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Return To The World

So I’m back.

Kind of. I have taken a lot of time from writing as my mental health was not ‘Good’. I was feeling very down. I have to say the NHS crisis team were excellent in the help they provided when I needed.

But I’m feeling better. Well a bit better but three months of lock down has taken it’s toil. But I am heading backing work so hopefully lead to more of a routine. It will be strange to be close to other people again. At the start of lock down me and steff completed the purchase of out first house and it is very strange to move during lock down. You have to do everything by your self which is not to bad but when you need to buy a bed it becomes a pain. So to summarise do not move during a pandemic as it makes a very stressful situation every more stressful.

I have started doing The Last Hype Train podcast again which is good. I’m doing it with my wife “Steff” and my good friend “other” Adam. The strange thing is when recording you think that it is terrible and conversation is really boring but when you get to editing it is actually much better which is always a nice supprise.

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Well this Place is a Little Dusty

So I have not been on the site for while.

And there is a reason for that.

I had a very bad depressive episode at the end of last year, which pretty much turned my world upside down. It was related to a manager complete destroying my sense of self-worth at the job where I work.

But the good news is I am now in a much better emotional space and have been making a good amount of recovery. I have got a new supportive manager and work is so much better. I was surprised how much  help CBT was for changing my negative. I still not one hundred percent well and suspect that I never will be but accepting that has been great for helping with my mental health. I will say this the NHS was fantastic in helping me with my lowest low. Also one of my senior managers was great at giving me support

One of the downside is I have not been feeling like writing. So I am saving my energy for the next NANOWRIMO which I should be in a better place to do. I guess we will see.

On other news I have started a gaming based podcast with my wife and friend Elliot. It is over on The Last Hype Train dot Com.  It’s been fun so far. Only one episode but its a start. The main reason is it helping me be sociable without that direct contact so it helps fight my social anxiety.

Well hopefully it will not be as long till my next post.

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NaNoWriMo Update Sunday the 5th

Friday was a struggle as I failed to reach the daily 1667 word required to hit my 50000 word before the end of November.

I just not get my brain to put everything in order. So my target was to hit my personal target of 2000 words. Which I managed which was a relieve.

I did mean to get to the Birmingham Meet at The Geek Retreat. But I woke up at 11:10 and the Meet started at 11:30.  One of the Things that is painfully clear about writing is that it is a solitary activity. I have to ignore my Wife and cats to get the work done. Plus the flu jab I have had really knocked my system out. Several days this week I have slept over ten hours. Not so conducive to getting up early and being productive.

So yesterday afternoon a took it easy and did housework before sitting down to write.

I also did something different from what I normally. I asked myself some questions related to the story I am writing. I did this to get over some story issues that I was having.

It was very productive.

I spent the rest of the day writing in one hour chunks. I had to stop as I needed to wind down before I went to bed1.

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Greyboxing

So I am in to my second day of writing for Nanowrimo.

I am trying something different in how I write. I have been reading Blood Sweat and Pixel by Jason Schreier[note]Fast becoming one of my favourite Games Journalist. With this and His article on Visceral Games[/note].

One of the many thing informative things that stuck out for me was ‘Grey Boxing’. It is when the designer of a game created basic level that are grey so they can try and test out different ideas. This resonated with me. I and one of those writers that get obsessed with getting everything perfect before moving to the next thing. And grey boxing is great for me to just try and get everything down as quickly as possible. Especially during NanoWrimo.

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Nanowrimo Start Your Engines

So I have started NanoWrimo.

Nanowrimo is the National Novel Writing Month. Which mean that you have to do Fifty Thousand Word by the end of November. This is about one thousand six hundred and seventy seven words written every day.

I am aiming to do about two thousand to aim high and build up a buffer.

My Nanowrimo Account is AdamDavidCarter1.

I will post with updates to my progress.

Wish Me Luck.

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Scrivener 3. It’s Finally Here

Kevin and the guys and gals at Latte & Literature have finally announced Scrivener Three. It has only taken seven years. And it is not a subscription model. Unlike Ulysses writing app.

I have been looking at Ulysses as replacement for Scrivener for a long time but that became less pressing after the Scrivener for iOS was released.

There has been a constant stream on blog posts on their website.  One of the post that really shows what they will bring to the table is the Linguistic Focus mode. This allows you to focus on different parts of the text, be it direct speech or adverbs, etc1.

Scrivener 3 as new feature called linguistic mode
The all new Linguistic Focus mode.

 

When it comes out later this year I will totally be buying it2.

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Cyberpunk Cool Image

I was doing some research in cyberpunk images and found this.

From Alain Bousquet

(Via ImaginationHut)

 

 

As a side note, getting this pin into my blog was a nightmare. I had to use the wordpress text editor. Also found that I had setup my site incorrectly and the kind people at Tsohost had to fix my mistake. Which they did with speed and alacrity.

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The Collapsing Empire

So I have just finished reading The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi.

Now I am not going to review it more than saying it is a great read and that it is a fun science fiction opera. It is an epic but fast paced story and it is not to long at just under three hundred and forty pages. In summary: I enjoyed and it is well worth you time.

Now what I want to talk about the language used1 and how all the characters use the same language to talk. Only one stands out because of the amount she swears.

The more I think about it the fact that all the characters speak standard english makes it very easy to read. You do not have to parse the sometimes incomprehensible colloquial sentence structure that I have seen a lot of writers use in science fiction and fantasy as well non-genre fiction.

I will add that is not the same as all the characters being the same. They are all have very different motivation and actions. This is the main difference. If you stripped away the he said / she saids and presented this as a series of dialogues you would have a difficult time separating them apart. This point has been a revelation to me. It does help that Mr Scalzi is very witty writer and all his character have some thing funny to say.

Most books I have read and people I have seen talking about dialogue say that the characters need to have completely different ways of talking. You should be able to tell them apart from each other by just the dialogue. And I have found that very difficult.

But with John Scalzi2 who is a very successful author does not worry about that. I have spent so long being paralysised by my difficultly making all my character sound different. But know I just get on with the job of writing the story I want to tell.

And maybe make my characters little sarcastic. Like me.

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