Impulse Writing

Follow #Impulse on Twitter now!

So it's 2012 and we all make new year's resolutions, right? One of mine for the new year was to just do it. Whatever I needed to do to get an IT job, vent my creativity or otherwise needed to work off my To-Do list, I just needed to stop faffing around and get cracking. 

Just Do It!
So with regards to Ælemental, this meant get the damn book finished. Last time I had worked on the 4th (and final) draft was back in November 2011! I need to get this book done. Too many people know I'm writing yet too few people have actually seen any results. And I mean, c'mon, there are less interesting works filling up the bookshelves every month. In fact I picked up a book in the YA section the other day, which had an interesting fantasy cover, and not only did it turn out to be more of the same '13 in a dozen' material that has appeared ever since the boy wizard became big, the author had churned out 3 books since I started plotting my series back in 2006!

Naila, our heroine

No More Mr. Lazy Writer
Get your act together and this sucker published. Yet, the attitude is right, but being a father, husband and unemployed IT web designer looking for work does not leave me with much time to sit down, focus and write. After all, without making excuses, I do need at least 4-6 hours to really get into the deep mythological world I've created, with all of it's emotional ups and downs, character and plot developments and keep the editing now consistent. After all: draft 4 is where I turn the 'bullet list' of a book into a smooth read - something that's crucial if I want to stand out over the rest.

Naila's mother

Dedicated Writing Time
'Just doing it' is all nice and dandy when you're drafting your first book, but by the time you get around to the 4th version of your writing, you really need to be able to dedicate all of your attention, be immersed in your story and edit with care. Be that smooth operator, I talked about earlier. Yes, I have to act, but I have to also be smart about it. This means taking a week to clear out my schedule from all the job interviews, social 'catching up's and chores, so I can seriously book my time for the next few weeks and dedicate every breathing moment to my writing.

Naila's warrior father

Start With A Fuse

So where does this leave my momentum? My jazzed enthusiasm to just do it? Well, have you heard of Twitter? :) While I free up my schedule, my mind and my workspace to Ælemental Book 1: The Tree of Life, I can still keep the spark of my Muses going. I can lit that creative fuse leading to the explosive event (of wrapping up, DTPing and self-publishing my first big work) while at the same time remaining within the realm of my vast fantastical microcosm. Enter Naila.

Impulse is a teaser to Ælemental

The kidnappers

Naila is Impulse
Naila is one of the side characters in The Tree of Life, a little girl who helps Sally through the worst of times. Sally of course has been kidnapped and so have other kids all around the world. But this truth holds more secrets than may be apparent at first sight. And so does Naila. In a brief teaser to the main event, I am telling Naila's story through a number of tweets, three of which I am publishing every day for the next ten days. Limited to 140 characters (120 when an image is included) this forces me not only to be concise and tell a lead-in story in it's essence, it also allows me to disconnect quickly, so I don't spend too much time with it.

The Snowy Forest

A Taste of Ælemental

Impulse is not meant to be a full story, worthy of sitting down for, let alone any kind of literary masterpiece, but hopefully it will keep the awareness on Ælemental, while experimenting with Instant Storytelling. I'm not sure if Twitter has ever been used to tell a story, but I kind of like the immediacy of it. It's like a serialized free status update from a person that only exists in our imagination. From a secret world that is opening its door for you to glimpse through. A secretive race within a hidden domain is revealing its secrets in a series of quick tempting flashes.

Mr. Myst

Free is the New Sell
This is truth: offer your creativity for free to get the awareness for your work, so you can sell it later. I'll publish Ælemental as an e-book and charge an acceptable fee for it. If popular enough it might get me a published hard copy as well in the long run. But for now, nothing is more exhilarating and freeing than seeing my imagination come to life immediately and share it instantly with everyone. It is the new business model of our times after all for that same reason. So Impulse will be free to follow and comment upon. Let me know what you think. And to get you started: here are the first 11 chaptweets:

A mysterious helper

Impulse, The Story So Far
C1: Naila hadn't meant 2 start d fire. Rlly, she hadn't. But d flames had leapt off her fingers n on2 d man b4 she could stop them.
C2: Running thru d snow, Naila sucked on her black fingers n smiled. She heard d kidnappers yell bhind her.
C3: Naila stppd bhind a tree n thought of her mom. She missed her. 1 Spark Spell later n her mom appeared.
C4: Naila remembered when her family was whole. Her father, a fierce warrior, had taught her d pwr of fire.
C5: 'No time 4 daydreams,' she reminded herself. D burnt kidnapper n his gang were near!

