maybe there's nothing funny to say about sexual predation. But I was thinking about Roman Polanski because I was thinking about the difference between 2017 and the 1970's and 1980's. We've come a long way. Back then, the kind of behavior that is getting people fired from their jobs and blackballed was celebrated in hit songs. I'm not kidding. Check out these songs below, which should be on every pedophile's .MP3 playlist.
First, from the rock band that was the most popular rock band among middle school students in the late 1970's/early 1980's, here's a song about an adult celebrating getting a minor drunk and having sex with her, despite her parents' objections (and though I don't assume this to be necessarily autobiographical, it's interesting to note that Dennis DeYoung was 29 years old when this song was published in 1976):
That's a non-single from a big band, not something you might have heard before. But here's one of the biggest songs of the 1970's, one that declares that the speaker always "gets it up for the touch of the younger kind":
And lest you think this was a seventies phenomenon only, here's a song from the 80's hair band Winger. Again, though it isn't necessarily autobiographical, Kip Winger was 27 when this song was released in 1988.
And who can forget the creepiest, sleaziest song of them all? I swear, this one makes me feel gross just listening to it. The video makes it even worse. Oh, and holy crap! I just looked on Wikipedia. Benny Mardones was THIRTY-FOUR YEARS OLD when this song came out in 1980. Makes that scene at the window in the video even more disturbing!
What's my point? Nothing, really. I just was thinking about how far we've come since the 1970's. And though we certainly shouldn't forgive the heinous behavior of the people being accused, it's interesting that these may have been some of the songs they listened to in their youth.
I'm trying to be funny, I guess, with that, and maybe I shouldn't. Maybe there's nothing funny to say about sexual predation. But I was thinking about Roman Polanski because I was thinking about the difference between 2017 and the 1970's and 1980's. We've come a long way. Back then, the kind of behavior that is getting people fired from their jobs and blackballed was celebrated in hit songs. I'm not kidding. Check out these songs below, which should be on every pedophile's .MP3 playlist.
First, from the rock band that was the most popular rock band among middle school students in the late 1970's/early 1980's, here's a song about an adult celebrating getting a minor drunk and having sex with her, despite her parents' objections (and though I don't assume this to be necessarily autobiographical, it's interesting to note that Dennis DeYoung was 29 years old when this song was published in 1976):
That's a non-single from a big band, not something you might have heard before. But here's one of the biggest songs of the 1970's, one that declares that the speaker always "gets it up for the touch of the younger kind":
And lest you think this was a seventies phenomenon only, here's a song from the 80's hair band Winger. Again, though it isn't necessarily autobiographical, Kip Winger was 27 when this song was released in 1988.
And who can forget the creepiest, sleaziest song of them all? I swear, this one makes me feel gross just listening to it. The video makes it even worse. Oh, and holy crap! I just looked on Wikipedia. Benny Mardones was THIRTY-FOUR YEARS OLD when this song came out in 1980. Makes that scene at the window in the video even more disturbing!
What's my point? Nothing, really. I just was thinking about how far we've come since the 1970's. And though we certainly shouldn't forgive the heinous behavior of the people being accused, it's interesting that these may have been some of the songs they listened to in their youth.
Tuesday, November 7, 2017
The End of Daylight Savings Time
I would really love for the title of this post to be referring not to Sunday, when we all arbitrarily knocked an hour off of our clocks, but to the day when Daylight Savings Time just goes away. Because it's dumb.
If history serves me correctly (and I have no idea if this is true or apocryphal and I'm too lazy to look it up even though I'm on a full-fledged computer with fast Internet and probably could have had the answer before I typed this parenthetical expression, but oh well) Benjamin Franklin was one of--if not THE--first to suggest Daylight Savings Time as a way to save on candle burning. I'm not sure how that ever actually was supposed to have saved candles, but we're talking about an idea from 250 years ago. And modern research has shown that Daylight Savings Time DOESN'T save electricity. In fact, it may even cause us to use MORE electricity.
I don't know about any of that. All I know is that the time shift messes me up twice a year. When I was younger I hardly even noticed it. But yesterday morning I found myself wide awake at 4:30 in the morning, which is an hour earlier than the earliest I ever get up.
I probably don't need to talk about this anymore. If I'm being frank, I just wrote this because I realized I hadn't written in a week, and I wanted to write SOMETHING.
