A few months ago, Weebly ran an overhaul of its web-creator user interface.  For the most part, this was a large improvement.  It made it so it was easier to mix different types of media on a page and made the formatting tools much handier.  Unfortunately, one noticeable step backwards was in assigning categories to blog entries.

Before, there was a list of the categories I had created on the right-hand side of the screen.  Next to each category was a checkbox.  After writing a blog it was a simple matter of check the boxes next to the categories that I though applied.  While adding a new category took a step longer than it should, it was not enough of a problem that it demanded an overhaul of the system, but that's what happened.

Instead of a check list, I now have to go to the left side of the screen, scroll to the appropriate menu and then use a drop menu to assign categories ... one at a time.  The process is cumbersome and time-consuming, and so I haven't used it for a few months.  Unfortunately, that means that I can't find entries that I am looking for easily.  Plus my categories are now missing my more recent entries.

If I had the time or the patience, I would go back and put categories on my previous blogs.  Nah, I'd rather play more Skyrim.

Over the course of this week, I keep finding myself in positions where I can't write anything down, but I have fantastic ideas ... for stories, for games, and for this blog.  By the time I get situated so that I can write something, the ideas are gone, leaving only a faint residue to tickle the back of my brain.  This is more frustrating to me than normal writer's block, where I try to sit down to write and force myself to be creative.  Rather than facing a blank slate, I had something worthwhile and lost it.

Our minds are such complex and funny things.  Moments of forced idleness, such as riding in a car, allow are minds to wander and make the wonderful connections that we would love to reach for when we try to write.  Yet, when forced to actually do the work, our minds come up with every possible excuse to avoid the heavy lifting of writing.

I know this is why many writers carry around a writer's journal with them.  That way they can jot down their inspired thoughts soon after they occur.  I keep one next to my bed for this reason.  I find, however, that when I attempt to carry one around, the ideas tend to be even more illusive, waiting for a moment when I don't have a pen or can't use a pen to show themselves.  This game of mental hide-and-seek is not that amusing for me anymore.

Oh well ... they probably weren't that great of ideas anyway ...

Today is set aside by the Catholic Church to celebrate the angels who watch over us every day.  These guardian angels protect us from the unseen forces that work against us in our daily activities.  They are the spot of luck that has saved us so many times throughout our lives.  They guard us from demons and spirits that bear us ill will, but more often they rescue us from our own mistakes and errors, keeping them from being more costly than they would otherwise be.

As a high school student, I loved Frank E. Peretti's This Present Darkness and its sequel Piercing the Darkness which gave us a look into the roles of angels and demons in their spiritual warfare that surrounds our daily lives.  I have always wanted to write a similar sort of fiction, but found all of my attempts to be too derivative of Peretti's work.

While this statement might make some people decide that it's time take my measurements for a straitjacket, I have felt the presence of angels and demons in my life.  Sometimes they are the inner voices (like the cartoon representations) that give me conflicting statements in regards to my actions; sometimes there is a more physical aspect, a reflex I didn't know I had, a movement caught out of the corner of my eye.

I believe that a guardian angel would be the perfect video game character to play.  While the protected person goes about his or her normal life, we would take the role of the guardian that keeps the forces of darkness away.  It would not need to be an earth-shattering plot, but just the daily dangers that our protectors keep from causing lasting harm. 

 

It has been a fast month.  I can scarcely believe that the month is over.  It feels as though school began just a few days ago.  Now we are already half way through the marking period.  I can't help but recap the events of this month in my mind.

School started (and has moved through the first month).  So far, despite any political and economical concerns, it's been a good start to the year.

I am not teaching a class at Baker this term.  I have been able to use some of my time to play outside and spend more time after school getting things done at Lincoln.

Janelle's brother visited for the month, staying at her sister's house.  We got to play Carcassonne, hang out, and watch as the tree house he was building got better and better.

We made our annual visit to the Renaissance Festival.

Rowen started preschool.  While initially unwilling to talk to his teacher or most of his classmates, he seems to be enjoying it more now.

The new TV season has begun.  Janelle loves Outlander (which is why I have read the first book).  Dr. Who has been a bit less than I would hope, but I like the new Doctor.  Gotham shows some potential.  The Blacklist started with a great opening.  The Big Bang Theory's first two shows were quite entertaining.  I'm looking forward to the Flash, Arrow, Resurrection, Bones, the 100, and Elementary.

I made one entry to a writing contest.

I'm certain that there is more, but that hits most of the main points.

My wife's brother has been visiting from Oregon for the past month and is about to fly back tomorrow morning.  During this time, he has been staying with my wife's sister and her family.  While there, he has been building a treehouse for their oldest child.  Without having a tree big enough, they chose to build the treehouse in a small group of trees, using the biggest two as the main supports.  He used a special type of support that allows the trees to move back and forth without moving the treehouse itself.