Friend or foe?

C6: 'Child,' a voice echoed over d white blanket of fine snow. Naila gulped. 'I know yur here. I smell Persia'
C7: D man called Mr. Myst drifted closr until he stood almost nxt 2 Naila. 'We r family, grl. I 2 know fire.'
C8: Naila was terrified. Not only was she alone, an orphan in life. She was also far from the cold city she called home.
C9: 'Psst' Naila heard a voice whspr. Rubbing her skin a soft Ghost Glow appeared of a girl w/ long gold hair.
C10: D ghostly girl image hovered over Naila's wrist. 'Use yur Persian fire pwr 2 distract Mr. Myst.'
C11: 'Gotcha!' cried 1 of d kidnappers, pulling Naila frm hr hiding spot. Naila screamed n went up in flames

Follow 'Impulse' here and let me know what you think of it.

Real Time, Real Places, Real Me

Top of the Morning to ya,

Writing this blog is a good exercise I've decided. It is like a mirror that reflects back to me who I am and what I'm doing. More often than not I feel I need a little readjustment in the way I do things. I don't think I'm overly critical, but maybe I do have the tendency to examine where I am today in life. Don't we all at one point or another? Is this blog reflecting the real writer in me? Or is it just another ego-trip of which I think all blogs are suspect of? Is this just the new generation's way of saying: I need therapy, but I'm too cheap/self-aware/egotistic to get professional help? I like to think about these things every now and then to test myself. How else am I going to examine the packaging so to speak of the box by being on the inside of it?

So what is my conclusion thus far? I think I'm too preachy, maybe talking in too many general statements than actually saying anything about what I really am up to writing this book series. Trying too hard to examine top-down the great art of writing instead of bottom-up handling the issue of the day. What do you think? Should I give up my siren's call to become a writer and become a priest instead? That wouldn't work, cuz they work with simple examples and personal situations too. Maybe a politician? They speak in general broad statements. Nah, too many mind games and actual politics. I'm, way too sensitive - and still have that issue with abuse of authority.

I think I'll leave the examination for what it is for now - even if it's just to get away from the self aimed microscope and actually do some 'being me'.

These are the things that are happening around me now: I'm starting to have dreams about the very things I'm writing about. Weird mash-ups of fantastical fictive events mixed in with actual friends and situations. Maybe I'm getting too involved with the material. I am reading Joseph Cambell's 'Hero with the Thousand Faces' at the moment as well as the Hellboy trade paperbacks, so there is a lot of heavy epic and mythical stuff going on there. To top it off I went to see 'Solomon Kane' last night and boy was that ever the heavily psychadelic type of action adventure flick. I have more books I'm reading all over the house: 'God is not Great', 'Empowered', '2012: The Return of Quetzacotl', 'Smoke and Mirrors' and 'Fairy Tails' - so influences galore.

I'm struggling with getting a regular diet & exercise. I find I'm sacrificing mindfulness on what I eat and how much I exercise (including meditation, which lays the very foundation for mindfulness) in order to spend more time writing. So this is leading to weight issues (currently an unhealthy 200 lbs/93 kg) for a 5'11''/1,79m tall guy. I know, I know, I'm also almost 40 yrs, so I shouldn't be too upset, but still: I'd still like to be able to climb 4 flights of stairs from the kitchen to my writing room without breathing heavily. I mean, I'm not sacrificing time watching movies or TV-shows at night.

So that's just a little about my life right now. The fictional life of Simon & Sally (there, I've given you the names of our heroes) continues on in chapter 19, where they are now in Mexico City. They are trying to stay out of the clutches of a corporate villain, while also having to find a magical portal that will transport them south to an endangered fairy tale city. Like I stated before, the heroes and their friends are split up all over the place trying to find each other again and I've included a map just to give you a visual.

All right, I'm off writing again, but that depends on the Internet, as I need to do the necessary research while writing and our Internet connection is spotty this week.