Category: #Momentum

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So far so good

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Let me give you a quick status update. I haven’t been able to keep the writing momentum going, but I did succeed with my reading goal. I finished the first book and started the second one. Exercising has also been going great—at least 2-3 times a week—so there’s that.

The plan is to try and get Alaska moving this week as well. I’m usually quite tired in the evenings, so I’ll aim to write during school hours. I have some free periods, and if I can carve out just half an hour of writing each day, I’ll be good. The goal will be to write at school and rewrite at home—at least that’s the plan.

I’m also working on a new D&D campaign—the next chapter in my Driftworld Saga. I’m adapting Tomb of Annihilation for my setting and characters, scaling it down a bit, populating it with my own NPCs, and adjusting the setting to fit. I just came up with my version of the Death Curse, which I’m calling Snake Fever. It’s almost as devastating.

Yesterday, I went to Zurich with one of my classes, my 7th graders. We went to see Les Misérables. Since I won’t be able to attend their Maturafeier, I proposed an excursion as a “last hurrah.” When I saw an advert for Les Mis in Zurich, it seemed like the perfect idea. Not because teaching them was miserable, but because it felt fitting to share something magnificent with them.

For some of them, it was their first stage musical, and while Les Mis is definitely a tough introduction, they all thoroughly enjoyed themselves. It’s such an impressive show, and the stagecraft alone is worth the price of admission. On the way, we had some great conversations and a good time together. Mission accomplished.

It’s a shame that writing isn’t as easy as entertaining a bunch of 18-year-olds.

Let’s end this post with my favorite song from the show, which also happens to be one of the best songs from the (inferior) movie.

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I know….

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Looking back at my blog history, it seems like my last couple of posts have all followed the same pattern:

  • It’s been a while.
  • I’m not even trying to apologize.
  • I’m sorry.
  • I completely screwed up the goals I set myself.
  • I promise to do better.
  • I have new goals.

Then, inevitably, no new posts for 3–6 months, and the cycle starts all over again. So, let’s just agree to never ever talk about this again.

I actually thought about deleting this blog, but it’s dearer to me than you might think. It’s a big part of who I am, and in some ways, it’s probably closer to my true self than I am on a day-to-day basis. Many of these posts have helped me clarify things about myself, and I want to keep this outlet. Sometimes I have things to say, and sometimes I just don’t—at least, not here.

The last few months have actually been quite good. I didn’t get much writing done, but otherwise, I feel great. I played more D&D than ever, and my newest toy (an Oculus Quest) keeps me moving—well, at least my hands. School is going well, and I feel really on top of things. Not sure if that’s an accomplishment at 37, but I feel good about it.

I even managed to rewrite the first 40 pages of Alaska over the last two and a half weeks. I’m really trying to put my general well-being to good use. I’ve started reading for myself again (Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell—highly recommended), doing some exercise, and, as I mentioned, fixing my writing muscles. Hence this post. I finished the rewrite yesterday, so I’m taking a little break to gather my thoughts and figure out where the story of Ajuk and the Uglies is going. I’ve got some notes, and I think I’ve finally cracked one of the biggest issues.

So, where do I go from here? Don’t know, don’t care, and I’m not making any promises.

Happy 2020—take care and stay tuned… maybe.

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“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

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… why doesn’t that apply to writing?

To say that I’m behind on my updates and writing would be an understatement. I completely failed after those first few days, and I take full responsibility. No excuses this time. One could argue that I’m exceptionally good at finding excuses or reasons why now (as in any moment I could have written over the last few weeks) isn’t the right time. This “talent” extends to pretty much every aspect of my life.

That said, I’m feeling really relaxed at the moment—and while that’s true, I don’t think it’s the reason I’m not doing the things that are good for me or that I truly enjoy, at least once I get started. 1

So, do I have a plan to change that? Not really. But I’m taking it one day at a time. Next weekend, we have our big concert, so this is a terrible week to start—and that’s exactly why I’m doing it. I’m setting aside some time to work on Alaska. I hope to get back to my “one page a day” schedule soon, but for now, I’m starting with 30-minute writing sprints. That feels manageable, even during a busy week, and the goal is to make writing part of my daily routine again.

