Work

November…

“When you are writing, you’re conjuring. It’s a ritual, and you need to be brave and respectful and sometimes get out of the way of whatever it is that you’re inviting into the room.”
―Tom Waits

EyeSketch

…is just around the corner, Dear Reader, and with it: NaNoWriMo!

If you are unfamiliar with the phenomenon, it’s about writing an entire novel in one month – 50,000 words, to be exact – about the lower limit for what can be called a novel – and the abbreviation stands for “National Novel Writing Month”. This year I plan on making an honest attempt to pen down those 50,000 words before November’s end and the end of my 30s – and I do mean pen! Doing this in long hand will bring both benefits and drawbacks:

  • It will be slower, but I can resist the urge to edit as I go.
  • I can write anywhere without losing continuity, but it will be more difficult to keep an accurate word count.
  • I’ll have to lug two notebooks and at least one pen around all the time, but I’ll be able to use any extra time I get!

The past three years I’ve done increasingly worse at NaNoWriMo. 2012 I fell short by about 12,000 words due to stupidly deleting an entire chapter and then coming down with a high fever the final week. 2013 I made a mistake in research which invalidated three quarters of the first 6-7,000 words, and I spent the rest of the month (and then some) stuck in re-research. 2014 I just said ‘fuck it’ and jumped onto the Movember band wagon instead, producing facial hair instead of words.

This year, I come better prepared and more determined.

I doubt 50K will see me through the entire story, and I’m far from certain my notebook will fit even half the words I need. I’m not even sure I can manage to hand-write 1,667 words a day between my day job and the drawing I need to get done.

But at least I will try.

My aim is to keep you up updated on my progress so you can rejoice in my success or take pity in my failure (or vice versa). Really though, regardless of my exact word count I will be further along in a month than I am today.

So: NaNoWriMo, here I come!

 

Update: Portfolio

PortfolioOctHello Dear Reader, and welcome to my new portfolio!

I have restructured and expanded on my image gallery, but there isn’t much new material posted. Most works have appeared on here, on twitter or on facebook previously, but they have never been gathered in the same place before.

Feel free to have a look!

(The image on the left here links to the portfolio page – sadly it would have been too much work to do a collection of expandable thumbnails on here)

As i think I’ve mentioned before, I’m doing an overhaul of this site.

Last week I reduced the number of categories of my blog to six and restructured things a bit:

Life – posts about what is going on with me, be it personally, professionally, creatively or just randomly overthinking and contemplating something.
Art – posts that prominently feature my artwork, including Sketch of the Week, portraits, etc.
Commentary – posts offering my views on current events or specific topics.
Feature – posts that feature or promotes another artist, as well as posts on inspiring people in general.Reblog of the Week – my weekly (ahem…) sharing of other blogs.
Word of the Week – my ever popular delvings into the obscure, archaic or arcane nooks and crannies of the English language.

As usual, nothing is set in stone and these categories are subject to change, addition, division, fusion, deletion or transmutation without prior notice. I take little to no responsibility fpr the actions of my future self (you didn’t hear this from me, but that bloke is a madman)!

Also, i have a loose plan of where to go from here.

I am slowly putting my work out there again, testing the waters and throwing out hooks to see if anything will bite or stick or come angrily shambling from the depths looking to end mankind. It’s slow work, but no one else is going to do it!

Finally, a heart-felt Thank You, Dear Reader!

Since rekindling my efforts on here I’ve seen an increased response from You – likes, shares, feedback, views etc. Just over the weekend now I had over 400 views from nearly 100 people, in a single(!) day. I really appreciate it and you are very important to me!

 

Back in the Crowd

“Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor.”
―Alexis Carrel

ChimaeralEyes

The ball is rolling again.

I had forgotten the amount of work needed besides the actual creative process – editing, formatting, finding places to submit to, planning, preparing, talking with clients, purchasing materials, etc, etc. The other day I just barely managed to make it on time to my day job because I got stuck preparing a commissioned work.

This week has finally seen a restart of my creative work, though – mostly, I’ve been organisingand picking up resting projects to see what I can make of them. I have been planning for future projects, restocked some supplies, and I made some connections.

That’s the good news.

The bad is that it seems my artistry is veering off my planned course, so that instead of finally kicking off the projects I have been looking forward to I find myself staring down a path filled with entirely new projects. Soul searching and restarting one’s inner life can have that effect, I guess.

Either way though, I’m back in the game.

My biggest challenge now is to manage my days so i can set aside the time i need to keep this ball rolling and still be able to work on myself.

Wish me luck, Dear Reader – or better yet: wish me discipline!

 

 

From the Ashes…

“Nothing in life is worth turning your back on, if you love it.”
—Albert Camus

I am back, Dear Reader – or so I hope, at least.

Things are settling down and the determination and creativity is creeping back into my skull, demanding attention. I haven’t created anything worth while for a long time now, but ideas are forming and inspiration is rising in my soul again. All that remains now is the discipline and hard work. Not an easy task, for me, but I need to create or else I go insane and self destructive.

So, here I am, returning to the blog and to the creation of my online platform.

I’m going to start light and try to get into a routine again, so bear with me if things go slow. The important thing is that I am here again, I hope.

See you next week!

Impotent inspiration

“I’m tired, can’t think of anything and want only to lay my face in your lap, feel your hand on my head and remain like that through all eternity.”
-Franz Kafka

image

That quote, Dear Reader, sums up my current state perfectly.

But I should be so lucky. As I’m writing this I sit beneath my favorite tree, trying to force some shred of inspiration to flow from my fingers.

But I can’t.

Kafka also said that a non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity. I can only agree. The blocked up creativity is building a crescendo of screaming ideas and voices in my mind and it is wearing me down.

Every time I feel an idea start to take shape, a new one springs forth.

I make notes of them and try to flesh them out, save them for later and sort them through, hoping I will lay them to rest so I can focus on only a few. But they just keep building up, blocking me.

Even while I sleep.

The past week alone I’ve had four ideas come to me in my dreams. In one of them I actually dreamt that I dreamt a story idea, how about that?

I’ll keep trying, though.

But, now my fingers are getting cold, my spirits are getting low and my stomach is growling.

I’ve had better days…