The treehouse is over ten feet off the ground, with a deck that goes around half of it and an observation platform on the roof.  The interior is like a little office with a both a large and small window, a solid door, and a small attic.  It reminds me of the writing gazebo that I wrote about earlier.  It would be an ideal place to get away from everything and spend time with thoughts and dreams.

I find myself envying my niece's get-away.  I had always wanted a treehouse while I was growing up.  Now as an adult I find myself wanting one even more.

I don't have a plot for this story so much as just a character: a living house.  This house cares for its inhabitants, providing for their needs and protecting them from dangers.  It's the opposite of a haunted house, although I suppose that it might be mistaken for one.  

There are three elements that led me to developing this idea.  1.When I was young, one of my favorite picture books was about a small house, whose windows were eyes, that watched as the area around him changed from rural, to suburban, to urban, to a downtown city, at which point he is moved back to the country again.  2. I often dream of houses with endless rooms, odd settings, and unique features.  3. I recently read some issues of Justice League Dark whose headquarters is the "House of Mystery"--a magical house that can summon rooms that its occupants need.

I don't have much more on this idea.  While a story could focus on a new couple who have settled in a house whose neighbors believe it is haunted, I also like the idea of it housing an older couple.  In the latter story, a young person visits the home to help the couple and begins witnessing odd occurrences that lead him (or her) to take a closer look.

I suppose that this story is a type of wish-fulfillment.  I would like a house like this. 

In today's Gospel reading, Jesus tells His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem to suffer, die, and rise again.  Peter wishes that no such thing would happen and Jesus rebukes him saying, "Get behind me, Satan!"  While Jesus does not want to suffer, He knows that it must be done for the salvation of the world.  Without realizing it, Peter is tempting Jesus to stray from His most holy path.

We, too, are often tempted from what we know we need to do by friends and family who have the best of intentions.  While we probably shouldn't call them "Satan," we need to recognize when these distractions are keeping us from being the best possible versions of ourselves.  This doesn't mean that we should completely ignore friends and family, or other diversions, just that we should not use them as an excuse to not accomplish that which we know must be done.

As a practiced procrastinator, I know that I struggle with this problem regularly.  Just look at how much writing I've completed this summer (not counting blogs and some minor school-preparation, the total is three paragraphs).  I have had a great summer even if I have little to show for it.  I'm not going to beat myself up over what I haven't done, but I need to put my failings behind me and move forward.

I've always been fascinated by the science fiction stories where a person from our time is somehow frozen and then brought back to life in the future.  Buck Rogers is based on this idea.  Star Trek has several story-lines that deal with this concept.

I often wonder what happens to the side-characters who are found and then dumped in their future.  Do they connect with their descendants?  If so, how does that turn out?  What sort of jobs do they take?  How do they go about their day-to-day lives?

There have been a few stories where we see this idea in the present, where someone in the past (or in a coma) comes to consciousness in our time period.  This concept also is used to show dystopian sci-fi societies.

I think it would be interesting to explore the life of a "normal" person who somehow wakes up in a "normal" future.  What would that person do?  How would others react?

The story changes quite a bit depending on how far this time-traveler goes.  There are plenty of stories that could come from this seed.

I tend to be a minimalist when I write (and when I DM).  I tend to touch on the actions that are occurring in the story without giving the embellishments that often give a story (or an adventure) its flavor.  In some ways, it's an intentional decision.  I often find myself skimming over detail sections and paragraphs while reading, and I want my own writing to give a more focused experience while allowing the reader to fill in the blanks.

Unfortunately, my lack of details is often due to laziness.  I have the picture of my story (or adventure) in my head, but I don't want to take the time to put it all down on paper.  The problem is that if I don't write it down, at least as a note to myself, I often forget those details myself, and thus I don't get to share the richness of the world that I have created.

This has become much more apparent to me this summer both in my reading/writing and in my playing/DMing.  I have noticed the lack of detail in my own endeavors by comparing it to the richness in other people's.  I have also noticed other people's reactions to the detail--when does it seem like too much? when are they getting "swept away" into the world? etc.  

As such, I have tried to place more detail into what I am creating, but much of it has been ringing false.  It feels contrived or forced.  I can't tell if its because of how I am expressing the details, or if it's just my natural reaction to trying to do more work (which is to avoid it).

The key is hitting the right notes: the perfect images, sounds, smells, and impressions that a scene can hold.  Right now, I feel like I'm blindly hitting notes in the hope that something beautiful comes from the attempt.  I suppose, like most things, it's a matter of practice and experience.