Other than that, life is pretty good. I’ve got a handle on my diet again, and I’m on track to be my best possible self. School is going great too, so there’s really nothing to complain about—except my lack of drive and #Momentum. But I’m working on that.

Now, though, I need to rehearse for the concert… and squeeze in those 30 minutes of writing.

  1. Starting to write is so much harder than actually writing. ↩
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#Momentum – The first five Days

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Quick update: I started the “One Page a Day Challenge” on Monday, and so far, it’s been a success. I had to force myself to start, and the first two days were a bit tough, but once you’ve got a “streak” going 1, you don’t want to break it.

I decided to stick with the one-page goal. There were days when I could have written more, but I figured it’s a good idea to always know how to start the next day. So, I’ve been ending each session with a prompt for the following day. I like having a starting point, and once my brain is in writing mode, new ideas naturally come. But that initial spark from the day before really helps me get up to speed.

I’m quite happy with the pages so far. They’ll definitely require a few rewrites—the dialogue is a bit too on the nose, I’m still “finding” the story, and I’m probably missing opportunities to develop the theme. But getting this first version of the story written is more important than aiming for unachievable perfection. First drafts always suck, but that’s what rewriting is for. Fingers crossed I can keep the streak going. The plan is still to have a decent draft by the end of the year.

In other news… not much. The Netflix Dark Crystal show is pretty good. Based on its premise, Carnival Row should be right up my alley, but I had to force myself through the first episode—not a good sign. Other than that, no new shows have really caught my eye lately, probably because there are just too many to keep track of.

While I wait for the next must-see show, I’ll focus on writing and might dive into some D&D or Pathfinder 2nd Edition books. Speaking of that—Amazon, please hurry! I’m really looking forward to comparing rules. I’ve seen the Pathfinder 2 Playtest, but there’s just something about having the actual books in hand that makes it better than scrolling through PDFs. And this is coming from a D&D Beyond power user. 🙂

  1. I’m on day 4—probably too early to call it a streak, but hey, this is my blog, so… ↩
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#Momentum – Here we go again…again

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Yeah, let’s do this again…again.

First things first. I’m back and I’m well, very well actually. I took my time adjusting to normal work life but I can honestly say that I feel exceptionally well. My trip through Ireland had the intended effect. I feel rested, content and ready to conquer the world. Those five weeks really relaxed me in a way I haven’t thought possible. I’m as good as new and ready to embark on the next phase of this hopefully final self-improvement project.

Not sure if this is the second, third or whatever relaunch of #Momentum and I don’t really care. I decided to stop caring about unimportant things and focus on the important stuff. One of the many things I learned or rediscovered in Ireland is the fact, that I am a writer. Yes, I just typed that, and I’ll type it again: “I am a writer!” and I will try to prove that from now on.

Doesn’t matter that I’m an unsuccessful one, doesn’t matter that most of the things I write suck, I’m a writer. I might have to remind myself about that from time to time, but at the end of the day, I like writing and I don’r care what wether I’m successful or not, I love telling stories, I love writing them down, not as much as making them up but nothing is perfect.

#Momentum has been successful in the past but I have to make it permanent. I’m currently listening to the Podcast “Write Along” by David Chen and C. Robert Cargill and I feel energized. I will try to follow the advice from the first episode and set myself a reasonable writing goal. I will probably go for 1 or 2 pages a day, dosen’t sound like much but the idea is to be consistent in achieving your goal.

Another thing I care about is doing a good job teaching my students. Even though I haven’t prepared too many lessons over the summer, I had a good start, my students return a bit more mature from their holidays and I’m cautiously optimistic about my new class. They seem nice and eager to learn so far.