Here's a more interesting thing, I guess. Last Thursday I drove to Frankfort from Northern Kentucky, and I went to Frankfort down U.S. 127, which is a two lane road which used to be a windy, curvy mess, but since it was straightened about 20 years ago is straight enough that you could take your hands off of your steering wheel for long stretches (Kids, DON'T take your hands off of your steering wheel!). Anyway, I was driving down one of the really straight stretches and I looked in my rear view mirror, and approaching me VERY quickly (maybe going 90 miles an hour) was a white pickup truck with its warning flashers on. And that combination threw me. I'd seen vehicles driving at that speed on that road before. They have a death wish, sure, but I've seen it. And I'd seen vehicles with their warning flashers on, usually driving about 15 miles an hour or over on the side of the road for some reason. But to see a vehicle approaching so quickly WITH its warning flashers on didn't make sense to me. It would be like a football player in full pads running at you, shouting and grunting like a football player does, but with a box of chocolates and flowers in his hand. Or a surgeon dressed in full scrubs for the operating room--holding his sanitized hands up to keep them clean--in line behind you at the supermarket. I just didn't know what to make of it.
Should I pull over to the side of the road and let him go by? But he has his flashers on! A lot of drivers with their flashers on get into the emergency lane. What if I pull into the emergency lane just as he decides to do so, too, and at the speed he's going I cause an accident? But was he trying to be like an emergency vehicle, an ambulance or something, and he thought the flashers were like having his siren on?
In the end, I didn't really have to figure it out. I slowed a little and he just whipped into the opposite lane and went around me. He disappeared over the hill in front of us, and by the time I got to the hill he was nowhere to be found.
I hope he got wherever he was going safely....
If history serves me correctly (and I have no idea if this is true or apocryphal and I'm too lazy to look it up even though I'm on a full-fledged computer with fast Internet and probably could have had the answer before I typed this parenthetical expression, but oh well) Benjamin Franklin was one of--if not THE--first to suggest Daylight Savings Time as a way to save on candle burning. I'm not sure how that ever actually was supposed to have saved candles, but we're talking about an idea from 250 years ago. And modern research has shown that Daylight Savings Time DOESN'T save electricity. In fact, it may even cause us to use MORE electricity.
I don't know about any of that. All I know is that the time shift messes me up twice a year. When I was younger I hardly even noticed it. But yesterday morning I found myself wide awake at 4:30 in the morning, which is an hour earlier than the earliest I ever get up.
I probably don't need to talk about this anymore. If I'm being frank, I just wrote this because I realized I hadn't written in a week, and I wanted to write SOMETHING.
Here's a more interesting thing, I guess. Last Thursday I drove to Frankfort from Northern Kentucky, and I went to Frankfort down U.S. 127, which is a two lane road which used to be a windy, curvy mess, but since it was straightened about 20 years ago is straight enough that you could take your hands off of your steering wheel for long stretches (Kids, DON'T take your hands off of your steering wheel!). Anyway, I was driving down one of the really straight stretches and I looked in my rear view mirror, and approaching me VERY quickly (maybe going 90 miles an hour) was a white pickup truck with its warning flashers on. And that combination threw me. I'd seen vehicles driving at that speed on that road before. They have a death wish, sure, but I've seen it. And I'd seen vehicles with their warning flashers on, usually driving about 15 miles an hour or over on the side of the road for some reason. But to see a vehicle approaching so quickly WITH its warning flashers on didn't make sense to me. It would be like a football player in full pads running at you, shouting and grunting like a football player does, but with a box of chocolates and flowers in his hand. Or a surgeon dressed in full scrubs for the operating room--holding his sanitized hands up to keep them clean--in line behind you at the supermarket. I just didn't know what to make of it.
Should I pull over to the side of the road and let him go by? But he has his flashers on! A lot of drivers with their flashers on get into the emergency lane. What if I pull into the emergency lane just as he decides to do so, too, and at the speed he's going I cause an accident? But was he trying to be like an emergency vehicle, an ambulance or something, and he thought the flashers were like having his siren on?
In the end, I didn't really have to figure it out. I slowed a little and he just whipped into the opposite lane and went around me. He disappeared over the hill in front of us, and by the time I got to the hill he was nowhere to be found.
I hope he got wherever he was going safely....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)