It was the first English ship to sail around the world.  It was captained by the pirate/privateer Sir Francis Drake who not only raided Spanish ships along the American coasts for the interest of the English crown, but also returned in time to delay the Spanish Armada from attacking England for a year, enough time for the English to prepare itself.

The Uncharted series of video games (a great set of stories in their own right) are focused on a descendant of Sir Drake.  Two of the games even suggest that Sir Drake had a role in finding some of the great hidden cities and treasures of history.

In short, the Golden Hind is one of the ships in history that I have been interested in since at least high school.  I even wrote a short outline of two young time-travelers who stow away on the ship during its famous voyage around the world.  That was even before I read the journal of the Hind's chaplain, Francis Fletcher, for my class on exploration in the Pacific.

So, when I saw a model kit for a miniature version of the Golden Hind while on our vacation, I had to get it.  I just got around to putting it together, and I am ridiculously happy about it.  It wasn't a massive ship, but it was only the second ship to make it around the Earth, and I have a small version of it that I put together.

So often lately, I've found myself disturbed by the cover images on comic books.  Batman, in particular, has been a figure whose cover images tend to be disturbing to such a degree that I try to not even look at them before I read the issue.  However, many comics have covers that have very little (sometimes nothing at all) to do with the story contained within.  Those that are connected usually are intentionally misleading, putting the characters into a shocking position which is never really attained in the story.

I would like it if the cover was actually the first panel of the issue's story.  That way, the readers not only has something to grab their attention, but it helps tie the story in from the start.  It would also make it easier to organize issues that cross-over between titles.  Now, I know why cover art is the way that it is, and I have already figured out some problems with my idea.  Still, should I ever write a comic, I would like my covers to be more related to the story and less designed just to shock.

When I first started teaching college courses in the evening, I was desperate enough for money that I taught classes at more than one school.  There was a stark contrast between the two.  One had a friendly and welcoming staff, a shorter term period, and composition classes that included literature.  The other had a staff that rarely responded to my questions, paid better per term but with longer terms, and had composition classes filled with "real world" readings.  There was no question as to which one I preferred.

A couple of years after devoting myself wholly to the first institution, it decided to change the policy of its composition courses.  Too many instructors devoted too much of the course to teaching literature rather than teaching composition through literature.  It's a subtle, albeit profound, difference.  To my horror, the sins of the few brought about a change in policy and literature was dropped from our composition classes.  I say "to my horror" because I had seen so many students open their minds as they were exposed to literature in my courses.  Many had only been exposed to great literature in the spoon-fed manner now common in so many middle and high schools.  For older students, this was their first reintroduction to literature in decades, and they found that life had refined their tastes to readings they had long discarded.  Unfortunately, my concerns were not enough to stop the machine, and literature has been removed from most of our students' lives.

Exposing people to great literature expands their minds and their vocabulary.  It gives them avenues of thinking that are otherwise unexplored.  It helps them to think of the greater world around them, to look a viewpoints other than those with which they are already too familiar.

We need literature, grand literature, in our lives lest they become pale imitations of lives.  We need literature to invigorate our senses and imaginations.  This cold, factory-like approach to teaching reading and writing rather than composition and literature is taking the soul out of our collegiate degrees.

This is another idea which came to me from a random drawing in the margins of some of my notes for school.  In this case, I drew what appears to be a dead tree growing out of a pile of stones.  Perhaps due to my reading of Tolkien's Return of the King, I felt that the tree was still alive despite its appearances.  

A story came to mind of the tree being the source of magic in the world.  Due the drilling of oil and the depletion of natural resources, the energy that flowed into the tree has cut off.  A group of adventurous teenagers (this was an idea from high school) come across a cave that holds the tree.  Somehow they realize that they need to nourish the tree to bring magic back into the world.

As these teens are the first to nourish the tree, they are also the first to gain the benefits from the tree's healing.  They become masters of magic in a world where magic, true magic, has largely been forgotten.  This brings the attention of powerful people from around the world, many of whom with the worst of intentions.

The teens find themselves fighting for their lives and to protect the secret of the source itself.  As with many of my ideas, this one never got much further than this most preliminary stage.

While I hope that I might start up before the school year starts, I was again not capable of generating the positive habit of writing a bit towards one of the many novels that I want to write.  With that in mind, I'm going to stop keeping a tally of where my writing for Vali's Tale is at the current moment (which is nowhere) each week.  It was not enough of an incentive.

Instead, I want to refocus on getting my novel Dragon Hunter polished and ready for e-publishing.  Hopefully, I can get more movement on getting an appropriate cover and make some mild edits on some parts that I know need polishing.  While I had hoped to get that done by August, I now need to get it going (in at least one form) before the school year starts.

I'm not going to let myself feel guilty about this (well, too much).  While there were plenty of distractions which I could blame, I just didn't feel the muse.  I need to find a way to tap into my creative well again.