So what are my goals for the immediate future, let’s say December? They can be summed up in three words: Write, work, weight.

Let’s elaborate. As I already mentioned, I’ll try to write one page a day. I might increase that number but for the time being, one page a day, five days a week. That seems achievable. I’m also focusing on work in general. I include teaching and my responsibilities for the “Verbandsmusikfest” in that. I also have to work on my weight again. Stupid me, wha did I let myself go again. Well, long story but I did it once so I know that I can do it again.

This is it for now. I have a lot of work to do.

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#Momentum – The Seven Year Itch

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It’s been a while, but I think I’m good to go now. I know, I might have said something along those lines in the past (might have been this January), but this time I mean it. Things are good right now and I feel like I have my shit together again. I just needed some time and a few things have changed in the meantime and I feel good of some new found free time.

I started my diet and exercise regiment again…I have to lose 10Kg by summer… and I finally cracked the beginning of Alaska. I have to admit that I had a hard time incorporating some new ideas, the set up wasn’t working anymore but finally after month of (honestly not thinking about it that much) I finally had the fix for the issue. I’m on page 10 now, I have to continue to make some adjustments but my (realistic) goal os to write at least 5 pages a week.

I hope to be able to increase that number when I rearranged and adjusted all plot points. If everything works out, I should have something presentable after the easter holidays. Stay tuned.

I also managed to get a D&D group together and we’re running a Homebrew adventure. Our first session has been really fun an The next one is in April, finding dates is really hard if you have a bunch of people with lives. 🙂

Other than that, life was pretty uneventful. I read a few books, or am in the process of reading them and I watched some fun and some mediocre movies and TV. Into the Spider-verse is awesome though. Thumbs up. There’s this one shot in that movie that is absolutely spectacular and I hope that 2019 is going to be the year that I “rise to the occasion” as well. If I put the work in, who knows.5c758524eb3ce87cd655fca4 750 562

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Happy New Year

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Happy new year. Regular programming will return to this site in the very near future. 🙂

Seriously, that’s the plan.

Writing wise, 2018 was a bust. The ITFS and Whiteworms Work Week were great and definitely personal highlights, and I wrote some decent blogposts but other than that, total bust. I Tried to write a few things but nothing besides a few pages here and there, nothing finished, nothing polished, thing worth showing.

Personally 2018 wasn’t that much better. I gained some weight again and I think that all these things are kind of connected. I need to get back on track with everything. I need to do more sports, more writing, more reading and I’m confident that 2019 is going to be the year I get my shit together.

So do I have new years resolutions? Yes, I do.

  1. More sports: I started with 10-15 minutes on my home trainer and once the snow is gone, it’s running season. I’ll also try to eat less. Wish me luck.
  2. More reading: I reactivated my audible account and I’m ending everyday with some audiobook time. So far, great way to fall asleep.
  3. More writing: This one speaks for itself. I need to get going with Alaska. The plan is to get something done by easter. I’ll also try to update the blog regularly. I don’t know whether I’ll do progress reports or something but regular programming should resume.
  4. More D&D: Yeah, I just want to play more D&D, as a DM and as a player. It’s fun, you should try it.

I think this should be manageable and I hope that I won’t disappoint myself.

This is it for today. Take care and stay tuned.

 

Dear 2018 Fuck off already Thank you

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#Momentum – 6th Sense

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I stopped numbering weeks, I’m back to numbering posts. 🙂

So, love was really busy but there’s light at the end of the tunnel and I started writing “Alaska” yesterday. Well, I typed “FADE IN:” and thought of some character names but I felt the excitement building. There’s still a lot of work to do and I’m already preparing for some heavy rewriting but I just felt that I needed to stop outlining and start writing. Hence this short post.

I need to get back to Alaska, I want to get at least another page done today maybe even two, remember, I need to get the #Momentum going. 🙂

Iditarod Dog Sled Race Global Warming

No Spoilers!

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#Momentum – Week 5 (?) – November

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… I hate November.

It’s not that November is a bad month or anything, but for some reason everything has too happen in November. I don’t know who decided that everything has to happen in November. It’s probably the busiest month in the year and there are so many things I have to do, that I don’t have time to spend them on anything else.

I’m correcting exams, rehearsing for a concert, doing teacher training, a lot of meetings, matura preparations, …. I can’t even name al the things I’ have to do. I obviously enjoy some of these activities but I’m looking forward to a time where I actually have time to focus on other things, like writing.

I came around, and I’m now trying to implement Orlindo’s idea for Alaska. I’m not totally sure that he was right but the fact that I have new ideas is a good sign. I’m confident that I can tell the story I want to tell with these adjustments. I obviously won’t go into details, you have to wait a couple of month for those, but I hope that I write a first draft, or at least part of one around christmas time, once crazy busy November is over.

I’m actually so busy, that I don’t even have time to blog. I’m basically stealing myself away from schoolwork. So many exams and meetings but I want to offer a quick update on Red Dead Redemption 2. I finished the main story. I like the game but I don’t love it. The game is a tremendous achievement, very immersive and the story is fantastic but I’m still yearning for better fast travel. There were instances of a “long journey” that made perfect sense and had purpose but sometimes it felt like a chore to ride across the map. Unlike some other people I don’t have issues with the gameplay or the controls, hey I love Witcher 3, but I still, prefer to play Spider-Man, maybe it’s just because I prefer web-slinging to horseback-riding. 🙂

Red Dead Redemption Detailed Game Map

Damn, that map is big. Really big.

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#Momentum – 2 – This is not a review

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Greetings my friends. It’s about to be November and even though I’m not starting to write a novel, I decided to use NaNoWriMo to get me writing again. I need some kind of reason to start writing again until the momentum sets in and I get excited again. I’m just a bit rusty, but if I remember correctly, that’s what #Momentum and NaNoWriMo is for.

So I hope to give you some good news on that front and I’m confident that Alaska will make some progress in the following month. I won’t finish the script but some words on a page is a start.

Meanwhile… I played some games during the last couple of weeks, research… who am I kidding…..so I decided to write about that. Full disclosure, I’m not a game reviewer but I want so share some thought’s on three games I played recently.

Spider Man PS4 cover

…does whatever a spider can.

Spider-Man

What a game. So much fun. Spider-Man has always been one of my favorites and this game showed me why. The character is spot on and very likable and the story and the gameplay is just a blast. It’s just awesome to swing through New York, probably the most fun I had playing a game in years.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

ACOdysseyCoverArt

This is Sparta!!

Is the Assassin’s Creed series perfect? No, is it fun? Yes.

Black Flag is still my favorite but I had a blast playing this game, up to a point though, and then it got a bit tedious. Not that the gameplay or the story was at fault, I just didn’t progress fast enough to get to the things I wanted to get to. My biggest complaint ist that the game is too big or too long. I love the world they created but I don’t have 100 hours to see everything which makes me sad because I want to. So plus points for the amazing world (Athens looks stunning) and the gameplay, some deductions for the grindy parts of the game.

Red Dead Redemption II

Hi-yo, Silver!

Red Dead Redemption 2

I’m in Chapter 5 and I don’t know if I like this game.

Part of me obviously does, I mean I’m in chapter 5 but for everything the game does right, there are just some really annoying things. It’s a slow burn and I don’t know if it’s too slow or just very deliberate. The game is definitely highly immersive but sometimes I yearn(ed) for have Witcher 3 like fast-travel (the signposts). I spent hours riding out and back to camp and I just feel that I’d enjoy the game more if the made some of the mechanics less realistic.

Don’t get me wring, the game’s momentous achievement but sometimes, less is more. I’ll continue playing the game but so far there were only a couple of missions that really captured me. There should be more (successful) heist missions.

So, all that being said, what’s the one take away from my gaming experience I’ll apply to my writing? Easy; less is more.